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Amping up

13 January, 2011 By

On our Find a Study Circle page you’ll see a list of circles that we’re aware of around the world. Some circles are  currently quite active1, and many others are not active, though I think they could be reactivated in some cases. We’ve just overhauled the design and layout of this Study Circles site (as I hope you can see!), and are enlarging it to include more “resources,” not just blog articles, and so we need to reach out to you right now.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been engaging with our volunteers and getting more active on Facebook and Twitter, and the first order of business (at least for me) is to ask around about what we can do for you!

Sitting here at my desk in the media studio, I’d like to also recognize several contributors, whose articles will appear very soon. Each of them brings an additional perspective to the conversation—or completely new threads in some cases. Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba, our overall study circles coordinator, from Jos, Nigeria, kicked off the site with an introduction, and I interviewed Emmanuel about how he first connected with the Foundation. And the most recent of our contributors is Ellen Feig, who writes for us about ethics and higher education. Jen Schaeff, in Montréal, will be with us shortly, and Ronnie Wilson is writing about study circles for inmates. And there’s more than that coming up!

Here are some of the top things we think we can do — but you need to tell us your own opinion as well:

  • Support “conversations” of all sorts related to ethics, peace, and study circles themselves;
  • Help you locate events (including Where’s the Dalai Lama now?) that might be of interest to you or your study circle participants;
  • Help you locate people (including the Dalai Lama) involved in ethics and peace—especially online video and sites;
  • Provide resources for study circle participants and facilitators—the people “on the ground” starting their own circles (such as downloadable and printed study guides and books);
  • Help you connect to people running circles elsewhere and learn from their experience.

Please let us know your ideas about what we can do that would be of the most use (or the most fun, if you prefer).

  1. Montréal, Canada is a great example ↩
Filed Under: This site

How Emmanuel got started with study circles

28 April, 2010 By

This is such a virtual world, isn’t it? I first “met” Emmanuel Ande Ivorgba by email in 2005. It was two years later that we had a chance to meet while we were both in India interviewing the Dalai Lama for Project Happiness[1]. A challenge that Emmanuel faced, in Nigeria, was that of explaining that Ethics for the New Millennium is a non-religious approach to ethics and thus not based in religion. Listen to the interview to hear how Emmanuel got started with study circles and how he handled the issue of being non-religious in orientation.

Click to open the audio player:

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[1] Project Happiness students interviewed His Holiness the Dalai Lama, asking him many questions which became the core of the Project Happiness film.

Filed Under: Grow a circle, Start a circle

Can “Art” play a part in your study circle?

6 April, 2010 By

People have different ways of expressing their feelings and their thoughts. There’s a range from concrete to abstract… some people love ”gettin’ down” and working with their hands, and others prefer verbally exploring lofty concepts and talking endlessly about them.

Although Ethics for the New Millennium is not ”about Buddhism” there are many core Buddhist principles that play a part in the development of His Holiness’ thought and the evolution of the “argument” on behalf of ethical behavior that emerges in this book.√Ǭ† And Buddhism, also, ranges from quite concrete to extremely abstract—there’s a reason it is sometimes jokingly referred to as “the religion of lists!” So there is plenty of room for lots of different types of expression. This is true for almost any religious or secular foundations of thought and living that you might encounter (that’s a topic to be explored another day, isn’t it?…)

You might find that some of your study circle members participate less than others in discussion and conversation. Try something new with these folks—ask whether they would be more comfortable expressing their thoughts and feelings in the form of artistic representations! (Keep reading for examples and suggestions…) [Read more...]

Filed Under: Grow a circle, Media

Augment your study circle with Dalai Lama videos

5 April, 2010 By

DalaiLama.com, the official web site of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, has recently been revamped and is offering a page of Dalai Lama ”videos” many of which are current, and some of which reach back a few years into history. You can find his public talks, interviews, and Buddhist teachings.

You could use these as “homework” assignments or even play one or two (appropriately selected) during your study circle meetings to illustrate points you’re covering in a meeting.

[Photo courtesy of Sheldon Wolfe]

Filed Under: Media
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