Living and Loving in the 21st Century

Buddhist Enquiries

Programme

• Developing and Relating – Eddy Street, PhD, Clinical and Counselling Psychologist and Chair of the Western Chan Fellowship
• Developing compassion and wisdom in everyday life – Alison Murdoch, Director, Essential Education. www.essential-education.org
• What is my work in in the world? – Tim Malnick, University of Bath, Ashridge Business School and Longchen Foundation.
• Updating World Views to make sense of our World – John Crook, PhD, Teacher of the Western Chan Fellowship
• Living and loving as part of the whole: an ecological perspective – Professor Peter Reason, University of Bath
• Living Lovingly – The Venerable Jin Ho Fashi, Dharma Drum Mountain, Taiwan

Reflections on the Conference Presented by the Bristol Chan Group for the Western Chan Fellowship

Saturday 31st October and Sunday 1st November 2009

9.30 - 17.00 on both days.

at Oddfellows Hall, West Park, Bristol, BS8 2LT

Western civilisation seems to be at crisis point: climate change, economic meltdown and deep social divisions are profoundly threatening to the planet, to human society and to all of us as individuals. This situation is man-made at every level, but we also have the ability to address these problems if only we can unlock our potential.

• Where have we gone wrong, and how might we go better?
• What has happened to our sense of connection to the world, and to each other?
• How might Buddhist teachings and practice help us today?
• How might we learn to live and work with wisdom and compassion?
• What should we teach our children?

This weekend conference aimed to explore these and other questions, examining the quality of the human mindset that may have contributed to our current condition, and also considering the potential for a quiet mindset revolution.

Presentations by expert speakers (see Programme) were combined with workshops and small group sessions where conference participants were offered the opportunity to explore and speak about their own experience and practice in the world.

The conference took place, in an Oddfellows Hall decorated with bats, skeletons, spiders and assorted ghouls.  We heard about the links between western psychotherapy and Buddhism, how they differed, and how we might live well in close relationship to others.  We were asked to think about the work (unpaid, paid, traditional or not) we were doing in the world – were we trying to fix samsara, were we denying it, or could we find a way, with love and faith and honesty, to “find the place where our joy meets the needs of the world”.  We were told about the extraordinary educational initiatives of Essential Education www.essential-education.org whilst being asked to consider what the essence of a leaf might be!  We were asked to reflect on what the predominant world view is right now, how this is affecting all of us, and how we might learn to shift into a world view where we, as humans, act as participants in the dance of life, rather than trying to act as domineering (and rather inept) choreographers.  And lastly, we spent an hour walking around the room, stopping to look into each others’ eyes, to hold hands, and to hug – the whole exercise culminating in an enormous group hug of Buddhists, Christians, and many others.

We didn’t solve all the world’s problems, but the hope is that we raised some important and  fundamental questions concerning how we might express ourselves in the current situation.  We were able to discuss these questions in the company of good (and odd) fellows, and to bring feeling and emotion into a formal conference.  There were many moments of beauty, expressed through poetry, video and chanting, and we hope that we all left with our hearts having been touched, in a myriad of different ways.

Although the conference is over now, you can get further information, by email at bookings@bristolchan.co.uk