lindisfarne fellowship
Posted on Aug 7th, 2007
by 
jhalifax
jhalifax
August 6, 2007
UPAYA ZEN CENTER
Santa Fe, New Mexico
505-986-8518
upaya@upaya.org
www.upaya.org
"A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's. To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back -- it does not matter which. Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it."
--- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
This past weekend's Lindisfarne Fellows Meeting went exceptionally well, reuniting for the first time in ten years a group of men and women who have transformed our cultural, social and environmental landscape. It was wonderful to see four generations of friends together: from Saul Mendlovitz, Dag Hammerskjold Distinguished Professor of International Law Rutgers University, age 80, to Gabo Varela, age 15, son of the renowned neuroscientist Francisco Varela, who died in 2001. Poet Wendell Berry celebrated his 73rd birthday at Upaya, and Roshi reunited with her dear friend Mary Catherine Bateson, who is a writer, anthropologist, and daughter of Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute (with his 96 year old father and his new wife) and Wes Jackson, founder of the Land Institute, brought us to earth comment after comment. Philosophers David Abrams, Robert McDermott, and Evan Thompson offered rich perspectives on vital questions related to sustainability and moral imperatives. Neuroscientist Tim Kennedy, mathematician Ralph Abraham, past Dean of the Cathedral of St. John The Divine in New York James Morton, and political scientist David Orr were all in attendance, listening and weaving together their lives and concerns. Wendell Berry brought the room into silence and awe as he spoke about his life, and then read a story about death. And the Fellows' beloved Founder, William Irwin Thompson, wove it all together in high Druid form.
Each Fellow gave a short presentation, followed by wild and wide ranging discussion, a Lindisfarne specialty. An incredibly diverse range of topics were covered, from genocide to herbicides, sustainable agriculture to cosmology, from social ills to the great potentials present in our challenged and hyperconnected world.
The Fellows have met for over 30 years and have included such luminaries at Gregory Bateson, Stuart Brand, Gary Snyder, and many others. In addition to our Fellows, kind and generous funders were in attendance, including Jodie Evans, founder of Codepink, Jonathon Altman, Gay Dillingham, Andrew Ungleider, Liane Collins, and Tom Callanan of Fetzer. Amy Cohen Varela, Rebecca and Gareth Todd, Nora Bateson, Jane Fonda, Bokara Legendre, Peter Baumann, Jim and Suzanne Gollin, and Tsultrim Allione also attended sessions.
Upaya is itself an outgrowth of the Lindisfarne spirit, and we are deeply grateful to our sponsors at the Threshhold Foundation and other good friends for helping to make it all possible, including John and Margo Steiner, Paul Winter, and John Clausen who could not join the meeting.
As Wendell and others commented, the Fellows have a chance to learn from each other in a way that no other opportunity offers. At the end of the meeting, the Fellows agreed to gather at Upaya at the end of July next year, and to extend our reach through inviting new Fellows into the circle, and focusing our discussions in the upcoming meeting on science, art and the political landscape.
One final note: the Upaya residents were deeply enriched by the presence of the Fellows, with residents joining Wendell and others for meals, stepping into the meeting room to listen, and as Wendell Berry put it, "We are returning to Upaya because it is a place of practice and we like the people here!" Upaya likes the Fellows too, and are happy that they found a home in our midst.
UPAYA ZEN CENTER
Santa Fe, New Mexico
505-986-8518
upaya@upaya.org
www.upaya.org
"A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's. To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back -- it does not matter which. Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it."
--- Anne Morrow Lindbergh
This past weekend's Lindisfarne Fellows Meeting went exceptionally well, reuniting for the first time in ten years a group of men and women who have transformed our cultural, social and environmental landscape. It was wonderful to see four generations of friends together: from Saul Mendlovitz, Dag Hammerskjold Distinguished Professor of International Law Rutgers University, age 80, to Gabo Varela, age 15, son of the renowned neuroscientist Francisco Varela, who died in 2001. Poet Wendell Berry celebrated his 73rd birthday at Upaya, and Roshi reunited with her dear friend Mary Catherine Bateson, who is a writer, anthropologist, and daughter of Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute (with his 96 year old father and his new wife) and Wes Jackson, founder of the Land Institute, brought us to earth comment after comment. Philosophers David Abrams, Robert McDermott, and Evan Thompson offered rich perspectives on vital questions related to sustainability and moral imperatives. Neuroscientist Tim Kennedy, mathematician Ralph Abraham, past Dean of the Cathedral of St. John The Divine in New York James Morton, and political scientist David Orr were all in attendance, listening and weaving together their lives and concerns. Wendell Berry brought the room into silence and awe as he spoke about his life, and then read a story about death. And the Fellows' beloved Founder, William Irwin Thompson, wove it all together in high Druid form.
Each Fellow gave a short presentation, followed by wild and wide ranging discussion, a Lindisfarne specialty. An incredibly diverse range of topics were covered, from genocide to herbicides, sustainable agriculture to cosmology, from social ills to the great potentials present in our challenged and hyperconnected world.
The Fellows have met for over 30 years and have included such luminaries at Gregory Bateson, Stuart Brand, Gary Snyder, and many others. In addition to our Fellows, kind and generous funders were in attendance, including Jodie Evans, founder of Codepink, Jonathon Altman, Gay Dillingham, Andrew Ungleider, Liane Collins, and Tom Callanan of Fetzer. Amy Cohen Varela, Rebecca and Gareth Todd, Nora Bateson, Jane Fonda, Bokara Legendre, Peter Baumann, Jim and Suzanne Gollin, and Tsultrim Allione also attended sessions.
Upaya is itself an outgrowth of the Lindisfarne spirit, and we are deeply grateful to our sponsors at the Threshhold Foundation and other good friends for helping to make it all possible, including John and Margo Steiner, Paul Winter, and John Clausen who could not join the meeting.
As Wendell and others commented, the Fellows have a chance to learn from each other in a way that no other opportunity offers. At the end of the meeting, the Fellows agreed to gather at Upaya at the end of July next year, and to extend our reach through inviting new Fellows into the circle, and focusing our discussions in the upcoming meeting on science, art and the political landscape.
One final note: the Upaya residents were deeply enriched by the presence of the Fellows, with residents joining Wendell and others for meals, stepping into the meeting room to listen, and as Wendell Berry put it, "We are returning to Upaya because it is a place of practice and we like the people here!" Upaya likes the Fellows too, and are happy that they found a home in our midst.
Access: PublicTagged with: lindisfarne, roshi joan halifax, william irwin thompson, amory lovins, wendell barry, mary catherine bateson, david orr, james morton, paul winter, jane fonda, jodie evans, upaya zen center, buddhism, zen, margaret mead, gregory bateson, francisco varela, evan thompson, david abrams, arthur zajonc
amory lovins
July 2008 
Oh my Joan, would love to have been a fly on the wall. Any chance this meeting will become cd's or a book of talks? Or is this wishful thinking? Ron