Page 3 - Continuing Studies Calendar 2014-2015

Oh good scholar I say to myself, how can you help
but grow wise
with such teachings as these—
the untrimmable light
of the world
the ocean’s shine,
the prayers that are made out of grass?
Mary Oliver excerpt from Mindful
Lifelong learning is a multi-layered mix, a ne balance between formal and informal learning, and lived experience. Rather than a beginning or a nishing place, continuing studies exempli es learning as a work in progress, the kind of learning found musing at a crossroads in life, learning that invites a deeper initiation toward living a more participatory life with processes and outcomes that are highly personal and particular to each person.
We take seriously the humour (and wisdom) of Mark Twain who apprenticed to a printer at age 12 and self-directed
his learning through public libraries in his spare time.
He posited that those who are truly educated never graduate! True enough! In fact, the Latin root for “grade” is gradus which simply means “to take steps” and serves as a good reminder that it is often the learning itself that
is most deliciously rich, not only the nish. Continuing your education is often a gradual motion forward that seeks erudition in the “movement of the search” rather than
“the nd” (Freire, 1997), is more interested in presence over attendance and recognizes that none of us really ever quite get “there” because as we age we begin to know that there is actually no there, “there”. (Interestingly enough “grade” is also etymologically related to the word grail with its notions of a more mythic and endless search). Perhaps if we were being more accurate in our overall assessments
of learning for life, we might even grant something akin to Certi cates of Becoming rather than completion!
Yet when we speak of gaining knowledge and obtaining skills, we so rarely mention the cultivation of wisdom. Intelligence, insight, compassion, and experience accumulated over time, ripened (and tempered) with age, is one discernment of wisdom. However, there are many other types worthy of consideration. Knowing in the body for instance, or teachings passed down from the ancients, or wisdom embedded in the universal patterns and life energies of the natural world (commonly associated
with the intelligence of owl, or the sapience of ancient mammals, and with certain sagacious old growth trees). And then there is the innate wisdom of each human soul. Some might argue for psychologist Carl Jung’s notion that the human soul taps into a greater collective unconscious of the soul of the world and therefore what arrives from
this primordial wellspring is a shift from the personal to
the mythological, a movement from the particular to the universal—the repository of all wisdom.
Within these pages, are invitations toward a (re)search of the natural wisdom in us all involving both the inner life as well as the outer world, including experiential ways we can all participate in the immediacy of the act of knowing rather than only trying to explain or theorize. This means being more receptive to ways of witnessing and receiving what has just happened between the knower and her knowing, and a kind of teaching that is inspired to receive as much as direct, with an understanding that all learning can be initiatory and sacred, repeats and unfolds over a lifetime, and is part of a greater grace.
This year, the theme of philosopher-poet David Whyte’s one day workshop in early May is about becoming more naturally robust in our vulnerability toward a courageous service to life. His evening talk the night before prepares the ground by illuminating our own deep solid inner ground as necessary anchorage for life’s rocky transitions as we move from smaller self toward a more generous participation with the world. At the end of May, a retreat at Stowel Lake Farm with cultural ecologist and scholar David Abram offers a rich, evocative and well, magical exploration of what it means to become more fully human in relationship with the animate world. And nally, drawing from an eloquent synthesis of wisdom found
at the con uence of the natural world and the human soul, in October 2015, psychotherapist and writer Francis Weller explores the healing ground within the sacred work of grief that eases congested sorrows in order to deepen our capacity for aliveness through community, ritual, and movement.
We hope you will join us for these and any of our other 300 courses and events, to have the opportunity to experience the wisdom that graciously takes shape when we all take steps together. We’ll meet you there!
Hilary Leighton, PhD
Director, Continuing Studies