1. (15-20 minutes) Spend some time in the
cave sitting peacefully in the dark. LISTEN. Do NOT talk. Do
NOT fidget or disturb your neighbour. Sit around the fire. You can keep
your eyes dimly open, or you may shut them entirely if you wish. Listen to the
sounds within the cave. What are they? Describe them in this journal/workbook.
How do the sounds you hear affect your awareness? (i.e.: How do the sounds make
you feel? What do they make you think? Do they remind you of anything? Do they
make you wonder?) Record your observations of external sounds. Next, try to
listen to the silence, or the spaces in between the sounds around you. Can you
hear silence? If so, how? What is silence? Try to peel away the sounds you hear
to see if you can hear what lies beneath all their layers. Record the fruits of
your labours in your journal. Finally, try to follow the sound of your own
breath in the cave. Watch your thoughts and feelings and bodily sensations as
they move from one thing to another, but always redirect your attention back to
your breathing. Try counting your breaths in and out, starting at 1 (in-out),
then 2 (in-out), all the way up to 10 (in-out). If/when you make it
successfully to 10 (and this can be very difficult!), start over again at 1 and
repeat. Always remember to redirect your attention back to counting your
breaths each time you find your mind wandering. This experiment will help you
to develop focus, concentration, and attention. Record your observations and
the results of this experiment in your journal below.
2.
(40-50 minutes TOTAL) Having inspected the various cave paintings and
petroglyphs in our study, try your hand at reproducing ONE of them while in the
cave. Use the materials provided for this experiment, but make sure that you
treat them with respect, and that you return them to their proper place when
you are done with them.
i.
(5-10 minutes) Plan your drawing/painting/petroglyph below (consider its
size, placement, and medium for reproduction):
ii.
(5-10 minutes) Offer your own written interpretation of this artistic
reproduction, and speculate why the original artist chose to make such an
image. What meaning does the picture have? What thoughts did its artist
cultivate? What feelings did s/he have while s/he was rendering this artwork?
What sorts of desires, wonderings, questions, thoughts, relations and
experiences were the source for this work? Briefly relate/recount your own
experience of artistic activity in the cave (paragraph form please):
3. (15-20 minutes) Spend some time in the
cave sitting peacefully in the dark. Do NOT talk. Do NOT fidget or
disturb your neighbour. Sit around the fire. Gaze into the firelight, or
watch the shadows dance on the walls if you wish. Watch the shapes and forms
that the light and shadow create. Look for images and ideas in the flame.
Record the sorts of things that you think and feel as you look into the flame.
Now recall other fires that you have contemplated in the past. Remember the
feelings, thoughts, sensations that these fires brought to you. Why does fire
affect us in this manner? Why are we attracted to fire? What symbolic meanings
can fire have for us? Now imagine you were in a real cave full of ancient paintings,
sitting near a real fire in prehistoric times. What would that experience be
like? What sorts of things would you think and feel? How would the experience
be different? What can you learn from this experience? End this session of our
cave experiment with another session of meditation/contemplation. You may
follow your breath as before, or you may pick out a spot in the fire to focus
your attention, drawing it back again and again each time you find your
thoughts and feelings wandering. Record your observations, thoughts, and
feelings in the journal/workbook below:
4. Write a Personal Response (3-4 pages,
750-1000 words, 12 point Times New Roman font) to our cave painting/petroglyph
experiment. Your response ought to cover the following elements:
ü What
different sorts of things were you asked to do during this experiment?
ü What
did you observe about yourself in while in the cave? (i.e.: Discuss your
challenges with trying the experiment and being attentive; recount your
relative successes/failures during the experiment; discuss anything that you
thought, felt, or wondered about when you did the experiment. Did any questions
or perplexities arise for you during this experiment? What were they?)
ü In
your response, consider what is the meaning of the words “contemplation,”
“meditation,” and “mindfulness.” How were these ways of being part of
our experiment in the cave? What is different about the kind of thinking/mental
activity that you were asked to do during this experiment than you typically
engage in during math or science class? What is different about the kind of
thinking that you were doing in this experiment than is normally the case in
your critical-analytic essay writing/English compositions?
ü
Next, try relating your own
contemplative/meditative/mindfulness experimentation while in the cave to other
experiences you have had outside of the cave. How might the cave experiment be
similar in some way to your own spiritual
searching, journeying, and questioning outside of school? Consider an
experience of wonder or transcendence that you have had through nature, through
your interactions with others, or by some other means. What new thoughts and
questions have such experiences given rise to for you?
Finally, consider what your own
experimentation with mindfulness and contemplation in the cave might teach us
about our pre-historic and pre-contact ancestors and predecessors. Empathize
with your primordial relations: What might ancient peoples who painted and
engraved and practised these ways of knowing have to teach us about thinking
and understanding? How might the way of knowing that you have practiced briefly
in our cave experiment (modelled after such ancient peoples) enrich, deepen, or
broaden your own thoughts?
Options
for students who are absent during the cave experiment or who are asked to
leave:
1. Do some research on the topic of cave paintings
and petroglyphs. Write a research paper/essay or an imaginative
reflection/personal response concerning your findings. We think that we
are so much more knowledgeable than our prehistoric ancestors, but what do you
think we can learn from them? What did they understand very well that tends to
be overlooked or remain unconsidered by us today? (1000 words,
double-spaced, 12 pt. font)
2. Create your own cave drawings in your basement
or in a dark natural place -- maybe a root cellar, a cave in the mountains, or
a dark forest while camping. Use only primitive tools and materials for your
art. Use a weak, precarious flame to get a sense of how difficult it would be
to see and to keep your flame lit. (How would you light the flame in the first
place? What would you use for fuel, and would you bring extra fuel with you?
How would you avoid suffocating from the smoke, since it could not escape from
the cave?) What sorts of things would you paint and why? Take a photograph of
your painting back to civilization. Be able to explain why you would paint such
pictures. Pictorial evidence and an accompanying write-up
is required for this alternate submission.
3. Re-create the experience of a cave on your own
time: Find a place that has no light or sound and stay inside for an hour (our
classes are 80 minutes). If you have no such space, a good way to recreate the
effect would be to fill the bathtub with warm water. Turn off the lights and
perhaps light a candle or use a night light to dimly illuminate the room. Next,
lay in the water with your ears below the water line so that your hearing is
muffled by the water (You could also use a snorkel alternatively!). For the
best results, find a way of floating so that you are not touching anything.
Deprive your senses as much as possible. What can you hear? When you senses are
as barren as possible, what is left? What do you experience? Think about the
caves and the paintings. Think about your own experiences of things greater
than yourself. Think about things that are older than all living, breathing
things. Think about ancient trees and mountains. Notice how even though all
animals die, each species of animal seems to live beyond the death of its
members. Think about how animals would be good symbols for deathless life and
rebirth for prehistoric people. Write a personal response to this
experience. (1000 words, double-spaced, 12 pt. font)