Be passionately neutral and passionately playful

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Register now for the combined package of Thomas Moore's two new half-day workshops on Sunday 28 June 2015 at New York Open Center in New York City. Individual registration is also available.

Barque coverage
20 Apr 2015 "Sign up for two new workshops at NY Open Center"

A matter of life and death: faith, hope and love

This weekend Thomas Moore speaks at New York Open Center's conference The Art of Dying that "brings together renowned thought leaders, innovators, researchers and practitioners in the area of death and dying, including the professional fields of palliative and hospice care." Moore offers two sessions:

Faith, Hope and Love: Alternative Ways to Know About Life and Death 
"People say that human beings don’t have the privilege of knowing what happens at and after the point of death. But the truth is, we don’t really know anything fully. We gather facts and draw our conclusions, but we know very little. In this situation, we need other responses besides knowledge. We need faith in life, hope that the whole thing makes sense and love of the world rather than merely an understanding of it. Compared to our usual trust in research and knowledge, these are alternative ways to be, and they operate under the power of love. The whole secret to dying is to love life and trust it."

A Taste for the Eternal, Preparing for Death through Experience of the Timeless
 "From the minute we are born we are drifting toward death — the entrance and the exit. In between are times of entering further into life and leaving it. If we only value and pursue the direction of life, we will only half live and not be ready for death. We get close to the timeless through profound works of art, deep meditations, strong loves, absorption in nature, and above all, losing ourselves in sublime music. We have to become acquainted with the timeless not to be entirely surprised by death. Some sort of spiritual experience and vision are necessary. Another way is loss of ego: feelings of inferiority, not understanding, not being in control. This session will work out a strategy for joyfully befriending death."

For Huffington Post Jaweed Kaleem writes "Art Of Dying Conference Explores Spiritual, Scientific Approaches To Dying" in which he states the conference "... kicked off Friday morning with two daylong seminars — one taught by psychotherapist Thomas Moore about “alternative ways to know about life and death” and another led by Henry Fersko-Weiss, president of the International End-of-Life Doula Association ..."

Register now for Thomas Moore's two new half-day workshops at the Center on Sunday 28 June 2015:
Passionate Neutrality
All is Play

Sign up for two new workshops at NY Open Center

Thomas Moore offers two new half-day workshops at New York Open Center on Sunday 28 June 2015.
Combined registration for both sessions:
Members: $110 / Nonmembers: $135
Individual registration for each session is available. Click the link above for full descriptions of each workshop. Here are excerpts for the two sessions:

Passionate Neutrality 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
"If there is a single, distinguishing quality of a Zen master, Sufi teacher or monk spiritual guide it is his or her capacity to be neutral when passions are high and personal complexes on the loose. We could all benefit from this ability to stay neutral when everything urges us to lose control, let emotions run amok, and get caught in another person’s madness. This skill is useful at work, when counseling others, in friendships and, above all, in marriages. In fact, the case could be made that if people generally could learn this lesson of neutrality, there would be far less conflict and violence.  ... "
Members: $60 / Nonmembers: $75

All is Play 2:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
"...  A sense of play and fun are essential to the good life. But this idea goes against all the heavy, serious psychology so prominent in modern life. There is liberation in the discovery of the importance of play, wit, humor, and games. "
Members: $60 / Nonmembers: $75

Both sessions are at New York Open Center 22 E 30th St., New York City, New York

Moore's influence grows among spiritual leaders

Thomas Moore moves up the list of Watkins Books' Mind Body Spirit top 100 Living Spiritual Leaders in 2015 to number 28, between Marianne Williamson and Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma). Last year he was number 85.

Watkins Mind Body Spirit - Issue #41 (Spring 2015): "Celebrating spiritual activists, teachers & authors with Watkins Spiritual 100 list of the most spiritually influential living people."

Barque coverage
8 Oct 2014 "Moore is among most spiritually influential in 2014"

How to skip a stone may be a lesson in life

Thomas Moore shares images of his father, James Hillman, and Carl Jung in his column "Skipping Stones" for Spirituality & Health magazine's March - April 2015 issue. He writes about the alchemy of stones and water:

"The joy my dad and I found in watching the stones bounce in the air, glancing off the water, reflected the kind of life each of us wanted: not too serious, not excessively grounded, not sinking into the waters of emotion and melodrama. We enjoyed touching down but preferred to stay in the air. I imagine that it was in this same spirit that Jesus, in many ways a puer, walked on water. He was like a skipping stone himself, enjoying life one minute and praying to his Sky Father the next."

Moore's father whom he affectionately calls the philosophical plumber, died a month after his one-hundredth birthday party. Moore writes: "The trick is to grow up without losing your innocence and playfulness. The more seriously you take life, the more room there is to remain a child. When you teach your child how to skip a stone, maybe you’ll notice that it’s a game but also a lesson in life. "