My time here has been well spent. Zen practice has been simply fulfilling. Each day brings new challenges, yet new insights.
The entire community - abbots, senior and novice priests, long and short-term residents, and occasional visitors - creates a nurturing environment for investigation into life's deepest questions: who am I? what's my purpose? what's permanent and impermanent in life?
Personally, I have already begun to develop greater awareness of my body, my own behavioral and thought patterns, and most importantly, the simple joy of just being. At the monastery we spend a lot of time working and reflecting on our lives, but we also spend a lot of time just sitting, just working, just walking, just listening . . . The schedule is intended to give the individual sufficient time to focus on just one activity. About half of the day is spent in silence so that we can focus on what's in front of us: our food, our toilet, our bed, our emotion, our opinion, our open awareness into wider space.
Contrary to many people's assumptions about meditation, Zen practice is not about disengagement from the world, but 24/7 engagement through opening the senses, the mind, and the heart. It's not about about sensory deprivation or going somewhere else; it's about letting it in and staying right where you are. It's about what's here. In Zen, we're constantly encouraged to ask of our own experience, 'what's here?' 'What stays?' The remarkable thing is how easily most of my experiences changed or passed away when I truly paid attention to them.
I've also been surprised at how much fun I'm having! The other people here are a lot of fun to hang out with and talk to. A lot of the senior practitioners are kind, wise, etc. but they're also really clever and witty. I think it's because they've spent so much time paying attention to the present moment that they can crack a joke on the spot. Also, humor is a desperately needed relaxant to the lifestyle of constant work and meditation. There isn't a lot of free time, but just enough to play a quick game of basketball or sit down with a friend and drink coffee. I've found that I don't really desire that much entertainment when I'm fully present with the entertainment I'm given. Often, I think I'm caught in the opposite cycle: constantly desiring more entertainment, while I'm not paying attention to the joys in front of me.
As for work, I've been spending most of my time helping a regular volunteer build a greenhouse. It's been really nice to direct my mind on some kind of project. Consequently though, I have lots of images of screws and bolts come up in meditation! One time, I fell asleep during meditation and dreamed that I was walking down the side of a mountain with these 6 foot screws drilled into the side!
The screwy dream doesn't even begin to touch the highs and lows of sitting zazen (Zen meditation): the pain, the ecstasy, the hallucinations, the vivid present moment, the sheer dull boredom, the list goes on . . . Teachers emphasize that, in zazen, we must let these states come and go without getting stuck to one in particular, no matter how many times it repeats over and over again. Sounds easy, right? That's another point of Zen practice; the most profound spiritual teachings are the simple ones we already know, but haven't taken the time to fully realize all the way to our bones. It really is about just letting go, about just sitting and being with whatever happens.
Well, I go into sesshin tomorrow, which is a weeklong silent retreat. Wish me luck and thanks for reading.
P.S. For those of you wondering, I'll be leaving the monastery on August 9 and returning to Kansas City August 17.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
First Few Days at Great Vow
Well, I arrived at Great Vow Monastery Thursday evening and now it's Tuesday.
Simply put, I love it here. However, my experience so far has been pretty skewed. This summer period happened to (or was intentionally designed to) begin at one of Great Vow's more relazed moments in the year. Every year, they have a July 4 celebration that involves participation in the parade, an open picnic with games for the public, and a full day off for residents. Then the next day was their open program, then the regular weekly day off! So of the 4 days I've been here, only one has been on the regular meditation/work schedule which is probably the most rigorous thing I've ever tried. So, the schedule starts up again tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes! All and all, though, I'm really looking forward to it.
I've been really enjoying the company of the other temporary residents as well as the more permanent residents at Great Vow. They're generally very mature, curious, and open-hearted people. Particularly, the long-term residents and the two co-abbots, Chozen and Hogen Bays, are inspiring role models and teachers. I'm really drawn to the teachings of the two abbots and the relevance of their teachings for everyday life.
Here's their bios ripped right from the website:
"Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi
1945 -
Jan Chozen Bays has studied and practiced Zen Buddhism since 1973. She received Jukai (lay precepts) in 1975 and Tokudo, Priest's Ordination, in 1979 from Taizan Maezumi, Roshi. From 1978 to 1983 she lived at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, studying with Maezumi Roshi and directing the Zen Center's non-profit Medical Clinic. She finished formal koan study in 1983, and she was given Dharma transmission, authorization to teach, the same year. Following the death of Maezumi Roshi in 1995 she has continued her training with Shodo Harada Roshi, a Rinzai Zen teacher, abbot of Sogen-ji monastery in Japan.
Since 1985 Chozen has been the teacher for the Zen Community of Oregon. In 2002 she helped to found Great Vow Zen Monastery and currently is the co-abbot.
She has published articles about Zen in Tricycle and Buddhadharma magazines. Her book, Jizo Bodhisattva, Modern Healing and Traditional Buddhist Practice (Tuttle Publishing, 2002), has been re-issued in paperback as Jizo Bodhisattva, Guardian of Children, Women and Other Voyagers by Shambhala Publishing. Chozen is also a pediatrician, mother and wife. As a physician she is very interested in how meditation and science interface. She is particularly involved teaching how to use meditation to work with eating disorders and grief.
Hogen Bays, Zen Teacher
1949 -
Hogen Bays began practicing in 1968 with Philip Kapleau, Roshi and was part of the residential staff at the Zen Center of Rochester in Rochester, New York until 1975.
He lived and trained at the Zen Center of Los Angeles under the direction of Taizan Maezumi , Roshi from 1980-1984. In 1990 he took Tokudo, Priest’s Ordination, with Maezumi Roshi. Since 1990, Hogen has continued his Zen studies with Rinzai Zen teacher Shodo Harada Roshi, abbot of Sogen-ji monastery in Japan and One Drop Zendo in Tahoma, Washington. In 2000, after advice and consultation with Harada, Roshi and other Zen teachers he received Dharma Transmission from Chozen, Roshi.
He has been a leader of the Zen Community of Oregon since 1985 and worked full-time for the sangha since 1997. He is co-abbot of Great Vow Zen Monastery.
Hogen holds a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) and Master’s Degree (MS) in Psychology. He worked for the Oregon Department of Corrections for 15 years."
There's also a lot of really interesting features to the monastery. It was once an old grade school, unused for a long time, and converted to a monastery by the Bays when they bought it in the 90s. The structure is still relatively the same, except major renovations of an old gym to make it a zendo (meditation hall). Otherwise it has all the same components of a grade school converted for monastic use: cafeteria, classrooms (now residences), offices, bathrooms, mass showers, etc. Also on the grounds they have Zen Works (a space partitioned off, dedicated to sewing and building meditation supplies), a statue studio (an old pottery room with kiln where they make statues of buddhas and bodhisattvas, particularly Jizo Bodhisattva), a large organic garden, smaller berry garden, greenhouse, recently built meditation tree house and meditation hut, hiking trails, rock gardens, music room, and Jizo garden.
To explain the music room and the Jizo garden . . . First, much to my delight and surprise, Hogen and Chozen have both been playing marimba and leading marimba groups for about a decade. So, in the school's old music room, they have 6-8 marimbas, including a massive bass marimba, along with other percussion instruments, acoustic guitars, keyboards, and piano. I used to take marimba lessons and was happy to hear they had marimbas here to practice on. I've even been practicing with a few people to prepare a performance of a couple really simple songs! Now these are pentatonic marimbas, meaning they don't have the flats and sharps of a regular keyboard, so the music is super simple. It's simpler than what I am used to doing, but I also didn't enjoy what I was doing before as much as I am now.
