Everything beckons to us to perceive it,
murmurs at every turn ‘Remember me!’
A day we passed, too busy to receive it,
will yet unlock us all its treasury.

Who shall compute our harvest?  Who shall bar
us from the former years, the long departed?
What have we learnt from living since we started,
except to find in others what we are?

Except to re-enkindle commonplace?
O house, O sloping field, O setting sun!
Your features form into a face, you run,
you cling to us, returning our embrace!

One space spreads through all creatures equally-
Inner-world-space.  Birds quietly flying go
flying through us.  Oh, I that want to grow,
the tree I look outside at grows in me!

It stands in me, that house I look for still,
in me that shelter I have not possessed.
I, the now well-beloved: on my breast
this fair world’s image clings and weeps her fill.

~ Rilke

 Dreamworker~Billie Ortiz 2 [32:26m]: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download

Certified Dreamworker, Billie Ortiz joins us today to talk about the amazing art of Projective Dreamwork.

Billie shares how utilizing Projective Dreamwork can not only reveal the hidden message in the mystery of our dreams, but also assist and support us in our waking realities, in our relationships within all of life.

Show Highlights:

• Group Experience ~ Creating community, resonance through relationship
• Using the “If it were my dream…I…” format; taking on the dream as if it were our own
• Billie’s mentor and friend, Jeremy Taylor
• “The Dreamworker’s Toolkit” ~ 6 guidelines to discovering the messages in our dreams

This is Episode 2 of a 4 part series. Click here to listen to our first episode with Billie. In Episode 1 Billie shares her path experience of becoming a Dreamworker and supporting others in realizing the messages within their dreams.

Please visit Billie’s website: www.wakeuptoyourdreams.com to learn more about how Billie can assist you in discovering the magic within your dreams.

Zen Transmission and Transformation Workshop with Rinzai Master Jun Po Denis Kelly Roshi and Doshin Nelson

 

Friday Evening Introduction*

Saturday Workshop, The Full-Day Rinzai Blast*

*It is best to attend both sessions, but you may also attend either one.

Master Jun Po Denis Kelly brings forth the transformational power of Zen Buddhism into a whole person process designed for the integral practitioner.  His Five Training Elements lead to an expanded view and enhanced possibilities in the full range of human experience: emotional, relational, physical, cognitive and environmental.

In his Friday evening talk, Junpo will provide an overview of his innovative program, and on Saturday you will get the full Rinzai blast, complete with a powerful ego deconstruction and awareness intervention practice. 

The Saturday workshop also includes a liberating ten-koan dialectical process and a unique emotional koan practice that evokes radical emptiness and infinite love.  Master Jun Po will also guide us through body practices, philosophical reorientation, a deeper experience of our True Nature -- and a healthy dose of sacred laughter!  Jun Po Roshi will be accompanied by his student and Zen priest Doshin Nelson.

About Jun Po Roshi

Jun Po Denis Kelly is a fierce and powerful teacher who transmits radical emptiness and radiates infinite love.  He began his Buddhist practice at Zen Center San Francisco in the early nineteen seventies, eventually finding his way to New York and Eido Shimano Roshi. In 1978 he began his monastic training. He eventually became head monk and Vice Abbot from 1987 through 1993 as well as resident yoga teacher at Dai Bosatsu Zendo Kongo Ji monastery in the Catskill Mountains in New York. Junpo received his Zen Masters recognition in 1992.

He left the monastery in 1993 to bring his Zen lineage into American culture without the Japanese cultural bindings. Junpo established the Hollow Bones seven day Zen retreats within the Mankind Project in 1999. He is currently Abbot of the lay Buddhist Hollow Bones Order (www.hollowbones.org). His Zen lineage is in the Rinzai tradition, through his Abbot Eido Shimano Roshi of the The Zen Studies Society.

About Doshin

Doshin MJ Nelson an integral poet and Zen priest of no rank is founder of Integral Zen, Inc. a Colorado branch of the Hollow Bones Zen Order and co-founder of the Poetry of Dying Project, which provides workshops for those willing to look into the mirror of death and improve the quality of their own lives.

