Seminar Spotlight: A Closer Look

In our efforts to expand our programming in new directions, we continue to present leaders whose names may not be as familiar to you as others in our catalog. In this section we highlight a few of these offerings by providing a bit more information than you’ll find in the Workshops section.

Mark Waldman & Yuval Ron

Mark Waldman and Yuval Ron share an uncommon bond. According to Time, Newsweek, and the Washington Post, Mark is one of the world’s leading experts on spirituality and the brain. Yuval is an award-winning musician and film composer who won an Oscar for West Bank Story. He specializes in the music of the Middle East, North Africa, and Spain, using his talents to bring peace and understanding to diverse religious and ethnic cultures by demonstrating the profound similarities of the sacred songs created by ancient Jews, Christians, Sufis, and the spiritual traditions of the East. Mark uses his scientific expertise to demonstrate how the spiritual practices of these religions profoundly affect the brain in life-enhancing ways. Together, Yuval and Mark weave music and meditation to transport people into a realm of peaceful unity and consciousness.

"I met Yuval at a Sufi meditation retreat," Mark recalls, "where we discovered that we share a similar vision of helping people connect with their deepest values, values that show that every person, of every religion and culture embraces a common, united thread. And when we immerse ourselves in contemplative music and meditation, we change the structure and function of the brain, stimulating the neural circuits of compassion, kindness, and peace."

"In our workshop," adds Yuval, "we’ll musically guide you through ancient and modern meditations. We will experience the inner workings of ecstatic Hassidic music and dance, and the Sufi mystical practice of whirling meditation. When we share our personal stories, we’ll use a new form of dialogue meditation created in Mark and Andy Newberg’s university lab."

Mark is an Associate Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Spirituality and the Mind, and Adjunct Faculty at Loyola Marymount University. Yuval is the recipient of prestigious grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Council for the Humanities, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Upcoming Workshop: August 20-22, 2010
Compassionate Communication: The Neuroscientific Way to Foster Intimacy, Happiness and Success

Upcoming Workshop: August 22-27, 2010
Music, Spirituality and Your Brain

Kathryn McCamant & Charles Durrett

Chuck and Katie have been creating cohousing communities throughout North American since publishing their pioneering book, Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves in 1988. More recently, Chuck authored a second book, The Senior Cohousing Handbook: A Community Approach to Independent Living.

Cohousing communities create socially and environmentally sustainable neighborhoods by combining individual homes with extensive community amenities. The common house is the heart of these communities. It is a place to host community dinners and where kids play together on rainy afternoons. It is a place for quiet time sitting in front of the fireplace with friends, parties, yoga classes, and where guest suites often are. With this shared day-to-day experience and by working together, residents find they can live much more sustainably than they ever could individually. Not only are the buildings highly energy and resource efficient, but the community lifestyle encourages healthy eating and driving less.

Intergenerational cohousing provides great options for raising kids and sharing among different ages and generations. Now, in senior cohousing, baby boomers are proactively taking action to create caring and supportive communities where they’ll be able to continue living active lives with people with whom they share the vision of "saging" instead of aging.

In this workshop, Chuck and Katie share their thirty years of experiences—as architects, project managers, consultants, and cohousing residents themselves—creating and living in these sustainable neighborhoods, including lessons learned, and how communities are supporting people in these more economically challenging times. Join them to explore how you can create more community for your future.

Upcoming Workshop: September 24-26, 2010
Creating Community: Learning from 30 Years of the Cohousing Movement

Lee Lesser

Lee Lesser writes: "When I was nineteen, my mother handed me a brochure and said, ‘You should meet this woman. She can change your life.’" This woman turned out to be Charlotte Selver, an early pioneer at Esalen, who taught the practice of Sensory Awareness for more than seventy-five years. Sensory Awareness opens a path to connect with our sensations, grounding us in the present moment. Instead of trying to pick and choose how we want things to be, we meet things as they are. For forty years I have been discovering and rediscovering the richness, refuge, and sustenance of this practice. My mother was right: Charlotte profoundly changed my life.

"A few months before I received that brochure, I had hitchhiked across the country and was dropped off in Delano, California. It was the summer of 1970, when Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Union were signing their first contracts. I worked with them for the rest of the summer and experienced the power of individual courage and dignity, and of people working together. Many of the farm workers were from Mexico, and they encouraged me to go to Mexico and learn to speak Spanish.

"It turned out that the brochure my mother gave me announced a workshop led by Charlotte in Barra de Navidad, Mexico. Needless to say, I signed up.

