Integral Education: The CIIS Blog

To Be Myself Completely

By LISA MARIE BAUTISTA, student in the Creative Inquiry, Interdisciplinary Arts MFA program

 This post was written for Cindy Shearer's CIA 7712: MFA Project. In these blogs, students are sharing their discoveries, reflections and learning as they enter the process of creating a body of art work and culminate their degrees.

 I have a hard time with comfort, like the time I was sitting in my car, listening to Ani Difranco’s song, Superhero. “I used to be a super-hero no one could touch me, not even myself. You are like a phone booth I somehow stumbled into. And now look at me I am just like everybody else.” I was thinking about my marriage. I was having such a difficult time understanding what I felt, until Ani put it into words that expressed my relationship regrets. I had realized I had to end it yet actually leaving took me weeks, maybe even months, to allow myself to be uncomfortable; so I could start the separation.  I did not know discomfort could be helpful.

Standing on stage in front of people, is like this discomfort I am describing. To walk onto a stage is like trusting the unknown. I have no idea what might happen, but I have expectations. I trust in the universe.  I much prefer committed performances due to the intense responsibility to show up.  I can’t say no to a committed performance.

 

Photo by Lestat (Jan Mehlich): Creative Commons)

 

I step onto stage and I am no longer myself. But the challenge is to be myself completely. This is what the audience wants from me. They want my soul, and I’m not against giving it to them. My instinct is to share with the world because I am part of our collective existence already.

Walking and Meditation

By ALLISON RENNIE

This post was written as an assignment for professor Cindy Shearer’s WRC 7087: Writing as Art. This course exposes students to varieties of work in text and image from illustrated books and blogs and visual journals to graphic novels and memoir and art books—while also asking them to create their own illustrated work, postcards and text/image art and journal.

Walking and meditation are two practices which restore my sense of integrity and help me rest in my own skin again after thrashing about in the world. So given the opportunity to write a manifesto about "something I know" for my Writing as Art class, I chose walking meditation. After writing, the second part of the assignment was to develop a visual companion for the manifesto in the form of a box. The plain white box needed to enter into conversation with the text of my manifesto.

In 2010 I walked the ancient pilgrimage in Spain called the Camino de Santiago. The Camino is a network of walking paths which terminate at the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela in the northwest corner of Spain. This was a profound experience for me, and one that continues to influence my life today. I chose a few photographic images from the pilgrimage and placed these on the outside of my small box (6” x 6” x 3”). The images are not intended to tell the story of the Camino, but rather remind me personally of the learning from the month long walk.

The inside of the box became for me a space to hold simple prompts to support my ongoing practice of walking meditation. I made a small notebook to take out walking; an invitation to gratitude; a tiny box to hold treasures like a soft brown round pebble and a tiny red maple leaf. And this inner space is a quiet container for my manifesto.

I made a simple leather-bound book of text and image.

The pages of the book are 100% recycled agricultural fibre.  The cover is a soft blue leather. It is bound with bookbinding thread, and finished with cream linen book cloth on the inside covers.

I used stamps, photos, hand lettering as well as computer generated print.

The process of construction and the final book reflect the nature of walking practice. 

It took time to make. 

Loom in Essence

By GERARDO MEDINA

This post was written as an assignment for professor Cindy Shearer’s WRC 7087: Writing as Art. This course exposes students to varieties of work in text and image from illustrated books and blogs and visual journals to graphic novels and memoir and art books—while also asking them to create their own illustrated work, postcards and text/image art and journal.

 In one of my lighter moods, I was contemplating this scarf I made years ago. I really liked it and I’ve just been waiting to give it to the right person. It’s made with a very long cast on and knit lengthwise instead of by its width like most scarves. It is knitted together in garter stitch using bits of yarn that I had left over from various projects and from yarn that had been gifted to me. Most of the pieces were not enough to make a full scarf on their own, but when mixed together, they did a great job. The mix of yarns is made of natural fibers, human-made fibers, novelty yarns and unassuming yarns.

Scarf made of mixed fibers.

When I think of it as a whole, I see this as a metaphor for living. Most people are not made from a single fiber. We are made up of experiences: gifts and different textures from the people in our lives. Further, when we look back on our own personal tapestries, we see the flaws, but this happens when we focus and fixate on what’s “wrong” in our histories. Yet, as we take a step back and see the fabric as a whole, the flaws diminish and we can see the beauty that is our lives.

Following this path, or skein of free thought, I can see so much of life in other knitting patterns. In knitting stockinette, the knitter knits in one direction and then upon turning the work, purls on the way back. This creates a tight v-like pattern on the “right side”. The interesting thing about this pattern is that the knitter can do the pattern correctly. However, when laid out, the ends curl on each other and the yarn is lost in itself because there is no room for it to breathe.

