Soulmaking: Further Explorations
Prerequisites and Foundations
All content below follows on from the Entry Point suggestions on the main Rob Resources page here.
As the notes on Dharma Seed stated, the early soulmaking material was meant to build upon itself and be taken in order. Attempting to take in and practice with the material without meeting the prerequisites listed in the notes on Dharma Seed is not recommended and may lead to confusion. Assuming the prerequisites have been met for a given retreat, listed below are suggestions on some areas of soulmaking that one could choose to study and revisit, including possible paths for exploring key concepts that recur throughout Soulmaking Dharma (and tags you can search for on the Airtable to find additional relevant material). Building on the basis of the prerequisite material, one might use the suggestions below as one possible map to further strengthen an understanding and practice of soulmaking. Note that you can find instructions on using the Airtable in the Audio and Transcript Resources section on the main Rob Resources page.
For more on prerequisites beyond what the notes on Dharma Seed state, you can find relevant talks with this Airtable tag:
soulmaking: prerequisites and foundations
Aspects of the Imaginal
As noted in the Entry Points section, Aspects of the Imaginal, parts one through six from The Mirrored Gates is one possible starting point for learning about aspects of the imaginal. The list of aspects in TMG is shorter than lists recorded later, and the condensed, course-like format of those talks may be helpful to some. The aspects of the imaginal were also a main focus of the retreat Tending the Holy Fire, recorded shortly after TMG, with a longer list of elements, interspersed with practices and other topics, which some people may prefer.
Lists briefly summarizing the elements of the imaginal can be found in the following talks:
Aspects of the Imaginal (Part 1), The Mirrored Gates
Elements of the Imaginal (1-2), Tending the Holy Fire
Towards the Imaginal, Foundations of a Soulmaking Dharma
Tags and quotes from various talks can be found below.
"Knowing, becoming familiar with these aspects, they begin to function as kind of keys. So this particular key, of any one of these nodes, when I activate it, when I turn that key, it opens the door into the imaginal realm. [...] Igniting one node can then ignite the whole lattice, so that one moves more towards the fully imaginal. For example, I can pick any element there – let’s say that aspect of timelessness. I’m with an image, and it doesn’t quite feel imaginal and deep and that whole kind of richness there, and then I begin to pay attention to the quality of time in and around that image. And I notice, “Oh, it does have this strangely timeless dimension.” [...] So one mode for practice is just to notice, just to notice these elements. You’re not so much making them happen as noticing what’s already there that, at first, the consciousness doesn’t quite realize. [...] Or you can actually wiggle or jiggle one of the nodes, actually deliberately kind of activate it. For example, the energy body: making that more open, pervading the awareness there activates that node. And that might help us move more into the imaginal. [...] If you’re familiar with emptiness practices, if you go and practise some kind of emptiness practice or other, and there’s a sense of all things being empty, well, that’s close enough to the imaginal Middle Way, and then it becomes much easier for the imaginal to get ignited, opened up." - Elements of the Imaginal (1-2), Tending the Holy Fire.
"I’m saying that when you hang out with imaginal figures, you just start to let yourself get a feel for what’s involved, it’s as if you start slowly to notice these aspects, these dimensions of imaginal figures. If it’s like, “Oh, well, I haven’t seen that yet,” or “I haven’t had that experience,” don’t worry about that. I’m kind of just highlighting some delineations. I’ll say something else about delineations. You know, any delineations we make, they’re supposed to be helpful. If I push far enough into any delineation, it starts to fall apart. It blurs with its opposite. Boundaries crumble. It starts not to make sense. So don’t get too hung up. Any delineation we make, any conceptual distinction, is just to help." - Eros in the Imaginal, Of Hermits and Lovers.
Airtable Detailed Topics tags for more content like this:
soulmaking: aspects of the imaginal
soulmaking: purpose of teachings on aspects of the imaginal
Cosmopoesis
What is cosmopoesis?
