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| A Quarterly Newsletter from
the Foundation of the Sacred Stream |
ISSUE 14 |
APRIL 2009 |
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| Note from the General Manager |
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Welcome to our quarterly newsletter. This one is filled
with great events so I’ll get right to it. We’re going to Scotland in August! Read
about
the trip and don’t miss the travel tips for cheaper fares and the
student testimonials from past participants. Geshe
Thupten Jinpa, the Dalai
Lama’s interpreter, is coming to speak at the Foundation of the Sacred
Stream on Sunday, May 24th. Jinpa is a great scholar and we are
extremely excited to have him here. He will be speaking on Mind, Language and Reality, find
out more below. Chef
Sherri is coming! Our remarkable and award winning Chef of
Hawaii retreat fame will be teaching a class in San Francisco on spring
greens this April and also debuts her Food
for Thought column in this issue.
Acupuncturist and Tai Chi master, James Kovacs, has contributed a
thoughtful article on the Divine Masculine, and our featured Depth
Hypnosis Practitioner is Kara Earls. We have many classes coming
up. Don’t miss Moon Lodge
and the start of Isa’s meditation
series at Crystal Way (San Francisco) this May. Also, our
Distance Learning workshops begin with Relationships
1! Please
note that we’ve made some policy changes, which you can read about in
the Community News section at the end of the newsletter. We have a lot
happening this summer too. Please visit our website to find out
more.
Wishing you a happy and healthy spring,
Laura Chandler, CHT
General Manager
Foundation of the Sacred Stream
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| A Trip to Ancient Scotland |
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By Laura Chandler
Traveling to Orkney
with Isa and
Laura's class was one of the best group experiences I've had in my
life. It also served as an awesome introduction to the spiritual
technologies of the Neolithic age. - Sarah M. (Read
More Student Testimonials)
In 2007, we brought a group of Sacred Stream
students to the
Orkney Islands for our first class on Ancient Scotland. It
was a
remarkable experience; one that is
difficult to put into words. So, I will
leave that part to the students themselves in the testimonials
section and will simply offer some information about the place and
the
people we
will be studying. To begin, most people
do not realize that Orkney is actually one of the top archeological
destinations on the planet. It has been
referred to as the Egypt of the North because of the many
well-preserved
Neolithic sites contained throughout the islands - from the Ring of
Brodgar
to Maeshowe
and Skara
Brae. What is also not commonly
known is that
Ancient Scotland was thriving with activity at about the same time as
the
Egyptians of the Early Dynastic Period. In
those days the climate was mild, much like
the Mediterranean today,
and Scotland supported a growing populace with a highly evolved system
for
tracking
the sun, moon, and planets, indicating a highly intelligent people
intent on
expressing their knowledge and perhaps their understanding of the
nature of
reality in the very structures they built and that still remain.
Read
On
Tips
For Traveling to Orkney
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| Geshe
Thupten Jinpa: "Mind, Language, and Reality:
A Buddhist Perspective" |
The
Foundation of the Sacred Stream is pleased to be hosting a lecture
by Geshe Thupten Jinpa, a Buddhist scholar who has been a principal
English translator to the Dalai Lama since 1985. Geshe Thupten Jinpa
will be speaking on, "Mind, Language and Reality: A Buddhist
Perspective" in San Francisco on May 24, 2009 at 1:00 PM. This is a
rare opportunity to have an opportunity to converse with one of the
great interpreters and translators of our time.
 Geshe Thupten Jinpa has translated and edited
more than ten books by
the Dalai Lama including The World
of Tibetan Buddhism (Wisdom, 1993), The Good Heart: The Dalai Lama Explores
the Heart of Christianity (Rider, 1996), and the New York Times
bestseller Ethics for the New
Millennium (Riverhead, 1999). Geshe Thupten Jinpa was born in
Tibet and he received his early education and training as a monk at
Zongkar Chöde Monastery in South India. He later joined the
Shartse College of Ganden monastic university, South India, where he
received the Geshe Lharam degree. He taught Buddhist epistemology,
metaphysics, Middle Way philosophy and Buddhist psychology at Ganden
for five years. Jinpa also holds B.A. Honors degree in Western
Philosophy and a Ph.D. degree in Religious Studies from Cambridge
University, UK. From 1996 to 1999, he was the Margaret Smith Research
Fellow in Eastern Religion at Girton College, Cambridge and he has now
established the Institute of Tibetan Classics where he is both
president and editor-in-chief of the Institute's translation series
Classics in Tibet. He is also a member of the advisory board of the
Mind and Life Institute, dedicated to fostering creative dialogue
between the Buddhist tradition and Western science. Geshe Thupten Jinpa
has written many books and articles. His latest works are Tibetan Songs of Spiritual Experience
(co-edited with Jas Elsner) and Self,
Reality and Reason in Tibetan Thought: Tsongkhapa's Quest for the
Middle View.
