The Pulse IAM Newsletter Institute for Applied Meditation, Inc. www.Applied-Meditation.org 1-888-310-7881

June 2006   Editors: Jeanie and Porter Underwood

Building the Heart of Gold

Preparing for the Coming Golden Age

The Eighth Annual IAM Retreat - Led by Puran and Susanna Bair

Five days, beginning July 28, 2006, near Albany, NY

The heart of gold is precious, for the reason that gold reflects more light than any other metal. Gold is responsive. Gold is firm as a metal and yet soft. Gold is beautiful to look at and fine to work with. Gold has weight. Gold proves real in the end of the test. There are people of that quality. They do not need to do good, what they do must be good. Their thought, their speech, their action, in all there is beauty, there is truth, there is light. The gold-hearted person will prove true to the end of the test. --- Hazrat Inayat Khan

How do we build a heart of gold? We need to integrate strong heart health, exemplary personal character, and holistic insight, dedicated to the service of humanity.

Susanna and Puran Bair will lead the retreat, as they have for the last seven years, offering advanced forms of Heart Rhythm Meditation for developing the heart of gold and discovering your purpose in life. Their methods go beyond the material in their book, Living from the Heart, to incorporate the heart teachings of ancient and modern mystics. Their clear and simple instructions make meditation easy, pleasant and practical.

This will be a landmark retreat, integrating personal and global, practical and spiritual in a holistic vision of humanity's future.

We will be aided by Dr. Katharine Burleson, a practicing cardiologist and researcher with a certificate in Integrative Medicine from Dr. Andrew Weil, and a Heart Rhythm Meditator. Dr. Burleson will present the workings of the physical heart, its relation to the heart of emotions, and the reality of the heart of magnetism and light. She'll be speaking from her heart, her own life experiences, and her long study of spiritual paths, including IAM.

You will be able to describe what makes a diet heart-friendly. You'll learn simple steps you can take to improve your heart health. You'll see how Heart Rhythm Meditation affects magnetism and Heart Rate Variability.

With Dr. Burleson's guidance, you'll be using a variety of instruments to measure physical parameters related to your stress level and heart function. The opportunity to have physical heart issues explained by a doctor who shares your spiritual philosophy and meditation method will be a rare opportunity indeed.

We will be inspired by Jim Anthony, a modern mystic, Chairman of Seabridge Gold, a Canadian gold mining company, and a Heart Rhythm Meditator. He's a master of meditation, an expert with deep insight into both international finance and the human condition. He has lead a spiritual community in Toronto for 25 years, and has been involved with IAM since its inception. His understanding of the world's evolution incorporates a network of illuminated souls who guide humanity and give hope for our future.

Jim Anthony will discuss the spiritual nature of gold, its symbolism for a noble character, and its place in the coming Golden Age.

Join us at "The Abode", devoted to our use, secluded in the Berkshire Mountains of upstate New York, July 28 through August 2. Puran and Susanna Bair, Dr. Katharine Burleson and Jim Anthony will all be part of the community during their time with us, so you will have the opportunity to speak informally with them. This accessibility has always been a feature of the IAM group retreat, as we all go deeply into the retreat experience together.

Morning meditation will be focused on the experience of the heart, using Heart Rhythm Meditation. This is preceded, before breakfast, by the morning meditative walk, led by Asatar Bair, and sitting meditation led by Susanna with a particular theme. Afternoon presentations will continue the theme of the development of the heart of gold.

After lunch we have a period of Yoga, swimming, music or quiet conversation. In this time, IAM certified teachers will instruct in the fundamentals of Heart Rhythm Meditation. Our choir master, Amadeous Steve Hodgdon, will offer an opportunity to sing in a spontaneous, magical choir, as he has every year, and this year, professional voice coach Mirabai Musgrave will also offer private voice lessons.

The evening programs will be whirling with live Turkish music, Heart Circle Dances, The Walk of the Masters, and a concert by HuDost.

We invite you to join or re-join this community of heart-seekers in the beautiful nature setting of The Abode. You can register here.

IAM teachers and mentors: Stay an extra two days for the Continuing Education session.

Caravan Collage: Scenes from an IAM Group Retreat at The Abode of the Message

The Institute for Applied Meditation offers a summer group retreat at The Abode of the Message, near New Lebanon, New York. This event is attended by people who have widely varying levels of familiarity and experience with meditation in general and with Heart Rhythm Meditation in particular. It is an environment in which some lead, some follow and everyone travels together. A few scenes from this caravan in the Berkshires are shared here by Jody Curly.