“As we go into imaginal practice we start to see that it begins to spill over. Even if I’m practising with my eyes shut, I open my eyes after I’ve been working deeply with mindfulness and sensitivity with this imaginal figure, I open my eyes and there’s a kind of spilling over to the perception of the world, to the world of perception, so that something of the image, and something particularly of the divinity of the image, starts to pervade my sense of the cosmos that I feel myself to be part of. [...] There are infinite possibilities for cosmopoesis. More typical ones involve a kind of universal cosmopoesis, in the sense that – for example, meditating a lot on mettā, eventually, at some point, a meditator will have the experience that the world is love, the cosmos is shot through with love…” (From the glossary in Dilemmas and Delineations: How did we get here?! Part 3, Eros Unfettered).
Where to learn more:
Re-enchanting the Cosmos was the first retreat to address cosmopoesis in depth and offer guided practices as ways in.
Airtable Detailed Topics tags for more content like this:
cosmopoesis
cosmopoesis: how it develops and spreads
cosmopoesis: kinds of imaginal and non-imaginal cosmopoesis
Energy and Emotional Body
As recommended in the Entry Points section, both the Path of the Imaginal and Foundations of a Soulmaking Dharma retreats cover these topics within a soulmaking context.
The Boundless Heart - The “Working with the Emotional Body” instructions and guided meditations from this retreat offer a structured way to develop practice with the energy body and emotions. These seven sets of instructions from 2011 are based on mindfulness of emotions and will tend toward lessening fabrication. Rob discusses them briefly in the later soulmaking talk Heat and the Material from Four Circles, Four Parables of Stone and Light, which addresses emotions in soulmaking.
Eros-Psyche-Logos
Understanding the soulmaking dynamic (eros-psyche-logos)
Having facility with eros-psyche-logos is key to imaginal practice. Potential ways in to developing more understanding and facility include:
Catherine McGee’s Key Ideas of a Soulmaking Dharma (Part 1 - The Why and What) and Key Ideas of a Soulmaking Dharma (Part 2 - The Eros-Psyche-Logos Dynamic).
Rob’s Eros Unfettered (Part 3).
Airtable Detailed Topics tag for more content like this:
eros-psyche-logos (the soulmaking dynamic)
Eros
"What I’m calling the small definition of eros, it’s very important. Eros is a desire, a wanting for more contact with, more connection with, more intimacy with, more knowing of, more penetration of and more opening to an object, an erotic object, let’s call it, or a beloved other. [...] Eros, you’ll notice in that definition, is certainly not just sexual attraction or sexual energy. [...] We’re going to fill out later as we go on, just what the relationship is between that wanting more contact, connection, intimacy, knowing, penetration, opening, etc., and soulmaking. But for now, I just want to point out that eros, what it does in a nutshell is it opens up and stimulates an opening of dimensions and facets of existence, of the beloved, of the erotic object. It opens up dimensions and facets beyond what we already know and experience. That’s what eros moves towards. That’s what it instigates. That involves, that can involve, and most of the time it does involve, the imaginal." - The Problem of Desire
"When we use that word, eros, sometimes we’ll be meaning the small definition, and sometimes we’ll be actually meaning this kind of larger definition of the whole eros as it is in the soulmaking dynamic, in the eros-psyche-logos process of expansion and mutual fertilization and feedback and enrichening." - Eros and Equanimity in the Movements of Soul
The Way of Non-Clinging - Parts 1-3 – Eros Unfettered - these talks summarize common Dharma ideas around clinging and go into Rob’s central concepts of ways of looking and fabrication. Common practical approaches to clinging/craving are offered, and then limitations of such approaches are discussed. Eros, a central aspect of soulmaking, begins to be addressed as a concept different from craving/clinging. For more content like this, use the Airtable Detailed Topics tag ‘eros and craving, distinguishing and working with’.
A main focus of the retreat Of Hermits and Lovers: The Alchemy of Desire was approaching soulmaking through eros. This retreat was shorter than Eros Unfettered, with more succinct practice instructions and guided meditations.
