Teaching College as a Spiritual Practice

Human•ities
2 min readApr 11, 2022

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What if teaching was not just about their learning and growth?
What if the classroom become the crucible for our own personal transformation too?
How much transparency and self-reflection would we bring into this learning community?
How much of our own skin would we put into this game?

What if instead of waiting till we got home to meditate and decompress from the day, we made the college campus our arena of mindful engagement?
Would we be more fully present to the people and situations unfolding right before us?
Would we remain open to the preciousness and suffering of the beings we encounter?
Would we respond to the needs of the moment with compassionate care?

What if we were truly here, present, embodied, all-in?
Would our mundane daily activities — the walk across campus, the conversation at the water fountain, even that department meeting — become expressions of our own flourishing and deepest fulfillment?
Would we begin to feel more appreciation and gratitude throughout the day?
Would we be able to sense at what point we become foggy or go on auto-pilot, and learn what kind of self-care we need in order to recharge and reengage?

What if our teaching was our sacred mission, our soulwork, our spiritual practice?
What would we do differently?
What would change?

… Or, rather, wouldn’t everything change?

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Human•ities

☀️ Reflections on balancing the academic life with being fully human, written by Professor Pierce Salguero. More about me at www.piercesalguero.com. ☀️