The Art of Prayer - An Embodied Approach to Prayer and Creation (PD and General)

The Art of Prayer is a regenerative learning approach exploring a core component of our shared human existence - our natural capacity for prayer. It is a framework of practices, in which people from all walks of life and traditions, religious and secular, prayers and non-prayers - are invited to reconnect and rediscover gateways into the field of prayer.

Together we reformulate and refresh pathways into the intimate experience of being in the world; of being in the field of prayer; of becoming creatures endowed with curiosity, kindness and a sensitivity to the yet unknown. It is about transforming our understanding of the act of prayer from a mere practice into an embodied, living model for existence.

Baruch Brenner is an Israeli Focusing facilitator, theatre director, actor, singer, teacher and an ordained Orthodox Rabbi. Over the last 25 years, he has been a leading innovator in integrating Jewish and spiritual practices with experiential work in theatre, movement and vocal arts. He was the artistic director of the Vertigo lab in the eco-art village, and a research fellow and member of Jerzy Grotowski theatre ensemble.

Dana Ganihar, M.Sc. is a teacher and researcher certified as a Focusing Coordinator by the international focusing institute in New York. Over the last couple decades, she has led numerous workshops and seminars exploring the work of psychologist and philosopher Eugene Gendlin: IBF - Instancing Based Focusing, PoI - Philosophy of the Implicit, and TAE - Thinking at the Edge. Dana has initiated cooperative research exploring the potential impact of Focusing practices on diverse fields such as biology, architecture, creative writing and religion, in Institutions including the Technion, Bar Ilan University and Tel Hai College. 

This event is eligible for ABC and SKEBC sponsorship.

Recommendation from Jennifer Guild:

'I have been studying some of the Art of Prayer courses online with Baruch and Dana as I am particularly interested in the use of Focusing developed by Eugene Gendlin and it’s the relationship to prayer and contemplative listening, including within spiritual companioning and in the formation of spiritual companions. I have found their work very resonant with an embodied approach to listening through our body to our deepest essence and aliveness in connection to the Divine, to what we might call the Larger System or Larger Body and so to our planet, to each other and to all living things.