This site is maintained by the Waking Down Community Network. It is offered as a support for those involved in the work of Waking Down in Mutuality (WDM), but because the bulk of the material here is not written or reviewed by WDM teachers, the content should not be assumed to represent WDM dharma.
If you have an account on LinkedIn and would like to join the Waking Down group for students and friends of Saniel Bonder's Waking Down work and related spiritual paths, click on:
I've only set this up to have requests accepted to avoid trolls and other spammers in the group. I'll generally approve your membership within 1-2 days--maybe sooner!
Creating this group (name and descriptions are my ideas) has Saniel's enthusiastic support.
Hope to see you there! Let's network, especially with the current strained economy.
For the past seven days, I've been glued to the live-blogging of the Iranian uprising offered up by Nico Pitney of The Huffington Post. Nothing speaks so strongly of the greatness of the human spirit than this vast striving to overturn oppression.
As I write this, there is every reason to believe that the government is poised to strike hard when the next wave of demonstrations begin, so at this point I'd like to share a couple of the reports I've seen that have moved me most. First, a video with English subtitles.
This free teleseries might be of interest to those who like to ponder the unique contributions of Waking Down in Mutuality to contemporary spirituality.
When I read my invocation to the Goddess for the Creative Expression night at the Transfiguration Retreat, I was wishing I could show pictures while I read the words. I have just posted a PowerPoint with a wide variety of goddess art images to accompany my dramatic reading. You can find this presentation on Slideshare.net by clicking on this link.
http://www.slideshare.net/Susa...
Please also vote for my presentation in their current contest. Voting ends at midnight PST on June 22. You will need to create an account in order to vote, but it only takes a few minutes to do so. And you can help increase my chances of winning $5,000 - of which I would donate 10% to the Waking Down in Mutuality scholarship fund.
I'd also love to see your comments here about the presentation. This project is very dear to my heart since I feel like I received a special calling from Mary, while I was at the retreat, to share this information with others. Entering the Slideshare contest seemed like a good way to begin doing that.
The Waking Down Teachers Association just concluded our annual retreat. A highlight was our picnic in the redwoods with local Bay Area community members. Photos of this and other memories can be seen at
http://tinyurl.com/WDTARetreat...
We deeply enjoyed basking in one another's presence, enhancing our mutual understanding, refining our goals, and affirming the blessings and spiritual radiance of our lineage.
Much more can be said, and I'll leave that to others!
Yesterday, I made the run/walk I often do over
a bridge and along a forested trail to a clearing
where there is a waterfall that flows down a
stone riverbed into a green and quiet pool. I
have gotten into the habit of taking my shoes
off so I can feel the earth beneath me as I
meditate, and the quiet seclusion of the
place and the sound of waterfall is very soothing.
This is a piece I started writing at the Transfiguration Retreat, having to do with some work that was coming up for me in my small group. The last part was inspired by a "Mary Chapel" that I visited on Wednesday when a group of us went to Kansas City on our day off. I read this piece at the Creative Expression gathering on Thursday evening -- which activated an even deeper level of emotional connection to what I was trying to express - or perhaps I should say what is trying to express itself through me.
Oh. my. god. Five hours of sleep, following six or seven hours on the previous nights. My head is a fog. My field of vision vacillates between the images in front of me and utter abstractions.
On the other hand, when I participate in Saniel's "Personal Empowerment Session," for just that moment, all is calm and clear, and the welcoming I receive to be myself and to face the possibility of realizing my inmost destiny becomes all-encompassing.
The small group continues, as it has all week, to be a crucible of transformation. The processing fairly sizzles.
On the other hand, by the time we all assemble as one group for the closing ceremony, I am a veritable zombie. Yes, my cells are humming with transmission, but the body has its limits, and I'm working well past them. Many things are said of surpassing beauty, and yet much of it passes by like the flickering images of a dream.
After the ceremony comes the moment I've been waiting for. NAP! And following that, a shower. Fully restored, I join everyone for dinner, and then the party.
Surely, there are dozens of stories within the party: the dancing, the music, the margaritas. But for the most part, I stay to the side of all of it, sitting and talking quietly with a few others outside of the mini-lodge where the party takes place, listening to the frogs, cicadas, and bellowing bullfrogs. Before we know it, our meandering conversations bring us well into the small hours of the morning. Reluctantly, we wish one another good night.
(Thanks to Saniel for the photo of the sun setting over Lake Doniphan.)
Started off the day with a buzz at Krishna's morning offering, "Toning: Using Sound in Meditation," which had us repetitively chanting seed syllables for (what at least felt like) extended periods of time. By the end of the hour we were so expanded into space, it was a miracle any of us could fit through the exit.
Whether for that reason, or some other, the large group session was unusually intense for me. Tingly solar fire, sinking into peaceful spaciousness and penetrating personal insights. And from the reports of others, I was far from the only one having dramatic experiences during the period.
After lunch, we held a healing meditation for Hillary, who was unfortunately unable to attend the retreat for health reasons. We sent her as powerful a healing wave as we could. Please feel invited to do the same. (Get better soon, Hillary!)
The intensity continued straight into the small group, where people were popping left and right, and a cluster of issues around my day-to-day living surfaced in a (hopefully) very useful form.
We finished the day with a demonstration of new features planned for Mutuality.net in the near future. Yes, after something like ten months since I first started dropping hints about an upgrade of the site's functionality, we now have actual working code in development. This evening, we took it for a spin, enlarged upon the plan in its current state, answered questions, and asked for suggestions.
The demonstration was well-received, I'm happy to report. Stay tuned for further announcements about progress on this front, coming soon.
(Thanks again to Deborah for her photo of Krishna.)
There is some kind of cosmic law that says: the attempt to upgrade the coffee served at a Transfiguration Retreat must always suffer complications. Those complications took up much of my energy at the beginning of the day. Ultimately, we did wind up with (somewhat) better coffee, but as a result I spent the early morning period recovering, rather than attending any sessions.
Saniel attended my large group session in the late morning, where we shared stories of our day off and delved into a number of topics to a surprising degree of depth. After lunch, the small group continued to grow in intensity. I skipped the Nectar, too, just to have a little more time to rest in my room.
The big piece was after dinner: the Creative Expression Night. This is more or less a talent show, but not a contest of any sort, with contributions of all kinds welcomed. And they were especially "of all kinds" this time! Comic sketches, poetry, music, displays of shocking sauciness, parodies, invocation—the variety and freshness of the offerings were without parallel. This is my favorite part of the retreat, and I felt genuinely blessed to experience such exquisite creativity.
I'll be interested to know how the video turned out…
(Thanks to Deborah for the photo of the gang at breakfast.)
Mutuality.net relies on community participation. It is an online venue for users to post their thoughts, feelings, questions, observations, and dreams; a virtual space for discussion and inquiry. Add your voice to the conversation today!
Eduardo's colorful and informative magazine Mutuality Matters can be downloaded below. These are print-ready PDF's—enjoy.
