Tag archives: spirituality

Exploring the Afterlife: A Journey of the Soul With Rabbi Chaim Loschak
By Rachael Quisel   |   August 22, 2023

This summer, Chabad of Montecito will offer a course designed to demystify the concept of life after death. The course, titled “Journey of the Soul,” was developed by Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) and will be taught by Rabbi Chaim Loschak. The six-session series began on Tuesday, August 15, at 7 pm, inviting attendees to […]

Talk Examines Christian Spiritual Formation
By Scott Craig   |   May 2, 2023

Steve L. Porter, the new senior research fellow and Executive Director of Westmont’s Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture, offers his inaugural lecture Friday, April 28, at 3:30 pm in the Global Leadership Center. The talk, “Knowing Christ Today: The Shape of Christian Spiritual Formation in the Academy and Church for the Sake of the […]

Porter to Direct the Martin Institute
By Scott Craig   |   September 27, 2022

Steve L. Porter, a longtime professor of spiritual formation, theology, and philosophy, is the new senior research fellow and executive director of Westmont’s Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture.  The institute seeks to support a new generation of leaders in the area of Christian spiritual formation and to establish this discipline as a domain of […]

Art, Science, Spirituality Collide in Exhibit
By Scott Craig   |   September 13, 2022

Adam Belt explores the point where art, science, and spirituality converge in an exhibition, “Adam Belt: Wish You Were Here,” September 1 through November 5 at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art. Belt, who was born in Seattle and grew up in Albuquerque, began his career as a landscape painter before shifting his interests to […]

Utopia
By Hattie Beresford   |   June 21, 2022

The quest for the right way to live, the right way to be, and the search for a satisfying and happy life has spanned millennia; just ask Socrates. Between 1663 and 1820 in the United States, besides being a stimulus for emigration from the “old world,” this quest led to the establishment of over 32 […]

Art Exhibition is ‘Amplifying the Between’
By Scott Craig   |   January 25, 2022

Santa Barbara artist Marie Schoeff explores a profound yet unpretentious relationship with nature and spirituality in a new exhibition, “Marie Schoeff: Amplifying the Between” at the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art from through March 26.  Schoeff’s imagery, rooted in drawing, explores the ethereal, a transcendent space in a spiritual realm. Her strong sense of physical […]

Loving Your ‘Lurps’: New Book Offers Breakthrough
By Steven Libowitz   |   December 7, 2021

Radhule Weininger’s new book, Heart Medicine: How to Stop Painful Patterns and Find Peace and Freedom — at Last, features a brief forward by the Dalai Lama and another longer, more personal one from colleague Joanna Macy, the prolific author, environmental activist, and half-century-plus scholar of Buddhism. Additional pre-publication praise has come from locally beloved […]

Post-Pandemic Spiritual Guidance from Shaman Jon
By Michelle Ebbin   |   July 15, 2021

As summer arrives and many of us are emerging as “walking wounded” from the isolation and multi-layered toll of the coronavirus, I think it’s safe to say that we could all use a little spiritual guidance to help transition back into the post-pandemic world. Post-Isolation Syndrome is a real thing and reintegrating into society after […]

SEL Out Online
By Steven Libowitz   |   May 21, 2020

SBCC School of Extended Learning’s summer session got underway earlier this week, but it’s never too late to join the ongoing classes, particularly now that all of their offerings are online. Among the selections in the Spirituality, Self-Management and Psychology sections are beginning and intermediate sections of “Nature and Self-Healing,” where students can explore the […]

Thai Meditation for Trying Times
By Steven Libowitz   |   April 9, 2020

As recently as early March, Courtney Purcell’s Santa Barbara Buddhist Meditation Meetup had a full slate of events on its calendar, with gatherings all over town, from the American Buddhist Meditation Temple on Orchid Drive near More Mesa to the foothills and beaches of Montecito, a leap year forest retreat in the expanse at La […]

Meetup Minis
By Steven Libowitz   |   March 5, 2020

Santa Barbara Spirituality Cafe’s second gathering, slated for 2:30-5 pm on Saturday, March 7, at 108 Northridge Road, will be the first meeting to move beyond administrative issues into the intention to share knowledge and interests, and inspire one another to be active in the community. The hope is to apply spirituality to some program […]

More Montecito Meetups
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 27, 2020

Santa Barbara Buddhist Meditation, which holds regular meditation and other gatherings at the American Buddhist Temple in Goleta as well as various Montecito locations and elsewhere, has a special offering for this Saturday night. Its Once-in-a-Leap-Year Forest Retreat is a three-hour excursion at La Cumbre Peak designed to briefly isolate participants from the “busyness,” noise […]

I AM Love Ceremony
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 27, 2020

Shining Lion (aka Shane Rilling) and the Ojai-based World Peace Tribe guide a sacred ceremony to cultivate more love within this weekend at a private estate in Montecito. The event – in which the sacraments include Sacred Honey Bee, Mycelium, Cacao, Hape, Essential Oils, and more – is intended to cultivate community and create an […]

More MAPS
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 27, 2020

Sherman, who has facilitated twenty-three yoga-meditation retreats in Montecito before La Casa de Maria fell victim to the 2018 mudslide, will also lead a “MAPs I for Daily Living,” her first offering of the introductory course from acclaimed, scientifically-based UCLA program here in town since last summer. The MAPs I course provides insight into the […]

Mindfulness for the Yoga Practitioner
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 27, 2020

Barbara Rose Sherman is a Yoga Alliance Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher 500 who is also a Trained Mindfulness Facilitator through the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and a UCLA Mindful Awareness Practices Affiliated Teacher. Now she’s bringing her experience in drawing from the two spiritual practices to a teacher training weekend available […]

BlissSing is a Rebirthing
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 27, 2020

Santa Barbara singer-songwriter Noell Grace’s evenings of original chants and simple songs have returned to her hearth and home for monthly gatherings. The events were originally private satsangs that morphed into Spirit Sings held at her home before expanding into fully public events at Yoga Soup a few years back. The gatherings came to a […]

More Cups of Soup
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 13, 2020

Concurrently, Yoga Soup’s Empowered Presence with Kiaora Fox moves from Wednesdays to Thursday evenings, when Fox’s 5Rhythms practice offers direction to explore your edges, grow your movement vocabulary, break up your habits and create new found freedoms and fuller breath. Also new at Yoga Soup, an ongoing Sunday Night CommUNITY Class, a donation-based, open-to-all exploration […]

Slipping into Silence at Sunburst
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 13, 2020

Over the last few years, the Dive into Silence weekend retreat at Sunburst Sanctuary has provided respite for all sorts of seekers, including at least one Montecito resident who wanted to find some solace after all the nervous-system challenges of the Thomas Fire and debris flows in the winter of 2017-18. Others have attended as […]

Santa Barbara Spirituality Cafe
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2020

The Santa Barbara Spirituality Cafe Meetup, organized to embrace topics of spirituality in small groups similar to the international Death Cafe operation, is set to hold its first gathering. The focus of the meeting is to meet each other, discuss directions and set intentions, including logistics and guidelines for topics. The idea is to create […]

The Practice of Inquiring Deeply
By Steven Libowitz   |   February 6, 2020

Marjorie Schuman, Ph.D., a local clinical psychologist, meditation teacher and author, settles into The Sacred Space for an experiential workshop providing an introduction to the method of “Inquiring Deeply.” The meditative practice of asking questions has been used for thousands of years to develop intuition, inspire awakening and connect us more deeply to the sources […]