Sexuality | Center for Integral Wisdom

A Gift for You: Stuart Black & Marc Gafni – The Future of Love and Sex

August 11, 2015 By Kerstin Zohar Tuschik Leave a Comment

Some time ago I was blessed to participate in a workshop in New York City with Marc Gafni and Kristina Kincaid about “The Radical Path of the Outrageous Lover.”

Before the actual workshop, there was a beautiful evening dialogue between Stuart Black and Marc Gafni diving into the depths of “The Future of Love, Sex and Eros.”

I was deeply touched by the vulnerability and respect both of them showed in their dialogue.

Stuart Black has been Director of the New York Institute of Core Energetics since 1989. He is the author of A Way of Life: Core Energetics, is an instructor in the international training classes, and has been leading groups for over 25 years. Stuart has been a teacher of the Pathwork in Mexico and in Phoenicia, NY, where he was both a member of the Board of Directors and spiritual leader of the Pathwork Studies program. He has been an instructor to both faculty and students of the Barbara Brennan School of Healing.

Marc Gafni is the co-founder of the Center for Integral Wisdom as well as a visionary thinker, social activist, passionate philosopher, wisdom teacher, and author of ten books, including the award-winning Your Unique Self: The Radical Path to Personal Enlightenment, the two-volume Radical Kabbalah, and the recently published Self in Integral Evolutionary Mysticism: Two Models and Why They Matter and Tears: Reclaiming Ritual, Integral Religion, and Rosh Hashana.

Watch the dialogue here:

Dr. Kristina Kincaid: The Awakened Sexuality Project

August 10, 2015 By The Editors Leave a Comment

Next weekend Dr. Kristina Kincaid, Director of the Outrageous Love Project at CIW and Co-Founder (together with Dr. Marc Gafni) and Director of the Integral Evolutionary Tantra Institute, is going to teach a workshop on “MEETING YOUR DARK ATTRACTION AND AWAKENING TO THE DIVINE NATURE – AN EXPLORATION OF FANTASIES IN SEX AND LOVE” in New York City. The Integral Evolutionary Tantra Institute is a division of the Center for Integral Wisdom.

Bicyclist do it with ten speeds, Scuba Divers do an in depth exploration , Rock Climbers do it against the wall, Rockstars do it loud and Politicians do it to everyone. What exactly is this thing we do called Sex and why are we so obsessed with it? What makes it so pleasurable, titillating, frightening or shameful? Most of us think the other is satisfied, while we feel frustrated in our own desire and longing.

The primary processes of sexuality are energetic patterns, which are then mediated through the body. Most of us are not even aware of these energetic habits, such as the difference between being separate or merged or even our own preferences and those of our partners. Unencumbered from such habits, sex can become fresh, alive and open, an art form, a physical prayer, naked, unafraid and raw. Beyond self union, lies a greater union, a total orgasm with the whole, with the Universe, with Source.

This journey will be an exploration of how to gain a conscious choosing over what and how your sexual energy moves. From pleasure to sharing, to heightening the Spiritual embodiment of your sexuality, we will be in conscious exploration and discovery of these energies in you and how they affect your relationships. The Outrageous Eros, Awakened Sexuality Project is for participants who are longing for a deep spiritual journey and a strong willingness to venture where angels fear to tread. We will be working in the deep unconscious, uncovering where you turn away from some of your greatest gifts by delving into what has been deemed unspeakable and taboo. Through exploration of sexual fantasies, untamed passions, conscious play, body work, breath work, movement, intimacy, connection, respectful service and a deep honoring of our unique and individual way of loving.

