The Jack KornfieldHeart Wisdom hour celebrates Jack’s ability to mash up his long established Buddhist practices with many other mystical traditions, revealing the poignancy of life’s predicaments and the path to finding freedom from self-interest, self-judgment and unhappiness. – Podcast Series
Jack Kornfield is one of the leading Buddhist teachers in America. A practitioner for over 40 years, he is one of the key teachers to introduce mindfulness and vipassana meditation to the West. His approach emphasizes compassion, lovingkindness and the profound path of mindful presence.
Deep listening occurs when your mind is quiet. Your thoughts are flowing rather than crowding your mind with distractions, interpretations, judgments, conclusions or assumptions about the other person. Your mind is open, curious, interested — as though you were hearing this person for the first time. Deep listening applies not only to communication with another, but also to listening to ourselves and to life in general. The goal of deep listening is to hear beyond the words of the other person and yourself, to the essence of what the words and feelings are pointing to. Your mind and heart are joined in union — you are listening wholeheartedly.
Deep listening is synonymous with Compassionate listening as explained by Thich Nhat Hanh in this short SuperSoul Sunday video clip:
To go a step further, deep listening is normally thought of in the context of listening to another person. Another aspect of deep listening to ones-self. Thich Nhat Hanh speaks to this in terms of mindful listening. It can only happen in the present moment which is the only moment where one can truly live. He says that we have an appointment with life and that appointment with life takes place in the present moment.
By request, these are my notes and the diagram I created.
What makes you, you? Is it how you think of yourself, how others think of you, or something else entirely? In this talk, Julian Baggini draws from philosophy and neuroscience to give a surprising answer.
Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, has represented a sacred time of celebration across the ages, and in honor of the solstice this year there will be a wisdom circle out in the Hill Country on Saturday, June 22nd*.
Many of you have heard me speak of my sacred space outside of Wimberley, Texasand I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to gather in the circle with me and with many of our sisters; many of whom, are from the Hilde Girls.
A small ceremonial fire will burn from dawn to dusk in the forest by the creek where there will be casual heart-centered conversation, prayer and meditation as you are moved to come in and out of the circle.
There will be many relaxed and spontaneous activities, as well as activities which will be intentional and honoring.
A few miles outside of beautiful art community of, Wimberley, you and your family can enjoy these 13 acres of Hill Country beauty known as Avalon, with its scenic views, wooded creeks near the Blanco River, and sacred spaces. Enjoying hiking, playing, picnicking, and spacious relaxing time in community with others who love Mother Earth and the seasonal cycles.
The wisdom circle (where we gather) with the 13 stones, honors the elements of Earth and water, and the energies of the Divine Feminine. The new circle will honor the fire and air elements, and the energies of the Divine Masculine. This circle will have a small fire pit for ceremonial use, and on the 22nd it will be acknowledged with a dawn to dusk fire.
Come for all or part of the day and evening.
At 1:30pm, a Wisdom Circle gathering will occur in the forest by the creek and ceremonial fire. We will share stories of historical and ancestral summer solstice wisdom, along with contemplative sharing and a guided visualization meditation.
At 7:30PM, a drumming circle will begin and continue until the sun sets. Bring your drums, rattles, and musical instruments to celebrate!
What to bring: All your food and drink, plenty of water, a camp chair, and sturdy shoes for the uneven terrain. You may also want a hat, sunscreen, water bottle, daypack, journal, and drums/rattles.
Love offerings will be accepted that day to defray costs of the event.
Please RSVP to [email protected] if you have any questions, to confirm your intent join us and to get specific driving directions.
For a list of other events, retreats and workshops I invite you to visit my website: clayboykin.com
* Note: While the Solstice is actually on June 21st, we decided Saturday, June 22nd, would be a better day for us all to gather.
