White Robed Monks of St. Benedict

Semi-Pleanary

SPL0I. Timeless Evolution

Timelessness in Time, and Time in Timelessness, Thomas Hiibl
Popular nondual teachings, both from contemporary and from wisdom tradition teachings often claim "the world is an illusion". Thus it is the goal to just realize the Absolute. On the other side Western developmental studies and sciences highlighting evolutionary progress often are plainly fact, evidence and materialist based. The two might look like seemingly contradictory. Retreating into one of these views, excluding the other, often creates pathologies that we know a lot in today's world. Ultimately neither the world is an illusion only nor it built only from evidential phenomena.
Thomas Hiibl will invite us to open to a deeper "both-and" realization found beyond the above discrepancy. Integrating that each view also resides on a specific developmental level (or cosmic address) he shows that nonduality contains all duality including science and evolution of systems as "not-two". Both are a deeper realization and space of both silence and movement, eternity and development, transcendence and being on the marketplace of life.
The beforehand still dualist perception of form and unformed transcends itself into a larger space where nondual realization includes evolutionary development. Thus both timelessness and manifestation in space and time are no longer contradictory statements - both are contained in a spiritual world-connected evolvement.
Love of transcendence and love of manifestation unify the absolute ground of being and the world. This deeper mystical level dissolves the last duality between the realization of the unshaped silent ground of being and the development manifesting through the evolutionary process.
Thus nonduality and science, wakefulness in both space and form are both harmoniously consistent and consciously comprehend each other: Timelessness in time, and time in timelessness.

Dialog: The Evolution of Enlightenment: Understanding Enlightenment in the Context of States, Stages, and Evolution, Ken Wither (live audio) and Andrew Cohen
Understanding Enlightenment in the Context of States, Stages, and Evolution. In this compelling dialogue, spiritual pioneer Andrew Cohen and acclaimed philosopher Ken Wilber, The Guru & the Pandit, will create the next installment of their ten+ year public conversation about our higher spiritual potentials. When Wilber, 'integral theory' and Cohen, 'evolutionary mysticism' meet, the results are always enlightening. Their dynamic interplay never fails to give rise to mutual insight, pointing the way forward for serious-minded seekers and scientists around the world.

SPL02. Freedom in Timeless Presence

The Kabbalah of God-ing; Time and Timelessness, Rabbi David A. Cooper
The meaning and essence of time has intrigued philosophers and theologians for thousands of years, with some conclusions that interestingly parallel certain ideas that have been discussed in modern science. One of the most difficult ideas arose when exploring the deeper meanings of the opening phrase of the Bible 'In the beginning...'. The ancient sages questioned, "The beginning of what?' They also questioned 'What existed before the beginning?' The same inquiry in modern terms is 'What existed before the Big Bang?', which today's thinkers have proposed is absurd because it is posited that nothing existed before the Big Bang, including time itself. The Kabbalah proposes that the concept of beginningness refers to the idea that something can appear out of nothing, whereas the ancient Greeks had strong opinions that depended upon causality.

Timeless Existence, Infinite Being, Peter Russell, M.A., D.C.S., ES. P. Author
With his distinctive blend of physics, psychology, and philosophy, Peter Russell presents a new worldview in which the fundamental essence of the cosmos is not matter but mind. Despite the remarkable success of modern science in so many areas, it encounters great difficulty around the fundamental questions of consciousness. Western science is based on the assumption that the ultimate essence of the cosmos is matter-energy, in some shape or form. In this talk, Peter will share his latest thinking on why consciousness is the fundamental essence of the cosmos. Many have claimed this from metaphysical perspectives; what makes Peter's model unique is that he arrives at this conclusion using contemporary physics and psychology.
With consciousness as primary, everything remains the same and everything changes. Time and timeless-ness co-exist. And our own inner essence is known to be the essence of what is.

