Mindfulness: Awareness Practice

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

Beginning April 20, 2024, 6 class sessions - for 6 weeks, Saturday mornings 10:30 AM - 11:25 AM. Each class will include discussions and inquiry blending philosophy, science and world religions teachings. In each session, you will be shown simple and highly effective mindfulness meditations for your home practice. We will focus on releasing anxiety and troubled feelings, developing beautiful speech, increasing body energy, forming deep heart connections and joy.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: Upon completion of this course, participants will have:

The many benefits of mindfulness meditation have been shown through evidence-based research for reducing anxiety and distress along with enhancing our physical and emotional well-being. A wonderful outcome of mindfulness is a greater capability for kindness, mental clarity and happiness.

This course will allow us to look deeply at how we are responding to physical pain and emotional challenges and, in turn, transform our relationship to these stressors. It will free up our energy for living fully in each moment.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Completion of all specified assignments is required for issuance of hours or credit.  The Heritage Institute does not award partial credit. 

HOURS EARNED:
Completing the basic assignments (Section A. Information Acquisition) for this course automatically earns participant’s their choice of CEUs (Continuing Education Units), Washington State Clock Hours, Oregon PDUs, or Pennsylvania ACT 48 Hours. The Heritage Institute offers CEUs and is an approved provider of Washington State Clock Hours, Oregon PDUs, and Pennsylvania ACT 48 Hours.

UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT INFORMATION

REQUIREMENTS FOR UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT
Continuing Education Quarter credits are awarded by Antioch University Seattle (AUS). AUS requires 75% or better for credit at the 400 level and 85% or better to issue credit at the 500 level. These criteria refer both to the amount and quality of work submitted.

1. Completion of Information Acquisition assignments 30%
2. Completion of Learning Application assignments 40%
3. Completion of Integration Paper assignment 30%

CREDIT/NO CREDIT (No Letter Grades or Numeric Equivalents on Transcripts)
Antioch University Seattle (AUS) Continuing Education Quarter credit is offered on a Credit/No Credit basis; neither letter grades nor numeric equivalents are on a transcript. 400 level credit is equal to a "C" or better, 500 level credit is equal to a "B" or better. This information is on the back of the transcript.

AUS Continuing Education quarter credits may or may not be accepted into degree programs. Prior to registering determine with your district personnel, department head, or state education office the acceptability of these credits for your purpose.

ADDITIONAL COURSE INFORMATION

REQUIRED TEXT

N/A

None. All reading is online.

MATERIALS FEE

N/A

ASSIGNMENTS REQUIRED FOR HOURS OR UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT

A. INFORMATION ACQUISITION

Assignment #1: Zoom Meeting

Topic: Mindfulness - Awareness Practice
Time: Apr 20, 2024 10:30 AM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
        Every week on Sat, until May 25, 2024, 6 occurrence(s)
        Apr 20, 2024 10:30 AM - 11:25 AM
        Apr 27, 2024 10:30 AM - 11:25 AM
        May 4, 2024 10:30 AM - 11:25 AM
        May 11, 2024 10:30 AM - 11:25 AM
        May 18, 2024 10:30 AM - 11:25 AM
        May 25, 2024 10:30 AM - 11:25 AM
 

ADDITIONAL ASSIGNMENTS REQUIRED FOR UNIVERSITY QUARTER CREDIT

B. LEARNING APPLICATION

In this section you will apply your learning to your professional situation.  This course assumes that most participants are classroom teachers who have access to students.  If you are not teaching in a classroom, please contact the instructor for course modifications.  If you are a classroom teacher and start or need to complete this course during the summer, please try to apply your ideas when possible with youth from your neighborhood, at a local public library or parks department facility,  (they will often be glad to sponsor community-based learning), or with students in another teacher’s summer classroom in session.

C. INTEGRATION PAPER

Assignment #2: (Required for 400 and 500 level)

SELF REFLECTION & INTEGRATION PAPER
(Please do not write this paper until you've completed all of your other assignments.)

1. What did you learn vs. what you expected to learn from this course?
2. What aspects of the course were most helpful and why?
3. What further knowledge and skills in this general area do you feel you need?
4. How, when, and where will you use what you have learned?
5. How and with what other school or community members might you share what you learned?

Send to your instructor at their email address. Subject line to read  "(put course name here) Integration Paper"

INSTRUCTOR COMMENTS ON YOUR WORK:

Instructors will comment on each assignment. If you do not hear from the instructor within a few days of posting your assignment, please get in touch with them immediately.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR TEACHING THIS COURSE:

Joseph Britton, B.S., at Princeton University, was formerly a Mechanical Engineer, designing energy systems and, in a different department, an Instructor teaching Yoga, Movement, and Meditation.
Upon moving to and living in Japan for 28 years, Joseph co-founded Japan’s first executive speech training company based in Tokyo, Media and Communications. Several years later, at Osaka Metropolitan University, he was honored to become a Professor of Communications & Mindfulness for 22 years. During this culturally rich experience, he spent many years personally studying with renowned Zen Buddhist master Uchiyama Kosho Roshi in Kyoto, Japan.
He has taught seminars in communications and mindfulness through-out Asia, Europe and North America.
To understand the dynamics of how we generate and project energy, he also became a Hellerwork body & movement practitioner.
Presently, Joseph is a Part-Time Instructor at Portland Community College in the Community Education Department teaching 3 courses: Mindfulness – Awareness Practice, Mysteries of Dying, and Public Speaking with Mindfulness.
He is also a Hospice Volunteer accompanying people who die alone.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Mindfulness: Awareness Practice

Jon Kabit-Zinn, PhD, Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life, paperback, publisher Hachette Go. Founding Executive Director of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life  Paperback – Random House Publishing, by Thich Nhat Hanh (Author), Arnold Kotler (Editor), H. H. the Dalai Lama (Foreword)

Richard Davidson - Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body,      published by Avery, the William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry, Founder of the Center for Healthy Minds, and Director of the Waisman Laboratory for Brain Imaging and Behavior, University of Wisconsin-Madison, by Richard J. Davidson with Daniel Goldman

Thupten Jinpa, PhD   – A Fearless Heart: How the Courage to Be Compassionate Can Transform Our Lives,  paperback, Avery publisher. Founder and Chairman of the Compassion Institute developed while at Stanford University, and translator for the Dalai Lama.

Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu, The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World, Random House, along with the companion video Mission: JOY Finding Happiness in Troubled Times

Kosho Uchiyama Roshi - Opening the Hand of Thought, Foundations of Zen Buddhist Practice, Paperback, Wisdom Publications,  Kosho Uchiyama Roshi – preeminent Japanese Zen master and former Abbot of AntaiJi Temple outside of Kyoto, Japan. A deep dive into the essence of a Zen practice. Jisho Warner stated, “Uchiyama looks at what a person is, what a self is, how to develop a true self not separate from all things, one that can settle in peace in the midst of life."