Sunday August 30th, 2015 10:00am-5:00pm at 150 W 28th St. #1803, NYC

TAKE A RISK: SEX – An Interactive Workshop in Embodied Eros with Dr. Kristina Kincaid

July 6, 2015 By The Editors Leave a Comment

AN EXPERIENTIAL WORKSHOP ON SHARING AND EXPLORING YOUR SEXUALITY

When we experience ourselves as sexual beings, open to our full flow, with energy pulsing through our bodies, we become more creative and feel more deeply connected to ourselves and to others. In this dynamic, interactive evening combining individual work with group process, you will learn techniques to liberate this energy and access more pleasure in your life. These techniques will be demonstrated through individual body readings with select participants who choose to take the risk of revealing a sexual issue and are willing to work through it in a supportive environment with expert guidance.

Dr. Kincaid uses the teachings of Dr. Marc Gafni, Integral Evolutionary Tantra, and the principles of Core Energetics to open up physical blocks and places where life energy doesn’t move. In Core Energetics — a powerful body-based process — sexual energy and life force energy are one and the same. Join us with Core Energetics techniques, body readings, deep truth, wild goodness, radical personal transformation and, if you dare, the evolution of your own personal enlightenment.

Kristina-KincaidCropped-300x300 Dr. Kincaid is the Director of The Institute of Integral Evolutionary Tantra, New York City. Kristina is on faculty at The Institute of Core Energetics and holds an M.A. in Energy Medicine and a Doctorate in Theology from Holos University. A graduate of the Institute of Core Energetics and the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, she also holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Texas, Austin.

SPACE IS LIMITED. REGISTER NOW! TEL 917-734-2197

REGISTRATION FEE: $20.00

SATURDAY JULY 11^TH 2015

7:00-9:00 PM

150 WEST 28^TH STREET SUITE 1803

NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10001

IN CONJUNCTION WITH DR. GAFNI & THE INSTITUTE OF INTEGRAL EVOLUTIONARY TANTRA

Filed Under: Announcements, Blog, Integral Evolutionary Tantra, Live Events, Sexuality, Tantra & White Hot Yoga of the Heart

A Summer Festival of Outrageous Love

August 12, 2014 By Kerstin Zohar Tuschik Leave a Comment

This Summer Festival of Love at our Teaching Center at the Integral Practice Community Venwoude in Holland has again exceeded all expectations. More than 175 participants came to love and be loved open, to break the boundaries of their smallness, and to participate in the evolution of love itself.

On a personal note, I, Kerstin, have been thoroughly cooked over the last 20 years with intense spiritual experiences at all kinds of events, retreats, and seminars. None of them have prepared me even vaguely for what I have found in retreats with Marc Gafni over the last 3 years: the depths of the dharma transmissions, the openings of hearts, minds, and souls, the embodiment of outrageous loving, the humility and audacity of his teachings, his passion and devotion that is deeply infectious, and the depths of community I have found here again and again. And although each time I think this is IT, that it cannot be any better, it always gets better. It deepens, opens, connects us to the greatest depths and highest heights, and opens the gates to heaven, flying higher and higher and higher.

In this Festival, everyone could feel the Goddess dancing among us again and again. And Marc danced her all the way, taking every one of us with him. And the wonderful community of Venwoude and of Center for Integral Wisdom created such a clear, warm holding container that new people could dive into it immediately with almost no resistance. Wow!

Let’s hear from two participants:

Blog post by Stefan Schoch: A Summer Festival of Love

“Actually” I just wanted to relax for 2 days, when I drove to Venwoude at the 4th day of the Center for Integral Wisdom/ Venwoude Mystery School of Love Festival (following a personal invitation).

On the other hand, I already suspected (after the experiences with Marc in 2011) that it might touch me deeper. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Announcements, CIW Europe, Community, Enlightenment of Fullness, Evolution of Love, Featured, Live Events, Relationship Models, Types of Sexing, Unique Self, Unique We, Love & Relationships, Venwoude Mystery School of Love

Excitement Builds for Summer Festival of Love – July 26 to August 2

July 6, 2014 By Steve Raymond 1 Comment

Sometimes, people wait to the last minute, and then decide to jump into a major life event because of an inward pull and calling… an impulse that is not to be denied! If you are having this calling regarding our 3rd Annual Mystery School, and our 1st Annual European Integral Wisdom Conference… now is the time to act so you can be at the Summer Festival of Love at the Venwoude Integral Practice Community in Holland, the week of July 26 – August 2.

