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  • Cohering the Radical Present

Solstice Offerings and Virtual Meditations

12/22/2017

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​Solstice greetings!

May it be a happy one for you and your loved ones.

At this moment, a quality of time ripe for going inwards and appreciating the deep and permeating silence of winter landscapes, we can remember Nura faculty James O'Dea's Soul Awakening Prayer as a contemplative practice to take with us.

Take a few, deep and relaxing breaths and...

Heart Opening
Light Shining
Love Flowing
Wounds Dissolving
Peace Radiating


James recently shared an uplifting note entitled, "The Hour of the Bully -- The Century of the Visionary." You can read the full text here. "The Bully," James writes, "is quintessentially short-sighted, will punish if not appeased...threats are the foundation of [their] dominance."

"The Visionary," to the contrary, "looks ahead to the highest goal that will serve the greatest number and do the greatest good... knows how to inspire the best in people," and "stimulate a culture of idealism." Even now, especially now, in the Hour of the Bully we must get "mobilized" for the "longed for future."

In moments between the darkness and the "longed for future", we can usethis tension as a contemplative exercise. A creative act of bringing forth some small portion of that future in the present tense through our immediate lives and actions. This is the pull of Omega that Teilhard de Chardin identified, or the notion of latency in the philosophy of Jean Gebser. Still more, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother (Mirra Alfassa) recognized this concretizing urge to divinize reality and work as a kind of alchemy -- the "living laboratory" -- in which the future, that longed-for future, is the realization of the spiritual present and divine reality. The key to all this, perhaps, is to be present, equanimous, and compassionate.


These inspirational ideas have been planted at the heart of Nura's 2017 vision and 2018 programming — as you'll see in a moment!

Going into 2018, we're asking each of our teachers: how do we embody this? How do we create a better future? What does that future look like and how do we embody it ourselves?


What's next for Nura?
Here's a taste of what we have coming up next year...
  • PKD, VALIS, and Practices of Ultra Meta-Cognition. The brilliant professor Richard Doyle returns for a 7 week FREE seminar. This class explores postmodern mysticism, the noosphere, Philip K. Dick and engaging non-dual reality as a literary practice. Starts in January 2018.
  • The NURA 2018 book club! Next year, we start by reading Philip K. Dick's reality shifting UBIK. This is the start of a series of fiction and non-fiction reads exploring consciousness, integrality, and the noosphere.
  • Jean Gebser and Integral Consciousness. Nura's director Jeremy Johnson is bringing Jean Gebser integral philosophy into the present with this multimedia introduction to the structures of consciousness. This class is 2 sessions, and is completely free. Registration is open now.
  • Activate Your Creative Power Through the Vagus Nerve. This six week virtual creative workshop with Megwyn White starts in the winter of 2018! A deep dive into creative self-expression and the transformational and therapeutic benefits of artistic work.
  • Imagining Better Futures Through Science Fiction. This is a two week literary workshop with Stefan Kiesbye, the forthcoming author of Berlingeles (Revelore Press). Starts in April 2018.
  • Meditation, Hypnosis and Past Life Regression. Daniel Ryan returns with a 3-week deep dive into transpersonal and therapeutic practices!
  • "Creativity and Consciousness, Making Art with Archan Nair Part 2." This is the second workshop where Archan will be joining us to teach more of his techniques working with digital illustration and his practice as a spiritual artist.
  • Meditating with Sound, continued. Alexandre Tannous is returning for a few exciting classes in 2018, starting with a further study into the transcendent and contemplative practices of sound meditation. Starts early 2018.
  • Into the Southern Reach: Weird Ecology and the Self. Jenn Zahrt, PhD of Revelore Press and Jeremy Johnson tag-team this multi-week class. Students will read Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy—hailed as "weird ecology" or "eco-horror" and adapted into the 2018 film "Annihilation"—and practice exercises in reflecting on self, nature, and becoming the non-human world. Starts in February 2018.
  • Journey into the Imaginal Realm: Reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. Becca Tarnas is debuting as a Nura faculty member with this Fall 2018 imaginal immersion into Tolkien's Middle Earth. This class is 7 weeks.
  • Evolve and Ascend and Nura Co-Livestreams! We had some great livestreams with our media partner, Evolve and Ascend this year, and we plan on having a lot more! 
  • Finally, NuraLogicals! Nura has teamed up with Revelore Press to publish beautiful booklets to accompany some of our courses. These are extended syllabi, readers, and other literature ("academic zines") intended to accompany the "deep dive" classes. More on them soon!

More announcements coming as we near the spring of 2018.

Gifts
October's class with Alexandre Tannous, "Meditating with Sound: Transformational Practices" was an example of the kind of integral praxis that we whole-heartedly endorse at Nura. It's now available as a pre-recorded seminar, with 2 hours of lecture, 40 minutes of Q&A, the full transcript, and the recommended reading PDF.

Our holiday sale has it at $17.99. This is the perfect gift for a loved one! We hope you'll agree.

Register for Meditating with Sound: Transformational Practices


Archan Nair's artistic workshop class is perfect for those seeking creative inspiration. Especially if they align more with a contemplative or mystical practice (or simply want to start one). This is on sale for $12.99!

Register for Creativity and Consciousness with Archan Nair



Support
Lastly, we wish to thank everyone who has registered for both the paid and free classes at Nura!

You're helping us realize our dream of creating accessible, in-depth and transformational courses exploring the edges of consciousness and culture.

You can further support us by checking out our donation page, where you can donate to Nura directly, or support us by purchasing t-shirts and mugs sporting our leaf logo as a band of noospheric pride. :-)

Our goal for 2018 is to make as many of our classes as accessible as possible, by either making some of them free (such as Richard Doyle's 7 week seminar) or donation based wherever we can. 

Donating to Nura or grabbing some of our "swag" helps towards this goal. 

Thank you! See you in 2018!

Jeremy & the Nura Team

Featured image by Grace Hollow Doll


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