Winter Retreat

We are nearing the end of our annual ten-day winter retreat, and the end of a year which has brought so much change, new life, new skills, new perspectives, new friendships, new strategic partnerships, new mentors . . . Michele and I feel profound gratitude for all that has come to us this past year.

We have started integrating the new work into the traditional Buddhist teachings that we have offered here at Manzanita Village for fourteen years – though actually we were never that traditional. We have always stretched the point, always found new ways of integrating and reframing our material. The irrepressible creative spirit in both of us has always seemed reliably abundant.

The promise for the new year is, among many things, a new curriculum which will be transportable and adaptable to multiple situations, from traditional retreats, corporate environments, educational and organizational settings . . tools for activists, tools for entrepreneurs . . . It consists of elements drawn from Buddhist teaching, from traditional healing modalities, from neurolinguistics, from New thought, from multiple strands and trends in current organizational consulting . . . and more . . . above all from vitality and common sense emerging out of the creative wellspring that is rooted in our own inner congruence, joy, and gratitude after this year of learning and transformation.

It is 7:30 in the morning. Frost is on the ground. We still transmit, in a very traditional Buddhist ceremony, the Manzanita Village version of the traditional Buddhist precepts, on this morning on the last day of the year:

1 Aware of the violence in the world
and of the power of non-violent resistance
I stand in the presence of the ancestors, the earth, and future generations and vow to cultivate the compassion that seeks to protect each living being.

2 Aware of the poverty and greed in the world
and of the intrinsic abundance of the earth,
I stand in the presence of the ancestors, the earth, and future generations and vow to cultivate the simplicity, gratitude, and generosity that have no limits.

3 Aware of the abuse and lovelessness in the world
and of the healing that is made possible when we open to love
I stand in the presence of the ancestors, the earth, and future generations and vow to cultivate respect for the beauty and erotic power of our bodies.

4 Aware of the falsehood and deception in the world
and of the power of living and speaking the truth
I stand in the presence of the ancestors, the earth, and future generations and vow to cultivate the ability to listen; and clarity and integrity in all I communicate—by my words and actions.

5 Aware of the contamination and desecration of the world
and of my responsibility for life as it manifests through me
I stand in the presence of the ancestors, the earth, and future generations and vow to cultivate discernment and care in what I take into my body and mind.

An Amoral Universe.

The pervasive idea that good things happen (or should happen) to good people, and that bad things happen to bad people, and that "you get what you deserve" haunts our society and our minds like an old superstition.

I lived in the US for years before I really understood how pervasive this idea is. It is an idea that leads to the conclusion. “Unfortunate things happen to bad people probably because they deserve it.” “God is punishing them.” Basic Calvinism. It seems to me to be irrational and unkind and based in fear.

The idea was used to justify the worst aspects of Capitalism, the colonial adventures of the west during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, and the current elitist world-view that supports our ongoing petrochemical-nuclear military-industrial addiction.

Closer to home, the idea that good things happen to good people and bad things to bad people becomes a source of disempowerment and confusion. It derives from a singular and simplistic view that makes people feel guilty for the circumstances of their life. And it is an aberration of the law of attraction because it denies socio-political realities.

The fact is, the universe, or “God”, is amoral. We attribute human qualities of volition and morality to it (to him, or her) - perhaps because we are sentimental.

Humans are volitional and moral, and as humans CAN choose how we live. If we choose to live an ethical life it is not because we are afraid of divine retribution, but because it helps us become accountable. That in itself has value. In fact, it makes morality possibility - a morality not based on fear or compulsion, but based on conscious intention, a desire to be accountable, and an intrinsic desire (and capacity) to love.

Teleseminar Secrets

Alex Mandossian

On Thursday 27th December my newfound colleague and friend Clare Mann and I are going live to our full list of contacts for our third teleseminar together. Check it out at
www.teachteleseminars.com

The medium of Teleseminars is extraordinary. I am not sure that I knew exactly what a teleseminar was a month or two ago. Not a teleconference, not radio. Something else. "Like sitting around a fire together" as my friend Natasha said after our first teleconference the other day.