Second, the Jizo garden is an area dedicated to the memory of children who have died. In Japanese Buddhism, Jizo Bodhisattva is the bodhisattva of women, children, and travelers. In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is similar to saints and angels in Christianity, but they aren't exactly historical figures. Chozen-san has a particular affinitiy for Jizo and even wrote a well-published book about him. All over the monastery there are dozens of Jizo statues, and the monastery is dedicated to the bodhisattva. The Jizo garden is located in the woods behind the monastery. In the garden there are dozens of Jizo statues; each one is dedicated to the memory of a lost child. Each Jizo of the dozens had its own ceremony with the parents and loved ones who wanted to commemorate their child's memory. Each guardian also sewed a garment for their Jizo. The garden is very powerful.
I'm currently living in a large classroom with four other guys, but our beds are separated by a complex of walled desks and tables. It sounds odd, but it's actually pretty nice. It gives me enough privacy, drawers for my stuff, and room for yoga, and that is all I really need.
Well, those are some details about the monastery. I'll probably get more into my personal experience as the schedule intensifies. Keep in touch and thanks for reading.
Simply put, I love it here. However, my experience so far has been pretty skewed. This summer period happened to (or was intentionally designed to) begin at one of Great Vow's more relazed moments in the year. Every year, they have a July 4 celebration that involves participation in the parade, an open picnic with games for the public, and a full day off for residents. Then the next day was their open program, then the regular weekly day off! So of the 4 days I've been here, only one has been on the regular meditation/work schedule which is probably the most rigorous thing I've ever tried. So, the schedule starts up again tomorrow, and we'll see how it goes! All and all, though, I'm really looking forward to it.
I've been really enjoying the company of the other temporary residents as well as the more permanent residents at Great Vow. They're generally very mature, curious, and open-hearted people. Particularly, the long-term residents and the two co-abbots, Chozen and Hogen Bays, are inspiring role models and teachers. I'm really drawn to the teachings of the two abbots and the relevance of their teachings for everyday life.
Here's their bios ripped right from the website:
"Jan Chozen Bays, Roshi
1945 -
Jan Chozen Bays has studied and practiced Zen Buddhism since 1973. She received Jukai (lay precepts) in 1975 and Tokudo, Priest's Ordination, in 1979 from Taizan Maezumi, Roshi. From 1978 to 1983 she lived at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, studying with Maezumi Roshi and directing the Zen Center's non-profit Medical Clinic. She finished formal koan study in 1983, and she was given Dharma transmission, authorization to teach, the same year. Following the death of Maezumi Roshi in 1995 she has continued her training with Shodo Harada Roshi, a Rinzai Zen teacher, abbot of Sogen-ji monastery in Japan.
Since 1985 Chozen has been the teacher for the Zen Community of Oregon. In 2002 she helped to found Great Vow Zen Monastery and currently is the co-abbot.
She has published articles about Zen in Tricycle and Buddhadharma magazines. Her book, Jizo Bodhisattva, Modern Healing and Traditional Buddhist Practice (Tuttle Publishing, 2002), has been re-issued in paperback as Jizo Bodhisattva, Guardian of Children, Women and Other Voyagers by Shambhala Publishing. Chozen is also a pediatrician, mother and wife. As a physician she is very interested in how meditation and science interface. She is particularly involved teaching how to use meditation to work with eating disorders and grief.
Hogen Bays, Zen Teacher
1949 -
Hogen Bays began practicing in 1968 with Philip Kapleau, Roshi and was part of the residential staff at the Zen Center of Rochester in Rochester, New York until 1975.
He lived and trained at the Zen Center of Los Angeles under the direction of Taizan Maezumi , Roshi from 1980-1984. In 1990 he took Tokudo, Priest’s Ordination, with Maezumi Roshi. Since 1990, Hogen has continued his Zen studies with Rinzai Zen teacher Shodo Harada Roshi, abbot of Sogen-ji monastery in Japan and One Drop Zendo in Tahoma, Washington. In 2000, after advice and consultation with Harada, Roshi and other Zen teachers he received Dharma Transmission from Chozen, Roshi.
He has been a leader of the Zen Community of Oregon since 1985 and worked full-time for the sangha since 1997. He is co-abbot of Great Vow Zen Monastery.
Hogen holds a Naturopathic Doctor (ND) and Master’s Degree (MS) in Psychology. He worked for the Oregon Department of Corrections for 15 years."
There's also a lot of really interesting features to the monastery. It was once an old grade school, unused for a long time, and converted to a monastery by the Bays when they bought it in the 90s. The structure is still relatively the same, except major renovations of an old gym to make it a zendo (meditation hall). Otherwise it has all the same components of a grade school converted for monastic use: cafeteria, classrooms (now residences), offices, bathrooms, mass showers, etc. Also on the grounds they have Zen Works (a space partitioned off, dedicated to sewing and building meditation supplies), a statue studio (an old pottery room with kiln where they make statues of buddhas and bodhisattvas, particularly Jizo Bodhisattva), a large organic garden, smaller berry garden, greenhouse, recently built meditation tree house and meditation hut, hiking trails, rock gardens, music room, and Jizo garden.
To explain the music room and the Jizo garden . . . First, much to my delight and surprise, Hogen and Chozen have both been playing marimba and leading marimba groups for about a decade. So, in the school's old music room, they have 6-8 marimbas, including a massive bass marimba, along with other percussion instruments, acoustic guitars, keyboards, and piano. I used to take marimba lessons and was happy to hear they had marimbas here to practice on. I've even been practicing with a few people to prepare a performance of a couple really simple songs! Now these are pentatonic marimbas, meaning they don't have the flats and sharps of a regular keyboard, so the music is super simple. It's simpler than what I am used to doing, but I also didn't enjoy what I was doing before as much as I am now.
Second, the Jizo garden is an area dedicated to the memory of children who have died. In Japanese Buddhism, Jizo Bodhisattva is the bodhisattva of women, children, and travelers. In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is similar to saints and angels in Christianity, but they aren't exactly historical figures. Chozen-san has a particular affinitiy for Jizo and even wrote a well-published book about him. All over the monastery there are dozens of Jizo statues, and the monastery is dedicated to the bodhisattva. The Jizo garden is located in the woods behind the monastery. In the garden there are dozens of Jizo statues; each one is dedicated to the memory of a lost child. Each Jizo of the dozens had its own ceremony with the parents and loved ones who wanted to commemorate their child's memory. Each guardian also sewed a garment for their Jizo. The garden is very powerful.
I'm currently living in a large classroom with four other guys, but our beds are separated by a complex of walled desks and tables. It sounds odd, but it's actually pretty nice. It gives me enough privacy, drawers for my stuff, and room for yoga, and that is all I really need.
Well, those are some details about the monastery. I'll probably get more into my personal experience as the schedule intensifies. Keep in touch and thanks for reading.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Tassajara (June 24-26) and the New Month at Great Vow Monastery
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center was fascinating. It was the first, and now oldest, Zen monastery in the U.S. Tucked away in the Ventana mountains near Big Sur, Tassajara squeezes into a valley along gorgeous mineral springs and hiking trails. They dedicate the winter months to practice periods for the monks and nuns in residence but open up their doors to visitors during the summer guest season. During the guest season, monks and nuns work more and sit zazen less. Guests have the option of joining in on work and zazen for a discounted rate, while others just enjoy themselves without touching a broom or sitting on a cushion.