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| Engaged Buddhism
for Changing Times |
 As part of our Buddhist Psychology Studies
Program, Isa will be offering quarterly Dharma talks, along with a
question and answer period and mediation period, at Crystal Way in the
Castro District of San Francisco. These are by donation, with no one
turned away for lack of funds. The current series of talks will
focus on the nature of change. The first in this series is in May:
Crystal Way
Sunday, May 3, 2009
9am to 11am
2335 Market St.
San Francisco, CA 94114
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| Featured
Practitioner: Kara Earls |
 I am a certified Hypnotherapist
and Ordained Minister in the spiritual counseling practice of Depth
Hypnosis. I am also a Certified Massage Therapist, Reiki Level 3
Practitioner and a Holistic Health Practitioner. I specialize in
helping others who grew up in abusive and dysfunctional homes, and have
suffered from emotional and physical abuse and trauma, and those
suffering from addictions, depression, and anxiety. I also gladly offer
support to potential clients in any other healing or personal
development that they wish to pursue.
When I first started out on my own path of healing, I was terribly
lost, had no sense of self and was caught up in multiple addictions,
abusive relationships, and negativity. Over the years, and much work on
myself (with the help of many healers and teachers) I slowly began to
see myself, and the world, differently. I began to realize that the
world was not the scary awful place that I once thought it was, and
that I have much more power in my life than I ever thought possible. My
personal work with Depth Hypnosis has profoundly altered my life and
changed and expanded my view of myself, others and reality. It
has also helped me to shift patterns and ways of being that no other
healing work could touch.
I am dedicated to my healing practice and my own personal
transformation and spiritual growth as this enables me to be of greater
service to my clients and the planet as a whole. I work with
clients in a variety of modalities (massage, Reiki, hypnotherapy),
which are informed by Depth Hypnosis. I am honored to be able to
offer Depth Hypnosis to my clients, and to see them make profound, deep
and permanent changes for themselves.
In Love and Light,
Kara Earls CHT, CMT, Reiki
III Practitioner
http://www.KaraEarls.org
Karallyn@Earthlink.net
650-291-9460
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| Food For Thought: Spring Clean Your Body |
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By Chef Sherri Serino
Sherri
is an award-winning chef who earned her degree from the acclaimed
Culinary Institute in Hyde Park, New York. Her Seattle restaurant, La
Medusa, was named one of the top fifty restaurants in the country by
Travel and Leisure Magazine. Sherri teaches and has designed menus for
health resorts throughout the world. She is also the featured chef on
many of the Sacred Stream’s Destination Studies retreats.
Traditionally, there
are three growing seasons – spring, summer and fall. Winter is
the resting season when food we have harvested from the fall is
preserved to help get us through the long winter months. Of course,
in our fast-past society we are no longer limited to the three
growing seasons and can get mangos pretty much anytime we want to if
we look hard enough. But from the standpoint of a healthy diet, it
is still best to follow the seasons, eating the freshest fruits and
vegetables available from local growers.
 We have just entered
the spring growing season. This season is important to our health in
that many of the foods prevalent at this time promote detoxification
naturally. Detoxing in the spring is necessary as it aids in
digestion, builds the immune system, and helps rid the body of the
effects of extra protein that we tend to eat more of in the winter.
When spring arrives our bodies are ready to shed the winter weight
with spring greens, sprouts and roots. Food from the spring harvest
tends to be low in fat and calories, which helps our bodies’
metabolism ramp up again for the long days of summer.
One
of the great vegetables of spring is asparagus. Cultivated by the
Greeks, Romans and Egyptians, it was known as "sparrowgrass"
in Britain in the 18th century. Asparagus is an excellent example
of a spring detox vegetable. It is high in the amino acid
asparagines, as well as potassium and is naturally low in sodium. This
combination makes asparagus a great diuretic and blood cleanser,
which helps with processing proteins and flushing out the
kidneys.
Diuretics also reduce blood pressure and water retention. Asparagus
is high in folic acid, which is good for heart health and rutin,
which strengthens capillaries and is especially helpful to those who
bruise easily.
