| September,
2008 September greetings from the Garrison Institute, a non-profit, non-sectarian organization exploring the intersection of contemplation and engaged action in the world. Below you will find short updates on our work applying contemplative practices to social and environmental change, followed by highlights of upcoming events and retreats and some new book recommendations. For more on the Garrison Institute's mission and programs, visit our website. To opt out of future updates, click the link at the end of this e-mail.
 The
Satyagraha
ProjectIn April, we launched our Satyagraha Project, exploring how the nonviolent thought tradition – especially Gandhi’s satyagraha or “truth force,” which is also connected to Martin Luther King, Jr., Emerson and Thoreau – inspired radical social transformation, and how it might help transform climate change. Al Gore had Gandhi’s “truth force” in mind when he coined “Inconvenient Truth.” In her Shambhala Sun article “The Global Gandhi,” Garrison Institute president and cofounder Diana Calthorpe Rose writes, “We might learn to reframe the problem [of climate change] in a solvable way if we can expand the boundaries of our consciousness as Gandhi did.” To explore this proposition, a by-invitation weekend symposium on Satyagraha: Gandhi’s “Truth Force” in the Age of Climate Change in April attracted thought and movement leaders from around the world (carbon offsets were purchased to balance the travel footprint). The weekend began with the opening of The Metropolitan Opera’s revival of Philip Glass’s opera “Satyagraha,” continued with a two-day retreat at the Garrison Institute, and culminated in a public forum with retreat participants at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine before a packed house of 1000 people. These events sparked a wider media discussion of Gandhi and climate change, including in The New York Times, Newsweek International, WNYC and many other outlets. You can view online video of the Cathedral event, including performances by Philip Glass and Odetta, and presentations by Gandhi’s grandson and biographer Rajmohan Gandhi, Gandhian movement leaders Sulak Sivaraksa of Thailand and Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne of Sri Lanka, Forum on Religion and Ecology co-founder Mary Evelyn Tucker, climate youth leader Billy Parish, Planet Walk founder John Francis, and others. The Satyagraha Project continues with more dialogue and planned actions for 2009. Bold Leadership on Climate Change Ongoing, by-invitation retreats at the Garrison Institute convene prominent leaders from diverse backgrounds to create new frameworks and support new forms of cooperative, multi-sector action on climate change. We are currently working with the Urban Land Institute to plan a 2009 by-invitation retreat for leaders in real estate development whose work can help build communities with lower climate and environmental impacts, entitled, “Real Estate Development, Metropolitan Growth, and Climate Change: Responding to the Leadership Challenge.” The Hudson River Project The Hudson River Project (HRP) works with congregations, environmental and civic groups, and residents throughout the Hudson River bioregion. It fosters inclusive, values-based environmental discourse, "greening" of houses of worship and the invocation of spirituality and ethics towards a healthier, more sustainable Hudson River environment. HRP has worked with many hundreds of diverse congregations and faith, environmental and civic groups from Albany to Northern New Jersey, seeking common ground and articulating shared values and goals, for example in a sign-on statement Our Shared Nature: A Transformational Ecology Compact for the Hudson. In January 2008 HRP held an advance screening and discussion of the new documentary RENEWAL, which depicts the greening work of diverse faith groups, from Evangelicals fighting mountaintop renewal in Appalachia to GreenFaith’s work to help install solar panels and reduce waste streams in houses of worship in New Jersey. Comments were captured to inform the rollout of the film. We are currently setting up on-site screenings of RENEWAL to congregations and faith-groups in the Hudson River region. About a dozen such screenings are in the works for this fall, and requests have come to us from as far away as Africa. For information or to arrange a screening, contact Stephanie Bosco-Ruggiero at stephanie@garrisoninstitute.org or 845-424-4800. HRP is planning a series of 2009 events in conjunction with the celebration of the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial 1609-2009, a statewide celebration of the Hudson River. Our events address ways of securing the Hudson's environmental future as a vital part of celebrating and preserving its heritage. We obtained (with HRP Steering Committee member Sustainable Hudson Valley as awardee) a Quadricentennial minigrant for a physical tour of heritage and sustainability sites. We are also framing a series of seven Quadricentennial conversation events to be held at the Garrison Institute in 2009. These seven conversations will be organized partly around the seven-year framework of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation. ARC is working with the United Nations Development Program to empower congregations worldwide to help make positive environmental change. Free and open to the public, the Garrison Institute Quadricentennial conversation events will engage congregations, environmentalists, cultural and thought leaders, and the public at large in our ongoing dialogue about honoring our Hudson River heritage and working for a sustainable future.
