We grow up and spend most of our lives immersed in a paradigm of separation. We build our identity and our sense of self, our center of gravity from which we experience the world, through the perspective of an individual. An individual that is separate from the other, fundamentally and profoundly disconnected from everything else. An independent unit, journeying through an alien cosmos, looking for its place, its purpose, its path. Me and you. Inside and outside. Here and there.
Until this journey of individuality ends through the experience we call death, most people never get in touch with the other side of the coin, the other way of experiencing the cosmos: as one undivided whole. Some are lucky enough to come in touch with meditative practices that allow them to have a momentary experience of non-duality, a whiff of enlightenment, what Japanese Zen Buddhism calls a Kensho. But experiencing non-separation isn’t only achievable through meditative states and enlightenment, it is a perspective that is widely available to many as part of the human journey of development. The process of individuation is just one part of this journey, the other is identification.
The process of identification is where the individual integrates into the whole and recognizes the transitory and partial truth of separation as just a sensory experience, an illusion we get attached to. Everything is profoundly whole, one, interconnected, interdependent, and interpenetrated.
Both perspectives have their purpose, both are needed, both are vital aspects of our collective journey from one to many to one.
This training wants the bring both into perspective, context, and relationship, in an experiential and deeply embodied way. Because a life beyond individuality is deeply satisfying and purposeful, but also because it’s utterly needed in today’s fragmented world to find the golden glue that creates a whole vessel out of the shatters again
We are now standing at the beginning of what probably is the biggest shift in human consciousness since the cognitive revolution 70.000 years ago that brought complex language into the human experience: the death of the myth of separation, which is the foundation of our global culture, self-awareness, and socio-economic structures. We are moving from a reductionistic, isolating, hopeless, survival-based, game-theoretic, resource wasting, emotionally disconnected, and somatically dissociated paradigm into one that is defined by profound interdependency, wholeness, integration, developmental awareness, connection, intimacy, and the unshakeable awareness that there is no separation whatsoever to be found anywhere in this cosmos. An awareness that reminds us that we are this Earth and this whole humanity.
In the paradigm of connection and wholeness, it becomes utterly clear that the crisis won't be solved through technology, but through living from a deeply integrated sense of self that is not separate from this Earth, an identity that is grounded in interdependency and purpose. The transformation will happen from within, when we enter a relationship of syntropy with this living ecology that we are an inseparable part of.
We can't get there by accumulating knowledge or reading a book. We have to walk the path of evolution and integration (from Latin “becoming undivided”) to remember the wholeness we are already a part of.
To see beyond old patterns, convictions, and projections, we have to take a step into the unknown, meet our deepest fears, and master the principles of liberation, love, and leadership. As a first step, this requires overcoming the limitations of our body’s absolute priority of survival, transcending the instinctual realm of the animal kingdom, while including its wisdom, and truly embracing the human experience and the power that lies within our capacity to make feel the present moment and make choices. Through deep embodiment and the use of somatic resources, we create the foundation for truly stepping into our human potential while honoring our animal ancestry. Because embodiment isn't about creating an absence of mind, it is about creating the conditions in which the mind can truly flourish, liberated from fear and stories of control, becoming an instrument of creativity and choice. It is about meeting death, instead of running away from it.
And more than that, we need to do this work in intimate relationship with this living planet, not isolated and disconnected from the soil, within the very walls that keep reflecting the old mythos of separation back onto us. We need to feel, smell, taste, and breath-in the soil that is birthing us every moment, listening to its music, and also let it breathe us and fill us with its profound primordial wisdom, as it already knows the answers we are looking for. Becoming aware of the tangible truthfulness of the term "as above, so below", we can developmentally mature through the direct experience of interdependency with the planet and the whole of humanity. This is why this training happens on the beautiful land of Nikkilä Temple, a new space committed to profound work towards a humanity that is grounded in soul and spirit, supporting us with it’s natural environment right next to a beautiful river.
This three-chapter training supports you in actively pursuing this evolutionary journey and taking full ownership of your life in a deeply vulnerable and transformative group experience for everyone who wants to consciously embark on the evolutionary journey towards remembering they are intimately interconnected, interpenetrated, and interdependent with this living planet, inseparable from it. To help you overcome the polarization in our mainstream culture, to truly understand and alchemize the conflicts we are surrounded by, and live in service of humanity’s whole soul.
More Info about Nikkilä Temple: https://www.nikkilatemple.org
Structure and schedule of the Training: