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A Statement of Unequivocal Support, from a Special Committee of the Board of Directors for the Center for World Spirituality, in Response to Attacks directed against Marc Gafni, D.Phil. in the Blogosphere During September 2011:
We, the undersigned, do without any reservation whatsoever, support Marc Gafni, D.Phil as a teacher and leader of the Center for World Spirituality. We find it unfortunate that the blogosphere has become a place where allegations are made, and where rumors, distortions and simple untruths are so easily spread, all without the benefit of finding of fact.
We have done due diligence on this matter. Members of our group have deeply heard the perspectives of everyone referred to in the spate of blogosphere attacks in Sept 2011. Between us, we have gathered what we believe to be all the relevant evidence possible under these fragmented circumstances. As one of our teachers said about these events, there is “So much flame, so little fact,” and much confusion between “facts and interpretations of facts.” We have gathered all the relevant subjective and objective information possible under these circumstances. So it is with genuine confidence we give our full support for Marc Gafni. We trust Marc’s leadership and remain solidly convinced of his integrity, especially as he faces the challenges of leading a change movement in a world characterized by fear. Further, each of us personally recommends Dr. Gafni to any organization, church, synagogue, spiritual or cultural center, or to any context which seeks to benefit from his teachings.
The Center for World Spirituality remains fully committed to its consciously creative mission under the joint stewardship of Dr. Gafni and the circle of board members, colleagues and students who have stepped up to lead. We know Marc to be an inspired teacher, a visionary leader, a human being engaged in life with an open heart and a passionate creativity. That passion, along with a remarkable intellect, and a deep formation in one of the world’s great spiritual traditions, moves him to a profound understanding of the human condition and the movements of Spirit unfolding within and around us.
We look forward to the years ahead as Marc’s creative insights into the Unique Self, World Spirituality, and the Enlightenment of Fullness, unfold into a corpus of written works, and as they come to greater expression through the world wide gatherings which make up the Center for World Spirituality.
Signatories:
Mariana Caplan, Ph.D., Chahat Corten, Wyatt Woodsmall, Ph.D., Marty Cooper, Warren Farrell, Ph.D.*, Lori Galperin, Mike Ginn, Tom Goddard Ph.D., Leon Gras, Sally Kempton, Heather Ussery-Knight, Victoria Myer, Dr. Gabriel Cousens, MD, PhD, Kathleen J. Brownback, M.Div., MBA, Wyatt Woodsmall, Ph. D.
*Dr. Warren Farrell also added his own personal statement in this regard:
To Whom It May Concern,
This is to express my unequivocal support for Marc Gafni, D.Phil. as a teacher and visionary leader of the Center for World Spirituality. In my work with him as a friend, co-facilitator of content, and Board member of the Center, I find him to be one of the world’s truly extraordinary men. He blends integrity with skills of leadership, vision, creativity, and charisma. He harbors a renaissance intellect and comprehension of history, religion and spirituality–and harnesses that into the hearts and souls of those whose hearts are open and whose souls are wise enough to be deepened.
Marc Gafni is one of the world’s change agents. Virtually all change agents, whether Martin Luther King or Gandhi, will be subjected to attempts at assassination–character assassination and sometimes literal assassination. Unfortunately, the internet has allowed such attempts to be magnified when aimed at a leader’s character. This propensity of people without vision to try to ruin the person rather than challenge the ideas has long been with us. As Mark Twain put it, “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” With the internet, a lie can travel all the way around the world while the truth is finding its shoe.” In the process, it is easy to lose the message of a visionary leader.
Marc continues to make a commitment to lead; I for one, am making a commitment both to continue co-creating with him and to never allowing myself to be sidetracked by those whose feel it is easier to kill the messenger than create a more visionary and informed message.
Warren Farrell, Ph.D.
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By Kathleen Brownback
Note: This blog post is adapted from “Teaching Marc Gafni’s ‘Unique Self’ Enlightenment in the Classroom: Reflections from a Phillips Exeter Class in Mysticism (for the annual conference of the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education, November 2011, Amherst College).”
A new course introduced at Phillips Exeter Academy in the spring of 2011 began with these words on the syllabus:
What we are about to explore has many names. It has been called the mystical tradition, the perennial tradition, the direct path, the path of the heart, the journey to (and with) the beloved, the practice of yoga, and the contemplative tradition. Aldous Huxley called it “the science, not of the personal ego, but of that eternal Self in the depth of particular, individualized selves, and identical with, or at least akin to, the divine Ground.” What these traditions share is the understanding that there is the possibility of union between the self and whatever we might call Ultimate Reality or God or Spirit, and that this union is primarily realized through a path of spiritual practice.
There is no possible way to make a comprehensive study of all these traditions in one term, and no need for us to do so. The main goal here is to locate various paths within the religious traditions, and to begin to understand what is meant by “spiritual practice.”
As the first teacher of this class, my main goal was to engage the students in a deeper understanding of ego development and the way in which the contemplative or mystical dimension of religion could help them both intellectually and practically as they move into their adult lives.
Phillips Exeter is a secular independent secondary school in New Hampshire, an hour north of Boston, with a 200-year history as an academic powerhouse for boys. It became coeducational in 1972 and has retained its high academic distinction, with all students headed for college and many to the top schools in the country.
The students are bright and lively and curious. But as anywhere, they struggle at times with nonacademic life circumstances that have the capacity to affect their intellectual engagement””a superficial and highly commercialized teenage (and often adult) culture, a pervasive unease about the future of their society in an era of environmental and economic challenge, and for some, personal or family histories of addiction or depression. For this reason I sought out texts and readings that were inclined to prompt questions at the interface of psychology and religion. I had the sense that these would speak to students in both an academic and a personal way, as in fact they did.
In this paper I will first describe student background and interest, then give a brief overview of the course, then focus on the work of one scholar and teacher, Marc Gafni, whose writing in particular spoke to the students in a powerful way.
In the course of the term I had to develop and articulate to myself my own changing philosophy of teaching, which I began to explore in a 2009 article in the Exeter alumni/ae bulletin entitled “In Pursuit of Truths.”
I will describe this evolution more deeply at the end of the article, but also briefly mention it here.
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There are different groups of individuals who provide leadership or vision for the organization in different capacities.
Each organization [Center for World Philosophy & Religion, Office for the Future, and Foundation for Conscious Evolution] has a distinct legal board, which makes its decisions. All the decisions are made collectively by the appropriate board and board leadership. The listing below includes present and former board members, research fellows, faculty, and officers of the organization.
We have intentionally not broken them out by designation, as all of these people contribute equally needed value to the overall missions of these distinct organizations.
We are in the process of changing the name of The Center for Integral Wisdom to Center for World Philosophy & Religion.
The Center for Integral Wisdom is a 501C3.
