Stephanie Dowrick speaks on Forgiveness
Stephanie Dowrick is the author, among other books, of Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love. This talk on the vital theme of forgiveness was recorded at the Happiness & Its Causes Conference in Sydney, in 2007. Stephanie spoke after His Holiness the Dalai Lama had spoken to a packed and highly receptive audience. The talk was recorded by ABC Radio National and played in 2007 and 2008. This is the link to the MP3 download of Stephanie Dowrick’s talk. You are welcome to comment on Stephanie Dowrick’s Facebook page where she regularly posts inspirational thoughts. You can purchase Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love at the Stephanie Dowrick Bookstore, administered by Collins/Seek. You can also buy from that same bookstore the unabridged AUDIO version of Forgiveness – or you can click on this link to purchase the unabridged MP3 version from Bolinda Audio Books.
Peace testimonies from the Easter Retreat 2013
Peace Testimonies, Retreat with Stephanie Dowrick,
Mana Retreat Centre, Easter 2013
Joo-Cheong
As a peacemaker, I will speak against injustice, remembering that peace is not just my birthright but of all humanity.
I will live with idealism, seeing the prospect of change even when change seems all but impossible, believing in hope especially when cynicism and despair seem more natural.
I will live for idealism, committing to the truth that the world can be a far better place.
Stephanie Dowrick invites you to greater happiness
In this talk, recorded at the Sydney Town Hall for the Happiness & Its Causes Conference, Sydney, 2012, Reverend Dr Stephanie Dowrick challenges – with considerable gentleness and strength – some of our familiar ideas about happiness, and invites us to a greater vision not of happiness only, but also of safety, justice and peace. “Are we spiritually ambitious enough?” she asks. And then she encourages us to care far, far more. You can share your comments on this powerful talk on Stephanie Dowrick’s Facebook page. You can also share this link with your own networks to spread a message of happiness that can reduce suffering; we can be the cause of happiness – even sometimes in the face of grief and sorrow – because happiness is not just pleasure, joy and fun, it is also a state of aliveness, wholeness and even holiness that has abundant room for compassion, forgiveness and great tenderness.
What is Interfaith? Stephanie Dowrick explores a very contemporary question
“Interfaith” is a word increasingly used. It’s used as an adjective. It’s used as a noun. We can even do interfaith in the sense of engaging with a range of activities that might include the local rabbi, imam, Buddhist monk, Hindu priest and Catholic nun sharing insights around an urgent social need, as well as people getting together without their religious labels to share sacred silence, a day of prayer, peace-making, forgiveness or healing, an experience of art, poetry or music, or a service in a church, temple or under the trees that draws on humankind’s shared spiritual inheritance and is in every way inclusive. This last word matters most. From this perspective, no one is “lesser than”; no one is “left out”.
Stephanie Dowrick invites you to a life of greater gratitude
At the monthly interfaith, spiritually inclusive services she leads at Pitt Street Uniting Church, Sydney, Reverend Dr Stephanie Dowrick brings us ideas and inspirations that can sustain us spiritually and emotionally whatever our life circumstances. This month (April 2013), she speaks about gratitude – with some very fresh thoughts about gratitude as a way of life and being, and also about how essential it is to RECEIVE gratefully and appreciatively what others are giving us, and adding to our lives. You are free to comment on Stephanie Dowrick’s Facebook page where she also offers daily inspirations. Thanks to Brad Harris for videoing and posting this talk. You can find other talks also on interfaithinsydney’s YouTube link. Please share this resource generously.
Universal Heart Network (invitations) & Book Club
Dear Universal Heart friends
Interfaith service, Sydney, THIS Sunday 21 April, 3pm *Book Club news including Anne Deveson’s new book * Retreat at Mana * Links to supportive talks and articles * Bookstore support * A beautiful prayer of appreciation for this day.
The Universal Heart
A ‘tour de force in matters of the heart’ Claire Scobie, Kindred Spirit This powerful, beautiful, transformative book reminds us on every page that a life worth living is a life of love. Love is the currency that transcends all others. Love connects us most deeply to our best selves, as well as to other people. The presence or absence of love makes the greatest difference to our happiness, our health and wellbeing. Yet seeking love and sustaining it continues to disappoint many people.
Stephanie Dowrick speaks on Inner Riches
Take one quarter of one hour to hear this remarkably uplifting talk from Rev Dr Stephanie Dowrick. With humour and compassion, she invites us to view our lives, even our struggles, from a place of hope and confidence. You are very welcome to share your thoughts on her Facebook page where she posts short daily inspirations. You are also deeply welcome to come to the Interfaith services led by Dr Dowrick at Pitt Street (264) Uniting Church, each 3rd Sunday at 3pm. ALL welcome.
Universal Heart Newsletter March 2013
Bellingen Writers Readers Festival 22-24 March 2013 * Last reminder for the 2013 Easter Retreat * Interfaith service, Sydney, this Sunday 17 MARCH 2013, 3pm * Universal Heart Book Club – wonderful new reviews * YouTube talks * Enduring or beyond a crisis? * On-line discounted Bookstore * Visit Stephanie on FACEBOOK
Our world is at a turning point
“It is not an easy thing to be a peacemaker, but it is an essential thing. Our world is at a turning point. We either speak up passionately and act for peace — or we are bystanders of and complicit with violence.” Rev Dr Stephanie Dowrick
Read Stephanie Dowrick’s persuasive arguments for peace, and for the urgency of our peacemaking, in her recent book SEEKING THE SACRED.
