As part of its Knowledge Friday series, The Church will welcome Rameshwar Das on Friday at 6 p.m. Mr. Das, who grew up spending summers in Amagansett and has lived there full time since 1972, was a student of the spiritual teacher, yoga guru, psychologist, and writer Ram Dass from 1968 until his death in 2019.
In his foreword to "Polishing the Mirror," which he wrote with Ram Dass, Mr. Das wrote, "May we treat ourselves with a degree of compassion and patience equal to [Ram Dass] and not take ourselves too seriously. There is, after all, nothing to be accomplished. We are just allowing ourselves to be."
Mr. Das, who has worked as a photographer and coauthored three books with Ram Dass, gardens, leads meditation sessions, and serves on nonprofit boards. At The Church he will discuss his practice of integrating spirituality with life, and reflect on his time spent with Ram Dass.
The program is sold out, but the website provides access to a waitlist.
A reading and conversation with two writers, Mira Dougherty-Johnson and Jenny Xie, will take place on Sunday morning at 11.
Ms. Dougherty-Johnson, who is in residence at The Church through July 24, will read from her novel-in-progress, "Art Objects," which tells the story of a child born into the New York Art world of the 1970s who must confront her family and its public legacy. A librarian, she has an M.F.A. in creative writing and literature from Stony Brook Southampton.
Ms. Xie's first novel, "Holding Pattern," explores a mother-daughter relationship strained by cultural and generational differences, and how the protagonist repairs intimacy through the complex work of "professional cuddling." Ms. Xie holds degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and Johns Hopkins University.
A question-and-answer session will follow the readings. Tickets are $10, free for members who R.S.V.P.
