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Archive for the 'Gatherings/meetings/conferences' Category
Science and Nonduality Conference 2010
July 13, 2010Meetings in New York with Rupert Spira in July 2010
July 9, 2010
The Essential Nature of Peace, Happiness and Love
Meetings in New York with Rupert Spira in July 2010
Schedule and costs:
Thursday July 15 – 7.30 to 9.30 pm $15
Friday July 16 – 7.30 to 9.30 pm $15
Saturday/Sunday July 17/18 – 11 am-12.30 pm & 2-5.30 pm $150
Booking online for all events is advisable in advance although payment may be made on the door if space permits. Click here for online booking.
Location:
One Spirit Learning Alliance, 330 West 38th St, Suite 1500,
New York, NY 10018 (Between 8th and 9th on W 38th St )
Rupert Spira:
Peace, happiness and love are simply the names we give to the knowing of our own Being as it truly is.
Normally we imagine that our essential Being is a little, vulnerable, conscious entity located inside the body. As such, it is believed to have been born, to exist in time and space, to be subjected to and dependent upon the changes of the body and to be destined to disappear and die when the body dies.
However, if we look clearly and simply at this conscious Being that we intimately and directly know ourselves to be, we find that it has no inherent limitation or location. This experiential understanding may not be formulated in terms such as these but it is well known by all as the experience of peace, happiness and love.
The belief and subsequent feeling that our most intimate Being is limited and located within the body or mind veils the peace, happiness and love that are inherent within it and initiates a search in the realm of objects, activities, substances and relationships, in an attempt to recover the original ease of Being for which we long.
At some point and usually as a result of the inevitable failure of this search, we begin to question the very one who is unhappy and in search, and discover that it cannot be found as a separate, limited entity. Instead we find the intimacy of our own impersonal, unlocated Being and with this discovery the peace, happiness and love that are inherent in the simple knowing of Being, are restored.
And what is it that finds this? Being or Presence is itself all that is present in this recognition, to be able to ‘know’ itself. That is, it finds itself. Presence recognises itself.
In time and as a result of this recognition, the mind, the body and even the world become permeated with the peace, happiness and love that have been discovered in the core of our Being, and all our activities and relationships in the world are subsequently realigned with it. These activities and relationships do not cease as a result of this understanding. In fact, they flourish. However, they now become the means whereby we express, share and celebrate our true nature of peace, happiness and love, rather than a means of securing it.
In our meetings we simply take our stand knowingly as Presence itself and explore the beliefs and feelings that suggest that we are anything less than this absolute freedom and love itself.
Author of The Transparency of Things, Rupert leads meetings and retreats worldwide. Please see his website for further details: http://non-duality.rupertspira.com
What Is Nonduality? Responses from the Science and Nonduality Conference 2009. Part Three.
March 16, 2010
3-DVD set, 21 interviews, 600 minutes
The following are excerpts from responses to the question, What is nonduality? They are found on Volume 3 of the DVD set:
What Is Nonduality?
Peter Russell, Author, Philosopher:
Nonduality … means the universe is not dual, there is one common essence to the universe. … Science is nondual. It’s basic philosophy is that there is a unified field, a oneness which we are approaching. In spiritual circles … the nonduality is where the essence is awareness … consciousness … a different sort of nonduality … both of them see the fundamental nature of things, the oneness behind everything.
Thomas Ray, Professor of Zoology and Computer Science, University of Oklahoma:
Nonduality involves absence of self or sense of self and the feeling of oneness or unity with everything, with the universe. I’ve believed that nonduality is just the plain truth. The universe is one thing and we’re all part of the universe and that it isn’t nonduality that needs explanation, it’s duality that needs explanation. In fact, there is a mental organ that produces duality, just one. Without the activity of that mental organ, we would experience nonduality as the normal state.
