 The Ocean Refuses No River
Being Awake in Our Utterly Paradoxical, Ordinary, Imperfect, Impermanent, Incomplete, Human Lives
THIS is IT!
A Life-Changing Initiation & Training
for Men & Women with Sheila Foster
September 2008 - May 200 ~ Sophia Center, Lineboro, Maryland
Dates Below ~ 12-5 PM each day
Please register by July 1, 2008
Info teleconferences about the temple year: 6 pm ET June 23 & June 30
Conference Dial-in Number: (712) 432-1680
Participant Access Code: 847310#
Please email me to let me know you are coming to the call.
"The ocean refuses no river." These words are sung by Sheila Chandra. When I heard the chant, these words, I got chills and knew that it was the title and theme for this year's Temple, now open to men as well as women. The theme and intention for this year is essentially to shift from dualistic thinking and living to a radically life-changing non-dual awareness of all that is. What is it to be awake and free in our daily lives?
To my delight and surprise, I am called back to Maryland to offer this to you as I experience how fully it shifts our awareness, how we see ourselves, others, and life itself. It changes how we meet the challenges and losses of being human, how we do our relationships, as we live life that is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete. We can realize our awakeness, our essential nature as pure awareness, stillness, by fully embracing our humanness-not trying to escape any part of it.
Your innermost sense of self, of who you are,
is inseparable from stillness. This is the I Am
that is deeper than name and form.
Stillness is your essential nature.
~Eckhart Tolle
How do we be present, 'be here now' as Ram Dass would say, awake and aware in the midst of our conditioned, human lives? How do we experience true freedom in the midst of our human experiences, no matter what they are? What is the impact of awakening on us and our lives? How do we directly experience that which wants nothing, needs nothing, is attached to nothing, rejects nothing, embraces everything, and is the essence of us and of everything in form? How do we realize rather than conceptualize that we are not separate from anyone or anything, including the Horrible or the Holy. "The Ocean refuses no river."
You think that enlightenment is something
other than what is happening right now.
This is your primary mistake.
~Adyashanti
This process of shifting from a dualistic thinking paradigm of relating to self and the world to non-dual awareness deconstructs all the un-truths we have about ourselves, others, and 'how life is.' It lifts the veil so that we experience the Mystery, Stillness, the Peace and Love that we are, that is right here, right now, available every moment in every situation. Non-dual awareness, stillness, does nothing really, it shines through us, and yet the more we access it the more it seems that our attachments, our thinking, our ways of relating to others, and our nervous systems change, all by accepting what is as it is. It's very paradoxical. We discover there really is no problem, whatever is going on. Nothing needs to change and no one needs to be fixed, and yet evolution, healing, transformation occur.
You are that awareness, disguised as a person.
~Eckhart Tolle
This training includes inquiries, tools, skills and significant time in the Stillness:
· accessing pure unconditioned, nondual awareness
· being more present, here now, alively alert in your life
· self inquiry into experience and who's having the experience
· directly experience non-dual awareness
· see your own conditioning without judgment
· discover the obstacles to pure awareness
· embrace the paradoxes of life
· ability to be with what is and give up suffering
· learn natural contemplation & 'just sitting'
· practice pure listening & pure speaking
· deconstruction of thoughts and identifications
· greater clarity, seeing through the veil/illusion
· freedom
· realizing there is no separation from anything or anyone
· experiencing life, others, yourself, relationships in a whole new way
Apparent Obstacles to Experiencing Unconditioned Awareness:
· attraction & aversion
· need to be doing or not doing
· need to know
need to make meaning
· attraction to pain body and suffering
· wanting things to be different
· need to do & be something
· stories of suffering & problems
· hope & hopelessness
· projections on unconditioned awareness, non-duality
This isn't a battle against the mind.
Eventually the mind realizes that it just wants to be in adoration
of a truth and a wisdom that it cannot contain.
~Adyashanti
Individual Sessions: For the fullest experience it is important that each student arrange to have at least one individual session with me per month from September to May (before or after our last weekend), at the usual fee, if not already doing so. Payment for those sessions is separate from the training. In these sessions you can receive individual support for this initiation/deconstruction process, as well as strengthen your ability to access unconditioned awareness, fine tune your skills at seeing and working with your own apparent obstacles, and find ways of directly applying this work to your own specific life situations and the work that you do with others.
There will be assignments: practices to do for yourself and collaborations with other group members on some of the skill building practices and tools. Some readings will be suggested - see below to get started.
Logistics
Training Days: 12 days, Thursdays -Saturdays, 12-5pm, on the following dates:
September 11-13, November 13-15, March 19-21, May 14-16
Teleconference Dates:
Mondays, 6-7:30 pm, October 14, December 15, January 19, February 16, April 13. All teleconferences will be recorded and made available to participants.
Sundays will be open to other people, and each Sunday will be based on some theme that we have been working on in Temple during the previous three days. It is optional for Temple participants at a reduced cost of $75. For others, the Sunday event will be $150. It could be a time to deepen into what has unfolded during the prior three days, or it may be a day to be home and 'do nothing.'
Registration: Email me to let me know you want to be part of this. The first payment/deposit is due July 1.
If we have not ever worked together individually, I would like to talk with you prior to registration.
Tuition: If you register by July 1 with the deposit of $650, tuition is $2600 for the 12 days and the 5 teleconferences. Individual sessions are pay-as-you go.
Registration after July 1, the tuition is $2700, with the deposit and each subsequent payment being $675.
Payment Schedule: July 1 deposit $650 (75% non-refundable until August 1, 100% non- refundable after August 1); October 1, $650; January 1, $650; April 1, $650. If you are called to this and need a different payment plan, please talk with me.
Payment can be by check or credit card (MC, Visa): For credit cards, I will need your address, zip, and the 3-digit code on the back of the card. The safest way to give me the card info is to call me and leave the above info on my voice mail. Please speak slowly and clearly. 303-499-9166
Please mail checks to: Sheila Foster 4928 Carter Court Boulder, CO 80301
Suggested Reading & Listening:
All of these authors also have cds, many available at Sounds True and Amazon.com
Refund Policy: 75% refund on deposit until August 1. After September 1 there are no refunds. All students and I will sign a covenant regarding the dates of events, payments, etc. so we are all clear about what our agreements are.
Please feel free to share this email with friends and colleagues you think would be interested.
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