Late September I partnered with Justlabs to offer Enter the Imaginarium: Unleashing Embodied Creativity. This was a workshop offered to 20 activists and NGO leaders from the Philippines, Hungary, Turkey, South Africa, Australia, Russia, and more to tap into their own cultural, ethnic, and spiritual heritage and mine their wisdom concerning silence, dreams, and vision-making - so they can be applied to outside-the-box solutions to challenges in the civic discourse in their home countries. We practiced grounding meditation, followed by guided visualizations, bearing witness to what I refer to as the Imaginarium, the creative-intuitive space, components and laws. Outside of meditation, we practice keeping this Imaginarium visualization in mind's eye while engaging in life and finally applying the same principles to solution-finding. This was offered as a continuation of my work with JustLab, a Colombia-based and global-facing thinktank training the next generations of world leaders in human rights advocacy.
Being Awe: 6-week Meditation Series for The Hebrew High Holidays. Offered in partnership with the creative folks at Lab/Shul, an artist-driven NYC Jewish community, as part of the practice of the new Hebrew year 5781. Attended by practitioners across the US and outside. We started with basic practices of body and breath mindfulness and then explored the Hebrew themes of prayer and atonement. For the meditation enthusiasts among you, I learned that what made this kind of mediation 'Jewish' for me, was the invitation to embrace the quality of 'yearning' underneath mental phenomena. Often in Buddhist settings, this will be labeled as 'attachment' and 'clinging', but something else, deeper. opened for me and in the participants, when we drove all thoughts and feelings into the the experience of ... 'yearning.' While the content of this yearning can be explored later, the somatic experience of just being with it led to deepening of the silence and the non-dual embodied experience. I will continue to partner with Lab/shul soon, so stay tuned.
Jewish Ancestral Healing Summit. I am grateful to have been invited to participate in this gathering along with Sefardic, Ashkenazi, and Asian and African jews to explore our relationship with our ancestors. This was a vulnerable interview for me to give and share, discussing my journeys to Auschwitz-Birkenau, teachings of my Lakota relatives, Zen Buddhist and now Rabbinic training, assimilation, and the power of language in articulating my own lineage, one thread of many in the tapestry of lives that has loved this earth for generations. Beyond the specific transformation with my particular heritage, Ancestral Healing, the inquiry into one's heritage, opens the possibility for a courageous new kind of conversation in the work of Peacemaking and Social Justice, particularly in the conversation around race and diversity. What 'nation' does one bring with them to a conversation? As what nation does one meet another? How does one embrace the challenges of having a particular experience, yet being affected also as a member of a collective? My own ancestral healing work, which has led me to my rabbinic and cantorial studies, as well as deep genealogy rabbit holes, allow me to show up in a deeper and authentic way. More about that in the interview. I am grateful to Taya Ma Shere, the co-founder of Kohenet Institute, for inviting me to give the interview. Following the summit, Jewish Ancestral Healing has launched as a weekly podcast (spotify).
Through my work on the Native American Bearing Witness program with Zen Peacemakers International, I have been welcomed by the generous and inspiring Iron Hawk family in Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota, USA. One of their young ones, Magnus Bobtail Bear (pictured above), has suffered critical burns in an accident at home and is being treated in California around the clock for six weeks now. Please consider donating to their fundraiser collected towards the new expenses and comfort.
At the Greyston Foundation, (on whose board of directors I serve) we are gearing for a new vision of community engagement, enabling respect and employment to those deemed unemployable, and adjusting to the new reality of Covid-19 in Southwest Yonker, NY USA. If you'd like to support, consider yourself invited to a one-time event cooking-training with Chef Jeff, Greyston's newest board member. Jeff Henderson is an award-winning chef, bestselling author, and renowned public speaker. In addition to his professional accomplishments, Henderson is an ex-offender, having served nearly a decade in prison for dealing drugs. This event will support the Pathmaking Program, serving a holistic approach to its employees and supporting their personal, financial, emotional, and social needs. Register to the event by October 31st and get a set of brownies for the holiday! Register here. Greyston was founded in 1982 by Bernie Glassman and the Zen Community of NY, with the mission of eradicating poverty and homelessness in Yonkers, NY, and fueled by the three tenets of the Zen Peacemakers - Not Knowing, Bearing Witness and Taking Action.
The Superhero Project matches children facing serious illnesses and disabilities with artists to create their superhero alter-egos - "we create joy one character at a time!" This month I partnered with Ryry, who bravely lives with cerebral palsy, and together with his family, we gave life to SuperRyRy, who delivers light and laughter everywhere on his jet-wheelchair! Here Ryry is pictured (with permission) with the color print of my art. More on the Superhero project here.
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