The Editors

This year Marc Gafni returns to the 13th Annual New Living Expo in San Mateo, CA to join Raz Ingrazi, and Lisa Schrader, Sheva Carr, and Arjuna Ardagh on a panel called “The Future of Spirituality: Connecting Community Through Mind, Body, Spirit“.

The panel will be moderated by honored teacher and Wisdom Council member Arjuna Ardagh.

“More and more people today describe themselves as “spiritual” while at the same time turning away from the religions and traditions of the past. As we expand beyond patriarchal and dogmatic way of exploring our true nature and our deepest potential, everything is up for reexamination. What is “enlightenment,” and does it have any fixed meaning? Is spiritual practice and expression the same for men and women? Is there any real conflict between a deep spiritual life and involvement in money and the world? What is the relationship between spiritual awakening and social and political action? Are sexuality and intimate relationship a barrier to true awakening, or a portal for deepening?”

“The Future of Spirituality” panel is on Sunday, April 27 at 1-2:30pm in Room 7.

The New Living Expo is a weekend event from event held April 25-27th at the San Mateo Event Center (1346 Saratoga Drive).

We hope you’ll come by for this important conversation!

For over 25 years the New Living Expo has brought healing, enlightenment, education and wonder to the San Francisco Bay Area. The Expo draws learners, changers and explorers of alternative thinking and being. The 10,000+ crowd is diverse, engaged, and looking for new and different products and businesses to support their innovative thinking and lifestyles.

Tbird Luv and Dr. Marc Gafni have teamed up in the creation of a new series of Dharma Party events, during which she and Marc bring dharma, music, empowerment and outrageous calls to action to awesome crowds of movers and shakers in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Some of you may know board member Tbird Luv from some of the Center’s events over the past year (such as the 2013 World Spirituality retreat at Esalen, and the SF Dharma Circles), where she has brought her unique music to Dr. Marc Gafni‘s teachings, and her collaborative brilliance to other projects with the Center.

A Dharma Party is Not just another event that leaves behind GREAT memories. Instead, those present have a chance to get inspired, and to strategically design the future with aligned relationships and projects that have the potential to make the world a better place.

Here is the invitation to the 2nd Dharma Party – coming up next week on April 19 – which was sent to a list of Bay Area locals who attended the 1st one. If you want to be invited to this Dharma Party – or any of the next ones! – let us know here. We want you there!

Knock Knock

Are you coming to the next Dharma Jam Outrageous Love Hub April 19th 7pm sharp? We’ve got more work and play to do together.

These last months, Marc Gafni and I have poured energy into creating a platform for you and us to co-creatively establish MORE outrageous acts of love in response to the pain happening in the world.

Three months ago we joined with over 100 of The Bay area’s finest in social innovation, social justice, technology and business, the performing and healing arts and spirituality – to start the conversation of collaboratively building a beautiful world together.

Tbird Luv & Dr. Marc Gafni
Photos courtesy of Lily Dong

We ate, drank wine, listened to great music and reflected on our purpose through the transmission of dharma.

What’s Next?

What to Expect on April 19th:

Like I mentioned in January, the Outrageous Acts of Love Dharma Parties are dedicated to and created for folks like you doing amazing work in the world.

It is an INVITE ONLY private gathering. Be prepared to meet – face to face – in real depth – at least twenty NEW Dynamic PEOPLE who – if you so choose and delight – might become your partners, sacred collaborators, your outrageous love cohort. This will also be a celebration and more than just a good time.

We will make sure that you will have plenty of time to network, get your groove on, shine your radiance and get to know who’s in the room.

With an element of surprise, this will Not be just another event that leaves behind GREAT memories. Instead, you’ll have a chance to get inspired and strategically design the future with aligned relationships and projects that make the world a better place – if you so choose.

Outcomes of This Event Include:

• To self organize and establish working partnerships
• To instigate collaborations between aligned partners, players and participants under the umbrella of Dharma
• To create viral Outrageous Acts of Love Globally
• To experiment and explore creative ideas between us
• To Play and have FUN together

More organic tapas and drinks, live music will be provided for your pleasure. We’re also building an online presence for those of you of who’d like to continue to find one another, communicate and create.

Here’s a video clip from the 1st Dharma Party in January, 2014:

See you on the 19th.

PS…you are absolutely welcomed to bring guests and invite those who feel aligned with this magic.