Old and new friends arrive and are met eagerly in The Abode courtyard with welcoming embraces from retreat teachers, organizers and participants who have arrived earlier. Bags and belongings are unloaded from cars as building locations and room assignments are clarified. The informal 'welcoming committee' in the courtyard grows bigger with the passing of each quarter hour. Accents can be heard; the linguistic music of many places floats on the moist New England air. People sit under the trees in the shade, talking with one another quietly about their trips, some sharing remembrances from past retreats, waiting for the dinner gong, listening to the insects call to one another about the fine summer afternoon serenely slipping into a soft summer evening.

We stand in a circle in the courtyard, surrounded by buildings originally built as part of the first Shaker community in the country, hands and hearts joined, and sing a song of thankfulness for the food we will soon receive in the dining hall. We smile and gaze into each other's eyes as we sing - open, hungry to be filled. Together.

We fill our plates with fresh, wholesome, beautiful food prepared with care for an assortment of palates and dietary needs and, every now and then, a sweet treat of a dessert, very popular with retreat guests and Abodians alike, particularly the children who live at The Abode. Hurry if you want some!

Yes, the Abodians: "The Abode of the Message" is not just a retreat center; it is an intentional community. People live at The Abode, some of them for many years. There are men and women who are senior founding members of the community; there are parents raising young children; there are people who are temporarily staying and working and learning there. Many are there because they follow the Sufi path blazed by Hazrat Inayat Khan and further elucidated by Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan, who founded the community in 1975.

Much of our time during the mornings, afternoons and evenings of the retreat is spent in the Meditation Hall, in chairs or on meditation benches or cushions, as we are instructed and guided by our teachers. Surrounded by wood and stone and Persian carpets, with the leafy green of the trees just outside the windows glowing in sun or quietly catching rain, we listen, we speak, we feel, we breathe, we turn inward to our hearts. Sometimes we are silent to better hear our hearts' voices within us. The stained glass window above the flowers and candle flame on the altar invites us to 'Enter unhesitatingly, Beloved, for in this Abode there is naught but my longing for Thee.' We enter as we each are able. We each go within ourselves to find ourselves transcending our own personal perspectives, to find ourselves within others and others within us in beautiful, unexpected ways. We laugh, we cry, and we explore the realms between and beyond the two.

Sometimes we make music, and sometimes we dance. Sometimes we chant sacred names, vibrating ourselves with sound currents that carry awareness and healing, opening places within us we did not know were closed. We become like ice thawing under sun, like jack pine cones popping open in wildfire, like silver maple seeds shaken loose by wind and sent whirling in spirals across space to take root in new earth, to grow new trees. We vibrate like the spider's web, like the harp string, like the soft throat of the songbird. We change; often surprised that it seems easier than we thought it could be.

We are not always comfortable. We may be cold (sometimes) or hot (often!); the humidity may be oppressive, the bugs bothersome. The accommodations are far from luxurious. Some have trouble sleeping; some are annoyed by others sharing conversation at late hours; some are irritated by the wait for a bath or shower. As the days and nights pass, our edges soften and our habitual needs become less urgent. We sleep more soundly and awake more easily. We become more forgiving of one another. As the last day of the retreat approaches, people linger at the sinks in the bathroom, sharing affection, offering up their places in line for the shower, savoring the morning rituals, knowing how quickly we will all be separated again.

There are times when we are left to our own devices (although not many!) and free to explore The Abode on our own. Some love to change into swimming suits and slip off to the pond in the sultry heat of the day or the humming thickness of the night. Some haunt the bookstore through the hot afternoons. Some try to catch up on lost sleep with a restorative afternoon nap in the welcome breeze of a carefully positioned fan. Some walk - up the mountainside to where Pir Vilayat's 'pod,' his former residence at The Abode, rests in remembrance of him, or down the road to the harmonious Shaker buildings at Darrow School, where one can sit and watch the sun set over the Berkshires like molten gold or glimpse the dawn mists rising between trees like angels returning to Heaven. It is a place where the natural rhythms of earth and sky and seasons are easy to know, even as the wind occasionally carries in sounds of traffic from a not-too-distant highway, bringing with it the challenge: how do I take the peace and illumination of this retreat back to the busy crossroads of my life?

There are tools offered by Puran and Susanna to help us: an information-filled binder to take home with us; recordings of meditations and teachings from the retreat; the opportunity to continue communicating with fellow retreatants for a few months via the IAM website. Telephone sessions with a mentor or webcourse participation guided by an experienced instructor are additional ways to be able to work with the teachings and practices at home on an ongoing basis. These are useful, pragmatic support for us as we seek to integrate what we've learned and discovered at The Abode. But there is something precious about the experience itself that lingers like a fragrance within each of our hearts, even through all the seasons that may pass until we gather together again.

