November 14-16
The New Story about the Oldest Story in the World reveals a spirituality that unites Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This retreat reveals how early mystics of the three great religions sprang from the same Middle East. World-known religion scholar and translator Neil Douglas-Klotz finds that all three faiths, in spite of apparent differences, emphasize sacred beginnings. Over the centuries, this early vision has lost this emphasis, shifting instead to apocalyptic endings. This retreat seeks to reclaim the life-affirming energy of sacred "beginning time."
Neil Douglas-Klotz is a poet and scholar whose work allows the layers of well-known biblical text to be peeled away. Best known for his work interpreting the Aramaic words of Jesus, his previous books include Prayers of the Cosmos, Desert Wisdom, and The Hidden Gospel. In these works, it is not the revelation of a new meaning, but the revelations of multiple meaning that take your breath away, enabling us to glimpse the shamanic quality of Jesus' teaching.
Imagine you have a piece of earth that has been over-cultivated and you're trying to restore it to its natural ecosystem. That recovery could take decades, and in the end the land could look less organized. The words of Jesus have been over cultivated, translated into orderly lines, that fit the Greek mindset but not with the mindset of Jesus and his Aramaic speaking audience.
A live retreat with Neil is not, however, an academic exercise. His main focus is on sharing spiritual practices that can help us enter a new relationship with ourselves, each other, and the earth. These practices include meditation, body prayer, walking meditation, and a simple form of group sacred dance called the Dances of Universal Peace, which uses breathing, chant and body awareness to help people experience more love, life, joy, and peace. These dances come from the Aramaic, Christian, Jewish, and Sufi traditions, among others. They can reawaken the boundless creative potential and deep peace in our lives.
This retreat is part of Neil Douglas-Klotz's five week tour in the US launching his new book The Genesis Meditations: A Shared Practice of Peace for Christians, Jews, and Muslims, which is being released in October. He has also edited a new edition of Lex Hixon's Heart of the Koran and is a senior teacher of Sufism associated with the Sufi Ruhaniat International. He is the co-chair of the Mysticism Group of the American Academy of Religion, and he co-founded the International Network for the Dances of Universal Peace.. From 1986 until 1996, he taught at the Institute in Culture and Creation Spirituality and has led citizen diplomacy trips to the former Soviet Union, Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and Syria. Since 1993 he has lived and taught in the United Kingdom, where he currently co-directs the Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning and Conscious Living. For more information about his work, see www.abwoon.org We welcome his return after too many years away.