“If you are depressed you live in the past,
If you are anxious you live in the future,
If you are at peace you live in the present.”
— Lao Tzu
I embark on a course of renewal in 2014. Recent developments have left me a bit wounded and searching for a lost self-confidence. So I have decided to renew some old ideas in the hopes that sharing them with others will serve to restore them in me.
In a nutshell, I will let the proposed concept that I have just written explain:
Renewal Retreat at Sky Valley
Integral Life Practice: Path to Sustainable Living
At Sky Valley we want to provide a place to remember, a place of renewal for people who wish to bring about positive changes in their lives.
Our beautiful courtyard accommodation in the serene traditional Bai countryside provides the opportunity to become part of a community where one can explore life with like-minded individuals in the relaxed, supportive atmosphere of well planned activities and exceptional natural environments. Ours is a learning community where guests and staff, as co- learners, seek a way to change their experience of life, by releasing our minds from everyday preoccupations, we are free to gain a broader perspective on what our lives are really all about.
Amidst the clamor, confusion and rapid change of today’s world, there is a pervasive sense that something is missing. The rational and objective stance that science and economics in our societies have taken as a complete description (or more appropriately prescription) of life, falls short of satisfying deeper human essential needs and interests.
A Retreat into Wholeness
To be able to live fully in life without being tossed this way and that by every passing mood and whim, to know a place of silence in oneself that subsists even when all around is chaos and confusion; to maintain equanimity in the face of doubt and despair; this, perhaps, is the ultimate retreat of one’s own mind, the aspiration of all seekers.
In our renewal retreat you will be laying the foundation for this inner retreat. You are giving time to yourself; time to feel your own feelings, think your own thoughts and sense your own individuality and priorities. You are permitting a return to yourself: and in that return you will begin to see yourself and your life with fresh eyes. We want your time with us to be a foretaste of the inner place of retreat which in truth is never far away — after all. It is none other than who you are.
In other words, our retreat will serve as a place to remember –to remember your beginnings, to remember who you are, and to remember where you belong. It is a place to evoke the evolutionary memory of unfolding consciousness that we share with all life on earth.
The lessons we learn will ripple out to challenge and expand our every notion of culture, community, education, medicine, psychology, ecology and spirituality. Resting within is the possibility of a sense of wholeness, sacredness and humility that both heals us as individuals and prepares us to make the critical collective decisions necessary to develop sustainable strategies for the years ahead.
Internationally renowned Integral Health Physician and author, Larry Dossey has said, ” Integral health involves integrating the physical. mental and spiritual aspects of human beings. The purpose and meaning of life, one’s ultimate goals, one’s sense of connection with rest of the world, and the compassion and love one embodies in daily life are vital factors in health.”
Our “Integral Life Practice” (1) introduction will focus on all of these aspects of human experience as we include practices from each of the following modules:
The Mind, where the mental framework of Integral Life Practice is introduced allowing for a more comprehensive worldview that allows the inclusion of all perspectives.
The Body, involving practices that deal with the three forms of bodily existence, the gross or physical body of flesh and bone (i.e. exercise, diet…etc), the subtle body of energy flow and subtle energy work and the causal body of vast spaciousness and the feeling of infinity.
The Spirit, introducing 1st- person spiritual practice allowing for the personal realization of the freedom of expanded awareness; 2nd- person practices expanding interpersonal communication through intimately connecting with the spirit that we all share; and finally,
3 rd-person practices opening ourselves to the universal consciousness of all things. Many people intellectually realize (and many don’t) that we are inseparable from Nature, but few of us really experience our intimate connection. When we develop empathy for the Earth, when we realize that its pain is our pain, that its fate is our fate, we find new clarity, inspiration and commitment.
The Shadow, introducing practices helping to integrate unconscious thoughts and emotions into our consciousness awareness clearing our minds of those things that we have disowned, buried or projected onto others.
Our purpose is to engage the individual in a lifelong process of learning and personal growth. Integral living depends on the expansion and intensification of consciousness, on remembering our connection with nature and on the true expression of our joyfulness and love.
We trust the inner wisdom of the natural and evolutionary process that has brought humankind this far. Through evocation of this inner wisdom, rather than technological and financial manipulation, we can discover paths to true healing and enjoyment of life.
Notes:
(1) “Integral Life Practice” by The Integral Life Practice Team, Integral Institute, 2006, [bad link] http://integrallife.com/node/200325
D.B.Sutton 12/31/13
I have identified a new venue (*see below) in the village I now find myself living. It is quite nice and the proprietors seem interested in the proposed program. Only time will tell if I am on a path to self-renewal.
Here’s a pdf of the Mindfulness Brochure:
Mindfulness BrochureCheck out their website: www.skyvalleyhotel.com