We live in a challenging time of transition which promises both hope and peril. How are we to navigate a course that will take us from a story of separation, competition, and distrust to a new narrative of inter-being, cooperation, and love? How do we begin to give up and move beyond an incoherent and too often destructive structure of consciousness and a world which seems rarely to see the mediating presence of what has been called ‘evolutionary love’?
This program approaches these questions and others from a wide variety of perspectives:
On our journey we explore the concept of ‘evolutionary love’ in the context of the metaphysics of Charles Sanders Peirce with Vincent Colapietro. We travel into and through the rich imagery of love in literature and culture with John Briggs. We enter energy and mind-body medicine with Renee Rolle-Whatley and Ramona Rolle-Berg, each of whom holds a PhD in Mind Body Medicine, as we explore parental love. With Mark Vernon we will address the need for a deeper awareness of love that becomes particularly acute in times of crisis, though times of crisis also offer moments to understand love move fully.
Satish Kumar brings us to ecology, approached from a love which finds its expression in a reverence for nature—which he strongly feels should be at the heart of every political and social debate. Jane Clark and Mark Vernon take us with them in a journey which explores the meaning of divine love.
In this program, we will approach love from multiple perspectives of how to go about restoring the power of love—the power of a positive mediating force, to enliven, re-enchant, and re-invigorate our world. We seek pathways that restore reason as a guide to the expansion of knowledge and understanding, and we see love as a guide, bringing goodness and order to their application. From within the midst of present chaos, we look to love in its varied dimensions to bring quiescence within, and creativity and intelligence in its outer expression.
We are again fortunate to have poet, Richard Berengarten, as part of our series on the theme of love. Richard will be read short poems from several of his collections, including The Blue Butterfly, Notness, Changing , and a new sequence of villanelles in honour of Tao Yuanming, entitled The Wine Cup. Richard will briefly introduce himself and his work and each session will begin with his reading from one of these books.