Many are still carrying the transformative “Loving Your Way to Enlightenment” vibe from the Summer Festival and Mystery School of last year… really fantastic reports of authentic growth and change. Promotional Flyer here—>

Loving Your Way to Enlightenment

With Marc Gafni leading, our previous Mystery Schools have attracted many participants from all over Europe and the Americas, contributing to the expansion of our European Center for Integral Wisdom faculty, and to a dramatic evolution of CIW teachings and workshop opportunities in the past year. The Summer Festival of Love is truly a signature event among all of the teachings for the year.

Mauk Pieper, Chahat Corten and Dr Marc at the 2013 Summer Festival of Love

There are few spaces left… you may register here. Register here—>

Filed Under: Announcements, Enlightenment of Fullness, Live Events, Love, Love, Relationships & Sexuality, Marc Gafni, The Democratization of Enlightenment, Types of Sexing, Unique Self, Unique We, Love & Relationships, Venwoude Mystery School of Love

3rd Annual Mystery School and 1st European Integral Wisdom Conference on Love, Eros and Enlightenment

April 4, 2014 By Steve Raymond Leave a Comment

Spring has arrived, and we are excited to announce our 3rd Annual Mystery School, and our 1st Annual European Integral Wisdom Conference, both to occur during the week of our Summer Festival of Love at the Venwoude Integral Practice Community in Holland, the week of July 26 – August 2.

Being a scholarly think-tank, we do like to exercise a certain amount of restraint in describing our events, but honestly, we are still carrying the “Holy Buzz” from the Summer Festival and Mystery School of last year. We have received enthusiastic reports from all participants throughout the year, and clearly, the Summer Festival of Love has become a signature event for the Center for Integral Wisdom. Promotional Flyer here—>

Last year, 150 participants attended, filling all of the accommodations. This year Venwoude has promised room for 200 participants, and an early registration is recommended. Register here—>

Mauk Pieper, Chahat Corten and Dr Marc at the 2013 Summer Festival of Love

With Marc Gafni leading, our previous Mystery Schools have attracted many participants from all over Europe and the Americas, contributing to the expansion of our European Center for Integral Wisdom faculty. Our faculty members in both Europe and the Americas are vital links in evolving the source code of human consciousness in all of our cultural and professional spheres.

Programming Change in Evening Dialogue “The Future of Love, Sex, and Eros”

September 12, 2013 By Kerstin Zohar Tuschik Leave a Comment

Click on Flyer to see an enlarged version!

We are excited to announce a programming change to start off the weekend workshop, “The Radical Path of the Outrageous Lover.”

On Friday, October 4th, from 7:00-9:00 pm, Stuart Black replaces Warren Moe in the evening dialogue with Dr. Marc Gafni, entitled, “The Future of Love, Sex, and Eros!”

Stuart Black was the Director of the Core Energetics Institute for over two decades and is currently serving as President. He was also the creator of many classic Core Energetics events such as Take A Risk and the Core Spiritual Service.

Mr. Black and Dr. Gafni will spark a spirited and entertaining dialogue on The Future of Love, Sex and Eros!

The Radical Path of the Outrageous Lover! A weekend workshop with Dr. Marc Gafni & Dr. Kristina Kincaid Oct. 4-6 in NYC

August 30, 2013 By Kerstin Zohar Tuschik Leave a Comment

At this key time in history we are called to evolve and embody Love, Sex and Eros! The sexual is the ultimate spiritual master. Deep understanding of the sexual is the ultimate guide to accessing the spirit in every dimension of our reality. To be a great Lover — an Outrageous Lover in all facets of your being — you must listen deeply to the simple yet elegant spirit whisperings of the sexual.