 Cultivating
Awareness and Reflection in Education (CARE–formerly ACT)CARE is a professional development program for teachers, supporting their ability to deal with their own daily stresses and giving them tools to support their pupils to overcome difficulties and flourish, socially, emotionally and academically. In 2008 we conducted trainings for teachers at the Episcopal Academy in Philadelphia, part of a collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania to study the trainings' psychosocial and neurocognitive effects on students and teachers. This year (February, March and August 2008) we conducted the first residential CARE trainings at the Garrison Institute, attracting teachers from as far away as the Western US and Canada, several of whom are training to become CARE facilitators themselves. We repeatedly heard from participants how valuable and validating it is to find their stressful experiences are widely shared, and to be offered practical tools to emerge from them as better teachers and role models. Creating Sanctuary Within Building on our CARE program, the Garrison Institute is collaborating with the Andrus Children Center to provide specialized training for K-12 teachers working with at-risk traumatized children. Andrus serves students who have been diagnosed with one or more mental illnesses and/or developmental disabilities; most have experienced significant loss and trauma. The Center employs the Sanctuary model for building nonviolent, democratic therapeutic community that can effectively address and resolve traumatic experiences. At Andrus’s request, the Garrison Institute is creating a pilot project called Creating Sanctuary Within, using mindfulness skills and other elements of CARE training to support Andrus’s implementation of the Sanctuary model and expand its work in teaching emotion management skills to students, teachers and staff. This pilot will be replicable for use not only in alternative schools, but in all K-12 school settings where behavioral problems are present – which is virtually any classroom. For more on the pressing need for tools to better serve special needs students in mainstream classrooms, see the recent New York Times article “Calm Down Or Else” by Benedict Carey. Cultivating Emotional Balance in the Classroom (CEBC) ICE Director Dr. Tish Jennings is the principal investigator of this randomized, controlled trial assessing the classroom impact of Cultivating Emotional Balance (CEB) training, in cooperation with San Francisco State University’s Marian Wright Edelman Institute. Originally developed at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama at the 2000 meeting of the Mind and Life Institute in Dharamsala, India, CEB was the first training to combine mindfulness-based techniques with emotional awareness training to reduce destructive emotions and promote compassionate, caring behavior (the CARE program is an extension of CEB designed specifically to address the emotional stress of teaching). Testing has shown CEB significantly reduces depression and anxiety and improves well-being among teachers. The CEBC study, due out this year, will assess how this affects classroom social and emotional climate. Professional Meetings ICE convenes semi-annual multidisciplinary meetings for leading researchers and educators. Our October 2007 forum, co-sponsored by Collaborative for Academic Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL), the Fetzer Institute and the Garrison Institute, surveyed assessment systems and methodologies for fostering social-emotional development and academic performance in preschool and elementary school children. Our April 2008 symposium on “Developmental Issues in Contemplative Education,” the first such professional meeting open to the public, examined different forms of mindfulness training for young people across age groups and in various settings. It featured demonstrations, commentary by developmental scientists, and a keynote presentation by Dan Siegel, author of The Mindful Brain. Our next forum October 22-25 on “Envisioning the Future of Contemplative Education,” is for invited leaders in philanthropy, education, and developmental science. They will discuss contemplative education as a catalyst for change in educational policy, as a way of improving educational environments and curricula, and as a subject to be taught in its own right. Dissemination and Outreach We disseminate the results of ICE’s work to the field through professional conferences and journals. Dr. Jennings has recently presented papers on contemplative interventions for teachers and students at meetings of the society for Research in Child Development (SRCD), the American Psychological Association (APA), the American Education Research Association (AERA), and the Society for Prevention Research (SPR) and gave the keynote address at the third international conference of PATHS (Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies), a social and emotional learning program. Her article on Contemplative education and youth development appears in the summer issue of New Directions for Youth Development. An article co-authored by Dr. Jennings and Dr. Mark Greenberg presenting the Prosocial Classroom Model is forthcoming in the journal Review of Educational Research.
“If you’re working with people who have experienced trauma, you can experience vicarious trauma,” said DaRa Williams, manager of the Garrison Institute’s Women’s Wellness Project interviewed in the current issue of Shambhala Sun magazine. “As a result of empathetically connecting to clients, you are in a position to actually be traumatized yourself.”  Women’s
Wellness Project The Women’s Wellness Project conducts trainings for working in domestic violence shelters, using meditation, restorative yoga and complementary therapies to alleviate vicarious trauma, reduce burnout, strengthen resilience and help caregivers be more effective in their work with clients. In a three-year pilot project completed in 2007, over 300 front-line workers and directors from over 40 shelters in the New York area attended Wellness trainings. The pilot was designed to be replicated throughout the US, and in 2008 it was expanded into on-site trainings conducted on the premises of the shelters themselves. During this past year, we provided Wellness training to about 160 front-line workers, and for the first time included shelter administrators and directors. “I could see the positive impact on my staff,” stated one agency director, “and I realized that directors and supervisors needed a program as well. Now, we are benefiting from the program on all levels in the agency.” In September, the first Executive Retreat for agency leaders and government officials whose work involves domestic violence services will be held at the Garrison Institute. The overall goal of these innovations is to integrate wellness into institutional culture as well as shelter routines.