Tassajara has its own gender-divided, but clothing optional baths (springs, hot tubs, sauna, plunge, and pool) which attracts many of the guests. Tassajara is also famous for their organic, vegetarian meals. Since the Tassajara Bread Book released decades ago, people have been drawn to Tassajara for the delicious full-course meals. While I was there I ate dishes like mung dhal with home-made naan, eggplant lasagna with local greens and home-baked baguettes. The desserts were killer: blueberry cornbread with whipped cream, ginger cheesecake . . . you get the picture. Tassajara is also off the grid, so most of the rooms are lit with kerosene lanterns. The dim ambiance from these lamps, in the dining room or in the cabin, overshadows (or perhaps under-shadows) their ironically less sustainable use of energy. Overall, the working staff was extremely courteous and kind. I made friends immediately. From their aprons, to the made beds, to the tablecloth, the straight-laced, 90-degree-angle aesthetic of Zen neatness laced elegantly throughout this quasi-resort atmosphere. They’ve also had decades to make it work.
The efficiency and resilience of their system was also impressive. The turnover rate at Tassajara is high with a lot of people staying just a week or weekend, fewer staying for a few months, fewer a few years, and then perhaps a dozen or so that have been there beyond 5 years. They’ve mastered the art of hospitality as well as shuffling people in and out.
What aroused my curiosity was that many had little experience with Zen practice before they jumped into a long summer of hard work and zazen (Zen meditation). Of course, some were well-seasoned in the sutra literature, the principles of practice, and the history of Zen. It has also been traditional in Zen to throw people into the deep-end of practice and to let one’s rational understanding follow and flow from experiential understanding, whereas with most things in a culture of maps, manuals, and cookbooks, we do it the other way around . . . However, at least in my experience, the frequent problem with Zen is that one practices his or her misunderstanding over and over again, without being corrected. A close relationship with a teacher is necessary to make sure one isn’t, say, repressing all their thoughts . . . trying to not think. I don't know if this is a problem at Tassajara though.
I’d be interested to know more about the internal teaching structure of Tassajara; they may very well check against this. For resident students, they have weekly classes and routine small discussion groups with senior students. They also bring in a lot of visiting teachers as guest lecturers. While I was there, a Zen teacher named Daigaku Sensei held an introductory workshop to traditional calligraphy and gave a lecture on the meaning of “work practice” (more or less, working as a form of meditation). Their library was also pretty impressive. It was only a couple rooms, but I could find almost any title on Buddhism or Eastern philosophy that I could think of. Certainly students have access to readings, although they may not have the time to go through with it. They spend roughly 6-8 hours a day working on top of morning and evening periods of zazen. But that’s the life! It disciplines one’s mind, forces you to make priorities, conserve and use your energy wisely, and, most importantly, work with others and your self in a selfless way that doesn’t dwell excessively on individual thoughts or concerns. I’ve often found it difficult transitioning into and out of environments like this, but once you’re in, there’s a new strength, courage, vitality, and focus in daily activities.
Great Vow Monastery
That’s the lifestyle I’ll more or less be living for the next month at Great Vow Monastery, a Zen training monastery where I experienced my first retreat two years ago. I naturally have a lot of hopes and fears, as I’ll be leaving to arrive there within the next hour. I won’t dwell on them too much right now, and will (hopefully) be updating my blog about the details a little more when I actually get there. I will be there for the whole month of July. If you are interested in knowing what the summer training practice is all about, the website says it much clearer than I can: http://www.greatvow.org/summerworkexchange_readmore.htm
The daily schedule is pretty rigorous!
Regular Schedule
3:50 Wake-up Bell
4:20 Zazen
6:20 Service
6:45 Temple Cleaning
7:30 Breakfast
9:00 Work Period
12:00 Service
12:15 Informal Lunch
2:00 Work Period (with possible Exercise/Art period)
5:20 Service
5:30 Dinner
7:20 Zazen
9:20 Evening Chants
10:00 Lights Out - Closing rounds
Work might include gardening, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, or office work; we’ll see what I get assigned.
If you’re interested in sending me mail, the monastery’s address is:
PO Box 368
Clatskanie, OR 97016
I’ll have weekly access to the internet. My time off is Sunday evening and Monday, so that would be the best time for me to talk on the phone. I can call at nights and on breaks, but would really prefer not to. Call me any time and leave a message, and I’ll try to call you back on my off-time.
Wish me luck!
Tassajara Zen Mountain Center was fascinating. It was the first, and now oldest, Zen monastery in the U.S. Tucked away in the Ventana mountains near Big Sur, Tassajara squeezes into a valley along gorgeous mineral springs and hiking trails. They dedicate the winter months to practice periods for the monks and nuns in residence but open up their doors to visitors during the summer guest season. During the guest season, monks and nuns work more and sit zazen less. Guests have the option of joining in on work and zazen for a discounted rate, while others just enjoy themselves without touching a broom or sitting on a cushion.
Tassajara has its own gender-divided, but clothing optional baths (springs, hot tubs, sauna, plunge, and pool) which attracts many of the guests. Tassajara is also famous for their organic, vegetarian meals. Since the Tassajara Bread Book released decades ago, people have been drawn to Tassajara for the delicious full-course meals. While I was there I ate dishes like mung dhal with home-made naan, eggplant lasagna with local greens and home-baked baguettes. The desserts were killer: blueberry cornbread with whipped cream, ginger cheesecake . . . you get the picture. Tassajara is also off the grid, so most of the rooms are lit with kerosene lanterns. The dim ambiance from these lamps, in the dining room or in the cabin, overshadows (or perhaps under-shadows) their ironically less sustainable use of energy. Overall, the working staff was extremely courteous and kind. I made friends immediately. From their aprons, to the made beds, to the tablecloth, the straight-laced, 90-degree-angle aesthetic of Zen neatness laced elegantly throughout this quasi-resort atmosphere. They’ve also had decades to make it work.
The efficiency and resilience of their system was also impressive. The turnover rate at Tassajara is high with a lot of people staying just a week or weekend, fewer staying for a few months, fewer a few years, and then perhaps a dozen or so that have been there beyond 5 years. They’ve mastered the art of hospitality as well as shuffling people in and out.
What aroused my curiosity was that many had little experience with Zen practice before they jumped into a long summer of hard work and zazen (Zen meditation). Of course, some were well-seasoned in the sutra literature, the principles of practice, and the history of Zen. It has also been traditional in Zen to throw people into the deep-end of practice and to let one’s rational understanding follow and flow from experiential understanding, whereas with most things in a culture of maps, manuals, and cookbooks, we do it the other way around . . . However, at least in my experience, the frequent problem with Zen is that one practices his or her misunderstanding over and over again, without being corrected. A close relationship with a teacher is necessary to make sure one isn’t, say, repressing all their thoughts . . . trying to not think. I don't know if this is a problem at Tassajara though.
I’d be interested to know more about the internal teaching structure of Tassajara; they may very well check against this. For resident students, they have weekly classes and routine small discussion groups with senior students. They also bring in a lot of visiting teachers as guest lecturers. While I was there, a Zen teacher named Daigaku Sensei held an introductory workshop to traditional calligraphy and gave a lecture on the meaning of “work practice” (more or less, working as a form of meditation). Their library was also pretty impressive. It was only a couple rooms, but I could find almost any title on Buddhism or Eastern philosophy that I could think of. Certainly students have access to readings, although they may not have the time to go through with it. They spend roughly 6-8 hours a day working on top of morning and evening periods of zazen. But that’s the life! It disciplines one’s mind, forces you to make priorities, conserve and use your energy wisely, and, most importantly, work with others and your self in a selfless way that doesn’t dwell excessively on individual thoughts or concerns. I’ve often found it difficult transitioning into and out of environments like this, but once you’re in, there’s a new strength, courage, vitality, and focus in daily activities.