This event is a co-production with our Teaching Center Institute of INTEGRAL EVOLUTIONARY TANTRA in New York City.

Workshop: Oct 4 – 6, 2013
Fri 7–9 (free evening session)
Sat + Sun 10–5:30

Free Dialogue Evening! LOVE, SEX & EROS
Friday, Oct. 4 from 7-9 pm between Dr. MARC GAFNI
and WARREN MOE, Director, Inst. of Core Energetics

Please download the Flyer here for info on how to register.

Center for World Spirituality Mystery School of Love (aka Summer Festival of Love) Venwoude International Retreat Center, Holland

April 1, 2013 By Kerstin Zohar Tuschik Leave a Comment

The following video gives you a small taste of the Center for World Spirituality Mystery School of Love (aka Summer Festival of Love) run in partnership with Venwoude International retreat center.

The Mystery School is an annual eight day event which takes place at the end of July and the first week of August. The morning dharma teaching is by Dr. Marc Gafni with an all star team of teachers leading breakout sessions in the afternoon.

The Mystery School is a profound enlightenment teaching intensive where the practices revolve around awakening to what Dr. Marc calls Your Unique Self. This awakening to your true nature and to the sacred activism that is the invitation of your life is rooted in a powerful realization of the unique love beauty and love intelligence of all that is, that lives in you, as you and through you.

Many students report profound enlightenment experiences during mystery schools. Those experiences however are but pointers towards a stable and integrated awakening to your unique self that has the potential to literally change everything even as you deepen and transform from where you are. This is the path of what Dr. Marc calls the evolutionary lover or the outrageous lover. At the core of the dharma is Dr. Marc’s core mantra: We live in a world of outrageous pain. The only response to outrageous pain is outrageous love.

Next Venwoude Festival / Mystery School: July 27th – August 3rd, 2013
Info here: http://www.venwoude.nl/summerfestival.htm

Filed Under: Announcements, Audio & Video, Blog, CIW Europe, CIW Founders, CIW Teaching Centers, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Enlightenment of Fullness, Enlightenment Teachings, Events, Evolution of Love, Integral God, Integral Psychology, Integral Religion, Integral Worldview & Theory, Live Events, Love, Marc Gafni, Membership, open - no membership, Outrageous Acts of Love, Outrageous Love Letters, Pleasure, Qualities of Eros, Sexuality, Spirit's Next Move, The Erotic & The Holy, Translineage, Unique Self, Unique Self Media, Unique Self Practices, Unique Self Videos, Unique Self, Unique We, Love & Relationships, Venwoude Mystery School of Love, World Spirituality, World Spirituality Practice

News from Shalom Mountain after Evolutionary Tantra Weekend

March 11, 2013 By lesley Leave a Comment

The Wisdom School at Shalom Mountain: The Seven Tastes of Sexing, March 7-10, 2013

This event on Evolutionary Tantra was held last week at the Wisdom School, co-founded by Shalom Mountain and the Center for World Spirituality, which is the locus for Marc’s teachings on the east coast of the United States.

This was the 10th Wisdom School that has gathered in the last several years, each one with its own theme and exploration of a particular dimension of Enlightenment. Each Wisdom School is dedicated to the practice of evolving the Source Code of Consciousness in a particular area of spiritual practice or enlightenment inquiry. This Wisdom School shared the same theme as the recent program held at Venwoude Retreat Center in February, The Seven Tastes of Sexing. The Shalom Mountain retreat was led by Dr Marc and facilitated by two close friends and students in the private study circle, Jeff Hilliard and Shelly Reichenbach. Jeff and Shelly are Shalom Mountain leaders and have been studying closely with Marc at the Wisdom School for a long period of time.

