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SATVATOVE INSTITUTE COMMUNITY NEWS

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December 1st, 2006 Volume2, Issue 6

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CONTENTS:

1. New Features at Satvatove.org

2. Satvatove Institute Partner Program

3. Ayurveda Satvatove Retreat

4. Satvatove Coaching Training : Next Semester

5. A "Staffer" Speaks - by Kishor Grant

6. Strategies for Living - by David Wolf

7. I Will Never Take That Course Again - by Donna Warman

8. Upcoming Events

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SATVATOVE INSTITUTE PARTNER PROGRAM

The Satvatove Institute Partner Program gives you the opportunity to benefit from sharing your Satvatove experience with others.

If you would like to be an instrument for the transformation of others, you can be part of a powerful team of caring individuals who share what they have gained with people in their community. This is a new opportunity for you to help people begin or continue their journey of self-empowerment through transformative communication. As a Partner, you will also directly

benefit by receiving commission on the tuition for the programs for which your referrals register.

There are 3 ways to participate as a Partner...

Put a link on your web site:Simply join our program and put the link on your website to benefit your clients or web visitors with a coaching consultation.

By word-of-mouth promotion:

As an Partner, you can inspire others to contact Satvatove Institute to schedule a coaching consultation.

By presenting a workshop in your community:

Graduates of the Satvatove Core Programs (Foundational, Advanced, and LMP) who are registered for a coaching package can receive a training manual and free training for presenting a 3-hour transformative communication workshop.

For persons who enroll in a Satvatove Personal Coaching Package through your endeavors as a Partner by any of the above methods, you receive 20% of their tuition towards your participation in any Satvatove coaching programs.

Be a vehicle for creating exciting results in the personal and professional lives of your community through the Satvatove Institute Partner Program. People will thank you for connecting them with the services of Satvatove, and will positively remember your business, website, or workshop.

For more information about the Satvatove Institute Partner Program or to become a Partner contact Marie at 386-418-8840 or write to MarieGlasheen@satvatove.org.

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A 'STAFFER' SPEAKS....

by Kishor Grant

I opted to take part in the recent seminar (Glastonbury Oct. 2006) as astaff member to explore my potential as a 'giver'. Tired of being one oflife's observers, I challenged myself to 'be there' for those participants willing to bravely stretch out of their 'boxes' of comfortably predisposed world views and, in many cases, stifling and painfully negative self-regard.

At first I felt palpably out of my depth as participants became more trusting, vulnerable and honest than possibly ever before. My sense of being 'untrained', 'unqualified' and even downright 'phoney' played heavily on my conscience, easing gradually as I spent more and more 'quiet' time with various members outside the seminar room. Soon, surprisingly, I found myself 'caring enough to be honest', yet sensitive, with them in those quiet moments, thankfully discovering intuitiveness I feared I didn't possess.

As the seminar unfolded and I continued to 'focus in', my confidence increased as I saw my role as simply facilitating David in his work of skillfully providing the means for each person to unravel their own personal transformations from self-imposed darkness to light and true freedom of self-expression. I found some of the personal revelatory experiences awesome to behold and caught myself open-mouthed in disbelief on more than one occasion!

Finally, my experience in 'staffing' Glastonbury was as empowering as my participation a year earlier and I look forward to this being the first of many more.

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STRATEGIES FOR LIVING

by David Wolf

Self-awareness moves us to choose life-enriching principles by which to live, some of which, such as Be-Do-Have, clear intention, and keeping agreements, have been described in previous newsletter articles. Spiritual principles for personal growth are universal, and thus, even if we are not able to articulate them, they are familiar, being inherent to our core

being. Without actively applying these principles, we run the danger that our existence becomes a sort of animalistic struggle for survival, rather than an uplifting, purpose-filled spiritual pursuit.

Each of us has a presentation to the world. Sometimes this presentation is authentic, where what is presented outside is consistent with what is happening inside. At other times our presentation is not genuine. We wear masks, facades.

A spiritual principle of self-development is to live from choice, rather than from fear. Transforming our relationship with fear is an essential process of spiritual growth. Though fear may be present, instead of it being a cue to withdraw it becomes a signal to step forward and courageously take a risk. Sometimes we may put up masks from choice, such as deliberately responding that we are fine, although we don't feel that way, because we simply don't want to enter into conversation about our troubles. What we are addressing here is when we wear masks out of fear.

Masks take diverse forms, as varied as our personalities. There is the "happy" mask, where we want to be seen as a happy person, regardless of what may be going on inside. Being "strong" can be a mask, as can being "the class clown", or "intellectual". Playing the victim, or the "spiritualist", or the helpless person, are other forms of facades.

Of course, each of the types of masks listed above are not always masks. Each of us has a genuine happy and joyful side, an authentic intellectual way of being, a sense of humor, a strong side, a fragile side. It is when we feel we have to be a certain way, rather than choosing to be that way, that our authenticity is compromised. If I "have to" appear as "spiritual", at the expense of acknowledging to the world, and perhaps to myself, desires or emotions that seem non-spiritual, then my spirituality is a mask and not a genuine disposition. If I feel I have to show myself as an intellectual, even at times when I would really like to drop that front and be playful, spontaneous, or emotionally expressive, then my intellectuality is a mask.