Great Vow Monastery
That’s the lifestyle I’ll more or less be living for the next month at Great Vow Monastery, a Zen training monastery where I experienced my first retreat two years ago. I naturally have a lot of hopes and fears, as I’ll be leaving to arrive there within the next hour. I won’t dwell on them too much right now, and will (hopefully) be updating my blog about the details a little more when I actually get there. I will be there for the whole month of July. If you are interested in knowing what the summer training practice is all about, the website says it much clearer than I can: http://www.greatvow.org/summerworkexchange_readmore.htm
The daily schedule is pretty rigorous!
Regular Schedule
3:50 Wake-up Bell
4:20 Zazen
6:20 Service
6:45 Temple Cleaning
7:30 Breakfast
9:00 Work Period
12:00 Service
12:15 Informal Lunch
2:00 Work Period (with possible Exercise/Art period)
5:20 Service
5:30 Dinner
7:20 Zazen
9:20 Evening Chants
10:00 Lights Out - Closing rounds
Work might include gardening, cooking, washing dishes, cleaning, or office work; we’ll see what I get assigned.
If you’re interested in sending me mail, the monastery’s address is:
PO Box 368
Clatskanie, OR 97016
I’ll have weekly access to the internet. My time off is Sunday evening and Monday, so that would be the best time for me to talk on the phone. I can call at nights and on breaks, but would really prefer not to. Call me any time and leave a message, and I’ll try to call you back on my off-time.
Wish me luck!
Esalen Institute, Big Sur, CA (June 26-28)
Esalen Institute
Back in the 60s, Esalen was a hub for experimental education and exploration. The founders Michael Murphy and Dick Price envisioned a space that welcomed the wisdom of East and West and that honored, respected, and sought to develop body, mind, and spirit. The utopian retreat center runs around its workshops: weekend, weeklong, or monthlong explorations on the widest range of subjects I’ve ever seen an institution entertain. The categories include: visual arts, writing, music/rhythm/dance, creative expression/theater, bodywork/somatic practices, psychological/transpersonal process, relationship/sexuality/gender, myth/ritual/shamanism, children/families/education, neuropsychology, social/political issues, professional growth/training, nature/ecology/sustainability, contemplative/spiritual studies, yoga, ceconomics/business/workplace, health/healing, and integral practices. You could take a workshop on permaculture or gestalt therapy, sustainable cooking or insight meditation, “Writing Your Life” or “Mindful Motherhood”.
Esalen has a history of bringing in cutting edge thinkers to talk, teach, and lead others on fringe subjects within the academic world. Workshop leaders range from academics and activists to non-profit leaders and spiritual contemplatives. The likely profile of a workshop leader is someone who has published or developed a unique approach or style to familiar traditions. For example, from November 1-6, Esalen will host a workshop called “Moving Into Meditation: A Silent Yoga and Meditation Retreat”, hosted by four experienced meditators. The most famous is probably Sarah Powers: a yoga, tai chi, and Buddhist meditation teacher, who has blended styles of yin and yang tai chi with vinayasa, Iyengar, and Ashtanga yoga to create a physical mindfulness practice that compliments a blending of vipassana and Dzogchen mediation practices. She has written a book called Yin/Yang Yoga: Integrating Yin/Yang Yoga and Buddhist Meditation. Workshop leaders often bring such a unique synthesis or style, often catalyzed into published work.
When I was at Esalen I did a workshop called "When the Past is Present". The workshop leader David Richo, a well-publshed psychologist and spiritual teacher, focused specifically on the topic of transference, the psychological phenomena of carrying over the model relationships of our past onto relationships in the present. The major area of focus was how our parental relationships and formative romantic relationships shape how we experience relationships now. Richo, himself, fits the model of an integral teacher working from his own published material. A former Catholic priest and present Buddhist meditator, Richo has integrated a unique style of mindfulness and loving-kindness meditations with the wisdom of Catholicism and Jungian psychology. This simple weekend workshop was truly transformative, especially for its brevity. I got a lot out of it personally and in exploring the possibilities of group therapy.
Esalen has hosted these leading, eclectic thinkers for the past 5 decades. Notable visitors or long-time residents include Aldous Huxley, Fritz Perls, Abraham Maslow, Alan Watts, Gregory Bateson, Arnold Toynbee, Paul Tillich, Stanislav Grof, Joseph Campbell, Buckminster Fuller, Timothy Leary, Albert Hoffman, R.D. Laing, Terence McKenna, and Gary Snyder. Arts events have hosted everyone from Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel to George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. Scholar Jeffrey Kripal recently published a definitive history on Esalen called "Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion", a thorough investigation of the place's complicated history.
The physicality of the place itself was quite stunning. The Big Sur coastline gets really temperate, breezy weather. June is 60s and 70s with a frequent, big fog that rolls off the ocean. Much of the coast is rock. Esalen hangs over the sea on a cliff. They have a lot of gardening space, and a small organic farm. The cabin dorm I stayed in was pretty typical for retreat centers. They had many other buildings for workshops as well as an “art barn” (art studio for people to use), dance dome, elementary children’s school, offices, and dining hall. The dining hall was also pretty typical in structure with a beautiful patio for eating outside. The food, however, was really tasty. They always had a densely abundant salad bar, along with multiple grains, various dishes, and all kinds of teas, coffees, juices, and alcoholic drinks (the alcohol was for sale).
The most distinguishing feature of the Esalen ‘campus’ were its hot mineral spring baths. Esalen used to have hot spring tubs until a fire a few years ago destroyed them. They put forth a multi-million dollar effort to rebuild newer and better baths, and did they . . . The building doubles as a massage parlor and hot tub spa with almost a dozen hot tubs or single bath tubs. It was clothing optional, which practically means dozens of naked, middle-aged Californians, most of whom were somewhere between relaxed and self-conscious. It’d be fair to say that you oscillate between the two states when you first arrive, but the first dip into the soothing tea kettle, the first rush of warmth up, around, and inside one’s genitalia melts away any doubt or self-consciousness! One’s mind wafts away in the mist of the ocean as it carries up and off the beating waves below. The tubs practically dangle on the cliff’s edge. You can lean your elbow’s on the tub’s rim and gaze off into the infinite gray sky, gray sea . . . Or you can turn around and stare into the infinite gray hair of your baby boomer compatriots, aging but grinning – finally at rest from their busy, likely successful, lives. The major shadow of Esalen, however, is its echelon.
This utopian paradise is only affordable for a minority of the world, a minority of Americans, a minority of wealthy Americans. A weekend workshop could cost anywhere from $400 - $2,100, a weeklong workshop could cost $900 - $6,200 depending on whether you’re on the floor in a sleeping bag or cooped up in a deluxe suite. Esalen also offers monthlong work studies where you work 32 hours per week while doing a daily workshop for a month. But even to do that, you have to pay a $1000 entrance fee on top of working! As the founding boomer generation has aged from hippy idealism to even more idealistic, post-modern silicon suburbia, Esalen seems to have paralleled in its own shift toward a new age vision for all . . . to be experienced by few.