Wisdom School at Shalom Mountain Developing Unique Expression of Unique Self Process

Jeff Hilliard and Tom Goddard are leading the development of the Unique Self process, in its particular expression at Shalom Mountain. Jeff, Tom, Nance and Marc, along with a group of leaders, are very excited to be actively engaged in developing the first Unique Self process led by Shalom leaders. Marc has taught Unique Self extensively over the last few years at Shalom Mountain, and is now working together with this fabulous leadership group of teachers in transmitting the dharma and empowering Shalom to take up the Unique Self teaching in their own gorgeous Shalom fashion.

Filed Under: Blog, CIW Founders, CIW Teaching Centers, Community, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Enlightenment of Fullness, Enlightenment Teachings, Events, Integral Psychology, Live Events, Marc Gafni, Membership, open - no membership, Sexuality, Shalom Mountain Wisdom School, Spirit's Next Move, Types of Sexing, Unique Self, Unique Self Embodiment, Unique Self, Unique We, Love & Relationships, World Spirituality

Reporting on Stunning Tantra Teachings in Holland

March 11, 2013 By lesley Leave a Comment

News from The Seven Tastes of Sexing program at Venwoude Reteat Center, Feb 8-10, 2013

We are delighted to report that The Seven Tastes of Sexing Tantra Weekend (Feb 8-10, 2013) at our retreat center in Holland, the Venwoude Retreat Center, was simply stunning. Marc taught eight major dharma sessions with exercises and intimate move teachings offered beautifully by Leon Gras and Sujata van Overveld. Sujata and Leon did a wonderful job deepening the space through the practice of intimate moves, taking the dharma and making it embodied and alive and breathing in the very cells of all the participants.

Marc transmitted a dharma that he has been working with for the last four years which provides what we think is the most advanced dharmic understanding of the nature of sexuality. Marc outlined eight major forms of sexing, and led us on an embodied visionary journey to access the unique contours, tastes and substance of each of these forms of sexing. The net result of this tantric immersion was a profound transformation of the nature of the sacred sexual experience for every one of the participants.

Filed Under: Blog, CIW Europe, CIW Founders, CIW Teaching Centers, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Enlightenment of Fullness, Enlightenment Teachings, Events, Integral Psychology, Live Events, Love, Relationships & Sexuality, Marc Gafni, Membership, open - no membership, Sexuality, Spirit's Next Move, Types of Sexing, Unique Self, Unique Self Embodiment, Unique Self, Unique We, Love & Relationships, Venwoude Mystery School of Love, World Spirituality

Sex & Spirit: Wisdom of the Spiritually Incorrect

February 25, 2013 By The Editors 1 Comment

By Marc Gafni

Note: The following article appeared in the December 2012/January 2013 issue of Common Ground Magazine.

If you stop to think even for a short moment, you realize that sex really is the great mystery of our lives. Two groups, however, suggest very different approaches to sex, and both of them are wrong.

One powerful group of forces is arrayed in culture to prevent us from getting sex. They tell us that sex is somehow wrong, immoral, or sinful. Even when we think we have gotten free of them, they pop up again inside our hearts or heads, wagging their fingers disapprovingly. And they remind us constantly of all the trouble sex has gotten the world into — from the Trojan War to the Clinton/Lewinsky drama. Not to mention the trouble it has gotten you and me into—emotionally, psychologically, personally, professionally, and physically. You have to admit that the sexual conservatives have a point. If you want to keep life simple, clean, and orderly, forgoing or limiting your sexual experience might be an excellent choice. If you like spiritual exercises, take a few minutes to list all the times sex has gotten you into trouble.

Lots of conventional moralists and organized religion fall into this category. Religion wants to affirm love and passion as virtues but to divorce them entirely from sex. So moralist religion works hard to erect boundaries that will protect us from the pitfalls of sex. Yet while we all know that sex requires some discipline, and that context and commitment count, most of us know in our hearts that the moralists are wrong, and that sex is ultimately—and overwhelmingly—good, and not merely a side benefit of achieving loving relationship.

To read the entire article, download it as a PDF file.

