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Once a week at Kingsborough,
members of the college
community are invited
to gather together on Zoom
for 20 minutes to take a “conscious
nap”, or as Professor
Rick Repetti has taught us, “to
meditate”. Rick Repetti first
came to Kingsborough in 1996
as a part-time faculty member,
eventually securing a full-time
teaching position and moving
through the academic ranks to
become a Professor of Philosophy
in the Department of History,
Philosophy and Political
Science. However, his interest
in meditation started long before
he arrived at KCC. He recounted
that at 15 years old, he
was flipping through the TV
channels and happened upon a
yoga class in progress and was
immediately entranced. His
interest in yoga led to an interest
in meditation. The rest is a
50-year history of practicing,
learning, writing about meditation,
teaching its many benefits,
and guiding meditations.
The meditation group at
KCC started in 2006 as part
of the Kingsborough Center
for Teaching and Learning
(KCTL). Initially, a group of
faculty members would meet
to read and discuss articles,
but it morphed into a meditation
One night only!
Caribbean L 18 ife, JAN. 28-FEB. 3, 2022
group led by Prof. Repetti,
which would grow to include
staff and students and meet at
least once per week. On average,
the meditations now held
via Zoom, have between six and
11 participants and have had as
many as 20 participants. Sessions
run for 20 minutes and
end with a question and answers
so that participants can
debrief or unpack their experiences.
Prof. Repetti shared that
meditation has been found to be
very support for people during
this pandemic period. I could
only imagine that it would be.
The past two years and now
the beginning of 2022 has been
difficult for many of us. The
new year brought a new variant
with new challenges, new
concerns, and new stressors.
Before I could even get to making
resolutions, it was essential
that I found a way to embrace
some relaxation. For the most
part, Prof. Repetti taught himself
how to meditate and many
of its basic tenets, and now, fortunate
for me, there was someone
on campus who could teach
me about the ultimate de-stressor,
meditation.
Meditation provides you
with the opportunity to take
time out and let go, be still and
shift from doing to being. It encourages
a heightened state of
attention and awareness and
can help to clear your mind of
stressors. I learned from Prof.
Repetti that meditation has
been practiced for thousands
of years around the world.
While it is often used for religious
purposes, it is also used
as a therapeutic technique and
has been found to have a positive
impact on a person’s wellbeing.
There are many types
of meditation, but most fall
into two categories: one-pointedness
(or focusing on a particular
target or mantra) and
stream of consciousness (or
where you are tuned into the
changes in your thoughts).
By the end of my lesson, I
was ready to jump into a meditation
session with both eyes
closed. As fate would have it,
there was a meditation Zoom
scheduled that day. I signed
on at the appointed hour.
There were nine of us. I was
a newbie, and while I wasn’t
sure what kind of meditation
we were practicing, I knew I
was rapidly heading down a
stream of consciousness. I was
acutely aware of the numerous
thoughts going on in my mind.
Especially, the thought that
said, “you don’t have 20 minutes
to spare in your busy day”.
But the longer I stayed, the
more I was able to relax, focus
on being relaxed and sort all
the jumbled thoughts that occupied
my mind. I had to rush
off the session and into another
meeting, but I appreciated the
opportunity to be still, even if
it was for a few minutes. I decided
that I would find a way
to incorporate meditation into
my weekly routine. I knew that
I couldn’t do it in the middle
of the day (even though that’s
when I would probably need it
the most), but I could do it early
in the morning before I started
my day, so I did. For one week,
I carved 10 minutes at the top
of my day to be still, take some
time to meditate, clear my
head, focus my thoughts and
just breathe.
Dr. Claudia V. Schrader is
president of Kingsborough Community
College (KCC), a 72-acre
academic oasis in beautiful Manhattan
Beach, Brooklyn that offers
students over 50 academic
programs, 100 percent online
degrees and affordable two-year
degrees for their future. For more
information about Kingsborough,
visit the website at www.
Kingsborough.edu . Dr. Repetti’s
latest publication Handbook on
the Philosophy of Meditation will
be available in May 2022.
EDUCAT I O N PROFI LE
Self-Discovering The Benefits of Meditating
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