Diana Certified As Sky-Dancing Facilitator!

Friday, November 23, 2007

Following a fourth and final week-long training, Diana was one of six teachers to be selected by Margot Anand, her assistants, and those of us participating, as a certified Sky-Dancing instructor! No mean feat. By turns harrowing, ecstatic, sublime, and downright nerve-wracking, Margot kept us all on our toes with surprise requests to teach certain segments without rehearsing, assist her in facilitating fellow students, and generally demonstrate that we had all done our homework. Diana was brilliant, displaying her natural ease with the material (which is vast), as well as her uncanny ability to connect with others on a soul-to-soul level.

As for yours truly, I am now an acknowledged Teacher-in-Training, and thrilled to be a member of this amazing team that is taking shape around Margot in the US. It's an exciting time to be involved in this work of ushering in to being a truly body-based spiritual path, Sky- Dancing Tantra.

Shalom-Aloha!

"Ecstasy works. Yet for a long time it has been underemployed. The time has come to rediscover it. One moment of ecstasy can transform your life." -- Margot Anand

Healing the Split - Practical Work On Self

Broken cutters, broken saws,
Broken buckles, broken laws,
Broken bodies, broken bones,
Broken voices on broken phones.
Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin',
Everything is broken.
-- Bob Dylan


A quick note about the "split". Love/sex, man/woman, spirit/matter, body/mind... the more I meditate/cogitate about these dualisms, the more amorphous they become. Yes, I know, come Monday morning, I'll be knocking off hats again. I'm not boasting of some grand *Aha* moment, and that's exactly the point I'm making. The healing of these so-called splits is supposed to take forever! It's an appropriate life's Work. Or, as we used to say back in the day: “There are no obstacles on the path, the obstacles are the path.”

The idea that Creation itself is in a fallen state is central to our collective Judeo-Christian culture. Damn near everything we see, read, or hear is aimed to bring us back to some prior unity and balance. We're all in the business. Heck, even this blog holds out some *hope* for healing!

While it's true that Tantra is a whole lot more than just sexual dexterity in a ritual format, I would not want to lead anyone (or myself) to believe that Tantra can put back together all that has become separate. But it is the most direct path that I have found to the realization that the unity I seek is within myself, and that any possibility of union "outside" of myself is null and void. Already. Even the seeking itself is just so much pulling up of bootstraps. "As if", as my 20-somethings would say.

So, if you're interested in looking at a Way to do some real work, some fun work, and explore the essence of Tantra, then by all means join us on Thursday night November 1 for our FREE evening of exercises and Puja in Minneapolis! Information HERE

Our Healing the Split Between Love and Sex workshop follows on Saturday and Sunday, November 3rd & 4th (same LINK ), Give us a call or drop a line, we'd love to hear from you!

Namaste',
Glenn & Diana

In the Spirit of Intimacy - The New Stuff!

Most of the time, Diana and I learn gradually that intimacy is a gift from spirit and requires our gratitude and willingness to hear what spirit has brought us together for. With truth-telling, patience and occasional gnashing of teeth, we take a few steps forward, a couple back, often wondering if we're on the right track or not.

But every once in a while, the Big Love-Train rumbles into town and instantly blows away all doubt.

Last Friday night's class on Finding Your Sexual Voice was just such an arrival. With a small gathering of fellow passengers, Diana and I explored the connection between the human voice and Life Energy (aka "sexual energy"). Using guided meditation, ecstatic dance, and flat-out babbling gibberish to activate our deeper voices, we all laughed till our sides were sore and declared out loud our inherent freedom of speech with regard to matters of the heart and below.

It was a revelation for me to see that not only were all of our participants moving beyond their acculturated fears and speaking freely of their sexuality, they were also quite ready to do so, needing very little "instruction" from Diana or me! Afterwards, the mood in the room was riveting as person after person spoke of how touched they were to share on such a deep level. As westerners, we may still be in our adolescence concerning intimacy, but gatherings like these convince me we are taking a collective step into an adult stance in relationships.

And, as life imitates art, Diana and I went on to enjoy the most amazing weekend of clarity and deep trusting, discovering anew that frank communication of our own truths is sacred. And funny! Our stories are just fine they way they are, no apologies or fixing necessary. My overly polite, Minnesota-nice style of speaking about all things "below" to our newbies (avoiding anus-penis-vagina) is hysterically funny, actually! And I'll let you ask Diana about her favorite word that she wishes she could take back.

Somehow, in the process of learning and teaching others how to speak the body's whole truth, Diana and I were given fresh ears to hear, at least for a time. To fully embrace sexuality as sacred in this so-called culture means working against the grain, no doubt about it. But for our friends and us, compassion is the by-product that wells up as we share our stories and realize that we're not alone with our conditioned shame, self-consciousness and self-doubt. It's like finding ourselves in the sweet fresh air that surrounds a waterfall - we relax and breathe deeply. Speaking openly and honestly - in the spirit of intimacy - we even recover self-compassion, and finally (or suddenly) get an inkling of what it is to be "alove" in this world.

As Diana would say, "This is not the same old boring schtick. We've got to let our people know somehow that this is the New Stuff!"

I couldn't agree more...

