Advanced Manifestation Retreat this Friday-Sunday

Our annual Advanced Manifestation Gathering is coming up quickly — November 20-22nd at Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York. In response to prevailing sentiment last year, we are extending the workshop an extra day; so it will be Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday.

For the past number of years we have met every autumn at this magical place to become more clear, empowered, and focused, as well as to connect with others who have a resonant sense of purpose. Our goal is to get a clear vision of the coming year, develop a workable action plan with the aid of feedback from others, and to consciously connect with the deep archetypal currents of energy that are underpinning our individual lives.

I will be introducing a body/mind interactive sequence in which traditional Yoga and Qi Gong exercises can be consciously integrated into our “Life Alignment Project,” and will develop new and effective community practices for the coming year. The extra night will allow for more in depth dreaming, and dream vision work, opening us to further hear the voices of our unconscious and of our inner guidance.

The cost of the workshop is $295, the extra day included – there are no fees for this day except for the rental of space and, meals, and bedrooms at Ananda. As in there past, there are discounts for couples; and if there is demand for it, we will organize child care at Ananda. To insure your inclusion in the annual retreat, send a $50 deposit and an email saying “Yes Ananda” to info@rickjarow.com. Availability is on a first come, first served basis, and spaces are limited.

There are incredibly strong forces around us at this moment, coming from all conceivable directions. If there was ever a time to take a stand for our truth, our humanity, and our soul’s purpose – it is now. Working in community greatly amplifies our power and allows us to overcome the forces of inertia and distraction which try to rule our daily lives. Let us be together again in ever increasing intention and abundance, and let us brainstorm to create forms of working together that will support us through the times to come.

Yours in Peace,

Rick

Q:  What is covered at this retreat?

I could give you a rundown (focus, intention, accomplishment, community building, envisioning, empowerment, etc.), but none of this is conveys what really goes on at the Ananda retreat. In fact, I am tempted to restate the question as “What is uncovered,” for the “real work” here is to trust the process of collective awareness to manifest our true agendas.It is the collective energy of the group that constellates the workshop. Tuning in to the “spirit of the collective” allows the issues that are truly important to surface. By meditating, focusing, inquiring, and paying attention together, an alchemical process is created that allows each of us to crystallize what we have to do and how we can go about doing it at this moment in our lives. The vision is to lay foundations for an emerging culture; that means each of us working to live the most clear, authentic, and compassionate lives that we can.

 

RJ

Guide to Life Purpose

Friends~

Rick’s publisher, Sounds True, has launched a new series of online interactive guides with various life themes, including Life Purpose, which features Rick’s Anticareer and Abundance material quite prominently.

To explore this promising new resource, browse to: http://www.soundstrue.com/guide/lifepurpose/

~W

 

 

An Hour with Rick & Tami

Sounds True’s founder and guiding light, Tami Simon, interviews Rick Jarow on her latest podcast. Hear this conversation between colleagues whose journey has been intertwined for years via their respective work they love:

http://www.soundstrue.com/podcast/?p=1234

Transcript of this interview also available.

Workshops Oct 3,4 at Open Center, NYC

Rick will be leading his two most popular workshops at the NY Open Center (in their new space) the weekend of Oct 2-4.

For info please see their website:

http://www.opencenter.org/creating-the-work-you-love/

and

http://www.opencenter.org/the-practice-of-abundance/

Your Life, Your Choices

Creating the Work You Love: Manifesting in Times of Meltdown
Omega Institute June 26-28

“When the world is in the way, the sage succeeds;
when the world is not in the way, the sage survives.”

Attributed to the Chinese Daoist sage Zhuangzi (Chuang-tzu) this about sums up our situation. The media frenzy around “swine-flu” like the frenzy around the economy baldly appeals to peoples’ fear-base, smallness, and greed. As Dr. Mercola points out, three thousand people a day die from malaria. But because there is no pharmaceutical company manufacturing a malaria vaccine, there is no media attention. People are paying other people to create and sell panic and because the vast panoramic beauty of everyday life has become all but invisible to so many. This is the real tragedy and this is the real illness!

This is your life. It is precious and sacred. And you have a choice to either really learn about your body and how to work with and heal it, or to give your power away to corporate medicine. Likewise you can put your energy into creating truly sustainable work – not an ego-based dream fantasy of “me,” but an open exchange with the forces of life that allows you be where you are meant to be, or you can continue to be a wage slave.