Filed Under: Articles & Essays, Blog, CIW Founders, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Enlightenment of Fullness, Enlightenment Teachings, Eros & Ethics, In the Media, Love, Marc Gafni, Membership, open - no membership, Publishing Division, Sexuality, Spirit's Next Move, The Erotic & The Holy, World Spirituality

From Sex to Super-Consciousness: Unique Self and the Future of Love

February 22, 2013 By The Editors Leave a Comment

Marc Gafni and Adam Gilad in Dialogue
Sunday, February 24, 2013 at 12pm San Francisco • 3pm New York • 8pm London

Unique Self: “To be awake is to be a lover: alive, aflame and open as love. Therefore, at its heart, to be a lover means to be willing to participate in the transformation of consciousness.”

Sex is play. Sex is surrender. Sex is profound and dangerous and exhilarating discovery – of our truest selves and the selves of our lovers.

After all, the ancient Hebrew mystics didn’t say, “And Adam banged Eve.” They wrote, he “knew” her.

How can your sexual self be the crucible of knowing yourself anew? Of knowing your lover with both profundity and lightness, with both fierceness and the tenderness of a newborn’s touch?

Sex can be entertainment, distraction, obsession — or it can be revelation of our truest selves, our most infinite consciousness. Through our bodies touching, we can touch the divine.

And we can feel – when we drop our anxieties, our bills, our status, our egos – what we can be as human in the act of “becoming.”

Few speak on this subject with Adam Gilad’s remarkable insight and infectious enthusiasm. The 50,000 followers of Adam’s dating and relationships newsletter already appreciate his unique mix of global wisdom traditions, spiritual cheekiness, advanced education and expansive practices. His legendary audio trainings and special programs cover topics like: learning the “language” of the other gender; cultivating a dance of the sexes rather than a battle; playing the spectrum of sexual polarity; and always, always, always, opening to fearlessness in self-awareness, self-evolution, compassion, forgiveness and really good wine.

Marc Gafni’s “From Sex to Eros” appearing in Spanda Journal

October 22, 2012 By The Editors Leave a Comment

Marc Gafni was recently featured in Spanda Journal, the peer-reviewed biannual publication of the Spanda Foundation.

The Spanda Foundation offers publications related to “sustainable advancement of peace, knowledge, and understanding.”

Marc’s article, entitled “The Future of the Holy: From Sex to Eros,” begins like so:

“Sex. Is there anything else that so grabs our rapt attention, inessantly pursues us, occupies our daydreams, fantasies, and yearnings? The kabbalists state the obvious: God is trying to get our attention. Now I am not talking about the God who sends good people to burn in hell because they slipped up on one of his impossible demands. nor even the Grandfather in heaven who hands out chocolate to do-gooders. Forget that God. The God you don’t believe in doesn’t exist. Rather, the God that exists for us is the personal erotic life force that courses through reality. The God we believe in is the vitality of eros. The God we believe in is the force for healing and transformation in the world. The God who knows our name. That is the God who so clearly calls out to us that sex is the answer.”

For the entire article, click: SPANDAJOURNAL_C&D2.0_Marc_Gafni.

See: Gafni, M. (2012). “The Future of the Holy: from Sex to Eros”, Spanda Journal, ed. S. Momo, III,1: 131-139.

Filed Under: Articles & Essays, Blog, CIW Founders, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Enlightenment of Fullness, Enlightenment Teachings, Evolution of Love, In the Media, Integral God, Integral Psychology, Integral Religion, Kabbalah, Love, Love, Relationships & Sexuality, Marc Gafni, Membership, open - no membership, Publishing Division, Qualities of Eros, Sexuality, Spirit's Next Move, The Erotic & The Holy, World Spirituality

Gay enlightenment? A moment for LGBT spiritual revival

October 12, 2012 By Joe Perez Leave a Comment

By Joe Perez

Posted today on the MyOutSpirit.com Blog:

Every so often I address a column or blog post to my lesbian, bisexual, and gay readers. This one’s for you. And, because your journey is my journey, and ultimately there is only One True Self – this column is really for everybody.

