
TOPIC: STORIES moderated by Jack Petranker

DESCRIPTION
We tell stories to make sense of what is happening. When the stories we tell about our lives substitute for the immediacy of experience, this can be deeply problematic. Caught in our stories, we live on the surface of our lives. But we do not have to set our stories aside. We can inhabit them and them come alive.
That approach makes good sense in these times, because we have a love affair with stories, from the entertainments we consume voraciously, the explanations that science offers up in the name of truth, or the founding story that each of us enacts—the story of the self. Contemplative traditions sometimes ask us to let go of our stories, but the real trick is not to get lost in their content, and instead use the power of stories in creative and healing ways.
ABOUT JACK PETRANKER
Jack Petranker is Executive Director of the Mangalam Research Center for Buddhist Languages. He holds a law degree from Yale and a Masters in political theory from the University of California, Berkeley. Since 1980, he has worked full-time in the Nyingma community founded by Tibetan lama Tarthang Tulku. He has served as senior editor at Dharma Publishing and Mangalam Press and as Dean of the Nyingma Institute. Jack is the founder and Senior Teacher at the Center for Creative Inquiry, and has been North American vice-president of the World Fellowship of Buddhists. He is the author of When It Rains, Does Space Get Wet? (2006), and Storyland (forthcoming), and has published academic articles in the fields of consciousness studies, organizational change, and mindfulness, as well as articles in Tricycle and other Buddhist magazines. He has a special interest in developing secular approaches to transforming experience and the ways we construct reality. He regularly offers programs and retreats in the US and Europe. Learn more.
ABOUT SALON
Salons are monthly open dialogues on cutting-edge research related to contemplation and flourishing with UVA and local community members in the Contemplative Commons, hosted by CSC's CIRCL: Contemplative Innovation + Research Co-Lab. Centered on a single word, these gatherings bring together scholars, scientists, and practitioners from diverse perspectives to exchange ideas, generate knowledge, and seek solutions to global challenges. View all Salons here.
Contemplative Commons 404 (The Great Hall)
Contemplative Sciences Center
403 Emmet Street S.
Charlottesville, VA 22903
United States