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The Aspen Ideas Festival

Now in its third year, the Aspen Institute, one of the country’s premier think tanks, held its prestigious Aspen Ideas Festival in July. A key participant in the program, which was sold out, was CLAL President Rabbi Irwin Kula, who was featured in three sessions.

On July 3, 2007, in a program entitled Religion and the Public Square, Rabbi Kula joined author Dr. Alan Wolfe, Professor at Boston College; the Rev. Jim Wallis, Editor-in-Chief of Sojourners magazine; Nancy Gibbs, Editor-at-Large at Time magazine; and Reza Aslan, commentator for NPR’s Marketplace to look at the deep divisions in America, the impact that religion has on both the political process and society, and the ever-shifting boundary between church and state. Jon Meacham, Managing Editor of Newsweek, was the moderator.

Rabbi Kula discussed the need to distinguish between the political issue of separation of church and state and the cultural issue of religion in the public square. “We need to be vigilant regarding the former and encourage greater expression of the latter. This is precisely the meaning and import of religious liberty and it is particularly liberals who should understand and affirm this.”

He continued, “It becomes incumbent upon people who bring their religious and spiritual values into the public square to do so in a way that is accessible and understandable to people who are from different faithful communities. When we can bring our whole selves to the public square, including our religious beliefs and values, then the public discourse and conversation becomes more robust and vibrant.”

In the evening he joined with Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, the leader of the Shambhala lineage and one of Tibet’s most respected incarnate lamas, for a session on Spiritual Practice for Enlightened Living. The session was the first held by the Ideas Festival to deal directly with religious/spiritual practice. The Sakyong and Rabbi Kula discussed with each other and the more than 300 attendees how spiritual practice works to affect consciousness and deepen one’s capacity for compassion. They both offered teachings and specific practices from their respective traditions. The Sakyong led a group meditation, while Rabbi Kula gave a teaching on holding together the existential paradox: The world is created for us individually, and we are only dust and ashes.

On July 5, 2007, Rabbi Kula joined with her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan and The Sakyong for a session on Compassionate Leadership in a Violent World. Rabbi Kula offered that compassion is not a quality one just has but rather is a quality that needs to be developed and cultivated. As with any art, he pointed out, one can become more proficient at compassion the more one practices it.

”We see the world in a distorted fashion as we only see fragments or pieces of the picture. Compassion is the art of seeing a fuller more expansive and inclusive picture. Ultimately to see the full perspective  the whole story  is what we mean by seeing things from God’s perspective. Seeing the ‘whole’ creates understanding, genuinely doing justice to a situation is what we mean by compassionate leadership. It is actually what we ask of God vis a vis judging us on Yom Kippur. This is the challenge of compassionate leadership.”

The Aspen Ideas Festival gathers the foremost scientists, artists, politicians, historians, educators and other great thinkers and leaders, presenting them with a unique opportunity to engage with each other in programs that raise awareness, nurture new thinking, and build understanding of some of the most innovative ideas of our time.

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