ITPI Fall Newsletter 2017 - The Power of Practice Under Extreme Pressure

One of my teachers, Jon Kabat-Zinn writes, "Practice like your life depended on it, because it does." In times of extreme pressure, our practice can easily shift to the back burner. It's our default to want to do, fix and take charge. Homeostasis kicks in!

In this issue, we feature the necessity of practice to maintain our balance, agility and well being under extreme pressure. Discover insights from our contributors about the strength derived from staying connected to one's practice and experiencing the support of our global community as we do just that.

Speaking of practice, we are excited to have ITP founder Michael Murphy guide us in Transformative Stillness, a meditation retreat on Dec 1-3 in Mill Valley, CA. Come be with us for this special gathering and other ITP events in 2018. Nothing like being with community during this time of year.

Grateful to be sharing the ITP adventure with you.

As George Leonard would say, "Enjoy your practice!"

Love and blessings,

Pam

I Am the Open Hand

Love and Loss as an Integral Practice

By Rachael Feigenbaum

ITP SF Co-leader

A few months ago I crafted an affirmation, "I am the open hand." I came to this in dealing with feelings of being overwhelmed and alone as a single mom. I had a desire to allow things to unfold and accept them as they are in reality, rather than how I thought they "should" be. I hadn't known, at the time, how much this affirmation would help me in other situations as well.

As a veterinarian, I've cared for countless animals in the later stages of illness or aging, but I recently experienced this process firsthand with my own beloved 18-year-old dog, Millie. She taught me profound lessons by her example on how to be in one's body and live in the moment without anticipating the future's uncertainties. Petting her soft little face, looking into her soulful eyes, and seeing her pure joy in taking in the smells and sensations of being at the beach, were some of the best ways I knew of "dropping in" to my hara and getting grounded and centered.

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ITP and the California Fires

By Tim Vermeulen

ITPI Intern

The warm embrace of the California sun was welcoming after having left behind a chilly wind-swept Amsterdam. I took off my layers and made my way to downtown San Francisco thinking the heat was probably usual this time a year. It was October, the leaves were changing, and the landscape looked barren. Peering out the window of the BART, I was wondering what my visit here would reveal.

I had travelled all the way to San Francisco to learn about different therapeutic approaches to well-being. In particular, I wanted to immerse myself in a practice called ITP. I was inspired by its integral approach, which to me was a necessary challenge to the pervading western dichotomy between mind and body. Moreover, it was apparent that ITP as a practice was inseparable from its community, and this was something I had begun to cherish over the years of visiting religious, agricultural and indigenous communities around the world. Yet, of all the communities I had visited, the ITP community was a little different. Simply put, I had never before experienced such a readiness to invite someone new into the circle and with such warm-heartedness. Many members offered a living space in their homes. It was heart-warming to say the least, and I was, and am, ever grateful.

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Practice and the Ultimate Transition

By Jerry Patchen

ITPI Board Member and MIH Graduate

The Father of Greek tragedy, Aeschylus, proclaimed 3,000 years ago, "The Gods have declared a solemn decree, it is through suffering we come to wisdom." Viktor Frankl found meaning in the midst of extreme suffering in Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp. Jeffrey Kripal speaks of the trauma principle in which traumatic experiences lead to expanded awareness. An extreme example is the near death experience. A mother's pain during childbirth is a life metaphor. We all experience existential angst and look for skillful means to manage the forces and energies that challenge our hearts, minds, bodies and souls.

Linda and I experienced important formative years in the cultural shifts of the 1960s. The exciting, glorious and joyful days of the 60s are celebrated. Yet, it was not all the Merry Pranksters and magical trips. There were the legendary bad trips and painfully agonizing experiences. I have chronicled in general language an adventurous odyssey that Linda and I enjoyed over four decades of attending Native American Church (NAC) Peyote meetings and experiencing unimaginable visions. It is true that sitting on the ground in a tipi all night for 12 hours, or even more, can be an arduous and grueling experience. Great focus, attention and concentration are required. Fierce lions guard the gates of deep self-examination and transcendence.

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The Power of Practice Under Pressure

By Jill Robinson

ITP Mastery Teacher

Again and again in our ITP practice we are reminded, "our body is a teacher." It is what makes the integral and transformative components of the practice truly life changing. By understanding the connection to our body, mind, heart and soul, we are able to tune in to our experience during moments of balance, as well as moments when we are consciously or unconsciously experiencing times of stress and extreme pressure. Having this awareness allows us to make course corrections along the way, and ultimately, to stay on the path to realizing our full potential.

This isn't an easy journey. In a time when it can seem we are living in a pressure cooker of global conflict and extreme standards of personal perfection, being able to balance and center and call on a community of supportive ITP practitioners is vital. By engaging with this practice we are building our "tool box" for life's adventure, and for me, there is one exercise in particular that was that sort of "aha" moment that demonstrated the profound effect ITP would have on my daily life.

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The Path of Mastery

Life as Practice

By Bob Doenges

ITPI Board Member & ITP Tulsa Founder

"i thank You God for most this amazing

day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees

and a blue true dream of sky: and for everything

which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,

and this is the sun's birthday: this is the birth

day of life and love and wings and of the gay

great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing

breathing any-lifted from the no

of all nothing-human merely being

doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and

now the eyes of my eyes are opened)"

ee cummings

(Complete Poems, 1904 - 1962)

Spotlight on Richard Sigberman

ITP Mastery and ITP San Rafael Member

How did you become involved in ITP?

I got involved in ITP in 2002 by being on the outside looking in, observing and deciding I liked what I observed.

What do you appreciate about the practice?

I appreciate how it has made me so much more conscious of everything I come into contact with, particularly myself. This practice has helped me become far more patient, and able to cope with frustrating circumstances in a far easier way than I once did.

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