I had so many experiences in Mexico that opened my heart and spirit. There was joy, laughter, playfulness, music, and movement. Aging and death were not separated or hidden. I discovered a deep connection to the country and culture that continues today.

"For most of my life, I have engaged in parallel processes of social change. I have taught classes and workshops in Sensory Awareness at Tassajara, Green Gulch Farm, and the New York Open Center, among other places, and in Mexico in Barra de Navidad, Valle de Bravo, Mexico City, and at FHADI, a foundation for people with disabilities. I am delighted that Esalen is offering my Spanish-language workshop and that I can contribute through the sharing of Sensory Awareness."

Upcoming Workshop: December 10-12, 2010
Traer Calma y Equilibrio a Nuestras Vidas: Confiando en Nuestras Sensaciones Como Aliados

Shauna Shapiro & Jason Meek

Lawyer and entrepreneur Jason Meek and doctor of psychology Shauna Shapiro first met over lunch at a café along picturesque Sausalito harbor. What emerged that day was a shared purpose to bring the very essence of who they are into their work, and to teach others to do the same. Combining Dr. Shapiro’s distinctive background in mindfulness research and practice with Mr. Meek’s expertise in law, business, conflict resolution, and deal-making, they developed an integrative workshop especially for Esalen that centers on the art and science of mindfulness as a way to enhance the world of business. 

Dr. Shapiro is an associate professor of counseling psychology at Santa Clara University, and was adjunct faculty for Andrew Weil’s Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on mindfulness meditation and its applications to psychotherapy, education, business, and society. She began her study of psychology and meditation at Duke University and received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona. Dr. Shapiro also received training in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). Dr. Shapiro is the recipient of the American Council of Learned Societies teaching award, and coauthor of The Art and Science of Mindfulness.

Jason Meek, MCIArb, is the founder and managing director of iDeal Counsel, APLC, which offers mediation and facilitation services designed specifically to guide stakeholders through complex deal negotiations. Previously, he represented clients in private practice for thirteen years and served as general counsel for emerging businesses in various sectors, including software, technology, and wine. He received his law degree with honors at the University of Florida. Mr. Meek is adjunct assistant professor of law at University of California Hastings College of the Law. He lectures and presents on the use of tailored contemplative practices to enhance how leaders and organizations problem solve, build consensus, and hard-wire positive change. 

Their workshop bridges their diverse expertise and offers participants new ways to apply mindfulness to bring more creativity, skill, and effectiveness to their professional lives.

Upcoming Workshop: December 10-12, 2010
Bringing Mindfulness Practice to Business

Alejandro Chaoul

Alejandro Chaoul writes: "I was born into a Jewish family in a Catholic country, Argentina, and attended a Presbyterian high school. This diversity created an openness that led me to become a Buddhist practitioner and scholar. Meeting His Holiness the Dalai Lama in 1989 drew tears that opened my heart and marked the beginning of my journey; along this path I was fortunate to have many great teachers.

"I especially trained under Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and completed the seven-year program at Ligmincha Institute, an organization dedicated to preserving Tibet’s indigenous religion, Bon Buddhism. I also learned the Tibetan Yogas (Tsa lung Trul khor) at Tritan Norbutse Monastery in Kathmandu, Nepal, in 1993, and began focusing on this wonderful practice that is largely unknown in the West and differs from Indian styles of yoga. In Tsa lung and Trul khor the practitioner holds the breath, sometimes focusing on a particular chakra, and then exhaling, and so cultivating a meditative state of mind. These yogic practices allow the practitioner to integrate movement into their meditative state of mind and also to release obstacles that could be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual.

"In 1995 I began teaching these and other contemplative practices from the Bon-Buddhist tradition, and in 1999, with the advice of Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, I began applying these practices to work with cancer patients, their families, and caregivers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. I find this part of my work quite meaningful as I get to see how these ancient practices help patients and their families deal with the difficulties of a cancer diagnosis and treatment. The National Cancer Institute is supporting the research on the effects of Tibetan yoga for women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Through the Ligmincha Institute I teach in different parts of the US, Mexico, Central America, and Europe.

In this course at Esalen, I will teach simple and profound practices from these ancient Tibetan traditions that also have been part of this research with medical populations. Having been exposed to many different religious traditions, I present these practices in a secular way that is accessible to all, regardless of their beliefs."

Upcoming Workshop: December 5-10, 2010
Exploring the Subtle Body through Tibetan Meditation, Movements and Sound