Sande Hart is the Founding Director of the Charter for Compassion Women and Girls sector, Founder and President of the women’s interfaith organization S.A.R.A.H., Past Chair of the United Religions Initiative for North America, and co-Founder of Alchemy Productions. She is a Mother, Daughter, Wife, Sister and Aunt, and new grandmother!
A certified Compassionate Integrity Trainer, Sande is passionate about leading people to a new understanding of who they are through the lens of compassion and compassionate action, and the role they contribute to the world around them. With a strong emphasis on personal awareness and self advocacy, Sande developed the 18th Sustainable Development goal with the intention and expectation that we will wake up to our personal responsibilities to be stewards of our planet and those we share it with.
With a strong commitment to elevating women and girls by providing dialogue and circle experience, Sande’s workshops and productions provide opportunities for weaving relationships, and being in service to the divine feminine that is rising strong in our world right now.
Sande speaks and conduct workshops on a variety of topics relating to community building, women and girls, and kids activism through service.
Paying attention to patterns in community and community building, it became clear that, with some thoughtful adjustments that seem to be easily missed, and some safeguards in how leadership teams work together, we could accelerate and leverage the highest vision and success of any given group. –Sande Hart
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About Search of the New Compassionate Male with Clay Boykin. I am convinced that amidst all the turmoil in the world a New Compassionate Male is emerging, and this New Compassionate Male is emerging as the New Archetype. ~ I am on a journey to every corner of the planet. I am on a journey within; a journey of self discovery to learn what it means to be a compassionate male. ~ I do not have the answer, but I know there is a spark of compassion emerging within every man and within every woman. Regardless of sexual orientation, nationality or religious tradition I invite you to join me. Let’s travel together and find answers to questions like: Who is this man? What makes him compassionate? Is he born this way, or how is compassion learned? Is there a place or time where compassion is not relevant? How many ways does the compassionate male show up in the world Together, we can find him. Together, we can hold a mirror up for one another and find the compassion within ourselves. ~ The more adversity there is in the world, the hotter the ember of compassion burns within. It may be smoldering and unrecognizable at the moment, or burning brightly lighting and warming others. ~ Who is the New Compassionate Male? Join me in our search.
Follow me on Facebook: In Search of the New Compassionate Male
Twitter: @ccboykin
Write me at: [email protected]
Circles of Men: A Counter-Intuitive Approach to Creating Men’s Groups – Compassionate men gather differently. – “With this book, Clay Boykin has created a spiritual blueprint for men around the world. Not only does this book provide a detailed guide for starting and maintaining a men’s group, but it also contains rich insight into the struggles and challenges of being a spiritual male in today’s western culture.” – Review on Amazon
Dr. Howard Teich has addressed groups such as C. G. Jung Institute and the International Conference on Shamanism on such topics as High Performance Leadership, Six Steps to Creative Collaboration, Quantum and Reflective Consciousness, Twin Leadership, Eros and Psyche, Gender Relationship and Consciousness.
Psychologist and teacher Dr. Teich founder of PACE PROFILE® applies his extensive background in psychology and his pioneering work in conscious empathy to create more effective outcomes in individual evolution, relationships with others and organizations. Combining his expertise in the fields of archetypal psychology, mythology and neurology, Dr. Teich’s notoriety as a scholar and lecturer is based on his theory of the tripartite integration of mythology, archetypal psychology (including dreams), and neurobiology and their effects on human consciousness. With this theory of integration, Dr. Teich has created a body of work that supports rapid understanding and changing human behavior.
Dr. Teich’s formative work began while he was teaching a course at the University of California at Berkeley titled Dreams: the Language of the Unconsciousness. His deep appreciation of and curiosity about the role dreams has had on shaping human outcomes has driven him to begin years of Jungian analysis with world-renown experts Joseph Henderson, John Beebe, and Joan Chodorow.
