[Music]
it’s been a long day this is part of the
talk if that honestly was part of the
talk not just for my ego but it helped
the reason I wanted to create that
atmosphere is because something magical
happens when people gather together when
we all come together in groups and share
an emotional experience it can be
transformative and that’s what I’ve
spent much of my career doing in big
ways and small I’m obsessed with
connecting with people and helping
people connect to each other there’s
been various different projects which
have done that for instance I am twice
the world record holder for the world’s
longest hug
I have also once played the Sydney Opera
House when I was a comedian and I sold
every single ticket to it in person and
I now in the CEO and co-founder of
Sunday assembly it is a worldwide
network of secular congregations that
celebrate life but what I’m here to talk
by the way is there anyone here who has
gone to Sunday assembly Brighton love
you guys you’re the best
also you other guys are good too
and but I want to tell you about my next
idea and this one is even bigger the
next idea is called life fulness and by
the end of this 15 minutes you will
understand this sentence life fulness is
to congregation as mindfulness is to
meditation well before we get into that
I’m gonna tell you a bit more about
myself and I’m gonna start in this
church this is the church that I was
christened in it’s called Bowden Kirk in
Scotland it’s near where my grandparents
used to live and I was dragged there
very reluctantly
around my childhood it’s also the church
where my mother was buried she died just
one day after my tenth birthday and she
was an amazing woman a barrister mother
of five by the age of 42
she was my mum through my teenage years
it meant that I had to sort of grow up
and I didn’t believe in God had to grow
up dealing with all these big questions
about life and death and love and grief
and somehow in the process it wasn’t
merely sad but oh my gosh it was sad all
those feelings transformed into
something else they transformed into a
transcendental love appreciation and
gratitude for life to be an alive human
and don’t worry they won’t last long is
to win every lottery in the world every
day of your life I find that the easiest
way to go and connect to the wonder of
being alive is to actually think about
your own impending death I’ve even got
my own perfect death that I like to
think about I dream of dying peacefully
in my sleep but next to someone I
dislike who hates surprises about ten
years ago I was in Bowden Kirk again it
was Christmas
and I found myself with a very change
relation to it I was there and and I
found myself loving it I loved the
singing I love that community spirit I
love being with my loved ones thinking
about improving my own life and trying
to help other people and I thought maybe
there’s a way of doing this around
something that everyone can celebrate
that everyone’s getting got in common
maybe we could do this around
celebrating life and on that cliffhanger
question we’re gonna jump into someone
else’s life this guy here is called John
kabat-zinn John kabat-zinn is the
founder of modern medical mindfulness
give me a cheer if you’ve ever done a
headspace it’s because of this guy in
1979 he was on a Buddhist retreat and
whilst he was doing it he had this idea
he thought this is so good imagine if
there was a way of doing it that
everyone could join in and so he created
this thing called the mindfulness based
stress reduction course and that spread
all over the world there’s now so many
different books on it if you go and look
online you can get mindfulness for CEOs
students mums dads and dummies but
enough about him let’s get back on to me
actually let’s talk about PIPA PIPA is a
wonderful comedian and I met her in 2011
and we were going to a gig in bath and
it turned out that she’d had the same
idea that I had paper had been an avid
churchgoer
but when she stopped believing in the
God bit she found she really missed the
community the fellowship and the purpose
someone’s got a call and the community
the fellowship and the purpose and so we
decided that we’d collaborate together
in 2013 we had the first-ever Sunday
assembly it was in this place here in
North London and we thought no one was
going to turn up about 200 people did
then people wrote to us from all over
the world saying oh please could we have
one too and we slightly recklessly said
sure we’ll help you do that
even though we didn’t know what we were
doing and now there are almost
sixty-five communities across the world
in six different countries with
thousands of people participating every
month if you haven’t been to Sunday
Assembly Brighton then you might be
thinking what happens when you go along
and while people sing songs they go and
hear
Ted style talks then what happens is
there’s a moment of reflection and
people connect and that connection leads
to all manner of community activities
afterwards there’s volunteering there’s
peer-to-peer support there’s social
activities it is a whole community and
it was after a few light years of doing
this I thought actually there’s a bigger
idea than just Sunday assembly and that
is the idea of life fulness it is the
idea of taking secular congregations and
secularizing them so that everyone can
take part and I think it should quickly
define some some of the characteristics
of a Congregational community typically
there’s a community it’s a big clue in
the name then there’s normally a
celebratory gathering regularly there’s
a sort of pathway of personal growth
there’s a emphasis on doing good works
and a commitment to sharing your values
with the world but if you want it in a
