Living in the Future
Talk by Jack Petranker
Senior Teacher at the Center for Creative Inquiry
In Person and on Zoom
We take it for granted that we live in the present, that only the present is real. But how can that be? After all, the present moment comes and goes too quickly for us to inhabit it.
That leaves two choices: we can live in the past or live in the future. If we live in the past, we are trapped—we can only play out the consequences of what has come before. If we live in the future, however, we can be free, for the future is the realm of endless possibility.
For now, we live in the past, conditioned by what has already happened. But we can learn to live in the future instead. It’s not really difficult. We need only be ready to greet each new moment of our lives.
Jack Petranker is the founder of the Center for Creative Inquiry and its Senior Teacher. A close student of Tibetan lama Tarthang Tulku for more than four decades, he is the author of One with the World: A Path to Living with Presence and Appreciation (2026)
Date and Time
Saturday, November 14, 10:00 – 11:00am Pacific Time
Location
2210 Harold Way, Berkeley, CA 94704
Price
This program is FREE and open to the public!
Instructor
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Jack PetrankerInstructor
Jack Petranker (he/him) is the founder of CCI and regularly offers courses and retreats. He is the author of When It Rains, Does Space Get Wet? (Dharma Publishing 2006), and has written numerous academic articles in consciousness studies, organizational change, political transformation, and the value of work as a spiritual practice. Jack holds an MA in political theory from UC Berkeley, and a JD from Yale Law School. He is also the Director of Mangalam Research Center in Berkeley, CA.
