March 3, 2026 @ 8:15 AM–4:30 PM // Nalanda Campus
Join us on March 3, 2026, for Community Practice Day—a day when classes and meetings are not held, and when we gather together in virtual and in-person community. For our Spring 2026 Community Practice Day, the theme is The Earth Is My Witness.
As spring emerges, we gather for Community Practice Day, to honor this sacred reciprocity between self and planet, between awakening and care, we are invited to remember what the Buddha knew on the night of his awakening: that the Earth bears witness. In that moment of doubt and clarity, when he placed his hand upon the ground, the Earth did not remain silent. She rose to meet him—steady, alive, saying, I am here. I have always been here.
This gesture lives in each of us. When we touch the Earth, the Earth touches back. In our moments of courage and grief, of awakening and action, we are not alone. The living world holds us as witness—in quiet recognition of our shared becoming.
Morning Community Time
8:30–9:00 AM Communi-Tea and Morning Refreshments
Location: Nalanda Atrium (south entrance)
Everyone is welcome!
The Earth Is My Witness
Location: Nalanda Events Center // Morning Zoom link:
9:00–9:15 AM: Welcoming Invocation
9:15–9:30 AM: Movement Meditation
Tai Chi Ch’uan
with Larry Welsh
Larry Welsh, MAc, MA, has trained in the Yang-style short form, listening hands and sword form of Tai Chi Ch’uan since 1977. Larry is Senior Adjunct Professor and Mindfulness-Meditation teacher in the Traditional Eastern Arts program at Naropa University. He practices Japanese Classical Acupuncture, herbal medicine and whole-food nutrition in Boulder, Colorado.
9:45–10:45 AM: Sitting & Walking Meditation Practice
Sitting & Walking Meditation
with Carla Burns
Carla Burns, MDiv, is faculty at Naropa University, where she designs and facilitates retreats and teaches in Naropa’s Mindful Compassion Training. She also serves as a lead curriculum and design consultant for the Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education, offering expertise in contemplative practices, mindfulness retreats, and compassion-based interventions. Her work emphasizes embodied and spatial ways of knowing, community building, and practices that support personal and collective liberation.
11:00 AM–12:30 PM: Practice-Based Keynote Address
"Bodhisattvas in Our Time: Vajrayana Buddhism, Nuclear Guardianship, and the Legacy of Dr. Joanna Macy"
With Kaye Jones, Introduced by Kathleen Sullivan
This practice-based keynote with Kaye Jones introduces the Naropa community to Joanna Macy’s legacy at the powerful intersection of Vajrayana Buddhism, nuclear guardianship, and engaged eco-dharma. Drawing on Macy’s insight that interdependence and systems thinking call us to responsibility across time, Kaye will explore how Buddhist practice and nuclear abolition activism co-emerged in Joanna’s life, offering a living example of contemplative wisdom in action. Central to the session is an experiential introduction to the “Ten Enterings,” practices that invite participants to enter a single moment, body, or place and sense its resonances across all beings, times, and spaces, transforming despair into compassionate, courageous action for the Earth. Through storytelling, guided reflection, and interactive practice, attendees will deepen their understanding of Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects and discover pathways for embodying bodhisattva commitments in this era of planetary crisis.
Kaye Jones is a somatic coach, farmer, and a mother of three children. Based in the Columbia River gorge, she is a student of relationships, reality and complexity, as understood through the lens of dharma, the body, and the living earth. Kaye has her MSc from Schumacher College where she was mentored by Brian Goodwin. Joanna Macy has been Kaye’s root teacher, dear friend, and collaborator in dharma and natural systems since 2003. Kaye worked closely with Joanna and Stephanie Kaza in the creation of an anthology, published by Shambhala, entitled A Wild Love for the World, as well as assisting on the 30th anniversary edition of World as Lover, World as Self. Kaye is a doctoral candidate at California Institute of Integral Studies (ITPS, somatic emphasis) where her dissertation work is deeply rooted in Joanna’s Buddhist scholarship.