However, the place isn’t without consciousness of this problem, and I would have to spend much more time at a place like Esalen to label it as classist. Indeed, classism has been a defining feature of higher education since its inception, and it is perhaps too much to reasonably expect an institution to reverse such a tendency. It would be interesting to research what initiatives Esalen is taking to provide scholarships and programs or workshops for the underprivileged (not just about the underprivileged). All I know of is the $50 work discount I got. A lot of its workshops are also on niche subjects; so one would have to know if a workshop on tai chi and yoga integration is of interest to people without access or if it is such a niche subject that only those who could afford to have learned about it could afford it anyway. I know at least, that I personally, would love more access to what Esalen offers but can’t afford it. Students may be the group most interested in Esalen with the most difficulty getting in. One can’t even look around Esalen Institute without a reservation, an indication of the price it costs to build an American dreamland.
Back in the 60s, Esalen was a hub for experimental education and exploration. The founders Michael Murphy and Dick Price envisioned a space that welcomed the wisdom of East and West and that honored, respected, and sought to develop body, mind, and spirit. The utopian retreat center runs around its workshops: weekend, weeklong, or monthlong explorations on the widest range of subjects I’ve ever seen an institution entertain. The categories include: visual arts, writing, music/rhythm/dance, creative expression/theater, bodywork/somatic practices, psychological/transpersonal process, relationship/sexuality/gender, myth/ritual/shamanism, children/families/education, neuropsychology, social/political issues, professional growth/training, nature/ecology/sustainability, contemplative/spiritual studies, yoga, ceconomics/business/workplace, health/healing, and integral practices. You could take a workshop on permaculture or gestalt therapy, sustainable cooking or insight meditation, “Writing Your Life” or “Mindful Motherhood”.
Esalen has a history of bringing in cutting edge thinkers to talk, teach, and lead others on fringe subjects within the academic world. Workshop leaders range from academics and activists to non-profit leaders and spiritual contemplatives. The likely profile of a workshop leader is someone who has published or developed a unique approach or style to familiar traditions. For example, from November 1-6, Esalen will host a workshop called “Moving Into Meditation: A Silent Yoga and Meditation Retreat”, hosted by four experienced meditators. The most famous is probably Sarah Powers: a yoga, tai chi, and Buddhist meditation teacher, who has blended styles of yin and yang tai chi with vinayasa, Iyengar, and Ashtanga yoga to create a physical mindfulness practice that compliments a blending of vipassana and Dzogchen mediation practices. She has written a book called Yin/Yang Yoga: Integrating Yin/Yang Yoga and Buddhist Meditation. Workshop leaders often bring such a unique synthesis or style, often catalyzed into published work.
When I was at Esalen I did a workshop called "When the Past is Present". The workshop leader David Richo, a well-publshed psychologist and spiritual teacher, focused specifically on the topic of transference, the psychological phenomena of carrying over the model relationships of our past onto relationships in the present. The major area of focus was how our parental relationships and formative romantic relationships shape how we experience relationships now. Richo, himself, fits the model of an integral teacher working from his own published material. A former Catholic priest and present Buddhist meditator, Richo has integrated a unique style of mindfulness and loving-kindness meditations with the wisdom of Catholicism and Jungian psychology. This simple weekend workshop was truly transformative, especially for its brevity. I got a lot out of it personally and in exploring the possibilities of group therapy.
Esalen has hosted these leading, eclectic thinkers for the past 5 decades. Notable visitors or long-time residents include Aldous Huxley, Fritz Perls, Abraham Maslow, Alan Watts, Gregory Bateson, Arnold Toynbee, Paul Tillich, Stanislav Grof, Joseph Campbell, Buckminster Fuller, Timothy Leary, Albert Hoffman, R.D. Laing, Terence McKenna, and Gary Snyder. Arts events have hosted everyone from Dylan and Simon and Garfunkel to George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. Scholar Jeffrey Kripal recently published a definitive history on Esalen called "Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion", a thorough investigation of the place's complicated history.
The physicality of the place itself was quite stunning. The Big Sur coastline gets really temperate, breezy weather. June is 60s and 70s with a frequent, big fog that rolls off the ocean. Much of the coast is rock. Esalen hangs over the sea on a cliff. They have a lot of gardening space, and a small organic farm. The cabin dorm I stayed in was pretty typical for retreat centers. They had many other buildings for workshops as well as an “art barn” (art studio for people to use), dance dome, elementary children’s school, offices, and dining hall. The dining hall was also pretty typical in structure with a beautiful patio for eating outside. The food, however, was really tasty. They always had a densely abundant salad bar, along with multiple grains, various dishes, and all kinds of teas, coffees, juices, and alcoholic drinks (the alcohol was for sale).
The most distinguishing feature of the Esalen ‘campus’ were its hot mineral spring baths. Esalen used to have hot spring tubs until a fire a few years ago destroyed them. They put forth a multi-million dollar effort to rebuild newer and better baths, and did they . . . The building doubles as a massage parlor and hot tub spa with almost a dozen hot tubs or single bath tubs. It was clothing optional, which practically means dozens of naked, middle-aged Californians, most of whom were somewhere between relaxed and self-conscious. It’d be fair to say that you oscillate between the two states when you first arrive, but the first dip into the soothing tea kettle, the first rush of warmth up, around, and inside one’s genitalia melts away any doubt or self-consciousness! One’s mind wafts away in the mist of the ocean as it carries up and off the beating waves below. The tubs practically dangle on the cliff’s edge. You can lean your elbow’s on the tub’s rim and gaze off into the infinite gray sky, gray sea . . . Or you can turn around and stare into the infinite gray hair of your baby boomer compatriots, aging but grinning – finally at rest from their busy, likely successful, lives. The major shadow of Esalen, however, is its echelon.
This utopian paradise is only affordable for a minority of the world, a minority of Americans, a minority of wealthy Americans. A weekend workshop could cost anywhere from $400 - $2,100, a weeklong workshop could cost $900 - $6,200 depending on whether you’re on the floor in a sleeping bag or cooped up in a deluxe suite. Esalen also offers monthlong work studies where you work 32 hours per week while doing a daily workshop for a month. But even to do that, you have to pay a $1000 entrance fee on top of working! As the founding boomer generation has aged from hippy idealism to even more idealistic, post-modern silicon suburbia, Esalen seems to have paralleled in its own shift toward a new age vision for all . . . to be experienced by few.
However, the place isn’t without consciousness of this problem, and I would have to spend much more time at a place like Esalen to label it as classist. Indeed, classism has been a defining feature of higher education since its inception, and it is perhaps too much to reasonably expect an institution to reverse such a tendency. It would be interesting to research what initiatives Esalen is taking to provide scholarships and programs or workshops for the underprivileged (not just about the underprivileged). All I know of is the $50 work discount I got. A lot of its workshops are also on niche subjects; so one would have to know if a workshop on tai chi and yoga integration is of interest to people without access or if it is such a niche subject that only those who could afford to have learned about it could afford it anyway. I know at least, that I personally, would love more access to what Esalen offers but can’t afford it. Students may be the group most interested in Esalen with the most difficulty getting in. One can’t even look around Esalen Institute without a reservation, an indication of the price it costs to build an American dreamland.
