The Sword and The Flowers

An evening of playful embodied inquiry into the generative

 energy of life and the deep mystery of dying.

 This engaging session will combine the beautiful flowers of Haiku and Crazy Wisdom Poetry with slow motion partner movements drawn from Aikido, the unique Art of Peace.

The ancient samurai swordsmen died ritually before going into battle

to free themselves from fear. With three swords of attention,

we’ll practice ways to unify awareness and let go

as we symbolically face into death.

The Sword of Death

The Sword of Life

and

The Sword of Not Knowing

Using poetry, sensation and imagination to deepen and open our field of attention,

we’ll experience releasing into presence each moment, “dying now”

into the radiant compassionate consciousness

that we already are.

Please join us for this fun, experiential dialogue

on living into death and dying into life.

Our host will be Whidbey poet, Christopher Thorsen.

Chris is a pioneer in the application of the principles

       of Aikido and Bohm’s Dialogue

to the embodied mastery of conscious leadership.

          He has studied and taught Aikido,

the Way of Harmony with Spirit,

for over forty years and is a master of Haiku,

 the playful Zen poetry of deep presence in Nature.

      Redtail hawk

                                                         soars to stillness in the wind. . .

                                                             every feather quivering.