This is not about fruitless corporate bashing or the like. You can complain about the economy, the health care system, and the rest as loud and as long as you want to, but these are ultimately all reflections of our selves, of consensus mass-consciousness. To step off the tread mill, to free your mind from limited fear-based thinking and reactive action, to be courageously who you are, and to make whatever concrete contribution you can to your community, this is what “manifestation and life-alignment” work is all about. To Create the Work You Love is to relate to the world, and to the world of work in particular, with genuine intelligence and wisdom. It is not about ego-based self-indulgence, but is rather about the realty of abundance that appears as we step out of our petty visions of separation and risk becoming who and what we are meant to be. Then in an instant, we realize that Life supports us dramatically, that Life has always supported us, and that our challenges, losses, and frustrations are the gifts that urge us to release our resentments, our habitual darkness, our blaming, and our lethargy.

Let the dead bury the dead; go out and demonstrate the reality of Spirit with everything you do. This power is real, and its alignment can be cultivated. No matter what way the world is in, you are faced with the task of living a life that you can be proud of.  There is no time but now. Leap out of your insulated circle and break on through. You will be glad you did. 

Manifestation in the Time of Meltdown

Following is Rick’s contribution to the CIIS April newsletter. He will be leading two workshops at CIIS (California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco) the weekend of April 3-5, plus a public lecture Friday evening.  Details are available here.

With regard to our collective economic situation, the changes that have happened have had to happen, and there is no returning to business as usual. At best, bailing out a sinking ship is a stop gap measure. Even if it “works” we may just be able to get the vessel to a place where it can receive actual help. Let us be clear, however, that the Titanic of the inflated, consumerist, debt-driven, easy-money economy will remain at the bottom of the ocean. For those whose emotions and desires are controlled by the market economy and its endless flow of products and experiences, this situation is obviously frightening, but there is another side that is much more than just a silver lining.

Philosophies of “unlimited abundance” which have appeared in our midst, tend to deny these dark and difficult sides of our lives. As a result, in times of illness, loss, or economic challenge, many of us initially wonder, “What did I do wrong, where was I not aligned?” The answer is that you have done nothing wrong, that such challenges are a necessary and essential part of soulfulness. The premier American psychologist, William James, spoke of the “sick soul” and the “healthy soul” as two basic human types. The healthy soul (Walt Whitman was James’ example) need not dwell in the experience of the abyss, whereas the sick soul (Tolstoy, for James) evolves toward the light through passages into darkness. James did not make value judgments about these types, but understood that for many, times of loss and disorientation can indeed be most valuable times.

I share from first hand experience the remarkable gifts that can come through illness and loss: insight, knowledge, true compassion, and the literal metamorphosis of consciousness from fixated to free. These things are hard to speak or write of, which is why I prefer to share the passage through the shadows in a meditative experience; however, one clear expression of this was set forth by C.G. Jung. When asked about his experience of “God” shortly before his death, Jung replied that for him, God appeared as everything and everyone that came across his path unexpectedly, unsolicited, and unwanted. Likewise, at the end of his essay, “Self Reliance,” Emerson challenges his readers by asking if they think that a new job, a new love, new found health or wealth will actually make their life any better. Nothing will do it, says Emerson, but “the triumph of principle.” 

Just what is this “principle” that allows one to deeply receive whatever life offers and transform it into positivity, knowledge, freedom, and peace? It is neither a mystery nor a “secret,” yet we tend to forget it in the clamor and din of events and illusions fostered by contemporary culture. In terms of Manifestation Work, this is a genuine opportunity–a chance to develop the strength of our own resourcefulness along with the living knowledge that our well-being does not depend upon banks or bail outs. For example, rather than getting caught up in media based hysteria, we can instead consciously work with the situation to learn to share and cycle resources, to find out what we are made of, and to deepen our existential commitment: our sense of why we have actually come here at this time. One way to do this is to process our Life’s Work by considering the following four key points of manifestation.

Well Being can be understood in a wider context as something that is for everything and everyone, not just for the separate individual, which pits “I” against others. This  does not mean we neglect our own personal well being, rather we open to see and feel how each is a part of all. If my own well-being is not contributing toward the greater well being, what good is it? The serious mistake of the “Secret,” and like minded programs, is to envision well-being uniquely in terms of individual aggrandizement, feeding on scarcity and egotism as opposed to opening to WHAT IS, which is always well, available, and which can be shared.

