This is a 4-Evening Workshop meeting Wednesdays
Dates:
4 Wednesday Evenings, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm EST
February 2, 9, 16, 23, 2022
Available by: Join by Videoconference or Watch Online Recordings (learn more about videoconference)
Price: General Public: $ 100.00 | One Spirit Graduates: $ 90.00
One Spirit Elective Credit: 1.0
A spiritual revolution swept through a young America in the 1800’s, combining ancient wisdom, sacred activism and a call for fresh and direct experience of the Divine. This movement was known as Transcendentalism, and figures like Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Elizabeth Peabody and Margaret Fuller brought the teachings of the newly-translated Eastern sacred texts—and glimmers of the indigenous North Americans – into bold and passionate opposition to the conservative and restrictive religious dogmas of the day. America’s independent-minded spirituality is rooted here.
This transformation still influences our understanding of soul and common life, and fueled the actions of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as forming the basis of the modern-day social justice and environmental movements. Our concepts of interspirituality, ongoing inner and personal relationship with Mystery, trust in the inner wisdom of the intuition, and the importance of Nature all have roots in Transcendentalism.
In our four evening gathering, offered in seminar-style, we will:
Read together some of the famous and lesser-known Transcendentalist texts
Explore the practices that informed these seekers: time for both solitude and community, contemplation, journaling and simple, intentional living
Make connections with the lineage of Buddhist, Hindu and indigenous ways of knowing which informed the teaching and lives of these figures, and can be a gateway to our own
Highlight the links between this visionary spirituality and the spiritual activism that launched the abolitionist, women’s suffrage and environmental movements
Integrate these invitations into our own lives and spiritual paths as individuals, as members of society and as citizens of the Earth.
FACULTY:
Rev. David Wallace
Rev. David Wallace recently retired as a dean and senior teacher for One Spirit Interfaith Seminary in New York City, and is a faculty member of the spiritual direction program at the Rowe Center and an active officiant and spiritual director. He is a graduate of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, NM, and has continued those studies as a lifelong student of the “great books” of philosophy and archetypal psychology. Rev. Wallace offers teaching and retreats at spiritual venues worldwide, and specializes in poetics, contemplative practice, and the wisdom texts of both the Eastern and Western traditions.
Prior to his work in interspiritual ministry and teaching, David had an extensive career in publishing and marketing, as well as award-winning work through the Soho galleries he created in New York City, The Enchanted Forest and After the Rain.
Known for his deep and passionate teaching style, his recent seminars on the Tao Te Ching, the Gnostic Gospels of Thomas and Mary, The Cloud of Unknowing and the Upanishads have drawn a worldwide audience as one of One Spirit’s most popular teachers. He is currently working on a book, and shares a home in the Berkshire Mountains with his partner, senior Kripalu teacher Jurian Hughes, and their beloved dog Smitty.
Rev. Barbara Becker
Rev. Barbara Becker is the author of "Heartwood: The Art of Living with the End in Mind" and a proud graduate of One Spirit Interfaith Seminary. She has dedicated more than twenty-five years to partnering with human rights advocates around the world in pursuit of peace and interreligious understanding. She has worked with the United Nations, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh, and has participated in a delegation of Zen Peacemakers and Lakota elders in the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota. Barbara has sat at the bedside of hundreds of patients as a hospice volunteer and considers each a teacher.