Contemplative Presence in a Traumatized World

Episcopal priest and a major wisdom teacher, Cynthia Bourgeault will highlight the unitary relationship between contemplation and action. Many see them as alternative paths of service, but great teachers, like the ‘Cloud of Unknowing’ expose this as a false dichotomy. Contemplation is not a “lifestyle,” but a level of consciousness leading to unconditional presence to both God and the world, capable of bearing the fruits of infinite spaciousness into a world that so often frenetic and shattered. The greatest contemplatives understood this and carried into the world a presence that lives beyond fear, and able to speak truth to power.

In this talk Dr Bourgeault will explore this quality of presence and the practices that strengthen it. She will describe how it can be offered to a world still shakily emerging from a worldwide pandemic, accelerating climate change, and continuing disintegration of traditional cultural and religious institutional structures.