The Guided Reflection assignment asks you to look more closely at the real world scenarios considered for Application Exercises. For each unit, you choose and study in depth an assigned practice listed in one of the two reading guides for the relevant unit, and explore connections between that assigned Asian practice and a daily practice you create for yourself. Based on this in-depth exploration, you then advise the group described in the contemporary scenario for the Application Exercise addressing your chosen Asian practice. Although the steps in the Guided Reflection process are clearly laid out, the multiple stages of thinking and planning involved make it the most challenging task you will undertake in this and most other similar courses, requiring you to develop more fully the skills briefly explored in the Application Exercises.

Intended Audience & Overview

Imagine that your audience for the guided reflection consists of the group described in the scenario for the Application Exercise addressing your chosen Asian practice, which in each case specifies a goal that group is trying to achieve:

• in Unit 1a, the OPSS City Repair staff wants to initiate a practice that reinforces the community involved in it.
• in Unit 1b, the staff wants to strengthen that community's engagement in and commitment to a regular practice.
• in Unit 2a, the OPSS City Repair staff wants to initiate a group practice that will deepen the reflection of young adults.
• in Unit 2b, the staff wants to nurture reflection that strengthens young adults' engagement in and commitment to some regular practice.

Once you figure out who your target audience is, you show them that the assigned Asian practice you have chosen is a useful model for similar contemporary practice being considered, and that both practices address the relevant goal. The worksheet for the assignment will guide you in formulating and answering questions about the assigned Asian practice you choose and the community and reflection associated with it, and also about the way that practice compares to your own daily practice (Step 1). You will then ask another person to read and comment on the worksheet, reflect on the comments you receive, and reconsider what you have written (Step 2). Finally, you will use the material generated by your responses on the worksheet to write a 5 page essay, story, poster, series of sketches or other creative product advising the people you are targeting (Step 3).

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