Timeless Presence: moment -by- moment buddhamind, Peter Fenner, PhD
In this dialogue we will discover and rest in the very same state that realized sages in all nondual traditions have enjoyed since time without a beginning. The magical thing about entering this state is that when are here, we share in a timeless, transcultural dimension that is absolutely identical for every one, no matter which body, country or epoch we inhabit. Yet this state of buddhamind is also totally unique and individual in that it happens for us, for you and me, right now in this moment. For as long as we abide in this state of moment-by-moment buddhamind, we are fulfilled in the most complete and comprehensive way possible. We are at a point where consciousness is beyond any further refinement. This is indeed wonderful because it gives us a point of reference, direct immersion in the ground- of- be ing itself, that we can revisit, extend, and ultimately live our lives from.

SPL03, Lucid Dreaming, Consciousness and Quantum Theory

In Dreams Awake: An Overview of Lucid Dreaming from Science to Transcendence,
"Dreams are a reservoir of knowledge and experience," writes Tarthang Tulku, "yet they are often overlooked as a vehicle for exploring reality." Indeed, lucid dreaming (dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming) could be considered a magic carpet among such vehicles, and for more than a thousand years, the Tibetan Buddhists have used lucid dreams as a means of experiencing the illusory nature of personal identity and awakening to reality.
Relatively recent scientific research has provided objective evidence for the reality of lucid dreams, and made the state much more accessible. This workshop will provide a brief overview of the science and practice of lucid dreaming. Topics touched upon will include the following. Learning how to dream more lucidly: Inducing, stabilizing, and guiding lucid dreams. Dream control: freedom, flexibility, and choice. Lucid dream work: from nightmares to wholeness. Dreaming, Illusion and Virtual Reality; Consciousness as a model of self and world. Dream yoga, Death and Transcendence; identity: personal and transpersonal. Life as a dream quest: Awakening in your Dreams and in your Life.

A Time for Caution? Immanence, Transcendence and Nonduality, Zoran Josipovic
This talk will explore different views on nonduality, paths to to it and their stages, and the ways we are becoming accustomed to talking about them. This will provide a background to look at the ways we draw inferences from them about the nature of reality and the space-time continuum.

SPL04. Connecting the Dots

PANEL Beyond Religion — The Rise of a New Spirituality with Rabbi David A. Cooper, Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Father Richard Rohr moderated by Tami Simon
For some thousand years, mystical practices or using modern language "direct experience" have been a small but vital part of Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, and other teligions. While often bordering on the ineffable, some of these mystical experiences have actually led to the creation of some powerful teachings that modern society is reaching out to today. Are we witnessing today the rise of new spirituality which is moving beyond religion and connecting to the mystical aspect of all the spiritual ttaditions which ultimately points to "One".

In this panel, host Tami Simon joins Rabbi David A. Cooper , Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Father Richard Rohr to shed light on some of the common atttibutes of those who yearn for and reach, what they describe as a direct experience of God, the Divine ot something which is larger then ourselves.

PANELNon-duality and Social Change with David Lay, Peter Baumann, John Hagelin, moderated by Terry Patten
Does nondual consciousness provide a basis for positive social change? If so, what might social activism look like when it's founded in nondual consciousness, and how might it differ from conventional social activism?

SPL05. Seeing the Play of Life

Nondual Practice in Everyday Life: Results of a Year-Long Study, Cassandra Vieten, Associate Director of Research, IONS
When you ask nondual practitioners the question, 'How do you practice nonduality?' they may well respond by saying, I object to thtee elements of the question. First the word 'do,' second the wotd 'you' and third, the wotd 'practice.' There is no T that is 'doing' anything, certainly not 'practice!' they might say. This makes studying nonduality a bit dicey! Even so, we've done a laboratory study and a year-long follow-up study of nondual ptactitionets. Come learn more about how nonduality shows up in evetyday life - what people say they do, how they cope with sttess, their health and psychological well-being and finally, how their brains function in the lab.