For more information about Hollow Bones, visit www.hollowbones.org
 

I was tagged by Shea Bird and I'm way overdue posting these answers to the Proust Questionnaire.  Here they are everybody.  :)

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

The flow of daily life lived through the awareness that we are eternity.

What is your greatest fear?

This is a tough one to answer for me as I tend to not think that way.  I have small daily fears but my greatest… I will have to ponder this.

Which historical figure do you most identify with?

Sri Aurobindo and The Mother… also Ghandi


Which living person do you most admire?

My wife.  She is an amazing being and we’ve grown so much over the last 21 years.


What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?

I sometimes get in the way of believing in my visions…

What is the trait you most deplore in others?

Lack of belief in the ability to manifest dreams… I won’t say that I deplore this but it makes me sad sometimes.

What is your greatest extravagance?

A bit more commercialism than I really need.  I’ve seen many people that get by with so little and are very happy.   A part of me wants to live without things but the rest of me isn’t ready for that yet.

What is your favorite journey?

The constantly evolving journey to myself unfolding

What do you consider the most overrated virtue?

Answering this is such a matter of interpretation.  Right now I can’t pick one.

On what occasion do you lie?

If I see judgment in a situation where the truth can not be heard.

Which living person do you most despise?

No one specifically.  I have challenges with some of our world leaders that force their beliefs on each other.

Which words or phrases do you most overuse?

Hmm,  I’m sure there are some… at this moment I don’t know

What is your greatest regret?

Not always going for my biggest dreams.  This is not a big regret because I have manifested so many of my big dreams.  I’m very blessed.

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

My  wife and the infinite spirit that moves me

Which talent would you most like to have?

Being an empowering speaker and a better writer... both can be developed if I so choose.

What is your current state of mind?

Patience, letting things come to me as I focus on my dreams and support my alignment with ever evolving harmony.

If you could change one thing about your family, what would it be?

Stronger relationships with extended family.  It would be nice if we understood each other more.

What do you consider your greatest achievement?

Being Alive

If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be?

A simple teacher sharing the ways to the love of beauty in All that is and ever will be

If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be?

A teacher or a writer sharing peace and simpilicity

What is your most treasured possession?

The awareness and the Oneness of all things.  It is my center.  My home.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Interesting question that I don’t have an interesting answer for.  I will have to feel into this one...

Where would you like to live?

In the mountains, in nature near lots of water.  Probably somewhere tropical

What is your favorite occupation?

Mine is anything where I’m following my bliss and doing what I love.  This love has changed a bit over the years.  I like to help people and be in service especially if it relates to understanding the inner being.

What is your most marked characteristic?

Flexibility

What is the quality you most like in a man?

Humility

What is the quality you most like in a woman?

Honesty and directness

What do you most value in your friends?

That they are real, open and understanding

Who are your favorite writers?


Eckhart Tolle,  Paulo Coehlo, Rilke, Dan Millman, J.R. Tolken, Julia Cameron and many others

Who are your heroes in real life?

My wife, my son, my mother… and a few others I’ve met that live their lives with creativity and passion in such authentic ways

What are your favorite names?

I like unique names.  Hawaiian names flow so beautifully I enjoy those as well

What is it that you most dislike?

The lack of peace within humanity

How would you like to die?

Fulfilled

What is your motto?

1. Inner peace reflects outer peace
2. When doing becomes infused with the timeless quality of being that is success.

I'm tagging:

Michele

Kaedrich

Kristy

Katrina

Today What's Out there is a lot of new snow covering everything here on the Front Range of Colorado.  It's nice to see it but tomorrow I hope its not out there any more. 

When we visited India and Auroville in 2006 I was fortunate to see this eagle soaring over the Bay of Bengal in Pondicherry India.

White Spires
circle round
reflections whorl

We are hosting a Conversation Cafe Event in Boulder for Converation week.

Conversation Café and
Gaia Gathering Boulder
Join Us in a Global Conversation celebrating Conversation Week 2008.  Get together and meet each other in person, share your passions and connect with your community.

 
When:
Wednesday, March 26th
7:00 – 8:45 pm

Where:
Boulder Public Library
George Reynolds Branch
3595 Table Mesa Dr.