Big Love,

Tbird Luv, Marc Gafni and The Center for Integral Wisdom

Everybody is looking but so few find it. It is a dream unfulfilled.

It’s a yearning, we can imagine it, we can feel it, we can taste it, but we just don’t know how to get there!

WHY do we keep missing the point?

We are approaching the essence of our Fullness through the ‘wrong’ door. We have exiled the most important access point to our power, to our aliveness, to our intelligence, through just one aspect of our Being.

‘You try to squeeze light into your parched Being from a source as fruitful as a dried date pit, that even a bird is wise enough to spit out,’ is what the Sufi poet Hafiz tells us.

Let’s explain what we mean!

There is something so obvious, so powerful and so close to us that we overlook it completely. Even when we tell you what it is, you’ll hesitate because there is a huge veil of cultural misinformation around it.

By itself, this quality wants to nourish all parts of our lives! But if we narrow it down, if we exile it into one part of our life, it will show up as a shadow quality causing a lot of pain in our world.

It is EROS that is the power that drives and nurtures our whole society, and indeed, our very existence.

Eros contains all of the wisdom, all of the power, all of the intelligence, all of the strategy, all of the capacity that you need to live a successful, meaningful, alive, and gorgeous existence.

Eros is not just in the sexual! Eros being interpreted as only about sexuality is a profound misinterpretation, and when we stay stuck in that narrow definition, it limits our life force and creativity, blocking us from leading an inspiring and successful life!

Saying ‘My life is very erotic’ is not the most obvious way to express the fact that you have an inspiring and successful life!

Eros is not just an expression of limited physical sex. Eros is the core nature of every moment of reality. LIFE ITSELF IS EROTIC! Reality itself is erotic!

We need to liberate Eros from its exile to the sexual, and thus liberate its energy for us to experience in ALL aspects of our lives!!

It is the Liberation of Eros that is our purpose at the Mystery School of Love this summer in Holland, July 26 to August 2.

This summer…

…God – Goddess Willing…

…our Mystery School of Love will have two hundred Seekers

reclaiming Eros from exile, expanding their capacity for Love, Creativity and Success in Purposeful Living.

We are going to…

with the Grace of She…

…change the source code of Eros in the heart of the Kosmos.

We will be… with total humility and total audacity… loving each other outrageously… a think tank on the outside… and a band of outrageous lovers in our interiors!!

Those of you who know Marc know that he likes to call this…

“A vision of the patterns that connect, that catalyzes the evolution of love.”

Marc Gafni:

‘We will engage Pleasure and Eros in a whole different way.

We will move beyond shame in a way that works across the memetic code.

Or as I said to beloved Ken Wilber, summarizing our dialogue this week on Integral Sexuality:

“What is shame but pleasure which stops short of infinity?”

Or as one master said about fear, “What is fear but love that stops short of infinity?”

And… This will be the first European Annual Integral Wisdom Conference … Wow!!!!

The Festival of Love has grown from 80 to 150 participants and now we are ready and prepared to hold 200 people. Without exaggeration we can say that the Field of Love and Holding that emerges from this Festival is profound. People reported after both events that they experienced deep states of awakening that lasted for weeks and/or a profound deepening of their insight.
Start each day with the morning practice of your choice: yoga, mondozen meditation, breath work and bodywork, if you want to start your day energetic. Or take a quiet walk by yourself in our stunning woodlands.

The combination of deep Dharmic space, opened in the morning and held by Master of the Heart Dr.Marc Gafni, a variety of great workshops, with great teachers in the afternoon, an invitation to exercise in pairs during the day, has in the passed two years been the great igniting force to an open heart, a clear mind and a natural flow of love among all that are joining.

The night-times will also come alive and will be high energy experiences created by dance-master Kareem, the rhythmic kick-ass-Tom-Baur-Band, musicians, artists and DJ’s. (A new special event will take place on several evenings which we want to keep a surprise for you!)

Add to this, small family gatherings, the possibility of individual sessions, massages, a hot tub, awesome and healthy organic food, beautiful nature, dance parties and musical events!

Don’t miss being part of this once a year International Summer Event of the Mystery School of Love.

