Contemplation: Theory / Practice

About

‘Contemplation: theory / practice’ investigates the ideas, history, and applications of contemplative traditions from around the globe. Contemplation is a wide-ranging term encompassing different meanings for different groups, and is adopted by this network as a touchstone for exploring a rich diversity of theories and practices united around a particular set of characteristics. These include (but are not limited to): the pursuit of altered states of consciousness, the cultivation of existential meaning, and attentional strategies deriving from both religious and non-religious contexts. Sessions will feature scholars and practitioners from a range of academic, spiritual, and artistic specialisms to discuss and explore these different contemplative modalities. Such specialisms may be drawn from the fields of theology, art history, literary studies, yoga studies, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience, among others.

The network is intended as a forum to bring together the theoretical study of contemplation with its applications, spheres which have been historically divided. In recent decades, critical theorists have emphasised the importance of the experiential in academic work; a call to acknowledge the subjectivity of scholarship. In contemplative studies, this involves attending to the lived experiences of practitioners in addition to theorising contemplation’s phenomenology, cultural specificity, and scientific basis. This may involve conversations between scholars and practitioners, or indeed an integrated first-person approach to both. With this united focus, we can better understand the impacts of contemplation as, say, a well-being practice, or as a means to developing environmental or social consciousness. Reported impacts of sustained contemplative practice include increased attentional capacity, compassion, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence. But can and should such practices be removed from historical-cultural contexts and operationalised for widespread use? What are these histories, and how have we suppressed or denied them agency? And what are the practical, philosophical, and political implications of repurposing their ideas? These are but a few questions which animate discussions at the network’s events.

‘Contemplation: theory / practice’ is a space to reflect, imagine, and meditate on the ways humans connect with our minds and bodies. We intend for the network to be expansive: a space to think (and not think); a space to reinhabit and witness the self and its relation to the world. We hope for the discussions to be comparative, global, and inclusive, making room for traditions and voices historically elided by scholarship in the field. We seek to investigate contemplation as a living tradition, which grows and changes with time.

Supported by CRASSH