So, for a healthy
spring, eat plenty of spring greens, sprouts, and drink lots of
water! Below is a fast and simple asparagus recipe for you to try
hot, cold, or even room temperature. The balsamic vinegar is a
great addition to asparagus because of its important health
properties. It is high in anti-oxidants, naturally suppresses
appetite, improves digestion, increases metabolism, and contains
important minerals that strengthens bones and fights fatigue.
Alla tua salute!
Roasted
Asparagus with
Balsamic Vinaigrette
Trim off the bottom inch of the
asparagus (the tough fibrous part). Then peel the remaining
bottom inch of the asparagus. Heat a saute pan, large
enough to accommodate all of the asparagus in a single layer. Splash
some olive oil...When hot, add asparagus and saute for a couple to 3
minutes, continuously moving pan. When just al dente, remove
asparagus to a platter...Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly ground
black
pepper. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar and good quality extra virgin
olive oil--and, for an added treat--shavings of parmigiano-reggiano.
Boun-appetito!
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| Seeds of the Sacred Masculine |
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By James Kovacs
I am deeply saddened by the
state of masculine energy on the
planet today. The tyranny of misaligned
male energy over the wisdom of the sacred feminine has led us down a
path of violence,
mindless power grasping and unfathomable environmental destruction. The fool’s path that we’ve been hurtling
along has taken life on earth to the cliffs edge. Clearly
we can not continue in this direction
without risking…everything.
The visceral reaction that many
of us feel in response to
generations of ego based, male domination is often the urge to do
battle in
some way with male energy or to do away with it completely. I have encountered many healers and normally
gentle, spiritual people who consciously or subconsciously have this
reaction. There is often the sense that
all of our
problems could be solved by simply reducing the influence of male
energy on the
planet and increasing the influence of female energy. Without
a doubt, this balancing between male
and female energies is essential medicine that the earth desperately
needs.
However, this simplistic view
and the visceral male aversion
which fuel it are counterproductive and potentially very harmful. There are a few reasons for this. First,
this polarized view can easily cause
us to subconsciously label male energy as a whole as bad or in some way
evil. Male energy can be a beautiful
thing. It is the distorted and
misaligned expression of masculine energy in the world which makes it
so ugly
to our eyes. What we need is to transform
our subconscious desire to exclude male energy from the healing of our
planet. In order to restore balance and
harmony, we
need to embrace and love the sick body of distorted male energy which
is
destroying our planet. We need to
nurture, heal and support the male spirit, not push it away. After all, by pushing away male energy we
deny a core part of ourselves.
Read
On
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Upcoming Classes and Events This Week and Next
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 Spring Clean
Your Body
With
Chef Sherri Serino
Wednesday, April 29
6pm to 9pm
$75 (includes food and supplies)
Free Depth
Hypnosis Teleclass
Thursday, April 30; 6pm PST, 9pm EST
Spring Meditation
and Talk at Crystal Way
Sunday, May 3
9:00am to 11:00am
2335 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94114
Suggested Donation: $5 - $20
Working With Dreams
Sunday, May 3
1pm to 6pm
$145
Relationships
I Teleclass
Tuesday, May 5, May 12,
May 19, May 26
4:30pm to 7:30pm PST (7:30 to 10:30pm EST)
$295
Moon Lodge: May 9
Saturday, May 9
9am to 9pm
$295
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| Spring/Summer Calendar & Community News |
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San Francisco Free
Events:
Summer Solstice Drumming
Circle
Sunday, June 21 ; 6pm
Free
For directions, please RSVP to info@sacredstream.org
Free
Teleclasses:
Teleclasses are
interactive distance learning courses similar to a
conference call, and taught by Isa Gucciardi, PhD. Each participant can
just listen and absorb, or engage in the discussion. You do not need a
computer to participate in a teleclass. All you need is a telephone and
you can call from anywhere!
What is Depth Hypnosis
Thursday, April 30; 6pm PST, 9pm EST
Healing Techniques in
Shamanism
Monday, June 22; 4:30pm PST, 7:30pm EST
What is Depth Hypnosis
Wednesday, June 24; 4:30pm PST, 7:30pm EST
To register, contact info@sacredstream.org
or
415-333-1434.