Lunch on your own or with friends and colleagues
Prospective Students Practice Day Luncheon // Nalanda 9130 & 9248
Alumnx Luncheon with Kelly Watt // Dojo 9180
In-Person Offerings: 1:45–3:00 PM
Uprooting Qahr
with Taiysha Adams & Mukuy Collective
Location: Nalanda 9190 // RSVP to attend this offering
Uprooting Qahr: Power, Privilege, and Paperwork, follows Taishya Adams—educator, artist, and policy maker—as she weaves personal and political histories to connect the colonial dots from the Deep South to the American West to West Asia! Through monologues, film, and live music, this voyage begins at the intersection of displacement and dispossession of stolen land, Indigenous people, and enslaved Africans on Turtle Island.
We will explore themes of ancestral wisdom, migration, agency, and trust to find the ties that bind us through liberatory (eg representation and voting rights) and oppressive systems (eg tiered systems of rights). Together, we face the uneven promise of democracy and pathways to repair and reconciliation. This experience connects the head and the heart through laughter, tears, grief, and joy to reclaim the rhyme of collective liberation.
Qahr (n): an Arabic word for the combined feelings of sadness, frustration, anger caused by intergenerational displacement, dispossession and discrimination. Uprooting Qahr is produced by the Mukuyu Collective in partnership with eight16creative and Lopez-Wagner Strategies. Climate Justice Hive, a 501(c)3 nonprofit, serves as our fiscal sponsor.
Taishya Adams, MA, Executive Producer, Creative Director, Principal (she/her) is an educator, Earth tender, policymaker, community weaver, and founder of the Mukuyu Collective. Mukuyu accelerates collective liberation and stewardship through policy, education, and media. Mukuyu has worked with the Next 100 Coalition, Summit for Action, Nuestra Tierra, and NASA. Previously, Taishya served on boards/commissions for the Colorado Parks and Wildlife, NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries, and Black in Marine Science. Taishya co-founded a public high school and early learning center for pregnant and parenting studens and their children. Taishya holds a MA in International Education from George Washington University and a BA from Vassar College in Political Science and Film Production.
Ancient Forests and Ancient Imagination
with Nathan Hutchinson
Location: Nalanda 9184
Join author and artist Nathan Hutchinson for an immersive presentation on his nonprofit book Evergreen, a heartfelt homage to our wild world. Featuring over 150 original artworks alongside a series of interwoven essays, this work invites a philosophical and poetic inquiry into our profound interconnectivity with the Earth.
Through a hands-on, experiential lens, explore old-growth forests as sacred embodiment of biological vitality and spiritual depth. Discover art as a portal for activism: a call to witness, engage, and co-create with the living environment. Delve into the tri-fold practice of observation, contemplation, and reflection, honoring the ancient cosmology of Unity, now illuminated by modern ecology. Here, we see that the world needs us, as we need it, fostering love, reverence, and active stewardship for our ancient forests and remaining wild places.
Nature reveals itself as our bodily temple, for those who seek, guiding us to find the Self—and perhaps transcend it. Together, let us awaken protection, preservation, and participatory inter-being.
Please feel free to bring a painting/drawing or writing journal for participation….
Some of Nathan’s artwork of old-growth-forests and more imaginal renderings will be given to those who attend.
Nathan Hutchinson is a Colorado-based artist whose work aims at contributing to the “environmental movement”. Mainly self-taught, he works in a wide variety of mediums; from oils to watercolors, inks, pencil and ceramics, Nathan is always trying to cover as many levels and genres as possible to illustrate the interface of human nature and wider world of nature. He has recently published an art-poetry book called Evergreen – a twenty-year project where all proceeds are donated to organizations helping our last remaining old-growth forests. Nathan goes with the axiom that All life is Art, and everything we do is a co-creating of our environment. He moved to Boulder in 2001 to study briefly under Robert Venosa—a classical tradition he tries to carry further.
Guardianship in a Time of Turning: Eco-Dharma, Activism & the Living Legacy of Joanna Macy
With Kathleen Sullivan, Kaye Jones & Sally Craig
Location: Nalanda 9195
In this open and participatory session as a follow up to our keynote session, join Kathleen Sullivan, Kaye Jones, and Sally Craig into a shared inquiry rooted in Joanna Macy’s profound legacy of nuclear guardianship, eco-social justice, and the path of eco-dharma. Drawing on Macy’s lifelong work in the intersection of deep ecology, systems thinking, and spiritual activism, the session opens a dialogic space to explore how we encounter and respond to the peril and promise of our times.
