About the keynote

Inclusivity, equality and inter-being are values expressed in the ancient story of Indra’s Net. This net stretches infinitely, glittering with a single jewel at every node of cross threads, reflecting all the others. In the expansive field of mindfulness-based programs, we are parts of a larger whole like the individual jewels at each node of the net. How do we reflect and enhance the humility, wholesome intention, and brilliance of one another? How does and how could the unifying “net” of mindfulness lead us to co-create a more awake and compassionate and cooperative world?

As human beings, we are indigenous to the earth, and, as human beings who dare to look deeply into the nature of experience, we carry a unique and urgent ecological responsibility to care for the health and well-being of one another and of our planet. Maintaining the depth and integrity, ethics and core values of the transformational potential inherent in sharing mindfulness practices, involves participation from every member in this field.

In this interactive keynote, mindfulness expressed through leadership, vision, healing, teaching and befriending, will be investigated through presentation, narrative, silence, and dialogue. Abiding in and drawing from the net of collective wisdom, we will explore unique contributions of compassion, insight and generosity. We will share individual choices involving climate-awareness, and social justice, that unite us all in the larger agenda of global healing and flourishing.

About the speaker

Florence serves as Global Ambassador to the MBSR Affiliates world-wide at the Mindfulness Center, Brown University and is inspired by the potential of MBSR to impact global health and well-being when taught by teachers trained with rigor, depth, and cultural sensitivity.

She has trained MBSR teachers and teacher trainers for over 20 years.  As Director of Oasis Institute, for Professional Education and Training at the Center for Mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts’ Medical School, she engaged with and supported the development of thousands of MBSR teachers globally.  

Over many years, she directly trained MBSR teacher trainers, and was director of the Train the Trainer program. With equal focus on the refinement of teaching skills, attitudes and knowledge, the heart of her work attends to the cultivation of the deepest understanding of MBSR as a path of love, healing and transformation.  She has been a leading contributor to the development of best practices for teacher training in the growing field of MBSR and MBIs.