In my daily life, I have a rhythm that goes something like this: Wake up. Eat. Do some yoga. Work. Eat again. Work a bit more. Sleep. Repeat. There are some weeks where I am on autopilot, and miss the daily miracles and surprises. If my life becomes a rhythm of hour after hour, day after day, week after week of busyness like this, with no play and no time outdoors, I begin to lose perspective.
Posts filed under Spirituality
Amma, the Hugging Saint, has a Local Home
I became interested in Amma, an Indian spiritual leader, given the tremendous buzz in the international community about her humanitarian work. She is from my husband’s state in Kerala, India, and he has met her. My friends queried why I hadn’t met her. I felt my exploration of this mystical person was long overdue, but I wanted to learn more about this hypothetical saint before I was willing to meet her. When I started reading about her, I became overwhelmed. There was so much literature about her. My experience reading it was antithetical to her teachings of peace and unity; it was an information overload. Still, I stuck with it.
Woman Within International — First Person with Lauren Tatarsky
Lauren Tatarsky is the facilitator of Ann Arbor’s Women’s Circle, a private practice Spiritual Guide at Inspired Life Counseling. Here she shares her first person perspective of joining Woman Within International.
What need attracts women there? What outcome?
My experience was that a lot of women came because they had a desire to connect with other women. Many shared that they struggled in their relationships with women and wanted to pursue more supportive connections. Many were also drawn because they desire a space for personal growth among a tribe of women. I remember a number of voices about personal healing in the company of wise and loving women. I also know a number of women who had friends or family members who had gone and so came almost solely based on the high recommendation.
Personal healing and connection to a community of women. I’m thinking this question and the first question, though different, actually have the same answer. I think women receive exactly what they come for. It is a powerful weekend that does in fact accomplish the desires shared above in amazing ways.
Does the retreat space meet the goals in your experience?
Yes, beautifully. I went to the retreat in Julian, California, outside of San Diego. The retreat space was in a beautiful setting, meals were delicious, spaces were supportive of the process. Some women may have been surprised that we slept in large rooms with many bunk beds and shared bathrooms. I found them quite comfortable.
When in life is this coming into focus for many women? Are there common times of life like menopause or healing from divorce that this experience uplifts for people in your experience?
I think a lot of women felt themselves to be in a time of transition and in need of new inspiration, direction, healing from the past, a supportive and loving environment (many had so little of this in their own lives). Since the retreat is open to all women over 18, the details of these transitions varied. Yes, I do think many came after a divorce and/or empty nest situation. Some came, like me, out of college and looking for personal growth and community. Others because they were of an age where they wanted to share their wisdom with younger women and be honored as an elder. Still others because they felt lost and needed to find themselves again, or something painful had occurred in their lives and they needed to find a way back home to themselves.
Why is it transformative?
Great question. I think it’s transformative first and foremost because it creates a sacred container for women, in a way that has been lost in our culture for too long now. It brings back the essence of red tent times, of times when women knew how to be with one another in our journeys. The rituals, conversations, and activities are all conducted in a very sacred way. There is a lot of space for internal connection and exploration as well as deep sharing and support. There is significant emphasis on women supporting women and powerful rituals that allow this to occur in an embodied way. It is an experiential retreat, where one experiences being held by other women, being seen and understood, engaging in deeply healing rituals and conversations that allow women to release old wounds and open to new life.
Why does it work?
Aha, the mystery. The energy exchange between women that occurs in a sacred container? The power of ritual? The power of holding sacred space for each other’s healing? The safety and permission? The acceptance and love? The sacred setting? It’s a mixture of factors that come together to create transformation, both a science and an un-nameable thing.
How did you feel in it and after it?
At first I felt nervous, not knowing any women or what was about to happen. This is to be expected. It didn’t take long for the experience to ease us and welcome us in. I felt like it was a transcendent experience. Otherworldly. It was like a craving deep in my bones had been wholly satisfied. I also had a deeply healing experience that created a sense of profound connection to myself, to other women, and to the ultimate sacred. It has represented a home-base for my experience of who I really am and what our human existence is really about.
Given the rise in consciousness around female empowerment in recent events, what need do you see Woman Within responding to? Do you see it growing?
I really imagine it growing, but I am always surprised by how few women know about the organization. More men know about ManKind Project than women know about Woman Within. I’m really not sure why. I find myself thinking that Woman Within created a powerful foundation for the rise of women we are seeing today. Perhaps, in an unseen way, they were part of making what we see now more possible. I see that they are evolving a bit with the times and adding new kinds of retreats. It will be interesting to see how it evolves.
What are E Circles? How do women continue this work together?
E Circles are groups of women who meet regularly after having attended a Woman Within weekend. After your retreat, the agency will connect you with other women in your area who either have an E Circle already operating that is open to new members, or they will connect you with other women who have attended the retreat and are looking to start a circle. More experienced women in your area will train your group to start your own, based on the powerful and amazing principles of the retreat. Some of these circles have been going on for many, many years. The circles contain a lot of ritual and communication elements that you engage in at the retreat, so the level of depth is profound, available, and supported by the tools the agency provides.
Briefly, do your current women’s group and retreat designs incorporate Woman Within concepts?
