The inspiration for this workshop comes from my personal challenges on my spiritual path. I have sincerely committed myself to gain higher state of awareness by learning many of healing modalities one after another, visiting spiritual teachers one after another. Yet, I experienced feeling stuck in the same place, and going nowhere as if I were traveling in a circle. None of my attempts really transformed my consciousness to the extent I felt was possible. At a certain point, I realized that actively seeking an answer did not work. What I had been seeking is already in me. What I really needed to do was nothing. From the perspective of nothing, I find myself accessible to internal wisdom. Based on my own experience, this workshop will address how to move out of stuck in your spiritual growth.

Times:

SAT & SUN, June 27-28, 2009, starting 10:00 AM on SAT, ending 6:00 PM on SUN

Location:
Loretto Center, Mary Ward Room
1600 Somerset Lane
Wheaton, IL 60187
Phone: 630-653-7918
http://www.lorettocenter.org

Investment:
280 dollars for a two-day workshop
Meal plan (from SAT Lunch to SUN Lunch):$39
Lodging over SAT at Loretto Center: $35 (private room), $30 (if sharing a double room with someone)

Note: Even for a local person who can commute to the Loretto Center, I would highly encourage you to lodge there over Saturday night and to have meals at their dining hall for we will have extra activities on Saturday evening by around 9:00 PM, and the Sunday meeting may start at around 7:00 AM.

How to register: Please contact Mr. Masaru Kato, at 847-989-4261, or info@atmanwellbeing.com

This seminar will be offered once or twice a year, in the format of meditation retreat for several days. Upon your request, I will travel to your area to offer this workshop on a different time. Please contact me if you are interested in inviting me to your area.

Although this seminar is designated as the most advanced stage of my program, it is open to anyone. This is because this is not to learn a certain healing technique. This is beyond techniques. This is a series of repeated exercises to engage Nothingness, and to become the Infinite. Everyone is welcome, if you are dedicated to your spiritual growth.

What to expect in the Infinite Consciousness Seminar

To prepare ourselves to enter Nothingness, we will engage in:
• Meditations that lead us to Nothingness, in which we will let ourselves be saturated into the unified field of the souls of the participants
• Receive the transformational energy, whose frequency is equivalent to Diksha
• Group healing work: this is what my mentor, Lawrence Lanoff, calls “Energy Tracking”
• Yoga or stretch work, calling in the life force energy, to make your energy flow and clearing your energy systems
• Silent meditation
• Discussion about consciousness

As the workshop unfolds, you will taste the beauty of Nothingness, which is a state of awareness both Western wisdom and Eastern wisdom are pointing out to. It will be paradoxical awareness: on one hand, you will know there is no such a thing “I.” What you believe “I” is an illusion. You know nothing. You are no one. You are nothing. On the other hand, you will realize, from the space of Nothingness, you are everything.

I will help you in unique ways. First, I will create the Sacred Space around you, which is an energetic field protecting you, by utilizing the group energy. Within that space, you will find much easier to open up yourself and surrender your mind to the flow of Spirit. Second, I will facilitate a meditation, contacting your higher self or soul and inviting it to help you. Together we let our souls meditate ourselves. It is NOT to let our minds direct the meditation. In that way, we are creating the spiritual environment to let our minds release the need to control the process. Third, I will transmit the essence of Nothingness through meditations or healing work. When you receive it, it opens up your energy fields, because you taste the feeling of no resistance. It will help you receive the Divine love.

The Beauty of Nothingness

To be aware of the real and actual quality of the Divine, you need to sense it, “as it is,” without interpreting it, without justifying or condemning it. As long as your mind is trying to grasp the Divine, it will bring you to dualistic awareness; therefore, it will be destructive and create confusion. There should be no trying, willing, achieving, or struggling, to be open to God. In other words, what you need to do is really “nothing.” When you are doing completely “nothing,” getting rid of any desire to achieve something, to control something, and to protect yourself, and surrendering yourself to the moment of void, your mind becomes still enough to directly experience the Mind of God. This approach is similar to the essence of Zen asking you to just sit, and do nothing, and think nothing.

Doing “nothing” brings you to the space of Nothingness, where there is no resistance and struggling. It is the state of awareness: “you are nothing.” Within that space, your internal potentiality unfolds infinitely. Your creative force begins expanding continuously at the unimaginable speed, because there is no resistance and limitation toward it. The Creation of Universe unfolds from your within. At that moment, you will realize that God is in you, and that you do not need to seek the answer outside of yourself. Within that expansion, you will see no border separating you from other beings. As I stated in the above, this is paradoxical awareness: when you know you are nothing, you will know that you are everything.

When I enter that state of awareness, I definitely sense the infinite spacious expansion, as if I were exploded and expanded like Big Bang. Therefore, I name it “Infinite Consciousness.” It is the unified field of consciousness of all beings in the Cosmos. It is the source of Creation, ever unfolding potentiality, and universal invisible force that supports every being everywhere. It is what many call God Presence, Holy Spirit, Mind of God, Everything That Is, Nothingness, or Emptiness. The name does not matter, really. You can name it if you want, but the name does not help your spiritual growth. It is because whatever you name it, you will gain a certain image or implication associated with it, which is your mind creation. When you are stuck with the image, it will keep you from directly experiencing the Divine.

