Date: 10/22/2017
Come one and all and bring your friends, partner and neighbors to a gathering in which favorite poems will be shared. Or you can come and simply listen and enjoy. The number of poems one can read will depend on the number of people attending who want to share their poetry. You may read one or several. The host Sally Love Saunders has a passion for poetry and gathering people around to write and read. Today we will simply read and listen. Hope to have you there.
Sally Love Saunders is a widely published Poet, Poetry Therapist, Lecturer, Free-Lance Writer and Workshop Leader. Sally’s work has appeared in the New York Times, Times International, The London Times, The Denver Post, and among over three hundred other anthologies, magazines and newspapers. She has received many prizes for her poetry. “A Johnny Appleseed Poet,” Sally travels all over the country running workshops. It is her absolute conviction that “Everyone is a Poet!” Sally has developed fun techniques to help individuals to get in touch with their own unique creativity.
refreshments to follow
5 Fulton bus line; 14 steps;
2650 Fulton Street at corner of 3rd Avenue, San Francisco
Date: 10/29/2017
Greek and Indian civilizations interacted through Indus Valley trade, Alexander’s conquests and the spread of Hellenism to India with its concept of the cosmopolis. This talk will depict, through analysing dramatic verse, mantra and bardic singing, and visual representation, the forces shaping the struggles of Indian epic heroes Sahastra Arjuna, Parshurama and Alarka of the classic compendium, the Dutta Mahatmya, compared with the forces shaping the great Homeric heroes Hector, Achilles and Odysseus. These forces include the role of destiny (daiva), karma and individual suffering and responsibility, showing the interplay between spiritual and humanistic thinking in shaping the hero’s moral consciousness, and how male and female energies contribute to cathartic resolution as seen in the story of Renuka.
Dr. Kansara is Author and Educator at FlashpointInteract.com, which seeks to empower High School students in the study of the Humanities, so they can rise to their full potential through the use of interactive content and methods. Her past experience includes being an editor in academic publishing at the Open University in England, one of the first educational institutions to pioneer long-distance teaching through interactive media; member of the BBC’s General Advisory Council; co-director of the Academy of Indian Dance, sponsored by the Greater London Council. Dr. Kansara is also Vice President of American Friends of SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies, London University). She also writes a blog at www.theyoganature.com. She holds a BA (Cantab) and PhD (SOAS, University of London).
Date: 11/05/2017
This talk will describe how unexpected experiences while seeking enlightenment can bring spiritual insights. It gradually dawned on Elliott that the purpose of his life was to answer the question: “Who am I?” The talk will discuss several pivotal experiences that assisted Elliott in finding an answer to this question while living with the guru Neem Karoli Baba at his ashrams in Vrindavan (in Uttar Pradesh) & Kainchi (near Nainital in Uttarchal). Neem Karoli Baba is the guru of Ram Dass (formerly Richard Alpert) who describes him in the book Be Here Now. The purpose of Elliott’s talk is to share the levels on which his heart and mind were touched.
Elliott Isenberg PhD had his life transformed when he met Neem Karoli Baba in March of 1973 (who, by reading his mind, in one instant put an end to decades of Elliott’s scientific rationalist atheism). Elliott received his doctorate in 1983 from the California Institute of Asian Studies (now named the California Institute of Integral Studies) after doing his dissertation on “The Experience of Evil: A Phenomenological Approach.” In addition to co-editing with Layena Camhi a book entitled SUNYATA: The Life and Sayings of a Rare-born Mystic, Elliott is a student of Byron Katie — a dialogue between Elliott, his best friends, and Katie was transcribed into her book called LOSING THE MOON: Byron Katie Dialogues on Non-Duality, Truth, and Other Illusions.
Date: 11/12/2017
Nov 12: Raja Rammohan Ray, Visionary, Pioneer and Revolutionary: The Architect of Hindu Society, with Karabi Sen, PhD
Raja Rammohan Ray, the prodigious scholar endowed with indomitable energy and will, awakened the Hindu mind to a series of injustices that were being practiced by the Hindus in the name of their religion. Included among them were Sati, untouchability, rigid rituals, and hate and intolerance towards other religious beliefs and practices. He successfully enacted the law prohibiting Sati in his lifetime, while other stalwarts like Gandhi, Tagore, Vivekananda, and Vidyasagar picked up the cross in later years.
Karabi Sen was born in East Bengal, India, and educated in Calcutta. She taught philosophy at Burdwan University until moving to America as an adjunct faculty for the philosophy and religion program at CIIS in San Francisco. She currently works for Educational Testing Service, Princeton, N.J. She is a retired Resource Specialist from Modesto City Schools, Modesto, California. Karabi lives in California and India, and has published a memoir, Scratches on the Face of Time: The Journey of an Indian Woman. Her current research is on the Bengali Renaissance and its roots in India.