Through story, reflection, and collective conversation, we will examine what it means to be a “guardian” in a world fractured by nuclear threat, ecological loss, and social inequity. Participants are encouraged to bring their own experiences of activism, contemplative practice, and community engagement as we explore pathways toward regenerating connection with one another, with the Earth, and with the moral imagination required for transformation.
An invitation — to listen deeply, speak authentically, and nurture insight into how Macy’s teachings continue to inform emergent forms of eco-dharma and sacred activism today.
Sally Craig met Joanna in 1966 as a member of the Peace Corps in Tunisia. From there, she became a lifelong friend who accompanied Joanna and her husband Fran on many workshops and journeys, including a most prescient trip to Russia, where the Elm Dance was born.
Kathleen Sullivan met Joanna in 1988 and became an early member of the nuclear guardianship fire group. She later traveled with Joanna, particularly in the UK and Europe when she was living abroad for graduate school in the 1990s.
Kaye Jones met Joanna in the early 2000s assisting with her reflections in A Wild Love for the World, and the most recent edition of World as Lover, World as Self. Kaye is a PhD candidate at CIIS where her dissertation is rooted in Joanna’s Buddhist scholarship.
Pathways in a Magic Mirror: Interpreting the I Ching
With Laura Marshall
Location: Nalanda Events Center & Online
Consulting of the I Ching is like looking into a magic mirror: every hexagram presents a host of elements that, when given attention, provide access to the guiding wisdom held in this extraordinary book.
This class offers an in-depth look at the retinue of images and words in the hexagrams cast for Naropa on the Lunar New Year. As the Year of the Fire Horse (2026) ignites with passion, transformation, and unpredictable energy, Naropa University invites you to explore how this dynamic cycle may shape our collective path.
What do their inner and outer aspects tell us about the present moment and the coming year?
What questions does it hold for the Naropa community?
All are welcome to join in this discussion, whether you are new to the I Ching, or if you are experienced in reading the hexagrams.
Laura Marshall is a scholar of global culture and the imagination. She is a visual artist, has a PhD in Mythological Studies, and taught World Art at Naropa University for over ten years. She has studied the I Ching since 1970; her influences include C.G. Jung, Stephen Karcher, Howard Bad Hand, and Cyrille Javary. She offers consultations and teaches classes in the I Ching in the U.S. and Europe. www.lauramarshall.com
The Way of Tea: Earth as Witness, We Witness Earth
Location: Naropa Tea House, ARAPAHOE Campus
Reserve your spot. Please note there is a 5-person limit per sitting.
Please join Chadō practitioners and Naropa Tea House Stewards Andrea Becker and Sarah Richards Graba for a bowl of tea in the historic Naropa Tea House. Small groups of guests will enjoy a sweet and a bowl of matcha prepared in the Urasenke style.
Join us for a quiet meeting of body, breath, and Earth. Rooted in Zen Buddhism, Chadō reminds us that tea and Zen have one taste: awareness arises through simple, devoted presence. In this ritual of reciprocity, we drink directly from the living world—tea leaves grown in soil, warmed by water and fire—offered hand to hand like communion with the Earth itself. Handcrafted clay bowls and wooden utensils hold the memory of earth, flame, and human care, speaking to our shared interdependence. As we sit together, practicing tea becomes an act of listening—a way of touching the ground and being touched back, remembering that the Earth is here, quietly bearing witness to our becoming.
Andrea “Drea” Becker (she/they) is an independent writer and photographer currently based in Denver, CO. Drea graduated from JKS in 2018 and has been studying Chadō for eight years.
Sarah Richards Graba of the Naropa Tea House is a writer and teacher with an eclectic spiritual life that includes zen, yoga, witchcraft, shamanism, tea ceremony, and more. She is an adjunct professor at Naropa, primarily teaching writing in the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. She has been studying chanoyu for over 10 years (after discovering it at the Naropa Tea House), and has been a lover of all tea for life.
Questions or tech issues? Contact us at naropateahouse@naropa.edu.
Can’t make it on Practice Day? Find our hours and events here: https://discord.gg/XCaECd2hAM
Online Offerings: 1:45–3:00 PM
Pathways in a Magic Mirror: Interpreting the I Ching
With Laura Marshall
Location: Nalanda Events Center & Online
Consulting of the I Ching is like looking into a magic mirror: every hexagram presents a host of elements that, when given attention, provide access to the guiding wisdom held in this extraordinary book.
