Hi
My American partner showed me a mindfulness corner in USA public college and said that mindfulness corner is a place where people practice their religion it is often used by Muslims even though it is not for specific religion.
I thought it was for Hindus because it has Lotus symbol but my partner said it is often used by Muslims
by the way do all mindful corners in USA public colleges have the same symbol (Lotus) ? thanks
Comments
A lot of schools do have “reflection” areas of some sort. I don’t know how many of them do.
I think this is a more recent thing, I remember starting to see things like this 15 or so years ago. Probably longer than that but I don’t remember exactly. Basically just a meditation room or a quiet place to sit if you need it. Makes sense that the Muslim students use it to pray.
Yes, I expect nearly every school has these, though the names used to describe them are different.
Im not familiar with the term “mindfulness corner.” What you’re describing sounds like a prayer room. Under title VII of the civil rights act employers and schools have a legal obligation to accommodate different faiths and religions. Organizations may need to provide space for prayer and this type of room would meet that requirement.
There’s no specific decoration or standard symbols used. It would be up to the organization
There was a chapel in the student center. I’m almost certain that’s what it was called but it was set up for any religion.
This account just asks provocative questions on here. I am sensing a Russian operative seeking to foment dissent.
Probably not termed exactly as that, but I’d be surprised if most colleges didn’t have some sort of space like that.
Yes, I’ve seen generic prayer rooms in US public buildings like colleges. Sometimes they’ll have the symbols of multiple religions on them but are likely mostly used by Muslims in most places.
Similar things exist in many hospitals and airports. Basically a prayer room, chapel, mindfulness room etc made for interfaith practice.
I’ve never heard it referred to as that, but every college I’ve been to has had a chapel that serves the same purpose. It’s generally used by Muslims since their religion requires frequent prayer and most colleges have separate Christian churches on campus.
This wasn’t a thing when I was in school, but that was in the last millennium.
In some states it iis legally required to have a designated space like this.
Muslims prayer five times a day so it would make sense that they have a space for them to do that, to create an inclusive atmosphere. I’m sure other faiths might use it as a quite reflective space for prayer as well. I am not religious, so I was never aware of any really religious /mindfulness spots around any of my campuses except during certain holidays where families could use certain places on campus for faith related celebrations. We had a large Indian population, most of whom practiced Hinduism, on my campus so they held Diwali celebration with families on campus and then went to temple. Another campus I was on had seder dinner in certain building for Jewish students away from home during passover. There were also been various accommodations for Muslim students during Ramadan.
Most thoughtfully designed public buildings or offices have a closed room without a window and a lock. It’s often not expressly designed for Muslim prayer, but that’s a common use of the room. New mothers also use it to pump breast milk.
Sometimes it also doubles as a meeting room for a meeting where you don’t want everyone to be able to peek in and see who is in there or what is being presented.
No
I’m not sure about all colleges, but I wouldn’t doubt a fair amount of good sized ones have something similar. Muslims likely use the one at your partner’s school most often because they pray multiple times a day. This likely gives them a private space to sort of dip into between classes for their prayers, instead of having to go back to their dorm or house or find somewhere else they feel appropriate on campus.
Disclaimer: not a Muslim or an expert on religion of any sort. This is vague google info and my own speculation about how a person who prays multiple times a day might use the space
The lotus is sometimes used in the USA as a symbol for meditation and possibly “mindfulness” … the two words are sometimes co-mingled generally.
To address your specific question, the use of the lotus as a specific religious symbol that might connote Buddhism or Hinduism in other parts of the world is not commonly recognized in the USA.
When i was in college in the 00’s we had a space in one of our student life buildings that was called a ‘safe space’. Its purpose was so people could practice religion, meet as specific cultural clubs, have open lgbtq+ meetings and more. It was called a ‘safe space’ because the idea was that it was meant to be free of harassment, and iirc the university heavily enforced the anti-harassment rules there. I don’t know what they call it today, but it is probably something different because of the wide criticism of ‘sTuDeNtS NeEdInG saFe SpAceS’ in most of the last 15+ yrs.
