HALL OF TEACHING

About the Retreats

          Here you will find a short description of the several choices available for your spiritual retreat focus. There are prerequisites for some courses. All live-in retreats require a specified time of karma yoga, time donated to the monastery for monastery needs.

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Meditation

           Meditation, to be effective, must really be practiced all the time. A short period of sitting is helpful, but not sufficient. Through Loving-Kindness All-The-Time, your world will transform accordingly. So will the other people in it. These retreats will bring you clarity, confidence and lead you on to spiritual enlightenment. All retreats and courses are taught from a western perspective and are designed to be practical for our western culture.

   Loving-Kindness All the Time

          As an Introduction to Meditation we offer our Loving-Kindness All-the-Time series of three retreats. The aim is to develop a meditative consciousness that is ready to tackle the inner work of Mindfulness. These three retreats focus on

1. Loving Yourself - If you do not love yourself, how do you expect to love another? Surely our search to find another that will make us love ourselves will fail. The obstacles to self-love are many. This retreat will lead you to a self-loving state of confidence, courage and freedom from fear.
2. Loving Another - After learning the basic technique in Loving Yourself, you will be ready to take on Loving-Another. Learn to radiate this divine state upon another. Doors and hearts will open to you. Animals and children will love you and come up to you. Peaceful sleep and pleasant dreams will be yours.
3. Loving Everyone - Expand your loving-kindness practice into an all-the-time state and radiate your loving-kindness to all beings. Learn to be joyful at all peoples success and well being. Learn to have compassion for those less fortunate. Learn to love and to see all with great clarity.

   Mindfulness in Your Daily Life

          Once you have experienced and are practicing Loving-Kindness All-The-Time, our mindfulness retreats will put the icing on the cake. In these retreats you will learn to keep a meditative state even in the frantic materialistic world. Your worldly affairs provide the stuff of your meditative practice. It just keeps getting better and better! These are not retreats for withdrawal, they are retreats that prepare you for involvement. Taking a western approach to meditation, we use our natural bio-rhythms and our body-mind system as a feedback mechanism toward achieving complete awareness. Of course, this enlightened condition probably won't happen to you during the retreat, but it might. These retreats are also available as correspondence courses via teleconferencing. You need a computer, internet and a phone for the correspondence course.

1. Body Awareness - The first of the four bio-rhythms is the body itself. This thing that we generally identify ourselves as, constantly changes, does not always help us to get to our goals, and often behaves as a child, and yet, we think it is us. This retreat focuses on the body as a compound structure that is truly not yourself at all. But it can help you achieve your goals.
2. Sensory Awareness - Because our senses are the major route by which information about our world gets to us, it will be treated as a separate thing from the body. We ignore most of this input and color the rest by our desires through our hasty decisions. Here you will learn to examine all information, as it presents itself at your doors of perception, to slow down and to come to clear and accurate conclusions. The second bio-rhythm, the "so-called" emotional rhythm, applies here. 
3. Mind Awareness - The mental bio-rhythm will demonstrate to you that your mind is a thing apart from the body and the senses. The mind can be freed from the incessant chatter and be trained to sit where it is directed to sit. The body, mind and senses will become tools for you to use to master life.
4. Content Awareness - The fourth bio-rhythm is generally called the Intuitional. Intuition is that part of your mind that is not hindered by a need for rationalizing. You can tell how intuitional you might be by what thoughts are in your mind. If your thoughts are on lower, worldly things, you will still need to depend on your rational mind. Clarify the content of your mind and become clear and calm all the time.

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Healing

          "Healing" is, of course, a misnomer. We blantantly say we are "healers" when, in truth, only you can heal yourself, without divine intervention, that is. All "healers" can do is to prepare you, help you, and be with you in your healing experience. Without a true desire to be whole, you can not be made so. These retreats and courses will train you to bring wholeness to yourself, your loved ones and those desiring your guidance and help. Reiki retreats are only live-in, the others can be by correspondence or conferencing. Computer, internet and phone are required for correspondence courses.

   Metaphysical 

          Readings, discussions and practices taken from a variety of techniques found in our library. Books by Donna Eden, Evelyn Monahan, Israel Regardie, Manly Hall, and many others.