sentence then I would say life fulness
is a way of sharing life together in
community so that some of the pre-chat
there I am now gonna share with you the
four guiding principles of life fulness
excited but could be maybe a bit more
excited and the first one is is that
life fulness is a community building
methodology I have to make this really
clear we are not starting a new religion
even though I do have the haircut for it
live mindfulness does not equal religion
in the same way that life fulness does
not equal religion and I’m gonna make
that even clearer so what happened is
that John kabat-zinn he went and took
Buddhist meditation he then removed the
metaphysical aspects he then measured it
with science to make it evidence-based
and he created mindfulness what we’re
doing is we’re looking at congregations
moving the metaphysical aspects to make
it inclusive measuring it with science
to make it evidence-based and tada
life fulness and you might be thinking
why on earth would you choose the word
life fulness tty to tell you the truth
it’s partly because it sounds quite a
lot like mindfulness and worse that
sounds silly I just want to make the
connection totally clear we’re doing the
same process but also because living in
a Congregational community a life on
this community is about living life as
fully as possible about celebrating life
and being with people over the course of
their life the fullness of their life
but the Wonder and the messiness and I
think we are in dire need of more
connection in the world today I’m sure
everyone here has notice that the
seeming chaos is on the rise the
polarization and the fragmentation which
has happened in a dislocated society you
know there’s so many of the normal
systems of community and social support
have gone away there doesn’t seem to be
a positive narrative about the future
unless it’s you know those sort of weird
tech utopia’s you read about where
everyone’s going to be uploaded into the
cloud or or else we’re all going to have
virtual reality strapped onto us and
then be looked after by sex robots might
have been a dream there seems to be so
much talk about the budget deficit
nowadays but not about the deficit we
have of hope of belonging and meaning
there used to be one type of social
structure which spoke to all three of
those needs and that was the
Congregational community there’s
something about it which really
resonates with people I know that it
resonated with me I remember on the
first day that we did Sunday assembly I
was getting on my bike going back up a
hill and I thought this is what I want
to do for the rest of my life I put my
comedy career to the side and then I
went out
I met all these people who got in touch
online there were people in the UK I
went to go meet people in the US when I
was in the US I even met our first
protester he clearly hadn’t done enough
research I was standing next to him he
said are you part of this as like no
kinda and I think that the
congregational community has resonated
with people over the years in all manner
of different countries and cities and
places and times because it is naturally
evolved around the human condition I
think it’s quite useful to think about
hats when thinking about this hats a
much the same shape the world over
because they fit human heads
congregational communities are much the
same shape the world over because they
fit human lives but I think the problem
that we’re experiencing at the moment is
that the congregation doesn’t fit us
anymore
in Britain the latest survey which came
out said 53 percent of people no longer
believe in religion and that goes way up
to 75 percent in the 18 to 25 year olds
and and whilst the decline of community
life is not the only reason and for the
dislocation we’re experiencing there’s
the rise of Technology longer working
hours this connective tissue in Britain
has disappeared and it’s also got
profound impacts in sort of health and
mental health did you know that the
thing which reduces your life expectancy
the most isn’t smoking more than figures
say 15 cigarettes a day isn’t heavy
drinking or not exercise it is more
dangerous for your mortality if you’ve
got weak relationships and low social
integration I spoke to some scientists
though and they said that if you’ve got
lots of mates it doesn’t mean you can
smoke lots of
just to clarify that luckily I think
light fulness answers many of these
things because life fulness is inclusive
and it is evidence-based it is all about
bringing people together from different
backgrounds having places where people
who might have voted brexit and the
remainders can come together and not
talk about the politics which divide
them but instead the hundreds of
thousands of things that unite them and
at sunday assembly we’ve got an
expression well we said that we’re
radically inclusive but we find it’s
often best expressed as we welcome all
who welcome all and that’s where the
lesson of mindfulness really comes in
mindfulness was able to bring people
together by having a shared language by
having a shared language which means
Christians and Muslims and atheists and
agnostics could all be there in the room
together at the same time imagine if we
could do the same thing for
congregational communities imagine if
there was a way of organizing people so
that we could all be in the room at the
same time we’re on number two of four
points I’ve got one minute left I don’t
even have a book to sell you so I can
say read the book rats but we’re gonna
keep on going at Sunday assembly if we
want to go and have that impact if we
want to go and make a new social
software which can connect people across
the planet then then I think we’re gonna
