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Nov. 9th, 2012 04:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tylikI just gave a talk on the relationship between Chan meditation and martial arts to an undergrad class on traditional martial arts (from a literary and historical perspective, not in person beatings). A bit ago the professor of the course contacted the zendo asking for someone who could discuss the connection from personal experience. S basically said "Ah, that would be Catherine," and put us in touch. After a bit of conversation, I put together twelve slides, grabbed my swords and a zafu (or rather, loaded them onto my bike) and away we went.
It sounds like it was successful from the professor's standpoint, though a little less so from mine. I generally figure I'll get through about a slide a minute to a minute and a half, so I was going to give a brief little talk providing a historical background, and then we could have a discussion. Instead it was almost forty minutes of talk, and not nearly enough discussion of the practical relationship between zuochan (zazen) (such, indeed, was my convention, Chinese term followed by Japanese term in parentheses) which I thought was supposed to be the main point. Well, probably really more like thirty minutes, once you include the introduction and various class stuff. It would have been perfect for a 90 minutes class rather than a sixty minute one.
As it was, I got to answer a few student questions, more faculty ones (another professor was co-teaching the course, though not so much the martial arts part, and then a professor of japanese popular culture sat it). And then the faculty who didn't have to head out to other classes and I stood around outside for a while talking afterwards. (And two of the three want to talk to me further about the zendo, and maybe taiji.) I was really hoping to have more discussion with the students... but not bad for a first go.
Oh, and I was overall vastly amused at being able to put pictures of Chen Zenglei and Hong Yijiao, each holding the same stuffed rabbit, the zendo where I live, and various other people and places from my life of practice.
It sounds like it was successful from the professor's standpoint, though a little less so from mine. I generally figure I'll get through about a slide a minute to a minute and a half, so I was going to give a brief little talk providing a historical background, and then we could have a discussion. Instead it was almost forty minutes of talk, and not nearly enough discussion of the practical relationship between zuochan (zazen) (such, indeed, was my convention, Chinese term followed by Japanese term in parentheses) which I thought was supposed to be the main point. Well, probably really more like thirty minutes, once you include the introduction and various class stuff. It would have been perfect for a 90 minutes class rather than a sixty minute one.
As it was, I got to answer a few student questions, more faculty ones (another professor was co-teaching the course, though not so much the martial arts part, and then a professor of japanese popular culture sat it). And then the faculty who didn't have to head out to other classes and I stood around outside for a while talking afterwards. (And two of the three want to talk to me further about the zendo, and maybe taiji.) I was really hoping to have more discussion with the students... but not bad for a first go.
Oh, and I was overall vastly amused at being able to put pictures of Chen Zenglei and Hong Yijiao, each holding the same stuffed rabbit, the zendo where I live, and various other people and places from my life of practice.
