The Virtual Agora for Occidental Meditation
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You've found the Institute of Reflection — a space dedicated to the Western tradition of meditative thought. Here's a clear path through everything we offer.
01 What is Reflection
02 How to Reflect
03 Hear The Founder
04 Explore the Institute
The Foundation
Understand what Reflection actually is
Most people assume they know how to reflect. Proper reflection — Western Meditation — is something more considered. This guide explains what it is, why it differs from fashionable Eastern practices, and why its time has come. The West has a long and rich tradition of meditative thought that has gone largely unnamed. It’s time to name it.
The Foundation
Learn how to do it
Reflection is not as easy as it sounds. Like creative writing or music, it benefits from technique. Our free Reflection Manual walks you through practical methods, types of reflection, and where best to do it. You don’t need a mat, an app, or a subscription — just a willingness to think more carefully.
The Founder’s Voice
Hear Justin Glass explain it
Justin Glass speaks about the Institute — what prompted him to found it, what Western Meditation means to him, and how a regular practice of reflection has changed the way he thinks and lives. A good ten-minute listen before going further.
Your Path
Explore what interests you
The Institute covers four territories. Dive into whichever calls to you — there’s no prescribed order once you’ve found your footing.
An example of intellectual reflection brought to bear on ruminative reflection
Does one ruminate and allow space for intuition to pop up to the surface of our mind and/or is one disposed to cudgel the brains in a more intellectual way to make sense of ideas and facts that come to one? Inspiration can be a subject of thinking enquiry.
An Institute for Reflection
Socrates thought he could accomplish this worthwhile goal. It is a cornerstone of our way of thinking. To reverse the message in dated phraseology of Dante’s The Divine Comedy: ‘Prepare to meet thy salvation all ye who enter here!’ The carving for The Thinker by Rodin is no longer associated with The Gates of Hell of Dante’s original concept and today is a symbol of philosophy and knowledge.
An Underlying Approach to Reflection
Little of what follows is as easy as it might seem.
Reflection is a mental or cerebral state of mind. Mental ...
Doubting Thomas: The downside of Reflection
In secular terms Doubting Thomas may be more justified in his doubts than in scripture. Treat with caution many ideas of the new way of looking at the World.
Enhanced Attitudes
ATTITUDES OF MIND and FEELING
THAT CAN BE ENHANCED BY OCCIDENTAL MEDITATION
TRAITS, ACTUATING PRINCIPLES, ...
Four Levels of Reflection
Jenny Moon, a Teaching Fellow and Associate Professor at Bournemouth University, has written much on reflective ...
Further Aspects of the Academic Work on Reflection
The Art of Self-Scrutiny
The act of self-reflection is a ‘spiritual act’ by taking time out to connect the ...
Further Reflections on Reflection
We can think about why we think what we think and think how best we can think. The best means to the best ends begins in the best thoughts. Watch the observer – you – and give ‘him’ the best advice you can. The process points up the purpose. It is as true for reflection itself as for anything else.
Graham Gibbs‘ Reflective Cycle
The theoretical approach of reflection as a cyclical model was further developed by Graham Gibbs (1998). This model is based on a six-stage approach, leading from a description of the experience through to conclusions and considerations for future events. While most of the core principles are similar to Kolb’s, Gibbs’ model is broken down further to encourage the teacher to reflect on their own thoughts and feelings.
Guiding Principles
Reflection is an Activity that does not own up to the name. It is aligned with a horizontal True North of ourselves. It is a cylinder too often uninspected under the bonnet in the engine that drives people forward into life’s choices. It is time in our speeded-up world that it has a more recognised niche in our communal psyche. Reflection impacts positively on us and on our societies. We are what we have thought. We should think again.
How Reflection can help widen your horizon
You are an observer, whatever else you are. If you encourage the tendency to observe there is no limit to what ...
In a Session of Reflection
Why should ‘one size fit all’? What are you thinking when you reflect? Can your own thoughts be prescribed for you by anyone else? Are they the same as thoughts that anyone else may have in a similar context or are they more personal to you? This is a subjective voyage. One individual’s ideas during one sitting are here. Do you think in the same way?
Institute for Cogitation and Lateral Thinking
I shall be ambitious to have it said of me that I brought philosophy out of the closets and libraries, schools ...
Introduction to theory
The theory behind the Institute of Reflection is expounded in this essay.
Learning Cycle by David Kolb
David Kolb proposed that if people become better at using all stages of a learning cycle, notably including reflecting on experience, they will become better life-long learners, and be more successful.
