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Since the start of our club in Fall 2009, we have held over 30 of our own events at Penn (and collaborated on many others), including having group meditations, introductions to mind-body and preventative health practices, film screenings, guest speakers, life-skills training retreats, and stress reductions sessions. Our most successful events are listed below. For a full list of our events, please visit our Facebook group at: http://www.facebook.com/groups/consciousnessclub/events/
Occupying A New Narrative: Interdependency and Social Justice, with Jerry Simotas | February 11, 2012
Join us for a discussion about how our culture of individualism, accumulation of private ownership, and addiction to convenience and security has created unnecessary suffering and pain in our communities and the world at large. Jerry Simotas, from Veterans for Peace, will lead us in discussing how the beliefs we've been taught have produced unnecessary divisions endemic to our culture and how to transcend the fallacies which perpetuate disillusionment and feeling at odds with each other. Differences need not produce the divisions which keep us from making this a far better world. Following this will be film screening of I AM, an utterly engaging and entertaining non-fiction film that poses two practical and provocative questions: what's wrong with our world, and what can we do to make it better?
Your Enlightened Side: Personal and Community Wellness Retreat September 16-19, 2011 (we also had one this past Feb 2012)
The YES+ course is a fun, innovative, and experiential life-skills training program that empowers young adults to develop a relaxed, stress-free mind and an energetic, healthy body, using tools such as meditation, yoga, breathing exercises, self-exploration, and emotional development. There will also be optional educational sessions on the weekend nights featuring films and presenters on social justice, sustainability, food systems, alternative economies, and education reform. The goal of the course is to help make Penn and West Philadelphia healthier and more open communities. The course happens over 5 days, and all sessions are mandatory if you wish to participate. Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_XFihQMlhc
the state of enlightenment was an explanation and solution to the suffering of ourselves and all other beings. Resulting from deep personal transformation and meditation, this solution is based primarily on Compassion for All Beings Equally and Wisdom into the Nature of Reality. These two ideas which work together are sometimes called the Two Wings of the Bird in Buddhist philosophy, for they work in tandem and without them both , the result of perfect flight or balance cannot come to fruition. These are the two main pillars of Buddhist thought, and in this introduction, Lama will teach, discuss and guide a meditation on these basic principles of Buddhism to all those who are interested.
Enlightenment: Exploring the Roots of Alternative Spirituality in America, with Jeff Carreira | March 26, 2010
If you are passionate about Eastern Spiritual Approaches, Integral Theory or Evolutionary Philosophy, you are probably a Romantic. In this talk, EnlightenNext Director of Education Jeff Carreira will outline the exciting story of a view of reality that is probably central to your own thinking even if you dont realize it. In the 18th century German Idealists and English Romantic Poets became convinced that the universe is not a mechanism like a clock, but is actually a dynamic evolving organic whole system. The Romantics understood that human consciousness was part of the fabric of the universe and the expansion of consciousness was part of the universe's evolution. This explosive idea came to American and formed the foundations of the American Transcendentalism of the 18th century, the American Pragmatism of the 19th Century, and the Beat Movement, 1960s Counter Culture and East/West Spirituality of the 20th Century.
Discovering the Sacred in Everyday Life, with Elain Yuen | April 11, 2010
We often divide our experience into ordinary and sacred moments. This workshop will explore how we may discover wakefulness in the day-to-day activities of our life and how we may appreciate the qualities of this ordinary wakefulness. Elaine Yuen is a Senior Teacher at the Philadelphia Shambhala Meditation Center. She is clinically trained as an interfaith hospital chaplain, and teaches in the Public Health Program at the Jefferson School of Public Health.
Living in the Human Predicament: Meditation and Fearlessness, with Jude Robison | March 21, 2010
As human beings we are faced with a complex and unpredictable world. The practice of meditation is a path that can enable us to live fearlessly with uncertainty. Jude Robison has practiced and taught mindfulness meditation for 30 years. She was the director of Karme Choling Meditation Center in Vermont and is a student of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, holder of the Shambhala Buddhist lineage.
Suffering and the End of Suffering, with Prof. Justin McDaniel November 23, 2009
Come join us to learn about why we suffer and how we can collectively move out of suffering by dissolving it at its root! Meditation to follow. Dr. Justin McDaniel, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Undergraduate Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at UPenn, will join us to give a talk on the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. McDaniel spent three months in Thailand as a monk in a Buddhist monastery.