The Leap from Words to Words and Images

By LISA ZAMARIN, creative services manager for the CIIS Communications Department

This post was written as an assignment for professor Cindy Shearer’s WRC 7087: Writing as Art. This course exposes students to varieties of work in text and image from illustrated books and blogs and visual journals to graphic novels and memoir and art books—while also asking them to create their own illustrated work, postcards and text/image art and journal.

I was pleasantly surprised to take the leap from a short story format to an illustrated version of the story in Cindy Shearer’s “Writing as Art” class this semester. It’s been quite awhile since I’ve gotten into the creative process so freely, and without specific rules or guidelines I needed to follow. What resulted was a wonderful melding. It reminded me just how powerful images can guide the experience of reading fiction.

The project was to write a manifesto, and then create a text and image piece that fit within a box.

Here’s some of my manifesto:

How to Prepare for your College Reunion

Three months out:

1. On receiving the notice, print it out, along with the alumni yearbook questionnaire and place it on the top of your inbox.
2. Email your old friends to ask if they’ll be attending.
3. Set your alarm an hour early each morning to go to the gym before work. Do not let yourself hit snooze.
4. As soon as your return home from work each night, do 30 minutes of sit-ups, and other core exercises, followed by a light dinner.
5. Do not graze afterward.
6. Each night, remember to moisturize before bedtime.
7. Each morning, apply sunscreen 30 minutes before walking to work.
8. Drink 8 glasses of water a day and consume no more than 1,500 calories.

Two months out:

1. Email your old friends to ask if they’ll be attending.
2. Recommit to #s 2-8 above.
3. Ignore local friends who tell you more than once how brave you are.
4. Ignore local friends who ask you if you’ll be going clothes shopping before your trip

When I went about adding images, my initial thought was to blend more traditional/stereotypical collegiate images with quirky ones to show contrast. But the moment I delved into the creative process that got thrown out the window. The play of words and tone found me having a blast working in a very different way.

What resulted was a really fun process of creating, and a final piece I love:

 

Page 1 of a book created by Lisa Zamarin for Cindy Shearer’s "Writing as Art" class.

The Integration of Psychology and Spirituality at CIIS

By BRENDAN COLLINS, core faculty in the East-West Psychology and Integral Counseling Psychology departments. Collins is also the co-director of the Chaudhuri Center for Contemplative Practice, Interreligious Dialogue, and Social Justice at CIIS.

CIIS Professor Brendan Collins

Today a doctoral student in our East-West Psychology program, Dave Odorisio, sent me a link to an article in the New York Times on Columbia University's new concentration in spiritual psychology, the first time an Ivy League university has offered a master's degree integrating psychology and spirituality.

CIIS was mentioned as already teaching from a "similar perspective" (the reference to the Institute of Transpersonal Studies was actually an error—the reference should have been to ITP, now known as Sofia University); but CIIS has pioneered in the integration of psychology and spirituality for over 40 years; no university has been doing it longer or more comprehensively.

I appreciated the distinction made by Julie Exline, president of the APA's Society for the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, who pointed out that Columbia's (and CIIS') approach to psychology and spirituality is very different from that offered by faith-based schools, and it is rare in academia.

The most wide-ranging approach to the integration of psychology and spirituality at CIIS is actually in the School of Consciousness and Transformation, particularly in East-West Psychology, because there are limits to how much spirituality can be formally incorporated into the curriculum of license-eligible clinical degrees. In our clinical programs the spiritual component is typically, and notably, embodied in the teachers (and students). Still, I believe it is possible to make spirituality even more explicit in our clinical training programs (as we are doing in the Mindfulness and Compassion in Psychotherapy certificate offered through CIIS Public Programs & Performances).

CIIS Professor Meg Jordan to Speak at Prestigious Wellness Summit in Aspen

Professor Meg Jordan, chair of the Integrative Health Studies program at CIIS, will speak at the prestigious invitation-only Global Wellness & Spa Summit in Aspen, Colo., from June 3-6, 2012.

The theme of the summit for 2012 is, "Innovation through Imagination." The title of Jordan's talk is, "Why Lifestyle Improvement is Not About Willpower."

"Some of the greatest innovations in the art and science of behavior change have finally put to rest old ideas about ironclad discipline and willpower," Jordan says. She will discuss how, over the last five years, there has been a quantum leap in the understanding of how our brains operate. Those findings have migrated to coaching models used by Fortune 100 companies.

"However, the health care system  still labors under outdated health education models," Jordan says. She reports that four big ideas—neuroscience, addiction studies, social ranking behavior, and creative processing—are woven into the best practices of health coaching.

Graduate students in the Integrative Health Studies MA program also earn a certificate in Integrative Wellness Coaching, and benefit from practical application of these "four big ideas."

Other speakers at the summit include John Kao, author of Innovation Nation; Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona; and Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres.

Taking Charge of Your Education

By MARIKA O'BAIRE-KARK, student in the Writing and Consciousness MFA program
 
You are in charge of your education. As your knowledge, intelligence, and understanding evolve, then perhaps wisdom can focus and accelerate your advance into becoming the person you wish to become. You are going to create a future anyway out of the unknown that lies ahead. You could be well aware and do this deliberately or not. You decide.

