Linda E. Patrik

This course shows how contemplative methods support efforts to heal the effects of racism. In New York State, three non-profit organizations that base their work on contemplative methods—the Greyston Foundation, the Oneness in Peace Spiritual Center, and the National Buddhist Prison Sangha Project—work respectively on poverty, education, and prison issues that affect minority communities. Students in this course study the contemplative methods used by these three nonprofit organizations and take field trips for the purpose of learning how contemplative methods are applied in social work. The course includes philosophical theories of altruism and social responsibility and connects these theories to contemplation and to engagement with life issues of poverty, education, and incarceration.