Conference 2017

Huston Smith (May 31, 1919 – December 30, 2016), a sage in the world of religion. wrote, "Religion is the call to confront reality; to master the self."

Gautama Buddha saw four sights which moved him to seek answers to the problem of public health and wellness: an old person suffering the ravages of age, a sick person suffering disease, a dead body and a Spartan looking for answers to human condition.

He was depressed seeing the first three sights of morbidity and mortality while the fourth motivated him to emulate the Spartan: he too would seek answers to the problem of health and mortality.

This presentation will address ancient Vedic and Buddhist sources by comparing and contrasting cosmogonic accounts of world origins. A re-examination of selected texts from the Rig Veda and Buddhist literature will test the extent to which these traditions were in dialogue and debate about ideas of oneness and wellness. Implications and applications to modern living will be suggested.

In Christian spirituality, as in other spiritual paths, there is a felt need to shed the false self or the ego and to become our true selves as human beings.

Thomas Merton, the Catholic contemplative writes, “ One of the paradoxes of the mystical life is this  : that a man cannot enter into the deepest center of himself and pass through that center into God, unless he is able to pass entirely out of himself and empty himself and give himself to other people in the  purity of a selfless love”

Steve Farrell addresses the topic of greed in business. Greed is divisive of humankind. It leads to mistrust preventing feelings of oneness, and to states of fight or flight preventing feelings of wellness also.

In his presentation, Steve Farrell makes a compelling case for Conscious Business. He presents an overview of his Conscious Business initiative Program.

The presentation addresses 3 key questions:

This presentation is an introduction to a framework designed to help educators develop authenticity and agency. It is based on the ancient wisdom of the ages that all human beings are made up of mind, body and spirit and have access to a creative divine intelligence. Rios will discuss how teachers need to activate all three domains in order to teach the whole child and to transform our work for equity in education.