Realizing Unity and Harmony Through Diversity
Friday, January 14, 2011, 12:00 noon (PT) to
Wednesday, January 19, 2011, 9:00 AM (PT)
Presentation Center, Los Gatos, California
The shortest route from self to self is through the other.
- Paul Ricoeur
Transpersonal qualities and approaches, this way of being, value diversity and seek to impart knowledge and skills that empower people to live together in peace within multicultural communities. The realization of unity and harmony through diversity seeks to reveal an ethical attitude towards the full actualization of human potential. We value the inherent unity of our world and seek to foster a sense of the interconnectedness of all beings.
Presentations, workshops and other activities will seek to realize community unity and harmony through diversity to include ethnic, sex, gender, culture, religion, spiritual path, physical ability, sexual and affectional preference, social status and political affiliation from the perspective of creating Unity and Harmony. During this seminar we will seek to explore the deeper aspects of relationships of human potential surrounding issues related to diversity. Ethical issues surrounding diversity will be weighed and discussed. Realizing unity and harmony through diversity will by necessity examine ethical approaches toward working a dream that welcomes all voices as expressions of the diverse opinions that are at the basis of any community and seeks to create a safe, open venue for all these voices and opinions.
All people have value and this value must be shared, must be announced, else it fails to actualize or corrupts towards evil.
Keynote Speaker
Many Voices, One Breath:
Self-Disclosure & Breathwork as Processes for Realizing Unity & Harmony
Saturday, January 15, 2011
9:00 am to 4:30 pm
Day Pass: $75 (includes lunch)
Online Day Pass Registration
Disclosing about the Self and working the breath provide processes for acknowledging the diverse aspects of our being and unifying us through shared experiences of difference and oneness. As transpersonal psychologists serving the diversity of humanity (e.g., physically manifesting via racial, cultural, ethnic, sex based, gender, religious and spiritual paths, etc.) we have an ethical responsibility to develop competence in knowing ourselves, developing awareness of others and exercising skills to work with the multiple aspects of our material existence among the people we serve. The workshop will include lecture, small group discussion, and experiential exercises toward the development of self-knowledge and awareness of difference in others that fosters the transformational skill of realizing unity and harmony in everyday life.
Dr. Ma'at E. L. Lewis is a licensed counseling psychologist specializing in addressing cultural and spiritual issues in the field of mental health research, training, and consultation. She is an Associate Professor and Director of the Department of Counseling at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. Dr. Lewis holds a doctorate in counseling psychology and a master of arts in organizational psychology from Columbia University. She is an initiate in the African traditional spiritual system of Egyptian Yoga and currently in training in the transpersonal psychology practice of breathwork. Dr. Lewis is a past president of the New York Association of Black Psychologists, a former board member of the National Association of Black Psychologists and Board Certified in African Centered/Black Psychology. Dr. Lewis publishes a blog to inspire everyday spiritual success at www.DrMaat.com and provides transpersonal psychology coaching, spiritual and cultural psychology training and organizational consulting.
Other Presenters and Faculty
How Peaceful Communities of the World Handle Ethical Dilemmas
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
9:00 a.m. – 12 Noon
Half-Day Pass - $35
(includes lunch)
Online registration available soon
We find ourselves at this particular moment in history as a diverse community of people who are coming to recognize our global inter-relationships. The threats and promises of a global paradigm brings to our attention diverse ways in which we are able to address common ethical delimmas: how we each are worthy individuals who deserve a meaningful and happy life; how we as a global community are obliged to help the human community toward a life of peace and dignity; that our global choices shaping an ethical, peaceful, and sustainable future are choices we must make together. Two aspects will be explored:
- Unique to new ethical discoveries can be found in how we creatively synthesize ethical solutions used by peaceful communities and examine commonalities and differences to our present Western, ethical standards.
- A mystical search for common consciousness. Living beings and things not only have in common their origin and the fact that each is conscious,but they also have levels of communication that tends to make for harmonious relationships one to another and multiple species to another and organic systems to species. There exists an affinity of the consciousness for the external world but there is an internal affinity between human beings and the many forms of consciousness around them. This will be explored from a variety of non-dual spiritual perspectives.
Research by ITP's 5th Year PhD Global Students will be referenced. This will be a lecture format with didactic and interactive componants.
Ana Perez-Chisti is core faculty in the Global Online PhD Program. She is a lineage
holder and National Representative of the Sufi Movement International and is an
ordained minister and senior teacher (Murshida). She has lectured internationally
bringing the subject of the Unity of Religious Ideals, Feminist Philosophy, Non-violent
communication methods and Social Psychology to many Universities in the globe. She
has dedicated years of work assisting aid organizations in their support of countries
where natural disaster, war and famine have disabled the communities. She was the
director of the Prison Library Project which encouraged inmates and families to seek
supportive educational and counseling assistance. She worked with Mother Teresa setting
up the Mission of Charity center in San Francisco and supported her efforts with the poor
at the Kalighat in Calcutta, India. She has a black belt in Shorin-Ryu Karate and studied
with Sensei Jack Saito and Sensei Richard Kim of San Francisco. She also studied Kendo
for over a decade with the revered Kendo master, Revered Sui Shin Kan in New York. Sections of her published articles and texts can be found on sufimovement.net and
on www.itp.edu.
