In the Council on the Uncertain Human Future
             we slow down, come present, and listen deeply.


                We share our understandings of the social and political context in which we meet,
                the planetary changes underway, and the human behaviors that brought us here…
                and stay with the implications for all living beings, including ourselves.

 

With open hearts and minds,
we acknowledge the conditions and losses underway.

 

                                        We ask… what matters from here?
                  Given what we know, how do we live now?
                                  How might we serve, individually and together…
                                              with and for the Earth?

 

Listening together, collective wisdom may arise
between us, further seeding empathetic, earth-based,
life-affirming ways into the new realities…

       

These practices of listening, steady presence and reckoning,
        and the trust, insight, community and evolutionary visioning
        that may grow from them, are path for these times… mycelial and emergent.

Please explore our practice stream, readers and films
Learn more of our intentions, the ongoing contributions of CUHF members,
and how you might join us.

 

…and shifting the paradigm. 

In the Council on the Uncertain Human Future…we slow down, come present, and listen deeply.

 

We share our understandings of the social and political context in which we meet, the planetary changes underway, and the human behaviors that brought us here…and stay with the implications for all living beings, including ourselves.

 

With open hearts and minds, we acknowledge the conditions and losses underway.

 

We ask… what matters from here? Given what we know, how do we live now? How might we serve, individually and together…with and for the earth?

 

Listening together, collective wisdom may arise between us, further seeding empathetic, earth-based, life-affirming ways into the new realities…

 

These practices of listening, steady presence and reckoning,and the trust, insight, community and evolutionary visioning that may grow from them, are path for these times…mycelial and emergent.

 

Please explore our practice stream, readers and films. Learn more of our intentions, the ongoing contributions of CUHF members, and how you might join us.

 

…it shifts the paradigm, sustaining us.

Block 3

2024 Threshold Councils

Transformation—of the planet and the civilizations it has brought forth—is always underway. Yet in this decade, and even this year, we see accelerated change in the living system itself, and the frameworks devised by humans within it.

It is often at the threshold—in the crossing and naming it calls forward—that we may come present more deeply to each other and what is taking place; this year, five distinctive Threshold Councils have emerged as communities of inquiry, insight and collective wisdom for these times.

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FEATURED NEWS

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We can’t get There from Here

On December 4th 2024, CUHF Senior Fellow Bayo Akomolafe joined Paul Hawken in conversation for the 44th Annual E.F. Schumacher...

CUHF Council members and guests, May 2024

What Matters Now in Higher Ed

On Sunday, May 26, educator and author Ahmed Afzal joined CUHF Council members from around the world to ask where...

PRESENCE

On Sunday, November 5, Council members and conveners from around the world came together for the final What Matters Now...

M.R. O'Connor with Meehan Crist at MASSMoCA

Ignition Book Launch

Members of the Council on the Uncertain Human Future came together at MASSMoCA on Thursday, October 19th to celebrate the...

The Council on the Uncertain Human Future
invites reckoning, collective insight and creative possibilities
for the climate realities ahead

REFLECTING AT 10 YEARS

On this community, this practice

Since the beginning, we’ve listened for how CUHF might serve in these unprecedented times. In response, our conversations and practices have been mycelial in nature—deepening and evolving to meet the call. At ten years, the CUHF community and network continues to grow, morph and surprise us in its compassion, tenacity and possibilities.

In this time of profound uncertainty, dissolution and revelation, we asked a group of Council members to speak about how they understand our work, and what it offers for these times. Their voices are gathered in a circle in this special publication, available now through ISSU.

Eco-Dharma Partnership

NDF + CUHF

For over ten years, the Council on the Uncertain Human Future and Natural Dharma Fellowship have partnered in a rich and evolving collaboration of shared vision, intentions and concern. Together, through a variety of joint programs and practices, our collaboration has furthered the possibilities for deepening awareness, practice and embodiment in and for these times.

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  • There is an urgent need for people to bear witness, to truly take in and process what is happening; and do so in community where new insights and collective intelligence can emerge.
  • It is in these quiet and contemplative spaces, sitting in intentional conversation with others, that the wisdom, strength, and seeds of change we so desperately need to bring about cultural transformation can begin to take root and emerge.
    LILY SWANBROW BECKERLILY SWANBROW BECKERCUHF National Convener
  • A Council is a circle. It has no beginning and no end. It has no leaders and no followers, no hierarchy of power or privilege. There are no limits to its revolutions. What a circle has is a center. The center holds honesty, which is a kind of beauty, which is a source of truth.
  • By listening open-heartedly to one another, we can allow new, unanticipated insights to arise. In this way, Council is a path to an emancipatory way of being with the world and with each other. It is a model for the world we are trying to bring into being.
    WALTER WRIGHTWALTER WRIGHTCUHF National Convener
  • There is a spaciousness in our councils—a time-out-of-time—in which we can pause and trust that insight will arise from our creative depths. One insight sparks another and another until we find ourselves seeing possibility and light through the fog of despair. Like an ecosystem, we are generating new ways of being and collaborating for the benefit of all.
    KIRSTIN EDELGLASSKIRSTIN EDELGLASSRando Partnership Council Member
  • The Council experience rattles the crumbling foundation of a defunct dualistic paradigm, one that demands our choice between mind and body, thought and feeling, matter and energy, self and other, individual and community, human and nature, the mundane and the sacred. It offers instead a vision of the world rooted in interdependence.
    KEVIN GALLAGHERKEVIN GALLAGHERCUHF Core Team and National Convener
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CUHF IN HIGHER ED

CURRENT CUHF COUNCILS

From its origins in 2014, the CUHF network has grown steadily – including climate scientists, students, artists, medical professionals, academics, activists, attorneys, environmental professionals, spiritual leaders, writers and more.

WHAT MATTERS NOW SERIES

To mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Council on the Uncertain Human Future, the 2022/23 International CUHF event series focuses on the question—What matters now? In the midst of the unprecedented ruptures that continue to unfold around us, to what do we give our attention and make our commitments? Where do we find nourishment, steadying and inspiration? Recordings from each event in the What Matters Now series, will be made available below as they occur.

CURRENT CUHF COUNCILS

From its origins in 2014, the Council network has grown steadily – including climate scientists, students, artists, medical professionals, academics, activists, attorneys, environmental professionals, spiritual leaders, writers and more.

 

view all councils

INTERNATIONAL CUHF EVENTS

Beginning in December 2020, CUHF members and conveners from around the world have gathered in Council circles, via Zoom, to address issues related to our Uncertain Human Future. Recordings of each event’s opening remarks are available below.

 

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CUHF AFFILIATES