In some respects. Since the women in my circles here have not been to the retreat, we are not an official E Circle and there isn’t the essential foundation for some of the experiences that E Circles can engage in. But I do draw on my experiences in my own circles to open and close our group, and I personally try to use their tools as much as I can to guide the conversation throughout.
What is the status of the local network that is forming of women’s circles?
We are assessing interest, gathering women, and figuring out how a network might come together. It is nascent, but clearly desired. We have a lot of resources for any woman who wants to start a circle and can direct our list of interested women to anyone who wants to step up and coordinate, with guidance we’d be happy to provide. So collecting women and responding to what arises is our current strategy.
The next, closest to Ann Arbor retreat is in Mt. St. Francis, Indiana, August 10–August 12, 2018. Registration is $725. More information can be found on the womanwithin.org calendar.
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Featured
A Practice of Mindfulness from Seed to Plate
I reflect on my experience with learning mindfulness cooking and eating practice during silent retreats at a Zen Buddhist Sangha in North Carolina. I examined the concept of gratitude when planting, harvesting, preparing and consuming food. Although these times were for deep contemplative study and complete silence, there was a common language spoken around the kitchen counter and table that I call reverence.
Coffee with Chris Forte, Author of The Humble Warrior
Chris Forte is a Birmingham-based yogi, author, spiritual fitness coach, former Division I athlete, and creator of The Humble Warrior podcast and memoir. On Christmas Day, 2014, in the midst of his marriage dissolving, Chris hit his knees on the floor and heard, “Book, blog, podcast.” He spent two years doing yoga and meditation every day, attending Hay House writing and speaking conferences, and getting certified as a yoga teacher. His book, “The Humble Warrior: Spiritual tools for living a purposeful life” came out in June 2017.
In the Heart of the Wood on a Rainy Night — Reflections on Black Pond Woods
An equinoctial night in 2016. It’s raining. The injured raptor birds, often used in educational programs, sleep in little wooden houses on the hillside. Community gardens and orchards await spring, leaves poised to unfurl and earth to be turned. It is the night of the salamander survey at Black Pond Woods.
What Propels a Journey? The Peripatetic Career of Kate Soper
Kate Soper came of age in the early 1960s. She is part of the generation that ushered in a new wave of women. She is a quiet but active feminist.
Members of the Zen Community on Zen Meditation and Daily Life
To gain insight into how Zen practice impacts daily life, we asked eight Zen Temple practitioners, each in different stages of his or her meditation practice, the following questions: 1) How long have you been practicing Zen Meditation? 2) How does your involvement or meditation practice at the Zen Temple show up in your daily life?
Haju Sunim: A Patchwork Life
Reverend Haju Sunim has been at the Ann Arbor Zen Buddhist Temple since 1982. She was ordained as a Dharma teacher in l984 and as a Buddhist priest in l993. She hails from Vancouver, British Columbia, where she was born in 1944. In her early 30’s, she lived in Toronto, where she unwittingly joined the avant-garde of her generation, taking yoga classes and seeking new paths.
Cantor Annie Rose, A Jewish Seeker
By Rachel Urist | Photos by Susan Ayer
Cantor Annie Rose will retire in July 2014. By then, she will have been the cantor at Temple Beth Emeth (TBE) for twenty years. She has trained countless bar and bat mitzvah students and created and conducted the Temple’s adult and youth choirs, Kol Halev (Voice of the Heart) and Shir Chadash (New Song).
Esalen at 50: A Memoir about America's Spiritual Reformation
By Richard Gull
Fifty years ago the human potential movement started at Esalen. That same year, 1962, The Port Huron Statement of Students for a Democratic Society appeared, a political manifesto challenging a new generation to live authentic lives in a participatory democracy. I attended both 50th anniversary celebrations in October 2012. I had taken a class on memoir writing at Esalen two years earlier, in 2010, six months after my wife, Sara, died of cancer.
Swaying in the Sangha of Trees: The "Tree"-Quel
By Lenny Bass
For those of you who are ardent readers of The Crazy Wisdom Community Journal, you will recall an article published a couple years back written by a mad man who talked with a tree while sitting in a hot tub outside a cabin built by his wife’s family in the shadows of the Alleghany Mountains in upstate New York. Well, that mad man is back at it again. The gift of one week of solitude my wife and I afford to one another as our one and only holiday gift has come to pass, and once again I come to rest in this mystical spruce grove.
Ann Arbor’s Interfaith Center for Spiritual Growth
By Rachel Urist | Photography by Maureen McMahon and Joni Strickfaden
Over the past seven years the Interfaith Center for Spiritual Growth has emerged on the Ann Arbor scene as a vibrant place for community events and a dynamic alternative to Sunday worship. Many have discovered the Center by attending one of their public music events, such as engagements with Kirtan singers Shantala or their Café 704 concert series featuring some of the area’s finest musicians. Others may have visited because of their calendar of speaking engagements with popular authors like Judith Coates or Rev. John Mundy.
Why I Teach Meditation
In the wonderful Dr. Seuss books that narrate the adventures of The Cat in the Hat, we are introduced to the Cat’s helpers named “Thing One” and “Thing Two.” When he wants to create maximum mischief, the Cat brings out these two little guys. And do they know how to party! Their antics can go on for numerous pages, involving all sorts of outrageous projects, which always lead nowhere.
Today, I am joined by three representatives of these secretive hidden peoples. Will you introduce yourselves, please?