BLOG- WINTER FESTIVAL: 27/12 – 1/1

 “Whatever I do for you from the cosmic space, whatever I say, is always a gain, always positive, however you take it, that’s the way it’s all set up.”

“I can’t take you to Heaven, I don’t want to take you to Heaven, even if it exists,

but between Earth and what we consider to be Heaven there is another place which has the characteristics of both heaven and earth. You keep your feet on the ground, you retain your singularity, and at the same time you are one with everything.

There we can go together.

And it is in this room right now.

And the body can join it too because within the body there is a level of energy that can unite with that formless dimension.”

“There are many stages of samadhi (enlightenment). In the East they say the highest form is sahaj samadhi. Sahaj is usually translated as spontaneity, but that doesn’t quite catch it. It is beyond the person as person, though the person lives it. It comes from that which presides over all life and all its possibilities.”

“Structures rule. To escape from our developed structures we have to STOP. “Buddha has cried STOP!” Fall back to the beginning, again & again. This isn’t change, this is Transformation. ‘Energy & Transformation’, that was the name of my first book on the subject – in 1980. It is to be reborn.”

All from talks at the Winter Festival.

The water that was running for me there, in Asolo, after the first day, was falling from my nose. Continuously. The sound nearest to the water running over the weir was my lungs, later, coughing their heart out. Night and day.

But not during group time! Luckily, I don’t work in the same dimension as coughs and colds and sneezes, so in the sessions, no handicap. But in between…

There, where we were again, at the Villa Flangini, like last year, though the place now under different management, the food this time was not great, the whole place took a time to warm up in the cold that was this year there, yet somehow everyone had a good time, with walks up to the village, and many meeting in the cafes there, lots of exchanges over the dining tables – and wherever the Wild Geese met, plenty of happiness, laughter, friendship, celebration – right up until New Year’s Eve, and the endless dishes we were then served, on & on! For hours! And then just around midnight, at last, champagne, Happy New Years all round –and it was real disco time, mastered by two guys who live half their lives it seems in music: Ramado & Aranta. Slowly it built up, gathering steam, until even I, sitting in my rotten cold, found myself going somewhat bananas on the dance floor for a while…Mishka & I left at 02.00. Next morning Aranta told me that the end of it had finally come at 07.30!

So then, a final breakfast and then the long drive home – for us 700 kms, half each for Mishka and me, my cold on the shelf.

When we got back home – a real relief this time for me, so snug! – my flu let me go somewhat, only to jump on Mishka and squeeze her even harder than it had done me, and not only her, three other members of our home team sank into the epidemic mud. Now as I write this, everyone is again vertical, so time to look back, and write this blog, and thank those who helped me somersault these 5 days, Mrs Mishka, Tiago, Akali, Vandana, Sandipa & Anuradha – plus of course our 54 other participants that opened their hearts and arms to all that was there and all that was offered over these days at the turn of yet another year.

(And already a number gearing up to join the first seminar of the year – here at UNACHO soon, the new WOSP (The Wonder of Silence & Presence)

See you over the coming time – and very welcome too!

LOVE
Michael

 

“Thank you sooo much for the wonderful Winter Festival. The energy and the space were sensational, I loved it!” (a participant)

 

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being a demonstration of Love and Oneness, over and over again. I promise to follow you all the way now and not to stop. Well, You did not stop so how could I stop?” (another participant)

 

“The Winter Festival was incredible and the absolute best New Year’s Eve of my life. I feel so blessed.” (another participant)