Higher Learning

On my vacation, technically on your spiritual walk you are NEVER really on vacation. Sometimes the lessons and insights are a breath of fresh air, relaxing and a relief. While in San Francisco I had the wonderful opportunity to finally meet a woman I admire very much. Her dedication to ancient African Herstory is phenomenal. Passionate, warm and down-to-earth, when I first encounter her books and work, it inspired me to keep going and to stay strongly focus. Her name is Lucia Birnbaum and she is one of many of the professors who teach (the first program I have ever seen) women's spirituality. The program has a strong womanist and black goddess focus. Probably the first and only program in the country, possibly the world. She teaches at a wonderful school called CIIS located in the downtown area of San Francisco. The whole school has a wonderful humanist, spirituality focus with the bookstore stocked with titles ranging from Tantra, the Dalai Llama, Healing Racism, Buddhism, Recovering the Teachings of the Body and just books I am more likely to see in a Shambhala Bookstore, or even in my own bookcase at home and not in an academic setting. The school even has a meditation room upstairs. Surreal! The world is moving fast in expanding its consciousness around these issues of race and sex and it was incredible to see it and experience it. You know in the past higher education meant just that....studying subjects and creating an environment so that people can learn to become better people and to contribute in a positive way to a diverse world. I guess CIIS has what you might call, higher education. Lucia Birnbaum and her books and great work can be found at this link.