Students Attend Five Hour Meditation Retreat

Joshua Lutz, assistant professor in photography and Matthew Immergut, associate professor of sociology, led their classes off-site on a mediation retreat with Jeff Carreira, teacher and co-founder of Emergence Education at the Aligned Center in Irvington, NY.

The retreat began with a discussion defining meditation and some of the misconceptions surrounding it. At first many of the students were apprehensive of the length of a five hour retreat. But after a very short ten minute sit, they worked their way up to around forty minutes. The day was broken up by lunch and concluded with a lively discussion about how the practice of meditation can transform your daily life.

The retreat was the second of a three-part series planned with the Aligned Center. The first event with teacher and author Amy Edelstein was held earlier this semester, and the third event with psychologist and acclaimed author Dan Goleman is on November 9.

The lecture series is part of the Contemplative Studies minor being launched and is open to all members of the Purchase community, but mandatory for students in Immergut’s Contemplation, Meditation, and Mind and Lutz’s Contemplative Photography classes.