Group Support/Co-creating the Sacred Space

The essence of Divine, which is in you, is totally incomprehensible to mind. A finite mind can never capture the ever present, ever changing, and infinite invisible reality of Divine, which transcends all human conceptions and the five senses. The mind could hardly believe that the infinite force resides inside the finite body. If you “seek” it, it will be not shown to you. The moment you try to conceive or seek it, your mind begins to struggle. Immediate and direct knowing of the Divine without mind intervention requires an extraordinary clear and pure awareness. This is our goal and what I offer.

Doing nothing is really difficult. Your mind always wants to do something, thinking, evaluating, and judging. From your mind perspective, stopping its process is considered as uncreating itself. To become completely still means the death of mind. The stillness is a state to be avoided. You could do nothing, when you completely trust whatever you encounter in the process, and when you could be compassionate toward everything and affirm whatever comes up in you and around you. Doing nothing is a flip side of surrender, turning yourself over to the Unknown.

It is inherently difficult to allow yourself to totally surrender. Therefore, we need group support. This is why I prepare the opportunity in the format of seminar, gathering people. When each of us has a pure intention of co-evolution, helping each other, our souls will respond. I will facilitate the soul-to-soul connection among participants, as if I were a match maker of souls. I found it very effective that the unified field of our souls surrounds us as a safety net. This is what I call the Sacred Space. Within that protection, it becomes easier for you to surrender yourself to the Unknown.

How will the experience of Nothingness or the experience of connecting with the Infinite Consciousness be different from receiving healing energy like Reiki? Why will it be beneficial?

The healing energy is a manifested quality of Infinite Consciousness, which is somehow perceivable to your mind. This is very important to note that the manifested quality does not really signify the potentiality beneath the quality. In short, the healing energy is not exactly equal to the Infinite Consciousness or God. Or, God is not the healing energy. Take an analogy here. Suppose you are watching a steam coming out from a kettle on the stove. By watching the steam (manifested quality), you know that there is boiling water (potentiality generating the steam). Think carefully here. Does the steam suggest the true essence of boiling water? The answer is no. Actually nobody knows what really the boiling water is, as it is. Like that, when you perceive the healing energy as warmth, tingling sensation, or bright light, none of these qualities suggests the actual and real nature of its source.

Consider some examples here. You may feel sunshine as bright yellowish white light, because your eyes are capturing it so. Then, you may believe that the sunshine is light. Think carefully here, is the sunshine really light? When it travels in the space between the planets, it does not radiate brightness. The sunshine in itself is not bright. When it hits a particle in the air, it reflects a certain frequency that will be perceived as light. Thus, the sunshine is not really light. Light is a manifested quality of the sunshine. And, nobody knows what the sunshine really is. The same for electricity. We know several manifested qualities of electricity such as heat, magnetic power, and motor power. However, no scientist in human history really knows what electricity really is. No one can tell what is really there beneath the perceived qualities.

This may sound bizarre. But, this is a crucial pitfall in which many spiritual seekers fall. When they are experiencing the healing energy in the brightness of the Light, they are in the blissful state. That blissful state makes them believe that God is the light. Then, for them, to merge with the light becomes their goal. This is in some sense appropriate, but not really true. Again, the light is the perceived quality, which is your perception or interpretation. It is NOT God.

When an energy healer transmits the healing energy onto you, in many cases, she is calling in the energy, based on the assumption that God is light, the Divine is energy, or the conscious field is vibration. She usually visualizes the light coming from heaven and comes into her and transmits it to you. She actually confuses the perceived quality with its source or true potentiality. She connects herself with the Divine through her mind filter, and brings in the energy by grabbing, picking, and choosing a certain divine quality, and funneling it down to you. Finally, you will receive the limited version of infinite potentiality from her. This process, in itself, is nothing wrong. The therapist’s image of transference of the God’s light is resonated with high frequency, and it has positive therapeutic effects on you. However, it will be problematic when you are drawn to the light, which is your perception, and define that God is light. This is the reductionism of God into the form your mind can comprehend.

This is not to say you should not experience the light. When you touch the Divine in yourself, you may experience the light. What I am saying is; you should not be drawn or hallucinated to the perceived quality. When you feel the bright light on a warm sunny day outside, it is nothing wrong. However, when you are drawn only to bright-ness of sunshine, and cannot be aware of anything else, you will miss the true essence of sunshine. Like that, you will keep yourself from the true potentiality of the Divine, if you are stuck with its manifested qualities. You will subjugate yourself under the process of mind, which is dualistic and confined by time and space. When you are going out for sunbathing on the beach, you simply enjoy it without evaluating or assessing: what the sunshine is, how it works, how it appears, or questioning its effects. Like that, I want you to simply enjoy the gifts of the Divine, without mind filters or cognitively capturing the God.

Infinite Consciousness Seminar is an opportunity to let the God Presence to be shown to us, without any filter of our perceptions, in its purest form. It will be cooperative group work to let us directly know the Infinity within us without mind interventions. We will touch it without any expectations, judgments, or feelings. We will simply turn our attention from the perceived qualities of God to its source. As a human, it is impossible to fully and completely attain the direct experience of the Divine. But, we will try it, to the best ability of ourselves. In this process, we will get out of the cage of mind creations such as thoughts, ideas, fears, concerns, feelings, struggling, wanting, and clinging. Without those mental limitations, the infinite potentiality in ourselves unfolds. Then, we will know that God is in us.