Community seems to be what we want and simultaneously fear. We have a long history of being put down by others, limited, oppressed, and abused — like the current back door attempt to dissolve gay marriages — and yet, the work of manifestation is magnificently amplified in community. A group of proactive people who are willing to set both viable and visionary goals and be accountable to them exponentially increases each person’s power to envision and create. Many of us have been doing this work for years, now is the time to make our mark and to demonstrate how we can mutually support each others’ authenticity and direction.

Sustainability can become a code word for new forms of self imposed poverty, which is why I prefer Bernard Lietaer’s term “Sustainable Abundance.” Indeed, abundance and sustainability go hand in hand as organically vibrant and self renewing technologies and organizational systems that foster creativity as well as clarity and discipline. In spite of meltdowns on the macro level, or more pointedly, as a response to them, we are asked to manage our own economy with intelligence, awareness, and compassion. Thoreau devotes a major chapter in Walden to “economy.” What that means in terms of inner work, as I detail in The Alchemy of Abundance, is expanding our sense of “energy work” to include awareness and management of the inflow and outflow of time, money, and resources in our lives. This can be done. The late Joe Dominguez (Your Money or Your Life) had people carrying around little notebooks to note down every single expenditure of the day (Gandhi, likewise, kept scrupulous accounts). The idea here is not to obsess over money, but to take on first chakra accountability, to be aware of what is actually happening on this level. In the Manifestation Work, we not only track expenses and income, we also track our energetic experience of giving and receiving. This allows us to raise our vibratory rate out of ignorance and panic and to begin to literally craft the life we are called to live.

Creativity need not be about making a “mud pie” that I can market or show to you to prove my self worth. It is the voyage to the deepest part of oneself to bring back what is most valuable, what reminds each of us of why we are here and that inspires us to remember, to put wholeness back together. Creativity and soul work both need time above all else, and creating more free time, more aware time, can be done. A first step, in this direction, is to monitor and reduce both the external use and internal capitulation of the words “should,” “ought,” and “have to.” This may sound pedestrian until you actually experience how these thought forms seep into your most subtle modes of thinking and feeling.

Now these are all just words, and most of us have had enough of them. Now is a time for action: I cannot reiterate forcefully enough that this so called “crisis” is the opportunity that we have been waiting for. It is an opportunity to share, to grow, and to carve out an honest, joyous, and sane way of living. It is an opportunity to live with intention and vision instead of apathy and apprehension. And above all, it is an opportunity to leap out of our pettiness and self absorption, to meet the expanse and embrace the alchemical marriage between “what is” and “what can be.”

Where Do I Belong?

Following is the 4th and final installment of Rick’s series, The Gate of Power and the Flame of Life.  An unmistakable energy of inclusion, cohesion, and re-creation has been unleashed–not only in the U.S., but globally–with yesterday’s presidential inauguration.  The loom is prepped for a new tapestry of participation to emerge, into which we may weave our vibrant threads of individual expression and contribution.  May you feel encouraged to pick up your thread and work (or at least playfully experiment) with it!  Life is less about ‘finding’ something than it is about creating it.  This post seems tailored to the moment.
Fertile blessings to all ~ Whitehawk 

The flame of ignition is brilliant, sometimes spectacular in its bursting aliveness, but it needs much support, not only to generate the threshold energy to start, but also to maintain itself. A good and constant supply of fuel is needed, as well as shelter from wind, rain, and other factors that may block the blissful burning. Many of these factors can translate into the power of belonging: the whole complex of interrelatedness that we bring to what we do. Belonging is not “do I belong to this club” but a deep sense of participation that is the very root of power, strength, and abundance.

In pre-industrial cultures, where a deep sense of tribal identification was the norm, the worst thing that could happen to someone would be to be shunned. When a person or people were cast out of their communities, they would not be able to physically survive. Likewise, the discussions in psychology about the differences between monkeys brought up with and without touching, affection, and the like attest to this same issue. And while belonging may indeed begin with good mothering, it continues on into the fabric of our days. To doubt whether one belongs (as James Joyce does in Finnigans Wake when he puns on his homeland Dublin as “Doyoubelong?”) is to tear the fabric of existence; and yet this is something that has happened to many of us. Perhaps it may have to happen. The tear, the rip, the fall from childhood grace, and the need to recreate a sense of belonging is one of the challenges of our post historical era, in which most people do not have table altars filled with pictures and mementoes of the last five to seven generations of ancestors. 