Tucson, AZ: IONS Conference (June 17-21)
The 13th Annual IONS Conference
In Tuscon, I stayed with Josh, an abstract painter, and his wife Anita. I met Josh through a professor at DePauw, Beth Benedix; they were kind enough to host me without even meeting me first! I didn’t get to spend much time with them, except for a couple dinners. Josh's art is just incredible; I’m really attracted to it. His process is fascinating too; and it means so much more to have him narrate his work. I’ve got a few pics on my camera of his stuff. He told me some interesting stories about Maezumi Roshi (a famous American Zen teacher) too. I guess they met when Josh was the director of a university museum. He put together an exhibit on “Seeing and Blindness” oriented towards the local school for deaf and blind. It was E.Asian art oriented; he called and asked Maezumi Roshi to come in and talk about Zen art and vision/blindness as metaphors for wisdom and ignorance. I guess Roshi stayed at Josh’s house, played with the kids, sat zazen on a chair in the morning in Josh’s home gallery. Josh told me a story about how he and Maezumi went out to dinner one night and Roshi ordered a steak. Josh said, “Aren’t you supposed to be vegetarian?” Roshi laughed. I left Josh and Anita's happy, clean-clothed, and well fed. Thanks to them!
The IONS conference was pretty spectacular. The spiritual energy was very high; it felt good to be around so many like-minded people where any minute you could strike up a conversation and just click. It also felt physically good. It was like my subtle body was beaming. I really clicked with a lot of people there; the younger people in particular. I made lots of friends, one of whom, Vlad, drove with me from Tucson to Long Beach; it was a really great, chill ride. We’ll definitely be keeping in touch, especially as he continues to research American institutions where meditation research is being done.
While I was at the conference I volunteered for various activities as a door monitor. It was easy, and I saved some real green!
Full info about conference events is at: http://ionsconference.org/2009/. I attended the major plenary sessions with a variety of different speakers. The specific “pre-conference”, “post-conference”, and “breakout” sessions I went to were:
1. Wednesday (6/17), Daylong
(PW5) Survival of Consciousness: A Matter of Life and Death—Dean Radin and Julie Beischel
Half a dozen classes of scientific evidence exist for some form of survival of consciousness after bodily death; some are more persuasive than others. We will review this evidence and assess the current state of the art. One of the most intriguing classes of survival research focuses on mediums and the information they report. We will examine recent advances in mediumship research methods, and attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a demonstration with certified research mediums. We will also suggest ways of advancing our understanding of the perennial question of survival, which is literally a matter of life and death.
Tim says: This session blew me off my feet and made re-think how consciousness exists beyond death. Dedicated scientists have apparently been researching this topic for years in a lot of different ways. Dean Radin, probably IONS biggest scientist, began with a presentation on the research surrounding consciousness generally and, simply put, whether or not consciousness is an interaction, a bi-product of brain chemistry, or if in some way, or to some degree, consciousness exists independent of the brain structure. The word on the street is that scientific research has already shifted in large part from a materialist paradigm, to one influenced by quantum research. Personally, like most people, I can’t thoroughly describe why, but I’ve read enough to at least follow the argument.
Research of sub-atomic particles now reveals a number of phenomenon that defy a reductionistic, materialist paradigm. What the hell does this mean? For one thing, the behavior of sub-atomic energy depends on our perception of it (as say, waves or particles). Experiments are now able to show that the same particle can appear in two different places at once; some experiments have done this across the distance of a city. Another theoretical claim is that energy behaves “non-locally” on a microscopic level, meaning that what we normally conceive of as particles don’t really exist as particles until we conceive and measure them as such . . . The major hop, skip, and a jump for scientists now is that one’s consciousness exists in a similar field-like way a priori to its concentration at a particular point in something like . . . a brain. This aligns with what spiritual people have been saying for millennia but have never had a way to prove (i.e. we can go out of our mind, connect with other minds, “read” other minds, dissolve into a higher mind, etc.).
Radin’s research is much more concentrated and scientific. Since the early 20th century, people have been doing experiments to see whether or not one’s intention and concentration can manipulate the physical reality. Dice experiments began to confirm superstitions that one could intend a certain outcome, if they really wanted, or wished, or intended for it to happen. There are more or less two kinds of experiments. The first is with people who claim they can do this and have been working at it for some time. Sometimes their scores are off-the charts in terms of what basic probability would deem. They also do popular surveys with people who’ve never really tried it until then. Even with these experiments, the results are statistically significant. For example, with one die you have a 1 out of 6 chance of getting any of the numbers 1-6. If you get a bunch of people two intend “two”, then all the sudden the average jumps to 2 out of 6, you don’t have a miracle, but you do have something that significantly defies statistical probability and would require an alternative explanation than mere chance. Now instead of using dice, they use “random number generators” to see how someone’s intention can direct the appearance of otherwise random numbers.
The same goes for experiments with spirit mediums who claim to talk to the dead. The second presenter after Radin, Julie Beischel runs her own research lab on mediumship. In experiments like this, as with similar one’s involving telepathy, you isolate a medium from a client and test how accurately they can obtain information about the client’s dead loved one whom they want to contact. They create a system of ‘blindings’ where the medium, the client, the researcher, and the numbers recorder don’t know certain factors in an experiment, so that the medium can’t get information about the dead person without using some alternative psychic means. As with the dice, professionals’ abilities often scored off the charts, while untrained, ungifted people might’ve been statistically significant if not just guessing.
We also got to witness a medium reading, which I’d never seen before. Now there was less blinding, and more cooperation, but it was still pretty impressive what the medium knew (or perhaps deduced) without the client saying anything.
2. Thursday (6/18), Daylong
(PT1) Working with Fields of Consciousness: Practical Strategies for Group Leaders—Chris Bache
For reasons we don’t yet understand, the tendency to synchronize is one of the most pervasive drives in the universe. —Steven Strogatz, Sync
Fields of consciousness spring up whenever we engage in sustained collective activities. Knowing this, how can we accelerate and deepen this natural process? How do we harness the power of these fields to teach, problem-solve, create, or heal? In this workshop, we will explore the dynamics of collective intelligence in group settings. Learn practical, hands-on strategies forged through 30 years of classroom experience: opening and closing fields, strengthening fields, visualization and meditation exercises, and managing episodes of spontaneous resonance.
Tim says: This workshop began with the assumption that consciousness operates in fields to some degree. Chris Bache used this idea to talk about his experience in working with his own college classrooms as fields. As Chris used it, a “field of consciousness” is a degree of higher order that resides to some degree in time and space that guides and structures human organization and interaction. Most of the time, these fields are unconscious; we participate in these structures of higher order without being aware that there is a higher order. For example, we think of driving a car on a busy, jammed freeway. One might be only conscious of one’s own position and perhaps those of nearby cars. But, in fact, there is actually a web of conscious relations spanning for miles that coordinates the spacing between cars so that everyone eventually gets to move, within certain peramaters, in the same direction. Most of us nowadays, can even drive unconsciously. With experience we tap into a network of sensory experience and response that manages our accelerating, breaking, etc. without even thinking!
Chris talked about, the even deeper situation of a classroom. In his experience, his private meditation practice effects his students. They often undergo similar realizations as him when he experienced it that day. As Chris perfected a system of “opening”, “nourishing”, “visualizing”, and “closing” these fields, more and more students began to get more and more out of the class, often having “peak” or even “mystical” experiences of mysteries they had never considered. Chris does all kinds of intention practices. He begins meditating over the class roster when he immediately gets it, psychically intendeding for those ready for the class to stay, and those who would be disengaged to drop and come back another time. To “close” fields, he has very boundaries for what conversations he continues even years afterwards with students. Closure is very important!
3. Friday-Afternoon (6/19) Breakout Session
(F6) The ESP Enigma: A Comprehensive Model for Understanding Psychic Phenomena—Diane Powell
Enjoy this scientifically accurate yet provocative model that integrates neuroscience, parapsychology, and physics. Become acquainted with the past century's research on psychic phenomena such as telepathy, precognition, and psychokinesis. Discover why some people have more psychic experiences than others. Incorporate this new understanding into your clinical work with people who experience psychic phenomena.
