Online Zoom Forum: From Brokenness to Wholeness: Crisis or Breakdown as a Catalyst for Spiritual Development.

Date: Wednesday 19 February 2025.
Time: 7pm-9pm (UK time).

Description:

Format: There will be five talks, each of 12 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of discussion among the speakers and the chair, followed by Q & A.

 

Chair:

Kirsty MacGregor: MA MBA MSc DipEd EMCC Snr Practitioner

Bio: Kirsty brings her natural warmth, empathy, and intuitive insight to her work in Leadership Development, coaching, and consulting. She has extensive corporate and international business experience including an MBA from the University of Edinburgh which focussed on Venture Capital investment in Silicon Valley. She is the founder and a co-director of Edinburgh Universities Global Compassion Initiative and currently serves on the Business Committee of the General Council of the University of Edinburgh.

Over and above her rigorous academic and professional background, Kirsty brings presence and depths from decades of experience as a practitioner and instructor in mindfulness meditation, yoga, and personal development. She has twice hosted visits from her spiritual teacher Mother Meera to Edinburgh and has spent much time in India where she taught in Rishi Valley, a school founded by J K Krishnamurti and Annie Besant, in her mid-twenties. Additionally, she has ‘quietly' been a spiritual channel to a collective high consciousness she calls Benjamin for over four decades.

Kirsty divides her time between California and the UK. She has three children, five grandchildren, and a beloved small dog. Her favourite charity is a school for underprivileged children in India.


Speakers:  

Prof Holly Nelson-Becker:

Title: The Dark Night of the Soul as Invitation: Moving from Suffering and Bewilderment to Joy.

Description: Discussed through this presentation will be experiences of therapy clients, research participants and colleagues who have moved through painful life challenges, asking some of the perennial questions, “Why me?” and “What is the meaning of my life now?” The traditional term ”dark night of the soul” used by 16th-century mystic St. John of the Cross will be elucidated. This is lived through a personal world collapse, a collapse of life as was previously known, experienced, and expected to continue. The conceptual understanding of life no longer works and out of this period, whether short or long, one may awaken into a new vitality with an altered sense of purpose that understands the value of being before action. Further, the potential for a transforming outcome that leads individuals to ask well-formed questions their life long is high.

Although we can’t successfully wish the dark night away, we can work with it, note its qualities and strive to understand what it teaches. Then, just maybe, we can gather a strength of heart we never knew we had and become who we were meant to be in the world. Wholeness isn’t about perfection, but learning from our imperfections, like the Japanese art of Kintsugi where gold powder mends broken pottery, producing a second version more beautiful than the first. The dark night is an invitation to awaken to joy.

Bio: Holly Nelson-Becker is Professor Emerita of Humanistic Gerontology, Social Work, Spirituality and End of Life at Brunel University London where she previously served as Social Work Division Director. She holds a Visiting Scholar affiliation with Loyola University Chicago and is Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. She obtained a PhD from the University of Chicago and MSW from Arizona State University as well as BAs from Graceland University (Iowa). She is a Hartford Faculty Scholar for her research on aging, resilience, and well-being. She co-created US national standards for spiritual care in palliative care. From 2014-2017 she directed the social work section on the Coleman Palliative Medicine Interprofessional Training Program in Chicago. She authored Spirituality, Religion, and Aging: Illuminations for Therapeutic Practice (SAGE press) and over 70 peer-reviewed publications. In 2019 she was awarded the Seelye Fellowship from the University of Auckland, NZ to lecture on spirituality and health. Having taught courses on loss, grief, and dying well over many years, she organised death cafes as part of her public engagement commitment at Brunel University London to advance conversations on dying.:


Prof Richard H. Roberts:

Title: Identity, Ambition - and the Spirit.

