Just Like Me: Embracing Our Common Humanity

with ​​Erika Rosenberg, Ph.D. & Greg Morris

Join us in person at 2929 24th Street, San Francisco

Pre-registration required

Our lives today are too often defined by divisions among us in terms of ideas, background, appearances, interests, beliefs, politics, education, geography and more. We live in a culture that increasingly promotes division over connection, us versus them, reinforced by leaders thriving on fear and social fragmentation.

So how do we move forward? We need to be open with one another, talk to each other, and work together. We must recognize our common humanity for the sake of our species and planet. 

Embracing common humanity means noticing how much we share amidst all those differences. We may differ in many ways, but ultimately we have so much more in common: we eat, we sleep, we rise, we work, we are all just trying to get through this thing called life with minimal pain, some joy, and some peace of mind. The idea is that the similarities or shared concerns are so much bigger and more fundamental than the differences. Can we see that? Can we embrace that?

Join this one-day workshop, Just Like Me: Embracing Our Common Humanity, where compassion educators Erika Rosenberg and Greg Morris will:

• Explore common humanity - a basis for survival, healing, and growth

• Offer tools, frameworks, and practices grounded in contemporary psychology, neuroscience, and meditation to help us create meaningful connections despite our differences

• Include meditation, discussion, individual and small group work discussing compassion, empathy, and recognizing our own areas of resistance to change

When we learn to embrace common humanity as fully as possible, the richness of our collective human tapestry becomes our greatest asset. Just Like Me: Embracing Our Common Humanity starts and ends with the conviction that each of us is able to create connections that will create meaningful shifts in the world.

No experience with meditation is required. We welcome practitioners at all levels.
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Erika Rosenberg, Ph.D. is a scientist, author, and teacher dedicated to helping people connect, find joy, and suffer less. A co-developer of Stanford’s Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT™) with Thupten Jinpa, Erika is Founding Faculty at The Compassion Institute and teaches at the Nyingma Institute in Berkeley. A long time practitioner of Tibetan Buddhist meditation, Dr. Rosenberg’s academic work focuses on the study of emotion, facial expression, and meditation. At the Center for Mind and Brain at UC Davis, she is a member of the Saron Lab, which conducts multi-disciplinary, path-breaking research in contemplative science. She is co-author of What the Face Reveals and Psychology: Perspectives & Connections and author of numerous scientific articles.

Greg Morris is a student and practitioner of bhakti yoga and Advaita Vedanta, as well as a student and devotee of the Tao Te Ching and the four gospels of the New Testament. A lifelong peace advocate and bridge-builder with childhood grounding in Unitarianism, Greg offers their spiritual practice as the foundation of their work as a teacher, as a coach, and as a management consultant specializing in belonging, inclusion, diversity, equity, and general leadership. Greg is grateful to be the recipient and beneficiary of several healing modalities, most notably Rosen Method (Marion Rosen, Robert Harry Rovin), Transformational Bodywork (Stephen Allario, Fred Mitouer), Holistic Sexuality (Marina Romero), Interpersonal Dynamics (David Bradford), and psychotherapy. Greg is a certified teacher of Compassion Cultivation Training (CCT™), a secular program developed by Stanford University’s Department of Neurosurgery under the guidance of Geshe Thupten Jinpa and at the request of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama.