Submission Procedures for Curriculum at TAO Metaversity

The TAO Metaversity is an environment that bridges what learning environments have represented up to this point, in additional to, what is opening up in each individual and the universe. The TAO Metaversity recognizes that each individual intrinsically holds what they spend their lives searching for. The curriculum’s focus is on coming to learn less and experiencing more. In experiencing more, we remember the knowing we have and begin the process of releasing external skills making room for internal realities. As we begin this recognition of internal knowing, we see the connection in all aspects of life regardless of the external venues they are represented through. Seeing the connection in all aspects of life is what is recognized.

The TAO Metaversity is an educational environment dedicated to the “additional” learning that is not included in K-PhD and beyond. The whole person is acknowledged and is encouraged to include the spirit, cultivate imagination, fuel the intellect and remind us that we are citizens of ecological communities.

This environment and the spaces created in this environment, must cultivate vision, imagination, ascetic and spiritual sensitivity, gentleness, generosity, caring and compassion. With that at the forefront, the students and teachers integrate those values into education, environmental studies, inner dimensional studies, business, medicine, science and the arts. This educational environment is available to all ages to invite the wonder in each of us to be integrated into all areas of our lives.

In addition, we are committed to the principles of nondiscrimination in all terms and conditions of employment. We do not discriminate against applicants of employees on the basis of age, race, gender, color, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or any other status protected by law.

We ask that applicants for all our positions are committed to active participation in this growth process and have a willingness to work with people from all backgrounds.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURES & REQUIREMENTS FOR CURRICULUM PROPOSAL

• Completed TAO Metaversity Call for Entries Form

• Completed  Studies Course/Workshop Proposal Form

• Resume

• Course/workshop Syllabus including the following information:

1. Title of course or workshop

2. Name and contact information for the instructor

3. Co-Teacher if applicable

4. Subject, field, or course content

5. Week by week or weekend workshop schedule of topics covered within the course

6. Teaching methodology (e.g. lectures, open discussions, specific experiential exercises, meditation, etc.)

7. Text or articles that may be referred to, used or on which the course may be based

8. Goals and objectives of the course: describe what you expect students to gain from the course

• Additional materials that would be helpful in evaluating your proposal

• Course description (100 word maximum) for marketing purposes

The course description should cover the content, format, and requirements of your class.  Please include who should take this course,              why they should take it, and what they will learn. This description will be used in promotional materials if your course is selected

• Instructor Biography (50 word maximum) and recent photo of yourself in jpeg format

Biography and photo will be used in promotional material if your course is selected

SUBMISSION PROCEDURES AND DEADLINES

Mail completed Course Proposal Packet to:

TAO Metaversity

Attention: Wendy A. Mendenhall

680 East 600 South

Salt Lake City, Utah 84102

OR email Proposals to info@theartsorganiztioncom

Proposal Deadlines

Proposals will be accepted on a rolling basis. If an applicant desires to conduct the course/workshop during a specific

semester the dates below should be taken into consideration.

Preferred consideration for Spring 2010 semester (January – May) is October 1, 2009.

Preferred consideration for Summer 2010 semester (June – August) is January 5, 2010.

Preferred consideration for Fall 2010 semester (September – December) is March 30, 2010.

General Procedures

• General questions can be sent to info@theartsorganization.com (please allow 3-5 business days for reply)

• Compensation will be determined by a revenue sharing agreement between the presenter(s) and the TAO Metaversity

• We are not able to return any materials (books, pamphlets, DVDs) submitted with your course proposal packet

• Individual Course/Workshop Proposal Packets must be submitted for each workshop or class proposed

• If you are planning to present this material in the Salt Lake City or St. George, Utah  area within two months before or after your

engagement at the TAO Metaversity, you must inform the TAO Metaversity prior to finalizing a contract

• An email will be sent to you within five business days of receiving your proposal to confirm that we have

received your packet. Please allow up to six weeks for a final decision on the proposal.

• This process is for noncredit Extended Studies offerings only.  If you would like to submit a course proposal for

academic credit only, please contact the appropriate academic department.