This class offers an in-depth look at the retinue of images and words in the hexagrams cast for Naropa on the Lunar New Year. As the Year of the Fire Horse (2026) ignites with passion, transformation, and unpredictable energy, Naropa University invites you to explore how this dynamic cycle may shape our collective path.
What do their inner and outer aspects tell us about the present moment and the coming year?
What questions does it hold for the Naropa community?
All are welcome to join in this discussion, whether you are new to the I Ching, or if you are experienced in reading the hexagrams.
Laura Marshall is a scholar of global culture and the imagination. She is a visual artist, has a PhD in Mythological Studies, and taught World Art at Naropa University for over ten years. She has studied the I Ching since 1970; her influences include C.G. Jung, Stephen Karcher, Howard Bad Hand, and Cyrille Javary. She offers consultations and teaches classes in the I Ching in the U.S. and Europe. www.lauramarshall.com
Online Faculty Track
We are excited to offer opportunity for community building and workshops on Contemplative Pedagogy, specifically designed for faculty. All Naropa faculty are invited and encouraged to join. This is a unique opportunity to engage with other faculty around particular topics in contemplative education, Naropa’s unique educational lineage.
Faculty Track Panel Discussion: 3:15–4:30 PM
Contemplative Education across the Disciplines: A Conversation with the CACE Faculty Committee
Panelists: Dale Asrael, MA; Carla Burns, MDiv; Marina Dorian, PhD; Michael Franklin, PhD; and Giovannina Jobson, MA
Join Zoom Meeting:
Join members of Naropa University’s Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education (CACE) for an interactive online workshop introducing the Contemplative Education Inquiry Project: A Qualitative Study of Departmental Perspectives at Naropa University.
This session will share insights from a year-long faculty inquiry exploring how contemplative education is understood, practiced, and embodied across Naropa’s academic departments. Drawing on focus groups with faculty from across the university, the project examined how rigorous academics, experiential learning, and contemplative practice come together in diverse disciplines.
Panelists will offer a brief overview of the study’s key findings—including shared values, distinctive disciplinary expressions, and core pedagogical practices—and will invite participants into conversation about what contemplative education looks like in their own teaching, learning, and work at Naropa. The session will include time for practice, reflection, dialogue, and collective inquiry.
This workshop is open to all Naropa faculty and staff interested in curriculum design, pedagogy, faculty development, marketing, admissions and the future of contemplative education at Naropa.
Dale Asrael, MA, is a University Professor and has taught as Core Faculty in the MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling since 1993. She founded, and is the principal instructor for, Naropa University Mindfulness Instructor Training program, which is currently in its twenty-fifth annual session. Her publications include — Love of Wisdom Puts You on the Spot in Meditation in the Classroom, No Hidden Corners in Shadows and Light and Compassionate Abiding in Brilliant Sanity.
Carla Burns, MDiv, is faculty at Naropa University, where she designs and facilitates retreats and teaches in Naropa’s Mindful Compassion Training. She also serves as a lead curriculum and design consultant for the Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education, offering expertise in contemplative practices, mindfulness retreats, and compassion-based interventions. Her work emphasizes embodied and spatial ways of knowing, community building, and practices that support personal and collective liberation.
Dr. Marina Dorian is an associate professor in the Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling Program at Naropa University. She integrates mindfulness practice, clinical expertise, and relationship dynamics into her teaching and research. Marina’s work explores mindful relating, stress and resilience, and the intersection of cultural and relational dynamics. A meditation practitioner for over 20 years, Marina follows the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. She is passionate about contemplative practices, including meditation, dance, and connecting with nature, which deeply inform her pedagogy and personal life.
Dr. Michael Franklin, past chair of Naropa University’s art therapy program, has worked in various academic and clinical settings since 1981. Michael is an international lecturer, author of Art as Contemplative Practice (SUNY Press), and founder of the Naropa Community Art Studio, a research project training socially-engaged art therapists.
Giovannina Jobson, MA, is a faculty member in the Department of Wisdom Traditions. She has taught at Naropa for more than 20 years in the Master of Divinity program as well as in the Naropa Core program. She is a mindfulness instruction trainer, a Maitri Space Awareness teacher and a dedicated Dharma Art practitioner.
