Contemplative Mind's Fall Event Lineup

Contemplative Practice in the Science Classroom: Practical approaches to the impractical / Impractical approaches to the practical

a Webinar with Michelle Francl,
Professor of Chemistry, Bryn Mawr
Thurs., October 22, 2009
3:00 - 4:00 pm EDT

Free for ACMHE members
$5.00 for non-members

Michelle Francl, 2008 Contemplative Practice Fellow, is professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr and a writer for Nature Chemistry. She teaches writing and chemistry and embeds contemplative practices into both. Her courses demonstrate the value of this approach for learning and doing science, where practice provides nascent scientists with another set of ways to reflect on their work in relationship to the larger world. She explores the use of many practices adapted for classroom use including "stilling" (breath and body awareness), contemplative writing, "beholding" and lectio divina, and finds that a curriculum that includes contemplative practices has the potential not to merely produce science, but to form scientists.

About Webinar Registration
After submitting the registration form, you will be forwarded to a payment page. If you are a member of the ACMHE, disregard this step (webinars are free for members); if you are not a member, you must submit the $5 payment for your registration to be approved. After your registration has been approved, you will be sent instructions for connecting to the webinar.
If you have any questions regarding registration or connection, please email carrie@contemplativemind.org.

Beyond Hard Times
Mirabai Bush & Bokara Legendre
Thurs., October 22, 2009
8:00 - 10:00 pm
New York Open Center, NYC

We don't need to be victims of circumstance; we can use difficult circumstances to grow, using courage, insight and humor. The evening will weave together practices and stories with dialogue and questions to help us see more clearly into our present situation, develop kindness, let go of fear and communicate a transformed story.

Bokara Legendre, artist, writer and TV host, will share stories from her explorations in the far corners of the world to heal body and heart, and Mirabai Bush, who has taught meditation to unlikely students from Google engineers to Army chaplains and medics, will lead the practices.

How We Live Now: The Power of Mindfulness in Shaping American Public Life
A Talk by Mirabai Bush
Weds., October 28, 2009, 7:00 pm
Newton, MA
$20

We often think of meditative practice as only personal, separate from our lives at work and in community. But the transformations that often happen with regular contemplative practice-more patience, compassion, insight, wise discernment, and action, for example-can play a part in positive changes in our organizations, businesses, professions, and community life. Mirabai will share her insights and experiences in bringing mindfulness into American life, from Google to Yale Law School, from higher education to the US Army. She will also share practices that cultivate mindfulness in daily life.

2009 Mindfulness in Education Conference
Oct. 30 - Nov. 1, 2009
Oakland, CA

While tickets last, enter discount code "mindfulness003" to receive 50% off registration!

The Role of Mental Strengths in Developing Athletic and Academic Excellence
Keynote Address by George Mumford
Friday, October 30th, 2009
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Tech High School, Oakland CA
Cost: $25

George T. Mumford is a Sports Psychology Consultant, Personal and Organizational Development Consultant, Executive Coach and a Teacher. As part of Phil Jackson's support staff, he worked with the Los Angeles Lakers (1999-2003) and the Chicago Bulls (1993-1998). George will draw on his experience working with elite athletes, inner city populations, corporate executives and prison inmates to explore the mental strengths that create the foundation for excellence.

Conference for Educators, Counselors and Administrators
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Tech High School, Oakland CA
Cost: $95 (includes breakfast and lunch)

Research shows that mindfulness skills enhance concentration, attention, emotional balance, physical well-being, and openness to learning. Educational institutions including early childhood centers, public and private school systems, and national universities have embraced mindfulness as valuable educational practice. Join educational colleagues to explore the cutting edge of deep learning.

Day of Mindfulness
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Park Day School, Oakland, CA
Cost: $60

In this full-day workshop participants will explore the many ways in which mindfulness can deepen and enrich their experience of life. Through direct instruction, mindfulness practice, and group exercises, participants will learn potent new tools for living

Information and Registration:
Visit: www.mindfuleducation.org
Email: ame@mindfuleducation.org
Call: (650) 575-5780
While tickets last, enter discount code "mindfulness003" to receive 50% off registration!

