Posts Tagged ‘Spirituality’

I’m always eager to connect you with fellow visionaries who are bringing a fresh perspective to bear on the big questions of our time. So, I’m delighted to share with you an invitation I recently received to participate in what I see as a leading-edge endeavor to evolve our understanding of spirituality in the 21st century.

The Great Integral Awakening: Pioneering a New Spiritual Path is a FREE online teleseminar series where you can interact with many of today’s leading visionaries—including Ken Wilber, Diane Hamilton, Andrew Cohen, Marc Gafni, Don Beck, Michael Murphy, Genpo Roshi—in an in-depth exploration of the next stage in humanity’s spiritual development.

Over the next three months, you can join them each week online and by conference call to explore the burning questions facing all of us who aspire to live an authentic spiritual life in our increasingly chaotic, fast-paced world.

Questions like:

* How does the spiritual path need to evolve to meet the evolutionary challenges and opportunities of our time?

* How can we make sure our own spiritual path and practice is “integral” and informed by both the timeless wisdom of Spirit and an up-to-date understanding of the human condition?

* What does it mean to live a life of passionate evolutionary engagement that integrates our deep longing for spiritual transformation and our desire to improve the world?

* How can we come together with other evolutionaries to begin to create microcosms of evolutionary culture?

* How can we engage our spiritual practice not just as a path to personal growth but as a contribution to the further evolution of humanity, life, and consciousness?

Each event will explore this set of questions from a unique angle. We’ll look at how the discovery of evolution is giving birth to an entirely new spiritual impulse—as well as a new framework for engaging in spiritual practice. We’ll ask how the great traditions of the past can be brought up to date and kept relevant to a rapidly changing, increasingly complex world. We’ll explore some of the new, integral forms that spirituality is taking, from the emergence of new paths of self-inquiry to the birth of collective enlightenment. And we’ll think together about the vital role each of us can now play in creating a more integral—and more enlightened—future for humanity.

There is no charge to participate. All of the luminaries have volunteered their time so that as many of us as possible can come together for this groundbreaking FREE online event. I hope you’ll join them in creating the future.

CLICK HERE to learn more and register today.

Standing with you and for you,

Michael

Last weekend I attended a training for individuals, who are committed to bringing forth an environmentally sustainable, spiritually fulfilling and socially just human presence on this planet as a guiding principle of our time. This video tells the fascinating story of the Pachamama Alliance, founded by Bill and Lynn Twist, author of The Soul of Money, in partnership with the Achuar people, an indigenous tribe living in the Amazon rain forests of Equador.

The training I attended was for those who are eager to facilitate Awaken The Dreamer, Changing The Dream symposiums, which invite people of all backgrounds to inquire into a conversation about the crises and opportunities of our time. It’s an invitation to stand for the sustainability of life itself by calling upon and honoring both the brilliance of the modern world and the ancient wisdom of indigenous peoples.

These symposiums are about 4 hours long and worthy of anyone committed to creating a better world.

News, Visionary Culture | 1 Comment | October 24th, 2007

Today, we held a live tele-seminar about reconnecting powerfully with the Force of Honor in your life. Click the play button below,or download the MP3 to listen.

Honor is a distinct human emotion, although it’s not yet been named as one. It’s part of our inner compass that is squashed
in a world of hierarchical institutions. Our leaders play upon our starvation for this emotion when they tell us that the other side is “evil.”

Having direct, ongoing and lasting access and control of this emotion can empower you to stay steadfast in your commitments to create
a better life, a better world.

When you FEEL this inner force, you

- have nothing to prove,
- react to nothing and no one,
- have no doubt about your path or purpose,
- are completely fulfilled, nothing missing,
- feel one with god/universe/life/nature,
- have unlimited access to love as your source
of courage
- naturally become more conscious and awake,
- inspire others to open their hearts,
- and much more.

Today, we talked about how social conditioning has left us without Honor as a powerful emotion, and how we now compromise ourselves and suffer
silently as result. (and what we can do to regain this source of courage, power and love)

Listen to the complete audio to get a good grasp of this natural force within you.

You’ll also hear how we tap into this force at our VisionForce Boot Camps. At this posting, there are still some seats available for
the November BOOT CAMP for world-changing parents, teachers, leaders, entrepreneurs, artists… and YOU!

Register here: http://www.visionforce.com/bootcamp


MP3 File

Returning from a beautiful yoga class today, I was searching for words to express the evolving nature of the work we do inside the VisionForce Boot Camps. And I found myself calling it “spiritual exercise.” Instantly, upon hearing those words, it just felt right.

