The Contemplation by Design Summit is a campus-wide, multidisciplinary week of events.

Enjoy the power of the pause.

October 25 - November 2, 2021


Please click on the session titles for the full description, which are being updated when they become available.

Below is the 2021 Summit Schedule.

Register Here

Free events will be offered October 25– November 2, 2021, to further individual and community health and well-being, and creative excellence to serve the greater good in these unprecedented times.  Contemplation By Design is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, campus-wide program cultivating resilience, well-being, wisdom, compassion, and sustainable, ethical, purposeful service. Summit participants will have the opportunity to cultivate perspective, meaningful purpose, and contemplative practices that refresh and renew the mind-body-spirit.                   

Faculty, staff, students and the community are invited. Please register to reserve your place in the sessions. Thank you.

Contemplation Calendar

October 25 - November 2, 2021

All 2021 Summit sessions are free and online, except for the in-person events in Memorial Church on Oct. 31.

MON 10/25/21
8:00-9:00am Introduction to Contemplative Skills for Cultivating Personal and Planetary Health and Well-being, Tia Rich, PhD
12:30-1:30pm Indigenous Contemplative Wisdom and Relationship-based Climate Action, Yuria Celidwen, PhD
5:30-6:30pm An Astronaut’s Perspective: Earth views inspiring us to care for our planet, Steve Smith, MBA, NASA astronaut, diplomat, and Silicon Valley engineer/businessman
7:00-8:30pm Contemplating Earth: Multiple ways of being and knowing, Sam Mickey, PhD, Researcher Associate, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, and Adjunct Professor, Theology and Religious Studies Department, University of San Francisco

TUE 10/26/21
7:30-8:10am iPause Morning Guided Meditation session 1, Tia Rich, PhD*
8:15-9:00am Inner Transformation and Sustainability, Christine Wamsler, PhD Professor of Sustainability Science and Director of the Contemplative Sustainable Futures Program, Lund University, Sweden*
12:00-1:30pm Awakening Radical Compassion, Tara Brach, PhD
7:00-8:00pm YogaX Gentle Flow Yoga, Heather Freeman* (In-person, CIRCLE, 3rd Floor Old Union)
7:00-8:30pm Weaving the Web of Meaning: How recognizing our deep interrelatedness lays the path to sustainable flourishing, Jeremy Lent, award-winning author of The Patterning Instinct, and founder, The Liology Institute

WED 10/27/21
7:30-8:15am iPause Morning Guided Meditation session 2, Jonah Willihnganz, PhD*
9:00-10:30am Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet with Brother Phap Huu and Sister True Dedication, teaching live from Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village Monastery in France
12:30-1:45pm At the Center of All Things is Interdependence, Dekila Chungyalpa, Director, Loka Initiative, University of Wisconsin - Madison
5:30-7:00pm Quaker Values and the Quaker Contemplative Practice of Silent Worship, Steve Curwood, host and executive producer of Living on Earth, the prize-winning weekly environmental radio program heard for more than 30 years on public radio stations

THU 10/28/21
7:30-8:15am iPause Morning Guided Meditation session 3, teachers from Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village Monastery in France*
12:00-1:15pm Compassion, Gratitude, and Awe: Self-transcendent emotions for collective and planetary well-being, Dacher Keltner, PhD, Professor of Psychology at UC Berkeley and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center
7:00-8:00pm Guided Meditation practice, Andy Ackers* (In-person in Koret Pavilion, 564 O'Connor Ln., 2nd floor)
7:00- 8:30pm Valuing Nature in Personal Practice and Societal Transformation, Gretchen Daily, PhD, Bing Professor of Environmental Science, and co-founder and faculty director of the Natural Capital Project, Stanford University

FRI 10/29/21
7:30-8:15am iPause Morning Guided Meditation session 4, teachers from Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village Monastery in France*
12:30-1:45pm Your Mind on Awe, Florence Williams, prize winning author of The Nature Fix, and visiting scholar at George Washington University
5:30-6:45pm Contemplative Innovation - Designing technology in the era of distraction, Ruchika Sikri, founder of Mandala Ventures, former leader of Google Well Being and Mindfulness Learning Programs and Strategy
7:00-8:15pm Planet Hope: Species Loneliness, Nature-Deficit Disorder and the Future of Life on Earth, Richard Louv

SAT 10/30/21
9:00-9:45am iPause Morning Guided Meditation session 5, teachers from Thich Nhat Hanh's Plum Village Monastery in France*
10:00-11:30am Attuning to the Web of Meaning: An introduction to the practice of Liology, Jeremy Lent, award-winning author of The Patterning Instinct, and founder, The Liology Institute  (interactive workshop)
1:00-2:30pm Contemplative Environmentalism, Paul Wapner, Professor of Global Environmental Politics in the School of International Service at American University (interactive workshop)
3:00-4:30pm Contemplative Practices for Integrating Multiple Perspectives, Sam Mickey, PhD, Research Associate, Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology, and Adjunct Professor, Theology and Religious Studies Department, University of San Francisco (interactive workshop)
5:00-6:30pm Cultivating Awareness Practices in The Wisdom and Wonder of Nature: Contemplative practice in the great outdoors, Mark Coleman

SUN 10/31/21
10:00-11:00am The Well-Gardened Mind: the restorative power of nature, Dr. Sue Stuart-Smith, British award-winning author, psychiatrist, and psychotherapist
11:00-12:00pm No One Can Purify Another: When Yoga is Property, But God is Change (UPW) with Dr. Roopa Bala Singh, PhD, JD* (In-person in Memorial Church)
12:15-1:15pm Guided Meditation in Memorial Church, Breathe Like Water: Sending a Deep Breath to Empathy with Dr. Roopa Bala Singh, PhD, JD* (In-person in Memorial Church)
3:00-4:30pm Awake in the Wild Nature Meditation Practice, Mark Coleman (Interactive Workshop)

MON 11/1/21
7:30-8:15am iPause Morning Guided Meditation session 6, Meditation in Nature wherever you are with Mark Coleman*
12:30-1:45pm Actionable Hope in a Time of Planetary Change, Nicole Ardoin, PhD, Assoc. Prof. in the Graduate School of Education, Senior Fellow in the Woods Institute for the Environment, Emmett Faculty Scholar, and Sykes Family Director of the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources (E-IPER) in the School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences
7:00-8:15pm Faith, Pain, and the Faraway: A Meditation on Landscape Painting, Alexander Nemerov, PhD, Chair of the Department of Art and Art History, Stanford University

TUE 11/2/21
7:30-8:15am iPause Morning Guided Meditation session 7, The Reverend Dr. Joanne Sanders*
12:00-1:15pm Merging Science and Contemplative Practice for Climate Action, Crystal Chissell, JD, MS, MBA, Senior Director, Project Drawdown Communities
   

All Contemplation By Design Summit sessions are free. If you wish to make a donation, please do so here. Thank you.

*All sessions are BeWell Berry eligible unless they are marked with an asterisk. After each Berry eligible session, registered attendees will be sent a "Health Enrichment Berry Validation Form" to complete and upload to the BeWell website in order to be awarded the Berry. 

We look forward to being with you in the Summit sessions you attend.