Hosting from a Deeper Place

From the email list February 2013...

Hi friends,

Jerry Nagel and I are in Brazil with Narjara Thamiz and Gustavo Prudente preparing for the arrival of 24 Brazilians and Americans tomorrow for Hosting from a Deeper Place: The Art of Hosting the Subtle. The 4 of us have been checking in and in design process for 3 days at this most amazing retreat centre: Espaço Arco-Iris, an hour outside of Sao Paulo.

Our purpose for the next 5 days is: joining together in a learning field to deepen individual and collective capacity to host complexity.

We are designing around the 4 fold practice using Theory U for the movements of our journey together here, having re-imagined the phases of Theory U to reflect going down the left hand side as hosting into a deeper place (sensing), being at the bottom of the U as hosting within a deeper place (presencing) and going up the right hand side of the U as hosting from and out of a deeper place (realizing). These ideas are more fully developed and still in emergence. We will share them out as we journey in them, as we will the overlay of the 4 fold practice in each of these days.

In our hosting team experience so far, we have put out all the ideas we could think of and may have been carrying for a long time (loads of post-it notes), sketched them out on our design yesterday, only to let go of what we think we know and remove them all today to open the space to be in lightly held structure for the beginning and to sit in our own not knowing so the gifts, wisdom, knowledge and learning edges of everyone who is about to arrive here can inform what wants to emerge.

More tomorrow if we have internet connection. From the field in Brazil, Kathy, Jerry, Narjara and Gustavo

Kathy Jourdain

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Glad to hear it Kathy, Jerry, Najara, Gustavo. The welcoming of ideas. The letting go. The flow.

You know my heart is with you. Personally. And for the attention to the deeper places.

My learning in these deep places these days is best being found in ceremony. With drumming. With silence. With fire. With dreams. Ritual. Releasing to time outside of time. Compelled to the preverbal.

May it go well for all of you.

Tenneson

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One of my favourite moments in the design process is when we take a page full of post it notes and wipe it clear. Then we finally come back to our deepest learning and our deepest knowing and we invite ourselves to host from our most honest and authentic place.

That little trembling I feel there is the energy of confronting what is real and true. I can't imagine a deeper place to host from. Have a beautiful gathering!

Much love

Chris

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Bom Dia friends.

Yesterday, friends from the US and Brazil arrived at the retreat centre, bringing with them a whoosh of energy, excitement and curiosity. We began our time together outside, sensing into self, place and all that was present. Then Narjara, I, Gustavo and Jerry shared the story of this call, the active conversations beginning two years ago, the persistence of the call despite many turns along the way.

Moving into a check in circle, we invited people to share in response to this question "why does being here now really matter to you?" So rich. Narjara remembered her dream from a couple of years ago of a condor - when she didn't know what a condor was and there are none in Brazil - leading to the discovery of the Eagle and Condor prophesy - a bringing together of North and South American energies. It was a profound moment noticing North and South Americans in the room, gathered here in a country that is an emerging leader in the world, representing a shift from leading and living from the mind to leading and living from the heart.

One of our American friends offered that she has always viewed Canada as being about justice, the United States used to be about freedom and Brazil is about transformation. That's why she's here. That's why so many of us are here.

Several themes showed up in the check-in circle. Not knowing and a curiosity about what exactly it is. A transformative moment - for individuals and in our sense in the world. Personal shift - so much already in progress and on the edges of more. What time it is in the world and what is wanting to emerge now.

We are near the end of Day 2 of hosting from a deeper place, deep in our not knowing and at peace with a named flow but no activities or processes or frameworks currently identified beyond today. Our theme today is Hosting Self and Others Into a Deeper Place (Sensing in the language of Theory U and we see it as even more than sensing). Beautiful explorations and experiments around energy, sensing the field, hosting the subtle. An inquiry into the not knowing that has elicited powerful stories, being curious about how we host ourselves from a deeper place and how we host others into that place too.

