CDEEP: The Center for Devotional, Energy and Ecstatic Practice presents SOULIFT retreats.

Why SOULIFT?

These times of tumult and change hold great potential for inner growth and connection to our Soul Perspective. SOULIFT will offer week-long retreats, immersions in spiritual practice that will help us to remain anchored to an awareness of the Divine flow of blessing, no matter what is happening in the world.

We can either see the world from the standpoint of personality/ego or we can shift our consciousness and look out from the soul perspective. On the surface, the world looks the same, yet my relationship to Reality is now completely different. In this process, I don’t lose my personality, but I become so much less reactive. Through this process, I attain access to the Divine resources that were in me all along. From this wider perspective of soul, I can see my life and my death as a great adventure. I can begin to understand the purpose for being here. I can begin to discern the potential for growth, learning, heart-expansion, exploration or deepening in even the most difficult moments. And I can cultivate gratefulness for absolutely everything that comes my way.

Can you imagine laying on your death bed, looking back at your life and asking, “Did I focus my attention on what was really important? How did I get distracted? Did I see the possibilities for love? Did I make the best of my situation? Did I remember my soul’s purpose?”

There’s a great comic character in the Talmud whose nickname was “Ish Gamzu”. No matter what happened to him, he responded to it with the words, “Gam zeh l’tovah.” (“This is also for the good.”) It didn’t matter if he won the lottery or his house burned down, if life was awful or wonderful… he had the same response: I will use this, too, for the good.

Ish Gamzu knew his soul’s purpose, and so everything that happened to him was dedicated in service to that purpose.

Can you imagine now that you are about to be born? You are standing in that timeless moment before you, as a soul, entered this incarnation. You are ready to dive in. You have a plan. You have a purpose. Let’s imagine that you chose the perfect family, the precise time and place, the ideal circumstance that could support the unfolding of your soul’s purpose. And you set an intention: I’m going to enter this life and use EVERYTHING to fulfill that purpose.

• If I find the soul perspective and remember that my soul’s purpose is to learn how to love and be loved… then I will know that no matter what is happening I can look for the opportunity to learn these lessons and to grow in my capacity to love and to grow in my receptivity.
• If I find the soul perspective and remember that my soul’s purpose is to awaken… then I will use EVERYTHING that happens as an opportunity for awakening.

How?

The question is, “How do we attain and then maintain that soul perspective, without losing our commitment to this moment, this unique circumstance?”

For the past 30 years I have been developing an expansive body of work that is based on the power and magic of Hebrew sacred text. These practices are the vehicles that lift us up into the Soul perspective.

The process of retreat lets us dive deep into our own vast potential, and emerge with an expanded awareness and an inspired vision of both this precious moment and the miraculous scope of our lives.

Each SOULIFT retreat will have a different theme, faculty, and location.

Each stand-alone intensive will be an opportunity to immerse ourselves in practices that incorporate the magic of sound, silence, movement, stillness, sacred text, shamanic journey, mutual support, creative arts, and nature mysticism. Each retreat will culminate in the joyous celebration of Shabbat.

For currently scheduled retreats see the SOULIFT Upcoming Retreats page. For past retreats, see the Archives page.