Wake Up Your Life!
an intro to Tantra sampler weekend
Maine Center for Taijquan and Qigong
500 Forest Ave., Portland, ME
April 28-30, 2017
Sponsored by the Somatic Center’s ‘Tantric Ground’
Workshop Description:
What better way to welcome in the spring than to open your life to explore Tantra, expanding your capacity for living life wide awake, with deep purpose and passion. But what is it and what does it look like?
‘Tantra’ in the U.S. has become a counter-cultural buzz-word for a collection of esoteric practices that promise ‘enlightened lover’ status. As ‘sex’ goes, it sells. But truth be told, Tantra is so much more. As a 5,000 year old earth-based cosmology, tantric practices and principles reveal the blueprints of life; processes for living a live that is a vibrant expression of your core.
The ‘Waking Up Your Life!’ weekend sampler is an opportunity to begin learning and living these practices in an open-hearted community. Through movement, discussion, reflection and creative explorations, we’ll discover that our vulnerability is a form of personal power — that can serve as a beacon of hope to another. As we hold all of life as sacred, pleasure as a doorway, and love as a gift, the stuck places within us open and transform. Generosity abounds. We laugh. We cry. Life ripples forth.
This is tantra-light for the tantra-curious: a clothes on, sensual, non-sexual weekend sampler.
This $50 non-refundable payment for just Friday night (pre-requisite for any other workshop)
OR pay for the whole weekend at $125
Exploring a simple map from the Kabbalah, participants will learn a new relationship with boundaries; one that embraces them as doorways, not walls, to a more expansive, ecstatic life. This class will involve movement, discussion, reflection and creative experimentation. This Workshop is a Pre-Requisite to all other Workshops
As described in Mandukya Upanishads, we’ll explore the Multiple Realms of Consciousness through dance – for what it teaches about sexuality. Starting slowly, with a meditative, tantric practice, morphing into a dance of our internal world of characters. Touching shadow, light; merging, transforming and creating something completely wild and unique.
A ‘Puja’ is a ritual prayer. Borrowed from Eastern traditions, its used to honor a sacred event or diety. In tantric communities in the U.S. it has become synonymous with a structure for building individual and community connection. You’ll be invited to connect with each other in light and playful ways — invoking a reverence for life. With hearts open, and eyes willing to see beauty in the world, we create a bit of heaven here on earth.
As westerners, we’re steeped in conversations about power. How to find it, use it, lose it or abuse it. In tantra, there is only one source of power – the energy that animates life and all of creation. It’s creative, powerful and erotic in nature; Eros. Sometimes it feels elusive, sometimes it feels inaccessible. The good news? There’s a map for inviting Eros more fully into our lives. We can consciously cultivate the conditions that invite it’s arrival. Together we’ll play with this map through movement, sound, spoken words, and/or visual expression.
Finances:
Friday’s Pre-Requisite Workshop: $ 50 This workshop is a pre-requisite to all others.
Weekend pass to All Workshops: $125 Pass holders are free to sample some or all workshops.
Workshop Guidelines:
In this weekend sampler, we’ll create a consciously loving community guided by some of the following principles:
- Choice – everyone’s free to pass, for any reason, on any activity.
- Consent – physical contact happens by permission only.
- Principles and Skills of Loving – seeing, listening, honoring, good will in action, non-judging
- Honoring Boundaries – getting good at ‘yes’ and ‘no’, being surprised by the possibilities good boundaries reveal
- Seeing Beauty – moving from eyes that critique, to those that see the miracle of love and life
- Redefining Pleasure – pleasure is what we feel when we’re connected to the pulse of life – its way more than ‘sex’
Testimonials:
“What an adventure. The setting was pristine and safe. The content and the processes were flawless. The facilitation, second to none. But it was all of you… yes you, that touched my heart and soul in so many ways, that made this a truly magical experience.” ~J.D.
“Wow! This work, continues, to unfold in me. The reverent space Kristen and fellow explorers created allowed me to dive into my own sensuality, in a safe, nonjudgmental and supportive way. I came away with a stronger awareness of how I want to be in relationship and a community in which to continue exploring and deepening.” ~A.C.
This $50 non-refundable payment for just Friday night (pre-requisite for any other workshop)
OR pay for the whole weekend at $125
Magic Happens at Tantric Ground!
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Facilitators Bio:
Kristen Chamberlin, MS, LMT, SEP: Kristen is a Massage & Somatic Therapist, parent and dancer, with 25 years experience in private practice, retreat facilitation and training. She directs the Somatic Center (somatic-center.com) in Northampton, MA with a focus on embodied approaches to trauma-healing, stress related medical conditions and Intimacy and Body-Awareness issues, drawing on training in Somatic Experiencing, Massage, Mindfulness, Himalayan Tantra, Dance and Yoga. She is core teaching faculty at Institute for Sexuality Education and Enlightenment, and runs ‘Tantric Ground (http://www.MeetUp.com/Tantric-Ground-Northampton/), a local Tantra-learning community based on a direct lineage of Himalayan Tantra from Northern India.
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Wish to Join ‘Tantric Ground’ Meet Up Group for Regular postings?
Go first to MeetUp(dot)come and make a profile – then go here:
http://www.MeetUp.com/Tantric-Ground-Northampton/