Dr. Howard Teich’s interest in the deep cultural ties mythology has within the unconscious realm led him to focus on the work of Joseph Campbell, the master of mythology studies now famous for his contributions to the Star Wars movies and his series of interviews with Bill Moyer. After Campbell’s death he has had the honor of contributing to Use of Comparative Mythology: Essays on the Work of Joseph Campbell (Garland Publishing, 1992).
Dr. Teich’s seminal work defining solar and lunar psychology is described at length in John Beebe’s 1992 book Integrity in Depth (Texas A&M University Press, 1992). Dr. Teich’s writings have appeared in publications such as Chrysalis, Parabola, San Francisco Jung Institute Journal, and Noetic Science Review; and been included in several anthologies, including Christine Dowings Mirror of the Soul. His latest works, Solar Light Lunar Light: Perspectives on Human Consciousness, is now available through Apple Books as well as Amazon.com. Dr. Teich was a consultant on Transforming Terror: Remembering the Soul of the World which was published in 2011 by University of California Press; and author of article Our Culture’s Divided Soul.
To measure the solar and lunar perspective of human behavior and how it can facilitate high performance Dr. Teich has developed the PACE PROFILE®. What makes the PACE Profile unique is that it highlights not only preferences and behavior but the underlying motivations that lead to behavior based on our engagement with ourselves, those around us, and our environment. And unlike other assessment tools the PACE does not divide people into types or assume that they have fixed temperaments from birth. A key element of the PACE is its focus on where an individual is now and how they can grow and develop if they choose.
A frequent lecturer in Mexico, Canada, and the U.S., Dr. Teich has addressed groups such as C. G. Jung Institute and the International Conference on Shamanism on such topics as High Performance Leadership, Six Steps to Creative Collaboration, Quantum and Reflective Consciousness, Twin Leadership, Eros and Psyche, Gender Relationship and Consciousness.
In addition to teaching at the University of California, the California Institute of Integral Studies, Sonoma State University, the University of San Francisco, and the Esalen Institute, Dr. Teich has coached executives at some of the world’s most respected corporate giants, including Microsoft, Intel, and Wells Fargo, as well as at emerging companies funded by venture capital firms.
Ann Smith loves to teach circle facilitation and the New Leadership and Organization based on Circle Principles. She is teacher/learner, mentor, coach, illuminator of Divine Feminine, advocate for women’s equality and empowerment, author and community organizer. She speaks from forty-years of experiences where she has listened, observed and learned from women around the world. She is co-founder and director of Circle Connections, Millionth Circle Convener, Regional Coordinator of Gather The Women Global Matrix, Co-Associate Companion of Happehatchee Chapter of the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross and SARAH Advisor. She is married with two daughters, three grandsons and one cat. She lives next to Everglades nature preserve in Naples, Florida.
Looking for ways to be strong yet tender, independent yet intimate, women today strive toward ever greater understanding of themselves, their relationships with family and friends, and their place in the world. Written by clergy and lay women from all around the country, this compilation of prayers and poems is the collective wisdom of contemporary women who base their search for such understanding on the belief that all of life must be seen against the backdrop of a vital faith. Offered in a spirit of sharing and encouragement, these prayers and poems are as rich, intricate, and complex as the women’s lives they represent. Women’s Uncommon Prayers covers the full spectrum of emotions from desperate pleas for compassion in times of despair to quiet gratitude for the simple blessings of everyday living, to raucous praise during moments of celebration. These prayers touch on an amazing array of topics organized under the categories of identity, daily life, stages of life, spirituality, and ministry. Also included are comprehensive sections of seasonal and corporate prayers.
“…Grace shows up in the portal of not knowing. When the heart is clenched tight, whether in anger or certitude, in fear or in grief, grace coaxes the fist open, looks into the palm and reads there a lifeline of a larger possibility. Grace is an open hand, extended to the stranger, to the loved one, to the wounded one within. It is the open hand of relationship, of kindness, of blessing.” – Karen Hering
Few words have stirred as much theological debate and division over the centuries while still arriving in the current millennium as untarnished, as frequently and comfortably spoken and as difficult to define.
