Meditative Humanities teaching initiative
University teaching & method experiment · practice documentation
From Self to Interbeing
Zen Practice in the Age of Climate–AI
Hosted atThe University of Hong KongGraduate courseSummer 2026
This page documents teaching context and method for understanding the Institute’s pedagogy—not admissions or enrollment.
This course is part of the instructor’s teaching at the University of Hong Kong. The Institute serves as a platform for documentation and conceptual development. This is not the University’s official course or admissions page.
Introduction
This course approaches contemplative practice and kōans as a humanistic method: it not only discloses how the subject is generated in experience, but observes and loosens habitual structures in the present, opening a non‑automatic, relational way of being capable of responding to the world.
Three Movements
Attention and Fragmentation
The crisis of attention in digital culture and the role of concentration practice.
Embodiment and Perception
Phenomenology and contemplative practice as methods for reconfiguring perception.
Interbeing and Ethical Life
Relational ontology, ecological crisis, and collective existence.
Course Method
Each session integrates:
- Critical textual study
- Contemplative and embodied practice
- Koan study
The course treats kōans not as religious artifacts, but as cognitive devices that interrupt habitual patterns of thought and open new modes of response.
What Students Develop
- The ability to observe how attention and perception are structured
- Embodied awareness beyond conceptual thinking
- Ethical responsiveness grounded in relational experience
- The capacity to translate insight into lived practice
Final Engagement Project
Students design a small-scale intervention that translates contemplative insight into practice. Possible forms include creative work, community-based action, and reflective media (podcast, writing, etc.). It prototypes a move from interior awareness toward engaged responsiveness.
Course information (summary)
- Format
- 3-week intensive
- Location
- HKU
- Includes
- visit to Dharma Drum Center (details subject to scheduling)
Meditative Humanities Pilot Initiative
This course forms part of an ongoing pedagogical experiment in Meditative Humanities.
This page presents a pedagogical method—not a course advertisement. Weekly outlines and full reading lists are intentionally omitted here.
This course is a university-based experiment in Meditative Humanities—relocating Zen practice and kōans from private cultivation to the contexts of climate crisis, AI, and relational ethics.