Of course, there are many realms of belonging. One could say, for example, that you do not belong to this society if you do not have capital, a bank account, a retirement plan, insurance, and a mortgage, and people without these things might appear to be as bereft as people who were shunned in other cultures. The popularity of television shows like “Cheers” and “Seinfeld” that model cute dysfunctional communities that somehow work, reflect the desire for a place of belonging.

Perhaps we are being asked to revision and rediscover belonging in new ways. A sense of commitment to a place, or a neighborhood is one such way, a sense of belonging to an institution was once a way in which work gave one a sense of belonging, but with athletes sold to the highest bidder and companies regularly swallowing one another, it is increasingly difficult to have a sense of loyalty to an institution. The vocational sense of belonging is a bit different; it is an inner prompting if not certitude that I am here to do something, and that path is a way of belonging in the world. And such a path flowers when connecting with a community that can mirror one’s sense of calling. 

There are those who experience a pervasive feeling of not belonging, not to a church, a family, a nation, or what have you. This level of alienation often produces marginal drifters, loaners, and the like, but it can also lead to the discovery of a deeper level of belonging, belonging to life itself: to be able to thrive in nature, to read the signs of the wind as well as one’s dreams, is to participate in a most profound way. I once attended a Native American sweat lodge in a state park. On the second day of the ceremony, a very black man appeared out of the forest, out of nowhere. I do not think he knew the sweat lodge people personally, but he had such a sense of belonging that everyone acted as if they knew him well. 

What is often dubbed “the sense of meaning” is actually a sense of belonging. It has just become deracinated from a community and its participation mystique, like the modernist detour to find meaning in literature and art without religious commitment and the post modern dissolution of meaning altogether; are we to all just go back to church? This takes us back to the “pursuit of happiness” and to the radical idea that this can occur, in its most authentic sense, through the free conscience of each and every individual.  A culture that offers you the possibility to be anything you can dream of and then qualifies those dreams according to their marketability will not sustain the flame of desire.

Belonging deeply to life, on the other hand, sidesteps the ego-inflation of needing a “life mission” and offers “the rapture of being alive,” as Joseph Campbell put it. Great ambitions, as well as great salaries, may be but literal “compensations” for the loss of this deepest sense of belonging in which nature, society, and soul weave themselves together in an offering of fullness. 

Entering this first gate is entering a precinct of power. A power emerging from the full support of nothing, from vast emptiness becoming vast openness, the world as a field of possibility, the constant, ongoing encounter with the regenerate possibility, with the greatness of the imagination. Abundance then is the natural evolution from the material of your own life as in Rilke’s letter to a young poet

“Sir, I can’t give you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to the question of whether you must create. Accept that answer, just as it is given to you without trying to interpret it.”

This rooting of the flame, this abundance of acceptance, is the direct opposite of speedy acquisitiveness. What you can do better than anyone else is to be you; but since you don’t know yourself, the only alternative is to constantly surprise yourself. Here, the first gate, the struggle of the individual is to emerge out of the matrix of the collective, and the willingness of the individual to continually morph and integrate into new form.

Manifestation Retreat Nov. 22-23 Update

Dear Friends and Colleagues,  

The November 22nd & 23rd date for the annual Advanced Manifestation retreat is approaching. At this point we are a bit over half full, and I am now opening the weekend up to a wider community (no prerequisite to participate). If you have been considering registering, please do so as soon as possible. Our work is important, more so than ever. Why is it important? Because our lives are short, and all we have to give is our best. When we move into the lineage of the noble warrior and determine to give our all to our authentic path, no circumstance; I repeat, no circumstance, is insurmountable. And as we enter more deeply into the lineage of receptive wisdom, every single circumstance that enters into our life becomes a true teaching that moves us into deeper alignment, revealing its crystalline wisdom.