Shaikh Kabir Helminski, Author, Sufi teacher:
The way we see it in the Sufi tradition is that — particularly for mystic consciousness — we understand that everything is rooted in the divine. Everything is unified in a field of oneness. Practically speaking what that means is that my consciousness, my love, my will, my generosity if I have any, my capacity for forgiveness, all of these have their attributes in the source of the divine. … This nonduality has a kind of quality to it … that is deeply personal as well as cosmic and impersonal because we realize the human being is the ripened fruit of that nonduality. The nonduality doesn’t cancel our human individuality. … We don’t make a big deal about nonduality because we know and trust that everything comes from God. The God that we’re talking about is subtle and integral to this whole creation. … Poetry suggests it. We communicate more through poetry than through abstract theory.
John Prendergast, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology, CIIS
Nonduality, for me, points to the basic absence of difference between self and other, between subject and object, between perceiver and perceived. When the Buddha said form is emptiness and emptiness is form, this is statement of nondual perception. When nothing looks out and sees that it’s everything, this is the experience of nonduality. The apparent division between self and other is seen through. … The reality of the seamless wholeness nature of reality reveals itself. … It’s a deep understanding and knowing that there is essentially no separation.
Olga Louchakova, Director, Neurophenomenology Research Center, ITP Prof.:
Nonduality is the certain perspective on self and consciousness which makes one to experience being and consciousness as undivided and nonseparate from every other consciousness which can be perceived initially as different. It’s the experience of consciousness as being undivided, experience of your own being as being connected with the rest of the universe, and being one with the rest of the universe even though you may not have the perception of the whole universe at the moment. Most importantly, the experience of nonduality is the experience of authenticity, of authentic, unlimited, nonconstricted being, experience of being yourself, experience of living life with no fear.
Tim Freke, Scholar, Author, Stand up Philosopher:
My experience is that fundamentally reality is characterized by polarity. For me it’s not nondual or dual. It’s both at the same time. … Polarity is opposites, but they can only exist together. … They’re two and one at the same time. The paradox of our predicament is that it’s two and one at the same time. I see no reason to prejudice one over the other. In fact, I see a necessity to be conscious of both. What I’ve looked for is an image that can capture that experience. For me the image is lucid living, which is a state comparable to lucid dreaming, only now. … On the one hand I am Tim … I’m actually so individual that I inhabit this unique point in space and time and no one else can or ever will inhabit it. Then there’s the discovery of this deeper nature, the subject itself, not the object, the “I”, that which is witnessing this, and if I go deeply into that now it is a vast spaciousness in which all this is arising just like in a dream. And those two exist together, so “here” it’s all one, “here” it’s all separate. Which is true? They’re both true.
What Is Nonduality? Responses from the Science and Nonduality Conference 2009
March 14, 2010
3-DVD set, 21 interviews, 600 minutes
The following are excerpts from responses to the question, What is nonduality? They are found on Volume 1 of the DVD set:
What Is Nonduality?
Peter Fenner:
I can’t give you a definition of it because there’s nothing to define. That’s the definition. It’s the one and only thing that can be defined, in a way, by its absence. The nondual awareness: we can’t say what it is, we can’t say where it is. In fact, it’s going beyond existence and non-existence. That’s what it means to be nondual. If we say it exists, that’s in contrast to it not existing, that’s not nondual. If we say it does not exist, that’s in contrast to it existing. So here you can already feel that we’re way beyond the mind. The mind does not know what we’re talking about. … I don’t know what I’m talking about at this point, and that is one of the ways we can point to nondual awareness.
Stephen Wolinksy:
There’s no such thing as nonduality … Nonduality is just a word, it’s a pointer. But once you have nonduality, you have duality. So the question is, is there such a thing as nonduality prior to the word nonduality?
Rupert Spira:
Nonduality as the phrase implies, literally means not two. There are not two things. It makes reference to the presumption deeply embedded in all cultures, that experience is divided into two things, one, a knower, and two, the known. … The term duality makes reference to these two apparent things, a knowing subject, which is considered to be this body, or in this body, and a known object — other, person, world — which is considered to be outside myself and separate from myself. The term nonduality indicates the true nature of our experience, which, if we make a deep exploration of our actual experience, we find there are not these two things. There is just one. … not two. … That leaves what there is truly, completely open, unnamed, untouched, but yet absolutely present in every experience.
