Classes and Workshops 2008

Center for Spiritual Development

For over 20 years, the Center for Spiritual Development has offered classes and workshops that express the UU value of drawing inspiration from diverse faiths and philosophies. Anyone interested in pursuing spiritual practice as a transformative life experience may enroll. As we develop spiritually, our social actions become more compassionate. Classes provide an environment for the realization and enhancement of our connection with the larger Reality in which we live.
Chair: Lynnette Delgado.

Spring 2008 Classes and Workshops

T'ai Chi Chuan: Bringing Body and Mind into Harmony
Led by Norie Clarke
Six Wednesdays, Feb 6 - March 12, from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.
Suggested fee: $36
To register, call Norie (510) 527-4054

Learn the classic mind body exercise of t'ai chi chuan, known to promote health and serenity through a series of slow, gentle movements, relieving stress while exercising your body and training your mind. Norie will begin the session by giving each participant a short "qigong" massage. We will then quiet our minds while passing chi between us before starting to learn and practice the 108 Forms.

Norie Clarke has studied T'ai Chi Chuan Wu Style for over 30 years, first with Sophia Delza, the first Westerner to present a book on t'ai chi chuan (1961). Norie has been studying with Master William Lai from Hong Kong for the last 7 years and she began teaching t'ai chi in 2005.

Congregational Singing and Listening
February 9

CANCELLED

Reiki I
Led by Ramona Young-Grindle, Usui and Karuna Reiki Master Teacher, and Melanie Clark, Usui Reiki Master
This is a two-part class: Friday, Feb. 8, 6:30 - 9:30 p.m. and
Saturday Feb. 9, 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Suggested fee: $75. Advance deposit of $40 by Jan. 10.
Limited to 15 participants. Bring a bag lunch and snacks to share.

Reiki is a traditional Japanese energetic healing modality that utilizes the Universal Life Force energy available to all people. Reiki is now used in hospitals and other mainstream healthcare facilities, and there is a growing body of research that supports the effectiveness of Reiki as a healing modality. Reiki training will change your life.

Reiki is taught in several successive levels. This class is the introductory level. It is designed to teach you to utilize this profound energy resource for yourself, your family and loved ones, and your friends. The traditional attunements will be given as part of the class. Participants will receive a Reiki healing and the opportunity to practice with others. A Reiki I manual is included, along with a certificate affirming completion of the Level I Training. You will also receive handouts citing current research demonstrating measurable benefits of Reiki healing.

Spirit In Practice
A new UUA curriculum
Led by Rev. Barbara Hamilton-Holway
This course is offered in ten, one-hour sessions from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm on Sundays from February 17 through June 8. Please see specific dates for each workshop. Participate in any one, several, or all the sessions.

WORKSHOP 1: Toward a Rich and Meaningful Unitarian Universalist Spirituality - February 17
WORKSHOP 2: Personal Spiritual Practices - February 24
WORKSHOP 3: Communal Worship Practices - March 9
WORKSHOP 4: Spiritual Partnerships - March 16
WORKSHOP 5: Mind Practices - March 30
WORKSHOP 6: Body Practices - April 6
WORKSHOP 7: Soul Practices - April 13
WORKSHOP 8: Life Practices - April 27
WORKSHOP 9: Justice Practices - June 1**
WORKSHOP 10: Looking Back and Moving Forward - June 8**
(Summer schedule 11:30 am - 12:30 pm)
Snack Table lunches. Child care provided.

Cool the Earth Café
February 23

CANCELLED

Jeremy Taylor Dreamwork
Led by Jeremy Taylor
Two workshops and a small group
Workshops:  Saturday, February 23 and Saturday, March 1, 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
                    Suggested fee for each workshop: $45
Small group: Six weeks, Tuesdays, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m., February 5, 12, 19, (not 26), March 4, 11, and 18
                    For those with experience in projective dreamwork.
                    Suggested fee: $115. Limited enrollment.
To register, call Martha Helming (510) 528-3417

The workshops will offer an introduction to projective dreamwork, using the technique "if this were my dream." They will prepare you to work with your dreams and the dreams of others. Space permitting, you can take both workshops. The small group will give you a chance to deepen your dreamwork practice.