Webcourse on the Economy

Golden sunrise over the ocean "Get out of debt, real-estate investments and dollar-denominated securities. Accumulate real wealth so you can be generous to others." -- Puran

This is a time as critical and important as any in history, and we are certainly blessed to be here now. Our whole civilization is going through a giant leap into a new era, a golden age of justice, wisdom and harmony. The transition will be surprising to many, hard for some, and an opportunity for others. We are idealists and optimists; we need to bring our attention and energy to the state of the world, including the climate and the economy, as we consider the enormous need for international harmony, humanitarian relief, and meaningful work. The economy has not yet assimilated the costs of hurricane Katrina last year, and more storms are coming. At this point, the economy is even more critical than the climate. All economists agree on one thing: the American economy is unsustainable with its budget and trade deficits, negative savings rate, overpriced real estate, loss of its manufacturing base, inflated currency and addiction to oil. There are multiple forces underway - technical, political, economic, social and spiritual - to change this situation and form a sustainable economy in balance with the world. This webcourse will examine these forces and show you how you can preserve your savings and position yourself to help our society through the times ahead. Led by Puran Bair, former Vice President of MFS, the Boston company that invented the mutual fund, and consultant to Fidelity Investments, Putnam Investments and Merrill Lynch as a bond analyst, and Asatar Bair, PhD in economics and professor at the City College of San Francisco, who is writing a book on international finance. Puran will be available for only the first three weeks of the webcourse. The webcourse will begin July 5th and end July 26th, for 3 weeks. We will present graphs, figures and facts to show the current economic state and our projections for the future. You will see that spiritual principles are governing the economic consequences. You will receive specific recommendations for safe, prosperous investments and personal, economically moral actions. All the messages from participants and the replies from the leaders will be shared. You can post comments and questions; the questions will be answered. The cost is $350. before June 28, and $400 thereafter. You can register here.

Quotations

Every part of this earth is sacred... Every single pine needle--every shore; Every mist in the dark woods, Every clearing, every humming insect Is holy in the memory and experience of our race. You are part of the earth And the earth is a part of you. You did not weave the web of life, you are merely a strand in it. Whatever you do to the web, you do to yourself. You may think you own the land-- You do not...it is God's. The earth is precious to Him and to harm the earth is to heap contempt on it's Creator. Love the land, as those who have gone before you have loved it. Care for it as they have cared for it. Hold in your mind the memory of the land As it is when you take it. And with all your strength With all your mind, with all your heart Preserve it for your children And love it as God loves it all. -- Chief Seattle

The wave is the sea itself yet, when it rises in the form of a wave, it is the wave and when you look at the whole of it, it is the sea. -- Hazrat Inayat Khan There is an Arabic saying, 'If you wish to know God, you must know yourself.' We are connected with one another. Our lives are tied together, and there is a link in which we can see one current running through all. There are many globes and lamps, and yet one current is running through all. The mystic seeks to realize this constantly and to impress it on his mind in whatever he may see. What, for him, are the waves of the sea? Are they not the sea itself? Therein lies the whole of religion. The mystic's prayer is to that beauty, and his work is to forget the self, to lose himself like a bubble in the water. The wave realizes, 'I am the sea', and by falling into the sea prostrates itself before its God. Our thanks to Richard Shelquist for his website http://wahiduddin.net, and daily "Bowl of Saki" from which this information was taken.

Audio #1

Heart Rhythm Meditation: Stages 1 through 3
55 minutes, by Susanna Bair
Susanna's voice leads you through the first three stages of Heart Rhythm Meditation.

Audio #2

The Four Elements of the Heart, by Susanna Bair
Advanced meditation on the four energies that develop your heart.

Audio #3

The Heart of Christianity from a seminar by Puran Bair, December 2002 A 50-minute CD of meditations on Mary, Gabriel, the Christmas Star and the Lord's Prayer in Aramaic

Audio #4

Sounds of the Heart 47 minutes, by Puran Bair.
Instruction and use of sounds of the voice that stimulate the heart center. Play this on your way to work or for an exquisite meditation.

Audio #20

The Five Mystical States by Puran and Susanna Bair, 2005

Video #1

Heart Rhythm Movement DVD by Susanna Bair.

We also have a series of advanced meditations using methods from many traditions...

CD's are $15.00 each, Videos are $20 each, in US dollars, except where noted.

To purchase by mail or phone:

IAM
PO Box 86149, Tucson AZ 85754 USA
Phone 1-888-310-7881

Subject: RE: April Newsletter

Dear Jeanie and Porter,

Many thanks for the magazine which hit me as a pleasant Easter surprise. I bought Puran's book a few years ago and glanced at it. Since then I have gotten interested in Hazrat Inayat Khan and his work as it continues.