Sponsors
Association for Mindfulness in Education
Mindfulness in Education Network
Mindful Schools
Friends Council on Education
Center for Contemplative Mind in Society

Accessing our Best Inner Resources for Service and Social Action: Meditations of Natural Wisdom and Compassion

with John Makransky, PhD
Assisted by Julie Forsythe and Leah Weiss Ekstrom
Sat., November 14, 2009
10 am to 5 pm; Registration from 9:30-10 am
First Churches, Main Street, Northampton, MA

Registration fee: $75.00
Scholarships available; students may attend for free

Co-sponsored by the Foundation for Active Compassion and the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society.

This day-long retreat is for people who serve others, whether professionally, at home or in their community, and who want to revitalize their spiritual lives in action. It is both for new and experienced meditators: social workers, social justice activists, teachers, therapists, pastors, health care providers, hospice volunteers, people taking care of elderly parents, etc. To be effective in service and social action, we need to embody the deepest spirit and motivation of our work. But our work can be so challenging that we get overwhelmed or burned out, losing our compassionate connection to others, experiencing more frustration and anger than joy. The meditation practices offered in this retreat can help participants return to their deepest inspiration, energy and motivation for action so as to embody the spirit of service that inspires others.

Participants will be guided in powerful meditations of compassionate communion and presence adapted from the Tibetan tradition in newly accessible ways for people of all backgrounds and faiths. These meditations help the mind relax into its most natural state of tranquility, openness and simplicity, a place of deep rest and replenishment, where we can be more fully present and attuned to self and others. The retreat provides guided meditation, lively discussion and instruction on bringing the practice home into relationships, service and social action.

View the flyer for the event. We encourage you to print one out and post it, or save a copy on your computer and email it to your friends and coworkers.

John Makransky has practiced meditations of wisdom and compassion from Tibetan Buddhism for thirty years and has pioneered new ways of taking them into the worlds of social service and social justice by making them newly accessible to people of all backgrounds and faiths. A professor of Buddhism and Comparative Theology at Boston College and senior advisor to the Centre for Buddhist Studies in Nepal, John was ordained a Tibetan Buddhist lama in 2000. He is co-founder and guiding teacher of the Foundation for Active Compassion, which provides contemplative training for social justice and service. John is the author of Awakening through Love: Unveiling Your Deepest Goodness (Wisdom Publications, 2007; www.johnmakransky.org).

Webinar: Visualizing Contemplation

with Joel Upton, Professor of Art History, Amherst College
Weds., December 8, 2009
3:00 - 4:00 pm ET
Free for ACMHE members; $5.00 for non-members

"In my experience, contemplative knowing is an especially potent reality, but it is interior. Although we often speak about contemplative knowing, we normally practice contemplation in silence and within the inescapable solitude of our being. There are, of course, obvious musical and dance alternatives to still, even shared, silence. Nevertheless, the contemplative goal remains the inner peace and heightened awareness contemplative practice will foster. Beyond the manifestation of outer calm through inner harmony, however, one might ask how specifically this essentially interior and private reality might be made explicitly public for others to see and perhaps emulate. With this question in mind, my presentation will attempt to visualize contemplation as one way to exteriorize and communicate this interior reality.

Using images and schematic drawings, I will offer an exemplary model that draws on meditative space as one might find it in Japan generally and in the sub-temple of Daisen-in at Daitoku-ji in Kyoto. Although I will give a Japanese name, "ainoma," to the conceptual reality that informs this space, I will relate this particular visualization of contemplation to the more familiar language of Simone Weil and Henry David Thoreau."

About Webinar Registration
After submitting the registration form, you will be forwarded to a payment page. If you are a member of the ACMHE, disregard this step (webinars are free for members); if you are not a member, you must submit the $5 payment for your registration to be approved. After your registration has been approved, you will be sent instructions for connecting to the webinar.
If you have any questions regarding registration or connection, please email carrie@contemplativemind.org.