In-Person Offerings: 3:15–4:30 PM
Mountain Wisdom Paths: Exploring the Five Buddha Families through the Eyes of a Modern Ninja with Ian Sanderson
Presented in collaboration with Environmental Studies Department and the Joanna Macy Center for Resilience and Regeneration – Earth Guardian Fellowship
Location: Nalanda 9176
Many in the Naropa community know the Maitri Space Awareness practice and its framework of the Five Buddha Families (Pancatathagata), a profound pathway for cultivating Maitri, or loving-kindness. Yet fewer know the incredible journey these teachings took across Asia, traveling from India over the Himalayas, through China and Korea, and into Japan, where they became woven into the Shingon and Tendai esoteric traditions. There, infused with Shinto, Taoist, and shamanic threads, they evolved within Shugendo, the mountain wisdom paths of the Yamabushi monks—and later influenced the art and philosophy of Ninjutsu.
In this lively and experiential workshop, we’ll explore the “Go-Dai” or Five Great Elements—Earth (Chi), Water (Sui), Fire (Ka), Wind (Fu), and Void (Ku)—and their relationships to body, mind, and heart. Through grounded movement, reflective exercises, and group exploration, we’ll experience how these elemental energies can be applied not only to contemplative practice but also to how we understand ourselves, relate to others, and navigate the world around us.
Led by a long-time practitioner of both Ninjutsu and Buddhist traditions, Ian Sanderson, this session offers a rare opportunity to engage the Five Buddha Families through the perspective of a “living Ninja.” Come ready to move, play, and discover what it’s like to walk the path of loving-kindness with elemental power and embodied awareness.
Ian Sanderson, Mohawk Nation, Turtle clan, from the Grand River Reserve in Ontario, Canada, has spent over 25 years inspiring awareness and reconnection to self, community, and the rest of the natural world by exploring convergences of the philosophies and epistemologies found in Indigenous, Eastern, and Western traditions to realize empowered personal transformation and socio-ecological change.
Building off a love of the outdoors and a degree in Indigenous Studies from Trent University, he started his professional life in outdoor and experiential education with the Canadian Outward Bound Wilderness School. Following a move to Sante Fe, NM, he worked for many years with the Santa Fe Mountain Center, creating community-based social-ecological change programs with many Indigenous communities, designing and delivering De-colonization programs, and much more. Having moved to Colorado in 2010, he is currently a core faculty member with the Environmental Studies program at Naropa University, where he has taught for 14 years.
Over the course of his career, Ian has facilitated many hundreds of single and multi-day group programs and other engagements, locally and throughout the country, and across extremely diverse populations and contexts. At any point you could find him with a group in the remote back-country, in downtown office buildings, with non-profits, or schools in both the pre- and post-secondary educational levels.
Additionally, he is a former owner and current teacher at Quest Self-Defense, which trains youth and adults in the transformative martial art of To-Shin-Do ninjutsu, which offers a modern approach to handling the threats and confrontations likely in our modern society through reality-based training, coaching students in ways to promote peace, security, well-being, and building the kind of inner strength and resiliency that leads to success in life. He is currently working towards the rank of “Godan,” 5thDegree Black Belt and has studied martial arts for over 20 years.
His work in the world has expanded in recent years to include the application of complexity thinking, Indigenous relational systems-thinking, and regenerative design frameworks in the hope of inspiring the potential that resides amongst the chaos of modern contexts.
The Earth Is My Witness: Gross National Happiness as Lived Culture
with Ugyen Tshomo
Location: Nalanda Events Center
This workshop explores Gross National Happiness (GNH) through lived cultural practices in Bhutan, where relationships with land, community, architecture, and story shape well-being. Rather than approaching GNH as a policy framework alone, the session centers on everyday ways of living—farming with seasonal rhythms, respecting mountains, rivers, and forests, building homes that honor landscape, and sustaining communal circles of care where people are rarely left alone.
The workshop is anchored in storytelling, which transmits values of balance, humility, and ecological belonging across generations. Participants will be invited into active dialogue as these stories are placed alongside contemporary examples, including Bhutan’s architectural traditions and the vision of Gelephu Mindfulness City, where mindfulness and ecological responsibility are embedded into urban design.