Once some understanding and experience of eros is established, Eros and the Brahmaviharas from Eros Unfettered may be an especially helpful talk in further clarifying eros’ range and characteristics for those who have prior experience with metta and compassion or are interested in blending those practices with the erotic-imaginal (sexual or non-sexual). This talk succinctly explores many topics in the area of soulmaking that are spread throughout other retreats, including the human need for personal love in addition to universal (metta), exploring uniqueness in addition to universality, and how fabrication is involved in any perception/appearance/experience.
Airtable Detailed Topics tags for more content like this:
There are many tags beginning with “desire/eros” and “eros”. Using the Filter option on Airtable, you can scroll through all of them and select whatever is interesting (desire/eros: empowerment through following desire, eros and ethics, etc.).
Psyche
“I’m using [psyche] sometimes as the totality of the citta [heart/mind]; more often as the equivalent with ‘soul,’ the organ of imaginal perception; but quite a few times I will use it as the totality of imaginal perceptions, so it’s almost interchangeable with ‘image.’” - Dilemmas and Delineations: How did we get here?! Part 3
Airtable Detailed Topics tags for more content like this:
For the usage of ‘psyche’ to mean ‘images’ or ‘imaginal perceptions,’ there are many tags beginning with the word ‘images’ (Images: intrapsychic and extrapsychic images, images: how to get images, etc.). You can scroll through them and select the ones that are of interest by using the Filter option on Airtable.
If it’s unclear what ‘soul [as] the organ of imaginal perception’ means, a thorough explanation can be found in the talk Sensing with Soul (Part 2) from The Mirrored Gates. A brief explanation of this can be found in To Sense with Soul from Tending the Holy Fire (the talk is 12 minutes in total).
Logos
“Logos, I’m using that to refer to a concept or an idea, or a whole conceptual framework. In other words, what we’re elaborating here is a kind of conceptual framework, but any concept or any idea or any conceptual framework is a logos. [...] So what I want to say is that there’s always a conception, there’s always a logos operating in the mind – always, always, always, except during an experience of the Unfabricated, when there’s a collapse of conceptuality. By ‘conceptuality’ and ‘logos,’ I include thought structures and thoughts, but it goes way deeper than that. There’s conceptuality operating even when there’s no thought whatsoever.” - Dilemmas and Delineations: How did we get here?! Part 3
Airtable Detailed Topics tags for more content like this:
concepts/logos
conceptual frameworks, flexibility with
Ethics
Airtable Detailed Topics tags for more content like this:
ethics/engagement, soulmaking as an approach to ethics
Rooting soulmaking in ethics
Image, Ethics, and Awakening (Q & A) - Roots into the Ground of Soul
“So soulmaking, I would say, if you like, the foundation of ethics becomes a root. In other words, it becomes something organic that can grow and nourish, like a root of a tree grows. […] Values, including moral values, are actually wrapped up in images. They’re there, and again, we can tune to them, turn them on, see what they say, get turned on by them. The whole question of values – look, humanity has been debating ethics and values since before written history. It’s complex. It’s one of these subjects that’s so rich it’s unending, and it’s not comfortable. In other words, if you think you’ve found easy answers to ethics in your life, you’re just not really engaging it as fully as it might be engaged. They’re open-ended, ongoing, difficult questions that we wrestle with, and if there isn’t that wrestling there, well, something else is going on but it’s not that full rooting or becoming root of ethics.”
Series exploring image and ethics:
Sila and Soul (Parts 1-9) - Four Circles, Four Parables of Stone and Light
The Image of Ethics (Parts 1-6) - In Psyche’s Orchard
Images
“When I use the word ‘image,’ I mean an imaginal image, okay?” [Page editor’s note: Mostly but not always. Use your discretion in listening!] “Which means definitely not just imaginary – i.e. just completely fictitious. It also doesn’t have to be – we think ‘image’ has to be something visual; it doesn’t. It can involve any of the senses, and quite unusual ways of knowing and ways of perceiving things.” [Editor’s note: see the glossary talk or Aspects of the Imaginal linked in the Entry Points section if not clear on what qualities an imaginal image has.]
