missioN
The Art of Integral Being® is committed to the teaching, teacher training, research and scholarship of consciousness-centred education and practice. Building on earlier work on mindfulness in, as and of education (Ergas, 2019) and mindfulness in and as education (Buttarazzi, 2019; Sellman & Buttarazzi, 2020), the value of contemplative practices (including embodied, creative, spiritual practices the world over) can be understood, taught and researched in three distinct ways with three distinct educational aims:
In education: embedded within the services of the institution, often for supporting positive mental health and psychological wellbeing, essentially as an economic-therapeutic intervention.
As education is embedded within the curriculum and pedagogy as a form of first-person inquiry for knowledge-seeking, essentially as a whole-institution approach.
Of education: whereby the practices themselves ‘radicalise the ethos of critical pedagogy’, which is when the research moves beyond the terrain of personal transformation into personal and social transformation.
This is the mission of The Art of Integral Being®. By bringing well-researched, integral approaches to the teaching of yoga, meditation and other contemplative practices in a way that is accessible, inclusive and universal, this approach allows for and gently encourages the awakening of consciousness, individually and collectively. This is at the heart of all education itself.
Here, the term yoga in itself is adopted loosely to refer to all experiential practices, embodied and having the central goal of uniting ‘the individual self/consciousness’ (Jivatman in Sanskrit) with ‘the transcendent self/consciousness’ (Paramatman in Sanskrit) to live, know, do and be with the simultaneous awareness of both, ideally at all times. Ultimately, the teachings serve the awakening of consciousness in learning to lead a life of integral being. This is an awakened life of creativity, wisdom, compassion and service to others.
This is an approach to teaching and teacher training that deeply respects and honours tradition whilst remaining relevant to the modern world. Being research-active means recognising the need for high-quality, integrative yogic approaches and the importance of support for integrating direct, first-person embodied experiences.
References
Buttarazzi, G. F. (2019). The Integration of Self-Inquiry Meditation into Higher Education—Between Philosophy and Practice, beyond Mindfulness, Towards an Embodied Curriculum. (Publication No. 60008). [Doctoral Thesis, University of Nottingham]. Research Nottingham. https://research.nottingham.edu.cn/en/studentTheses/the-integration-of-self-inquiry-meditation-into-higher-education-/
Ergas, O. (2019). Mindfulness In, As and Of Education: Three Roles of Mindfulness in Education. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 53(2), 340-358. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9752.12349
Sellman, E. M. & Buttarazzi, G. F. (2020). Adding Lemon Juice to Poison-Raising Critical Questions about the Oxymoronic Nature of Mindfulness in Education and its Future Direction. British Journal of Education Studies, 68 (1), 61-78. https://doi.org/10.1080/00071005.2019.1581128