Vast Sky Institute (VSI) has had another meeting among founders Genpo Roshi, Bernie Glassman Roshi, and Ken Wilber, this time at Ken's new 19^th-story loft in Denver--a vast-sky environment if there ever was one.  Also in attendance was Norman Oberstein (holding the funding perspective), Elena Cartasegna (holding the marketing/design perspective) by phone, and Bruce Lambson (holding the administrative perspective).   

Vast Sky is dedicated to getting smart about delivering spiritual messages to the American culture.  With two Zen Buddhist Roshis and funding from the Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism, VSI is clearly interested in how to present Buddhism to the culture at large, but since the challenge of communicating spiritual truths in a way that the public can hear it is the same across all traditions, the lessons learned at VSI will be valuable for not just Buddhism, but for contemporary contemplative spirituality as a whole, which is particularly why Ken joined.  As Ken commented, "God has a PR problem," and much of the two days spent together was used looking specifically at what it would take to turn that situation around.  After all, much of the confusion comes from not knowing what "god" is being spoken about: the white-haired Old Testament gentleman known by faith and simple belief, or the universal Spirit-as-such and I AMness known by direct experience, illumination, and satori?

The AQAL framework--developed by Ken, and applied to products and services by Integral Institute--is used to help contextualize the efforts of Vast Sky, and orient them toward the background contexts of both modernity and postmodernity, an understanding of which is essential for genuine spiritual insights to gain any real traction in this culture.  The work of Vast Sky Institute is clearly complementary to that of Integral Spiritual Center, and people are encouraged to check out both.  In addition, people can learn more about Genpo Roshi and his Big Mind Process at http://www.bigmind.org/, about Bernie Glassman Roshi and his Zen Peacemakers at http://www.zenpeacemakers.org/, and about the Lenz Foundation for American Buddhism at http://www.fredericklenzfoundation.org/.

Below are a few photos from the two day-long meetings that we thought you'd enjoy....

Best,

Colin

 (From left: Ken Wilber, Bernie Glassman Roshi, Norman Oberstein, Genpo Roshi, Bruce Lambson.  Not pictured, but present via speakerphone, is Elena Cartasegna.)