Vijay Kapoor:
Nonduality would be not the absence of duality. It is something which transcends duality. … In our experience we have youth, we have old age, we having the waking state, dream state, we have lots of different dualities, male, female… What we find is the very basic consciousness has no duality. It is independent of time. … Consciousness has no dependence whatsoever. … The very content of duality does not have duality.
Rabbi Hoffman:
If you name it you’ve already changed it. Our basic idea about nonduality is … an infinite light with no end that has no differentiation in it, no light or dark, no positive or negative, … or any of these dualities. … We don’t supress any question. We pray our questions. Our doubts are very holy. Out of a good question comes a lot of thinking. … The question is, “What motivated the creation of the universe?” Because there was no room in this nonduality for the so-called narcissistic ego that could choose to rebel against the nonduality and assert its individuality selfishly against the nonduality. This is the puzzle of Torah. We start from there then we go on to celebrate the existence of both. What we’re interested in is the conversation between the duality, or the left brain thinking — the “I” that strategizes — and the right side, which feels part of a unity without any differentiation. How do you give way to both sides and create a conversation between the two? What we believe is that G-d is the name of the one that cannot be named. How do you create G-d as the oscillating tension between the two that exist in the conversation. My operant metaphor for that is somebody walking a tightrope.
3-DVD set, 21 interviews, 600 minutes
Science and Nonduality Anthology: Loibon Le Baaba
March 9, 2010
Science and Nonduality Anthology, Volume 1
Interviews of participants at the Science and Nonduality Conference 2009.
3-DVD set, 21 interviews, 600 minutes
These are crystal clear nuggets of essential nondual teachings relevant to each speaker’s background. The responses to the question, What is nonduality? are alone worth the price.
There are 21 interviews. Here are notes from the interview with Loibon Le Baaba
Loibon brings you literally to the bone of death via the cycle of life, oneness, ecology, inseparateness of I, me, you, yours. Headhunting and murder in tribal warfare are discussed intelligently and as part of the cycle of life. Are you or are you not expendable? Find out. Loibon is a powerful and challenging teacher.
Introduction: Loibon is a title meaning shaman, teacher, or medicine keeper. It refers to a fount of consciousness from the ancestor, or God. Loibon tries to help people see things from a primitive tribal way of thinking, which incorporates every possible way of thinking, yet transcends doctrine or dogma.
What is nonduality? There is no difference that’s real. There is a difference that’s relative. One is not to avoid being attached. The problem is being attached to an attachment.
What is the tribal perspective of nonduality? Everything is alive, intelligent, and sentient, for everything is part of what is. There is no time of creation or destruction; there are cycles, hence peace, no death, only change, no birth, only change.
I am the carrier of what has come before me; the ego is necessary but is not our being. There is no sense of equality or inequality in tribal culture. The sense of balance includes imbalance.
You are I are different as day and night but our life is one, our soul is one. Is there enlightenment? In the true sense of being in the light, all there is, is the light, which is not separate from darkness, so nothing to achieve or accomplish, we are that.
The only process is to be aware of that, to accept it, and to live it. Those that refuse to live or learn or be it, they’re expendable. “If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem,” said Malcolm X, who also said, “If you are to liberate you need to educate.”
What is the context of headhunting in tribal society? In tribal culture the way of thinking is very primal. The survival of the whole is most important and every individual is a potential sacrifice for the well being and health of the whole. In tribal conflicts they go into conflict without trying to avoid death, but for the purpose of killing. If they are killed the exhilaration of acceptance is greater than doing the killing because when they are killed they are sacrificing individuality to become one with the ancestor which sustains everything. It’s an honor to join the ancestors. The head is taken back to the village of the taker and is decorated and kept in the main living space of the family of the taker. The head elder may sleep on the skull as a pillow to absorb the life energy. The liver and heart is also eaten to carry on the strength of the great warrior who sacrifices his physical being. Loibon: “It’s an honor, whatever we do to each other. It’s a privilege. Totally different way of thinking.”
Science and Nonduality Anthology, Volume 1
Interviews of participants at the Science and Nonduality Conference 2009
Paradoxica: Nondual Psychology – Psychotherapy Conference in Alberta, Canada
February 22, 2010I have heard from Will Joel Friedman and Gary Nixon about what looks to be a great nonduality conference happening in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada, June 17-18, 2010.
