And wisdom makes three

At the offices of Christians Aware in Saxby Street this afternoon, where half a dozen of us gather to review the course offered in the last spring term, "Mindfulness and Morality", and discuss the one for spring 2012, "Mindfulness and Wisdom".

Here's the rough format we agree today for the spring course:

• Week 1: Definitions: what's the difference (and relationship) between data, information, knowledge, wisdom
• Week 2: Wisdom related to faith (James W Fowler's Stages of Faith)
• Week 3: Wisdom related to faith (Dana Zohar's Spiritual Intelligence)
• Weeks 4-7: Wisdom from different faith perspectives, following the overall brief
• Week 8: Summary session, reviewing the different perspectives, looking for common ground

Presentation (40 minutes)
Presenter would answer the following questions from their faith perspective:
What is wisdom?
How is wisdom manifested in life (a) generally and (b) by an individual faith practitioner?

Group activity (20 minutes)
On the basis of the presentation, the groups prepare a challenging question to put to the presenter.

Presenter responds (30 minutes)
The presenter responds to one question perform each group and leads discussion on it.

The final session would draw together appropriate threads from all three years' worth of these courses: Mindfulness and Meditation (2010); Mindfulness and Morality (2011); and Mindfulness and Wisdom (2012). These cover the three-fold Buddhist practice of meditation, morality and wisdom. Once they're all done, there's the possibility of a book coming out of it. I owe a 1,500-word article on the "Mindfulness and Morality" course in for the Christians Aware magazine - due before the end of August.

In the photo above: Barbara Butler, Kevin Commons