The session will include visuals and occasional short film clips, narrated stories, and discussion. The workshop offers space for reflection on how happiness can be organized socially and ecologically—how circles of support already exist in some cultures, and what it means to live as part of the Earth rather than apart from it.
Hosted by the Naropa Center for Bhutan Partnerships
Ugyen Tshomo (she/her) is a PhD student in Education (Curriculum & Instruction) at the University of Virginia. Raised in Bhutan, she brings lived experience of Gross National Happiness as a cultural way of life, shaped through relationships with land, community, architecture, and storytelling. She previously served as an Assistant Professor at Paro College of Education, Royal University of Bhutan, and is the author of six books, including Bhutanese folktale collections and children’s literature centered on social-emotional learning and inclusive education.
Clarifying Your Purpose in the Great Turning with Don Hall
Presented in collaboration with Alumnx Relations and the Joanna Macy Center for Resilience & Regeneration
Location: Nalanda 9189
In this time of escalating social, economic, and environmental polycrisis, there are so many things we “should” do to help bring about a just and regenerative future, but we simply can’t do them all. So how can we best direct our time and energy to have a significant impact on our world, while creating meaningful and rewarding livelihoods for ourselves? Using meditative techniques, the Japanese Ikigai framework, and an exercise from Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects, we’ll explore the power and magic of connecting with our innate sense of purpose and let that lead us forward into designing practical eco-social action plans.
Don Hall has been a dedicated social justice and environmental activist for over 25 years. He currently serves as Training Coordinator for Transition Network International and is the author of The Regeneration Handbook: Transform Yourself to Transform the World. Don holds a Master’s in Environmental Leadership from Naropa University, a certification in Permaculture Design from the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, and blogs at evolutionarychange.org.
The Way of Tea: Earth as Witness, We Witness Earth Session II
Location: Naropa Tea House, ARAPAHOE Campus
Reserve your spot. Please note there is a 5-person limit per sitting.
Please join Chadō practitioners and Naropa Tea House Stewards Andrea Becker and Sarah Richards Graba for a bowl of tea in the historic Naropa Tea House. Small groups of guests will enjoy a sweet and a bowl of matcha prepared in the Urasenke style.
Join us for a quiet meeting of body, breath, and Earth. Rooted in Zen Buddhism, Chadō reminds us that tea and Zen have one taste: awareness arises through simple, devoted presence. In this ritual of reciprocity, we drink directly from the living world—tea leaves grown in soil, warmed by water and fire—offered hand to hand like communion with the Earth itself. Handcrafted clay bowls and wooden utensils hold the memory of earth, flame, and human care, speaking to our shared interdependence. As we sit together, practicing tea becomes an act of listening—a way of touching the ground and being touched back, remembering that the Earth is here, quietly bearing witness to our becoming.
Andrea “Drea” Becker (she/they) is an independent writer and photographer currently based in Denver, CO. Drea graduated from JKS in 2018 and has been studying Chadō for eight years.
Sarah Richards Graba of the Naropa Tea House is a writer and teacher with an eclectic spiritual life that includes zen, yoga, witchcraft, shamanism, tea ceremony, and more. She is an adjunct professor at Naropa, primarily teaching writing in the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics. She has been studying chanoyu for over 10 years (after discovering it at the Naropa Tea House), and has been a lover of all tea for life.
Questions or tech issues? Contact us at naropateahouse@naropa.edu
Can’t make it on Practice Day? Find our hours and events here: https://discord.gg/XCaECd2hAM
Online Offerings: 3:15–4:30 PM
Contemplative Education across the Disciplines: A Conversation with the CACE Faculty Committee
Panelists: Dale Asrael, MA; Carla Burns, MDiv; Marina Dorian, PhD; Michael Franklin, PhD; and Giovannina Jobson, MA
Join Zoom Meeting:
Join members of Naropa University’s Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education (CACE) for an interactive online workshop introducing the Contemplative Education Inquiry Project: A Qualitative Study of Departmental Perspectives at Naropa University.
This session will share insights from a year-long faculty inquiry exploring how contemplative education is understood, practiced, and embodied across Naropa’s academic departments. Drawing on focus groups with faculty from across the university, the project examined how rigorous academics, experiential learning, and contemplative practice come together in diverse disciplines.