Information and Registration

(Early bird until May 1st)

We just completed a very special series of events at our Teaching Center at Venwoude in Holland. Dr. Marc Gafni taught two Valentine’s Day events in a very beautiful church in Amsterdam. This was followed by a wonderful and very intimate two-day retreat at Venwoude on Saturday and Sunday. Capping off the 4-day weekend, we had an outstanding presentation at Nijenrode University on Conscious Capitalism with Prof. Dr. Paul de Blot, Dr. Marc Gafni, and Ken Wilber (via Skype) in front of 150 enthused Entrepreneurs.

Valentine’s Day at Vondelkerk Amsterdam

A packed house of people celebrated Valentine’s Day in an old beautiful Church in Amsterdam with Dr. Marc’s Dharma on Outrageous Love. It was a day of profound new dharma, deep practices, and a stunning community of Outrageous Lovers. Dr. Marc took us deeply into a practice space with dyad practices, chanting, and intimate sharing. The evening session seemed to explode–after a very quiet and subtle beginning with hearts meeting in Chant and Meditation and finally and melting open into the Inside of the Inside–with a fireworks of Dharma on Outrageous Love and Unique Intimacy.

Everybody was deeply touched, and many decided to join us for the upcoming Summer Festival of Love at Venwoude…from July 26th to August 2nd, 2014…that this year will also be the First Annual Integral Wisdom Conference on Relationships and Sexuality.

Two days of deep immersion into the “Lineage Energies”

The following weekend was our first annual lineage event at the Venwoude retreat center who is our deep partner and where Marc serves as the World Spirituality Teacher in Residence. We dialed in directly to the source lineage of Unique Self teaching in two intimate and intense days of teaching. Our group practice was held in a very special and sacred place: the Library at the heart of Venwoude, which was packed and vibrantly intimate as Marc immersed us in Story-Telling, Lineage Practices and Chant–drawing especially from the Lineages of Hebrew Mysticism, Kabbalah, and Chassidim.

As one participant, Claire Molinard, posted a couple of days later on Facebook: “I am still basking in the sacred space of lineage transmission from these two magic days in Venwoude. Deep bow and gratitude to Marc Mordechai Gafni and all the wonderful people at Venwoude International.”

Conscious Capitalism at Nijenrode University with Prof. Dr. Paul de Blot, Dr. Marc Gafni, and Ken Wilber (per Skype)

Marc Gafni, Mauk Pieper & Paul de Blot at Nijenrode University

This week of European teaching was then capped with a shockingly outstanding evening in a packed auditorium at Nijenrode Business University, Hollands leading business school. The event featured two fabulous talks by Ken Wilber and Marc Gafni. Ken gave a brilliant talk on the nature of Integral business which was met by wildly enthusiastic intellectual and emotional appreciation by all of the participants. It was a landmark talk which is sure to set a new standard for this conversation world over.

The event was hosted by 89-year-old Business Sage Prof. Dr. Paul de Blot. Marc referred to him as –a true “living Master Yoda”, honoring his life’s work of establishing in Holland the entire field of Business & Spirituality and writing about it long before anybody had ever thought about Conscious Capitalism. The event started with more dramatic Dharma fireworks by Dr. Marc Gafni. Drawing connections, engaging hearts and minds, and quoting freely from at least 20 different books while always bringing it back to the core questions he asked passionately: “Who are you? And are you willing to play a larger game?” A strong and resounding “YES,” completely shook the room!

Marc then outlined ten core principles of what he called “outrageous entrepreneurship” which completely re-defined the role of the entrepreneur in the modern world. Marc gave enormous honor to Paul De Blot, to John Mackey and Raj Sisosdia’s work on Conscious Capitalism, and to Ken Wilber and his vision of Integral theory. What was really beautiful was the significant personal honor that Marc gave to all of three of them before launching into his talk. Building upon their work, Marc then gave a stunningly original and ground breaking talk which pretty much left everyone speechless. Prof. de Blot then gave a wonderful talk and presented his meta-perspective on the evolution of consciousness. In the following Question & Answer session, Marc again warmly expressed full honor to Prof. de Blot, and added his own perspectives.

The evening ended with a question about the dangers and opportunities of the Internet. Dr. Marc gave a brief introduction to his newly formed ideas on Digital Intimacy (Stay tuned to our new Portal and Project!) that he is developing together with the amazing Embodied artist Megwyn White – followed by standing ovations and then networking with wine and snacks in a wonderfully open atmosphere. Professor de Blot and Dr. Marc expressed their deepest thanks to Mauk Pieper, Director for Integral Wisdom Europe, for organizing this wonderful day. Thank you, Mauk!