 Gelek
Rimpoche and His Holiness Denma Locho Rimpoche: Jewel Heart Retreat:
Compassionate Wisdom, October 10-13Compassion begins when our heart is touched and we connect, relate, and even try to help. Yet our compassion is limited without the clarity of wisdom, which enables us to identify and uproot the source of suffering. High reincarnate lama Denma Locho Rimpoche and internationally known teacher and author Gelek Rimpoche are both among the last generation of lamas trained in "old Tibet" pre-1959. Gelek Rimpoche will open and close the retreat with discussions on uprooting the source of suffering, and His Holiness Denma Locho Rinpoche will teach on In Praise of Dependent Arising, Je Tsong Khapa's poetic expression of his admiration of Buddha's teaching on the nature of reality. Open to all. For more information on the retreat or to register, click here to get the brochure, contact Jewel Heart at 734.994.3387 or email programs@jewelheart.org. To learn more about the teachings of Gelek Rimpoche, please visit www.jewelheart.org.  Fr.
Thomas Keating, Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler & Fr. Carl Arico:
Oneness: Unity in Contemplation, October 24-30The Garrison Institute is proud to welcome back Father Keating, one of our founding spiritual advisors, for a weekend retreat October 24-26. This will be followed by a centering prayer immersion retreat led by Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler and Fr. Carl Arico, October 26-30. Come to listen, reflect, be still, and pray with one of the architects of the renewal of the Christian contemplative tradition. Option 1: Weekend, October 24-26 Talks by Fr. Thomas; Periods of Silent Prayer/Meditation; Conversation. Option 2: Weekend & Immersion Retreat, October 24-30 Includes premiere of new video series Heartfulness: The Journey of Divine Transformation; Centering Prayer; Silence. Open to all. To register online, please go to www.coutreach.org/garrison.htm. For more information, email maryanne@coutreach.org. Father Thomas Keating on "Oneness: Unity in Contemplation": a free, public talk, October 24, 7:30 pm A Trappist monk and abbot active in inter-religious dialogue, Fr. Keating is a well-known speaker and prolific author. In the 1970s, he was one of three Trappist monks who studied ancient Christian contemplative practices which were largely lost after the Reformation, and distilled them into a simple, accessible method known as Centering Prayer. It quiets the faculties and focuses on divine presence and action within, experiencing God's presence as the ground in which our being is rooted, strengthening the intuition of the oneness of the human family and of all creation. Centering Prayer is now an international movement, nurtured by the international ecumenical organization Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. which Fr. Keating co-founded. The talk is free and open to the public, October 24, 7:30 pm. No reservations required. Doors open at 6:30pm. Parking available. Sponsored by the Garrison Institute.  Sylvia
Boorstein & Sharon Salzberg: The Natural Evolution of
Compassion, December 4-7In this retreat, Sylvia and Sharon will emphasize the pivotal role of wisdom in both establishing and maintaining balance of mind. They will also emphasize the essential role of balance in our ability to have compassion as a sustained and sustainable response to the experiences in our lives, especially those that are difficult to bear. During the retreat they will explore the meditative path (concentration and mindfulness), the analytical path (reflection and examination), and the path of service as complementary and supportive ways of cultivating wisdom and compassion. The retreat is appropriate for both beginning and experienced meditation practitioners. Open to all. For more information on the retreat or to register, click here for the registration form, email the Garrison Institute at retreats@garrisoninstitute.org or call 845.424.4800. More retreats & events
Related external events The Garrison Institute is a co-sponsor of the first North American Happiness & Its Causes conference, in San Francisco, November 24-25, 2008.  Dr. Tish Jennings, director of our Contemplation and Education Initiative, will be presenting together with 40 of the best minds in psychology, philosophy, science, education, business, the arts, medicine, and politics, exploring the nature and pursuit of happiness and well-being, for ourselves and others. Sustainable Hudson Valley's third annual sustainability conference will be held in Kingston, New York's Seven21 Media Center, September 19 and 20. This year's conference, "Cool Communities/ Living Economies 3: Ten Years to a Green Economy" will explore strategies for transforming the region's economy and environment, creating "green collar jobs" and bringing clean, high-performance and renewable technologies into the mainstream without delay.
The Rules of Victory: How to Transform Chaos and Conflict–Strategies from "The Art of War" by James Gimian and Barry Boyce, new from Shambhala Publications on CD and in print. Not the usual managerial gloss on Sun Tzu's The Art of War, this presentation of Gimian and Boyce’s seminars on this famous text mines it for insights into dealing with conflict and chaos, not just in the workplace, but at home, at school, or in any challenging circumstance in any area of life. A training manual for generals in China 2500 years ago, The Art of War is often assumed to be the province of military or business, but Gimian and Boyce say its least understood aspect is its deeper and more broadly applicable understanding of nonviolence and winning without battle. Rather than reappropriating Sun Tzu into a 21st century business context, it emphasizes how all of contemporary life is an arena in which eternal patterns of conflict and chaos operate, and what this ancient text can teach us about confronting and resolving them without violence.
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The
Garrison Institute ·
Route 9D at Glenclyffe, Garrison, New York, 10524 ·
Tel. 845.424.4800
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