Panelists will offer a brief overview of the study’s key findings—including shared values, distinctive disciplinary expressions, and core pedagogical practices—and will invite participants into conversation about what contemplative education looks like in their own teaching, learning, and work at Naropa. The session will include time for practice, reflection, dialogue, and collective inquiry.
This workshop is open to all Naropa faculty and staff interested in curriculum design, pedagogy, faculty development, marketing, admissions and the future of contemplative education at Naropa.
Dale Asrael, MA, is a University Professor and has taught as Core Faculty in the MA Clinical Mental Health Counseling: Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling since 1993. She founded, and is the principal instructor for, Naropa University Mindfulness Instructor Training program, which is currently in its twenty-fifth annual session. Her publications include — Love of Wisdom Puts You on the Spot in Meditation in the Classroom, No Hidden Corners in Shadows and Light and Compassionate Abiding in Brilliant Sanity.
Carla Burns, MDiv, is faculty at Naropa University, where she designs and facilitates retreats and teaches in Naropa’s Mindful Compassion Training. She also serves as a lead curriculum and design consultant for the Center for the Advancement of Contemplative Education, offering expertise in contemplative practices, mindfulness retreats, and compassion-based interventions. Her work emphasizes embodied and spatial ways of knowing, community building, and practices that support personal and collective liberation.
Dr. Marina Dorian is an associate professor in the Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling Program at Naropa University. She integrates mindfulness practice, clinical expertise, and relationship dynamics into her teaching and research. Marina’s work explores mindful relating, stress and resilience, and the intersection of cultural and relational dynamics. A meditation practitioner for over 20 years, Marina follows the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. She is passionate about contemplative practices, including meditation, dance, and connecting with nature, which deeply inform her pedagogy and personal life.
Dr. Michael Franklin, past chair of Naropa University’s art therapy program, has worked in various academic and clinical settings since 1981. Michael is an international lecturer, author of Art as Contemplative Practice (SUNY Press), and founder of the Naropa Community Art Studio, a research project training socially-engaged art therapists.
Giovannina Jobson, MA, is a faculty member in the Department of Wisdom Traditions. She has taught at Naropa for more than 20 years in the Master of Divinity program as well as in the Naropa Core program. She is a mindfulness instruction trainer, a Maitri Space Awareness teacher and a dedicated Dharma Art practitioner.
Spring Herbalism for Visioning Beloved Community
With Asia Dorsey
Join Zoom Meeting:
It’s hard to be it, if we cannot see it. Spring is the season associated with the Liver organ system in traditional medicine. The spirit of the Liver governs processes of vision, inspiration, and dreaming. It’s the Liver’s witness that carries forward the Heart’s purpose. And in trying times like these, we need to move with purpose.
Come sit circle, with Bioregional Rootworker Asia Dorsey in a rich exploration of the use of a simple, safe and effective liver nourishing herbal remedy that supports us in visoning the beloved community and mustering the will power to realize it.
A second workshop will give us the opportunity to follow through on our dreams in beloved community through a ritual dreamwork experince assited by liver supporting herbs on Wednesday, March 18, from 6:00-8:30 MST. Register Here.
Asia Dorsey worships the earth. Ear to the soil, she heeds the instruction of mineral, microbial, and botanical beings. She uses her gift of pattern recognition as a Nutritional Therapist and Bioregional Rootworker as the founder of Bones Bugs and Botany, a school committed to creating embodied liberation through food and herbal medicine education. Raised by a collective of radical women in the Historic Five Points community of Denver and apprenticed with elders in, India, Ghana, New Zealand and New York, Asia had discerned a practice of a People’s Medicine that is inherently empowering, suffused with ancestral wisdom and produces powerful results through her intentional mentorship. You can find Asia balancing embodiment with botanical chaos and co-creating the Petty Herbalist Podcast helping her people to rise together in power and step into the wholeness that is their birthright.
Feedback Is Welcome: Your Voice Matters!
Practice Day is produced by Mission Culture and Inclusive Community where we are committed to a practice of giving and receiving feedback.
We rely on your voice to help us shape this event in the future, to be more in alignment with our Community Compass.
Please take a minute, literally it take less than a minute at the end of each session to provide your honest feedback for each session you attend. There is only one required question but space for you to write a small book. All your ideas are valuable and will be heard.
The same link may be used more than once and we appreciate your feedback for every session you attend.
