The Modern Mystic
Embodied Spirituality in Everyday Life
A 5-Month Journey | March - July 2024
The Modern Mystic | Core Program Components
A Daily Spiritual Practice
A dedicated spiritual practice is the anchor and undercurrent supporting the mystical life. Many of us are understandably occupied with the busyness of daily living and have trouble prioritizing a spiritual practice. A daily practice creates an important pause in our day, opening us to a deeper dimension of ourselves, an inner place of refuge and stillness amidst the noise and constant stimulus of the world.
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During this program, committing to a daily practice provides an essential resource that supports us to navigate the challenges around us and stay grounded amidst the global crises we're facing. We will explore different types of spiritual practices and commit to a daily spiritual practice as the fundamental support to guide our journey together over these 5 months.
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Pillars for Mystical Living
1st Pillar Reclaiming the Sacred
Black Elk | Oglala Lakota Holy Man
Reclaiming the Sacred is the heart of the mystical path. For many people in today's world, there's an absence of the sacred dimension in daily life. In this pillar, our focus will be how to access and cultivate this dimension in the midst of our ordinary day. Through conscious pauses, meaningful rituals, and reconnecting to the deeper meaning available in the present moment, we can reclaim our sincere awe, care, and respect for this sacred dimension at the heart of all existence.
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In this pillar, you will experience:​
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How to access this sacred dimension in daily life
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The gifts of opening ourselves to the sacred
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Ways to deepen your relationship with your unique spiritual source
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Nature as a portal and pathway for reclaiming the sacred
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A deeper sense of awe and respect for the gifts of life​
2nd Pillar Fundamental Goodness
“Our starting was always original goodness. This makes our ending place-and everything in between-possessing an inherent capacity for goodness, truth, and beauty" Richard Rohr | Christian Mystic
Reconnecting to our Original Goodness is an important key to living a mystical life. Most human beings suffer from a sense of profound unworthiness, shame, or even a subtle feeling that something is wrong with me. At the spiritual level, this results out of a basic disconnection from our own true nature, our own inherent wholeness, and the separation from who we are, at our deepest core.
Unfortunately, many religious traditions on the planet have contributed to this sense of separateness and the feelings of inadequacy that we carry. As Mystics, we're engaged on a journey of remembering who we really are and transmitting that out into the world around us. This requires un-learning and a letting go of our tightly-held beliefs and a curiosity and willingness to reconnect to our inherent wholeness.
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In this pillar, you will experience:​
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Your own inherent goodness and how to embody it more fully
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A deeper recognition of the original goodness in others
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How to mirror and transmit the qualities of goodness into the world
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How to find and reveal the goodness in the midst of suffering
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3rd Pillar Inner Transformation
“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."
Rumi | Suf Mystic
Mystics are committed to engage in a profound journey of inward transformation. As we seek to embody our spiritual nature in the ordinary and challenging moments of life, we are confronted with blocks along the way. A holistic process of spiritual embodiment requires a process of inner transformation. Modern mystics are tasked with working on our own reactivity and judgments, and recognizing the ways that our ego-personality at times blocks the free-flow of compassion, kindness and love wanting to come through us. We begin to recognize, more clearly, when we're not living from our fundamental goodness, and how this can cause pain to ourselves and others. Seen in this way, our inner transformation unlocks the door for us to fully embody our spiritual attributes in the world.
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In this pillar, you will experience:​​
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​Your greatest spiritual opportunity for growth at this time
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How to transform the obstacles that block the free-flow of your spiritual nature
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The role of self-compassion on your journey of inner transformation
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The healing and transformative power of healthy confessions
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4th Pillar Radical Compassion
“Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded. It's a relationship between equals. Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others. Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity." Pema Chodron | Buddhist Nun
Radical Compassion is an expanded and integrated understanding of compassion. We'll disrupt the long-held myths about compassion and discover how to be radically compassionate in today's suffering world as we interface with the existential crises, political upheavals, wars, injustices, and the hatred and violence that surrounds us.
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In this pillar, you will experience:​​​
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How to activate the qualities of radical compassion for yourself and others
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What it means to respond with radical compassion in the face of harmful behavior
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Radical compassion as an essential resource for living in these challenging times
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How radical compassion leads to skillful action for ourselves, others, and the world
5th Pillar The World is the Monastery
The World is the Monastery. In this pillar we explore how to approach the world as the monastery itself. The modern mystic recognizes that the situations and people we encounter, along with the global and existential challenges we face, are spiritual opportunities to practice and invitations to grow. Instead of withdrawing from the world to experience peace and divinity, modern mystics are tasked with learning how to abide in their deepest spiritual center in the midst of this suffering world.
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In this pillar, you will experience:​​
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​How to approach the world as the monastery
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How to work with your Spiritual Crucible
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How to transform reactivity into practice opportunity
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How to abide in your spiritual center in the midst of the conflict and crises around us
6th Pillar Instrument of Peace
"Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.Where there is hatred, let me bring love.Where there is offence, let me bring pardon.Where there is discord, let me bring union.Where there is error, let me bring truth.Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.Where there is despair, let me bring hope.Where there is darkness, let me bring light.Where there is sadness, let me bring joy." St. Francis of Assisi | Christian Mystic
Living AS an Instrument of Peace. The journey of the mystic culminates in the understanding that our spiritual growth and breakthroughs, though personally transformative, aren't just for me. The modern mystic recognizes that our personal transformation is ultimately about a much greater transformation: offering ourselves to the world as instruments of peace, love, wholeness, and healing. The mystic asks: how does my growth, transformation, and spiritual embodiment benefit others? Our lives reach another level of fullness and meaning when we're in service of healing our suffering world.
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In this pillar, you will experience:​​
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How to live as an instrument of peace in our world right now
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How to shift from a "me" to a "we" orientation
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How to offer your unique gift in service of something greater than yourself
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How to recognize that we are deeply bound to each other through our shared humanity
Join Neelama and a small group of committed spiritual seekers as we engage in an experiential 5-month journey.
Program Overview:
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An initial 1/2 day retreat
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Monthly Teaching & Practice Sessions
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Monthly Spiritual Sangha Sessions (Q&A with Neelama to deepen your practice and receive personalized support )
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A final completion/integration session
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Monthly downloadable guided meditations
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A customized practice to deepen each month's pillar
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Downloadable audio & video recordings of all sessions
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A monthly email with inspiration, resources, and tips for going deeper
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A Private Whatsapp group to share your journey with Neelama and the group
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Optional: Spiritual buddy or mini-pod for additional sharing and practice each month
