Shalom Mountain

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Big Heart is a novel technique of self exploration that combines tools of western psychology with the teachings of eastern non-dual traditions.  Participants in this non-denominational process emerge with the realization that they now can answer their most pressing questions about their lives with a greater level of compassion and wisdom than they previously thought possible.

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Big Heart is a novel technique of self exploration that combines tools of western psychology with the teachings of eastern non-dual traditions.  Participants in this non-denominational process emerge with the realization that they now can answer their most pressing questions about their lives with a greater level of compassion and wisdom than they previously thought possible.

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The Shalom Retreat™ is an intensive growth experience set in a loving and supportive community. Shalom Retreats are based on our understanding of love:

• More than anything else, we want to love and be loved.
• Love is a gift.
• Love is not time bound.
• Love is good will in action.
• Love is a response to need.

Loving is an art. The skills of loving can be learned. They include seeing and hearing another, expressing good will, recognizing another’s right to think and feel as he/she does, and being fully present in our relationships with others. Through the practice of intentional loving, open space is created in which individuals can learn to express themselves with integrity, creativity and passion. Our ability to love and our life force can be blocked by unexpressed feelings of anger, fear and pain. By unblocking energy, we are able to reclaim our joy, passion and sexuality and to fully embody the Divine in our lives. A variety of techniques (e.g., guided fantasy, primal therapy, role-play, gestalt and bioenergetics) are used as a means for releasing and transforming repressed emotions, so that one’s passion for life may be fully realized.

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The Shalom Retreat™ is an intensive growth experience set in a loving and supportive community. Shalom Retreats are based on our understanding of love:

• More than anything else, we want to love and be loved.
• Love is a gift.
• Love is not time bound.
• Love is good will in action.
• Love is a response to need.

Loving is an art. The skills of loving can be learned. They include seeing and hearing another, expressing good will, recognizing another’s right to think and feel as he/she does, and being fully present in our relationships with others. Through the practice of intentional loving, open space is created in which individuals can learn to express themselves with integrity, creativity and passion. Our ability to love and our life force can be blocked by unexpressed feelings of anger, fear and pain. By unblocking energy, we are able to reclaim our joy, passion and sexuality and to fully embody the Divine in our lives. A variety of techniques (e.g., guided fantasy, primal therapy, role-play, gestalt and bioenergetics) are used as a means for releasing and transforming repressed emotions, so that one’s passion for life may be fully realized.

I have been enamored of Genpo Roshi’s “Big Mind” (http://www.genpo.org/Big%20Mind/) process since I first encountered it on Integral Naked (http://in.integralinstitute.org/) several years ago. I taught myself how to facilitate it long before Roshi began to lay down guidelines regarding who could and who could not facilitate the process. As a result of my ignorance of these guidelines, I have had the good fortune of facilitating the process a number of times, with groups ranging from three to 65 and settings from living rooms to retreat centers.

And yet, I have seldom used this profound – indeed, revolutionary – enlightenment practice as part of my personal practice. I guess I’ll chalk this up to a lack of imagination. In retrospect, it seems pretty obvious that this is a powerful vehicle for both translation and transformation when incorporated into a personal practice. I simply never have taken the time to do that.

I have been enamored of Genpo Roshi’s “Big Mind” (http://www.genpo.org/Big%20Mind/) process since I first encountered it on Integral Naked (http://in.integralinstitute.org/) several years ago. I taught myself how to facilitate it long before Roshi began to lay down guidelines regarding who could and who could not facilitate the process. As a result of my ignorance of these guidelines, I have had the good fortune of facilitating the process a number of times, with groups ranging from three to 65 and settings from living rooms to retreat centers.

And yet, I have seldom used this profound – indeed, revolutionary – enlightenment practice as part of my personal practice. I guess I’ll chalk this up to a lack of imagination. In retrospect, it seems pretty obvious that this is a powerful vehicle for both translation and transformation when incorporated into a personal practice. I simply never have taken the time to do that.

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I just returned from the fifth of six installments of the Introduction to Shalom Process Leadership training up at Shalom Mountain Retreat and Study Center. Since October, 30 of us have engaged in not only a deep inquiry into the mechanics of leading a Shalom retreat, but also an adventure into the exploration of the Self and much else. As often as not, the central learnings of each month's installment has more to do with lessons of the heart than with specific process leadership techniques.

This weekend raised an example for me of what Wilber has called the "myth of the given", that is, each of us will interpret our state experiences through our own peculiar lenses. Those lenses are not only tinted with the hues of our particular levels of development, but with our cultural and family myths, language, and shared beliefs. My own lenses are heavily tinted, for example, with the hues of my Christian upbringing, perhaps moreso than the Zen tints I've added in my adulthood.

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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?