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July 23-25, 2010
Kirkridge Retreat Center
Delaware Water Gap
5 spaces left!
Awaken to happiness - it's here in each moment, and only 90 minutes from New York City too! Re-attune your ways of thinking and being in the world towards joy - a deeper-felt, peace-inducing, long-lasting sense of aliveness. In essence, welcome happiness into your life rather than try to find it. A weekend of breathwork, partnered touch and much more!
August 8-14, 2010
Bodhi Manda Zen Center
Jemez Springs, New Mexico
The Summer Retreat is a chance to really "get away from it all"; to really recover from the stresses of daily life; to make new connections with other men. There is extraordinary power to be found in a community of gay men gathered together for seven days in such an intimate setting. With the loving encouragement of brothers, we are able to see ourselves more clearly and empower each other in realizing our life's potential, taking small steps and sometimes leaps, toward living life to the fullest.
August 18-21, 2010
Bodhi Manda Zen Center
Jemez Springs, New Mexico
Come and play in a group of erotic explorers and open up the amazing potential that lives within your erotic self. Identify and cultivate the spark that stirs inside you, trusting it to lead you to your erotic fire. Interrupt the patterns of habit, judgment, or comparison that block your sexual freedom. Practice surrender and spontaneity. Be real. Have fun. Step fearlessly into the ecstasy that lives inside your body and soul. Can you imagine that?
September 10-12, 2010
Kirkridge Retreat Center
Delaware Water Gap
Tantric Tribes comes to the New York metro area! Spend three days of fall color, rejuvenating and reawakening. The fusion of the powerful and complementary practices of Tantra and Yoga allows you to harness your sexual drive and awaken your Kundalini energy. Once harnessed, this energy is channeled into a dynamic and healing force in your life. The practice of Tantra alone is a very energizing experience, but blending the benefits and principles of yoga with tantra sexual practices transforms all aspects of your life.
Join our tribe of queer spirits for a radical, playful and passionate exploration of the deep erotic wisdom at the heart of the Christian mystical tradition. In this four-day experiential workshop, we will free the teaching of Jesus from millennia of distortion, begin to heal our own shame and fear, re-awaken our erotic spirits, and celebrate ecstatic Christian ceremonies which unite us with the divine. This is a workshop for spiritual and erotic adventurers: gay and bi men who are willing to question their beliefs, feel their wounds, and explore their own erotic edges - a workshop for men who are willing to risk joy!
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Dear Spirit Journeyers,
I need to take a moment to thank Ray Whetstone for the incredible workshop he just completed in Asheville, NC. Once again, the feedback from the men that attended is off the charts. With comments like "a powerful, deeply meaningful experience!" and "I cannot describe to you the level of positive energy I left the workshop with", it is easy to see why his Tantric Tribes workshops have become a staple with us. Ray's selflessness, his enthusiasm and the love he brings to his work are all qualities that support the vision I hold for Spirit Journeys. Thank You Ray!
As I am writing this my thoughts are drawn to the impact that Spirit Journeys has had on my life. Over the years, I have been blessed to have seen the difference that participating in a Spirit Journey has made in the lives of many men, as well as my own life. Note that I say "participating" because I know that it is not Spirit Journeys itself that changes lives.
It is us, the facilitators and attendees that participate in a Spirit Journey that change our own lives and the lives of our fellow journeyers. We take the risk of just showing up; we risk even more by being vulnerable, honest and open; we love and support each other as we all take strides towards living a freer and more joyous life.
All Spirit Journeys does is create spaces and opportunities for us. Spaces where we feel safe and loved; opportunities for us "to be far more than who we think we are."
So, in addition to Ray, I also extend a deep and heartfelt "thank you" to all my fellow Spirit Journeyers, past, present and future. Your courage encourages me. Your love supports me. Your willingness keeps me searching!
Much Love and Many Hugs,
Calendar Updates
There are still 5 spaces open for our Welcoming Happiness workshop that starts July 23. It's being held at Kirkridge, only 90 minutes from New York City and is easily accessible by bus. Kirkridge is fast becoming a favorite retreat center for us. The grounds offer incredible walks and views, and the staff couldn't be more welcoming and loving. So join us as we explore what happiness is, our blockages to it and how to welcome it into each moment. Breathwork and partnered touch are just two of the things that we're planning for the weekend.
A few spaces also remain open for the 18th Annual Summer Retreat or Authentic Eros, or both! Our beloved Bodhi Manda Zen Center once again hosts us for both retreats. If you've never experienced New Mexico and the Bodhi, come see why we have been going there for 18 years! Red rock cliffs, natural hot springs, a river for cold plunges and the company of other men that are exploring what it means to be alive... It really doesn't get any better than this. If you're thinking of attending either event, please register soon to insure you get a space!
Ray Whetstone brings Tantric Tribes - Naked Yoga And Erotic Energy For Men to Kirkridge September 10-12. Ray presents a wonderful weekend of Tantric practice, naked yoga and erotic exploration. Come, re-connect with yourself and make new connections with other men.