The links will take you to a fine website with clear, detailed descriptions of the proposed talks as well as the contents of Volume #1 of Paradoxica: Journal of Nondual Psychology.
Here is their announcement of the Conference:
2010 Paradoxica Nondual Psychology Conference
EXCITING NEWS: Announcing the first nondual psychology & psychotherapy conference in Canada.
The Paradoxica Institute is hosting the Nondual Psychology (and Beyond) Conference, June 17-18, 2010 at the University of Lethbridge in beautiful Lethbridge Alberta nestled in the coulees, and close to the Waterton Mountains.
We want this to be a dynamic and transformational conference including powerful and insightful clinical workshops in addition to ground breaking presentations and energizing workshops.
Join in June’s festivities as we celebrate and embrace the flowering of Nothingness together!
Full Program & Registration: paradoxica.ca/index.php/conference
Paradoxica: Journal of Nondual Psychology: paradoxica.ca/index.php/issue-1
Coalescence Day, Halifax, Nova Scotia: Feb. 20, 1-8PM
February 17, 2010
If you cannot read the image above please click here to see a larger version.
Schedule of Activities
1:00 – 1:20 p.m. Welcoming
Silence with Maryse and James
1:20 – 1:30 p.m.
Yoga Fusion
Join the Yoga Fusion 5 as they explore the expressive potential and choreographic viability of yoga postures, Delve into the undeinably tangible human experience of Yoga Asana which intrinsically possess a sumptuous beauty anf fluidity that act as ideal form to express harmony, balance, spirituality and union. YYF5: Leslie Hunter, Maxine Munro, Jolene d’Entremont, Heather Reynolds, Siobhan Russell.
1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
Nisarga Yoga with James Traverse
Nisarga Yoga is Breathing Yoga. James will guide an 8 part yoga flow-er session structured to facilitate the primary aim of yoga which is to ‘Know Thyself’.
3:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Break
3:30 – 4:45 p.m.
YogaDance with Jody Myers
YogaDance can be loosely described as a liberating, joy filled happening – an experience that combines free dance, guided group dance, creative movement and yoga. The experience starts with centering, ends with Shavasana and presents lots of fun, freedom and connection in-between. “
5:00 – 6:30 p.m.
SuryaChandra, Manu, Krsna Devotees
Spiritual Music of SuryaChandra, featuring:
Daniel McNeil: sitar, guitar, tabla, darbouka, voice.
Ravi Persaud: bass, keyboards and electro-acoustic soundscapes, voice.
Genie Bright: voice, dance, percussion.
Julie Hopkins aka Corvid “Visualizing vibrational intuition”
Pierre Jutras: oud (Arabian Lute), guitar, Celtic bouzouki, voice.
Maryse Thuot: Paraguayan harp, voice, dance.
Chanting with Silver Frith
Meditation and Dance with Krsna Devotees
Mantra Yoga: Linking to the Absolute through sound. The Krsna devotees will lead a chant accompanied by simple dance to bring forth the devotion of the heart.
7:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Mindful Eating (please bring your own plate and cutlery and extras, if you wish)
Vegetarian Potluck. Please bring vegetarian food that is easily prepared and your own plate and cutlery [you can bring one or two extra plates if you wish]. Mindful eating is facilitated by both sound and silence… this is a time where we will observe personal silence while eating and welcome the spiritual vibrations of our Krsna friends who will offer chants while we eat. The close of this portion of our gathering is a 10 minute relaxation meditation guided by Maryse Thuot to acknowledge digestion and absorption.
Close – Community Coalescence
A time to simply be together and absorb the vibrations of being in the company of like-minded folks. Bring cushions, pillows, blankets and any fun things you feel will enhance the quality of being and sharing with others.
All are Welcome!
Saint Francis of Assisi Peace Prayer (variation)
Om
Make me a living channel of Peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, let me give pardon;
and where there’s doubt, let there be faith;
Grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Om
Satsang in Chicago
January 10, 2010There is no “how” to be free. If you ask how to be free, you are not listening.
–J. Krishnamurti
Satsang in Chicago
This site is devoted to events in Chicago related to nondual spirituality. There are a number of ongoing events, as well as special events with teachers visiting the area. To stay informed about upcoming events, please consider joining our mailing list.
