 |
Dear Spiritual Partner,
I am always amazed by the depth, beauty, and power of people. I see these things often at our events, and they thrill me. Last month at our first urban Journey to the Soul retreat, a large, beautiful, black woman stood to speak. She was big in size, voice, and presence, but she was trembling and struggling to find her voice. A previous sharing about loss had activated a frightened part of her personality, a part deep in terror, pain, rage, and humiliation. She spoke haltingly. "I am fed up with it. I am sick of being afraid. I am so tired of fearing the police. How many more of my black friends will be arrested, beaten, or killed?" She was sobbing with despair and rage and powerlessness. "Everyone I know who is black fears being stopped by the police. The police always have a reason. Its driving while black. Or breathing while black." Now her whole body was shaking, and her face was wet with tears. She held to the back of a chair to remain standing. "I am fed up!" she struggled to say again. "FED UP!" Then she seemed to physically grasp herself and said in a different voice. "A frightened part of my personality is fed up. It has had enough. Enough!"
The transformation was palpable. Before she was speaking from a frightened part of her personality. Now she was talking about it. She was present again. Her shaking stopped, but her face was still wet. This strong woman was an executive in a multinational corporation. And she was black, terrified of the police, and had had enough. I could see her centering herself, scanning interior places for painful physical sensations, and deciding not to act on them more. This was a moment of creating authentic power. It was intimate and heroic. As she moved beyond the fear of beatings and bullets, beyond the control of this part of her personality, she entered a courageous, compassionate, and caring part of her personality, and we all moved with her.
Another woman on the other side of the room stood up. She was small and blonde. "I am the wife of a cop," she said. "My husband is not like that. I feel what you are saying, but he is not like that." There we were, all of us, courageously experiencing the ragged tear in our country and in our world without the anesthetics of righteousness and rage. It took courage, because creating authentic power always does. It requires challenging painful frightened parts of your personality that are so strong they shake your body or so beguiling they envelop you in blaming. These two souls did neither. They cultivated loving parts of their personalities, the big black woman and the white wife of the white cop.
Our dear friend, Maya Angelou, often said, "We are more alike than we are different." She was so right. We are all immortal souls learning how to love in the Earth school, in the domain of the five senses, in the realm of right and wrong, gain and loss, good and bad. This requires creating authentic power, and we all witnessed a moment of that creation, one of myriad moments in the life of each individual who is growing powerful - aligning personality with soul.
Can you challenge the frightened parts of your personality and cultivate the loving parts of your personality like these two women did and do? Can you create authentic power?
Yes, you can.
|
September 1, 2016 - August 30th, 2017
Why the Master Class?
The biggest challenge in a spiritual life is putting the truths we learn into actual practice in our lives, to move from simply understanding concepts to making new choices. The Master Class Immersion takes place across twelve months through a highly experiential combination of online and on-site teachings so you can weave what you are learning into daily life.
- Year-long immersion in an on-going program of spiritual and life-skills study, experience, and practice
- Ongoing small group work at and between events
- New online videos and live Q&As with Gary and Linda
- In-person time with master teachers Gary and Linda at two on-site gatherings in Portland, Oregon - Fall and Spring
- Ongoing community connection online
When your life becomes your spiritual practice,
everything changes...
The Master Class Immersion is a program like no other. One that changes the way you do things and what you think is possible from the moment you start participating. Use your everyday experiences to grow spiritually. Experience your life as a gift. See what's possible.
The Master Class Immersion One Year Program
With
Gary Zukav and Linda Francis
Whole mind, whole heart, whole life transformation.
Use your intuition. Create authentic power. Partner with your soul.
And this is just the beginning.
Last Date to Apply September 1st.
Space limited.
|
|
NOTE FROM LINDA
MY VISION OF A VERY DIFFERENT RETREAT
I had a vision a few years ago that came to fruition with our Journey to the Soul retreat this summer. I knew we needed to do an urban retreat rather than a secluded mountain resort retreat. It needed to be a mix of
classroom experience with the whole group and small group
excursions out into the community to focus on the practice of creating authentic power and spiritual partnership in
real life.
We called it an urban "
retreat" because it is a retreat from the unconscious and familiar control that frightened parts of our personalities have on most of us in our every day lives.
I am so exhilarated about the transformations that I witnessed and experienced at this new Journey to the Soul. All of our Journey to the Soul retreats have filled me with joy. I love experiencing the
commitment, courage, compassion, and
conscious communication and actions of the people that attend. I know that giving these events is what I was born to do. However, this year was even more. The depth of
connection and the energy of
community expanded to a degree I hadn't experienced before. I trusted this would happen someday, and it did. It was an amazing blessing.
I love to participate in this depth of connection and community. I am so grateful for the
support of the
Universe in assisting me to bring this vision into being. And I know this first urban Journey to the Soul retreat was just the first of many opportunities to support this ever-expanding community of people who recognize authentic power and spiritual partnership as our new path of evolution.
Most of the Master Class Immersion students attended the retreat along with many others from around the world who were at varying levels of knowledge and practice. It was such a beautiful blend of people learning about authentic power and spiritual partnership, all doing their best to support one another in distinguishing between love and fear in themselves and creating with love even when fear was active and sometimes a very strong experience in them. It was beautiful to cocreate this urban retreat experience in a way that truly supported all of us in bringing what we were learning into our lives consciously.
|
"Love is fearless."
Gary Zukav and Linda Francis
The Heart of the Soul
|
|
|
|
|
|