In open space at the moment. So much more to come. Kathy, Jerry, Narjara and Gustavo

Kathy Jourdain

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A full day today. Working with a few different modalities. Getting ready to go to the bottom of the U tomorrow but very curious about what it meant for people. The hosting team comes from different world views and as we felt ourselves in our team groan zone after being in our process for 5 days, we welcomed many into the design process tonight, passed a talking piece, listened for what was present and beauty emerged. Hosted myself out of hosting tomorrow - here in Brazil at Hosting from a Deeper Place.

On behalf of our team Narjara, Gustavo, Jerry and me (Kathy).

Kathy Jourdain

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Playing in from Asheville North Carolina on the inspiration of Charlie…

When I was in Japan – Charlie taught me so many things that connect to this subtle realm from their worldview… many stuck with me. One is a Japanese word (which I don’t remember) that is “those things you just know.” -- the ones you just know in your bones without a reason you know them.

We also were in a deep sensing and intuitive field with so many non-verbal ways (sounds, facial expressions) that helped us tune into deeper knowing and the subtle – out beyond our understanding until we were clear.

The third is how very present the deep connection with Nature understanding is and what these subtle worlds and the world of beauty have to show us.

Today Tenneson and I were listening to a DVD by Richard Rohr and he was talking about the contemplative mind—how very essential it is to our nature as human beings to cultivate the unity consciousness/experience that comes to the contemplative mind and how from this place so many of the things that are in the pre-verbal or intuitive understanding become known – clear.

How sweet to play in from the rich field of learning that is our Japanese AoH mates and the worldview of Franciscan spirituality.

Enjoy and delight in one another and all that is made visible in the worlds present among you.

Love

Teresa

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Replies to This Conversation

Permalink Reply by Amanda Fenton on March 25, 2013 at 1:11am

More on this conversation...

Hi friends,

This post took awhile to settle in. It is focused more on my experience with the subtle in the field of learning at Hosting From A Deeper Place in Brazil. I offer it in the spirit of story sharing and as personal reflection. http://wp.me/pBN8m-cX Kathy

Kathy Jourdain

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I remember several years ago in Brazil. I was keynoting a conference in Porte Alegre and one of the panelists was a Quantum Physicist from India who had lived in the Amazon for the past 35 years.

Harlmus and I had amazing conversations. I was able to follow most of them.

One conclusion we came to was that the connections at the subtle level are even more profound and immediate than those at the dense level. A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon may cause typhoons in Indonesia, but there is no doubt that four people in a deep conversation in Rio is linked instantly to two people falling in love in London!

Cheers,

Bob

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Permalink Reply by Ursula Hillbrand on March 25, 2013 at 7:04am

Dear mates,

I was following with amazement what you were able to achieve in Brazil through the messages on our list serve. I am grateful the discussion now moved to the ning platform. For long I have been exploring working with the subtle worlds, of which there are many approaches, and wanting to make it more accessible. The more we become aware, the more we can co-create. To this aim I have started a group on working with the subtle worlds a couple of years ago, where it would be great to also be able to follow this discussion thread. To found that group was also impacted through experiences in the material world, a practitioners day in the European Commission. I am enjoying, that there are many things that do not need to remain "mystical", they can just make our concrete hosting work much deeper. Looking forward to how this inquiry will unfold and evolve!

Regards, Ursula

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Permalink Reply by Kathy Jourdain on March 25, 2013 at 8:23am

Dear Ursula, I so resonate with what you have written here. Coming back from Brazil it is one of the strongest intentions I hold - to feel my way along the continuum of practical and mystical in an expansive practice that allows me to feel the energetic body as strong as the physical body, if not stronger, and to bring that awareness to aliveness every day as consciously as it is unconscious. It is what is already present when I'm in deep hosting work. Love that this is rising to the place of being able to speak it out loud - maybe something to do with the integrity of bringing the whole person to everything and becoming aware of the power of doing that - nothing is missing and more is available.