Jeremy Taylor, M.A., D.Min. is an internationally recognized innovator of group process in projective dreamwork. He is also a Unitarian Universalist minister. The author of several books on dreamwork, he teaches at many universities and seminaries, including the University of Creation Spirituality and Starr King School for the Ministry, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in Sacred Theology.

Mindfulness Meditation
Led by Donna Davis
12 weeks, Wednesdays, March 5 – May 21, 9:30 to 11:00 a.m.
Suggested fee: $60
To register, call Donna Davis (510) 526-0671

Explore meditation through simple practices and shared insights. All explorers are welcome, whether or not you have prior meditation experience. In this class a major focus will be the Metta or Loving-Kindness meditation. We will also explore other approaches to meditation, primarily the Vipassana practice of giving attention to one’s breath. Resources will include the writing of Jack Kornfield, Sharon Salzberg and Stephen Levine.

Donna Davis will lead the exploration. During the past twenty years, her principal teachers of meditation have been Kendra Smith and Joyce Goodrich.

Write for Your Life: Turning Points
Led by Beth Glick-Rieman
Saturday, March 8, 9:30 a.m.- 4:00 p.m.
Suggested fee: $40. Bring a bag lunch and snacks to share.
To register, call Beth Glick-Rieman (510) 524-2858 or cell (510) 225-5268.

Be a writer for a day! In your life and mine there are events, people and places that bring about major changes of direction in our lives, perhaps even a cosmic shift in our understanding of who we are. It is as if the sands under our feet are being moved away by the pull of the motion of the sea, and life is never the same again.

Come, spend a day using writing to explore those times in your life when new decisions were called for, when you experienced upheaval, challenge and the need to make new connections. Come and experience yourself as a person of courage and risk-taking among those who trust in their ability to face the unknown future in hope and faith.

Beth Glick Rieman is the author of 'Peace Train to Beijing and Beyond' and 'Opening Your Heart.' She has had 25 years of experience in teaching writing and leading groups in self-healing, personal growth and human interaction.

Reiki Training, Level II
Friday, March 14, 6:00 - 10:00 p.m.
Fee: $75.00
To register, call Ramona Young-Grindle (707) 426-4700 or Melanie Clark (925) 283-7157
Reiki Level I (offered Feb. 8 - 9, see p. 11) is a prerequisite to this class.

This level of Reiki training is designed to expand the techniques available to the Reiki practitioner and to enhance the scope and depth of understanding of Reiki applications. Class participants will learn about scanning the energy field, work with emotional release and healing, and develop the tools to work with distance healing. This level of training also focuses on release work with addictions and dependency.

This level of Reiki healing is for those who feel called to a higher degree of commitment to working with energetic healing and personal spiritual development. Class participants will receive the attunements for this level and have time to practice with the new techniques presented.

Melanie Clark, MFT, has been a psychotherapist for 20 years and has taught and led groups during much of that time. More recently she has become a Reiki Master Teacher; she wants to make Reiki available to all who wish to be a source of healing in this way.

Ramona Young-Grindle, CCHT, is a Usui and Karuna Reiki Master Teacher and Master Results Coach. She has been in private practice and teaching classes for eight years and believes that Reiki is a profound modality for healing and spiritual growth that can be available to every person.

Hands-on Art Class: Box Sculpture: Miniature Altars and Memory Rooms Led by Emily Kuenstler
Saturday, March 15, 9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.
Suggested fee: $45 (includes craft material). Bring a bag lunch and snacks to share.
To register, call Emily (415) 451-1884, or e-mail: surfacetexture@yahoo.com

This workshop is for artists wishing to refresh their practice; for those curious about their own creativity; for those who long to express themselves but have not had a safe environment in which to do so; or for craftspeople who want to emphasize the spiritual element of what they produce.