Most of us spend much of our energy holding up masks, and pushing down experiences that we resist acknowledging. It is like holding a beach ball underwater, which requires a lot of effort to keep it down. After a while we become exhausted. A characteristic of readiness for spiritual growth is that we are exhausted with holding down our emotional beach ball. That is not how we want to spend our life energy any longer.

Living and Surviving

There is a distinction between living and surviving. Spiritually-based personal growth entails a commitment to living, rather than mere surviving. Surviving is reactive. We are in reaction to the beach ball. Holding our head above the surface, maybe putting on a smile, we show that we are in control. Actually, though, it is a pretense of control. Wherever the submerged ball moves, we move with it, not daring to allow it to be seen. It shifts here or there, and we follow. Who or what is in control? Even if we manage with great effort to keep it under, it is noticed.

Perhaps we conceal our rage, not knowing an acceptable means for its expression. But it comes out in different ways, like our irritability or loss of temper at petty things. It is similar with other components of our emotional beach ball, such as shame. Though we don't want the world to see our sense of shame, or to recognize it ourselves, it drives our life, pervades our experience and relationships with feeling of inadequacy, of being inherently defective. It prevents us from fully sharing ourselves.

A strategy for survival is to maintain the appearance of control. By doing this, the mask stays up, and the beach ball down. This is related to other strategies of survival, such as avoiding pain, looking good, and being right. "Looking good" means that we are invested in an appearance, rather than in being authentic. For each of us that inauthentic appearance has different forms, as explained in relation to our masks. For some of us looking good might mean showing ourselves as the strong helper. For some,

looking good might mean "looking bad", the rebel, the defiant person who doesn't accept authority. Of course, blindly accepting authority is no virtue, though neither is indiscriminately resisting it.

"Being right" refers to a strategy where what becomes important is being right with another person, instead of genuinely being with another person. We get to be right, feel superior and self-righteous, at the expense of the closeness, understanding and intimacy we truly desire.

A life-enriching strategy conducive for the complete manifestation of our spiritual being is to participate fully in our lives, to give 100%. Not showing up fully for our own lives is at the core of self-sabotaging strategies. In fact, it is the foundation of repeating self-defeating cycles, because by not committing fully we restrict our potential to learn through experience. Acquiring wisdom involves granting ourselves the permission to make mistakes through which we learn.

A term like "experience fully" may evoke images of abandoning one's intelligence or reason. Actually, to be fully present includes being completely available with all our faculties, including our mind and intelligence. Conscious living entails utilizing our intelligence to enrich and inform our experience. There is a distinction between employing mind and intelligence to enhance our complete contribution and presence, and using our analytical capacity as a barrier to experience. Making distinctions and judgments are a natural function of intelligence. Hiding behind those judgments is a survival strategy, borne of fear, that limits our growth, connection and experience.

Related to this, there is also an important distinction between living in the moment, and living for the moment. Living in the moment is being present, with all our qualities and capacities available. In the well known Indian scripture the Bhagavad-gita, Sri Krsna describes a person in this state as being free from lamentation about the past and hankering for the future. He is satisfied in the present. This is not the same as living for the moment, where we may whimsically abandon good sense for immediate

gratification. Conscious, present living includes learning from the past, and planning for the future. In doing this, we don't wallow in lamentation, nor do we brood in anxiety.

Giving ourselves fully to our experience is not the same as wallowing in distressing emotion. When we allow ourselves to fully experience, we feel clean, complete, resolved and ready for the next experience. To wallow in a feeling is a way of holding on to it, rather than letting it go by truly experiencing it completely.

To summarize, some common strategies for survival are being right, looking good, avoiding pain, maintaining the appearance of control, and hiding behind judgments. Life-enhancing strategies include participating fully in our lives, being courageous, suspending judgments, being vulnerable, and living with a sense of urgency.

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I WILL NEVER TAKE THAT COURSE AGAIN

by Donna Warman

After participating in the Satvatove Advanced Seminar Experience in Ireland

in 2004, I declared "I will never take that course again!"- my experience

was sufficient to serve me for the remainder of this lifetime. Well, here I

am again, having just completed the Advanced Seminar in Glastonbury, in

October, 2006. I'm not going to make that statement again. Now my

perspective is that I want to be in steady contact with this amazing process

of self-refinement, to regularly refresh and revitalize my realizations

through this seminar.

From the Ireland seminar, as well as the Life Mastery Program and personal

coaching I've done with Satvatove, I have learned a lot about how not to be

a victim. I learned to be responsible for my actions and their results. This

has helped me so much to carry a positive attitude in life, not holding onto

resentment towards others, blaming them and ultimately, blaming God for my

situation. In the recent Glastonbury courses I visited core issues that had

discolored my life for many years. Especially, I realized how I had an

attitude of impersonalism in my dealings, due to fear of my spiritual

personality and relationship with others and God.

Since the course, writing my Personal Achievement Compact (PACT), daily

using the Post-Advanced Seminar Workbook, and speaking with a coach have

been powerful tools assisting me to integrate the value I received from the

seminar into my everyday life. These structures have been helpful for me to

avoid slipping into familiar, unproductive habits, and to clarify important

goals in areas such as career, spiritual practice and recreation.