Whereas mainstream pundits and public intellectuals in the U.S. are focused on the next election, and many other folks are focused on the next Saturday night, there is a wider and deeper perspective. Looking as wide as this moment in over 2,000 years of socio-cultural evolution since the beginning of the Common Era, and looking as deep as this moment arising when the cutting edge of individual consciousness is a postmodern mindset, and even this edge has become dull and dismal.

It is an odd time to be gay or bisexual. For American men of my generation – past 40 – our lives have been crises of meaning and meaninglessness. We were born into a world in which the reigning moral, religious, and spiritual authorities condemned how we love and would have forced us into closets, castration, or so-called reparative therapy. We could read the mystics and enlightened sages of centuries past and with only a few exceptions could find no evidence that affirming the spiritual dignity of same-sex love was meriting even a moment’s thought. And we did, and by unprecedented numbers gays, lesbians, and bisexuals rejected organized religion and set out upon paths of individual spiritual seeking. They found their ways into Zen monasteries, radical faerie gatherings, drumming circles, hot yoga classes, and not a few very, very, very liberal churches and synagogues (places where they worried about marginalizing atheists and making sure language was neutered of any hint of white heterosexual patriarchy).

Read the entire article…

Follow Joe Perez’s writings for gay and bisexual men at Gay Spirituality Blog.

Filed Under: Blog, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Conscious Society: Integral Politics, Enlightenment Teachings, free membership, Masculine & Feminine, Membership, Relationship Models, Sexuality, Spirit's Next Move, Unique Self, Unique Story, Calling & Sacred Autobiography, World Spirituality Tagged With: Homosexuality, Joe Perez

Daily Wisdom: The Lovers’ Art of Attention

July 17, 2012 By Marc Gafni Leave a Comment

So far, the two major qualities of the erotic lover have been perception and giving. We have seen how the sexual models the erotic, hinting to us how we can live a deeper, more profound existence in all areas of our lives. In order to give in the realm of the sexual, we must be great listeners – fully attentive to the subtlest nuances of our lover’s desire. Similarly, to be a giver in all arenas of being requires our mastering the lover’s art of attention.

Just as the sexual lover listens deeply to the needs of the beloved and thereby brings the beloved to satisfaction, so too must the erotic lover, in all facets of life, be deeply listening and attentive to the needs of the beloved.

The Erotic and the Holy
Marc Gafni

For more information on private study or to book a public teaching, contact Dr. Marc Gafni at support@ievolve.org

Filed Under: Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Daily Wisdom, Eros & Ethics, Love, Marc Gafni, Membership, open - no membership, Outrageous Acts of Love, Publishing Division, Qualities of Eros, Sexuality, The Erotic & The Holy, World Spirituality

Where Americans import conservatives from overseas

May 4, 2012 By The Editors 1 Comment

Photo Credit: Religion News Service

By Joe Perez

In certain places in America, conservatives are so scarce they’ve begun to import them from abroad. Specifically, in Tampa, Florida, where 1,000 delegates gathered for the United Methodist Church’s General Conference. While liberal American Methodists pleaded for tolerance for gay people, conservatives from overseas compared homosexuality to bestiality. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Blog, Christianity, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Conscious Society: Integral Politics, Eros & Ethics, Ethics, Evolution of Love, free membership, Integral Religion, Integral Worldview & Theory, Love, Relationships & Sexuality, Masculine & Feminine, Membership, Relationship Models, Sexuality, Spirit's Next Move, World Spirituality Tagged With: Homosexuality, Joe Perez

