Eva Bakkeslett, Hana Bernardová, Luděk Čertík, Tomáš Daněk, Tomáš Gardelka, Šimon Grimmich, Tomáš Hrůza, Milada Chalupová, Pavel Janšta, Barbora Kinkalová, Helena Kosková, Alena Maliková, Malvína Nálevková, Martin Nawrath, David Nicol, Andrea Průchová Hrůzová, Luboš Slovák, Václav Sojka, Zuzana Vařilová, Lea Willer and Jiří Zemánek (more information)

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About the Back Country / Tribute to CD Friedrich and Miloslav Nevrly

"When I first entered the vast maze of gorges around the Křinice River, I felt like a discoverer of new lands, like an Indian in the Amazon rainforest. There are many strange things hidden in the Back Country."

Miloslav Nevrly, writer and pilgrim

This year's Wandering University of Nature seminar is being held in the beautiful rocky landscape of the Elbe Sandstones on the northern border with Germany, in that magical corner of protected wilderness that the writer Miloslav Nevrlý once called the Back Country. This picturesque and dramatic region of rocky labyrinths, wild gorges and ravines, bizarre sandstone formations, as well as vast forests and volcanic cones, through which the rivers Kamenice and Křinice freely make their way, as well as the mighty canyon of the largest Czech river, the Elbe, took more than ten million years to form. In the first part of the seminar, which will take place in Vysoka Lípa below Růžovský Hill (axis mundi of the Back Country), and during daily trips and workshops, we will get to know the remarkable geological and biological diversity of this unique sandstone landscape, which is one of the largest rocky areas in Europe, as well as its rich cultural history.

An excellent photographer and ranger of the Bohemian-Saxon Switzerland National Park will introduce us to the hidden beauty of the Backlands Vaclav Sojka, who is a great expert and admirer of it, and a geologist Zuzana Varilova from the Museum of the City of Ústí nad Labem. For Václav Sojka, the Back Country is a landscape of silence, light and mystery, a landscape of the soul that is uniquely able to listen. We will also learn about the history of the modern artistic discovery of Bohemian-Saxon Switzerland in the 19th and 20th centuries, in which such important artists as the Swiss graphic artist Adrian Zinng and the greatest painter of Romanticism, Caspar David Friedrich, who depicted Růžovský Hill in two of his paintings, participated. (Jiri Zemanek), or the aforementioned nature writer and wanderer Miloslav Nevrlý, with whose personality and book Praises of the Back Country we will get to know each other better during the seminar. Some interesting local personalities and stories will also be introduced to us Milada Chalupova and Alena Malikova.

On gentle activism and awakening Gaia

"Gentle activism can be understood as a set of practices that allow us to connect at the depths of our being with a love for the world and a desire to reflect the highest potential of human nature. While contact with the hope of a more loving or peaceful world can make us vulnerable, it is also the most powerful force for change we know."

David Nicol, cultural activist, founder of Gaiafield Project

The multiple interconnected crises facing the Earth today suggest that we are living in a time of great transformation, unprecedented in the history of our planet. According to the philosopher Sean Kelly the entire Earth community is being drawn into a planetary near-death experience that is also the threshold for the birth of our new planetary identity. We are confronted with the challenge of moving from the current story of separation and its associated ecological crisis to a new story of coexistence, consisting in the understanding that we are part of a complex web of interconnected community of life with all its human and non-human members; that we are Earthlings, capable of caring for the well-being of all beings on our planet, perceived as an autopoietic being, as a metasubject, Gaia. Kelly characterizes this transformation as the birth of the Gaianthropocene, a new geological epoch, “in which we can awaken to our deeper nature as living members of Gaia, the living Earth, in whom and through whom we have our being …”

As one way to support intelligent systemic change and the implied transformation of society in today's unstable global situation, where economic, social and ecological systems have become extremely complex and therefore unpredictable, the chaos theorist proposed David F. Peat the concept of "gentle action" ("gentle action"). Peat recommends applying subtle or minimal interventions that relate to the system as a whole. Based on Peat's suggestion, Norwegian environmental artist and cultural activist developed Eva Bakkeslett, who will be the main guest of our seminar, will present her art project of subtle activism (gentle activism). Eva explores the possibilities of social change through subtle actions and subtle shifts in thinking, trying to renew the mutual relationships between people, nature and culture as one living organism. As a key form of her subtle activism, she has developed the fermentation process, which is a central element and metaphor in her work. Eva Bakkeslett introduces us to the nature of her socially engaged artistic work, in which she often combines film, participatory events and workshops.

Another form of subtle activism will be presented at the seminar by an Australian philosopher and cultural activist David Nicol, Executive Director of Gaiafield Project – Gentle Activism for Global Transformation, and Co-Founder WiseUSA and EarthRising, which have brought tens of thousands of people together around the world for large-scale meditations focused on social change. Nicol sees gentle activism as a bridge between the consciousness movement and the peace, ecological sustainability and social justice movements, as a key part of a more integrated approach to social change and as a path to a new integrative spirituality; for him, it represents a way in which we can contribute to the effective solution of social and ecological problems today through spirituality and how we can evoke a sense of the sacred in public consciousness. The power of coherent group consciousness not only helps to cultivate our human abilities and subtly positively influence the mental field of society and thereby heal the world, but also opens the way to new ways of self-organization of human consciousness and human society that are more attuned to the field of Gaia, to the new reality of the Earth as a concrete universe.

David Nicol will lead a ninety-minute seminar with us. collective peace meditation for the Earth.

