Vision-In-Action Leadership Institute News
September - October, 2008
Recent and Future Events
New Course Registrations
Hokkaido Foundations of Science Conference
From July 24th to July 26th, 2008, VIA Founder and VIA-LI Director Yasuhiko Genku Kimura was one of the eight participants at The Hokkaido Foundations of Science Symposium (HFSS), held at The Windsor Hotel Toya overlooking the famous Lake Toya, where G-8 meeting had taken place two weeks before.
The symposium was co-convened by the renowned evolution biologist and futurist Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris and the visionary businessman Mr. Akio Shoji.
The purpose of HFSS was three-fold:
- To redefine and broaden the scope of science so that the definition can include other forms of sciences or knowledge systems, such as the sciences of indigenous cultures, thus far deemed unscientific by Western science.
- To identify the fundamental and axiomatic philosophical assumptions that underlie modern Western science—such as the assumption that physical reality is the only reality there is or that matter is more primary than consciousness.
- To identify a new set of assumptions or premises that makes a new kind of integral science possible based on the Primacy of Consciousness.
The symposium marked the beginning of a new wave of creative collaborations amongst the participants which will produce or start to produce, before the next symposium in 2010, a dedicated website; an internal blog; a DVD of the Symposium; a book on a new kind of science inspired by the symposium to which each participant will contribute a chapter; a global survey of scientists on their unexamined assumptions on the foundation of science; and several other projects.
The name of the group formed out of the HFSS is The Evolution of Science Group and its website address will be www.sciencevolve.com.
Mr. Akio Shoji, President of Aleph Inc. not only participated in the entire Symposium with three professional simultaneous interpreters brilliantly interpreting at-times very scientifically technical or philosophically recondite conversations but also contributed his unique business-based and Buddhism-inspired perspectives and wisdom.
The symposium was followed by a memorable two-day tour of the indigenous Ainu culture, the eco-farm of the gracious host Mr. Akio Shoji, and the natural beauty of Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan.
Mr. Akio Shoji - President and CEO of Aleph Inc.
Dr. Elisabet Sahtouris - Evolution Biologist, Futurist
Yasuhiko at the symposium
Dr. Enoé Texier - Anthropologist, Social Scientist
Dr. Osman Bakar - Professor of Islamic Thought and Civilization
Professor Brian D. Josephson - Physicist, Nobel Laureate
Dr. Manjir Samanta-Laughton - Physician, Holistic Medicine
Dr. William A. Tiller - Engineer, Consciousness Researcher
Ms. Caroline Ward - Dialogue Facilitator
Osman and Yasuhiko in Ainu costumes
Group with the Ainu dancers
At Mr. and Mrs. Shoji's garden
ATCE II 2008 Symposium Retreat 3
ATCE II 2008 Participants will meet for the third four-day symposium retreat from September 11 to 14 in Santa Cruz, California. The theme of this symposium is the integration of esoteric Buddhist principles and practices into the furtherance of each participant’s spiritual evolution. (In the first two symposium retreats the participants delved deeply into their self-studies through the study of the Gurdjieff teachings combined with the Taoist Tai Chi and Ba Gua cosmology.)
ATCE I 2009 Registration
ATCE I 2009 special discount registration is now available. Register online or call 212-888-1908.
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