Relational Inquiry Groups
I am involved in two or three relational inquiries and transpersonal development groups based at my home in Byron Bay. These groups generally revolve around the topic of embodied spirituality — The Word Made Flesh — and are geared to honor the total person. One group meets on Wednesday evenings for two hours, another on a Sunday morning, and a third periodically. The groups are contemplative, supportive and action oriented. While there is always room for some healthy human contact or interpersonal clearing, the central practice of these groups is a form of 'remembrance' similar to what the Sufi's call
dhiker — the intensification of spiritual awareness through disinhibited sounding and movement.
We meet and have a cup of tea and chat about whatever is present... then depending on the mood of the group we do some silent attuning to each other as the Face of Divinity. Again depending on needs we might have a deeper more purposeful check-in round in which we share with each other the trials and tribulations, triumphs, sorrows and joys of embodied existence. The check-in round is an important arena of social support and we don't as a rule give feedback or engage in conversation, rather we keep our attention open and fine tuned to the quality of the 'between'.
We often find that somewhere in the meeting (perhaps because of the quality of attention) what we think of as a 'Tantric Window' will open up between us. At this point we engage in a bit of improvisation that we call 'sounding' which is intentionally aimed at releasing ourselves from any blocking hindrances or internal cramping, into a deeper embodiment of light and presence. Part chanting, spontaneous sounding, and primordial prayer we use this simple process to open to the energy of the dynamic ground (see charismatic training page) and allow its power to animate our gesture, posture and voice. The toning seems to inhibit the ego and fan the flames of presence which is felt as palpable spirit.
The groups have also launched formal inquiry cycles — one of them is as follows: "Co-Creating Sacred Space for the Emergence of Divinity" (in whatever form it makes itself known).
The Word Made Flesh
“Once we overcome the dualism between matter and spirit, the human body can no longer be seen as a ‘prison of the soul’ or even a ‘temple of the ‘spirit’. For, example the Christian mystery of incarnation never alluded to entrance of the spirit into the body but spirit becoming flesh [John 1:1, 14]; therefore it may be more accurate to imagine that people come into being by participation in a transmutation of spirit into fleshy forms”. [i] However, our fleshy form is also heir to a web of wounds, frustrations, and socialization processes which have created a subject-object split that can stand in the way of our taking our place in the Garden of unity. To fully incarnate, to come-into-being, as a total person means that we must restore our body’s own revelation of its participation in a subtle, spiritual realm — this world.
“There is another deep split in the Western psyche which has historically taught us to find our solace elsewhere — the magician Pythagoras laid his faith in a higher world beyond the so-called ‘taint of mortal life’ and his ideas would profoundly affect the great Western philosopher Plato. In his stead Plato would perceive the source of truth and beauty in idealized forms beyond the sensuous world existing in a state thought not only to be pure, eternal and transcendent but ‘outside all bodily apprehension’. For Plato’s Academy true, genuine, reality is projected elsewhere — certainly a kingdom not of this world. As these ancient Greek ideas mixed with other cultures of the Mediterranean, including the monotheistic culture of Israel, a new model of eternity was wrought: the Christian afterlife. For many these transcendent realms and dwelling places beyond the stars hold primacy over the earthly realm.
“Yet there is a forgotten world of breath-taking unity at our feet, at our finger tips, and on the tip of our tongues — an Eden, a Secret Garden, a Paradise, (the word Paradise coming from the Persian term for an enclosed Garden) which has the fabulous and magical quality of being the ground of all otherworldly endeavours and which is none other than the world in which we live and breathe. The sensuous world is a realm that resides at the heart of all others, the world of the body, sound, speech and contact. This fleshy zone long derided by religious traditions as inconsequential is, rather, an inexhaustible field of unmediated experience.”
Excerpted from G.A.Lahood's article
Relational Spirit, Collective Buddhas, and Sacred Bodies (Revision 2007)
