In Spring 2026, Dr. Bin Song continued to assign contemplative exercises in the course “Introduction to Comparative Religion: Eastern” (PHL 112). Here are a couple of excellent examples:

Benjamin McCumber and Ziggy Angelos will graduate soon, so this is one of their last classes at the college. I worked with Ben in quite a few courses; he completed Religious Studies as his minor and will continue to study and practice clinical psychology in graduate school, which makes me very proud. Ziggy was a wonderful new student in my class, yet her level of understanding quickly revealed that being “new” in time does not mean being “new” in soul. She will continue to study art therapy in graduate school. I wish them both the very best!

Peter is a philosophy major, and he took two very different classes with me back-to-back this semester: the highly abstruse History of Modern Philosophy course, which included notoriously difficult thinkers such as Descartes, Berkeley, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Kant; and this course on Eastern Religions. Although brief and seemingly casual, the practice demonstrated in Peter’s video cites Gao Panlong (1562–1626), one of my favorite Ruist meditators, and captures the essence of the Ruist practice of quiet-sitting: a serene immersion in whatever and whenever one happens to be, within a civilization continuous with nature.

Hooray for these students—a very nice treat for a teacher heading into the coming summer!