Silent Spiritual Retreat: A Great Way to Recharge

Have you ever heard of Spirit Falls Retreat? It’s in an isolated area of Arizona but not far from Sedona and Phoenix right on the edge of Tonto National Forest. Judging from the pictures on the website, there are lots of wild but friendly animals that come to visit too. It would be an ideal spot for healing, writing, awakening or yes, a silent retreat by yourself or with a partner. There are several modern log cabins and the owner/ guide, Bodhi Heart, is in residence.

Silent Spiritual Retreat: A Great Way to Recharge

Due to the high desert conditions and abundant wildlife, there is no smoking or pets allowed. The details, great music and more information about the hermitage cabin are all available and easy to find on the website so that you too can experience a silent spiritual retreat: a great way to recharge.

Silent meditation retreats
Secluded in mountain forests east of Sedona, Spirit Falls is a silent spiritual retreat for personal meditation, sacred inner and outer journeys, and quiet solitude.
AFFORDABLE yoga, fasting, healing retreats
Spirit Falls is a rare find in affordable personal retreats for yoga, fasting and healing. The private retreat offers cozy log cabins near small waterfalls, a gazebo and spa.
MOUNTAIN hiking, solitude, nature retreats
Hiking forest lakes and Sedona red rocks, creek swimming, bird watching, and writing are ways of relaxing and enjoying the peace in each moment at Spirit Falls.
RETREATS for spiritual awakening
Expanded awareness and spiritual awakening are nurtured in stillness at Spirit Falls, punctuated by distant chimes, gentle breezes, and water dancing over nearby rocks.
To view the website, click here

Here is what Bodhi Heart himself says about the personal spiritual retreats.

Secluded in mountain forests near Sedona, AZ, Spirit Falls is one of the most affordable and well reviewed retreats in the US. It offers cozy log cabins by soothing waterfalls with kitchenettes and private baths for $300-$500/week, along with a yoga meditation gazebo and forest hot tub.
Personal retreats at Spirit Falls offer you the freedom to follow your heart and leave schedules behind. You can enjoy forest solitude, lakes, and abundant wildlife, and also hike the magnificent red rocks and vortexes of world-famous Sedona.
Plan a silent retreat with yoga and meditation, a healing or fasting retreat, or come for self-discovery and spiritual awakening. Whatever your retreat interests, host Bodhi Heart creates a safe refuge and is ready to provide support and encouragement to awakening hearts.
Photos, video, and retreat info are at spiritfallsretreat.com and spiritskiesretreat.com, and insightful guest reviews are at tripadvisor.com. Extended seasonal sabbaticals are available for $550-$950/month.

There are two retreat centers close by to each other – Spirit Falls and Spirit Skies. You can access them both online using the links above. You can also find the e-mail address and phone number. If you try one of these retreats, especially on of the silent retreats, please send me a message or comment below, OK?

Spiritual and Political Leader, Aung San Suu Kyi Travels to Washington D.C.

As she said in her acceptance speech, her presence in Washington was only a distant dream till recently due to her long years of house arrest in Myamar where she is simply known as “The Lady”. She traveled to Washington to accept the Congressional Gold Metal and to speak to the UN General Assembly in New York. I think once you have viewed this video you will agree she is a very moving speaker.

Spiritual and Political Leader, Aung San Suu Kyi Travels to Washington D.C.

Having visited Burmese refugees on the border of Thailand and worked with activists to free her from house arrest, it’s a great moment to see her not only speaking in public but also being able to travel to other countries and return again to Myamar. Few of us would have been willing to give up our family and happy life in the West for our country as she has. My special thanks to Ken and Visakha Kawasaki, now living in Sri Lanka, for making us all aware of the plight of the people of Myamar. May these people in one of the poorest countries in the world be able to make the long journey still ahead to a democratic and economic prosperity. There are a number of interesting books written about her, but if you wish to read what Suu Kyi herself has written, I recommend this book: Freedom From Fear published in 2010. You can view or purchase this book by clicking on the title or on the picture below.

Combining Plant Medicine with Western Medicine

Jessie Salisbury, a correspondent for the New York news blog, Cabinet Press, describes his type of healing combining spiritual healing with plant spirit medicine healing. He maintains that he never diagnoses or prescribes cures but instead he promotes balance and inner harmony which will then lead to cures. Here is what he has to say.

Combining Plant Medicine with Western Medicine

Cowan, he said, was an acupuncturist within the Classical Five Element school of practice. “He started using what he knew of the five elements, but instead of using needles, he called on the plant spirits. In this way, he
reintroduced Plant Spirit Medicine to the western world.”
Griffin noted the calming effect of plants while walking in a garden, or in the woods.
“We can have a loving relationship with plants,” he said. “There is peace in a garden. We are in the world with (plants) and they have a lot of wisdom to share.”
About 10 years ago, Cowan and his students began looking for a place to build a center where this practice could be taught. That is now the Blue Deer Center in upstate New York. Cowan’s students are given a rigorous course of training and are then introduced as Lay Spiritual Healers with The Temple of Sacred Fire Healing, which is an officially chartered church.”
The practice was never intended to replace conventional medicine, he said.
“We don’t diagnose or treat diseases. It is to promote balance and inner harmony. It takes into account the whole person, including body, mind and spirit. Most indigenous peoples have a connection with the spirits of nature. In a sense, this is a tradition of traditions, taught in a traditional way.”
To read the original post click here.