His concept is among many that advocates 'trial and error' (extending to reflection, conceptualization and experimentation) through direct personal experience
Mark Twain’s Thinking on Reflection
Mark Twain once said: Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mission Statement
of this
Virtual Agora for Occidental Meditation (VAOM)
THE THINKER by Auguste Rodin
Why should a ...
Practical Wisdom
ACTION STARTS WITH THOUGHT. Do you start to ‘act’ – in this sense – in the right mental space? Do you learn ‘on the job’ of life? Are there viable short cuts? Is yours an approach to take into account as many as possible useful factors? School yourself to reach your best way of taking decisions.
Reflecting by Jan Thompson
Complete Assemblies for Secondary Schools
ISBN 034042954 2; First Published 1988
Introduction
Here is ...
Reflection can be a constructive way of life
Reflection is a tool of the mind helping better decision-making. It can affect your everyday thinking and attitude ...
Reflection can bring you happiness and pleasure
Contentment is a tremendous boon. It is a springboard for those extra-special moments of bliss which we cannot ...
Reflection can bring you peace of mind and heart
You can find quiet by yourself and the peace that accompanies it. It is a reason for the appeal of ‘Meditation’. ...
Reflection can help us understand the Cosmos
Marvellous discoveries have been made since Great Thinkers first contemplated the stars! You have the benefit of ...
Reflection can help you understand who you are
Treat yourself as a subject worthy of contemplation. If you think about who you are, you are on the way to ...
Reflection Represented in Figurine Form
Reflection is a particular and a useful state of mind but we tend to overlook it through its familiarity. We present a montage of figurines showing subjects in a ruminative state of Reflection.
Reflection techniques; how better to reflect
Eastern Meditation has it's handbooks, it's rituals, it's methods, its's mantras. So too there is advice galore ...
Reflection: its practical purposes
Don’t you want to be more rounded, successful and clever. Of course you do! Everything in this institute tends in ...
Reflection: its rationale
This virtual institute is about how the facility and ability, reflection, that each of us has to greater or lesser ...
Reflections as in a Mirror
There is a different but allied sense of the word "reflection". If you look in the mirror you will see a reflection of yourself. Here are the thoughts on this topic of Tessa Rawcliffe.
Reflective Practice
Linda Lawrence-Wilkes and Dr Lyn Ashmore, teachers of professional development in higher education, collaborated to publish their research on Reflective Practice for learning, 'The Reflective Practitioner in Professional Education'.
Silence is Golden
What is your favourite popular tune? Mine is an old classic, Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sound of ...
Some Definitions
Reflective Practice is an ancient concept. There are references to the power of reflective learning in the ...
Some Famous Names Whose Works Have Contributed to the Study of Relection
Reflection as an academic subject has been considered by many famous philosophers throughout history. Here's some of the best known historical contributors to the field.
Statement of Principle
For millennia humans have solved extraordinary problems as well as taken advantage of great opportunities through ...
The Art of the Pause
In a world that prizes speed and constant motion, the pause is often overlooked.
Yet it is in stillness that ...
The Theory of the Institute
The theory behind the Institute of Reflection is expounded in this essay.
Ways to Prepare for Reflection
The first time we do it, we may not get very far. If we make a habit of doing it slowly, by degrees, then a feel ...
Western vis-a-vis Eastern Meditation
There are many paths to enlightenment and many meanings of that word. You wish to Reflect? Stand tall on your right to do so! It is an allowable, rewarding way to spend time. You do not need to Meditate in the way that is a trend unless it speaks to you. There are teachers and traditions from the West to draw upon.
What Reflection has to offer you
Reflection is meditation shorn of the baggage. This article gives a brief overview of what it is, how to do it, and how it can help.
What’s The Institute About?
An extremely brief Summary
"Hi there Eve, fancy a tipple? So what d'ya think the institute is all ...
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Ready to Begin?
Download the free Reflection Manual and start today. No account needed
Do I need any prior knowledge or belief system?
None whatsoever. Reflection as practised here is secular and undogmatic. It draws on Western philosophical traditions but asks nothing of you except a willingness to think more carefully.
Is this the same as mindfulness or meditation?
Not quite. Where Eastern meditation often seeks stillness or transcendence, Western Reflection is active — it is thinking, done purposefully. It is closer to philosophy as a way of life than to a relaxation technique.
How much time does it take?
Reflection can be as brief as ten quiet minutes or as sustained as a long walk. It adapts to your life, not the other way around. No mat, no app, no subscription required.
Who is behind the Institute?
The Institute was founded by Justin Glass, who has spent many years developing the case for a distinctly Western tradition of meditative thought.
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