Airtable Detailed Topics tags for more content like this:
There are many tags beginning with ‘images’ (Images: intrapsychic and extrapsychic images, images: how to get images, etc.). You can scroll through them and select the ones that are of interest by using the Filter option on Airtable.
Non-Realist Basis for Dharma
“What would it be to approach this question of reality and have as a basis for our whole way of approaching things, including the Dharma, a non-realist conceptual framework? We don’t reify anything as ultimately real or “this is the way things really are,” any conceptual framework. What would it be, or is it possible, to put the Dharma thoroughly on a non-reifying basis of emptiness? This, to me, is so important. It opens so many doors. I can’t emphasize it enough, to me how fundamental and fundamentally different that would be. Can we do that? Can we put the Dharma or realize the Dharma, realize a Dharma, if you like, shape and conceive of the Dharma absolutely, thoroughly, completely on a non-reifying basis of emptiness? That means emptiness, this understanding of a non-realist perspective, actually becomes the total, fundamental, everything in the Dharma. The whole Dharma is on that basis.
I think that’s actually quite rare in the Dharma world. [...] What often happens in the Dharma is people say, “Yes, yes, of course, emptiness, or empty. Of course things are empty. Of course this or that is empty.” But then it’s almost like it becomes something that’s easily forgotten about in practice. It’s like, “Yes, yes, of course,” and then one engages practices or views that, if you like, ignore or don’t incorporate the understanding of emptiness.
So the whole idea of bare attention, or when we bring into practice the question, “Is this moment enough?”, and the whole rhetoric of ‘this moment’ or ‘what is’ or ‘presence’ – so pervasive in Western spirituality, whether it’s Buddhadharma or other spirituality. So pervasive, these kinds of notions of ‘this moment’ and ‘what is’ and ‘being present’ and all that. And all of that rhetoric, all of those kind of teachings, helpful as they are at a certain level, they actually reinforce this reification, this making real of something. Very helpful at one level, as some possibilities for beginners, and particularly for beginners because it seems basic. It’s like, “I can get my head around that: this moment, or being present.” They sound so simple as concepts, so attractive because of their simplicity, because they seem so basic: “Ah, that’s good, and it seems as if I’m meeting reality on a basic, undistorted level.” But that basicness becomes very, very quickly a basis for then the whole of the Dharma and the whole world-view and all the rest of it.
So the unquestioned assumption of the reality of this moment, the unquestioned assumption of bare attention as meeting, or “This is the basic experience,” or whatever it is, that unquestioned assumption takes root, and it creates, it fabricates experience in line with that assumption. And so it seems that way. It perpetuates an experience of this or that, or this moment, or this bare attention as a reality. And then I’m left with, “I just need to align with the reality or this moment. I need to be with what is or this moment. I need to accept what is, open to what is, love what is,” whatever the ways we put it. It’s lovely, beautiful, very, very helpful, but only to a certain level. Quite limited.
The basis there is a realist one, and not a non-realist one. The basis then of that kind of Dharma is not in emptiness. [...] So what about, instead of that, instead of a philosophy that assumes an objective reality, instead of the kind of spiritual teachings that basically have a basis in a reificationism of some kind or the other, what about a basis for the Dharma in the exploration, through practice, and through reflection, but mostly thorough practice, an exploration and understanding of the fabrication of perception? What about that as a basis, as a summary of what the Dharma really is, how it works, how it all fits together? An exploration through practice and an understanding, a deepening of the insight into the fabrication of perception, of appearance, experience. I’m using those three words interchangeably: perception, experience, appearance. And then, eventually, as that deepens, the understanding that fabrication, too, as an understanding, as a concept, is also empty. What about that as a sort of nutshell explanation of what the Dharma is, and as a basis for what the Dharma is? That gives a very, very different sense of everything, of what the universe is, and the world, and what experience is, and also a very different sense of what the Dharma is.” - A Sacred Universe (Part 1), Path of the Imaginal
“For some people, what enables this shift of basis to really having emptiness, and deep understanding of emptiness and dependent arising as a basis of the path? Curiously, the more one understands emptiness, the more it even makes sense to have emptiness as a basis, so much so that it’s almost like one can’t really take seriously an approach that claims some kind of realism or truth, explicitly or implicitly. I’m just saying, personally, I can’t really take anything seriously that is based on some kind of realism that’s usually hidden there.
