Mindful U at Naropa University

110. Art Therapy: Healing the Inner Landscape

July 22nd, 2025  |  1 hr 4 mins

art, art therapy, contemplative, contemplative education, healing, naropa, transpersonal, transpersonal art therapy

In this episode, Michael Franklin, PhD—author, professor, and former chair of Naropa University's graduate Transpersonal Art Therapy program—joins us to explore art as a transformative path for healing the soul.

Franklin invites us into the contemplative language of art—through mediums like clay, paint, and film—and how these move us beyond just self-expression and into uncovering deeper layers of ourselves and our potential. Drawing from his journey into transpersonal art therapy, he explains why art may be the most precise language for emotion, and how fluency in creative practice helps us stay present with our own discomfort so we can more compassionately accompany others through theirs in the practice of Art Therapy. 

77. Charlotte Rotterdam: Finding Courage in Contemplative Education

February 17th, 2020  |  47 mins 38 secs

charlotte rotterdam, college, contemplative, contemplative education, courage, david devine, education, higher education, meditation, mindful, mindfulness, naropa, naropa university, university

"Absolutely. You know we might have an idea about something, but then when you begin to express it from a creative place it's almost like you have to feel into it. If I want to write a poem about sadness it's not just about my ideas about sadness. At some point as I'm writing I need to stop and feel into what does sadness feel like? And then I might even think about a very specific situation in my life that brings up sadness. And then what arises from that place as a poem is coming from a non-conceptual place. Non-conceptual knowing and yet I've expressed something and I might even express it in words like with a poem. So, what we're trying to do in contemplative education is to bring both of those together. So, it's not in spite of conceptual knowing -- concepts are great, thinking is great -- but that there are other ways of knowing that are equally important and maybe if we bring them all together then there's a richness of knowing that begins to emerge."

72. Joanna Macy: The Work That Reconnects Part 2 of 2

May 6th, 2019  |  36 mins 30 secs

activism, activist, bodhisattva, buddhism, climate change, college, community, contemplative, contemplative education, crisis, david devine, deep ecology, earth, eco system, ecology, education, equality, higher education, joanna macy, mindful, mindful u, mindfulness, mother earth, naropa, naropa university, nuclear activist, nuclear guardianship, planet earth, social change, social justice, social responsibility, the great turning, the work that reconnects, university

"We talked about the spiral of the work that reconnects and then you talked about how once you dare to really see and speak what you've wanted to keep at arm's length, once you refuse to turn away and really suffer with your world and then you realize that the world is flowing into you and the living planet becomes alive for you. And then it generates for you. So that's we call seeing with new eyes. Everything looks different. And we use practices that are inspired by what we call deep ecology like the council of all beings. Where we step aside from our human role, which is only the last chapter of our long planetary journey. We've, as we know from the life forms we had in the womb of our mother, you know we had a tail and gills and fins. And so that we capitulate that ontogeny."

71. Joanna Macy: The Work That Reconnects Part 1 of 2

April 29th, 2019  |  53 mins 16 secs

activism, activist, bodhisattva, buddhism, climate change, college, community, contemplative, contemplative education, crisis, david devine, deep ecology, earth, eco system, ecology, education, equality, higher education, joanna macy, mindful, mindful u, mindfulness, mother earth, naropa, naropa university, nuclear activist, nuclear guardianship, planet earth, social change, social justice, social responsibility, the great turning, the work that reconnects, university

09. Richard Brown: Contemplative Teaching

January 2nd, 2018  |  31 mins 12 secs

compassion, contemplative education, mindful students, mindful teaching, teaching

At Naropa, the notion of contemplative education is one of drawing out the full richness of the student. In this episode of "Mindful U," Professor Richard C. Brown, core faculty in the Contemplative Education grogram, discusses what "contemplative teaching" is, and gives an example of techniques that work well for integrating it into ordinary classroom situations.