–David McMullin
DVD: Science and Nonduality Anthology
January 8, 2010New DVD:
SCIENCE AND NONDUALITY ANTHOLOGY
Volume 1
What is nonduality? How does the “I” arise? Who is the doer? If everything is truly nothing, why do we perceive so much complexity? If everything is unfolding as it should, can we have free will? Is nondual awareness the end point for the evolution of consciousness?
Take twenty one of the finest thinkers in the fields of neuroscience, quantum physics, psychotherapy, art, Vedanta, Sufism, Judaism, and Buddhism and ask them some of the toughest questions known to humankind and this is what you get: A groundbreaking anthology of interviews that illuminate the deepest and most compelling mysteries of the human experience.
This DVD is the first of its kind to explore the convergence between science and nonduality. Rather than being heavily edited to direct the viewer according to a particular opinion, each of the interviews is a stand alone piece that allows us to fully experience the depth of the speaker. Each interview is a unique journey that ultimately brings us back to the source of all, beyond concepts and words. Enjoy!
View clips from the interviews:
3 DVDs, 21 interviews, 600 minutes, 0 All codes (playable worldwide), NTSC Video
The DVDs contain interviews with: Stuart Hameroff, Stephen Wolinksy, Peter Fenner Loibon Le Baaba, Rupert Spira, Jeremy Hayward, Rabbi Hoffman, Amit Goswami, Francis Lucille, Robert Dittler, Henry Stapp, Nahid Angha, Jeff Foster, Kebir Helminski, Peter Russell, John Prendergast, Bernie Baars, Olga Louchakova, Vijai Kapoor, Thomas Ray, Tim Freke
Here are a few clips:
New Class in New York on Mahayana Emptiness Teachings by Greg Goode and Tomas Sander
January 4, 2010Greg Goode and Tomas Sander will be teaching a class in New York, Saturday, January 16, 2010, entitled:
Western Emptiness Teachings and Joyful Freedom
The Mahayana emptiness teachings are considered key for attaining liberation from cyclic existence. Yet their difficulty has made them less intuitive than they might be. This class will offer insights from the Western tradition that can come to the assistance of the Western student. We will learn several Western emptiness meditations and experience how they can foster joy, lightness, compassion, and freedom.
This class was presented in condensed form at the 2009 Science and Nonduality Conference in San Rafael, California.
This class is open to Buddhists, non-Buddhists, and anyone interested in the variety of non-dual approaches.
Location:
Nalandabodhi New York
324 West 23rd Street #2A
New York, NY 10011
Phone: 212-399-2193
Schedule:
Saturday, January 16
9:30am – 5pm
(bring your lunch or lunch money to order in)
Registration fee: $25, may be paid at the door.
To enroll: Pls send e-mail to: tomas_sander@yahoo.com
For more information:
http://tinyurl.com/ya6vghp
Detailed Description: The Mahayana emptiness teachings are considered key for attaining liberation from cyclic existence. Yet these teachings have been notoriously hard to understand, and in practice not as deeply transformative as they could be.
This class will present insights and reasonings from the Western philosophical tradition that can make the emptiness teachings much more intuitive to the Western student. These Western resources will be put to use in fresh new analytic meditations, and applied with the soteriological know-how of the East. The goal is the traditional one, to dismantle the false sense that the self and other phenomena exist inherently, i.e., in a non-empty way. The meditations are inspired by the work of writers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, Thomas Kuhn, Jacques Derrida, and Kenneth Gergen.
We will also cover the beautiful side to the emptiness teachings, which is an aspect very different from the analytical rigor they are usually known for. We will discover how studying emptiness leads to a joyful sense of freedom. As you meditate, the heavy, essentialist, absolutizing feelings basic to suffering melt away. Life becomes light, free, other-directed, and compassionate. You gain joy because you have lost the heaviness of absolutist demands and expectations about things. This joy frees you up for self-creation, openness towards others – and if you are so motivated – the creation of a better world.
This one-day class will teach the skills needed for Western emptiness meditations, so that you will be able to practice effectively after the class.
