Charles Lief, President of Naropa University: Bringing Spirituality Alive

Join Ed and Deb Shapiro along with leading light in contemplative education, Charles Lief for a conversation on creating more meaningful lives.

How do we live a more purposeful and spiritually fulfilling life? How do we put into action all those wonderful ideas and selfless dreams we have? Charles Lief has led an inspiring life doing just that. In 1970, when he was just 19, he became a student of Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and remained closely connected to Rinpoche's work to establish Buddhism in the west. For decades he worked toward sustainable social and economic transformation with the homeless: he was the first president of the Greyston Foundation in Yonkers, NY, dedicated to ending poverty and one of the best-known models of integrated nonprofit social enterprises. Founded by Roshi Bernie Glassman, Greyston's combination of services includes housing for homeless families, childcare centers, HIV/AIDS housing and health care, and the well-known Greyston Bakery, which provides employment to low income people and, among other products, supplies millions of pounds of brownies to Ben and Jerry's. As a principal in the Hartland Group of Burlington, Vermont, he created mixed-income housing and economic development projects in Vermont and New Hampshire. Now he is the president of Naropa University, a leading light in contemplative education, enabling its students to create meaningful spiritual lives. http://www.naropa.edu/presidents-office/