“If there was a moment when our crisis in education hit critical mass it may well have been the date Sir Ken Robinson’s TED talk went up on YouTube. In just 19 minutes his wry but eviscerating presentation gave voice to what so many of us are living through: our schools are failing to recognize creativity; we’re failing to prepare the next generation for the challenges that lie ahead.”  - VANITY FAIR

Sir Ken Robinson, PhD is an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources in education and in business.  He is also one of the world’s leading speakers on these topics, with a profound impact on audiences everywhere. The videos of his famous 2006 and 2010 talks to the prestigious TED Conference have been viewed more than 25 million times and seen by an estimated 250 million people in over 150 countries. His 2006 talk is the most viewed in TED’s history. In 2011 he was listed as “one of the world’s elite thinkers on creativity and innovation” by Fast Company magazine, and was ranked among the Thinkers50 list of the world’s top business thought leaders.

Sir Ken works with governments and educations systems in Europe, Asia and the USA, with international agencies, Fortune 500 companies and some of the world’s leading cultural organizations. In 1998, he led a national commission on creativity, education and the economy for the UK Government. All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education (The Robinson Report) was published to wide acclaim in 1999. He was the central figure in developing a strategy for creative and economic development as part of the Peace Process in Northern Ireland, working with the ministers for training, education enterprise and culture. The resulting blueprint for change, Unlocking Creativity, was adopted by politicians of all parties and by business, education and cultural leaders across the Province. He was one of four international advisors to the Singapore Government for its strategy to become the creative hub of South East Asia.

skr-quoteFor twelve years, he was professor of education at the University of Warwick in the UK and is now professor emeritus. He has received honorary degrees from the Rhode Island School of Design, the Open University and the Central School of Speech and Drama; Birmingham City University, the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and Oklahoma State University. He was been honored with the Athena Award of the Rhode Island School of Design for services to the arts and education; the Peabody Medal for contributions to the arts and culture in the United States, the Arthur C. Clarke Imagination Award, the Gordon Parks Award for achievements in education and the Benjamin Franklin Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for outstanding contributions to cultural relations between the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2005, he was named as one of Time/Fortune/CNN’s ‘Principal Voices’. In 2003, he received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for his services to the arts.

His 2009 book The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything is a New York Times best seller and has been translated into twenty-one languages. A 10th anniversary edition of his classic work on creativity and innovation, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative was published in 2011. His latest book, Finding Your Element: How to Discover Your Talents and Passions and Transform Your Life, will be published by Viking in May 2013.  Sir Ken was born in Liverpool, UK. He is married to Therese (Lady) Robinson. They have two children, James and Kate, and now live in Los Angeles, California.

Sir Ken Robinson~ June 14

Thich Nhat Hanh shares a Christmas Eve talk from Plum Village in 2012. The practice of going home is a very deep practice. We need the energy of mindfulness. We don’t need a plane or train ticket to go home. There is a station – Radio NST – (non-stop thinking) and this doesn’t help us arrive home. Walking and breathing allow us to arrive. The more you are mindful and concentratesd the more pleasant. Help you stop the thinking and the worrying. Just walk and heal.

Christmas Eve 2012. I have Arrived. I am Home.

Join James F. Twyman and students from around the world dancing to the lessons of the ACIM Workbook.

A Course In Miracles World Dance, Lesson 192

Anthony Paul Moo-Young, known as Mooji, was born on 29 January 1954 in Port Antonio, Jamaica. In 1969, he moved to the UK and he is presently living in Brixton, London. Anthony worked in London's 'West end' as a street portrait artist for many years, then as a painter and a stained glass artist, and later as a teacher at Brixton College. For a long time, he was well known as Tony Moo, but is now affectionately known as Mooji* by the many seekers and friends who visit him.

Mooji is a direct disciple of Sri Harilal Poonja, the renowned advaita master, or Papaji, as his followers call him. In 1987, a chance meeting with a Christian mystic was to be a life-changing encounter for Mooji. It brought him, through prayer, into the direct experience of the Divine within. Within a short period, he experienced a radical shift in consciousness so profound that outwardly, he seemed, to many who knew him, to be an entirely different person. As his spiritual consciousness awakened, a deep inner transformation began which unfolded in the form of many miraculous experiences and mystical insights. He felt a strong wind of change blowing through his life which brought with it a deep urge to surrender completely to divine will. Shortly after, he stopped teaching, left his home and began a life of quiet simplicity and surrender to the will of God as it manifested spontaneously within him. A great peace entered his being, and has remained ever since. http://www.mooji.org/biography.html

Mooji interview MP3

Robert Holden's Album

Maya Angelou on Love - Interviewed by Robert Holden on Valentines Day

Hari Kirin writes ~ "For most of my life I have devoted my attention to both a spiritual practice and to art. Today I experience my weekly sessions teaching art and yoga to incarcerated girls equal in value spiritually to my more formal practices. In my painting I bring a spiritual point of view to public art projects and form images of the Buddha from junk mail. In all of my work, I integrate the sacred and the secular.

I employ chance systems and enjoy collaboration because they are surprising. I feel a kinship with the surrealists, and artists throughout time who found ways to let the unexpected in. I am persuaded by ideas in Wabi Sabi, in particular the notion that beauty is a state of consciousness. Beauty is an event that occurs between you and another. In that spirit I want to find beauty in everything, often in those things that are rejected or considered ugly.

I was raised a Catholic and had the unusual opportunity to study with monks who connected the sayings of Jesus, with Eastern meditation and social activism. In my twenties I met my spiritual teacher, Yogi Bhajan, who gave me the name Hari Kirin meaning “a light of the divine feminine creative”. In this way, and many others, he confirmed for me that there is no separation between spiritual practice and creativity. I consider the connection of East and West, my current dharma and my childhood religion, as an opportunity to enrich my life and work.

Making art is a spiritual practice for me. I understand the two-dimensional space of the canvas as a place outside of the literal, a sanctuary, where one can encounter soul. A visitor to my studio the other day commented on how fully integrated my yoga and art are. In my workshops I teach people from all backgrounds how to practice yoga as a spiritual discipline and how to paint seriously.

I work in public places, because painting inspired by a spiritual practice is a way to sanctify what would otherwise appear only secular. I am also interested in bringing depth to this kind of painting, an approach particularly relevant in this new century."

Mooji interview MP3

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