Community for Spiritual Living
Community for Spiritual Living: Drumming Circle
Location(s)
It's time again to light your rhythmic fire this coming Saturday. Dan Petersen will again lead us in a drumfest. Note that no experience is necessary, and everyone can participate in the drumming (or movement, if you like--in fact, last time we had some delicious belly dancers!). You can also just meditate and let the communal beat carry you into a transcendent space.
Bring one or more drums or percussive instruments if you have any. If you don't, there always seem to be extras to pass around. So just come!
Stay for POTLUCK FROM 6 TO 8PM-be sure to BRING A DISH FOR 8 PEOPLE (main dish, salad, side dish, bread & beverage, or dessert).
Invite along a friend if you like. Can't make it at 4pm? - then just stop in at 6pm for the potluck! No Need to RSVP.
Community for Spiritual Living: Alexander Technique
Location(s)
We are exquisitely designed for movement with a capacity for ease, flexibility, power and expressiveness, whether we are dancing, singing or working at a computer. All too often, however, we unwittingly interfere with this design resulting in tension, effort, and fatigue. Diana Bradley, a skilled practitioner, will lead us in explorations in the discoveries of the F.M. Alexander Technique to restore our natural coordination and poise.
Wear comfortable clothes, bring a beginner's mind, and be willing to question, and perhaps release old myths about moving with "good posture." We will explore ease in sitting, walking, standing, bending, yoga, meditation, and anything else you love doing in your lives. Through verbal coaching and gentle hands-on guidance you will gain heightened kinesthetic awareness and a sense of belonging in your body.
Community for Spiritual Living: Sacred Sexuality: Masculine & Feminine
Location(s)
Somewhere in the struggle to find "equality" between men and women over the last 40 years, we began to dilute our essential masculine and feminine qualities. "Good" male/female relationships were modeled as 50/50 compromises. Could it be, however, that we lost something along the way?
Barra Kahn and Roger Telschow will lead an exploration this Saturday for women and men in the community. With the support of our peers, the intention is to honor and celebrate the sacred masculine and feminine in ourselves and in the opposite sex. You are invited into a dance of yin and yang that can enliven our relationships and rekindle a passion for life.Community for Spiritual Living: Men & Women Coming Together
Location(s)
Community for Spiritual Living: Drumming Circle
Location(s)
Community for Spiritual Living: Befriending Death
Location(s)
April 2007: Befriending Death
Many of the Wisdom Traditions have understood that Death can be a great teacher about Life. In the encounter with the reality of death, whether we view it as the end or merely a passage, we can glean much about the richness of our lives.
Tom Goddard will lead the community through a series of experiential processes designed to create a series of profound learning encounters with Death. As a result of participating in this workshop, participants likely not only will have a deepened appreciation of the life we are given, but a clearer notion about how to live a life filled with meaning and joy. It is no overstatement to say that some participants in the March 2006 CSL exploration of Death, led by Dr. Goddard and Michael Smith, emerged with a radically transformed view of their lives. Some even made profound decisions that changed the very course of their lives, both professionally and personally.
Bring a friend if you like, and then stay for POTLUCK FROM 6 TO 8PM-be sure to BRING A DISH FOR 8 PEOPLE (main dish, salad, side dish, bread & beverage, or dessert).
An Improvised Life
Submitted by Tom Goddard on December 13, 2006 - 3:21pm.What does it mean to "improvise"? What is the essence of "spontaneity"?
Heck, should we even value improvisation? Some might argue that living a well-planned life is a good thing. How can you plan well yet commit to spontaneity?
Well, first, what is it? My dictionary says that improvisation is "a creation spoken or written or composed extemporaneously (without prior preparation)."
First of all, I feel like arguing with that definition. I certainly like the use of "creation" -- my every encounter with improvisation tells me that it is an act of creation. It is the parenthetical part of the definition with which I differ: "no preparation".
No preparation? Are you kidding? When Parker and Coleman met in a dark bar in Chicago and made magic, can we say there was no preparation? When Jonathan Winters walked through a room full of junk, picked up an odd item, and made us laugh, was there truly no preparation? When a Zen teacher and student engage in dharma combat and, thereby, reach a new understanding of the Ultimate, is there no preparation?
Honesty on a Saturday Afternoon
Submitted by Tom Goddard on August 6, 2006 - 6:31pm.
The August meeting of the Community for Spiritual Living ("CSL"), my spiritual "home" community, focused on radical honesty. Michael Smith took the reins this month to lead the roughly two-dozen participants in a series of exercises and discussions to raise consciousness around truth-telling.