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Thesis advisor: Thomas H. Groome / Thesis advisor: John J. Makransky / The premise of this dissertation is that Buddhism must inculturate to meet the context of contemporary North America. Given the widespread interest in the application of Buddhist-derived ideas and practices in a host of secular settings, the capacity for teachers to engage with new ideas and disciplines will be crucial to the tradition's continued relevance. Because there is a high demand for and interest in Buddhist-derived programming in secular spaces, the number of individuals and organizations striving to meet this demand is mushrooming. This trend, coupled with a dearth of professional training programs and accreditation processes means that not only are there an eclectic array of approaches being used to teach meditation, but there is also minimal discourse engaging the crucial question of what constitutes effective pedagogy or adequate training processes for teachers. Chapter 1 establishes the need for the inculturation of Buddhism. This imperative for adaptation raises fundamental questions regarding how to best evaluate the authenticity of changes to traditional teaching methods. In Chapters 2 and 3, the Buddhist doctrine of skillful means is explored with an eye toward distilling guiding principles for analyzing this process of adaptation of teachings to meet a variety of cultural and personal perspectives. Drawing from Mahayana and pre-Mahayana sutras, traditions of commentary, and contemporary hermeneutics, a set of priorities based on the perspective of the Buddhist tradition is proposed. In Chapter 4, it is established that finding points of relevance to particular cultural concerns such as physical and mental health issues has been a vital component of existing efforts toward secularized meditation programs to date. This chapter concludes by drawing out of such present practices additional guiding principles to advance the process of pedagogical inculturation. Despite the widespread interest in applying meditation to a variety of settings, the pedagogy and philosophy of education behind the various approaches remains largely under-theorized. To fill this need, Chapter 5 establishes a set of guiding principles for pedagogical adaptation, drawing from the tradition's own self-understanding as well as from the insights of Western education as discussed in the prior 4 chapters. Finally, Chapter 6 offers an example of inculturated pedagogy at work. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

Eastern practices have an increasing presence in Western locations of human services, such as mental health, hospitals, non-profits, prisons, K-12 education, among others. This trend includes the university and pedagogies of first year writing. The application of Eastern contemplative practice helps some people in certain circumstances, but its use raises questions. In the university classroom, methods like mindfulness meditation and yoga may offer perspectives that inform pedagogy. But, these interventions often lack concrete applicability to course content, oversimplify theoretical foundation of the original Eastern practices, and seem disparate from, rather than integral to, standard curriculum. My dissertation analyzes how yogic practice is already embedded in the discipline of composition and rhetoric. By resignifying rhetorical scholarship as yogic, I shape a new and amalgamated conception of agency deploying yogic and Western perspectives. I call this yogic agency. By constructing, defining, and unraveling the function of yogic agency in the writing classroom, I extract, analyze, and refigure the yogic philosophy and practice as always and already underlying scholarship of composition and rhetoric. My dissertation integrates yogic and rhetorical perspectives into one. I aim to sharpen and clarify of the role of yoga, as well as other alternative Eastern frameworks, in the Western writing classroom. There is sometimes an assumption that yoga is a pedagogical intervention replacing less effective teaching methods. This operates on the notion that our field is in a position of deficit. Instead, I generate yogic agency to illustrate the feeling of having control of one’s worldview as a means to embody a way of perceiving that one already has everything within in order to become rhetorical agents of one’s own life. I am not presenting a new way of teaching and learning but rather, a pronounced vision of the discipline as yoga surfaces within its theories. / English

Rainpiece is a composition for flute, viola, harp, and computer, cyclic and open in form, and inviting collaborative improvisation by instrumentalists and computer operator together. It is also a study of water, from torrential downpours and bubbling springs to rivers and waterfalls. The movement of water through the phases of the water cycle is the central metaphor guiding the cyclic and theoretically endless structure of the work. Rainpiece is also a model of community, collaboration, and above all mindful meditation. The metaphor of water is one that focuses the mind, and brings together the community of performers and audience members into a context with which all can connect emotionally. Like the sound of flowing water (which is included in the piece in the form of processed field recordings), the musical ideas of Rainpiece are constantly changing, and yet continually recurring and returning; this connects with concepts of meditation and mantra as well. The work proposes a new direction in interactive chamber music that integrates natural and composed sound worlds, with the goal of shaping a social and acoustic environment that allows for openness, mindfulness, and connection.

The present study investigated the effects of meditative practices on the regulation of autonomic function. 74 subjects (38 women; 36 men) comprised from a range of experienced and non-experienced meditators, engaged in a series of psychophysiological tasks designed to generate specific autonomic states. Regression analyses revealed that experienced meditators, as predicted, displayed greater suppression of myocardial reactivity during a highly reflexive and stressful task. Meditative practice also predicted a rise in electrodermal activity during a relaxation task, contrary to expectations. These results support the concept that meditative practices may alter aspects of autonomic function. Further, these results inform an emerging mind-body paradigm and illustrate the potential consequences of meditative practices in specific disease states and prevention. / Ph. D.