For some people, that approach, curiously, of putting emptiness at the fundament of the path will actually come once they understand emptiness more deeply. For others it might come through certain more modern philosophers, really probably starting with Nietzsche – very amazingly insightful, radical thinker. And since then, lots of other philosophers in the Western tradition open up this whole question of truth, kind of deconstruct the assumptions of truth and reality that we’ve had.
So it might be that that helps for people. It might be, for some, it actually comes through a deep understanding of modern physics. For others, it’s just that they already are possessed of or have available to them, if you like, what we might call a more artistic or poetic sensibility – their personality is already, in contrast to some personalities that tend to see things and think of things in quite concrete, literal terms, some people are already, I would say, blessed with this kind of ability to not fixate consciously, in a way that articulates, or in a more unconscious way on ‘reality.’ So there’s this kind of liberation that comes through an artistic sensibility.
Any of those – whether it’s understanding emptiness deeply, or modern science, or some aspects of modern Western philosophy, or this more poetic sensibility – these can liberate and make available for us a shift in the very basis and direction of what the path is, so it’s not about ‘truth’ or based on notions of ‘truth,’ explicit, or hidden, implicit. But it’s really more an art, and from whatever direction one is liberated in that way, then we see, we feel, that we are free to create. The whole thing becomes art. I will come back and talk about that. - Mindfulness and Myth, Re-enchanting the Cosmos
“Some kind of conceptions of the path more than others, or fantasies of the path more than others, don’t realize, or would really be very reluctant to admit, or refuse to admit that fantasy is part of the whole movement there and part of what is constellated there. There is fantasy of the Buddha, fantasy of what awakening is, fantasies of the self in relationship with tradition, in relationship to what the path is, in moving on the path. Not realizing that or admitting that. And also, I’m thinking now particularly of the third [example], where there’s no beyond, and there’s this existentialist kind of Buddhism that’s popular in some of the people who conceive themselves as secular Buddhists. [...] The whole thing is dependent on realism, that the world really is like this, that the existential limitations are real, as I perceive them, that this is the ‘facticity.’ They might avoid the word ‘truth.’ But what would happen to the sense of tragedy, what would happen to the bravery that’s required there, to open to that and feel the poignancy of it, if I acknowledge that it may not be real, that this is just one view, one way of looking, one perception? The whole thing collapses without the realism that underpins it, and the belief in the reality of this difficult existential situation: “That’s the reality of things.” The whole thing collapses. It can have no traction, no kind of power. And it’s hard then to create a fantasy around it, hard for it to become really sustaining.”
[...]
“You realize there’s a certain basis in fantasy, a certain inextricable involvement of fantasy. What’s the response of the soul or response in the body? And if you feel like somehow this takes the rug out from underneath things, and there’s a kind of deconstruction of the fantasy and the concept of the path, that doesn’t last, if that’s even what happens. That won’t last, because we need to construct, and we do construct. So the question becomes, what is constructed in the aftermath of that deconstruction? There will be a construction. What is constructed? And is what’s constructed a realist construction, given a kind of realist belief and conception as a basis or not? If there’s a deconstruction, what is constructed in its aftermath? And is it a realist construction or not?” - Visions of the Beyond, Of Hermits and Lovers - The Alchemy of Desire
Airtable Detailed Topics tags for more content like this:
soulmaking and emptiness: basis of non-realism
Relational Practices
Definitions:
Dyad: The word 'dyad' is most often used in reference to two people practicing soulmaking together.
