Theme for Oct. 6, 2022: Living and Loving Through Loss

This session is for sharing in community the stories of death and loss that have profoundly impacted our lives. Whether it is the death and loss of a loved one or the death and loss of a dream you have deeply held, join with your full heart and commitment to offering your deep presence within the Miracle of We. You are also welcome to listen in silence while still remaining connected with video on with the rest of the group.

Optional: Listen to this exchange between Anderson Cooper and Stephen Colbert on loss

Optional: Join up to 10 minutes early to chat, meditate or engage in some music together before the session starts.
The zoom link is activated 15 minutes prior to start time.

The Monthly Listening Lab:

One of the most profound gifts we could ever receive is to be truly heard, seen and known. In this session our primary wish would be to co-create connection and wisdom through deep listening, sincere curiosity, active exchange and compassionate presence. Some days at the Listening Lab, we will try to create a safe and brave space for one or more participants to be the recipient of active inquiry and engagement through the community of attendees. We will also explore games and exercises from the world of Circling, Authentic Relating, interpersonal meditation, and Philosophical Fellowship and Dialogos as taught by John Vervaeke. Ultimately, this session is about what Ken Wilber called the “Miracle of We.”

PAST SESSIONS:

Sept 22, 2022: Akhilandeshwari, The Goddess of Never Not Broken

Some of you who have attend our live events may remember we recently discussed David Deida’s teachings of the tender-yet-powerful Masculine and Feminine energies within us (regardless of gender identity). In another session we engaged in the ritual of the Truth Mandala as taught by Joanna Macy. In both of these sessions (and multiple others) we were able to go deeper into our lives and the world at large where there is pain in the immensity of fragmentation, violence, loss of connection, degradation and false identity. Through those places of hurt, we also found profound places of celebration and communion in our path of growth.

Speaking of the “path of growth,” it is also the modern and postmodern case that often there is an incessant drive toward improving, fixing, making whole and getting better and better and better! In today’s session, we get to know the South Asian Vedic deity from the Shakta Tantra lineage, Akhilandeshwari, the Goddess of Never Not Broken.

That’s right . . . a Goddess that is always broken! She is dark in complexion with a serene smile that radiates her quiet, feminine love and compassion. Yet, she is willing to throw her wrath at you until you are directly looking at your own brokenness and suffering . . . the First Noble Truth. She carries a trident to represent her divine union with Shiva, the masculine force and wisdom within her. She rides a crocodile who helps her with her prey, our ignorance and misguidedness. Don’t be afraid though. Ultimately, her teaching is to love our brokenness and see its true nature that is one among many paths to primordial, luminous liberation.

Do not tame yourself. Come with your brokenness and be ready to receive that of others. This session will be held within a sacred container of both safety and bravery.

Akhilandeshwari has her crocodile spin us in her ferocious jaws till we are so disoriented about who we are, and what we believe, we can only surrender. Our minds, which seek to control and hold on, are forced to let go of what we perceive as real when such energies come sweeping through our lives. For when we do not, we will most likely only create more suffering for our self and others.

Akhilandeshwari’s intense teachings are not to harm us, but to disorient our egos so that we can drop our attachments and come into our authentic nature. – Laura Amazzone

Learn more about Akhilandeshwari here.

When you are no longer afraid of your feelings, you can engage them with much greater intensity. The movie of life becomes more vivid and vibrant, precisely because you are no longer grasping or avoiding it, and thus no longer trying to dull or dilute it. You no longer turn the volume down. You might cry harder, laugh louder, jump higher. Choiceless awareness doesn’t mean you cease to feel; it means you feel fully, feel deeply, feel to infinity itself, and laugh and cry and love until it hurts. Life jumps right off the screen, and you are one with all of it, because you don’t recoil. – Ken Wilber

━━━━༺❀༻━━━━

Aug 11, 2022: The Truth Mandala of Dry Leaves, Sticks, Stones and an Empty Bowl
This month’s Listening Lab will explore our fear, sorrow, anger and loss (for the world, others or for oneself) with deep care, safety and bravery. Developed by Joanna Macy called the Truth Mandala, it is a practice that emerged in 1990 amid a large, tension-filled workshop near Frankfurt on the day of the reunification of East and West Germany. Since then, it has been used in many workshops around the world where a deep truth needed to be offered and received with no judgement.
Please bring a stone, a few dry/dead leaves, a stick and an empty bowl.

━━━━༺❀༻━━━━

May 12, 2022: “If I were you . . .”

━━━━༺❀༻━━━━

March 24, 2022: 3-2-1 of Philosophical Fellowship – This exercise is inspired by the work of Ken Wilber and John Vervaeke.

━━━━༺❀༻━━━━

February 24, 2022: A Twist on the Solomon Effect

━━━━༺❀༻━━━━

Meet Your Practice Leader

Nomali Perera, MA, PCC, has been in the field of leadership development coaching, facilitation and teaching since 2007. Nomali is a trained facilitator of the Immunity to Change™ process, a Master Coach at Life XT and a certified Integral Master Coach through Integral Coaching Canada. Nomali has also been a professional consultant in people development and training in Brazil and Mexico. She currently lives in Boulder, Colorado.