Contemplative life has become familiar and intimate to many in our time. What used to be a narrow subculture is now familiar to millions in the West. It inhabits everyday life as a regular practice, and often shapes understandings of selves and bodies.

Some feel that spirituality and religion are alienated in the modern world, something that can only partially thrive in its conditions. Others talk about new possibilities of human flourishing including the spiritual.

In this seminar we explore how one may live a good life with a wholesome spirituality, in a modern secular world where distractions and challenges as well as resources are greater than ever. It will be organized around four themes to be unfolded in lectures, debates and workshops:

• Can spirituality be at home in a modern world at all – and how?
• Love, relationships and sexuality – how are they connected with the contemplative dimensions of existence?
• Creativity and personal unfoldment – can meditation be used to support this?
• How can one live out one’s spiritual engagement in everyday life? Does it have any connection to sustainability, or with other conflicts and challenges on a global level?

This seminar week will connect well with seminar 1, but they can also be taken separately.

Seminar 2

Each day will be a laboratory for spirituality - in the "højskole" sense that thrives through body, intellect, community and many kinds of soil and roots. The entire human being with all its branches. The schedule allows them all to play along in an investigation of spirit in our time.

Morning yoga

Morning meditation

Morning session

• 1-3 inspirations / lectures 
• Replies and co-reflections from other contributors
• Guided contemplative group dialogues
• Final plenary dialogue and meditation 

Afternoon workshops
(optional, varying, weather dependent, sometimes parallel)

• Methods: “Harmonic presence” (Hykes) og contemplative group process 
• Work on articulating and exploring "my existential project"
• Planting a new vineyard and apple plantation
• Moving Meditation / Akido

Evening session

• meditation instruction /exploration for the first 2-3 evenings. After that film, bonfires, moving meditation, contemplative wine tasting, celebration

Around every meal there will be a good break for resting, walking, swimming, eating icecream, playing jamsessions, or whatever comes up. There will also be coffee breaks in the middle of every morning and afternoon session.

Daily schedule: the summer institute days combine teaching, practice, dialogue and time for relaxing and meeting new friends. There will be morning yoga, a contemplative morning gathering with meditation and singing. Yoga and meditation sessions will be framed and guided so that they are meaningful and useful for beginners as well as the experienced. The time before lunch will be mostly devoted to lectures and dialogues on the seminar’s themes. A long lunch break secures time for relaxing, perhaps with a walk and swim at the beach. Afternoons will be mainly devoted to workshops – practical and experiential. On the first 2-3 evenings there will be a thorough introduction to Buddhist meditation practice, on the last evenings the focus will be on relaxing and celebrating together.

Venue and organizers: the seminars will be residential courses at the tibetan-Buddhist retreat center Gomde, situated in the middle of Denmark’s most beautiful areas in Helgenæs – surrounded by beaches, hills, orchards and forests. The organization behind the project is a Buddhist association “Rangjung Yeshe Gomde Denmark”. However, the folk high school seminars are different from Gomde’s regular seminars – they are not courses in Tibetan Buddhism or Buddhism in general. Instead, they follow the Nordic folk high school tradition for open fora for development and exchange, inspired by the spirit of a tradition but open to connection and exchange with everyone interested.

Teachers, facilitators and dialogue partners. Some of the main roles in seminar 2 will be played by John Dunne, Anders Laugesen, Phie Ambo and David Hykes. The list of contributors is still developing and you can read more about many of them here.

Seminar language: Everything will be fully transparent in English as well as Danish. The main language in the sessions will alternate with the main contributors, but there will always be simultaneous translation to the other language available.

Course fees are all inclusive: seminar participation, room and board (including coffee breaks etc). The fee depends on your choice of accommodation: single room, shared double, dormitory or camping.

Send an email to registration@gomde-hoejskole.dk saying that you would like to participate. Please specify if you wish to register for seminar 1, seminar 2, or both, as well as your choice of accommodation (see above). We will then send you an email with confirmation, bank account for transfer of fee, and other practical information.

(Your reservation will be temporary for 2 weeks and be secured permanently when the fee is transferred. Gomde Højskole's conditions for registrations, payments and cancellations are stated in the confirmation email. You can also read them here.