Exploring Nature, Culture and Inner Life

This conversation features Brother David Steindl-Rast, an 86-year-old Benedictine monk and spiritual pioneer known for his fusion of Christianity and Buddhism. He shares profound reflections on his early life during WWII, addressing the impact of anti-Semitism and his personal journey navigating identity. Brother David highlights the influence of Rilke's poetry during turbulent times, as well as the joy he finds in monastic life and Gregorian chant. His thoughts on gratitude and mindfulness offer a spiritual lifeline amid contemporary challenges.

In this enlightening conversation, Brother David Steindl-Rast, an 86-year-old Benedictine monk bridging Christianity and Buddhism, reflects on his spiritual journey. He shares transformative peak experiences that shaped his vision and his initial hesitations in engaging with Zen teachings. The dialogue emphasizes the beauty of nature from his childhood and explores deep themes of loss connected to family and beloved pets. Touching on resilience during wartime, Brother David provides profound insights into living a life grounded in gratitude.

Join Brother David Steindl-Rast, an 86-year-old Benedictine monk who bridges the gap between Christianity and Buddhism. He discusses the transformative power of shared meals in spiritual practice, urging a more inclusive understanding of the Eucharist. Delving into the importance of gratitude, he highlights its role in overcoming struggles and fostering global community. Brother David also tackles the urgent need for personal responsibility in addressing the ecological crisis and emphasizes embracing life and death with trust and compassion.

