For thousands of years, people seeking after wisdom have approached important texts as invitations for meditation, whose treasures can be uncovered through careful, deliberate practices of attention.

In this workshop, we’ll explore some of these techniques, combining practical instruction with reflections on the theoretical and conceptual background needed to make sense of the practices.  We’ll examine the aims, goals, and underlying assumptions of this style of meditative practice.  And we’ll consider the thorny question of the historical, cultural, and religious contexts in which the practices were first developed, and how well (if at all) they can be transplanted outside those contexts.

We’ll discuss how we might engage meditatively or contemplatively with a wide spectrum of texts, from philosophy, to theology, to mythology and folklore.  What tools of interpretation, what styles of approach, will we need, if we want to learn from and be transformed by these texts?  How can meditation with a text help us to situate ourselves within structured patterns of meaning that are there to be found—not made—throughout the cosmos?

We’ll draw on a wide range of sources and resources, including:

• The works of Pagan Platonists like Porphyry (On the Cave of the Nymphs) and Proclus (Commentary on Plato’s Republic), on the use and interpretation of myth;
• The Benedictine monastic practice of lectio divina (“divine reading”); and
• Two quite distinct sets of practices—Christian and post-Christian—that are both known as “discursive meditation.”

We’ll also step back to consider what might be involved in meditating with various kinds of “texts,” including:

• Written and spoken collections of words: texts in the most common, obvious sense, whether they’re written down, memorized, etc.
• Other musical and artistic works: paintings, engravings, sculpture, “music” in the narrow modern sense, etc.
• Symbols and conceptual categories
• Reading the “Book of Nature.”

Warnings and safeguards:

• The techniques we’ll be exploring are considered to be generally safe, and can be practiced by most people on their own, even without an experienced teacher.
• If you suffer from clinical psychiatric disorders or mental illness (especially, but not only, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder), please consult with your health care provider before beginning any type of meditation, including (but not limited to) the techniques taught in this workshop. I do not recommend practicing any form of meditation while suffering from, or receiving treatment for, psychiatric disorders or mental illness.  If this applies to you, you are still warmly welcome to attend the workshop for the sake of intellectual conversation and learning the theory, but please wait to begin the practices until you have completed treatment or received the approval of a licensed medical provider who is familiar with your personal circumstances.

Other (for those who participated in our previous workshop on this topic):

• While there will be some repeat of material we covered last year, about 60% of the workshop is new.  So it will serve as  great refresher as well as an introduction to different things!