Mahatma Gandhi’s disciple and spiritual heir, Vinoba Bhave creatively fused the sacred and the secular, through spiritual courage and non-violent social reform. Hear his life story.

For members and their invited guests, the Annual Holiday Reception is a festive celebration of the seasonal observance of birth and renewal. Come and enjoy the opportunity for fellowship, live seasonal music, and holiday treats.

An ongoing study circle every Tuesday night covering a variety of themes. This month:

The philosophical idea “co-becoming” (gongsheng) in Chinese thought holds that things in the universe come into being through their relations with one another, rather than existing as separate, self-contained entities.

Sikhism is a spiritual, religious, and philosophical path that originated in the Punjab region of India at the end of the fifteenth century C.E.

A celebration of Light ! Science, poetry, metaphysics and culture converge in an inspiring Saturday forum led by a dynamic team of experienced educators and long-time members of the IWC — Russ and Gerry Lewin.

This lecture/discussion in our Monday Salon Series explores how cultivating the personality trait of openness could foster individual and community flourishing. Presenter: Jonathan Schooler. Free and Open to All.

According to the United Nations, the world’s Indigenous Peoples “are inheritors and practitioners of unique cultures and ways of living.” Who are the Indigenous Peoples of the world and what human rights issues are they concerned with? Our speaker Joshua Cooper will begin with a description of various Indigenous peoples in different countries and discuss whether or not their long time struggles for human rights and for self-determination are being achieved. There are numbers of Indigenous peoples’ movements that we should know about and support. Joshua will report on the World Conference on Indigenous Peoples, the regional issues for indigenous peoples, and the UN Expert Mechanism on Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Nine-year-old Ali fetches his six-year-old sister Zahra’s pink shoes after a cobbler has repaired them, and loses them on the way home. The events that follow reshape their lives. The film shows the strength of hope in Tehran at the time.

In 1986, five-year-old Saroo lives with his older brother Guddu, his baby sister, Shekila, and his mother in Khandwa, India. Saroo and Guddu search for food and sneak into train stations. One night, Saroo boards a train that doesn’t stop. He spends two months in fear and hunger. After an orphanage, he is adopted by an Australian couple. After university, Saroo returns to India to search for his family.

Journey with the world’s most revered filmmaker, Marlin Darrah, as he explores the 10,000 km route that winds through deserts, mountains and bazaars from China to Iran. This program travels through five countries and two dozen cities. It presents an uncommon opportunity to see the enduring world of Western China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.

The American Composer Charles Ives was a daring explorer of new territories in the sonic imagination. Coming of age at the transition to the 20th Century, his fresh uses of harmony and structure anticipated the atonal approaches of later composers. At the same time, Ives answered the call for original American art music by embracing the vernacular traditions of his folk upbringing: church hymns, fiddle tunes, patriotic songs, military marches and ragtime. His disdain for “emasculated” programming in the arts, the dull flattery of familiar tastes, and the narrow sensibilities of those holding symphony purse-strings, drove Ives away from the world of professional music and into business, where he became a successful innovator in the industry of life insurance. Politically, his deep convictions about “the universal vision behind the American Dream” were expressed in advocacy for a People’s World Union, limits on private wealth, and a 20th Constitutional Amendment for direct democracy.

Presenter: David Fideler The first part of this talk will explore the concept of concord or harmony (harmonia) in ancient philosophy, and how it was ultimately believed to arise among human beings.

Saturday, June 14, 2025 9:00 am – 10:30 am (PDT) – A free event – open to all In Person only at Concord Hall, 1407 Chapala Street, Santa Barbara, California Presenter: Denys Zhadiaiev, PhD, Associate Professor, Dnipro University of Technology, Dnirpo, Ukraine Expressions like “throbs of experience,” “seasons,” and “rhythm” are key ideas in Whitehead’s cosmology. Finding the proper place and combination of such ideas and categories is to come to a new vision of the world. It is to find new rhythms, regularities and patterns. Denys Zhadiaiev will explain why “time” as a category is central to Whitehead’s cosmology and what trends in education, psychology, and digital technology are following a similar vision. Professor Zhadiaiev will join us live via the Internet from Ukraine.

Renowned classical Indian musicians Ravi Chary and Amit Kavthekar offer a rousing, interactive improvisation reflecting the heart of classical Indian music.

An international roundtable discussion on aspects and examples of preserving spiritual values in transformative education.

In world cultures East and West, stories have long been one of the primary tools for building a sense of shared identity and creating bonds of connection across time and space.

This forum, based on the framework presented in Regenesis: Feeding the World without Devouring the Planet by George Monbiot, will explore how to adjust modern agricultural methods to meet humanity’s need for food and a healthy environment.

Vinod Venkataraman (V.R.), Artistic Director of The Music Circle in Los Angeles, is a rare blend of artistic and leadership ability. Born into a South Indian family with a rich musical ancestry, he studied the violin as a youth, then under the tutelage of one of the greatest exponents of the mridangam became a master of this ancient and complex percussion instrument.

Chinese medicine is a comprehensive and complete form of healing. Western medicine has its own beauty and has its own unique attributes.

Professor Shabanova will discuss something about Mozart’s operatic work in general, but the focus will be on Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute.” She will explain how the symbolism of “The Magic Flute” expresses the Masonic ideal of the spiritual path.

The University of California Santa Barbara Middle East Ensemble will present a lecture/demonstration celebrating the cultural diversity of Middle East music traditions. Directed by UCSB Professor Scott Marcus, the Ensemble will present a three-part program.

Ancient wisdom traditions as well as poets and mystics from diverse cultures, portray the entire cosmos as a vast unified community, each living being indissolubly and interdependently interconnected with all other beings, each mirroring the whole in resplendent, though largely invisible, concord.