Introduce yourself!

Here is my official bio:

Educated in Cambridge, Keiō (Tokyo), and Oxford Universities, Chris Goto-Jones is the former Dean of Humanities and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Victoria.

He is also a Professorial Research Fellow at SOAS, University of London, and guest Professor at Leiden University, where he was previously Professor of Comparative Philosophy & Political Thought, Professor of Modern Japan Studies, and founding Dean of Leiden University College, The Hague.

He is a VICI laureate of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), and Director of the Mental Praxis project concerning Mindfulness and Philosophy.

He is a fully trained and experienced teacher of Mindfulness, meditation, and various martial arts; he is also a supervisor of Mindfulness teachers.

With grateful thanks to the organisations mentioned in the links.

Purpose: Become acquainted with the other people in your area and around the world who are taking this course. Get a sense of who they are and how you might be similar or different. Share some aspirations, hopes, and perhaps some fears too.

Task: Please introduce yourself by explaining things like:

*Where you are from;

*What is your background in relation to mindfulness;

*Why you are taking the course;

*What do you think you might do with the knowledge gained;

*What kind of collaboration would you like to start with fellow learners, aside from a study-group;

*Can you give an example of one hope and one fear you have about taking this course?

For example:

Hi, I’m Chris. At the moment I live in British Columbia, in Canada. I’ve been involved with mindfulness in various ways for many years, and with meditation for several decades. I’m taking the course because I’m really interested to know how other people are attracted to this field, and what people feel that they gain from it. The knowledge I gain from this course will help me to better understand what I experience when I practice mindfulness, and I’m excited to explore the possibility that discussing this with a wider community will itself help me to understand. My main hope is that all the participants in this course will find something beneficial in the experience of following it, and that I might be able to help in some small way. And my main fear is still (and will always be) that I don’t really understand mindfulness or that I’m just doing it wrong. Perhaps you can help me with that too?

Respond: write a comment of around 150 words, and also reply to at least 2 other students. Consider liking comments that are interesting to you, or replying to them directly.

Time: this exercise will take you 5-10 minutes for your comment and another 10 minutes to reply to others.