Many (but not all) schools have something like this but it could be called lots of things and have any variety of symbols from a lotus to a cross to the university logo to the Star of David to the Crescent and Star (or maybe a combination of all of the above).
You see something similar in airports and hospitals called an “all fair chapel” or something similar. It’s a quiet place for reflection and/or prayer – it’s used by Christians and Muslims and Jews and Hindus and anyone else that wants to use it.
Fwiw the lotus often represents “quiet” or “peace” or “mindfulness” or “slowing down” in the USA.
Some public places like colleges or hospitals will have a prayer/meditation room that’s meant for people of any religion to use. I’m not sure if it’s most of them, but I’ve seen them before.
I have never heard of such a thing at my uni 10 years ago. And we had a very international student body
I’ve never heard of it. Stuff like that is generally instigated by students or staff that come up with it or have gotten the idea from other student groups elsewhere. Generally speaking, US colleges are very open to such requests from students – anything that might enhance the student experience and make them feel comfortable is typically good business.
I don’t recall what my college had, but these are not uncommon in other types of institutions. For example, my hospital has one and I’ve seen them in airports.
Might be called a chapel.
Yes I’ve spent all my life in US academia and worked at and visited multiple public universities. There always is some sort of a chapel or place for prayers. It’s generally non denominational. Even in Jesuit universities which are explicitly Christian run, the chapels allow prayers of any kind. Or even if you just sit there quietly.
At a crowded university I worked at in my younger days, I would go to the prayer room to just sit and have some me time. Tho I’m an atheist.
So yeah, pretty standard.
There was a “prayer room” in the library at my university. The direction to Mecca was marked on the floor. That was more than 10 years ago, maybe it’s been renamed to a “mindfulness room” by now. I don’t remember any lotus symbol.
I’ve never heard of such a thing, but I’m not the target demo for something like this, so for all I know my college could’ve had one and I was just unaware of it.
I’m a little confused on the concept, because I’m imagining a literal corner of a room, which sounds insufficient. I’m more familiar with student centers, like cultural houses on campus, where there’d probably be worship/meditation spaces for niche religions.
Mine didn’t, but that was a long time ago.
I went to a Christian University and they had dedicated prayer rooms. So yes for me. I have no clue about the public universities.
Public schools and public (government) buildings in general have to avoid First Amendment issues by not explicitly endorsing or accommodating a specific religion. However, there’s recognition that people have religious obligations they need to uphold too.
The safest compromise is to provide some kind of omni-religious space that anyone can use.
My college (UC Berkeley) has a mindfulness center/prayer room at two places. I haven’t seen the lotus symbol used, but I’ll check again.
Not in my experience no (though I have been out of college for four years, so things may have changed at mine), but I suppose most study rooms in the library or other buildings could count as that.
I know that airports have them supposedly.
Not sure about the lotus symbol in particular though.
I’ve never seen this in my life. Idk, maybe we have it, but my college is too big for me to notice. However, I’d assume we have enough clubs to allow people to do the things that you’ve described.
It’s probably called something different at different schools.
But there were plenty of Muslim and Hindu students at the University I went to, and I recall there being private places for them to pray.
I don’t know where they were in every building, or how nice they were, because I never used them myself.
I graduated from a large (50,000+ enrollment) public university last May. We didn’t have that sort of thing. I believe our recreational center had a meditation/wellness room you could reserve. My campus was also large enough that you had places of worship for every major religion either directly on or within walking distance of campus.
I have never referred to it as a “mindfulness corner”, but I imagine it is common. My college had one. I think most probably do.
My school is Catholic so it has a chapel. I think that’s the closest we have to what you described.
Most, probably not. Most colleges probably have some areas for either quiet reflection specifically or just quiet areas in general. I’m not familiar with the lotus being commonly used for such areas and would probably assume, like you, that it’s for Hindus or similar. It might have started as a Hindu area and been coopted by the Muslims as they need to regularly pray through out the day and that was best area they found to do so.
You can look up “(insert any name) University prayer room” and an official institutional page will come up stating where such a room is on campus. If there isn’t an official room, there will be spaces that could function as such listed.