FREEDOM ~ ECSTATIC BREATHWORK at the Weho Sanctuary ~ Wed 7/7, 7:30-9pm

Since The Hub is closed July 4th, I will not be teaching that day....however, I WILL be leading an ECSTATIC BREATHWORK group on Wednesday night here in the Weho Sanctuary:

Freedom

What is True Freedom?  It cannot be given or taken.  It is within.  It is here. And it can be tasted, lived, and fully embodied.  Ecstatic Breathwork is a tool for diving deeper into this Freedom.  

Breath Deep. Heart Awake. Body Soft. Attention Clear.

Join Us.

These workshops are for all levels of experience and are nothing less than a tool for setting yourself free.  We’ll use a simple yet powerful breathing meditation as the linchpin for the work.  I call it ECSTATIC BREATHWORK.

When:   Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
Time:       7:30-9:00pm

Exchange:   $40  (no one turned away)

Where:  1226 Havenhurst Dr. #9
                (Havenhurst is 1 block West of Crescent Heights between Santa Monica Blvd and Fountain Ave)

Parking:    It’s best to park at a meter on Santa Monica Blvd or in the West Hollywood City Lot just South of Santa Monica Blvd behind Out Of The Closet between Havenhurst and La Jolla.  The City Lot is $1 per hour in quarters.  Other meters in the area are free after 6pm.

RSVP:      Due to size of the space, please RSVP to hold your place.  If need be, we’ll start a waiting list. 24hrs cancellation by phone. (310) 922-4890

BRING:      A folded blanket and/or yoga mat to lay on for the breathing meditation, water, and a smile!

LOVE,
SCOTT
http://trustthebreath.com
http://scottschwenk.blogspot.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-schwenk

Do You Ever...

Do you ever wonder? Really wonder?

I don't remember a time when I didn't. This kind of curiosity has been the consistent nudge from the Universe that's kept me discovering over and over again new territory outside the confines of what I've already known. It's given me leverage to let go of the familiar and stay engaged with the adventure that is my life.

I remember driving with my Mom in the passenger seat on Sunset Boulevard one stunning sunny afternoon as she turned to me and said, "You're not really a rule-follower, are you?"

"No," I managed to get out through an explosion of laughter, "I'm not."

It's not that I disregard structure, guidelines, rules, and laws. I refuse to be defined by the seeming known. I've always sensed, as far back as I can remember, that there is more to life than what my five senses, the traditional education system, and the media have attempted to condition me with through my intellect.

This natural wonder, curiosity, and reaching through the Unknown...I can't imagine living any other way. Every time I start to get locked into a point of view these days, as my body contracts into position with it, something in me pokes me in the ribs and says, "Wake up...this isn't freedom...look again...let go of trying to control this."

A Spiral Path...

I'm such a typical Capricorn about so many things in my life, and often have had to remind myself and be reminded that nothing about life is actually so linear as my mind tries to make things. Everything in life is linked and interdependent. Every event or happening effected by every previous happening. And yet, nothing is happening whatsoever.

As I get cozier with, and actually digest, the notion that everything is connected to everything, I'm re-introduced with what I experience as a liberating perspective ~ it's 'how' I show up that's profoundly more important to my experience than 'what' I'm actually doing. And it's not like I just read about this on Twitter and am telling myself some cute new narrative to make life seem more bearable. I've heard about this for as long as I've been interested in knowing what the heck this life is really about. However, until recent years, it was just another 'idea'.

I don't even know how well I can explain it (in language) to myself, as I'm mid-stream with the living of it. It's playing itself out through and around me. I'm just becoming more cognizant of it through my experience.

All the paradigms I reach for to put words to this whole thing seem stuck in, rooted in, an 'either/or' perspective. The main one being 'interior/exterior', as in living life from the 'inside-out' or from the 'outside-in'. However, nothing about life is that simple, or that linear...

It seems to me that the only way through all of this without going crazy is to keep contacting direct experience of consciousness itSelf...without trying to make rules for future practice out of any of the experiences.

Consciousness/Awareness is the game itself. It's not becoming conscious, it's recognizing experientially Consciousness as it already is. And that happens through direct experience. Any of the books, scriptures, chants, cd's, classes, lectures, etc.....ultimately the biggest gift they can give me is nothing in contrast with direct experience.

The challenge I've begun to recognize more clearly with time is that on the heels of direct experience, my intellect, left to its own devices, will nearly always try to make some sort of meaning (usually in language, starting with trying to narrate my experience to me while it's actually happening, as if I really need a 'play-by-play' when I'm in the experience) out of the experience, and usually in Language...words.

Well, the thing about words, is that they're fun and all, but they're always talking 'about' something without being the thing itself. Those Taoist bad-asses were quite fond of telling their students that Words are like fingers pointing at the Moon, the word Moon is not the Moon...at some point, depth of Awareness emerges as the pointers (in whatever form; teachers, words, books, memories) are let go of in favor of Direct Experience of Reality.