The Perception of Time, Robert Dittler, PhD
No Time! The mind of a child knows no time. The child lives in an ever-present now, the proverbial kingdom of heaven, nirvana, or the like. Within the now, what is time? How does time exist? Time is an illusion, albeit a false perception. How is time a false perception? Perceptions are true as perceptions; that is what they are. Do we not perceive from inside our heads? We create time. We create Linear Time. We create the past, the present, the future: all but thought forms. We create even different types of time to suit our self-created purposes. Time is just a measurement of motion. Who measures? We do. Remove us, remove time. There is no time. If anything, just Eternal Now.
The mind of a child is resilient - it just lets go. The mind of a child has no ego, no personal stake, no belief and, hence, no past, no present, or no future: just now. No more, no less, being present, being before reality itself as it meets the eye. The mind of a child is Presence - as suggested by the Latin root: pre + esse: to be before. Hey folks, it's just entertainment!
The person who generates the perspective of a child knows no unhealthy stress. There is no past conflicting with a future from a present. What is is. What isn't isn't. From within this perspective one generates healthy and productive resolutions for events now past, plans for events in a yet to be future from within an ever fleeting present.
One deals effectively, efficiently, and effortlessly with tasks at hand, handling illusionary past-present-future situations and events simultaneously - as they are just now.

Clear Seeing and Deep Relaxation at Play, Pamela Wilson
All the wisdom, compassion and love is within, as formless pure potentiality colored with human flavors. How delightfully the known veils the divine! The only constant is this pure intelligence that we are. So we bring mischief to mischief with inner satsang, a playful homeopathy that liberates the appearance of form and function, uncontaining all within. This allows for the deep Rest that is to be lived - for freedom is nothing but deep relaxation and clarity. No time is required to return everything to its true nature, as it is all just pretending to be other. When we see into the heart of everything, we can truly enjoy! Naturalness is vivid and joyful, rooted and vast, unshakeable."

SPL06. Exploration of Timelessness

Discovering a Timeless Spaciousness in Psychotherapy, John Prendergast, PhD andKaisa Puhakka, NDWP
Most clients entering psychotherapy, as well as most psychotherapists, identify with a narrative that binds themselves in time and space. This presentation will explore how this binding narrative may deconsttuct in the field of open presence, leaving both client and therapist resting in what subjectively feels like a timeless spaciousness. Themes that will be explored include:

1. That the experience of timelessness corresponds wirh spacious awareness.
2. How discovery of our timeless and spacious natute arises spontaneously out of nondual awareness, that it is not a technique. Presence evokes itself.
3. That timeless awareness is always available regardless of the content of a session and that certain moments of non-directional silence can lend themselves as experiential portals to contact this awareness.
4. That refined attunement to or resonance with present experience is a portal.
5. That investigation of the truth of any belief and the resting in not-knowing is a portal.
6. That time and the timeless are ultimately undivided or nondual.
7. The different motives and capacities that clients bring to therapy in contrast to what students may bring to their spiritual teachers

SPL07. Freedom in Not-Knowing

Non-Duality and Freedom in Every-Day Life, Bentinho Massaro
Real Freedom doesn't mind how your life looks and feels like; it is readily available equal to everyone regardless of circumstances, thoughts, emotions, or other experiences. Real Freedom is not necessarily about freedom FROM all experiences and circumstances, more than that it is about finding freedom WITHIN all experiences and circumstances. Non-Duality to me, from a practical perspective, means to live life in a way that is undivided. Or you could say: whole-hearted. Undivided simply means that the illusion of separation as something existentially real and solid, is experientially seen, or 'felt' through. You cannot think your way out of this one, you'll have to go beyond. But it is far simpler than many might 'think'! In this program we will discover in a short period of time how we can experience inner freedom through non-duality not as a particular sensation, but as a basic experiential understanding to actually live every-day life from.

Meeting in Not-Knowing, Unmani, Author
Unmani points very directly to who you really are beyond all the words and concepts. If there is a readiness to hear this, then there is a possibility to investigate the reality of everything that you have ever believed in. Realizing more and more that your whole life is based on an assumption of who you think you are, there is a total freefall into not knowing.

