Document Type

Audio File

Publication Date

2013

Abstract

In this talk, Darleen will explore how being present at the bedside of the dying at Zen Hospice Project has informed her historical research in late medieval Christian spirituality. This talk focuses on the dying and death of Francis of Assisi and the lay woman who ministered to him, Jacoba dei Settesoli. While she is little known today, she offered the gentle ministry of presence to provide comfort in his final hours. Darleen will explore how her understanding of her spirituality and her leadership in ministry has been informed and deepened by sitting with the dying, having been trained to do so with Buddhist precepts.

Sufism: The Heart of Devotion

This presentation includes exploration of the transformative aspect of Sufi teachings rooted in the inter-religious understanding of mystical wisdom. Sufism is a journey within the heart to discover the inner landscape of love. Come discover the richness of your inner landscape. The Sufis have discovered the centrality of the human heart. The Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) has said: “Remembering God is the cure for the heart.” (Translated by Dr. Nahid Angha in Deliverance, 1995, p. 53.) Purified heart-centered intentions guide the human being to discover meaning beyond words, to uncover the veils of illusion that hide us from our hearts. To awaken to the inner experience of unity. As Dr. Nahid Angha wrote in The Journey of the Lovers: “In the journey of the heart, the goal for the Sufi is to attain the knowledge of the Self, as a doorway towards understanding the Divine.” (Angha, 1998b, p. 10.) The goal of the heart is to attain knowledge and the human being is guided to the doorway of the heart by the truthful Teacher. All hearts connect beyond labels of religion or spiritual practice that separate human beings. The fundamental principle of unity inwardly and outwardly connects all of humanity.

Understanding the Past by Sitting in the Present: How my Research in Medieval Christianity is Informed by my Volunteer Work at Zen Hospice Project

In this talk, Darleen will explore how being present at the bedside of the dying at Zen Hospice Project has informed her historical research in late medieval Christian spirituality. This talk focuses on the dying and death of Francis of Assisi and the lay woman who ministered to him, Jacoba dei Settesoli. While she is little known today, she offered the gentle ministry of presence to provide comfort in his final hours. Darleen will explore how her understanding of her spirituality and her leadership in ministry has been informed and deepened by sitting with the dying, having been trained to do so with Buddhist precepts.

The Transformative Power of Nothingness: Jewish Mystical Perspectives and Practices

In Kabbalah, Nothingness (Ayin) is the highest divine power, the first and foremost outpouring of the Infinite One. It is the boundless, formless energy that is the creative source of all being and non-being. By connecting to this infinite potentiality within and around us we are able to transform self and world. Kabbalists believe that in the depths of our souls, each of us is always rooted in the Nothingness, and they offer powerful practices for tapping this root reality which contains the sacred direction of our lives. The experience of Nothingness suggests that form is rooted in formlessness and that our formal religious differences are less fundamental than our common formless origin. It also reminds us to be humble about our ability to understand the mysteries of divinity, humanity and cosmos.

Comments

Charles Burack, Ph.D., a core faculty member at John F. Kennedy University, specializes in integrative approaches to psychology, spirituality, and literature and has pioneered contemplative, creative, and integral approaches to education. A former rabbinical student, he was trained as an interfaith spiritual director and lay chaplain and is active in interfaith education, counseling, and the arts. Chuck in an award-winning teacher, scholar and poet as well as a widely published writer. He is author of two books: Songs to My Beloved (2004/2012) and D. H. Lawrence’s Language of Sacred Experience (2005) and is completing a book on Kabbalah.

Darleen Pryds, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality at the Franciscan School of Theology, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley. She received her BA and MA at the University of Southern California and her Ph.D. in medieval religious history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her teaching and research interests include mysticism, lay women’s historic roles as spiritual leaders and preachers, death and dying, and sports and spirituality.

Arife Ellen Hammerle , Ph.D., MA, LMFT, JD, is a student of the Uwaiysi School of Sufism, as guided by Sufi Teachers Dr. Nahid Angha and Shah Nazar Seyyed Dr. Ali. Kianfar. Dr. Hammerle is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who holds a doctorate in clinical psychology. She is Director of the Community Healing Centers, an integrative psychotherapy non-profit organization. Dr. Hammerle also manages three programs for Catholic Charities working with HIV positive homeless women and children. She is a member of the International Association of Sufism and Sufi Women Organization. Dr. Hammerle has taught Psychology, Stress Management and Sufi Courses at the Institute for Sufi Studies and 40 Days Alchemy of Tranquility Program. She is a published author who has completed research linking psychology and spirituality. Her most recent contribution is to a new book entitled: 40 Days: Alchemy of Tranquility.

Moderator: Ana Perez-Chisti

Murshida Rabia Ana Perez-Chisti, PhD., is an ordained minister, senior teacher and National Representative of the Sufi Movement International of the USA. She also acts as the Moin-ul-Maham (head of the Universal Worship activity) for the USA and functions in co-leadership with Murshida Ulma Moerenburg in Europe. She serves as part a collaborative leadership on the Pir-O-Murshid Council and Executive Committee of the Sufi Movement. She has directed a training program to ordain Cherags (ministers of the Universal Worship of Hazrat Inayat Khan in the US) for more than thirty years having prepared hundreds of students in interfaith studies, spiritual ethics and counseling procedures that permit them to move into Chaplaincy and related positions that serve the global community.

Murshida Rabia is a former Chair and current adjunct faculty in the Global PhD program in Transpersonal psychology at SofiaUniversity, Palo Alto, California, a lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley, and an adjunct faculty at CIIS. She specializes in subjects such as Comparative World Religions, the Mystical Traditions, Ethics, Research Methodology, Eastern and Western Philosophy, Women Saints and Prophets: East and West, Jungian Psychology, Psycho-spiritual synthesis and Culture and Consciousness Studies. She lectures both regionally and internationally, is a published writer and a phenomenological and hermeneutic researcher. Her interests extend to the study of many languages, yoga, dance and the martial arts as she holds a black belt in Shorin-Ryu Karate.

She has maintained a private counseling practice in California for 15 years and served as a counselor in State, Government and private agencies that specialize in homeless shelter support, hospice care, prison reform, drug rehabilitation, and emergency food distribution in areas of the world where extreme conditions of natural disaster, war, and political upheavals have occurred.


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