Pete Seeger at the Garrison Institute in 2010 by Steve Kent The world awoke to the news that Pete Seeger died last week, still somehow shocking and surreal even though he was 94. It never quite computed to imagine the future of this area without him and his wife Toshi, who died six months earlier. But now, suddenly,…
Rev. angel Kyodo williams In November 2013 we held a by-invitation contemplative retreat for activists entitled “Practicing Justice: Transformation for Social Change” curated by Zen teacher Rev. angel Kyodo williams and co-facilitated by Claudia Horwitz and Rusia Mohiuddin. Made possible by a grant from the Kalliopeia Foundation, it was one of a series of retreats which, starting in 2002, periodically convene…
Sharon Salzberg, Janice Marturano and Daniel Goleman We can easily spend 40% or 50% of our waking lives working at our jobs. Not surprisingly, some of the biggest potential benefits of contemplative practice are workplace benefits, including improved focus, productivity and ability to handle stress. There are two golden opportunities in March to learn how to tap that…
Sharon Salzberg Earlier this month we co-sponsored a launch event for Sharon Salzberg’s new book Real Happiness at Work: Meditations for Accomplishment, Achievement and Peace at ABC Carpet and Home in Manhattan. In this video of her talk, she offers her insights into making work less stressful and more meaningful and fulfilling, and she shares some favorite stories about learning to…
The Institute has been conducting a series of mindfulness retreats for LGBT people that have attracted hundreds in the past two years. April 17 – 20, 2014 we’ll present our third annual retreat for LGBT communities, entitled “The Beauty of Our Lives,” led by Larry Yang, Maddy Klein and La Sarmiento. “We do not have many chances,” Lang writes, “to…
Climate change is not a problem that can be ‘fixed;’ it’s more like a long-term health issue that must be managed. And it’s anything but a monolith, affecting diverse communities in diverse ways. Shifting to a zero carbon society is necessary but not sufficient. Many different forms of civic engagement, mitigating and adapting are needed to create a less energy-intensive,…
In his keynote presentation to our Climate, Buildings and Behavior symposium in October, leading organizational thinker Peter Senge offers a distillation of his insights into the most important factors in achieving meaningful change for the environment or in any sphere of life. They include positive aspirations instead of negative admonitions (“the power of aspiration is much greater than the power…
Small group discussions at the CTL symposium. Photo by Deborah Donahue-Keegan. Nearly one hundred teacher educators and teacher leaders from across the US and Canada, and from as far away as Israel and Colombia, participated the Garrison Institute’s Contemplative Teaching and Learning (CTL) Initiative’s annual symposium. Held in late November with generous support from the 1440 Foundation and…