Temenos:
"Temenos means [...] an enclosed, protected, and sacred space. A vessel, an alchemical vessel. [...] The conditions need to be right in my solitude in order for sensing with soul to have the right support and conditions and vessel in which something can unfold, and actually the unexpected can unfold as well. So we touched on a lot of what those conditions are: the sensitivity, the awareness, the openness, energy body, the emotional care and responsiveness, the attunement." - Nothing Happens By Itself, Tending the Holy Fire
"We’ve used this word, temenos, a number of times. It’s related to the word temple, or sacred space, or the boundary that protects a space and encloses it and protects it from intrusion or whatever. And so we talk about that particularly in relational practice – the need for a temenos. As I said, when the imaginal touches us so deeply, it needs to be respected, and it needs to be protected, in a way, and cared for, and part of that is setting up a space, or setting up the conditions that that care and safety is there, so that, again, the crucible can be there, and the crucible won’t get broken." - Soulmaking Dyad Practice, Four Circles, Four Parables of Stone and Light
Twoness: "The exercise of what we call the balance of attention or twoness [is] a sort of, I pointed out, basic practice in the sense of it forms a basis for soulmaking, for imaginal practice, for sensing with soul." - Soulmaking Dyad Practice, Four Circles, Four Parables of Stone and Light
"What is it to be with another, whether that other is something from the natural world, whether it’s a human other, whether it’s an intrapsychic image, what is it to be in relationship with another where there’s the twoness that is connected and alive? The eros can flow without collapsing into one, without a merging, without a losing myself in the other, or without a withdrawing." - The Crucible, Four Circles, Four Parables of Stone and Light
Twoness / balance of attention:
The following instructions and guided meditations from Catherine McGee are recommended for coming into relationship and exploring the balance of attention between self and other as a foundation for soulmaking:
The Practice and the Art of Twoness: Intro and 1st Practice
Twoness and Renunciation: 2nd Practice
Your Body as Beloved Other (Guided Lying Meditation)
Catherine has another series of guided practices and instructions including twoness and the balance of attention in Roots into the Ground of Soul.
Airtable Detailed Topics tag for more content like this:
twoness / balance of attention practices or instructions
guided twoness / balance of attention
Twoness as a necessity for eros and soulmaking:
Note that the word 'twoness' is sometimes used to point to slightly different aspects of practice. There is a long explanation in Eros and Desire (Q & A), a short portion quoted below: "Sometimes it’s hard to find the words for the different elements of the teachings. There are at least two reasons why we go on and on about this twoness business, okay? One aspect of what we’re calling ‘twoness’ is really about the balance of attention when you’re working with an image, or in a dyad with another person. [...] So that’s one of the reasons we talk about twoness, or rather what we’re pointing to with twoness and the practice of twoness. The other is that eros needs twoness. [...] When we come to that element of the imaginal, what we’re calling ‘twoness,’ I would also add the word particularity, or retaining particularities. So in this instance [the yogi currently asking a question], the person, the meditator, is becoming the image. They think, “Well, where’s the twoness? I’m not two with the image. I’ve become the image. I’ve merged.” It’s not a problem at all, and this is quite a common way for images to arise. Rather than their being other, we enter them, or they enter us, and we become them. What is still preserved, though, is particularity. So it’s not that, in this instance, the person enters this samurai or this warrior and then everything just goes blank." - Eros and Desire Q & A, Roots into the Ground of Soul
This retaining of particularities is also clarified in the explanation of twoness in Elements of the Imaginal (15 - 18): "The eros doesn’t collapse the image into some kind of universal – it doesn’t melt. So there’s an attractive pull with eros between oneself and the erotic-imaginal object, a beloved other. But it doesn’t just go into some kind of melting union, bliss of, you know, white light, unification, etc. The distinctness – maybe that’s a better word than ‘twoness’ – distinctness or differentiation is preserved. The erotic tension is preserved. Yeah? Now, even if I’m becoming an image, again, maybe twoness is not the most obvious thing there at first, as I responded to Hannah in the Q & A, but still, differentiation is preserved. Distinctness of particulars are preserved in the soulmaking perception, or rather, in the sensing with soul. It’s not going to these undifferentiated kinds of oneness." - Elements of the Imaginal (15 - 18) in Tending the Holy Fire.