Description: I was conceived in wartime Scotland, born in 1946 and brought up in Manchester, a city still in part recognisable as that described by Friedrich Engels in The Condition of the Working Class in England (1845). Strangely, I was not given an identity other than an unbridgeable gulf between the intense intellectuality of my graduate and first-generation feminist English mother, Beatrice Joan, and the equally intense, but body-centred rationality of my Czech RAF officer father and engineer, Jindrich Vodvářka. As I now understand their lives, both were profoundly traumatised, and my mother eventually took her own life. I never knew my parents living together, and they divorced when I was scarcely out of the nursery. Their opposing mantras were: ‘Men are beasts!’ and ‘You are brought up by women: you are effeminate’. My very existence was an aberration: in this setting my sanity depended upon there being a tertium quid, a third something. This third was in effect God, and the presence of an inner voice that somehow saved me from taking revenge. What followed was a series of intense commitments most of which eventually foundered. The problem was: did I have a real self? What was this ‘self’? Was there such a thing as ‘love’? I craved approval: in my teens I became an isolated, introverted slave seeking validation. Like a stray dog without an owner, I cast about seeking the existential intensity that would prove to me that I was alive – and that life was worth living. From incense-swinging server in an Anglo-Catholic Episcopal ‘slum church’, through a first shattering at a Billy Graham evangelistic rally that plunged me into morbid Sartrian existentialism, followed by a fleeting and instantly stifled episode of sexual emancipation, and then a slow-motion Evangelical conversion. I came to myself as a driven, repressed Freudian Evangelical Christian with the dangerous ambition of becoming a theologian. In reality, however, I did not understand that I was to struggle with a psycho-spiritual persona that did not fit me other than as a worker - and not as a human being. I had, however, gained a capacity for extreme abstraction which took me through many years of belated study and catch-up. On becoming Professor of Divinity at Scotland’s oldest university, I felt I had at last arrived! But this identity would once again to be shattered. My eventual crisis and breakdown (they were connected) came about in a pitiless setting after I had challenged in public the destruction of what I loved and had striven to become. I had once more to begin again… from below.

Bio: Richard H. Roberts (né Vodvářka) is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies (Lancaster University), and held the Chair of Divinity at the University of St Andrews during a time of dramatic change in university governance. Currently, Richard Roberts is Honorary Fellow at New College, University of Edinburgh. His research interests have included ‘managerial modernity’; the interface between music, performance and ritual; place and identity; shamanism and altered states of consciousness; critical interrogation of the polarisation between theology and religious studies; and the existential and theological issues concerned with sexuality and embodiment.


Chanan Tej:

Title: The Lotus Effect: Finding Wholeness and Connection Amidst Struggles.

Description: In her talk, Chanan will unveil the transformative journey of personal crises as gateways to spiritual growth, drawing on the enchanting metaphor of the lotus flower.

This symbol not only represents wholeness and the blossoming of truth but also reflects our roots in the murky waters of brokenness and dukkha.

Chanan will also elaborate on how our struggles can reconnect us with the natural world and unveil the profound interconnectedness of all life.

By framing our challenges as shared human experiences, she invites us to see ourselves woven into the vibrant tapestry of existence, reminding us that healing is often a communal journey.

You can expect to gain valuable insights on embracing vulnerability, the power of community support, and the cultivation of resilience and compassion in the face of adversity.

Bio: Chanan Tej is a Buddhist psychotherapist, mindfulness teacher, and group facilitator, with over a decade of expertise in her field.

In addition to her psychotherapy qualifications, Chanan is a yoga teacher.

Her dedication to expanding her skill set led her to undergo advanced Gong Master Training.

An ardent advocate for Buddhist Psychology, the transformative power of sacred sound, mindfulness, and yoga, Chanan approaches her work with passion and dedication.

She recognizes the profound healing potential of these modalities and integrates them seamlessly into her therapeutic practice.

Currently, Chanan is studying herbal medicine at the Plant Medicine School in Ireland.

She resides on a small farm, nestled amidst the beauty of nature. This serene and idyllic environment serves as an additional source of inspiration and tranquillity, augmenting her connection to the healing practices she embraces.


Sue Cooper:

Title: A Path to Presence and Wholeness.

Description: I wish to recognise and acknowledge the title and offer a solutions-based path, one which I developed in my own life and work with to share with others. The path to presence and wholeness is a gradual process. It is an honour and a delight, moment by moment, to open to the power of the light and the energy of love in such a natural, holistic and compassionate way. As we open to the lightness of our true nature, we then bring our light into the world and radiate out to others, forming a comm-unity, coming together in unity, with grace and ease. I see the qualities and energies of our interaction with the light as 7 interconnecting circles shown as a Path to Presence and Wholeness.

The 7 C's

Courage to be me.

To deeply Care.

Practice Compassion with loving kindness.

Coherence is when we are in optimal balance.

Clarity arises in us.

Creativity naturally flows through us and from us.

We become Conscious of the awareness of our lightness and our being in natural rhythm.

We are present, we are whole. This is Love. This is Peace. Truth lights up our way. We Trust.

Bio: Sue is a Nurse with over four decades of nursing experience in clinical care, management, research and health education, a Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher and an Ayurvedic Lifestyle Educator. Her passion is in the science and art of holistic integrative care practices. Sue is Founder of MOMM, Moments Of Mass Mindfulness and Self Care World, both are dynamic, volunteer-led initiatives rooted in care and compassion, connection and collaboration and experienced through co-creating compassionate community gatherings, engaging in citizen, business, charity and governance action to raise awareness of mindfulness practices for conscious health and vibrant well-being.

Sue holds many voluntary roles in community, locally, she is a member of The Lieutenancy Commonwealth Group and non-executive director of Positively Empowered Kids CIC. Nationally, as a member of the Welfare and Wellbeing Advisory Group for The Queens Nursing Institute of Scotland and internationally as a co-founder of Living Cities Earth and co-director of Feast for the Soul. Sue is deeply honoured to be awarded Meshworker of the Year 2024 for her passion of holistic well-being in individuals and integrating compassionate communities which are creative and empowered.


Reverend Suzanne Dance:

Title: Within the Wound may be the Healing: Self, Collective, and Our Earth.

Description: In this talk we will explore how facing, navigating and weathering a crisis, as an individual, as a collective, and as a Planet may encourage fresh insights, strengthen our resilience and fortitude, and generate deep courage, and creativity, healing and inner growth.

In Theatre of the Oppressed practice we explore oppression and power and how change happens. We often consider a crisis point, which we call a Chinese crisis, because the Chinese character for crisis means danger and opportunity.

So in any given oppressive situation, a crisis point is reached which offers potent opportunity for change and growth.

Bio: Reverend Suzanne Dance: Suzanne lives in Edinburgh. Suzanne is an eco-feminist, with a passion for the wild places of Scotland.

Suzanne is a Community Worker, with 40 years experience of working with Gender Based Oppression, Homelessness, Carers, and Mental Health.

She presently facilitates workshops for Women Peacemakers from Conflict Zones, with Beyond Borders.

She is also an Actor, and an OneSpirit Interfaith Minister.

For the past 15 years Suzanne has worked with Active Inquiry, a Theatre of the Oppressed Company based in Leith, creating work with 3 Community Groups:

Shakti Women’s Aid, Bethany Homeless Project, and Alma Mental Health.

 

From Brokenness to Wholeness



An archive recording will be made for the EICSP archive.

NB: There will be no refund if you cancel your booking.

Cost: By Donation:
Contact: Neill Walker, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

If you are having a difficulty paying by Paypal, then you can pay by bank transfer instead.

NB: you must also email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. so we can send you the Zoom sign-in details.

Here are the bank transfer details:

Account Name: Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace
Bank: Bank of Scotland
Bank Address: Edinburgh Royal Mile Branch
Account Number: 06131159
Sort Code: 802000

Some international transfers also ask for an IBAN number:

The IBAN number:

GB70 BOFS 8020 0006 1311 59

BIC:

BOFSGB21168



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