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University of Utah Students help design the TAO Metaversity

The TAO Metaversity Classes Begin

What is VAS?* The students at the University of  Utah are in the “process” of creating the TAO Metaversity. Dr. Julio Bermudez and 13 senior architectural students have begun this winter’s Studio with a project that will have worldwide impact.  *For complete description of VAS see Voluntary Architectural Simplicity 

Synchronicity. When reading what the TAO Metaversity is about, one is struck by the subtle ways life uses the TAO Metaversity’s spirit as a teaching model  — even before it is seemingly born. It begins. This project is brought to consciousness, an email is sent and received back east, the recipient meets the sender for the first time,  and shares a professor, Dr. Julio Bermudez’s name,  who is teaching sacred architecture – in Salt Lake City. This project, the TAO Metaversity,  waiting to be brought into form, is in need of sacred architecture. The TAO Metaversity  is introduced to the professor, discussed as though is was about to be born, acknowledged as a project who’s time has come and adopted by the professor and 13 architecture students.  Coincidence, Synchronicity, Trust, Faith, and Miracle  – these are the names we give to incidences we can’t quite explain yet know they are around us. They happen with or without our understanding.

 

Intention of Community – U of U student’s understanding of the role of the TAO Metaversity

The Relationship.  The TAO Metaversity’s intent is to support the practice of experiencing these experiences and in doing so, unlock inner wisdom. It’s curriculum teaches there is much more than what is perceived by the five senses. It’s spaces must lift the spirit, cultivate imagination, fuel the intellect and remind us that we are citizens of ecological and spiritual communities. The architecture must raise aesthetic sensitivity and through it assist in developing gentleness, generosity, caring and compassion. “BEing” is celebrated over doing and having and allowed to interact with knowing in the here and now of the real.

 

 

Justin Campbell (shown) and Bradeson Brinton’s current vision of the TAO Metaversity

What it looks like. The TAO Metaversity is taking form in design, colors, smells, textures, setting, and subtly in the lives of those it is being introduced to. As the students, project jurors, professors and client seem to be working to render a structure to be built, the TAO Metaversity is teaching. It’s classroom space is still undefined the curriculum is being written, the design in architecture is still being molded and shaped.  Still, the TAO Metaversity begins its teaching – not waiting for us to agree what the final project will look like. It knows its depth, its wisdom, its purpose and gives itself in any way we might catch a glimpse of it’s beauty. 

 

U of U student Paul Nielsen (shown) and Justin Wallis' current vision of the TAO Metaversity

The teaching begins. The client’s project description is written and given to the students. They begin to read and study the requirements of the client. The TAO Metaversity enters into the students lives through the written words. It begins to access their knowing of this place that has seemingly only been introduced to them. It seems a little familiar to some of the students. As they read they begin writing down ideas, thoughts, flashes of creativity runs through them. The more they read about this project, the more it resonates with their experiences. The thoughts invoke conversations, “Yes I remember what it was to be a student. The teacher entering the classroom and talking to the blackboard. I remember hearing something I wanted to share with my classmate and when I did, I lost recess.”

While the developmental models are seemingly being created, the students are accessing memories, hope, and places they  themselves want  to come to.  They begin talking about this place as if it were already “something”. The TAO Metaversity listens to these conversations, smiling as an old friend would upon being recognized. 

 

Kin Ng, MJSA - juror

The teaching is extended. As each phase is complete,  it is time to introduce the TAO Metaversity to the client, and  professionals who have been asked to see the progress of the students and to critique this project. The students come in groups of two, one has three, and they each describe, “What the TAO Metaversity means to them”. As they describe their experiences they begin to teach everyone present in the room. As each group finishes, the jurors and client wonder in the form of questions. They now have been introduced to this project. As it’s personality is shared, each person is giving their thoughts and ideas to this “project”. Some of the jurors are expressing their questions from the place of asking, “Why would I come here?” ” What will I feel when I come here?” They are asking the students these questions and they are asking from a place that has brought them together, with the students, under the guise of this project. They see it is long overdue, they recognize what its possibilities are, and most of the jurors are now imagining  that a place like this could be built.

 

U of U architectural students during project presentations

The joining of spirit. Through each exchange with friends, family, jurors, and seeming passer-bys, The TAO Metaversity is further recognized into consciousness. With each communication, the TAO Metaversity’s essence is taught. These 13 students and Dr. Julio Bermudez are already teaching others through their ideas, thoughts, experiences, actions and unseen interactions. They are giving form to this environment through their architectural renderings and models and they are giving life to its intent because they are the TAO Metaversity. As you witnessed these students and professor talk about this project, you recognize they, like the TAO Metaversity, are lifting the spirit, cultivating imagination,  fueling the intellect and reminding us that we are citizens of ecological and spiritual communities.  Many of us who have known – from an inner wisdom –  that there must be something more,  recognize and join with the spirit of the TAO Metaversity.

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