Lea Willer, Berlin therapist, member of the Buddhist community in Plum Village and environmental activist us in a lecture To be in love with Mother Earth will introduce the legacy of the great Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, the patron of gentle activism, and how she herself connects her own activist work with Buddhist spirituality; along with By Barbora Kinkalová will guide us through a meditation walk in the spirit of Hanh's Zen practice, which opens us to the consciousness of non-duality, the consciousness of co-existence. We will also recall some other important figures of ecological thought. In the presentation The time has come to live on Earth as pilgrims (Helena Koskova) we will take a closer look at the amazing life of Satish Kumar, an Indian peace pilgrim and lifelong activist, founder of Schumacher College and Resurgence magazine, who has inspired us to make global changes for fifty years. We will be introduced to the personality and work of Barry Lopez, who passed away last year Ludek Certik, will introduce us to Dona Haraway's posthumanism Andrea Průchová Hrůzová as Pavel Janšta We will take a walk through the Taoist book of Changes I t'ing.

On ritual and community

Your voice is powerful and can be heard even by those you cannot hear. They can also be your allies if you ask them to. — Radek Štěpánek (Remember the Starling)

At the seminar we will try to develop the perception of our belonging to the living earth around us also through rituals, contemplations, dances, poetry and simple invocations and prayers, individually and collectively. It will be a kind of experiment in which we will be inspired by the rituals of indigenous cultures, Thich Nhat Hanh's meditation practice, the experiences and texts of David Abram, or Celtic and Sufi spirituality. We will try to tune in to the threshold moments of the day, which are the gateways that open us to the natural spirituality and mystery of this universe - to the gentle power of dawn and the magic of dusk, which returns us to the depths of the mystery of the night ... We will try to immerse ourselves in the path of this mysterious cosmic rhythm and welcome and worship the sun, sky, moon and shining stars.

„A life without ceremony deprives us of allies,” says Charles Eisenstein. In contrast, the mental attitude that calls us to ceremony invites us to ask: “What does the earth want? What does the river want? What does the wolf want? …” Such a ritualistic approach makes us companions in the world, engaging in conversation with its countless beings and intelligences. We will recall prayer as the language of the heart, as a way of addressing the living world around us and of maintaining an attentive and respectful relationship with it. In this spirit, at the beginning of the seminar, we will recall and perform a ceremony together Iroquois Thanksgiving, a prayer that is a gift from the Haudenosaunee people (Iroquois nation); and that unites human beings in harmony with each other and with all living things and allows life to continue in great cycles of regeneration. After Friday's collective meditation with David Nicole, our seminar will end on Saturday with a gala evening Praise of the (Back) Country, a collective ritual poetry, singing, music, wishes and prayers for the Earth, in which, inspired by David Abram, we will remind ourselves why it is important today to speak more to the world than about the world. Following the example of Cynthia Jurs, we will collect these prayers and wishes in a ceramic vase, which we will place in the ground at a selected location in the local landscape. The program of evening dances and morning contemplations will be provided by Milada Chalupova, However, rituals are a call to co-creation for all of us, which I would like to invite you to do.

George Zemanek

"When we walk on Mother Earth, we always place our feet carefully, knowing that the faces of our future generations are looking down upon us from beneath the earth. We never forget them."

Chief Oren Lyons, Onondaga Nation

Seminar program

Lecturers and collaborators

Accommodation and total payment

Accommodation is provided at Hotel Lípa in Vysoká Lípa No. 45 in Bohemian-Saxon Switzerland. Total price for meals and accommodation 3705,-CZK. You will stay in double, quadruple and six-bed rooms. The food is vegetarian, and vegan if possible. Payment for the seminar: 5,000 CZK. Total price: 8,705 CZK; for students and people with low income the price per seminar is 4,000 CZK; total price: 7,705 CZKMaximum seminar capacity 40 participants, including lecturers.

Please notify us of your application to one of the email addresses or phone numbers listed on the last page of the invitation. (Jiří Zemánek, Alena Malíková, Tomáš Hrůza): The condition for participation is sending deposit 1,500 CZK to the account number at Fio banka, a.s.: 2901522796/2010. Enter your name as a variable symbol – deposit for the seminar in Vysoka Lípa.

Transport connections from Prague to Vysoka Lípa on Monday, August 15

From Prague, take the express train from the main station to Děčín, where you will change to a bus to the Jetřichovice Vysoká Lípa-restaurant stop. From the final bus stop, you will then walk 1 km to Hotel Lípa in the upper part of the village. We recommend that you use the service that leaves Prague at 12:25 or 14:25 to catch the start of dinner at 18:00. (The service that leaves Prague at 14:46 is just as a precaution).

• Prague Express, main railway station, departure 12:25 – arrival in Děčín 13:54
• Bus Děčín (from the main train station), departure 14:11 – arrival to Jetřichovice, Vysoká Lípa, restaurant 14:53
• Prague Express, main railway station, departure 14:25 – arrival in Děčín 15:54
• Bus Děčín (from the main train station), departure 16:11 – arrival to Jetřichovice, Vysoká Lípa, restaurant 16:53
• Prague Express, main railway station, departure 14:46 – arrival in Děčín 16:34
• Bus Děčín (from the main train station), departure 16:44 – arrival to Jetřichovice, Vysoká Lípa, restaurant 17:45

“When we join hands and dance, our mental, physical and spiritual selves come together… the rocks, the crystals, the earth and the entire universe feel it, we become one.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

Contacts for further information

• Jiri Zemanek, sarvanga@centrum.cz, 777 117 466
• Alena Malikova, alena.malikova@bioinstitut.cz, 604 905 611
• Tomas Hruza, tomashruza@gmail.com, 775 052 607