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Brooklyn College · The City University of New York/Global Languages & Cultures

CHIN 2080 · Fall 2027 · 3 Credits

Intro to Zen Meditation (Online)

Syllabus

Contact

InstructorProf./Dr. Chia-ju Chang (Pronouns: she/her/her)
Office hoursT 9:30–10:30 online or by arrangement
Emailcchang@brooklyn.cuny.edu
ZoomJoin course Zoom (class & Zen · one link)
WhatsAppJoin class WhatsApp group
Zen CirclesZen Circles schedule

COURSE SCHEDULEThe schedule may be adjusted to support the pace and needs of the class.

Introduction to Zen Meditation: Kōan Inquiry and Meditative Humanities — Tuesday Classes and Thursday Canjiu / Meditation Labs · Fall 2027

Suggested Reading Materials

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course offers an academic and experiential introduction to Zen meditation and to Zen modes of learning and knowing. It proceeds through two interwoven forms of engagement: kōan meditation and literary inquiry. Reading is deliberately minimal, apart from Julio Cortázar's "Axolotl" and selected short kōans. Instead, students participate in two 30-minute Zen Circles each week, alongside reflective writing, discussion, and individual interviews.

Students learn foundational practices—including posture, breathing, breath counting, returning attention, zazen, kōan, huatou, and canjiu (meditative inquiry). Throughout the semester, they return to "Axolotl" as a shared text for meditative inquiry. Rather than treating the story as a self-contained literary unit, the course revisits it at different stages of practice to examine how attention, habitual patterns, binary categories, interpretation, and judgment take shape and become open to revision. It also considers how moments of nondual opening may reorient one's relations, judgments, and actions toward others and the world. No particular religious commitment or meditative attainment is required. Taught in English.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

  1. Explain and practice foundational forms of concentration (samādhi) in seated Zen meditation—including posture, breathing, breath counting, and returning attention—and explain the roles of zazen, kōan, huatou, yiqing (疑情), and canjiu (meditative inquiry) in Zen modes of learning and knowing. Distinguish these practices from relaxation techniques or rapid problem solving. Explain how concentration can support sustained inquiry by stabilizing attention, while recognizing that samādhi by itself is not the same as "liberation" or "enlightenment."
  2. Use close reading and discursive conditional analysis to identify the textual, historical, material, and institutional conditions through which an interpretation becomes persuasive. Examine how classifications, narratives, and relations of power shape what can become visible, speakable, and judgeable in a text.
  3. Drawing on the attentional stability cultivated through meditation, use slow reading and kōan inquiry to notice and examine how attention, affect, bodily response, and habitual classification participate in judgment as it is forming. Return from this observation to textual evidence and counterevidence with more precise questions. Recognize moments in which automatic distinctions—including self/other, human/animal, and observer/observed—become unsettled, including moments of nondual opening, without treating such experiences as achievements or proof of interpretive truth.
  4. Respond constructively to questions, counterexamples, peer feedback, instructor interventions, and moments of silence that reopen inquiry. Practice remaining with uncertainty and returning to the material without prematurely closing a question through familiar theories, binary judgments, or claims of nonduality.
  5. Form provisional, revisable, and accountable judgments through double accountability: responsibility for one's own projections, affects, classifications, and position, and responsibility to textual evidence, other perspectives, historical and material conditions, power relations, and the consequences of one's judgment. Recognize that nondual insight does not cancel violence, inequality, material conditions, or the need to respond.
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COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING

Requirements and Checkpoints

RequirementPointsSubmission / Basis
Attendance and punctuality0Full-period attendance; see attendance policy.
Zen Circles Attendance0Full-period attendance; see attendance policy.
Etiquette and participation (including camera policy)10Preparation, cooperation, respect, and active participation.
Eleven weekly entries on the course website60Scheduled weekly entries submitted on this course website, grounded in textual and experiential evidence and inquiry.
Final Reflection Paper on Inquiry Trajectory302000 words; see below
Total100

1. Attendance and punctuality

Attendance at every class meeting, for the full class period, is required. After one absence, each additional absence lowers the final course grade by half a letter grade. Four absences result automatically in a failing grade. Two instances of lateness of ten minutes or more count as one absence.

Zen Circles Attendance: A session without a Zoom-chat sign-in will be recorded as an absence. You may have up to five Zen Circle absences during the semester without a grade penalty. Beginning with the sixth absence, each additional absence will reduce your final course average by 0.2 points. Attendance at the required one-on-one interview is also expected.

2. Etiquette and participation

During meditation and other class practices, electronic devices—including phones, laptops, and tablets—may be used only when directed by the instructor. Wear comfortable clothing suitable for sitting, and have a chair, cushion, or yoga mat available as needed. This grade is based on preparation, cooperation, respect for the practice and other participants, and active participation. Attending class while in transit, at work, or during a medical appointment is not permitted and counts as an absence. Participate from a quiet and appropriate location.

Camera policy. Cameras must remain on throughout class, with your full face clearly visible. You may blur or replace your background. A camera pointed away from you, a partially visible face, or remaining outside the camera frame does not meet this requirement. Failure to comply results in an absence.