Indeed, more and more, people are reporting having profound spiritual awakenings inside our Boot Camp, and yet, we have never presented it as spiritual work. We don’t present any religious or spiritual beliefs inside this work, preferring to keep it cleanly open “technology” that any individual from any paradigm or persuasion can use to live more powerfully.

I’ve been reluctant over the years to even use terms common to conversations about spirituality, because for so many people, such terms have predefined meanings. Thus, using those common terms can have people misconstrue what we are offering.

However, it is now feeling right to own this term, “spiritual,” in relation to this work. Having been profoundly influenced by a broad range of thinkers, some of the greatest of whom were skeptic, agnostic, atheistic, etc., such as Ayn Rand, I am sensitive to how people might interpret spiritual references. Everyone can relate, however, to the realm of human experience identified as “the human spirit,” or the realm of our experience that relates to our highest values, our highest sense of self, our deepest connection to others, our heroic endeavors in the face of incredible adversity, etc.

The challenge of introducing work (products, processes, programs, etc.) that is profoundly spiritual in this sense, without calling it such, has been a challenge from a business and marketing experience. I’ve also been reluctant to enter this realm of languaging, because of what that might mean for my life and for the business… everyone, it seems, has an idea of who a “spiritual teacher” should be, and many people will not learn from a “spiritual teacher” who does not match their preexisting values and beliefs. Many spiritual teachers are very authoritarian and positionary, and call for blind faith and obedience from “followers.” Many teach (and preach) from fear with threat of guilt and punishment–externally imposed guilt and fear being two of the most limiting and destructive forces for anyone who aims to be the least bit “visionary” or highly “conscious.” Then, there’s the fear and guilt that sometimes arises for me when I imagine taking on such a serious context for my life. I am called much more to the life of being the laughing Buddha… I’m just a guy who has something to offer, and after seeing the kind of vision I have seen, cannot go about living life without sharing what I have to offer.

You could say that I’ve seen and been called forth onto my path in life by “spiritual vision.” I hesitate to use this term here, because I don’t mean to imply that God gave me a vision… what I can say is that I saw a vision– a vision that spoke to my heart (or spirit) so powerfully that I could not turn away. And so here I am, offering my gifts to anyone willing to receive, FAR before having “arrived.” I’m learning very very fast, but it’s the painful learning experienced by the person who heads out into the unknown without much preparation. So, I’m learning by screwing up, and being criticized from all angles. The “preparation” I could do prior to heading down my path in life is a trap–a trap that in today’s authoritarian paradigm keeps most people from walking their path.

We’ve been so conditioned to compromise the calling of our heart or spirit in order to be accepted and respected in the eyes of authority and majority that we often can’t even FEEL the calling of our heart. So conditioned do we become that we often don’t even notice our deepest suffering, that sense of quiet desperation becomes accepted as a natural part of life. We medicate it, escape it, suppress it–but all of this, too, compromises our spirit and brings more suffering. Escaping or avoiding our suffering and the calling of our heart compromises the “spiritual vision” that we would EACH otherwise SEE and FEEL as human beings–or spiritual beings. Each of us COULD BE experiencing our life’s purpose in the same emotional way that we might experience being on a “Mission From God!” I don’t mean to imply that we should take on an ultra-serious, burdensome, self-sacrificial approach to life, but that we can have the powerful sense of mission that comes from “Spiritual Vision” that would have us naturally actualizing our highest potential and making our visions manifest. What I am referring to as “Spiritual Vision” here is accessible by anyone–the VisionForce work opens up direct and immediate access to that at a deep level.

…just took a moment to chat with a friend and told her that I am inclined to start calling this work spiritual exercise, and how referring to this work as spiritual has at times scared the crap out of me. Her reply was, “All the work we do is spiritual… but only the brave ones call it that.” Interesting. (Jessica, you should put that in your book of quotes!)

So, I’d like to begin to present the VisionForce work from a spiritual context here, starting with this blog post. In fact, I am going to speak with pretty universal language, so for those of you who usually speak from a more “advanced” lexicon for spirituality, I invite you to listen for how the VisionForce tools could help you take your own spiritual practices to a deeper level. Especially listen from the universal human dilemma of how we live true to our highest values in a world where everywhere we turn, we face the judgments and demands of people who have differing conclusions about what’s right and wrong. I invite you to listen for something NEW here, even though much of the language I am using to communicate this is not new.

More over the coming days… (stay tuned! and leave your Comments!)

P.S. Registration is open for the November 2007 Boot Camp. Learn more here.