VENEZIA, Andrew
(United States)
Title of contribution:
Circling Awakened Mind
Death and Rebirth in the Anthropocene
Morning Walk – Photography as Contemplation
Andrew & Maria’s 5th Order Polarity Play
Where & when:
Ibiza I. (Circling)
Thursday, May 28th, 2020
16:45 – 18:00
Marbella II. (Shadow)
Thursday, May 28th, 2020
7:00 – 8:00
Outdoor
Saturday, May 30th, 2020
7:00 – 8:00
Catalonia
Wednesday, May 27th, 2020
10:30 – 12:00
Circling Awakened Mind
It can be really, really hard to stay awake and aware in our relationships. Long before we are selves, before we are egos, we are shaped by those around us, and in our cultures. They give us some of our most fundamental structures for what is real — and so some of the most difficult veils for our ever-present awareness. In this workshop we will take advantage of this by using a few practices inspired by the direct pointing-out instructions of Advaita Vedanta and Tibetan Buddhism adapted for use in connection, in relationship. Doing so takes us directly to these apparent obstacles to awareness and allows us to work with them in the moment, opening possibilities for a liberated, active love in our lives.
Death and Rebirth in the Anthropocene
What should I do? Knowing that I am going to die, what do I do? What do we do? Given the crises of our moment, what do we do? What can we do, even? What can we only do together? In this morning meditation, we will sit with our mortality and the too-possible-to-be-comfortable collapse of our civilization. If a global, Integral Awakening is happening, if it is even possible, what must we let die for this rebirth to take place? How can we face our overwhelming situation from a place of presence and awareness? Inspired by the Embodied Death Contemplations of Vincent Horn and Stephen Batchelor.
Morning Walk – Photography as Contemplation
I find beauty to be one of the most profound paths towards a deeper presence in the world — calling us to stop and really pay attention to this moment. At the same time, bringing one’s full presence to this moment is one of the surest paths to discovering a profound beauty everywhere in life. We’ll play with this on this morning walk, doing some basic mindfulness practices with our perceptual experiences of the world, and then spend the second half of the walk using our cameras as an instrument of this mindful presence. If you don’t come away with a beautiful image, your conference fee is waived! No, just kidding — but you will have had a nice, relaxing morning walk at the least. Bring your smartphone!
Andrew & Maria’s 5th Order Polarity Play
Come bring some playful aliveness to the ways you’re living in an either-or world. We can articulate many of our 3rd-to-5th Order shadows as ways in which we, without knowing or being conscious of it, create and organize our selves by splitting our lives into positive and negative polarities: what we affirm and allow ourselves to be, what we dis-identify with and disallow for ourselves, and how these get thrust out onto others. With a light and laughing touch, we’ll use this opportunity to surface some of these polarities and seeming contradictions and breathe some new life into them. The aim is towards a more fluid and free expression in the world, the liberation of our own possibilities for being in the world, and to learn along the way how our embodied mind-brains, in a real and practical way, create the possibilities we navigate as the world.
About Venezia Andrew:
Andrew Venezia is one of the world’s leading researchers and experimenters with intersubjective awareness practices, particularly at the intersection of relational and awakening practices, and in bringing awakened collective states to real-world applications. He is a dad, poet, artist, psychedelic shaman, coach, consultant, writer, speaker, holds a master’s degree in Integral Theory, and is working on midwifing an Integral Tantric Culture.