have to have evidence for it and we’ve
started doing studies of what happens if
people attend Sunday assembly and you’re
gonna have to learn about them
afterwards oh that’s a great story
you’re not getting it
it’s really touching it moves me point
number three is that life fulness is
ethical is ethical and organized and
maybe spiritual and I say their sins of
comparison to mindfulness and by the way
I’ve want to make it clear I’m not
saying it’s unethical disorganized and
not spiritual I’m just saying that when
Jon kabat-zinn made the decision to made
the decision to go and adapt it he only
adapted one part of the Buddhist
tradition and he left out the ethics and
the organization and also the spiritual
aspect it’s led to some people to
describe it as the commodification of
mindfulness law and person said that
even a person committing a premeditated
heinous crime can be exercising
mindfulness albeit wrong mindfulness so
we need to make sure that these
communities are all about people leading
their best lives not just for them not
just as individuals but for their
communities and the world and I’m sure
there’s some people here who might have
heard that word organized that didn’t
chime with them you know thinking I
liking religion but not organized
religion well since starting Sunday
assembly I’ve started to think that the
organization is one of the best parts of
religion fuzzy feelings on their own
don’t start foodbanks fuzzy feelings on
their own don’t look after the elderly
visit the sick or make food parcels
institutions allow positive vibes to
roll up their sleeves and organizations
allow philosophies to get their hands
dirty that there is a picture of the
Salvation Army they’re giving out tea
and bacon butties to the firefighters
underneath the Grenville tower you only
do that if you’re able to get organized
I also have some very interesting
opinions on secular spirituality
point number four there are in fact more
guiding principles but let’s not put
them all down here cuz this is the TED
talk and not a big list
they even racing these there we go
that’s life–all miss ladies and
gentlemen I haven’t quite finished
though I just want you guys all to let
me know that now you understand that
life fulness is too as mindfulness is
too and I hope that some of you here
might have heard something in this and
decided to get involved in your
community so you might want to join some
people who are already doing something
you might want to start something
yourself I’m hoping that you’ve heard
something not just from me but across
this whole day which will make you
committed to building the world as it
should be a world and this is on the
subject of utopias and this is my utopia
that I want to see happen on this earth
a world where everyone is able to live
life as fully as possible thank you very
much
[Applause]
it’s been a long day this is part of the
talk if that honestly was part of the
talk not just for my ego but it helped
the reason I wanted to create that
atmosphere is because something magical
happens when people gather together when
we all come together in groups and share
an emotional experience it can be
transformative and that’s what I’ve
spent much of my career doing in big
ways and small I’m obsessed with
connecting with people and helping
people connect to each other there’s
been various different projects which
have done that for instance I am twice
the world record holder for the world’s
longest hug
I have also once played the Sydney Opera
House when I was a comedian and I sold
every single ticket to it in person and
I now in the CEO and co-founder of
Sunday assembly it is a worldwide
network of secular congregations that
celebrate life but what I’m here to talk
by the way is there anyone here who has
gone to Sunday assembly Brighton love
you guys you’re the best
also you other guys are good too
and but I want to tell you about my next
idea and this one is even bigger the
next idea is called life fulness and by
the end of this 15 minutes you will
understand this sentence life fulness is
to congregation as mindfulness is to
meditation well before we get into that
I’m gonna tell you a bit more about
myself and I’m gonna start in this
church this is the church that I was
christened in it’s called Bowden Kirk in
Scotland it’s near where my grandparents
used to live and I was dragged there
very reluctantly
around my childhood it’s also the church
where my mother was buried she died just
one day after my tenth birthday and she
was an amazing woman a barrister mother
of five by the age of 42
she was my mum through my teenage years
it meant that I had to sort of grow up
and I didn’t believe in God had to grow
up dealing with all these big questions
about life and death and love and grief
and somehow in the process it wasn’t
merely sad but oh my gosh it was sad all
those feelings transformed into
something else they transformed into a
transcendental love appreciation and
gratitude for life to be an alive human
and don’t worry they won’t last long is
to win every lottery in the world every
day of your life I find that the easiest
way to go and connect to the wonder of
being alive is to actually think about
your own impending death I’ve even got
my own perfect death that I like to
think about I dream of dying peacefully
in my sleep but next to someone I
dislike who hates surprises about ten
years ago I was in Bowden Kirk again it
was Christmas
and I found myself with a very change
relation to it I was there and and I
found myself loving it I loved the
singing I love that community spirit I
love being with my loved ones thinking
about improving my own life and trying
to help other people and I thought maybe
there’s a way of doing this around