Clare and I have been taking Alex Mandossian's Teleseminar Secrets course. After the first two modules of the class, conducted as a teleseminar, I am utterly amazed at the content, depth, and sheer quantity of the material presented and the amazing brilliance of Alex.

I now understand marketing to be an art, full of nuance, a communication tool able to solve problems and really help people live better lives by seeing clearly, by cutting through presumptions, fear, and self-imposed limitations. Imagine! I used to avoid the word marketing like the plague!

Combine Alex's integrity with his generosity and with how he over-delivers incredible content, utterly beyond what he promises, and you are in for an altogether amazing experience. (Among other things he keeps teaching to his 800+ students on the course for 7 or 8 hours and a time, answering all the questions that we pose, and providing literally ALL the tools you need to put on and profit by your own teleseminars)

If you are interested in learning more about Alex Mandossian's Teleseminar Secrets check out www.TeleseminarSecrets.com/cmd.php?af=703274&p=1

I am also really jazzed about working with Clare. An Existential Psychologist from the UK, living in New Zealand, and working mostly in Australia. Her work fits beautifully with what we - Manzanita Vilage and Five Changes - already do in our own work in leading retreats and seminars and coaching individuals - looking beyond assumptions, cutting through rigid belief systems, questioning everything, being present. Check out our next teleseminar at www.teachteleseminars.com

More about Clare Mann's work can be found at www.lifemyths.com

Three Meditation Exercises

Three Meditation Exercises. On What It Is Possible to Be, Do, and Have

Reflect on the single greatest obstacle in your life right now; the one that prevents you from becoming the person you might be, the one that prevents you from attaining what it is you most want. It’s best if you write it down. Go ahead. Imagine who you could be, and what you could do, if that obstacle was completely removed from your life.

Now reflect on what you would do if you only had six months left to live. Write it down. What would your priorities be if you knew that your time was limited?

Now reflect on what you would do if you were given ten million dollars, a hundred million dollars. Write it down. Write it down in as much detail as you like.

Now. Know that whatever you can imagine, you can experience.
You can, you really can BE, DO, and HAVE whatever you want. That is the nature of things. . . . If you want it . . . . The choice IS yours.

The idea that wanting is a bad thing is a punishing, life-denying notion. It is an idea with more affinity to Puritan repression than to any authentic spiritual instinct. Craving and clinging may lead to frustration and unhappiness. But Wanting, the setting of clear intention, planning towards the fulfillment of that intention, can bring freedom, joy, and effective ongoing habits towards action.

The thought leads to the word, the word leads to the action, the action repeated leads to the habit, anchored in a new mindset. The world itself is transformed by your desire. And all the living beings there . . . if you want it . . .

Jizo by Michele Benzamin-Miki

Whatever it Takes

I have heard Asian teachers, over the years say, that western science is only now learning things that have been know in India (or China) for millennia—a mirroring of western cultural chauvinism perhaps.

Now neuroscience is the current buzz, and it becomes the latest way to validate old ways of being. Relaxing is good for you. Meditation is healthy. Mindfulness, focus, awareness—all good. Who knew?

Whatever it takes . . . . !

Skillful praxis, skillful means

As a meditation teacher I must believe that the practice of being still is inherently valuable; that ‘being’ informs ‘doing’, that action comes from mind, from our thoughts, intentions, dreams, and desires.

There is more. Coming to stillness is not just an absence of movement. It is a journey into another realm; it is committing to relating to experience itself in a new way. It is also seeing that what we call our self is an invention, a concoction, and ruse. . . .

As a coach, a facilitator of change, I must also believe that there is no single way, no single view of things, no construct, no metaphysical representation, no psychological lens with which to view the world, that is automatically sufficient, nor even that is inherently true.

Any ‘true’ system dissolves its own tenets, sees through itself, and would claim for itself only that it is a skillful praxis —a movement towards freedom. Freedom being something you can define only by saying what it is not. Because it is not conditional on anything. It has no intrinsic qualities.

Why is this so hard to get?