Tim says: Diane Powell’s talk was also pretty riveting, although it was so broad that it’s difficult to summarize. The summary says most of it. I mostly got brief exposure to the latest literature and discoveries about the psychic phenomenon. Probably the two most interesting thoughts I got from her were (1) neuroscientifice research (brain scans and the like) consistently shows amongst psychics of various abilities a highly developed angular gyrus, an area right above the pineal gland. (2) Diane’s current theory is that psychic phenomenon are possible due to reality being fundamentally holographic.
What does that mean? Various neuroscience theories (brain-focused), Chinese medicine (body focused), even reflexology (foot-focused!) stipulate that we hold within our vary own cells, reflections, or holographic representations, of the entire external universe. Following this theory, psychics are just people who have trained themselves to access information which we all fundamentally possess in our unconscious mind (or unconscious body, or collective unconscious depending on your theory). So, telepathics don’t send some kind of a beem from their brain to yours, retrieve information and beem it back! The idea is that, they get in touch with the holographic reflection of the client already within themselves and deeply empathize with that. Even minor acts of compassion are possible because we can already intuit what’s going on in others, because it’s already inside us. Hua-yen Buddhism, fractal imagery, and advanced mathematics come to similar conclusions: the whole is completely immanent in its entirety even within the smallest part. Hua-yen uses the image of “indra’s net”: an infinite web of jewels spanning in all directions. Each jewel reflects all the other jewels within itself. Theoretically, each person reflects the entire universe in that way . . .
No wonder it’s so easy to fall in love!
4. Saturday-Afternoon (6/20) Breakout Session
(S6) From Timbuktu to Santa Cruz, from Segou to Selma: What Does It Mean to Be a Global Citizen?—Coumba Touré
Coumba Touré has participated in and been instrumental in facilitating hundreds of educational workshops, gatherings, and struggles for social change around the world. In this session, she welcomes you into an exciting conversation about bridging divides and navigating through the diverse worlds on our interconnected planet.
Tim says: Very interesting workshop, but I don’t have time to talk about it . . .
5. Sunday-Afternoon (6/21) Post-Conference Institute
(PS4) Technologies for Inner Well-Being—Sadhguru
No other generation has been as comfortable as we are today, but we are still not any more joyful than those who have lived before us. It doesn't matter how much we fix the external aspects of our lives; the basic quality of human life—of being joyful or miserable—remains the same. The way we are within is the way we experience our life. Just as we have a science and technology for understanding and creating external situations through our desires and choices, an inner science and technology is available to us to create our inner situation as well—a technology to take charge of one's ultimate destiny. Join Sadhguru for a guided meditation and an entree into this ancient technology for spiritual evolution and healing
Tim says: I’ve seen a lot of gurus of Sadh Guru’s style in the States and in India, so I approached this talk with a lot of expectations, baggage, and “heard-it-befores” already in my head. Sadhguru took a while to wear on me, but by the end of his 2 ½ hour talk I was on the edge of my seat laughing, practically crying. His insights from consumerism to death were often cliché, but true. The more and more I listened, however, he was throwing curve balls left and right, addressing the audience’s needs. Some good quotes:
“Peace is an invention of the disturbed mind.”
“The mind cannot be contained. It is boundless. No philosophy can contain it. It’s constantly striving for boundlessness . . . The longing for boundlessness isn’t a problem; you’re just using the wrong methods to achieve it.”
“Death is an invention of the ignorant.”
In Tuscon, I stayed with Josh, an abstract painter, and his wife Anita. I met Josh through a professor at DePauw, Beth Benedix; they were kind enough to host me without even meeting me first! I didn’t get to spend much time with them, except for a couple dinners. Josh's art is just incredible; I’m really attracted to it. His process is fascinating too; and it means so much more to have him narrate his work. I’ve got a few pics on my camera of his stuff. He told me some interesting stories about Maezumi Roshi (a famous American Zen teacher) too. I guess they met when Josh was the director of a university museum. He put together an exhibit on “Seeing and Blindness” oriented towards the local school for deaf and blind. It was E.Asian art oriented; he called and asked Maezumi Roshi to come in and talk about Zen art and vision/blindness as metaphors for wisdom and ignorance. I guess Roshi stayed at Josh’s house, played with the kids, sat zazen on a chair in the morning in Josh’s home gallery. Josh told me a story about how he and Maezumi went out to dinner one night and Roshi ordered a steak. Josh said, “Aren’t you supposed to be vegetarian?” Roshi laughed. I left Josh and Anita's happy, clean-clothed, and well fed. Thanks to them!
The IONS conference was pretty spectacular. The spiritual energy was very high; it felt good to be around so many like-minded people where any minute you could strike up a conversation and just click. It also felt physically good. It was like my subtle body was beaming. I really clicked with a lot of people there; the younger people in particular. I made lots of friends, one of whom, Vlad, drove with me from Tucson to Long Beach; it was a really great, chill ride. We’ll definitely be keeping in touch, especially as he continues to research American institutions where meditation research is being done.
While I was at the conference I volunteered for various activities as a door monitor. It was easy, and I saved some real green!
Full info about conference events is at: http://ionsconference.org/2009/. I attended the major plenary sessions with a variety of different speakers. The specific “pre-conference”, “post-conference”, and “breakout” sessions I went to were:
1. Wednesday (6/17), Daylong
(PW5) Survival of Consciousness: A Matter of Life and Death—Dean Radin and Julie Beischel
Half a dozen classes of scientific evidence exist for some form of survival of consciousness after bodily death; some are more persuasive than others. We will review this evidence and assess the current state of the art. One of the most intriguing classes of survival research focuses on mediums and the information they report. We will examine recent advances in mediumship research methods, and attendees will have the opportunity to participate in a demonstration with certified research mediums. We will also suggest ways of advancing our understanding of the perennial question of survival, which is literally a matter of life and death.
Tim says: This session blew me off my feet and made re-think how consciousness exists beyond death. Dedicated scientists have apparently been researching this topic for years in a lot of different ways. Dean Radin, probably IONS biggest scientist, began with a presentation on the research surrounding consciousness generally and, simply put, whether or not consciousness is an interaction, a bi-product of brain chemistry, or if in some way, or to some degree, consciousness exists independent of the brain structure. The word on the street is that scientific research has already shifted in large part from a materialist paradigm, to one influenced by quantum research. Personally, like most people, I can’t thoroughly describe why, but I’ve read enough to at least follow the argument.
Research of sub-atomic particles now reveals a number of phenomenon that defy a reductionistic, materialist paradigm. What the hell does this mean? For one thing, the behavior of sub-atomic energy depends on our perception of it (as say, waves or particles). Experiments are now able to show that the same particle can appear in two different places at once; some experiments have done this across the distance of a city. Another theoretical claim is that energy behaves “non-locally” on a microscopic level, meaning that what we normally conceive of as particles don’t really exist as particles until we conceive and measure them as such . . . The major hop, skip, and a jump for scientists now is that one’s consciousness exists in a similar field-like way a priori to its concentration at a particular point in something like . . . a brain. This aligns with what spiritual people have been saying for millennia but have never had a way to prove (i.e. we can go out of our mind, connect with other minds, “read” other minds, dissolve into a higher mind, etc.).