It’s a very traditional way of healing brought back to life by people like Jessie. However, the traditions have come from the native and indigenous people of the world. It is time to learn as much as we can from these elders before they all pass over and leave us to figure out the plant connections all over again. If you wish to know more about his approach go to: http://www.plantspiritmedicine.org

Strange, Unexplained Sights in August 2012

Here’s another video that is controversial about crop circles and unknown lights in the sky. There have been endless comments to this video on YouTube. Do you have one to add? According to this video the crop circles and lights were a daily occurrence in August. Are we getting closer to communicating with them? What do they want us to do? No one is sure they even exist. Anyway, here’s the video; see what you think.

This is part 1. There is a part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYgTlW-4rCc
and a part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D0RfEzB4qM&feature=youtu.be
They seem to be increasing in frequency and the crop circles are getting more complex; definitely a kind of live art. If you like this video please share it with a friend.

Burning Man Festival: The Ultimate Retreat

This festival has been going since 1986 in the United States and has grown amazingly each year. It’s now held in the northern Nevada desert called Black Rock Desert. It opens every year on the last Monday of August and goes till the first Monday in September, a holiday in the US (Labor Day). The name comes from a large 40 foot or 12 meter high wooden effigy of a man that is burned on Saturday night each year. Here is an article by Derek Beres writing for the Huffington Post (Religion Canada section) about this year’s celebration.

Burning Man Festival: The Ultimate Retreat

The annual ritual known as Burning Man probably had 60,900 meanings for everyone in Aattendance this year. But my second sojourn to the festival in the desert verified what I recalled from my first: This is the most widespread example that America has at consciously creating a modern mythology. Myths have always had conscious and unconscious elements -- the ritual is consciously constructed, but what happens within the container of the construction is anyone's guess. This is the empty space where magic happens.
To dive further into this idea, I'd like to use Joseph Campbell's four functions of a mythology to show how beyond a party and getting f'd up in the desert, Burning Man is a mythology in the making, creating a social order relevant to our time, right now, 2012 America.
The Mystical Function
Campbell's first requirement was that mythology must inspire awe in the universe. Modern America was built on biblical desert mythologies, even if most Americans would want to do anything but live in such an environment today. Standing in the middle of the Playa -- the art-driven center of the camp -- at 2 a.m., whipping yourself around to find a perfect circumference of lights, mutant vehicles and sound systems the size of midtown Manhattan clubs is, to say the least, awe-inspiring. All mythologies were created by humans; I hope we're evolved enough to understand that no god rushed down from wherever to "give" a human some special message. Therefore, what really matters is imagination. Burning Man is a safe space to fully explore and share your creative edge. Seeing what 60,000 humans can create in the span of a week, only to be destroyed (explained later), is more mystical to the human mind than reading stories of a man who might have done this or that thousands of years ago.
The Cosmological Function
Campbell's second function was that a mythology had to explain the shape of the universe. Obviously, we've had many different shapes offered to us. The shape of Burning Man is impermanence, a principle deeply entwined with Buddhism. While the entire gathering has been written off as wasteful -- it is not cheap to attend; I spent $1,200 for six days -- the festival is a living example of what art and life can be when we move beyond the bottom line. Think about this: In the span of two weeks (including build and breakdown), a city is constructed, celebrated and deconstructed. This is the exact representation of the triune deities of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva in Indian mythology. Creation, destruction and, yes, sustainability; the ritual occurs yearly as an annual reminder of the transience of life, much like the Mexican myths of the corn goddess or the eternal return of Osiris. Theology teaches us the importance of the afterlife, which often serves as a way of not taking responsibility for the life we are living now; think of the anti-global warming furor of the GOP, for one example. When the man burns on Saturday evening, we are reminded not only of very old fire mythologies, designed to represent the impermanence of nature, but that we are part of an extremely long process that did not begin nor end with us. Celebrating the process for what it is defines our cosmological outlook.
To read the original post click here.

He goes on to describe the other two functions of Campbell’s mythology, the sociological and pedagogical functions. A bit more about this festival to give you some idea of what is is all about. There is a city constructed with streets where people camp. There are different theme camps (now over 700 of them) and art displays, including “mutant vehicles”, the only cars allowed on the site. A mutant vehicle must be so altered as to mask entirely the original body. For example, a VW van that has doll heads and paint stuck to the sides is considered a decorated vehicle but not a mutant vehicle. There are now over 600 approved mutant vehicles. Bicycles are allowed, especially decorated ones and the Green Tortoise Bus Line provides transportation from nearby towns. There is a more complete description of this festival on Wikipedia. If you have ever been to this festival please leave a comment, OK?