Hunter Flournoy leads a new workshop titled The Erotic Body of Christ. The title alone should get your attention! It is also being held at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center and runs from September 16 through September 19. Join Hunter for what will be a radical, playful and passionate exploration of the deep erotic wisdom at the heart of the Christian mystical tradition; using the true teachings of Christ to help heal the wounds of organized religion.
This Month's Special Focus
"There's No Place...Except Home" by this year's Summer Retreat co-facilitator Rob Bruillard.
SpiritFund Information
Thanks to SpiritWear sales and your generosity, a scholarship was awarded in June that is allowed someone to attend the Tantric Tribes Workshop.
No matter how you choose to support SpiritFund, either with direct donations or by buying items at SpiritWear, know that you are making a difference in people's lives. To date seven people have benefited from SpiritFund.
Donations and applications for scholarships can be made online at the SpiritFund page. On the SpiritFund page you will also find a list of Frequently Asked Questions that should explain everything about the scholarship program.
Total Donations Last Month: $0.00
Profits from SpiritWear Sales Last Month: $0.00
Total Income to Date: $2557.00
Total Expenses to Date: -$108.00
Total Net SpiritFund Income to Date: $2449.00
Number of Scholarship Applications: 31
Total Number of Scholarships Accepted: 7
Total Amount Awarded: $2425.00
SpiritFund Balance: $24.00
There's No Place...
Except Home by Rob Bruillard
From that moment of the near impossible cosmic odds of our conception, we are journeying. But are we coming from home or going to home?
With our ancient primal coding of DNA fulfilling its next level of evolution, this impulse (the "I-AM" pulse)... our birth that is now of form and flesh suddenly inspires and gasps in the question - "who am I?" and from our exhalation - our most natural and effortless act of kindness, the question is answered ..."I am." Thus begins our individual mythic journey that becomes our life.
"Breath in... step... breath out... step" repeated Hosen, the Vice Abyss at the Bodhi Manda Zen center in Jemez Springs, New Mexico.
I stealthy obeyed her quiet and gentle order. I was a student of Tibetan Dzogchen Buddhism and had practiced how to sit and be "present", but this walking style of Zen Meditation, outside, was a new method and my mind wrestled to catch even the slightest breeze of equanimity.
It was the summer of 2002, and my 2nd time attending Spirit Journeys' Summer Retreat. I came with big and deeply passionate questions wanting even larger answers. I had never really felt "at home" with myself and wanted to explore this thought/feeling more. At that time in my life, I was following a thread of inner spiritual direction and could feel a vibration, a hum of epic opportunity coursing through me energetically and I wasn't going to miss one breath of it!
"Breath in... step... breath out... step" continued Hosen... ahem... I think I'm getting the idea here.
By the end of this 6 day gathering with my spiritual brothers, my life as I knew it would not be returning. A ritual and initiation of sorts was about to take place. Though I felt so comfortable and surprisingly at home with my brothers at the Bodhi, much more so than I ever knew to be possible in such a short time, with my next breath, literally, my next evolutionary impulse, was about to remind me yet again that I am the journey - I just had to simply continue showing up.
It happened during a guided breath session. Lying down, eyes closed and breathing fully and deeply - belly and chest rising and falling rhythmically and continuously. I quickly traveled ecstatically into my Self, riding with my blood coursing throughout my body and soon leaving my physicality; I journeyed into and became one with the pulsing blinding cosmic universal vibration of the ALL.
"Breath in... step... breath out... step".
What a welcome reminder as I tried to walk to the lunch room still in an altered state from my 2 hour breath session journey. I slowly placed some rice into my mouth and simultaneously witnessed an offering of divine love... the simple silent visual of two men hugging. Waves of immense bliss and vast sadness overcame my body and I wept uncontrollably for a very long time... rice still in my mouth. At some point, I was ever so tenderly guided back into my body, my home, by my beloved brother, Hunter.
This seemingly simple act of breathing and post breathing euphoria engendered within me to seek an even deeper meaning to my life and specifically to my Purpose - with a capital P! Having my mantra of "compassionate radical self inquiry" guiding my in breath and the unknown answer begging at the only question I had on my out breath... "who am I?"... a profound spiritual journey of 8 months soon unfolded.
Meeting and experiencing the many Shamans, Elder Mystics, Buddhist Masters deep in the mountains, crazy Balians and Healers of Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Bhutan and Nepal was certainly epic and conscious expanding by any standard. However, when I returned "home" it was then I gleaned what "truths" they all spoke of and were pointing to...
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, one finds it attached to the rest of the world."
Our journey home, which is the journey of knowing "Self", begins with and continues within ourselves and yet we are intrinsically, vibrationally attached to everything that is...THE ALL. Paradoxically separate and yet connected - just like the breath.
Home cannot be "found" out there...
Our single most important aspect to life is breath and the continuous act of conscious connected breathing effortlessly and lovingly reminds us that we are home.
"Breath in... home... breath out... home".
There's no place... except home.
See you all at The Bodhi!
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