Hope to see you all in November,

Namaste',
Glenn

I've kicked the habit
Shed my skin
This is the new stuff
I go dancing in, we go dancing in
Oh won't you show for me
And I will show for you
Show for me, I will show for you

Sledgehammer - Peter Gabriel

Healing the "Split" Between Love and Sex

Minneapolis, Minnesota
November 3rd and 4th, 2007

Saturday 8:30 am - 9:30 pm & Sunday 8:30 am - 1:00 pm

(FREE evening introduction and Puja,
Thursday, November 1st, 7:00 - 9:30 pm)

In the yoga of tantra, shadow and light, or desire and spirituality, can live together. By accepting and allowing these apparently opposite energies within our own bodies, we build self-trust and realize greater harmony in all our relationships.

In an atmosphere of safety and fun, you will explore how to feel beyond sexual wounds such as guilt and shame, and practice balancing the healthy masculine/feminine essences within your own being to create vitality and wholeness.

Using breath and movement, humor and group dynamics, we will discover the flow between sex and heart and build a strong foundation for truly ecstatic living.

Cost: $150 - $200, sliding scale. $20 discount
for bringing a friend!
RSVP for our Minneapolis location.

Your Facilitators

Glenn Bourdot and Diana Owens

Call: Glenn at 507-649-2488 or Diana at 928-445-7501


"Healing may not be so much about getting better, as about letting go of everything that isn't you - all of the expectations, all of the beliefs - and becoming who you are." ~ Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D.

This is the second part of our on-going series In the Spirit of Intimacy

Join us and discover the unity inside and outside of yourself!

Finding Your Sexual Voice - Registration Info

Finding Your Sexual Voice
(and Speaking the Truth!)

An Evening of Discovery, Laughter and Empowerment
Friday, October 5th, 2007, 7:00 - 9:30pm
Monarch Bookstore, 405 Division St Northfield, MN

A FREE evening preview of our ongoing winter series,
"In the Spirit of Intimacy"

What would your voice sound like, or feel like, free of any need to communicate? Can you get a sense that your throat center is your abode of inspiration, the door that opens to a joining of your heart and mind, sex and Spirit?

As we mutually create a safe and heart-full space, you will be able to discover and explore your authentic, whole-body voice. Using body movement, guided visualization, laughter, and a unique throat-loosening exercise, you will be amazed at your ability to speak from the Radiant Energy of Life, which, as we often point out, is commonly referred to in our culture as "sexuality". Our concluding Puja, or circle of sharing appreciations and blessings, should be super-charged indeed!

~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@~@

WHEN: Friday, October 5th, from 7-9:30 PM.
WHERE: The Monarch Bookstore, 405 Division St Northfield MN (back room, come in the front door)
FACILITATORS: Diana Owens, LCSW, CST. and Glenn Bourdot
TO REGISTER: CALL Glenn at 507-649-2488

Finding Your Sexual Voice

My teacher used to say, "The voice is the only instrument made by God. All the other instruments are made by man." -- Shabda Khan

So - how do YOU tell your truth? The flow of love, the passion of sex - how does your sharing of this power actually sound? Can you get a sense that your throat center is your abode of inspiration, the door that opens to a joining of heart and mind, sex and Spirit?

To be sure, we never learned of such things in high school! If anything, we've all adopted a utilitarian approach of using our voice to merely express information to get the job done. As a friend of mine just told me today in all seriousness, "communication is really over-rated."

But what if communication as we know it is underdeveloped? Or, at least, still evolving?

What if telling our Truth, or finding our authentic voice, really hinged on our ability to tap into all of our levels of Consciousness, including our sexual center?

This will be the starting point of our winter series of workshops and Pujas, as Diana and I explore with you the connections between voice, sexuality and truth.

Please join us for our lead-off evening in Northfield at the Monarch Bookstore this October 5th, for meditation, movement and Shift, as we put voice to the very energy of Life, commonly referred to in our culture as "sexuality".

NamastAmen,
Glenn

Choosing Spilt Milk

I'm always talking about the same thing. Ask Diana. It's why we're together, I believe, but I'll say more about that later. Right now I'll just stick to what I know.

Beyond the overwhelmingly obvious link between sex and Heart (you may all nudge-nudge each other now), it simply just blows my mind that whatever form Reality takes, it looks a heck of a lot like what I say it is.

Great sunset? Blessed be. Spilt milk? Aww, shhh... ummm, I mean, Ah-Men!

Margot Anand offers a thumbnail definition of tantra that also applies to this peculiar ability of "the world out there" to mirror our inner assumptions about it. "Choose with awareness", she says, "that which brings you joy, and opens your heart to spirit."

Needless to say, I am indebted to Margot (and Diana) for the title of this very blog, Choosing the Loving Way. Here, I intend to highlight, celebrate, and rave sublimely about the sheer miracle of Existence, the galvanizing power of Shadow, and the ineffable breakthroughs into Light and Love Itself. Choosing the Loving Way will also serve as a means of networking and creating community for all those interested in Diana's work and writing and our workshops together.

For now, I will leave you with another photo that I took of Diana and me this summer, as I am still learning how to use this site! And just because I can...

Namaste'