Annual Advanced Manifestation Retreat Nov 22-23

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

abundance

In these times it is not difficult to get caught in the winds of rhetoric and negative pronouncements. I have been getting emails every day heralding the end of the U.S. economy, the collapse of the world financial system, and the rest of it. And while things may look grim on paper, I am reminded of the fact that many people did very well during the “Great Depression.” How?  They were people whose intentions were rooted, whose energies were focused, who did not panic, and who realized their potential to create the reality that was calling to them. They were people who understood, on some level, that multiple possibilities and potentials are present in every moment, and that our destinies are unique and do not have to be fixed by mass consciousness.

The Advanced Manifestation Group will have its annual retreat at Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York on the weekend of November 22-23. Anyone who has participated in past workshops or retreats is invited and can register for the “ongoing participants” fee of $195 (as opposed to $245). This is all inclusive (workshop, meals, and dorm-style accommodation; semiprivate rooms are available for an additional $20) and needs to be received by Nov 9. A nonrefundable deposit of $50 will hold your space, balance to be paid upon arrival to the workshop. Registration is confirmed only upon receipt of deposit and completed registration form (attached). Please be aware that enrollment this year is limited to 30 participants. Discounts are available for couples and sliding scale may be accommodated as needed.

We meet on Saturday morning, start at 10:00am, and work through Sunday 3:30pm. Our work will include incubation of intentions, specifics of “lightning visualizations,” and a lot of processing around letting go. More importantly, our combined and ongoing energies amplify the potentials of manifestation in all realms and in ways that we have not yet imagined. Rather than acquiesce to being victims to the runaway train of our culture, we can learn to step off of the train and walk in beauty. I for one am determined to do this and I hold the vision that this is indeed possible for us. We have come here to live through these times and to blaze trails of clarity, vision, and love. And thus, we reaffirm our visions and engage each other in creation of truly good lives.

At the retreat we will discuss a format for ongoing manifestation work during the year. My intention is to keep this small enough so everyone can receive “a hearing” around their work and visions of manifestation.

To register, please contact Sheri at: manifestation44@cs.com to receive a registration form.

Yours in Peace,

Rick

Coming Out of the Cocoon

To be consciously in your “right place at the right time” requires a genuine release of egoic desire: the placing of one’s imagined self at the center of life, while trying to manipulate thought, other beings, and events to manifest some sort of pre-conceived outcome.

The idea of “creating one’s reality” is only creative when one’s process is awakened and in touch with Shakti, the divine energy of creativity and manifestation. In truth, we never really know if we will wake up the next morning; every day and every way is an act of trust and abandon.  Awakening to Shakti need by no means eradicate the ego, for its sense of separation and desire for experience is also a part of her play and has its own gifts to offer.

For too long, however, we have been trained to use ideas about our life to protect us from life itself: our projections, imaginings, and thought constructs build a cocoon that enfolds us in incompleteness. To open to the raw energy of presence and to the intelligent and beauteous unfolding in every moment is to leave the cocoon, and to feel so alive and vital, so connected with each and all, that there is no need for living in contraction, doubt, and hesitation.  Unfolding one’s wings and opening to “the Way” does not preclude pain or suffering, for these are purifying fires that burn away our misalignments and clear us deeply.  If the starting point is faith, then we can relax and know that we are always in the hands of a living and loving universe.

Opening freely to the fullness of presence, rather than dissolving the structures that support us (families, jobs, houses, communities), gives these structures the space to renew themselves–to morph in accordance with what it best for ALL.

Since we do not know what is best for us (not to mention for anyone else) we have a choice. We can continue with one effort after another to conjure up scenarios that ought to make us happy, or we can be happy just to be here, and let that joy reveal the path that we take. Such joy is real, and its path is miraculous, a way of grace and authenticity that ever affirms that we are here to share in the sweetness of the Creative Flow of Reality.

Announcing our New Website:  http://rickjarow.com – a comprehensive information station for the work of life alignment and manifestation, a place to “check in” (instead of checking out), and a place of remembrance. Also the Alchemy of Abundance BLOG (http://alchemyofabundance.wordpress.com), a docking station for shared inspiration, information, and renewal.

Announcing this year’s Advanced Manifestation Gathering at Ananda Ashram in Monroe, New York on November 22, 23rd. In the midst of political and financial chaos  – a calm and creative center, we continue to gather together. We become stronger. We claim the lives we were meant to live (“It is never too late to be what you might have been” – George Eliot).  We open to the Creative Source that can move our hearts, transform our circumstances, and guide us to our peace.

For more information on this workshop, email Sheri Bresson at manifestation44@cs.com