Saturday, January 20, 2024: 9:00 am – 10:30 am PST
On Zoom
Register
Read this event description on the Sati Center web site.
The Sati Center is delighted to offer the fourth Buddhist Eco Chaplaincy (BEC) course starting in June 2024. This 18-month course offers a basic Buddhist training in the wisdom and skill needed to be a Buddhist Environmental Chaplain, i.e., those who work to support people in developing healthy, compassionate, and mutually supportive relationships with each other and with the natural world. It will offer experience-based activities and contemplative practices that deepen individuals’ own relationships with the natural world, as well as provide them with skills to be spiritual caregivers, helping others (re)connect with nature and face contemporary socio-environmental crises with wisdom and compassion.
To provide an overview of the BEC course, the Sati Center is offering an information session on January 20th at (9:00 – 10:30 AM Pacific Time).
The session will cover:
- an outline of the program
- description of course work
- description of retreats and schedule; and participation expectation
- Q&A session
The session will be offered by Kirsten Rudestam and Ram Appalaraju along with participants from previous years’ courses
Kirsten Rudestam is an environmental educator, wilderness guide, and meditation teacher. She has a PhD in Environmental Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz where she studied political ecology, sense of place, and environmental justice. Kirsten has fifteen years of experience teaching environmental field courses, nature-based meditation programs and guiding wilderness expeditions. She is trained as a vision fast guide through the School of Lost Borders and is a facilitator for Joanna Macy’s Work that Reconnects. Kirsten has been practicing vipassana meditation since 2001 and is in IRC’s four year teacher training program.
Ram Appalaraju has been practicing Buddhism since 2014 and studied Vedanta since 1998 at Sri Ramakrishna Mission and Chinmaya Mission. He has been studying Buddhism under Gil Fronsdhal and Bikkhu Analayo. He is trained as an eco-chaplain and a chaplain at Sati Center and serves as an eco-chaplain at environmental organizations. He volunteers at non-profits focused on causes relating to environmental issues and digital education to underprivileged communities. He also serves as a Staff chaplain (through Chaplaincy in Corrections) at Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas CA. Ram was in the tech industry for 35 years serving in various capacities and retired in 2017 to deepen spiritual connection and explore the interdependent nature of all beings through Buddhist teachings and science.