Amelia Barili is a Berkeley professor and teacher of contemplative studies, classical yoga and qigong who teaches through a combination of intellectual discussion and direct experience. She has dedicated her life to study the mind, body and spirit connection. She studied yoga in India thirty years ago and graduated with a degree to teach yoga in India. The yoga that she teaches is based in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. It integrates all the limbs of yoga, the philosophy as well as the physical and the meditative practices to facilitate embodying consciousness. She has studied and teaches several forms of Qigong. Qigong is a system of spiritual development and healing that comes to us from China, and has been tested, like yoga, for several thousands of years. They are empirical sciences that study the mind-body connections. Qigong can be translated as cultivating vital energy. Gong means practice, and qi - like the prana to which yoga refers- means vital energy. Both, yoga and qigong, complement each other and help us understand more deeply the subtle web of connections between our physical body, our mind and our spirit, and to experience them as the unity that they truly are. Amelia Barili teaches them together and is writing a book about these millenary practices and how they can help us understand and experience our body as a vast energy network, and as a moving field of consciousness. The quest of integrating the intellectual understanding of who we are at the core with the experience of regaining balance and cultivating consciousness is also present in Barilis work as university professor. To empower students so that what they learned would not only have meaning in their lives, but would be a valuable contribution to the community as well, she designs her courses including a component of service learning. To contribute in creating nurturing communities her students put 15 or 20 hours of voluntary service in a non-governmental organization of their choice. They reflect about what they learned through their experience and relate that to what is being discussed in class. The first of these courses (which she designed with the assistance of Fritjof Capra) was called Globalization and the New Global Civil Society. In the classroom students were studying principles and theories in books on these subject, and while volunteering in the NGOs of their choice, they were reflecting on how the concepts about globalization and ways of organizing in communities were reflected in that particular NGO. They were also reflecting about how was their exchange with the people that they were trying to serve? In every weekly journal they were reflecting on how did they actually embody this consciousness? How did I interact? What could I do better next week was there assignment (reflecting in practical ways on the teachings of Paulo Freire) as they went back to try to serve people in prisons, or young people in Oakland, or battered women, or in schools or whatever was that they were doing. This method not only helps to build bridges between the university and the community, it also develops life long learning skills, and it provides students with practical work experience and with contacts in various kinds of organizations. It fosters civic engagement and, most important, it shows students they can make a difference by helping others who need them. Barili says: My experience as a university professor has made me realize the need and the potential for changes that each one of us can bring forth in our individual sphere of action. As an example of how minute changes can produce large scale consequences, she says: It all started when Fritjof was talking about the work they were doing in The Center for Ecoliteracy with education for primary school and secondary school teachers. And I said, Well, why dont we take this to the university?. He suggested some of the readings, and some of the speakers from non-governmental organizations. I added the component of service learning, and then worked with the students in class and assisting them in contacting the different organizations, etc. It was a lot of work, but very rewarding. Now she has expanded her work, and her students work, to help migratory communities. For more information about Amelia Barili and her workshops and teaching please visit ameliabarili
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 11:06:58 +0000
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