Best wishes,

Edward Fido (efido47@hotmail.com)

AUSTRALIA

Subject: A few thoughts on the Abode

Dear Blanchefleur,

Here are a few reflections:

Being at the Retreat of the Heart puts me into a contemplative space. I remember the feeling of swimming in the pond after a morning spent contemplating a flower, drawing the flower into my heart, becoming the flower -- I felt what it was for the pond to surround me and support my weight, flowing around me, swirling. It was a wonderfully deep experience.

Conversations with dear friends stand out. The depth of connection I feel with people I've shared meditations and retreats with still surprises me. I often think, "we don't even really know each other"; but, in a way we know each other very intimately, for we have silently exchanged the flow of breath in our hearts, a profound communication.

Asatar Bair

When I read Jody's article about the Abode, my eyes filled with tears. She nailed just what the experience is like for me, and I found myself longing for the next time that we will get to be together for so many days. When I spoke to several people in our Bakersfield HRM class about the Abode, they had many questions about comfort issues and what to expect while there, and they suggested that I put something in the newsletter about the logistics and practical matters, so here goes!

"No See 'Ums" abound, as do mosquitoes, so it is important to bring insect repellant, along with sunscreen for the crystal clear skies and intense sunlight in that area...unless it is dumping buckets of rain! Showers there are sometimes very dramatic and short lived, with plenty of thunder! It is good to have an umbrella, although I don't remember ever using one. When it rains, it can get chilly, so it is good to dress in layers. That's because when it doesn't rain, it can get very warm. Early mornings can also be nippy. We are surrounded by huge trees as well as an abundance of flowers and grasses. It looks like a picture-perfect post card for New England. An alarm clock is a good idea if you need one, but sometimes, the birds wake me up at sunrise because there are so many of them singing in the mornings.

The food at the Abode is wonderful. They have an organic garden that produces a lot of what we eat, and the rest comes from organic suppliers. The cooks make wonderful food that is served buffet style. Many of us eat outside on picnic tables. If you call ahead of time, they will accommodate special diets. If you get your fill of healthy and wholesome foods, someone is always willing to make a run into the little town of New Lebanon (about a 10 minute drive away) for some chocolate or "dark and bubblies" (Coke or Pepsi).

The Abode is located on an old Shaker settlement - emphasis on old - early 1800's! We stay in small rooms with a roommate and shared bathroom down the hall. I will never forget the first year I attended and was brushing my teeth at the sink with Puran standing next to me, just shaving and whistling away while wrapped in a towel! I thought, "Oh my Gawd! What have I gotten myself into?!" The bathrooms have been expanded since that first retreat, but it is still rather magical to me that we all work out sharing that space so easily. For the last two years, we have also had the luxury of fans in our rooms. Some years we need them every night, and some years we need blankets.

Many people start their day with a group walk that Asatar (Puran's son) leads at 6 am. After that, most of our morning is spent in the Meditation Hall. We begin our day at 7:00 am with a teaching and guided meditation by Susanna that establishes the theme and sets the tone for the day. Breakfast is from 8 to 9 am. Then, we meet until noon followed by a break until 4 pm in the afternoon. In the past, that time has given us a chance for free time to walk, swim, read, talk, nap, shop at the bookstore or with the vendors in the court yart, or attend smaller group activities like yoga, Chi Gong, meditation, or sing in a choir. Dinner is at 6:00 pm, and we resume again at 7:00 pm with an activity until around 9:00 pm. Then, for some, it is off to the kitchen or one of the buildings for tea and more sharing and laughter. Others just congregate in the halls or each others' rooms and do the same. This year will be the first year that we will have guest presenters, so the schedule may be different than in the past, but I'm guessing that it will probably follow close to this general format.

Because of flight considerations and our reluctance to take the red-eye flight back home, it seems that the group from Bakersfield is usually one of the last to leave. One of the most poignant times for me came last year when we sat in the courtyard with friends from England. The energy that had been generated by being together and from Puran and Susanna's guidance was so strong that I felt my heart crying out, "I'm not done. I'm so not done." It is a stretch for me to give up so much of my own space and time in order to go to the Abode, but I look forward to it as the highlight of every year, and I never want it to end. I know that each time I just show up, I end up being significantly changed. For that, I will be eternally grateful.

If you are considering going to the Abode and have any other questions, please write and Porter or I will answer you, or forward your email to someone who might have more information or experience with your question.

Our next newsletter will be September, 2006. The deadline for submitting items is August 15, 2006.

Please send your comments or suggestions to either Jeanie Underwood or Porter Underwood. We would find your imput very helpful, and where appropriate and with your permission, we will print your letter.

Come again, come, whoever you are,
this caravan is not of dispare.
Come again, come, whoever you are,
whoever you are, come.
Even though you have broken your vows,
perhaps ten thousand times.
Still come again, come, whoever you are,
whoever you are, come.
Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving,
come!
[This caravan has no despair.
We travel the road of the friend.]
(Jalaluddin Rumi)