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Sparkle
Ireland
1457 Posts |
 Posted - Jul 24 2009 : 05:11:14 AM
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Just to let people know our annual retreat is starting in a few hours time in Glendalough in Ireland - 3pm Friday 24th to mid-day Tuesday 28th July 2009 (Irish/UK time)
We will be including the AYP community in our group samyama and perhaps you may wish to commune with us through the vibrations of love and spaciousness in your own samyama.
love to all
Louis
P.S. We are also privileged to have Katrine attending (as well as other's you don't know, of course)
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Sparkle
Ireland
1457 Posts |
Posted - Aug 20 2009 : 3:57:15 PM
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Hi all
Just to report back a little of the above retreat.
The retreat was very profound and I think I can say that everyone gained hugely from it.
We had nine people over four days. It was a semi-silent retreat in that we had silence from after the evening session to after breakfast the following morning.
For some time I have wanted to incorporate some form of Inquiry into our weekly group in general and a good place to start is on a retreat.
To this end I have looked at NVC(Non-violent communication) and "the Work" by Byron Katie.
There has always been some obsticle to incorporating these in our group, it's like it was too much energy required and like a whole new approach would have to be incorporated.
Then I discovered Insight Dialogue. This is basically a method of taking the silence generated in meditation and bringing it into dialogue between people.
It is all about being in the moment at the time of dialogue and speaking out of bodily and here and now awareness, rather than out of "stories" and "conditioning".
I did a 7 day retreat in this Insight Dialogue with it's founder Grerory Kramer, earlier this year and was really impressed with the experiental results.
To me it is the ultimate self-inquiry weapon for meditators.
So in the retreat we did two Insight Dialogue(ID) sessions per day.
It was also found that the Insight Dialogue appeared to dissipate any tendancy to overload.
So for future retreats or days, it may be possible to incorporate 3 or even 4 AYP meditations. Three is probably prudent as a trial.
In fact, we did have a 30 minute breath meditation before each dialogue. These could be changed to AYP or maybe a mixture of both. We will have to see how it goes.
This work is normally done in a Buddhist meditation setting and it is really powerful in this setting.
We are continuing the ID practice each week after our normal AYP meditation and it continues to astonish me how effective it is. People are breaking into new ways of being so quickly with this work. It is also very gentle and non threatening, it sort of creeps up on you and you get insights about yourself that were totally blinded beforehand.
So I regard ourselves to be very fortunate to have a turbocharged system of meditation and now a turbocharged system of self-inquiry that dovetails perfectly with the meditation.
From a facilitation perspective, what is required is a good experiental working knowledge of here and now living. In Buddhism this is referred to as mindfulness. But this mindfulness is fully prevalent in the posts of people in this forum through the AYP practices, so there is no reason why it could not be adopted.
The AYP practices, as always, were very profound and the silence and peace generated was beautiful.
Katrine, as always, blended her beautiful energies into everything we did.
We also had two music sessions, incorporating Drums, Cymbols, Flute, Mandoline, Guitar, Bodhran and Voice. The CD will be out shortly
And not to forget the incredible Tango dance shown to us by a couple on the retreat.
There is much more to tell also, perhaps Katrine might offer something also.
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Katrine
Norway
1813 Posts |
Posted - Aug 21 2009 : 4:44:50 PM
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Hi Sparkle and All
The retreat was lovely. Profound....light and deep at the same time.
The Insight Dialogue.....I can't say enough good things about it. It is a precious tool that exposes one...and enables.... stillness in action.... in the most surprising and gentle ways. It is impossible not to be transformed by it....everybody on the retreat benefitted from it....everybody grew out of their own skin. This is true beauty.
Through all the dialogues....I felt awe at the level of earnestness in the people there. To bear witness....intimately like that...to another human being opening up and letting go......I don't know of anything more beautiful than this. Every one of them taught me much....and it was a real treat for me to be able to release... into the deep silence in somebody elses eyes.......
Every open heart is a qualified teacher....and I am very grateful to you Sparkle...and feel quite humble...to have been able to participate in something like this.
On another level....the whole retreat was an opening for me. It was such a Joy to be in all that Silence.....and through interacting with people while being quiet.....it showed me the potential there is in Silence Alone. I am still digesting this part of it...because it will have implications...regarding the way the work is unfolding here now.
Sparkles way of conducting the ID sessions (and the meditation sessions too)...it was a joy to be led by him. From him pours a gentleness combined with a deep listening and letting go (ability to flow with the moment) ....and people just open up in this safe room. At the same time there is firmness...so things stay on track....and thus the combination of structure and flow also enables spontaneity.
Like the music sessions.....they were great ..*LOL*........(can't wait to hear the CD Sparkle :-)......the blending of the different practices...the careful and skillful vegetarian cooking sessions by two and two in the kitchen...the silent but oh so bonding meals.....all this combined with walks in the beautiful hills of Glendalough....led to a level of balance that set the stage for richness in spirit
And not to forget - the tango of course!
The couple dancing......I am going to bother them now that I will stay in Ireland.....they simply must dance again.....and i will keep nagging them about giving me tango lessons This dance.....is a special specimen of stillness in action. So you can imagine...when skillfully danced by the couple at the retreat...who in additon are deep meditators.... no wonder it touches the heart so
I am very grateful to Gregory Kramer for his work in giving birth to the Insight Dialogue practice.
You can read more about it here:
http://www.metta.org/practices/insi...ogueMain.htm
Bless him and may it continue to spread
And least but not last - thank you again Yogani....for the wealth of AYP.
Without AYPsite.org...none of this would have come to be 
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apachechief
Ireland
65 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2009 : 12:50:54 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Sparkle
.............We also had two music sessions, incorporating Drums, Cymbols, Flute, Mandoline, Guitar, Bodhran and Voice. The CD will be out shortly
Speaking of music, here's a sample from one of the music sessions:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT5ATzGtPjs |
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Shanti
USA
4854 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2009 : 5:53:00 PM
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| Wow.. that was powerful Apachechief. Thank you for posting that. |
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Sparkle
Ireland
1457 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2009 : 6:16:51 PM
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| Good impromptu fun, thanks for the lovely photos Apache and thanks for putting up the sounds. |
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miguel
Spain
1197 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2009 : 6:44:39 PM
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Amazing.Really beautiful voices and beautiful country.Very deep and beautiful.
Thanks. |
Edited by - miguel on Aug 27 2009 6:48:18 PM |
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Yonatan
Israel
849 Posts |
Posted - Aug 27 2009 : 7:45:03 PM
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| That was so deep and nice. Thank you |
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AYP Retreat in Ireland
