WOSP (THE WONDER OF SILENCE & PRESENCE)
13-16/1O/16 A BLOG

It was the 3rd of its kind. There's even a book out on the first one, so - same again?

Not at all. I'm quite unable to repeat, to copy, to follow a line or a plan. As the Q&A at the end of this WOSP is named: Gone is Gone!

So Here was Here. Thirty of us, including 3 very old friends from England, whom I'd not seen for several years, since the seminars there were (temporarily?) discontinued, also a psychoanalyst all the way from Chile, an Austrian businessman, full of 'the world' - and its values (took some time to turn him on his head but we did!), also Varuni, my 'oldest' No 1 assistant and co- trainer of dozens of earlier Energy Trainings, many old friends – and some newcomers who were also allowed in, and who turned out to be really juicy...

Where does spontaneity come from? They wanted to know. Well sometimes, sure, from within. Sometimes! How to live the true nature? Does that too come from within? Eventually. But both are there waiting in your cosmic soul which is part of THE original nature of all things. Be in the service of that, and spontaneity is simply the case.

Non-doing. Wu-Wei. Not going for rides but being taken for rides. Then - all is new. Always. (Even when it's not.)

Then we had:

Desire itself is movement
Not in itself desirable;
Love is itelf unmoving,
Only the cause and end of movement,
Timeless, and undesiring
Except in the aspect of time T.S.Eliot

Saturday morning, first morning session. I enter Extraordinary Space, our UNACHO grouproom.

The sun is shining through the window, casting shadows of my little table, with too the flowers and other things on it, falling in shaded pattern on the carpet. It's a design from heaven. I'm stunned. Thunderstruck. This is exquisite. Then out into the garden goes my glance, same there too...

Then I am Beauty.

Not beautiful. Nor is all else beautiful, not the group people, not yet part of Beauty, but the thrown image is part of Beauty, and then I realize, so am I.

And then I recall that wonderful exchange between Buddha and his cousin-disciple Ananda, which was also part of the invitation to the current senior longterm course, Love & Beauty. Here it is:

“Oh, say not so, Ananda, say not so,” said Buddha when his disciple-companion-cousin said to him, ”Teacher, isn’t beauty half the goal, doesn’t the holy life consist of drawing near to beauty step by step?” Replied Buddha,“Oh say not so, Ananda, say not so. Not half. Say it is the whole.”
So that is how it was for the rest of that session. Everyone was with me, up to a point. So not a whisper, not a movement, not a departure of any kind from the space created...
I've been in the midst of Love before, and of Bliss, very often in the midst of Union and Oneness, but not Beauty, not like this before...
Extraordinary. A mine of wonder. Surrendering to it, then playing some music - from my very dear friend Peter Makena. Then it's coffee time.
A couple of short talks - a mail from Sebanta just arrived saying: Just editing those two short talks, going to become one. The first 10 mins of the talk are absolutely FANTASTIC. WOW!! So inspiring. Thanks for bringing one more time IT into the valley below.
Mecca, who is still here, says to me, "Michael, this group was just so wonderful."
Ralha writes: What I experienced during WOSP and what is still in me, is sooooo...deep that it seems impossible to find the right words for it. It was like being pulled from the surface of the ocean down deeper and deeper...endlessly...and even more deep towards the ground, but there was no ground, no ending. There was only this pure sweet feeling of being, like the heartbeat of the universe. Not this, not that, nothing in particular, like a big loving smile without a person who smiles.
One voice, but probably speaks for many. So it seemed anyway, the way they all were. Once again...coming out of nowhere, but drawn to us, by us. By what we do, what we are open to, here and elsewhere, over & over again.
To realise that that IS there, yet so few know it, know of it! We are blessed. At least for sure it's a blessing, especially for those who want it, who are open to it, who embrace it when it is there.
At the end, two of the new people asked for and received Wild Goose spiritual names: Ishama and Insala. (No surprise!) Then the Q&A: What's Done Is Done! Meaning the past is no more, now it's just this.
And so it was time for lunch, and then for me, my soccer hours...
Today son Madi is off to Konstanz, where he begins his University career. Michael: Are you nervous? Madi: Not at all. And neither was I, on my way to Cambridge, aeons ago!
Next up is Copenhagen, with Tiago, Mayadevi and Nabi taking care of another big bunch of people. I've been going there since the very beginning, including, once, an Open Evening with 200 people. Over this long time lots of people from there and from the rest of Denmark have become really close, and much beloved. For that I am more than ready...
Next WOSP: 23-26 Feb 2017!
On my walk this morning, Tuesday, step by step by no-step, it was clear that, the more presence – the more bliss, the more wonder, the more beauty...
LotsofLOVEtoYouAll
Michael