Nineteen college students encountered Zen practice and study in Non-Argumentative Rhetoric in Zen, a course taught by professor Peg Syverson at the University of Texas at Austin. This refreshing collection of chapters written by students describes their experiences with the unique language of Zen: paradox, contradiction, negation, silence, gesture, and story.

This book is an essential resource for media educators working to promote critical thinking, creativity, and civic engagement through their teaching. Connecting theory and research with creative projects and analyses of pop culture, it models an integrated and practical approach to media education. In order to prepare learners to successfully navigate rapid shifts in digital technology and popular culture, media educators in both secondary and university settings need to develop fresh, innovative approaches. Integrating concepts and practices from the fields of media studies, media arts, and media literacy, this book prepares teachers to help their students make connections between their studies, uses of media, creative expression, and political participation. As educators implement the strategies in this book in their curricula and pedagogy, they will be empowered to help their students more thoughtfully engage with media culture and use their intelligence and imagination to address pressing challenges facing our world today. Making Media Matter is an engaging and accessible read for educators and scholars in the areas of media literacy, media and cultural studies, media arts, and communication studies. The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

This book addresses a missing piece of the public conversations about ethics and digital media. The chapters in this book were written by college students at the University of Texas in a course called Ethics and New Media, offered in spring of 2015 and taught by Peg Syverson. The chapters reflect the students' deep inquiry through research on their peers, reading, online discussion, and editorial work. In its chapters, college students report their research on the ethical dilemmas faced by their peers. The results are provocative, wide-ranging, and surprising. They raise further questions about how we can continue to include the voices of those most affected by new media in our public discussions about ethics, internet regulation, appropriate use of technology by children, and wise guidance from parents, spiritual leaders, and teachers.

"Aims to transform us into integrated human beings - mentally, emotionally and interpersonally. Drawing on ideas in cognitive psychology, neuroscience and Eastern traditions, the author offers a fresh vision of how we can free ourselves from our most negative frames of mind."--Publisher's description.

The Lyric Self offers a precise and thorough examination of Zen, based on classical and contemporary scholarly works as well as the author’s personal experience. Eight themes that are common to the practice of Zen Buddhism and the poetry of E.E. Cummings are compared and explored, with an emphasis on their respective value to contemporary psychology and education. It is the premise of The Lyric Self that both Zen and Cummings’ poetry are profoundly concerned with individual awareness, and that they both employ an unorthodox use of words to break through the static structures of conventional language and thought.

“May this very important and enticing book find its way into the hearts of readers near and far so that it can perform its mysterious and healing alchemy for the benefit of all.” —John Kabat-Zinn, author of Wherever You Go, There You Are and Professor of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School The Transformative Power of Mindfulness Alchemists sought to transform lead into gold. In the same way, says Tara Bennett-Goleman, we all have the natural ability to turn our moments of confusion or emotional pain into insightful clarity. Emotional Alchemy maps the mind and shows how, according to recent advances in cognitive therapy, most of what troubles us falls into ten basic emotional patterns, including fear of abandonment, social exclusion (the feeling that we don’t belong), and vulnerability (the feeling that some catastrophe will occur). This remarkable book also teaches us how we can free ourselves of such patterns and replace them with empathy for ourselves and others through the simple practice of mindfulness, an awareness that lets us see things as they truly are without distortion or judgment. Emotional Alchemy provides an insightful explanation of how mindfulness can change not only our lives, but the very structure of our brains, giving us the freedom to be more creative and alive. Here is a beautifully rendered work full of Buddhist wisdom and stories of how people have used mindfulness to conquer their self-defeating habits. The result is a whole new way of approaching our relationships, work, and internal lives.

The first comprehensive study to explore the role of esoteric, occult, alchemical, shamanistic, mystical and magical traditions in the work of major Beat authors.