The workshop begins with a whirl through art history, looking at artists working in Box Sculpture. After a guided meditation and drawing exercise, we create a two-dimensional Vision Collage. Following a break, materials are selected by each artist to begin a box sculpture based on an intention discovered within the collage. While technical support and information are available, each artist's absolute autonomy is respected, and unorthodox working methods are encouraged. Sharing circles divide the afternoon into two productive sessions.

Emily Kuenstler, MFA, graduated from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2004 after working in publishing and set dressing for movies. Her journey midwifing other artists' creativity has led her to facilitate private workshops for artists as well as for very talented "non-artists" at retirement facilities. Her artwork can be found at www.energyart.com, and her art criticism can be found online at www.stretcher.org and in After Image Journal and ArtWeek.

The Mythic Jesus Richard Stromer
Wednesdays, April 9, 16, 23 and 30, 7:30 - 9:00 p.m.
Suggested fee: $30
To register, call Martha Helming (510)528-3417

This four-week class will explore the mythic power of the story of Jesus. Rather than focusing on the Jesus of history or the Jesus of religious dogma, we'll explore the archetypal power of the Jesus of myth. This mythic vision of Jesus partly draws upon the wisdom of many other ancient stories of a Divine Child / Savior who comes to bring a perennial message of light, love, and never-ending renewal to humankind and the world. In addition, we'll consider other myths of the ancient world in which the Divine takes on mortal form in the guise of an array of dying and rising god/humans. From the Jesus of the ancient Gnostics to the Cosmic Christ of Matthew Fox, we'll contemplate the profoundly symbolic power of this mythology and what its perennial wisdom can teach us about our own lives today. The suggested textbook for this class is "The Jesus Mysteries" by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy.

Richard Stromer has a doctorate in mythological studies and world sacred traditions as viewed from the perspective of depth psychology. He has a counseling and teaching practice based in Berkeley and specializes in the application of the concept of personal mythology to issues of psychological and spiritual development. To learn more about his approach to myth, please refer to his website: www.personalmyths.com

Once Upon a Time: the Alchemy of Storytelling Led by Carol Carlisle
Saturday, April 12, 9:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m.
Suggested fee: $40
Bring a bag lunch and snacks to share.
To register, call Carol Carlisle (510) 528-9310 or Lynnette Delgado (510) 799-0747

Stories take us to places we have never been and also bring us back to ourselves. In this workshop you will learn tools of the storyteller's trade, so that you will be able to work some of this magic on yourself and others.

Carol has a certificate in story telling from Dominican College. She studied acting at ACT and has written and directed plays for children's theater.

Transforming Suffering: Exercises for Cultivating Bliss
Led by Melanie Clark
Saturday, May 3, 9:00 a.m.- 3:30 p.m.
Suggested fee: $40
Bring a bag lunch and snacks to share.
To register, call Melanie Clark (925) 283-7157

It has been said that in life, "pain is inevitable but suffering is optional." When we resolve the issues that are the source of our pain, often there is still a mental residue of suffering left behind. As Carl Jung noted, "What gets repressed gets stronger." It is important not to simply ignore or deny our mental suffering as it can "leak" out in unintended ways.

Current brain research validates the mystical insights of the Wisdom Traditions and the power of Buddhist mindfulness training for changing how we interpret and experience life. This class offers an approach for going through suffering to joy--or bliss. Whether the original pain was physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual, these practices can transmute the residue of suffering that remains. The energy transformation that can result is a psychological equivalent of the ancient quest for turning lead into gold. Our consciousness becomes more spacious and more energy becomes available for pursuing meaningful activities.

Melanie Clark, MFT, has been a psychotherapist for nearly 20 years and has taught and led groups for much of that time. She has been a meditator for more than 30 years. She brings a perspective to the teaching of the Wisdom Traditions that is both practical and refreshing.