Joe Perez on the evolution of attitudes towards gays and lesbians

April 21, 2012 By The Editors Leave a Comment

Photo Credit: anna and liz

“Given enough time, modernity is enough to show traditional churches that homosexuality is not an illness or disorder, and ought to be tolerated. Given enough time, postmodernism is enough to show modernist churches that they need to accept gays, lesbians, and other sexual and gender minorities for the diversity they bring. Given enough time, an integral wave of consciousness — a World Spirituality — will be enough to show traditional churches that they have held an honorable role by keeping the flame burning which knows the inner divinity of gays and lesbians; it will be enough to show modernist churches and secular organizations the ways in which gay/straight differences in perspective offer many fruitful new avenues for investigation of the interior life of all sentient beings; it will be enough to show postmodern churches, spirituality-based, and mission-driven organizations the best ways to bring homophiles and heterophiles and all people within whom gender/sexual/energetic polarities exist into a constructive theology of interrelationship, marriage, and social ethics. All this is within our reach in the stratums of pre-modern, modern, and post-modern life-worlds in which we dwell, but it most definitely requires a World Spirituality.” — Joe Perez

Recently on this blog: Towards a World Spirituality theology of gay marriage

Filed Under: Blog, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Conscious Society: Integral Politics, Integral Religion, Integral Worldview & Theory, Love, Relationships & Sexuality, Masculine & Feminine, Membership, Modern Worldview, open - no membership, Postmodern Worldview, Relationship Models, Science & Spirituality, Sexuality, Spirit's Next Move, World Spirituality Tagged With: Joe Perez

Towards a World Spirituality theology of gay marriage

April 20, 2012 By The Editors Leave a Comment

Photo Credit: bodies-of-art

by Joe Perez

In a World Spirituality perspective, the theologian is more like an symphony composer, with theologians from different theological traditions translating the musical notation for the musicians of different instruments. Clearly there is give and take between the symphony composer and the composer for piano, violin, drums, etc.; but ultimately they are creating new music together.

In our times, a major crisis has emerged for theology which could help to doom religion in many countries unless it is redressed: the crisis of homosexuality within the churches. No, not the crisis that gay people are religious (there have always been gay people in churches, probably in disproportionately large numbers). The issue is that our religious traditions have holy traditions and scriptures dating to pre-modern times when there was no contemporary understanding of homosexuality or modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities (LGBT).

Daily Wisdom: On James Joyce’s definitive return to Yes

April 15, 2012 By Marc Gafni Leave a Comment

Photo Credit: the queen of subtle

From Marc Gafni’s Your Unique Self:

One of the great literary masterpieces of the twentieth century is James Joyce’s Ulysses. Joyce spends reams of pages portraying the No reality encountered in the streets of Dublin by the main character, Leopold Bloom. Joyce masterfully maps the life of the archetypal human whose life is a series of unnecessary losses. The death of Bloom’s son and father, his daughter’s leaving, the passing of his youth, and finally the adultery of his wife.

Yet in the last scene of the book, Bloom returns home to his sleeping wife. Never mind it is a recently desecrated bed. Never mind he sleeps with his feet at her head. It is still home, the erotic haven of the inside. The book ends with a crescendo of Yes. As his wife feigns sleeping, we float along in her stream of consciousness, finally concluding with reminiscences of the early ecstatic hours of her and Leopold’s love. It is a definitive return to Yes:

And then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes
and then
he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain
flower and
first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down
to me
so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his
heart was
going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

Filed Under: Blog, Book Reviews & Quotes, CIW Founders, Conscious Eros & Relationships, Daily Wisdom, Love, Marc Gafni, Membership, Publishing Division, Sexuality, Unique Self

Eros Audio Series: The Sexual Models the Erotic, but it Doesn’t Exhaust the Erotic

January 29, 2012 By Marc Gafni Leave a Comment

The fall of the temple symbolises the exile of the Erotic energy. Where did it go? The erotic is exiled in the sexual! We have to understand, that the sexual models the erotic, but it doesn’t exhaust the erotic.

Listen to this audio clip from the Erotic and the Holy audio series by Dr. Marc Gafni. [Read more…]

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