During the COVID-19 pandemic, people around the world self-quarantined in hopes of slowing down the rate of infection. Everyday life was not as fixed as we perhaps once thought; and, since we often identify with our daily activities, so too did many of our identities seem untethered from this new reality. Our identities are (in part) constructs, narratives that we continue to affirm through our beliefs and our behaviors; in this regard, identity also allows us to intervene in the stories that we believe about ourselves. Therefore, crises can be destructive, destabilizing, but with the potential opportunity to gain new perspectives, personal realizations, and subsequent life changes that better suit our aims. In this event, Contemplating the Sublime, participants will be introduced to, and familiarized with, practices of contemplative inquiry (mindfulness) and philosophies of the sublime, so that we may (1) recognize, nurture, and dive into whatever is personally meaningful to us; (2) find relief during times of uncertainty and stress; and (3) continually create narratives that align with our intentions.
In times of crisis and spiritual-intellectual inquiry alike, people may turn inward to deeply engage with their inner self; but, as Robert Pirsig explains in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, in that “high country of the mind one has to become adjusted to the thinner air of uncertainty, and to the enormous magnitude of questions asked, and to the answers proposed to these questions.” Contemplative practices can help orient us in our “high country of the mind,” so that we can meet negatively overwhelming situations with thoughtful attention, intentional care, and local (personal) interventions. Since identity is the interface, or medium, through which we engage with contemplative inquiry, identity, in turn, allows contemplative practice to impact us on a personal, local, individual level. By engaging in contemplative inquiry, people can experience increased personal agency, opening up their identity and sense of future possibilities.
In her talk, Tara Cuthbertson, Department of Comparative Literature, Binghamton University, State University of New York, will introduce and explain various philosophical, theological, and literary passages that will form a background for our further exploration in the philosophy of the sublime and in ecstatic personal experiences. In addition to the event overview and topic lecture, this event will include meditation practice, visualization exercises, self-reflection, and a Facebook page to keep the conversation going. Contemplating the Sublime offers to help participants recognize the sublime in their everyday lives and in themselves, so that we may awaken to the extraordinary in the ordinary, and shape the narratives that define our experiences.
Click for the event Facebook page.
Click to stream the event on April 30.
This event is sponsored by Binghamton University, SUNY.