Retreats and events with Stephanie Dowrick 2013
You can find details here of the retreats and events which Stephanie Dowrick is leading, or where she is contributing, through 2013. The interfaith services in Sydney are each 3rd Sunday of the month, at 3pm: Pitt Street (264) Uniting Church, Sydney. The retreats at Mana Retreat Centre are twice-yearly: Easter and October. And yes, Stephanie is again leading a writing retreat in Kyoto in October 2013, with William Suganda! Booking enquiry details for these events are all listed. If you wish to enquire about Stephanie Dowrick’s availability to lead a retreat or speak at an event, please visit CONTACT on this website.
Stephanie Dowrick asks, What good was that crisis?
Unless you are an accomplished masochist (or have a fatal attraction to drama), you will want to avoid most situations dramatic and uncomfortable enough to qualify as a crisis. However, life is more often than not indifferent to our list of “wants”. And so it is that crises fall upon us and we fall upon them, like it or not.
Stephanie Dowrick rethinks “harmony”
In the first of her “Interfaith in Sydney” talks for this year, Rev Dr Stephanie Dowrick shares some surprising thoughts about harmony, and especially the need to embrace and even rejoice in difference. Harmony – inner and outer – is essential for our safety and our wellbeing. We hope you enjoy this talk and share it freely. Please direct any comments you may have to Stephanie Dowrick’s public Facebook page.
Universal Heart Newsletter February 2013
Book now for the 2013 Easter Retreat * Interfaith service, Sydney, this Sunday 17 February 2013, 3pm * Universal Heart Book Club – keep reading! * Visit Stephanie on FACEBOOK * Two practical reminders of kindness * Visit on-line discounted Bookstore
Dear friends
Welcome back to the Universal Heart Newsletter. Some of you have been receiving these letters for many years now and I want to thank you so much for continuing with them…and caring for the values they affirm. At the end of this email are some lines that offer the most gentle reminder of powerful ways to be kinder to ourselves, an essential pre-requisite to playing our part in making this a kinder world.
Stephanie Dowrick: Let’s talk about religion
With World Interfaith Harmony Week resonating around the globe, Rev Dr Stephanie Dowrick asks us to consider what religion is…or could be. And whether this is the time for a “post-tribal” inclusive spirituality to be increasingly articulated – and lived.
I have a soft spot for religion. And even for religions. However, many so-called religious views and people fill me with despair (and sorely try my claims to compassion). So I was not entirely surprised some time ago to receive a short appreciative note about my writing from someone who has been significantly helped by my books but wishes that I could personally be “less religious”.
Change your mind for the better! Inspirational free event 10 February 2013
Join Rev Dr Stephanie Dowrick and internationally renowned spiritual teacher Anthony Strano, as well as meditation teacher Carmen Warrington, and musicians Sam McNally and Armondo Hurley, for this beautiful FREE event, Sunday 10 February, 4-6pm. “This Significant Time: Learning to live with change and uncertainty” is a free event offered by the Brahma Kumaris as part of their work for greater peace of mind and compassionate understanding. Bookings are essential. Location: Sir John Clancy Auditorium, Building C24, Enter via Gate 9. Free parking: Gate 11, Botany Street. Booking details: http://www.bkwsu.org/au/events Books and CDs will be available for sale. This is a program that could change your mind for the better!
Stephanie Dowrick at Mana Retreat Centre
You will find continuously updated details of Dr Stephanie Dowrick’s spiritually inclusive retreats and events at “Events” on this website. But we would particularly like to bring your attention to Stephanie’s annual retreats at the gloriously beautiful Mana Retreat Centre, near Coromandel, New Zealand. The residential retreats are 28 March – 1 April (Easter Retreat) and 3-6, 6-9 October (Spring Retreat, with optional extension). This is Stephanie Dowrick’s favourite place in the world to teach. She describes it as “a haven of beauty…and of kindness. Everyone leaves deeply refreshed and with new strengths to meet life with greater equanimity and joy.”
Universal Heart News, Events & Book Club
New year inspiration: Martin Luther King & Thich Nhat Hanh * The Moon Shines Out of the Dark SYDNEY 19 January * Welcome to our “Retreat in a Day” AUCKLAND 26 January * List of 2013 events including Easter Retreat * Glorious treats at Universal Heart Book Club * Video talk: the languages/expressions of love * Book shop needs * 10 days to greater calm (who can resist?!)
Dear Universal Heart Networkers!
Stephanie Dowrick on 10 days to greater calm
Dr Stephanie Dowrick offers you a 10-day program to greater calm. These practical, fail-safe ideas give you a chance to contribute to a friendlier, kinder, better humoured world – and to become delightful company for everyone who knows you. You can find many more ideas in Dr Dowrick’s books Choosing Happiness and Everyday Kindness. Feel free to respond to this program and report your successes on “Official Stephanie Dowrick” FB page. We welcome your comments! (Remember “calm” can include enthusiasm, delight, awe, engagement, tolerance, appreciation…but excludes tiresome, miserable irritations, eruptions and negativity.)
Featured book
'A tour de force in matters of the heart' Claire Scobie, Kindred Spirit.
Stephanie Dowrick offers practical insights for a more compassionate, appreciative life - and far happier, more satisfying relationships. Full of stories as well as ideas, this is a book you can return to often as your desires grow to live a life of integrity, belonging and meaning.
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