something that everyone can celebrate
that everyone’s getting got in common
maybe we could do this around
celebrating life and on that cliffhanger
question we’re gonna jump into someone
else’s life this guy here is called John
kabat-zinn John kabat-zinn is the
founder of modern medical mindfulness
give me a cheer if you’ve ever done a
headspace it’s because of this guy in
1979 he was on a Buddhist retreat and
whilst he was doing it he had this idea
he thought this is so good imagine if
there was a way of doing it that
everyone could join in and so he created
this thing called the mindfulness based
stress reduction course and that spread
all over the world there’s now so many
different books on it if you go and look
online you can get mindfulness for CEOs
students mums dads and dummies but
enough about him let’s get back on to me
actually let’s talk about PIPA PIPA is a
wonderful comedian and I met her in 2011
and we were going to a gig in bath and
it turned out that she’d had the same
idea that I had paper had been an avid
churchgoer
but when she stopped believing in the
God bit she found she really missed the
community the fellowship and the purpose
someone’s got a call and the community
the fellowship and the purpose and so we
decided that we’d collaborate together
in 2013 we had the first-ever Sunday
assembly it was in this place here in
North London and we thought no one was
going to turn up about 200 people did
then people wrote to us from all over
the world saying oh please could we have
one too and we slightly recklessly said
sure we’ll help you do that
even though we didn’t know what we were
doing and now there are almost
sixty-five communities across the world
in six different countries with
thousands of people participating every
month if you haven’t been to Sunday
Assembly Brighton then you might be
thinking what happens when you go along
and while people sing songs they go and
hear
Ted style talks then what happens is
there’s a moment of reflection and
people connect and that connection leads
to all manner of community activities
afterwards there’s volunteering there’s
peer-to-peer support there’s social
activities it is a whole community and
it was after a few light years of doing
this I thought actually there’s a bigger
idea than just Sunday assembly and that
is the idea of life fulness it is the
idea of taking secular congregations and
secularizing them so that everyone can
take part and I think it should quickly
define some some of the characteristics
of a Congregational community typically
there’s a community it’s a big clue in
the name then there’s normally a
celebratory gathering regularly there’s
a sort of pathway of personal growth
there’s a emphasis on doing good works
and a commitment to sharing your values
with the world but if you want it in a
sentence then I would say life fulness
is a way of sharing life together in
community so that some of the pre-chat
there I am now gonna share with you the
four guiding principles of life fulness
excited but could be maybe a bit more
excited and the first one is is that
life fulness is a community building
methodology I have to make this really
clear we are not starting a new religion
even though I do have the haircut for it
live mindfulness does not equal religion
in the same way that life fulness does
not equal religion and I’m gonna make
that even clearer so what happened is
that John kabat-zinn he went and took
Buddhist meditation he then removed the
metaphysical aspects he then measured it
with science to make it evidence-based
and he created mindfulness what we’re
doing is we’re looking at congregations
moving the metaphysical aspects to make
it inclusive measuring it with science
to make it evidence-based and tada
life fulness and you might be thinking
why on earth would you choose the word
life fulness tty to tell you the truth
it’s partly because it sounds quite a
lot like mindfulness and worse that
sounds silly I just want to make the
connection totally clear we’re doing the
same process but also because living in
a Congregational community a life on
this community is about living life as
fully as possible about celebrating life
and being with people over the course of
their life the fullness of their life
but the Wonder and the messiness and I
think we are in dire need of more
connection in the world today I’m sure
everyone here has notice that the
seeming chaos is on the rise the
polarization and the fragmentation which
has happened in a dislocated society you
know there’s so many of the normal
systems of community and social support
have gone away there doesn’t seem to be
a positive narrative about the future
unless it’s you know those sort of weird
tech utopia’s you read about where
everyone’s going to be uploaded into the
cloud or or else we’re all going to have
virtual reality strapped onto us and
then be looked after by sex robots might
have been a dream there seems to be so
much talk about the budget deficit
nowadays but not about the deficit we
have of hope of belonging and meaning
there used to be one type of social
structure which spoke to all three of
those needs and that was the
Congregational community there’s
something about it which really
resonates with people I know that it
resonated with me I remember on the
first day that we did Sunday assembly I
was getting on my bike going back up a
hill and I thought this is what I want
to do for the rest of my life I put my
comedy career to the side and then I
went out
I met all these people who got in touch
online there were people in the UK I
went to go meet people in the US when I
was in the US I even met our first
protester he clearly hadn’t done enough
research I was standing next to him he