3. Weekly entries on the course website

Complete the eleven scheduled weekly entries in the course schedule and submit them on this course website. Each entry must use your own language, engage concrete textual evidence and course materials, and remain open to questions or revision. AI may be used only for grammar checking. Do not use AI to generate, formulate, or organize a weekly entry.

4. Inquiry records and course assignments

Maintain the notebook and materials specified in the schedule, including reading annotations, contemplative writing, and assigned viewing and reading.

5. Final Reflection Paper

Submit a final written Inquiry Trajectory and course reflection on this course website. Rather than summarizing every class, trace how an initial interpretation encountered resistance, was revised, or remained unresolved through practice, reading, writing, and dialogue. This is not an evaluation of whether you 'succeeded' in meditation or reached the correct answer.

Grade Range

A

94–100

A−

90–93

B+

86–89

B

82–85

B−

79–81

C+

76–78

C

72–75

C−

69–71

D+

66–68

D

62–65

D−

59–61

F

≤58

Final grades will be changed only to correct a calculation error.

Late Work and Incomplete Grades

Late work. Each late weekly entry on the course website or other scheduled course assignment lowers the final course-point total by 0.5 points. A late final Inquiry Trajectory lowers it by 1 point. Work submitted after the last day of the course is accepted only at the instructor's discretion, and only in very unusual circumstances arranged and agreed to in writing before the course ends.

Incomplete (INC). An INC may be given only at the instructor's discretion when a student has satisfactorily completed most course requirements and provides documentation of extenuating circumstances preventing completion by the syllabus deadline. The agreement must be in writing by the last day of class. Students have one semester to submit outstanding work and should consult the upcoming semester's deadline.

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COURSE POLICIES

GENERATIVE AI POLICY: DO NOT OUTSOURCE THE FRICTION OF INQUIRY

This course centers on meditation, sustained kōan inquiry (canjiu), and repeated reading. Inquiry does not begin with finding the correct interpretation. It asks you to remain with a question, notice how you respond to uncertainty, return to textual and experiential details that resist your first understanding, and allow attention and judgment to change over time.

Because the course emphasizes direct practice and first-hand inquiry, it does not encourage the use of generative AI. You are not expected to use AI for any course assignment. AI may be used only for grammar checking unless the instructor explicitly permits another limited use in writing.

Confusion, hesitation, boredom, restlessness, resistance, and not knowing what to say are not failures to be eliminated. They are part of the friction through which inquiry develops. Using generative AI to remove that friction may produce a convincing response while bypassing the practice the assignment is intended to cultivate.

You may not use generative AI to generate or organize an interpretation of 'Axolotl' or a kōan; compose discussions, reflective writing, condition maps, practice reports, or final work; invent bodily sensations, emotions, insights, or meditative experiences; tell you what you were supposed to experience; replace your encounter with uncertainty by supplying an immediate explanation; or rewrite AI-generated content and submit it as your own.

Your first encounter with a text or kōan and your initial written response must take place without AI assistance. Return to the material, the practice, and your developing judgment—even when what you notice is confusion, distraction, resistance, or nothing remarkable. Individual interviews and class discussions may ask you to return to a particular moment, question, or interpretive choice; these are part of inquiry, not merely methods of detecting unauthorized AI use.

AI cannot meditate, undergo uncertainty, remain with the kōan, or assume responsibility for judgment on your behalf. Do not outsource the friction through which your inquiry becomes your own.

This course policy operates within the Brooklyn College guidelines on generative AI. The full college policy is available at https://www.brooklyn.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Brooklyn-College-AI-Guidelines.pdf.

COURSE RECORDING POLICY

Video and/or audio recording of class lectures, meetings, and review sessions without the advance consent of the instructor is prohibited. Upon written request, the instructor may grant written permission for students to record course sessions, on the condition that the recordings are used only as a study aid by the individual making the recording. Students with approved accommodations from the Center for Student Disability Services permitting the recording of class meetings must present the accommodation letter to the instructor in advance of recording. On any days when classes will be recorded, the instructor will notify all students in advance.

Distribution of any recordings associated with the course without the written permission of the instructor is prohibited. The content of this course — including lectures, discussions, presentations, and course materials — is protected under copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code) and represents the intellectual property of the instructor. In accordance with Brooklyn College policy, recording of any class session or meeting with the instructor — by any means, including audio, video, or wearable devices — is prohibited without explicit written consent from the instructor, and unauthorized distribution may constitute a violation of federal copyright law and Brooklyn College policy.

USE OF CAMERAS IN ONLINE CLASSES

In accordance with Brooklyn College policy, faculty may require students to turn on their cameras in online and hybrid courses during class periods or for remote testing purposes. Camera-use requirements for this course are stated in the Etiquette and Participation section above and at the first class meeting.

For attendance purposes, your full face must be clearly visible on camera to be counted as fully present. If only part of your face is visible (for example, half your face is off-frame), you may receive only partial attendance credit for that session.

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