Kris Brandenburger, a poet and professor at CIIS, introduced me to Tobin Hart, an educator. He wrote a philosophy in his book, "From Information to Transformation: Education for the Evolution of Consciousness." I created an algorithm from his work in parallel with that of Patricia Benner, from her work, "Expertise in Nursing Practice: Caring, Clinical Judgment and Ethics"; Stuart Dreyfus, an applied mathematician, and Hubert Dreyfus, a philosopher wrote about how air force pilots, chess players, and army tank drivers acquired their skills. Benner and Dreyfus and Dreyfus collaborated on the second chapter of her book, about how nurses, who are artists and scientists, acquire their skills. I write here about their viewpoints in relation to writers. This may seem complex. And why do it?

Writers initially work alone, or perhaps in the company of others but not with others. However, in the journey of their work, they learn from everyone and everything around them. Once they produce their piece, writers and other artists often seek supportive observers to respond to their work. Doctors, nurses find that from the beginning of their professional life in becoming educated they must learn to work as a team, even though as healers they find their actual presence with someone experiencing illness, may often be solo. It is a creation in the moment. The medium is the space between them. This demands great skill.

Artists and writers use similar skills of observation—listening, watching, feeling, then intuiting what action must come next and originating it. How does one learn a high level of skill? Or would someone want to stop at the level of being competent to perform certain physical tasks? If an individual knew how to deliberately develop his or her own skill, I believe most individuals would want to go for excellence, for the extraordinary. Here is a comparison of algorithms between Hart and Benner.

EWP Chair Jorge Ferrer and EWP Students to Present at Upcoming Conference in Palo Alto

East-West Psychology Program Chair Jorge Ferrer will deliver the keynote speech at the upcoming Institute of Transpersonal Psychology PhD Symposium, "Leading Edge Research in Service to Community," on May 12, 2012, in Palo Alto, Calif. His speech is  titled, “Embodiment and the Heart of Participatory Spirituality.”

EWP doctoral candidate Zayin Cabot will present, “Evolution and the Poetics of Indigenous Participation: African and American Indian Modes of Participation"; and EWP doctoral student Samuel Malkemus will present, “The Clash of Instinct and Culture: Eros, Phobos and the Roots of Morality.”

Detailed descriptions of these three talks after the jump.

Profile of Professor Urusa Fahim, Department of Transformative Inquiry

By ZACK ROGOW, senior editor at CIIS. His writings include a recent book of poems, "My Mother and the Ceiling Dancers," from Kattywompus Press. 

Urusa Fahim brings to her teaching in the Transformative Leadership and Transformative Studies at CIIS an amazing variety of interests and experiences. She grew up in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and has studied or speaks six languages: English, Urdu, Arabic, French, Hindi, and Bengali. She earned a master’s degree in applied psychology at Punjab University, one of the leading centers of learning in South Asia. After graduating, she worked as a clinical psychologist both in private practice and in government-run hospitals in Pakistan, before taking a training in women’s leadership that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) offered.

“That workshop literally changed my career overnight,” she recalls. “I could see the application of concepts I was familiar with in a clinical context, how they could be used to train leaders and entrepreneurs.” By coincidence, the program leader was leaving right after Fahim took the training. Fahim applied to become the new director, and was accepted. She spent the next couple of years teaching women in Pakistan how to become managers, entrepreneurs, and trainers.

She attributes her ability to exercise authority and train future leaders partly to her mother. “My mother had the equivalent of a sixth grade education, but she headed a department in an international hotel. She always told me I could be anything I wanted. It wasn’t till later that I realized that not all girls were being given that same message. Understanding that was a factor in my wanting to train women leaders.”

MA in Transformative Leadership at CIIS: A Passion for Change

By ZACK ROGOW, senior editor at CIIS. His writings include a recent book of poems, "My Mother and the Ceiling Dancers," from Kattywompus Press. 

California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) offers a two-year graduate program in Transformative Leadership, an online MA that Director Kathy Littles describes as “not a cookie-cutter program.” Littles explains what she means: “We ask the question: what does leadership mean? How am I embodying what a leader can and should be? We’re looking for students who are passionate about making a change.”

Because the program is online, students in the program live in different states, and in some cases, on different continents. They all converge on the San Francisco Bay Area twice every academic year for a retreat that takes place south of the city, just footsteps away from the Pacific Ocean. At the week-long intensives, the students meet face-to-face with many of the scholars they’ve been reading. They share meals and thoughts with these thinkers and their peers. “Students are stunned by the level of transformation that takes place at the intensives,” Littles recounts.

The online platform also allows students to balance graduate study with jobs and families. “This program appeals to a person who is comfortable with the online platform,” Littles remarks, “someone who likes the freedom to log on at 3 am to do their course work.” But that freedom requires motivation and focus on the part of the students.