Throughout the semester, spiritual life offers a multitude of programming. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to get involved.

Contemplative Life
Wellness
Peace, Justice, and Embodiment
Community
Dialogue
Spiritual Journeys
Spiritual Life Zine

Contemplative Life

• Peer Meditation Circle: daily student led meditation, 4:30 p.m., 3rd floor of the library in the KIVA

• Meditation and Breakfast: Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m., Spiritual Life Center, donut 5 Greenwich

• Meditation with Visiting Monk: Saturday and Sunday, 8 p.m., Spiritual Life Center, donut 5 Greenwich

• Meditation with Contemplative Life Advisor, Wednesday, 5 p.m., Spiritual Life Center, donut 5 Greenwich

• Ananda Marga Meditation with Fred Wirth: Friday, 12:15 p.m., Spiritual Life Center, donut 5 Greenwich

• Kundalini Yoga: Monday, 8:15 p.m., Thursday, 8:15 a.m., Spiritual Life Center, donut 5 Greenwich

• Hatha Yoga: Wednesday, 6 p.m., Spiritual Life Center, donut 5 Greenwich

• Art as Prayer: Exploring the intersections between art and spirituality, Wednesday, 8 p.m., Spiritual Life Center, donut 5 Greenwich

Back to top

Wellness

• Alternative Health Fair
  Over a dozen practitioners from on and off campus share their talents, talk about their craft, and allow us all to experience the joys of health and wellness. Get a massage or talk to an acupuncturist about how you might begin your own training. Have a smoothie or try some homemade bodycare products (and learn how you might make your own). The fair is meant to be experiential and fun, and it is open to the Five College community and friends. April, 2011, date and time TBD.

• New Path to Health Series
  Practitioners of different complementary medicine and other health and wellness practices, such as herbalists, acupuncturists, and energy practitioners, come and share their expertise with the Hampshire community every other Friday.

• Pastoral Counseling
  We provide pastoral counseling and support individually. Pastoral counseling is about walking with someone through the crises and transitions of life. Additionally, there will be a bereavement group in the spring of 2011. 

Back to top

Peace, Justice, and Embodiment

• Alternative Spring Break
  During spring break, spiritual life helps sponsor a week-long alternative spring break. Students and staff travel to New Orleans to work with NENA, the lower ninth word neighborhood empowerment network association. The group helps rebuild the community in the lower ninth ward while learning about and experiencing the history and culture of New Orleans.

• International Service Trips
  International service trips explore race, culture, class, and religion in our country and others in the context of putting our own bodies to work. 

• Hampshire College Veterans Administration Volunteer Corps
  September 2010 will marked the launch of a new Hampshire College VA (Veterans Administration) Volunteer Corps in collaboration with the Northampton VA Medical Center, a division of the VA New England Healthcare System. The aim of this program is to provide Hampshire College students, as well as faculty or staff wishing to participate, with an opportunity to match their skills and interests with the immediate needs and resources of the excellent VA Medical Center located several miles north of the center of Northampton, Massachusetts. For more information visit the hampedia page.

Back to top

Community

• Throughout the year, we celebrate many different holidays from the Muslim, Hindu, Wiccan, Jewish, Baha'i, Christian, Buddhist, and atheist calenders. For example, every winter spiritual life hosts Christmachannukwanzaadharohatsuyule, a night of celebration with food, music, and crafts from many winter holidays.

• Spiritual life also works with and supports the activities, programs, and leadership of many student groups including the Jewish Student Union, the Pagan Collective, and many more. 

Back to top

Dialogue 

• Coordinator for Religious Identity and Political Intersections
  The coordinator for religious identity and political intersections supports, develops, and advises those communities in which identity can be culturally religious but spiritually secular. They help students navigate their identities and beliefs within larger political realities, and they provide education, advocacy, and mediation around the intersection of religion and politics.

• Intergroup Dialogue
  Throughout the year there are many opportunities to get involved with intergroup dialogue for students, staff, and faculty. Spiritual life frequently brings in speakers to discuss the intersection of religion, race, sexuality, gender, science, ethics, etc.

Back to top

Spiritual Journey Lunch Series

• Faculty, staff, and alums share the twists and turns their life has taken: the questions they have asked and are asking; the places meaning has been found and has eluded them; and where they are today. Fridays, 12 p.m., Merrill living room.

Back to top

Spiritual Life Zine

One Love (Spirital Life Zine) now! Calling all writers, artists, poets, political, religious, even atheist friends! One Love: the Colorful Spectrum of Spirituality in the Hampshire Community wants to hear from YOU!

Here are some categories of submissions:

• Share your opinion regarding a current event. Write 'One Love - Sound Off' in the subject of your message.

• Share a prayer: This can be a poem, self-affirmation, song, religious text, story, or whatever prayer is to you! Write 'One Love - Featured Prayer' in the subject of your message.

• Submit some spirituality-related artwork, preferably in the form of a digital photograph, along with a brief explanation of who you are and what your piece is about. Write 'One Love - Art Space' in the subject of your message.

• There are different ways to practice the art of self love, nurturing the mind, body, and soul. Share them! Write 'One Love - Wellness' in the subject of your message.

• How do YOU pray? Share how you experience spirituality through prayer or other unconventional techniques. Write 'One Love - How I Pray' in the subject of your message.

• And of course, if you want to write a general article, feel free. Try to keep it short, sweet, and to the point. Tell your friends to contribute too! The more perspectives shared, the more bliss!

Back to top