Radin’s research is much more concentrated and scientific. Since the early 20th century, people have been doing experiments to see whether or not one’s intention and concentration can manipulate the physical reality. Dice experiments began to confirm superstitions that one could intend a certain outcome, if they really wanted, or wished, or intended for it to happen. There are more or less two kinds of experiments. The first is with people who claim they can do this and have been working at it for some time. Sometimes their scores are off-the charts in terms of what basic probability would deem. They also do popular surveys with people who’ve never really tried it until then. Even with these experiments, the results are statistically significant. For example, with one die you have a 1 out of 6 chance of getting any of the numbers 1-6. If you get a bunch of people two intend “two”, then all the sudden the average jumps to 2 out of 6, you don’t have a miracle, but you do have something that significantly defies statistical probability and would require an alternative explanation than mere chance. Now instead of using dice, they use “random number generators” to see how someone’s intention can direct the appearance of otherwise random numbers.
The same goes for experiments with spirit mediums who claim to talk to the dead. The second presenter after Radin, Julie Beischel runs her own research lab on mediumship. In experiments like this, as with similar one’s involving telepathy, you isolate a medium from a client and test how accurately they can obtain information about the client’s dead loved one whom they want to contact. They create a system of ‘blindings’ where the medium, the client, the researcher, and the numbers recorder don’t know certain factors in an experiment, so that the medium can’t get information about the dead person without using some alternative psychic means. As with the dice, professionals’ abilities often scored off the charts, while untrained, ungifted people might’ve been statistically significant if not just guessing.
We also got to witness a medium reading, which I’d never seen before. Now there was less blinding, and more cooperation, but it was still pretty impressive what the medium knew (or perhaps deduced) without the client saying anything.
2. Thursday (6/18), Daylong
(PT1) Working with Fields of Consciousness: Practical Strategies for Group Leaders—Chris Bache
For reasons we don’t yet understand, the tendency to synchronize is one of the most pervasive drives in the universe. —Steven Strogatz, Sync
Fields of consciousness spring up whenever we engage in sustained collective activities. Knowing this, how can we accelerate and deepen this natural process? How do we harness the power of these fields to teach, problem-solve, create, or heal? In this workshop, we will explore the dynamics of collective intelligence in group settings. Learn practical, hands-on strategies forged through 30 years of classroom experience: opening and closing fields, strengthening fields, visualization and meditation exercises, and managing episodes of spontaneous resonance.
Tim says: This workshop began with the assumption that consciousness operates in fields to some degree. Chris Bache used this idea to talk about his experience in working with his own college classrooms as fields. As Chris used it, a “field of consciousness” is a degree of higher order that resides to some degree in time and space that guides and structures human organization and interaction. Most of the time, these fields are unconscious; we participate in these structures of higher order without being aware that there is a higher order. For example, we think of driving a car on a busy, jammed freeway. One might be only conscious of one’s own position and perhaps those of nearby cars. But, in fact, there is actually a web of conscious relations spanning for miles that coordinates the spacing between cars so that everyone eventually gets to move, within certain peramaters, in the same direction. Most of us nowadays, can even drive unconsciously. With experience we tap into a network of sensory experience and response that manages our accelerating, breaking, etc. without even thinking!
Chris talked about, the even deeper situation of a classroom. In his experience, his private meditation practice effects his students. They often undergo similar realizations as him when he experienced it that day. As Chris perfected a system of “opening”, “nourishing”, “visualizing”, and “closing” these fields, more and more students began to get more and more out of the class, often having “peak” or even “mystical” experiences of mysteries they had never considered. Chris does all kinds of intention practices. He begins meditating over the class roster when he immediately gets it, psychically intendeding for those ready for the class to stay, and those who would be disengaged to drop and come back another time. To “close” fields, he has very boundaries for what conversations he continues even years afterwards with students. Closure is very important!
3. Friday-Afternoon (6/19) Breakout Session
(F6) The ESP Enigma: A Comprehensive Model for Understanding Psychic Phenomena—Diane Powell
Enjoy this scientifically accurate yet provocative model that integrates neuroscience, parapsychology, and physics. Become acquainted with the past century's research on psychic phenomena such as telepathy, precognition, and psychokinesis. Discover why some people have more psychic experiences than others. Incorporate this new understanding into your clinical work with people who experience psychic phenomena.
Tim says: Diane Powell’s talk was also pretty riveting, although it was so broad that it’s difficult to summarize. The summary says most of it. I mostly got brief exposure to the latest literature and discoveries about the psychic phenomenon. Probably the two most interesting thoughts I got from her were (1) neuroscientifice research (brain scans and the like) consistently shows amongst psychics of various abilities a highly developed angular gyrus, an area right above the pineal gland. (2) Diane’s current theory is that psychic phenomenon are possible due to reality being fundamentally holographic.
What does that mean? Various neuroscience theories (brain-focused), Chinese medicine (body focused), even reflexology (foot-focused!) stipulate that we hold within our vary own cells, reflections, or holographic representations, of the entire external universe. Following this theory, psychics are just people who have trained themselves to access information which we all fundamentally possess in our unconscious mind (or unconscious body, or collective unconscious depending on your theory). So, telepathics don’t send some kind of a beem from their brain to yours, retrieve information and beem it back! The idea is that, they get in touch with the holographic reflection of the client already within themselves and deeply empathize with that. Even minor acts of compassion are possible because we can already intuit what’s going on in others, because it’s already inside us. Hua-yen Buddhism, fractal imagery, and advanced mathematics come to similar conclusions: the whole is completely immanent in its entirety even within the smallest part. Hua-yen uses the image of “indra’s net”: an infinite web of jewels spanning in all directions. Each jewel reflects all the other jewels within itself. Theoretically, each person reflects the entire universe in that way . . .
No wonder it’s so easy to fall in love!
4. Saturday-Afternoon (6/20) Breakout Session
(S6) From Timbuktu to Santa Cruz, from Segou to Selma: What Does It Mean to Be a Global Citizen?—Coumba Touré
Coumba Touré has participated in and been instrumental in facilitating hundreds of educational workshops, gatherings, and struggles for social change around the world. In this session, she welcomes you into an exciting conversation about bridging divides and navigating through the diverse worlds on our interconnected planet.
Tim says: Very interesting workshop, but I don’t have time to talk about it . . .
5. Sunday-Afternoon (6/21) Post-Conference Institute
(PS4) Technologies for Inner Well-Being—Sadhguru
No other generation has been as comfortable as we are today, but we are still not any more joyful than those who have lived before us. It doesn't matter how much we fix the external aspects of our lives; the basic quality of human life—of being joyful or miserable—remains the same. The way we are within is the way we experience our life. Just as we have a science and technology for understanding and creating external situations through our desires and choices, an inner science and technology is available to us to create our inner situation as well—a technology to take charge of one's ultimate destiny. Join Sadhguru for a guided meditation and an entree into this ancient technology for spiritual evolution and healing
Tim says: I’ve seen a lot of gurus of Sadh Guru’s style in the States and in India, so I approached this talk with a lot of expectations, baggage, and “heard-it-befores” already in my head. Sadhguru took a while to wear on me, but by the end of his 2 ½ hour talk I was on the edge of my seat laughing, practically crying. His insights from consumerism to death were often cliché, but true. The more and more I listened, however, he was throwing curve balls left and right, addressing the audience’s needs. Some good quotes:
“Peace is an invention of the disturbed mind.”
“The mind cannot be contained. It is boundless. No philosophy can contain it. It’s constantly striving for boundlessness . . . The longing for boundlessness isn’t a problem; you’re just using the wrong methods to achieve it.”
“Death is an invention of the ignorant.”
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