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The world is in flux. Systems are unraveling, colliding, and reshaping faster than we can make sense of them. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, paralyzed, or unsure about how to respond.
Many of us are looking for ways to understand what's going on, but struggle to find them. The world is full of people trying to sell us simple explanations and quick solutions. But there’s really no such thing. So let’s abandon the search for an easy way out; instead, let’s commit to staying with the uncomfortable messiness just a little longer.
In this two-part workshop, we’ll ask: Who are we? What kind of world is this and how do we experience and make sense of it? What might that have to do with the challenges we’re facing? And how can we respond to them effectively and wisely?
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Aug 9, 2025, 10am-1pm
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Aug 16, 2025, 10am-1pm
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In this session, we’ll begin by slowing down. Through meditation, reflection, and shared experience, we’ll explore what it means to be in complexity—not just to think about it. We’ll trace the roots of today’s polycrisis and introduce core concepts like emergence, feedback, and entanglement. But more importantly, we’ll ask: How does complexity live in us? And how do we relate to it?
This session is less about solving problems and more about shifting our stance: cultivating presence, deepening perception, and learning to stay with the tangle rather than cut through it. Together, we’ll begin to see complexity not as a problem to be solved, but as something intelligible that we can sense and respond to wisely.
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After learning to sense the patterns and entanglements of complexity, the question becomes: how do we act wisely in a world we cannot control?
In this session, we shift from seeing systems to attuning to them. Rather than rushing toward solutions, we explore how to move with presence, integrity, and responsiveness. Through contemplative practices, group dialogue, and embodied exercises, we’ll examine what authentic progress looks like when success is not linear—and how small shifts can open new futures.
We'll also step into the terrain of the adjacent possible: the liminal space just beyond the current moment, where something unexpected might emerge. This is not the domain of certainty or strategy, but of subtle sensing, creative tension, and quiet courage.
By the end of this session, we’ll begin to recognize that the future doesn’t arrive through force—it unfolds through attunement.
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Marc is a Twin Cities based musician, composer, Zen priest and poet. He has studied, performed and recorded music all over the world with hundreds of great artists including; Angelique Kidjo, Robert Fripp, Steve Tibbetts, Don Cherry, Max Roach and Taj Mahal. He founded and directs the M2 Foundation which advocates for a more mindful and compassionate world. And, he is on staff in the Center for Religious and Spiritual Life at Macalester College.
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Lauren’s spent the past decade guiding groups as they unpack complex challenges and design life-aligned responses. She’s worked across a wide range of contexts—from startups and social ventures to community nonprofits, universities, and government initiatives—helping people navigate uncertainty, find shared understanding, and explore new possibilities.
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Our work weaves together two powerful modes of understanding and responding to ourselves, others, and the world:
Complexity thinking reveals the entangled, emergent, and nonlinear nature of systems. It shows us that we’re always participating in dynamic, relational wholes, though we can each only see them in part.
Especially the Zen lineage, contemplative practice ****dissolves the illusion of a fixed, separate self. It brings awareness to impermanence and interbeing. It doesn’t just teach us about complexity—it helps us stay **present to it.
In addition to complexity science and ancient wisdom traditions, we draw from cognitive science, anthropology, philosophy, evolutionary biology, and even quantum theory.
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This workshop is offered on a donation basis, because we believe that learning in community should be as accessible as possible. You’re welcome to attend for free—your presence is what matters most.
If you’re able to contribute financially, your donation will go directly toward supporting the spaces we gather in and future workshops like this one. You can select a donation tier for each workshop when you register on Luma.
We’ll provide light snacks, coffee, and cold beverages
You don’t need to bring anything, and you don’t need to prepare
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Nautilus Music-Theater, 308 E Prince St #190, St Paul, MN 55101
https://maps.app.goo.gl/tMuCAbbm6K4S78767
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While there’s plenty of metered street parking in the area, we recommend these nearby, inexpensive parking options:
D1 Lot | $2.50 per day | 3 min walk
D2 Lot | $2.00 per day | 5 min walk
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