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Welcome to The New School at Commonweal.
No degrees, grades, or homework—we're a new kind of school, a community of inquiry exploring topics in health, the arts and sciences, the environment, and the inner life. The New School presents conversations, book readings, performances, and other events with thought and action leaders who are changing our world. The events, more than 100 over the past four years, are recorded and then offered as podcasts on iTunes and our website. Most of our events are offered free of charge as gifts to the Commonweal community—and you are part of it—giving forward into a circle of generosity.
For directions to New School events, click here.
To post or find a ride to a New School event, use our Facebook page or our ride share page (password: thenewschool). Please carpool if possible.
To contact The New School, TheNewSchool@Commonweal.org or 415.868.0970.
Upcoming New School Events
June 24, 2012
2-4pm
Poet David Whyte
A Pilgrimage of Identity
Co-presented with the Institute of Art and Healing
A captivating speaker with a compelling blend of profound poetry and insightful commentary, David Whyte is one of the few poets to take his perspectives on creativity into the field of organizational development. His life as a poet has created a readership and listenership in three normally mutually exclusive areas: the literate world of readings that most poets inhabit; the psychological and theological worlds of philosophical enquiry; and the world of vocation, work, and organizational leadership.
Join us for this special event at the David Brower Theater in Berkeley, a conversation between poet David Whyte and Michael Lerner, co-presented with the Institute of Art and Healing at Commonweal.
David Whyte grew up with a strong, imaginative influence from his Irish mother among the hills and valleys of his father's Yorkshire. The author of six books of poetry and three books of prose, David Whyte holds a degree in Marine Zoology and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes, the Amazon, and the Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures and workshops.
David Brower Center's
Goldman Theater
2150 Allston Way
Berkeley, CA 94704
$30 - General Admission
$100 - Includes reception with David Whyte following the event
Register/purchase tickets here
Please purchase tickets in advance
June 27, 2012
2-4pm
Brother David Steindl-Rast
Common Sense Spirituality
RSVPs required for this event.
Brother David Steindl-Rast is an 86-year-old Benedictine monk who many consider the successor to Thomas Merton at the intersection of Christianity and Buddhism. More than that, Brother David has developed a "common sense spirituality" that touches the heart of all the great spiritual traditions. He is an apostle of the spirit of gratefulness, described on his remarkable website. He says his favorite name for God is "Surprise," because "Surprise" is the only name that does not limit the Nameless One. In this interview with Michael Lerner, the continuation of the conversation in February 2012, Brother David returns to The New School for part two of his spiritual biography.
David Steindl-Rast was born July 12, 1926, in Vienna, Austria, where he studied art, anthropology, and psychology, receiving an MA from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts and a PhD from the University of Vienna. In 1952 he followed his family who had emigrated to the United States. In 1953 he joined a newly founded Benedictine community in Elmira, NY, Mount Saviour Monastery, of which he is now a senior member. In 1958/59 Brother David was a Post-Doctoral Fellow at Cornell University, where he also became the first Roman Catholic to hold the Thorpe Lectureship, following Bishop J.D.R. Robinson and Paul Tillich.
After twelve years of monastic training and studies in philosophy and theology, Brother David was sent by his abbot to participate in Buddhist-Christian dialogue, for which he received Vatican approval in 1967. His Zen teachers were Hakkuun Yasutani Roshi, Soen Nakagawa Roshi, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi, and Eido Shimano Roshi. He co-founded the Center for Spiritual Studies in 1968 and received the 1975 Martin Buber Award for his achievements in building bridges between religious traditions.
Together with Thomas Merton, Brother David helped launch a renewal of religious life. From 1970 on, he became a leading figure in the House of Prayer movement, which affected some 200,000 members of religious orders in the United States and Canada.
Brother David has brought spiritual depth into the lives of countless people whom he touches through his lectures, his workshops, and his writings. He has contributed to a wide range of books and periodicals from the Encyclopedia Americana and The New Catholic Encyclopedia, to the New Age Journal and Parabola Magazine.His books have been translated into many languages.Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer and A Listening Heart have been reprinted and anthologized for more than two decades. Brother David co-authored Belonging to the Universe (winner of the 1992 American Book Award), a dialogue on new paradigm thinking in science and theology with physicist, Fritjof Capra. His dialogue with Buddhists produced The Ground We Share: Buddhist and Christian Practice, co-authored with Robert Aitken Roshi. His most recent books are The Music of Silence, co-written with Sharon Lebell, and Words of Common Sense.
At present, Brother David serves a worldwide Network for Grateful Living, through www.gratefulness.org, an interactive website with several thousand participants daily from more than 240 countries.
RSVP to the New School by using our online registration system. Please carpool! Post a ride or need for a ride on our Facebook page, or check our rideshare page to offer or search for a ride to the event (password: thenewschool).
Wednesday, July 18
2-4pm
Kate Munger and Threshold Choir
Making Kindness Audible through the Gift of Song
End of Life Conversations Series
Threshold Choir is a network of a cappella choirs of primarily women's voices:
a community whose mission is to sing for and with those at the thresholds of living and dying.
The most important things they share are a repertoire of beautiful, meaningful, and soothing songs
and a desire to provide comfort and peace.
Founded in 2000 by Inverness resident Kate Munger, beauty and strength now bloom in the more than 100 choirs worldwide who provide singers at no cost when invited to the the bedsides of folks who are struggling. For singers who are grateful for the joy that singing has brought us in our lives, giving back in this form is elegant and wonderful. During this event, Kate will talk with Susan Braun about Threshold Choir—the practice, the history, and the future. There will be opportunities for the audience to join with choir members to become a spontaneous Threshold Choir: coming together to sing a few of the many songs in their repertoire.
Kate Munger has devoted herself for over 35 years to creating non-hierarchical, collaborative models for spirited and contemplative group singing, joyful community building, creative problem solving, and deep fellowship through rounds and parts singing. In 2000 she founded the first of now more than 100 Threshold Choirs worldwide. This singing ministry has re-imagined what true service can look like: healing the giver as it offers comfort, presence and ease for the receiver. Kate lives, swims, works, and sings along the shores of Tomales Bay in CA where she lives with her husband, son, and daughter-in-law and her precious grandsons Dillon and Rory.
Fragrance-free events: Please refrain from wearing perfumes and colognes when attending events so that those who are sensitive to chemicals may also attend.
Handicap accessibility: Commonweal Gallery is on the second floor and is not wheelchair accessible.
Getting to Commonweal
The New School events are held in the main Commonweal building at 451 Mesa Road, Bolinas, CA 94924, unless otherwise noted. A sign on the front door will lead you to either the Library or the Gallery, depending on the size of the event.
Download a map (PDF) with driving directions to Commonweal.
Click here for driving directions from Google.
We request that you carpool, if possible, to help with parking congestion (and pollution). Click here to get to our ride share page (password: thenewschool).