   Usui Reiki

1. Sho-Den, Level One - The art of Laying-on-of-Hands and learning to treat oneself. Beginning to treat others. First two attunements to open the hand chakras for the Reiki energy. Learn the power of your intention.
2. Oku-Den, Level Two - Two more Reiki attunements; treating others and treatments at a distance. Treatment of animals. Once the Reiki energy is stable in you, you can be trained to focus it at any place where you can hold your intent.
3. Sei-Sen, Level Three, Master - Qualified to treat others as a Master Practitioner. Further in depth training, treatment of injuries, and presentation of the Master Symbol. 
4. Master Teacher, Level Three - Qualified to teach, to train and to initiate  others into all Levels. When as a Master you have been practicing for enough time to make your confidence unshakeable, you can be trained to administer the attunements with true intention and to train others in how to acquire and use the Reiki energy.

   Healing Secrets

           Readings from our Hall of Healing and its sources. (See its bibliography.) Instantaneous healing, alternative practices, using natural bio-rhythms, re-framing of state dependant memories, and much more.

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Theosophy

           We are a theosophical religious order and our intention is to introduce you to a way of looking at the world that unites religion, philosophy and science. It puts an end to sectarian squabbling and instills in you a compassionate attitude to all beings everywhere. Readings and discussions based on theosophical literature from all the major theosophical publishers, with an emphasis on Blavatsky and her teachings. These retreats are also available as correspondence courses by online conferencing. You need a computer, internet and a phone for correspondence courses.

   Elementary   

1. Theosophical Manuals
2. Key to Theosophy

   Intermediate

1. Biographies of HPB
2. Mahatma Letters and Blavatsky Letters to AP Sinnett
3. Divine Plan - an introduction to The Secret Doctrine

   Advanced

1. The Secret Doctrine
2. Collected Writings of HPB
3. Esoteric Teachings

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Gardens and Greenhouses

          Working with plants is a wondrous experience. Overseeing the entire process from garden beds to crop and seed storage must be done in its proper time. These retreats will tune you to natural rhythms and bring you peace and calm. Some duties are seasonal, but there is much to do all the time. These retreats are live-in only and are available all the time.

   Elementary

          Testing and preparing the soil, maintaining the beds, making compost, seeding the beds, watering and weeding.

   Intermediate

          Bed layout and planting schedules, seed ordering, tilling and double digging, watering and weeding. Pest management.

   Advanced

          Record keeping, seed collecting and preservation, seed starting, water scheduling, soil sampling and soil ammending.

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Kitchen and Cooking

          These retreats will teach you to run a small, organic, vegetarian kitchen. If your retreat coincides with one of our other ceremonies, you will be introduced to larger group preparation and storage.

   Elementary

          Kitchen hygiene, meal clean-up process, washing, rinsing, re-shelving, compost collection, food preparation.

   Intermediate

          Meal preparation; the Rainbow Diet; organic food shopping; sources  for recipes and speciality items. Nutritious vegetarian menuing.

   Advanced

          Meal planning, coordinating with garden and greenhouse produce, budgeting for the essentials; food supplementation. Food as the source of wholeness.

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General Maintenance

          This is a self-sufficient community, so all maintenance and repairs are done by the monks, students and volunteers. This is true inside the home and outside on the ranch. Most of our work does not require any special skill, but some does. The resident monks who oversee these retreats have many years of experience in maintenance and building; however, we can not "get-it-all-done." In fact we are certain, that state does not exist at all. We always need help and we always need help at all experience levels. These courses are only offered "live-in" and are available all the time.

   Elementary

          Household cleaning chores, inside and out; sanding and painting; watering and weeding; light household maintenance; and how to be a "go fer"- maintenance helper. Learn to use basic tools.                    

   Intermediate

          Learn the use of small power tools, work along with the maintenance personnel and thereby learn plumbing, electrical, and the many tasks that are part of running an herb farm, community, gardens, greenhouses and so much more. You may take this course as often as you like. You will soon be ready for the Advanced retreat.

   Advanced

          Here you are eligible, if you wish, for the You Name It retreat. If you do not have such a project and you are skilled enough to focus a task, you can be "put in charge" of it at this level.

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Special Studies

          Look over our Library Book Locator [now being prepared] and see if there is something you are more interested in than our standard offerings. Or, if you have a special project you would like to focus, let us know. We are open to presenting retreats that are uplifting, ecologically sound, spiritually motivating.

   Kabbalah & Hebrew

   You Name It

          Our library is a wonderland of cross-culture and esoteric lore. If you have a speciality and would like to do further research on it, we offer retreats of your own design. How much karma yoga is involved depends on many factors. We do have guidelines, however, so the application will help you present your idea to us and help us consider all those factors.