said are you part of this as like no
kinda and I think that the
congregational community has resonated
with people over the years in all manner
of different countries and cities and
places and times because it is naturally
evolved around the human condition I
think it’s quite useful to think about
hats when thinking about this hats a
much the same shape the world over
because they fit human heads
congregational communities are much the
same shape the world over because they
fit human lives but I think the problem
that we’re experiencing at the moment is
that the congregation doesn’t fit us
anymore
in Britain the latest survey which came
out said 53 percent of people no longer
believe in religion and that goes way up
to 75 percent in the 18 to 25 year olds
and and whilst the decline of community
life is not the only reason and for the
dislocation we’re experiencing there’s
the rise of Technology longer working
hours this connective tissue in Britain
has disappeared and it’s also got
profound impacts in sort of health and
mental health did you know that the
thing which reduces your life expectancy
the most isn’t smoking more than figures
say 15 cigarettes a day isn’t heavy
drinking or not exercise it is more
dangerous for your mortality if you’ve
got weak relationships and low social
integration I spoke to some scientists
though and they said that if you’ve got
lots of mates it doesn’t mean you can
smoke lots of
just to clarify that luckily I think
light fulness answers many of these
things because life fulness is inclusive
and it is evidence-based it is all about
bringing people together from different
backgrounds having places where people
who might have voted brexit and the
remainders can come together and not
talk about the politics which divide
them but instead the hundreds of
thousands of things that unite them and
at sunday assembly we’ve got an
expression well we said that we’re
radically inclusive but we find it’s
often best expressed as we welcome all
who welcome all and that’s where the
lesson of mindfulness really comes in
mindfulness was able to bring people
together by having a shared language by
having a shared language which means
Christians and Muslims and atheists and
agnostics could all be there in the room
together at the same time imagine if we
could do the same thing for
congregational communities imagine if
there was a way of organizing people so
that we could all be in the room at the
same time we’re on number two of four
points I’ve got one minute left I don’t
even have a book to sell you so I can
say read the book rats but we’re gonna
keep on going at Sunday assembly if we
want to go and have that impact if we
want to go and make a new social
software which can connect people across
the planet then then I think we’re gonna
have to have evidence for it and we’ve
started doing studies of what happens if
people attend Sunday assembly and you’re
gonna have to learn about them
afterwards oh that’s a great story
you’re not getting it
it’s really touching it moves me point
number three is that life fulness is
ethical is ethical and organized and
maybe spiritual and I say their sins of
comparison to mindfulness and by the way
I’ve want to make it clear I’m not
saying it’s unethical disorganized and
not spiritual I’m just saying that when
Jon kabat-zinn made the decision to made
the decision to go and adapt it he only
adapted one part of the Buddhist
tradition and he left out the ethics and
the organization and also the spiritual
aspect it’s led to some people to
describe it as the commodification of
mindfulness law and person said that
even a person committing a premeditated
heinous crime can be exercising
mindfulness albeit wrong mindfulness so
we need to make sure that these
communities are all about people leading
their best lives not just for them not
just as individuals but for their
communities and the world and I’m sure
there’s some people here who might have
heard that word organized that didn’t
chime with them you know thinking I
liking religion but not organized
religion well since starting Sunday
assembly I’ve started to think that the
organization is one of the best parts of
religion fuzzy feelings on their own
don’t start foodbanks fuzzy feelings on
their own don’t look after the elderly
visit the sick or make food parcels
institutions allow positive vibes to
roll up their sleeves and organizations
allow philosophies to get their hands
dirty that there is a picture of the
Salvation Army they’re giving out tea
and bacon butties to the firefighters
underneath the Grenville tower you only
do that if you’re able to get organized
I also have some very interesting
opinions on secular spirituality
point number four there are in fact more
guiding principles but let’s not put
them all down here cuz this is the TED
talk and not a big list
they even racing these there we go
that’s life–all miss ladies and
gentlemen I haven’t quite finished
though I just want you guys all to let
me know that now you understand that
life fulness is too as mindfulness is
too and I hope that some of you here
might have heard something in this and
decided to get involved in your
community so you might want to join some
people who are already doing something
you might want to start something
yourself I’m hoping that you’ve heard
something not just from me but across
this whole day which will make you
committed to building the world as it
should be a world and this is on the
subject of utopias and this is my utopia
that I want to see happen on this earth
a world where everyone is able to live
life as fully as possible thank you very
much
[Applause]
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