A very special full moon - and celebration
We just discovered that it will be full moon on the penultimate evening of the summer seminar – exactly half a year from today.
In fact it will not just be a full moon, but a very special luxury version. At sunset when the full moon rises, a lunar eclipse sets in – in fact one of the most complete lunar eclipses that celestial mechanics can come up with, it will be total for 100 minutes. Totality will end at 11.30 PM. This means that all the great deep red colors will be visible at the end of totality even if the early stages may somewhat drown in the almost infinite Scandinavian summer sunset.
We take this poetically as an auspicious omen for Gomde’s new contemplative summer institute – a kiss from the cosmos to the birth of “Gomde Højskole”.
And we also think we must take it practically as a celebration to plan for. Something with bonfires, dancing and moving meditation under open skies?
Aesthetics and commitment - interview with Phie Ambo
Filmmageren Phie Ambo er med på holdet af lærere, debattører og inspiratorer til sommerhøjskolen 2018. Det er vi rigtig glade for. Her er et helt dugfriskt interview hvor Phie fortæller om hvad hun gerne vil bidrage til en kontemplativ højskole med, hvordan meditation og kontemplation for hende nødvendigvis må have konsekvenser for den måde vi opfører os på i verden – og om hvordan det æstetiske kan være en vej til at nå ind til det bløde, formbare og hjertelige i hinanden. Read the interview here.
“Folk high school” and the language of the heart – interview with Anders Laugesen
Anders Laugesen (radio journalist, Danish Natl. Radio, programs on faith and culture) is on the faculty for the 2018 summerschool. Here’s an interview with Anders. He talks about the spiritual roots in the Nordic “Folk High School” tradition, and the great potentials of combining it with the emerging contemplative / meditative culture in our time. He also outlines Grundtvig’s core ideas of “the Living Word”, open free spiritual community and “the language of the heart”. Read the full interview here.
Meaningful crises – interview with Peter Elsass
We talked to Peter Elsass (Professor in psychology, Univ of Copenhagen, author, film maker) who is on our team of contributors and dialogue partners at the contemplative summer institute of 2018. We asked him to speculate about the potentials of a contemplative Nordic folk high school. This turned out a very interesting conversation about what can be meant by a healthy and whole human life, in Tibetan and Danish context – about the relationship between the distance-creating approach needed in scientific research, and the personal engagement – and about whether spirituality should really be seen as an instrument to solve and prevent crises – or better as an opening to make them meaningful. Read the full interview here.