Roshi Joan Halifax will kick off Hospice of Santa Barbara’s
monthly ILLUMINATE Speaker Series Thursday, Oct. 22. Courtesy photo.
SANTA BARBARA — As local nonprofits are adapting to find new ways to serve their clients and causes, Hospice of Santa Barbara is also adjusting to the new realities that come with COVID-19. One way the organization is transitioning to serve is to provide helpful resources to our community and beyond as they relate to COVID-19. Fresh on the heels of their successful speaking engagement with Pico Iyer, Hospice of Santa Barbara is presenting a new free Speaker Series — ILLUMINATE.
To kick off the virtual series, their first speaker, Roshi Joan Halifax will be joining them Thursday, October 22, from 6:00-7:00 PM. Halifax’s presentation will go over the powerful exploration of the deep necessity of integrity as the foundation for moral resilience – a topic critical for these challenging times. She will explore some of the challenges to integrity as we care for others, care for the world, and care for ourselves. She will also look at essential aspects of moral suffering and how to cultivate moral resilience, which supports us in facing uncertainty, suffering, and loss. This is especially important now as our society faces incredible anxiety related to the pandemic as well as economic, political, and social upheaval,
Roshi Joan Halifax is Founder, Abbot, and Head Teacher of Upaya Zen Center, a Buddhist monastery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She is Director of the Project on Being with Dying and Founder of the Upaya Prison Project that develops programs on meditation for prisoners.
“During this time, it is important for all of us to know we are not alone and experiencing these challenges together. Our speaker series will cover topics that are most relevant to what we are all going through,” said David Selberg, CEO of Hospice of Santa Barbara. “We are very excited to kick off our series with Roshi Joan Halifax as she addresses the topic of moral resilience during this unprecedented time.”
HSB established the ILLUMINATE Speakers Series to address many of the struggles we all face that have been heightened during the pandemic. As we all know, people are reeling from this world-wide crisis emotionally, socially, and economically. People have shared a variety of intense feelings they are experiencing during this time, among them: fear, deep sadness, anxiety, grief, uncertainty over the present and what the future holds, vulnerability, despair, anger, hopelessness. They will have a new nationally-known speaker every month.
The series continues with Frank Ostaseski in November. Then moving into 2021, Katy Butler in January, Sharon Salzberg in February, Dr. BJ Miller in March and Dr. Sunita Puri in April. The remainder of the 2021 Speaker Series will be announced in the coming months. To find out more, and register for the event, please visit: http://www.hospiceofsb.org/hsbseries
Hospice of Santa Barbara — Hospice of Santa Barbara provides professional counseling, support groups, and patient care services free of charge to individuals and families who are grieving the death of a loved one or experiencing the impact of a life-threatening illness. Hospice of Santa Barbara also provides counseling in our offices and on fifteen local junior and high school campuses to children and teens who are grieving the loss of a loved one. For more information about Hospice of Santa Barbara, including volunteer opportunities, call (805) 563-8820 or visit www.hospiceofsantabarbara.org.