Sessions
Session 1: Human Flourishing
October 7, 2021 / 5-7 PM CET (11AM-1PM EST)
What is human flourishing? How is it related to happiness and love? Can any of these lofty ideals really be measured by scientific methods? What are some of the essential ingredients of flourishing at the individual and community levels? Does flourishing serve a larger purpose, and if so, what is flourishing for? This session offers a synthesis of current research being conducted by the interdisciplinary team at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University and will provide an overview of the theme for this year’s forum. Insights from rigorous social science studies combined with deep wisdom from the humanities support the timeless quest to integrate beauty, truth, and goodness in a spiritual work of love.
Session 2: The Meaning of Suffering
November 3, 2021 / 4-6 PM CET (11AM-1PM EST)
What is suffering? Why do terrible things happen to good people? How can we make sense of suffering? In this session, we will discuss not only different perspectives on suffering but also share how we might try to make sense of the experiences that we went through during the pandemic.
Session 3: Connecting to Our Awareness
December 2, 2021 / 5-7 PM CET (11AM-1PM EST)
How do we become aware of the pain and suffering that we are carrying in our mind and body? How do we befriend both our suffering, and our defenses against it, so that they no longer limit us? As a response to Session 2 on Suffering, we will be exploring practical measures to become aware of unprocessed emotional pain and to embrace the wisdom of suffering as we release it.
Session 4: Hope
February 3, 2022 / 5-7 PM CET (11AM-1PM EST)
There are different types of hope. How does hope benefit our spiritual, emotional, relational, and physical life and contribute to our well-being? Can we learn to hope? Or perhaps a better question is, can interventions make us more hopeful? This session will discuss some scientific research on hope and open questions about whether, and if so, how we can learn to be more hopeful when hope seems difficult or even impossible.
Session 5: Self-Compassion
March 3, 2022 / 5-7 PM CET (11AM-1PM EST)
Compassion, which is empathy for the suffering of others with the desire to relieve that suffering, is important in all our relationships, including successful leadership. Compassion for others requires that you first tune in to your own needs and learn to care for yourself so that you understand what another person feels when his/her needs are not met - what we call suffering. During this session, we will do simple practices that can help you tune to what you need right now to alleviate your own suffering so that you can flourish and go on to create a just and compassionate world.
Session 6: Belonging
April 7, 2022 / 5-7 PM CET (11AM-1PM EST)
Humanity is confronting unprecedented global challenges. There are many paths we can take to respond to this moment: some incite fear, polarization, and competition while others encourage greater cooperation, collaboration, and solidarity. This session will explore the concept of belonging and the principles that offer a path forward toward a world where all belong. We will look at these issues through the framework of a chnallenge to our very sense of who we are and the need for a spirtitual grounding and the implication for both policy and structure.
Session 7: Taking Love Seriously
May 5, 2022 / 5-7 PM CET (11AM-1PM EST)
If Love is ‘of the essence’ what has she to tell us? And what would happen if we took Love seriously? David Cadman will reflect upon the discovery of Love and 0n Love’s relationship with the Divine Feminine, suggesting the urgent need to let go of the language of dominance and separation, and practise Love with intention.
Retreat: In-person Gathering at Greifenstein, Switzerland
June 12-15, 2022 (June 12 Check in/June 15 Check out)
We will finally meet each other in person during a 2 night/3 day retreat in the peaceful and picturesque Switzerland at Greifenstein, a 16th century manor. We will integrate all the learnings from the previous sessions into an understanding of where we are in life and where to go from here from a broader spiritual perspective. The program will include discussions, contemplative, artistic and movement sessions. We will take away a wealth of knowledge, wisdom and practices from the journey and think about how we can flourish not only in our personal lives but also contribute to the flourishing of the world. We will be in a home setting where we will break bread together, take walks in nature, and enjoy the fellowship of the journey participants before we re-enter our respective lives. More details of the retreat will follow.