David Whyte A Pilgrimage of Identity ~Co-presented with the Institute of Art and Healing~ A captivating speaker with a compelling blend of profound poetry and insightful commentary, David Whyte is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development. His life as a poet has created a readership and listenership in three normally mutually exclusive areas: the literate world of readings that most poets inhabit; the psychological and theological worlds of philosophical enquiry; and the world of vocation, work, and organizational leadership. Join Michael Lerner in conversation with poet David Whyte at the David Brower Theater in Berkeley. David Whyte David grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father’s Yorkshire. The author of six books of poetry and three books of prose, David Whyte holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes, the Amazon, and the Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures and workshops. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Christine Brandes and Eric Moe An Afternoon of Classical Music The New School at Commonweal presents Soprano Christine Brandes and pianist/composer Eric Moe, offering a recital of rich music-making. Two contemporary song cycles by Eric Moe (one set to poems by American poet May Swenson, the other to poems from Rainer Maria Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus cycle) will flank Joseph Haydn’s thrilling cantata for soprano and piano, Arianna a Naxos, which Haydn himself was known to sing, a test of any singer’s dramatic mettle. May Swenson (1919-1989) was an American poet of rare lyric and dramatic gifts, repeatedly drawn to love and eros as subject, while the Prague-born Rilke (1875-1926) wrestles in these poems with questions of music and our human existence. See the video showing how the grand piano got up the stairs and into the Commonweal Gallery for this recital. Christine Brandes Christine has sung around the world. Her repertoire, ranging from 17th century music to contemporary works, will be perfectly showcased in this program. With a crystalline, dramatic voice, full of life and longing, Brandes will be coming to Commonweal fresh from having sung Despina in Jonathan Miller’s production of Cosi fan tutte with the Washington National Opera. She has sung at New York City Opera, with the LA Philharmonic and as part of the Mark Morris Dance Company, has been conducted by Pierre Boulez and Esa-Pekka Salonen, has fashioned fresh interpretations of numerous classic heroines and has also forged strong characters in new operas. She has an impressive discography of recordings. Eric Moe Eric is active both as a pianist and keyboard player. As a composer, Moe’s music is rhythmically rich and varied, propulsive at times, and his style has been called “maximal minimalism” and “music of winning exuberance.” The New York Times recently described his compositions as “subversive” in their fusion of classical forms and pop culture; a disc of compositions entitled “Kicking and Screaming” gives us an idea of his animated, irreverent enthusiasm. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Terry Tempest Williams When Women Were Birds: A Reading Terry Tempest Williams has been called “a citizen writer,” a writer who speaks and speaks out eloquently on behalf of an ethical stance toward life. A naturalist and fierce advocate for freedom of speech, she has consistently shown us how environmental issues are social issues that ultimately become matters of justice. “So here is my question,” she asks, “what might a different kind of power look like, feel like, and can power be redistributed equitably even beyond our own species?” Williams, like her writing, cannot be categorized. She has testified before Congress on women’s health issues, been a guest at the White House, camped in the remote regions of Utah and Alaska wildernesses, and worked as “a barefoot artist” in Rwanda. Join us for a reading by Terry from her latest book, When Women Were Birds: Fifty-four Variations on Voice. Terry Tempest Williams In 2006, Williams received the Robert Marshall Award from The Wilderness Society, their highest honor given to an American citizen. She also received the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Western American Literature Association and the Wallace Stegner Award given by The Center for the American West. She is the recipient of a Lannan Literary Fellowship and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in creative nonfiction. In 2009, Terry Tempest Williams was featured in Ken Burns’ PBS series on the national parks. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Orion Magazine, and numerous anthologies worldwide as a crucial voice for ecological consciousness and social change. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Tribute to Adrienne Rich Presentation by Eric Karpeles Adrienne Rich, who died at her home in Santa Cruz on March 27, 2012, was a writer and thinker of enormous stature. Her first book of poetry was singled out by W. H. Auden for the Yale Younger Poets series in 1951 and Rich continued publishing books of poems in every subsequent decade. She used her awareness of herself as a woman—full of passion and compassion, gentleness, rage—as a framework to understand the inequities of modern life. Unabashed in her critical thinking, she possessed a unique and oracular voice in American poetry. …I have been standing all my life in the direct path of a battery of signals the most accurately transmitted most untranslateable language in the universe I am a galactic cloud so deep so invo- luted that a light wave could take 15 years to travel through me And has taken I am an instrument in the shape of a woman trying to translate pulsations into images for the relief of the body and the reconstruction of the mind. —Adrienne Rich, from “Planetarium,” 1971 Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Pauline Tesler Integrative Law: A Healing Approach for Resolving Divorce and Other Conflicts A divorce is the fate of about half of all marriages, and is the reason most Americans will encounter the legal system. In addition to the inherent stresses of divorce, many families experience serious and avoidable collateral damage as a consequence of handling complex and personal family systems breakdown in a court system designed to resolve automobile accidents and breaches of contract. Nearly every family, business, and community institution is harmed by outdated ways of providing legal help for people experiencing conflict. Pauline Tesler, author of two groundbreaking books on the new and revolutionary Collaborative Divorce method that is changing the practice of family law worldwide, joins Michael Lerner to explain Collaborative Law and other dramatic transformations taking place in the legal profession. Pauline will explain how integrative lawyers working in interdisciplinary teams can help people discover deep and durable solutions for legal issues that arise from deeper, more pervasive breaches of trust within human relationships and systems. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Paul Hawken An Uprising: The Global Crisis and Our Response Paul is a truly visionary thought and action leader. He is among the great contributors to the global effort to re-imagine our place in nature and how we may live balanced and creative lives together. In these recordings, Paul talks with Michael Lerner about the interlocking global environmental, financial, and human crises we face and the ways we can respond. Paul Hawken Paul is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author who has dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. He is author of seven books including The Next Economy, The Ecology of Commerce, and Blessed Unrest. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.

Paul Hawken An Uprising: The Global Crisis and Our Response Paul is a truly visionary thought and action leader. He is among the great contributors to the global effort to re-imagine our place in nature and how we may live balanced and creative lives together. In these recordings, Paul talks with Michael Lerner about the interlocking global environmental, financial, and human crises we face and the ways we can respond. Paul Hawken Paul is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and author who has dedicated his life to sustainability and changing the relationship between business and the environment. He is author of seven books including The Next Economy, The Ecology of Commerce, and Blessed Unrest. Find out more about The New School at tns.commonweal.org.