Thank you Ram Dass for a lifetime of devotion . . . We’re Always Here, It’s Always Now Ram Dass (b.1931 – d. 2019)) By Amy Edelstein Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha! Gone/Gone/Gone Beyond/Gone Beyond Beyond Hail the Goer Beyond even conceiving of a place Beyond which you can go beyond Who’s adventurous enough to want to go On … Read More
Back to School with Inner Strength
The following is an excerpt from Amy Edelstein’s reflections in preparation for entering the new school year. It was originally published in the Inner Strength Foundation September 2018 newsletter. You can also read the full piece on the Inner Strength Foundation website. Inner Strength programs are going into this year strong Today I finally put the finishing touches on … Read More
Diversity Dialogues: Kori Hamilton Biagas & Amy Edelstein Explore Racial Literacy
Understanding and deconstructing racial ideas and divides Amy Edelstein interviews Kori Hamilton Biagas from JustEducators about what racial literacy is, how to work in classrooms to lessen racial stress, and how to engage in a positive way to deconstruct our culturally inherited (and often outdated, false, misguided, and even dangerous) ideas about this issue. “As long as there is a … Read More
Whiteness | Jonathan Miller-Lane
Exploring Whiteness an essential reflection on privilege if we are to transform the inequities in our culture with Jonathan Miller-Lane Ph.D., Middlebury College Jonathan Miller-Lane earned his Ph.D. in Secondary Education from the University of Washington, Seattle, with a thesis that focused on the facilitation of disagreement in discussion and how the practices of Aikido might help with facilitation skills. … Read More
Diversity Dialogues | Conrad Caton on His New Film NERGIG
Recently I’ve had the good fortune to be in dialogue with insightful and engaged individuals who are really thinking about race, diversity, division, and how our culture can lean in — and step into a better worldview. A new cultural paradigm needs to see the past with an unflinching eye and an open heart. One that embraces history because it … Read More
What Do We Tell Our Children?
Many of the images we’re shown these days are of fractures between peoples. The unexpected but unambiguous results of the US election is confronting many of us with the challenge of seeing our own silos, our own lack of interest to hear the pain points and the dreams of others who are different from ourselves. It is a time for … Read More
Insight from Inmates
Everyone can present themselves well in the right circumstances. The question is, when the human being is at rest, what is our essential nature? And how much does our conviction about our potential and inherent nature depend on those who touched us early on in life? I teach a mindfulness class in a prison just south of town. It’s not … Read More