Council Stories

I recently spent the afternoon of Easter after the Bioneers Conference ended in Berkeley – with beloved Joanna Macy. Now that was an Easter rising. We sat and remembered the one we had shared so many years ago – in a sunrise ceremony at the east end of the Ojai …

The Ojai Foundation and Way of Council is a relatively new form of practice for me but at the same time, it feels so very familiar and nurturing. I would like to share my journey with you, how my horses and I are stepping into a dream I’ve had for …

For our teachers overseas ….  On August 5th, course number 32 of Council training ended, 120 hours of council in the studio, in nature, with games, movement and deepening in the challenges of facilitation This is an opportunity for us to thank you for the way of council we have learned …

I recently joined several young people that organize a connection \ network between all the groups in Israeli society that during this period hold protest demonstrations throughout the country and near the house of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. The purpose of the protests – which are all over now – …

by Nuria and Eran Halevi In March, 30 people from three groups which are simultaneously studying in the “listening heart” council training program, gathered in the forest near the Uriel Center in the Galilee for two intensive days of Council in nature. They sat in different council formats: small groups, …

Somewhere between where I’ve been, where I am, and where I am going… So… You want to be a Trainer! Congratulations! You mean like those people who are held on high as important, top of the pile, listened to and loved (or not) by many, like a workshop guru, a …

I vividly remember the winter night my grandmother passed away. One of our relatives came to visit her, the rain sneaking through the door and the wind howling outside. My grandmother, who was lying in her bed, had cloudy eyes, so the visitor asked her: “Do you know who I …

Meet Naomi Mwangi, a youth leader from Kenya, co-founder of the African Dream Movement and organizer for the Kenya Global Youth Peace Summit. Naomi attended The Ojai Foundation’s International Gathering of Council Carriers and Council Summit in July 2017.

In 2016 Center for Council, in partnership with Zen Peacemakers, offered a Council training workshop in Sarajevo for a group of Croat, Serb and Bosniak peacemakers, organized by two dynamic Imams.   Turning toward suffering can take many forms. As a practice, it can seem counterintuitive and, to be wholesome, …

About ten years ago I was asked to give a talk to a group of forty people between the ages of 65 to 89, all suffering from acute pain for much of their lives. The group was held in a church hall in a deprived area of East London. I …

Akua crated the first human by filling him with the breath of life.  When later all the angels gathered to offer gifts, all but one decided to give the Umeke—the bowl—to enable humans to hold divine breath. The Umeke is the sacred body that holds the breath of life.  The …

The Crossroads Council Program started almost 40 years ago with just seniors the first year.  In one of the circles I led there was a young man, call him “David,” who was silent week after week, just holding the stick briefly, silently and with an irritated expression on his face. …

Two months after my daughter, Hannah, was born, I was in the living room of our house when I heard an alarming combination of sounds coming from the bedroom: my wife, Abbe, yelling, ‘Will you stop?  Stop right now!” Hannah wailing, and the sound of bedsprings compressing and releasing. I …