Conference: Living Inner Practice | Zen – Bhakti – Integral Yoga
International and bilingual (German/English) event.
Fri – Sun, 20. – 22. October 2023 | Gut Saunstorf Monastery – Place of Stillness
This weekend marks the start of the conference series: Inner Path – Inner Practice.
How can living inner practice serve me and how do I serve this practice in my everyday life? What kind of inspiration and guidance do I need for its unfolding into a natural state of being where “remembering myself” is a matter of course? Which seed needs to be watered to make the human potential evolve and the true nature blossom? And – as Gurdjieff put it: walking the path of unfolding the soul, initially requires “conscious effort” – am I ready for this?
The new conference series gives theoretical and practical insights into a variety of teaching paths. We can open our minds to different inner paths ultimately leading to the same universal essence. In a time when shallowness even invades the transmission of spiritual content, engaging with a sincerely pursued teaching grounded in essence can contribute to a substantial anchoring in ourselves .
In this first international conference we will dedicate ourselves to Zen, the Bhakti path, and Integral Yoga. We will approach these teaching paths through their representatives, listen to their experiences, be guided, ask questions and immerse into essential elements of each practice. Three teachers that entirely dedicate their lives to the inner path and have many years of experience in their respective practice will accompany us in these days: OM C. Parkin, Regina Sara Ryan and Dirk Ryu Künne
“There is nothing to be done,” – were the teacher’s last words.
“I see,” the student thought and went back to sleep.”
With this provocative quote we would like to awaken your interest and invite you on a joint research trip – into a field of living inner practice on the path.
Referees
Practicing Integral Yoga
Conversations with OM C. Parkin
The supreme yoga teaches not only the Great Union of visible and invisible impermanent worlds with the Primordial Ground of Eternal Silence, but also the inner human’s harmonious way of life.
The knowledge of the different bodies of the human being, their hierarchical order and the appropriate emphasis lent to them in inner practice gives the inner human being the orientation and guidance it needs to not leave the Middle Way.
Internal antagonists like body and mind, or the polarities of male and female, are united in dynamic balance on the integral Middle Way.
OM describes the outlines of the supreme, spiritual liberation teaching of the human being and provides practical guidance for inner practice in everyday and beyond everyday life.
Moreover OM will conduct Sacred Movements – a sacral form of motion – and possibly other forms of Chi Work.
OM C. Parkin
is a spiritual master of the Silent Tradition. For almost 30 years, he has been accompanying people on their inner path and leading them to the core of their true nature.
OM’s work is based on the Perennial Philosophy, the highest teaching of awakening, which he also calls Inner Science. OM’s teaching is based on the Eastern advaita Tradition, as well as on the teachings of Integral Yoga of the Indian teacher Aurobindo Ghose. In his unique teachings, he combines the Eastern teaching of non-duality with Western experiential paths, such as Christian mysticism or the Fourth Way of Georges I. Gurdjieff. He also uses modern psychological and psychotherapeutic methods as teaching tools. The aim is Self-knowledge through Inner Work, which ultimately leads to the knowledge of true human nature.
OM transmits his realisation of the Absolute in the form of discourses on Being, Darshan, and Inner Work, in addition to books and lectures. He is the initiator of the OM Foundation Inner Science and the publishing house advaitaMedia, focussing on wisdom traditions. He also is founder and director of the Mystery School Enneallionce – School for Inner Work, and the modern Monastery Gut Saunstorf – Place of Stillness.
Tattooed Nun on a Harley
Riding the Bhakti Road from Convent to Ashram
Lecture and Dialogue with Regina Sara Ryan
You are invited to accompany Regina Sara Ryan as she retraces a map of her long journey within the bhakti tradition from her earliest immersion in the heart teachings of Christian mysticism and her life as a Roman Catholic nun, to her meeting with and subsequent thirty-five years of in-person work with Western Baul Master, Khépa Lee Lozowick (1943-2010). Along the way, Regina will make stops to consider her extraordinary connection with Lee’s beloved Master, Yogi Ramsuratkumar; the prayer of the heart (and other ways of praying dangerously); radical reliance on guru/God; and the role of music, meditation, pilgrimage and writing in her own efforts at igniting the inner life.
A Return to the Mother – Practice Session
„The Process is feminine and the keys to the lock which imprisons Reality or Truth is in a feminine approach with very gentle, humorous, patient, accepting relationships to it. If we approach the Work as Woman, we may just discover something quite unexpected and surprising, but no less delightful.“ Lee Lozowick
Using the poetry and songs of many great lovers of God from various traditions (including the Bauls of Bengal), as well as Lee Lozowick’s prayers to and praise of Yogi Ramsuratkumar, Regina will guide participants in recalling, writing about and celebrating their own heart’s love and longing.
Regina Sara Ryan
is an author and a workshop leader. Until the early seventies she lived as a Roman Catholic nun in a monastery. After leaving the monastery, Regina dedicated herself to contemplation and mysticism. She also started to explore other than Christian religious paths and was particularly inspired by the lives of great women in Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Sufism. In 1984 she met her last and most important spiritual teacher, Lee Lozowick, whose teachings are rooted in the Indian Baul tradition. Regina continues to follow what she calls a path of “unashamed devotion”. She lives in Arizona.
The Koan in Zen – Buddhism
Lecture and Dialogue with Dirk Ryu Künne
Zen in everyday life
Ryu will also guide us in practising various Zen exercises and everyday rituals, so that we will have the opportunity to experience these meditation and ritual forms and to empathise with this path.
A koan (statement of a ZEN master, an incident between master and disciple), which rationally considered, at first glance appears to be a mystical riddle, is intended to lead rational thinking “ad absurdum” and, ideally, open the so-called “view into one’s true nature” (Jap. Satori, Kensho) in a “mental breakthrough”. The view into one’s true nature (realization of one’s Buddha-nature) is most aptly illustrated by the following exclamation of the Indian Zen patriarch Bodhidharma:
“Independent of word and script,
focussed directly on the heart of things,
beholding the original nature, become a Buddha”
Daruma, 480 AD.
Dirk Ryu Künne
is the founder and operator of the Wolkentor ZEN temple in Halle (Saale). As a ZEN master of the Rinzai lineage, he practices the special method of “Koan Zen”. After decades of training in this practice, he is qualified to “work” with students. Already during his ZEN training, Ryu began to build the Wolkentor Temple over a period of 15 years on an old empty industrial site. Today he lives on this same site with his family.
Practical information
Times
Day of arrival Fri, October 20:
Check-in for board & lodging: 3- 6 pm
Check-in for the event: 4- 6 pm
Beginning with dinner together: 6 pm
You can plan your departure on Sunday around 2 pm.
This event is bilingual (German/English).
Price
€ 200,-
If you would really like to join us but have genuine financial difficulties, please contact us at: events@om-foundation.org
We are grateful for early registration for our events.
Your accommodation at the Gut Saunstorf Monastery has to be booked separately after your booking of the event.
Venue
Gut Saunstorf Monastery – Place of Stillness
Am Gutspark
D-23996 Saunstorf (near Schwerin)
www.monastery-saunstorf.com
The modern Monastery Gut Saunstorf – Place of Stillness, located near the German city of Schwerin, is dedicated to retreat and contemplation. It invites seekers of every confession and tradition to rediscover their own inner stillness in meetings with OM C. Parkin, at events or simply in a time of introspection and meditation.