Our Question:
How do we shift from "Me" to "We" on both the local and global levels? (From “me” to “we”)
 
Where do you see a need to shift from “me” to “we”? What can a “we” approach give us that a “me” approach doesn't, and vice versa? What needs to change to have people used to “me” engaged in “we” solutions? In your family and community, where have you seen collaboration work wonders when competition and confrontation failed? How can 6.6 billion people work together?

We are hold space for fun, casual conversations and co-creating an opportunity for conscious networking.  If you are interested in attending please send Mark (me) or Kelly an email here at Gaia or directly at mark[at]gaia.com

What is Conversation Week about?
Promoting community, democracy and wisdom world-wide through generating millions of open, respectful public conversations.

Conversation Cafés are lively hosted conversations among small groups of people with diverse views but a shared passion for engaging with others. Held in public spaces like cafés, restaurants and bookstores.

Conversation Cafés provide an open forum to talk about important topics over a cup of coffee or tea. People of every philosophical, political and personality stripe circle up around tables and steaming beverages to earnestly shift from small talk to BIG talk. Everyone is welcome. There's nothing to join. Anyone can come, just once or many times. There are no books to read, no assignments, and no dues (except a bite to eat at the café).

Conversation Cafés can not only provide closer communities, they can also be a conduit to providing additional local business exposure. Read more...

At Conversation Cafés, we will learn together how to create a culture of conversation-which is a culture of intelligence, peace, and political awareness. We are the media. We are the talk shows. We are America, waking up and tuning in.

more at the Conversation Cafe Website

If you're interested in hosting your own Conversation Cafe check out our Gaia Team Blog and our Gaia Gathering pod here at Gaia.

We would love to see you in person.  Please send Mark (me) or Kelly an email here at Gaia or directly at mark@gaia.com and let us know you will be attending.

We look forward to meeting more of our Gaia friends around Boulder!

By following our bliss and being the model for what is possible we encourage our children to understand who they are.  We can allow them the time for connection and discovering their inner selves.   We can encourage our children to reach for their dreams, and share with them that anything is possible if they believe it.

Every forest branch moves differently in the breeze, but as they sway they connect at the roots.

- Rumi

Conversation Cafe in Boulder was a great success.  Our question, How do we shift from "Me" to "We" on both local and global levels brought out 12 wonderful me-s for some we-ful conversation at the local library.

Deborah, Michael, Summer,  Nan,  Jessica,  Robin,  Zack,  Marta, Kelly,  Matthew, Siona and myself  engaged in some deep conversation about how we can be more aware of what "we" is and what that means for each "me".   What I really loved is that we came together,   there was a collective feeling of connection and inclusion.  Before we finished our discussion Jessica shared that she felt really welcomed and included.  I believe everyone else did too. 

We brought the question of Me to We to life by creating a We space at our Gaia Gathering.

If anyone would like to answer this question yourself Gaia's QAR from Thursday is here on line.

If you would like to answer here in the comments here is the question and sub questions that we discussed.

The primary question.

- How do we shift from "Me" to "We" on both the local and global levels?

Supporting questions.

- Where do you see a need to shift from "me" to "we"?

- What can a "we" approach give us that a "me" approach doesn't, and vice versa?

- What needs to change to have people used to "me" engaged in "we" solutions?

- In your family and community, where have you seen collaboration work wonders when competition and confrontation failed?

- How can 6.6 billion people work together?

and the bonus ?

- What is the most important question in the world today - to you?

So what do you think?  Please share your answers or leave a comment with a link back to where ever you shared your answers.

For a more We - Ful world!

To know the Self, is the journey of a life time.

~ from the Universe

Coming together in community and conversation is what we are about here.  If you live in the Boulder / Front Range Colorado area there is a great event coming soon.

Conversations with Deb and Deb
... holding space for women coming together in Enlightened Conversation.

Are you craving conscious conversation about what's going on for you in your world?  Are you interested in feeling the support, love and wisdom of other women journeying along the path?

Please joing Deborah Fastow and Debra Gehrke of a circle of soul sisters engaged in deeply connected conversation.

Mon., April 14th, 2008 ~ 6 - 8 pm ~ 72 Arikara Rd.  Lyons, Colorado

A $5 Donation will be collected to benefit non - profits committed to positive change.

Please RSVP by April 9th to Debra