Creating a Sacred Relationship, Kenny Johnson
We speak of being in imprisoned by our mind. This is our human experience. When faced with incarceration as a real fact. Brick and mortar, guns and fences. Where do you turn? Whom do you call upon? What power exists to hear and then come to your aid? It is here when one gets down on their knees and seek divine intervention and guidance. It is in this silent and sacred space that you come face to face with the One-True Real-God that defi.es description. Herein we experience gratitude and knowing this is Advaita, this is Non-duality

SPL08. (Not offered)

SPL09. The Timeless Dance of Time

Dancing on the Edge of Time, Scan O'Laoire
When the first group of Homo Sapiens Sapiens sat around a campfire in East Africa and began to practice their newly acquired speech, they told stories. Over time these stories broke into four different kinds: Personal Stories, which gave individuals their ontological identity; History, which was the tribe's effort at fashioning a group identity; Cosmology, which were their efforts at explaining the universe in which they found themselves; and Theology, which was the record of their relationships with the gods.
But these roads have often wandered in the wasteland: Personal Stories became the justification for greed and narcissism; History became propaganda; Cosmology disintegrated into materialistic scientism; and Theology became the breeding ground of fundamentalist sectarian religions.
It's time to recover the true purpose of story-telling: to see the individual as a nexus in the web of life; to view history as the teleological imprint of a future that beckons us; to reinstate awe as the primary tool of scientific enquiry; and to drill down deeply into the wells of religion until we find the mystical water-table that feeds all of them.
So, in my presentation, I will cover five points: firstly, I will briefly trace the evolution of spirituality and suggest where it is headed; secondly, I will quickly look at the development of our self-image as a species; thirdly, I will examine the notion of "Trickle Down Thinking" in our economic policies, in our technologies and in our major religions; fourthly, I will look at some great bifurcation points in evolutionary history and predict what the next one may be; and, finally, I will look at what a suitable charter might be that will prepare us for cosmic citizenship; citizenship which is the reward for impregnating that All-Source-Filled Void with the intentionality of a unity consciousness. This session is eligible for CE credit.

Radical Love - Living the Future Now, Judith Oroff M.Ed. Co-founder of Radical Love Foundation
Many of us think the future is the period of time still to come. Yet, when this future arrives, it is always now, never later. Many times, we succeed in a relationship, professional life goal, or a terrific plan for our company, yet our inner life may still feel as it did when we began. So what is the future? Much of the time, we plan and dream of something new that will happen later or we do our best to keep the good feeling that we have today and guard it tenaciously. Radical Love, our promise is to bring clear access to a new future here right now, no waiting. Our experiential presentation will invite you to live a new future based on the skills of sharing your direct experience of pure listening, pure speaking and free choice.

Living Now: The Collapse of Time and the Timeless, Dorothy Hunt
Time is timelessness made manifest as being, neither existing nor not existing. Time and space are constructs that allow the perception of duration and form in the Dream—life's flow. What we call time is simply the perception of change, or impermanence. When mind is at one with the flow of impermanence, there is, paradoxically, an experience of stillness, or a dropping away of time. When mind is in resistance to the moment, identified with a "me" who demands life appear in a certain way, time/being may be experienced as an enemy to defeat or something to cling to.
However, living from the deepest dimension of our Being, space, time and the timeless collapse into now.
Now is neither a split second in time, which could always be divisible, nor an eternity imagined as endless duration in time. When we are totally present now, beyond ideas, we are living awake, no longer identified with past memories or future expectations. The eternal is time-less, yet appears as this very moment—fresh, mysterious, alive, and free of "me;" for when time and the timeless collapse into now, so do subject and object.
Dualistic ideas of Absolute and relative disappear into something unnamable yet vibrant, dynamic, and fully functioning as Whole. In awakening out of identification with a time-bound body/mind, time can be seen as vertical rather than horizontal in the sense that everything that has ever happened or could happen is present in the inexhaustible, eternal potential of Now. Through dialogue and meditative inquiry, we will explore the freshness of Now as it is perceived rather than conceived. The invitation will be to awaken to the reality that being, time and timelessness are actually undivided, and to explore how living now pertains to living whole-heartedly and without separation. For more information visit www.dorothyhunt.org.