Airtable Detailed Topics tag for more content like this:
definitions: twoness
twoness, differentiation, retaining particularities
Dyad/group practices with human others:
For information about prerequisites for practicing soulmaking in a dyad or group, see Soulmaking Dyad Practice.
Intention and Devotion - The guided meditation in this talk involves a brief bit with seeing others in the room as sacred, but no direct interaction (sharing, etc.) with them besides eye contact, so possibly good for a beginning dyad/group practice.
Inquiry - Deepening One's Relationship with an Imaginal Element - This talk from Catherine McGee (Tending the Holy Fire) involves inquiring with another person into a selected element of the imaginal.
There are several other group practices in Tending the Holy Fire and Roots into the Ground of Soul.
Airtable Detailed Topics tag for more content like this:
soulmaking: temenos (sacred space) / dyad and group practice
guided temenos / dyad exercise
Voice and Movement
“Why are we doing this? What’s the intention here? Actually, I would say two things primarily. [...] One is – and I think it’s really, really important, although not so dramatic – to have the capacity more often, more available, to sense and see everyday movements – your everyday movements, your friends’ everyday movements, and gestures and voice – the capacity to sense that as soul. Just moving my hand, or the voice, the sound of the voice, and the fact of the mystery of the infinite – whatever it is. What is it to perceive movement, gesture, voice as soul, and to have that as just part of the healing of perception that we’re trying to open up, to sense with soul and as soul? So that’s actually primary. Second intention here is to open up the range and the channels of soul.” - Voice, Movement, and the Possibilities of Soul (1)
Hearing All Sounds as Mantra: A Jewelline World - This early talk and guided meditation opens up the possibility of hearing sounds in a soulmaking way. The meditation can be followed alone or with other people (the end involves interaction with others in the room).
Intention and Devotion (Guided Meditation) - This guided meditation on devotion can be done alone or with others. It includes instructions on movement, and a guided meditation on opening the physical senses to sacredness and soulmaking (which includes walking and bowing). It may be most helpful to preface this with Catherine’s talks and guided meditations, Wanting What You Want, and Senses as Portals of Soulmaking and Your Body as Beloved Other (Guided Lying Meditation).
Vajra Music - This series has five talks that offer preliminary exercises in voice and movement. It’s appropriate for people of a range of physical abilities and limitations, as the exercises can be modified or done with only the energy body. As the retreat notes state, “Being preliminary practices for Soulmaking Dharma, the exercises offered in these talks can be worked with before a student engages the full scope of the Soulmaking teachings. However, some of the material presented here will only be properly comprehended and contextualised once a student already has some basis of preparatory experience and understanding of a Soulmaking Dharma.”
Daimon, Refracted, briefly referenced in Vajra Music, has a roughly 15-minute guided meditation on hearing speech and vocalizing soulfully.
Voice, Movement, and the Possibilities of Soul (1) and Voice, Movement, and the Possibilities of Soul (2) - These guided exercises on voice and movement were offered on the Foundations of a Soulmaking Dharma retreat, intended for people with some soulmaking experience.
The Movement of Devotion (Part 1), The Movement of Devotion (Part 2), and The Movement of Devotion (Live and Shortened Version) - Rob notes in later retreats that he felt this series of Dharma talks on movement and devotion was too subtle for how people were practicing at the time of the retreat, so here we’re listing it after less subtle instructions have been offered.
Airtable Detailed Topics tag for more content like this:
soulmaking: movement, mudras, and voice
guided practice or instructions on voice / movement