A Spiritual Biography
Join Michael Lerner in a spiritual biography conversation with Robert Mulhall—Commonweal board member, former president of Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, and a consultant whose work sits at the intersection of leadership development, organizational health, and human potential. Image: Robert Lukeman, Unsplash.
Invitation to Exploring the Art of Being
In this invitation to Exploring the Art of Being, July 2026 Visiting Scholar Catherine Olweny invites us into her world, where her lived experience as a migrant and a black woman; a student of literature, medicine, and hypnosis; and as both a doctor and a healer affect her worldview. Share her journey at Commonweal, cultivating meaningful, experiential ways to benefit patients and clinicians that center healing arts, collective narrative practices from the Aboriginal Australian traditions, and mindfulness-based approaches as the foundation to her work.
Explore the Art of Being with Visiting Scholar Catherine Olweny
Bringing with her the traditional Aboriginal practices of dadirri—a sacred practice of deep listening, reflection, stillness and connection to the land—and yarning—a conversational practice used by indigenous Australians to share knowledge, stories, and culture, Dr. Catherine Olweny offers another pathway to Mastering the Art of Being. Her many life experiences and training led her to work as a paediatric anaesthetist and medical doctor, and also to help clinicians develop a greater ability to look and listen closely, to attend to patients and their family, to be curious and attentive, and to be fully present.
Art for Our Common Good: Creativity, Health, and Civic Life
What role can art play in helping us meet this moment? As communities face growing loneliness, burnout, environmental anxiety, and civic division, the arts can create spaces for healing, connection, and hope. Join us as we celebrate 50 years of healing arts at Commonweal, building on an earlier convening of leaders in arts, health, and community practice. This public gathering, hosted by Commonweal Board Member Lisa Simms Booth, opens the conversation to all with Maria Rosario Jackson, Deborah Cullinan, and Catherine Olweny.
The Poem as This Moment’s Response
As the winter solstice approaches—a time for contemplation, exchange, and renewal—and Commonweal nears the end of our 50th year celebrations, this conversation with Jane Hirshfield and Host Michael Lerner will attend to how we might best address ourselves to the invitations of precipice and turn: with a spirit of permeability, imagination, and embrace of change.
The Medicine of Flow: Conversation and Experiential Workshop on Effortless Healing (parts 1 and 2)
Click here to view the complete playlist on Youtube. Click here to listen to the complete playlist on SoundCloud. What is healing, really—below the story or journey, and even beyond any meaning? After Dr. Cynthia Li experienced a radical healing firsthand, she began studying the science of physiological coherence, and deepening in her practice of […]
The Flip
In part 9 of this series, Michael Lerner talks with author Jeffrey Kripal about his book The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge. This book is Kripal’s ambitious, visionary program for unifying the sciences and the humanities to expand our minds, open our hearts, and negotiate a peaceful resolution to the culture wars.
The Wonders of Nature on the Healing Land at Commonweal
Join naturalist and biologist David Wimpfheimer for a guided tour of the land at Commonweal, the southern end of Point Reyes National Seashore.
Some Themes at the Heart of His Oeuvre
In part 8 of this series, Michael Lerner talks with author Jeffrey Kripal about some of the key themes that weave through all of his books, especially exploring the nature of consciousness itself.