Depending on who you ask and when, grace might be equated with salvation or with sacraments, with the presence of God, or with beauty or life itself. Grace is resilience. Grace is forgiveness. It is sin’s opposite. It is healing. It is revelation, the oneness of all being. It is enlightenment. It is light. It comes before faith. It comes after faith. Some say it is faith.
Mostly, it seems, what we know about grace is that it’s largely a matter of not knowing.
One of my favorite confessions of Augustine’s is about grace. “What is grace?” he asked, right away admitting in a nearly palindromic puzzle, “I know until you ask me; when you ask me, I do not know.” I concur. When I woke up this morning I knew exactly what to write about grace. It’s when I got out of bed and put my fingers to the keyboard that things got a little difficult.
Perhaps this is as it should be. Grace, after all, begins with beyond. Grace shows up in the portal of not knowing. When the heart is clenched tight, whether in anger or certitude, in fear or in grief, grace coaxes the fist open, looks into the palm and reads there a lifeline of a larger possibility.
Grace is an open hand, extended to the stranger, to the loved one, to the wounded one within. It is the open hand of relationship, of kindness, of blessing.
Grace moves. Grace heals. Grace dances. Grace is the sigh we release on the last note of a song or when the end of the poem becomes clear.
When a room is closed and stuffy, it is grace that opens the window and grace that then blows in.
“Grace fills empty spaces,” wrote Simone Weil in her journal. “But it can only enter where there is a void to receive it, and it is grace itself which makes this void.”
Grace can knock us off our feet when we stand on the shore looking out. Then it’s grace that catches us before we are washed out to sea.
Grace is given, and grace is received. It cannot be stolen, even by the best of thieves.
Grace is an opening. Just when we think we know exactly what’s going on, who we are, who everyone else is and what can and cannot happen next, grace draws back the bolt of our knowing, flings wide a new view.
Grace is the guest of humility. Rumi said it plainly but not unkindly:
You are so weak. Give up to grace. The ocean takes care of each wave till it gets to shore.
You need more help than you know.
Grace never comes to the fully self- sufficient. But then, which of us really are? Grace comes to each of us in turn and to all of us unmerited.
Grace points to the possibility of more. At the end of the sentence, at the bottom of the page, in the heart held wide open, there is always more.
***
Salt of Grace
“Spill my tears into this sacred space,
and with a sip of compassion,
I taste the salt of grace.”
c.boykin-2013
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13:13
Nate Phelps, in his TED Talk titled “Faith, Hope and Love”, explains that hope seems to be a rather benign condition, because it doesn’t actually promote action as it waits with bated breath for an outcome once action is taken. He goes on to explain that faith is belief not sustained by logical proof or material evidence. – Then he challenges faith, and the broad acceptance of the idea that faith is all good, by sighting events of 9/11 and the faith held by the 19 terrorists… But, this is not the end of his message. – a powerful message on love.
A powerful video short: Love is the Most Powerful Force in the Universe
If you're looking for clarity or just need a fresh perspective, I'm here to help. Click here for a complimentary 20-minute 1:1 chat. No pressure, just a conversation to see how I can support you on your journey.
The Jack Kornfield Heart Wisdom hour celebrates Jack’s ability to mash up his long established Buddhist practices with many other mystical traditions, revealing the poignancy of life’s predicaments and the path to finding freedom from self-interest, self-judgment and unhappiness. – Podcast Series
Dr. Teich’s seminal work defining solar and lunar psychology is described at length in John Beebe’s 1992 book Integrity in Depth (Texas A&M University Press, 1992). Dr. Teich’s writings have appeared in publications such as Chrysalis, Parabola, San Francisco Jung Institute Journal, and Noetic Science Review; and been included in several anthologies, including Christine Dowings Mirror of the Soul. His latest works, 
