Conference on Contemplation, Collaboration and Change

GARRISON INSTITUTE HOSTS LENZ FOUNDATION CONFERENCE ON CONTEMPLATION, COLLABORATION, AND CHANGE

Over the weekend of September 27-30, 2013 our dam trog sister, Lama Tsultrim Allione attended the Lenz Foundation Conference at the Garrison Institute on Contemplation, Collaboration, and Change. Representitives from all the major Buddhist organizations in America were invited to participate. 

The description below indicates the scope of the conference. 

Contemplation, Collaboration, and Change is the inaugural weekend workshop in a nine-month in-depth training program produced on behalf of the Frederick P. Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism by senior fellows of the Presencing Institute. The purpose of the program is to help Lenz Foundation grantees gain experience and expertise in launching and sustaining collaborations with each other and with partner institutions in other sectors, effectively leveraging their combined resources and capabilities. Read on...

[Photo: Aarthi Tejuja of Shambhala Meditation Center of Chicago, Anna Raithel of Tara Mandala, Lama Tsultrim,  Ericka Phillips Shambhala Meditation Center of New York at the Lenz Foundation meeting Sept 27-30]




Lama Tsultrim, founder of Tara Mandala is among the foremost Western Teachers and proponents of Buddhism and the Sacred Feminine. Her book, Women of Wisdom, opened the doors to recognition of the female lineages in Tibetan Buddhism generally relegated into obscurity. You can read about Tara Mandala at www.taramandala.org which includes a biography, her publications and practice lineages. 

Also attending as the keynote speaker opening the  three-day conference was Margaret Wheatley, Dzogchen Community member and student of  Chögyal Namkhai Norbu  since 2002. She spoke about the inevitability of interdependence, from which the need for collaboration springs. Margaret "Meg" Wheatley, an internationally recognized leader in organizational change and new models of leadership writes, speaks, and teaches how we can accomplish our work, sustain our relationships, and willingly step forward to serve in this troubled time.  She is co-founder and President emerita of The Berkana Institute,*** an organizational consultant since 1973, a global citizen since her youth, and a prolific writer.  She has authored seven books, including the classic Leadership and the New Science, and, most recently, So Far from Home: Lost and Found in Our Brave New World (October 2012).  Her other recent books are: Perseverance (2010) and Walk Out Walk On: A Learning Journey into Communities Daring to Live the Future Now (2011) co-authored with Deborah Frieze.  Her numerous articles may be downloaded free at her web site: www.margaretwheatley..com

***For those interested in the collaborative process, the Berkhana Institute  has a great list of resources in community building based on principles of collaboration. 

....people find comfort in pretending we think the same way, and often we gravitate to those who affirm our way of thinking. Perhaps this is because we are eager about the common, world-changing goal we have discovered between us. Yet, the whole raison d’être for  collaboration is a requisite diversity. Otherwise, what would spur the reason to collaborate in the first place? We have found that it is just at the threshold of tension where differences surface that we face the possibility–and choice–to enter into curiosity and a common inquiry. That’s when innovation has the potential to emerge from collaboration, and sometimes that means staying in the messiness just a little bit longer.

from the article, "Collaboration: The Courage to Step Into a Meaningful Mess" found in the link above.