Distance
Learning Classes:
Relationships I
Teleclass
Tuesdays, May 5, May 12, May 19, May 26
4:30pm to 7:30pm PST (7:30 to 10:30pm EST)
$295
Working With Dreams Teleclass
Tuesdays, June 30, July 7, July 14, July 21
4:30pm to 5:45pm PST (7:30 to 8:45pm EST)
$145; Early Registration: $135 by May 30
Destination
Studies:
 Ancient Scotland: Before the Druids
August 21 - 28
Registration Deadline: May 15, 2009
$2795
San Francisco Training
Programs, Workshops, and Events:
Spring Clean Your Body: Detox with Spring
Vegetables
With Chef Sherri
Serino
Wednesday, April 29
6pm to 9pm
$75 (includes food and supplies)
Spring
Meditation and Dharma Talk at Crystal Way
Sunday, May 3
9:00am to 11:00am
2335 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94114
Suggested Donation: $5 - $20
Working With
Dreams
Sunday, May 3
1pm to 6pm
$145
Moon Lodge:
Women's Spiritual
Biology
Saturday, May 9
9am to 9pm
$295
Advanced Buddhist Psychology Studies
Part I: May 16 & 17, 2009
Part II: July 11 & 12, 2009
Part III: September 19 & 20, 2009
Part IV: November 21 & 22, 2009
10am to 4pm
$1195
Mind, Language and
Reality: A Buddhist Perspective
A Talk by Geshe
Thupten Jinpa
Sunday, May 24
1pm to 3pm
Minumum Suggested Donation: $25
Depth
Hypnosis
Foundation Course Intensive
June 3 - 7, 2009
Wednesday: 11am to 9pm
Thursday - Saturday: 10am to 7pm
Sunday: 8am to 5pm
$1495; Early Registration: $1445 May 1
Introduction
to the Shamanic
Journey
Saturday & Sunday, June 20 & 21
10am to 4pm
$250; Early Registration: $235 by May 15
This course is a prerequisite to most of our
training programs!
Mothering,
Fathering, &
Caregiving: A Path of Service
Saturday, June 27, 2009
9am to 9pm
$295; Early Registration: $275 by May 22
Weekly Shamanic
Journey Group
Tuesdays, June 30, July 7, July 14, July 21
7:30pm to 9:30pm
$95 new; $75 repeat
Summer Meditation and
Dharma Talk at
Crystal Way
Sunday, July 26
9:00am to 11:00am
2335 Market St., San Francisco, CA 94114
Suggested Donation: $5 - $20
To register, contact info@sacredstream.org
or
415-333-1434.
New
England Classes and
Events:
Rhode
Island Practice Group
Wednesday, May 20
7pm to 9pm
For details, please contact Katharine Rossi
Summer Solstice
Drumming Circle
(Rhode Island)
Sunday, June 21; 6pm
Free
For details, please contact Katharine Rossi
 Free Talk:
Healing Techniques in Shamanism
at All That Matters
Thursday, July 30; 6pm
315 Main St., Wakefield, RI 02879
Introduction to the Shamanic Journey
Thursday, July 30; 7:30pm to 10pm
Friday, July 31, 2009; 10am to 6pm
$250
315 Main St., Wakefield, RI 02879
Register at info@allthatmatters.com or 401-782-2126
Applied Shamanism Level 1 & 2
at All That Matters
Saturday & Sunday, August 1 & 2; 9am to 9pm
$795
315 Main St., Wakefield, RI 02879
*Prerequisite: Introduction to the Shamanic
Journey or equivalent
Register at info@allthatmatters.com or 401-782-2126
Depth
Hypnosis
Foundation Course
Thursday - Tuesday, August 6 - 11
$1800
315 Main St., Wakefield, RI 02879
*Prerequisite: Introduction to the Shamanic
Journey or equivalent
Register at info@allthatmatters.com or 401-782-2126
For more information
on upcoming classes, please
visit our calendar page.
Please visit our websites for more information:
www.sacredstream.org
www.depthhypnosis.com
www.hunaspirit.com
Community
News
Sacred Stream Policy
Changes
As a small organization, we at the Foundation of
the Sacred
Stream enjoy being accessible and non-corporate. We also have a very
limited
staff and are finding that some of our policies have been a bit too
informal,
causing us a great deal of extra administrative time.
In an effort to reduce some of this time, we
are implementing a few modest policy changes. Read
On
On-Going Practice Group
in Rhode Island
The next meeting of the Rhode Island practice
group will be on Wednesday, May 20 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM. For details
about this meeting or to find out about future meetings, contact Katharine
Rossi.
The Path of Service and
the Role of the Healer
Isa Gucciardi will be
speaking about the Path of Service and the Role of the Healer on
Saturday, May 30, 9am to 12 noon at American College of
Traditional Chinese Medicine, 455 Arkansas Street, San Francisco, CA
94107. The talk is free for ACTCM students and $10 for the public.
Space Clearing Society
Annual Meeting
The Annual Meeting of
the Space Clearing Society of the Foundation of the Sacred Stream will
be at 7:30pm on Sunday, June 21. For more information about the Space
Clearing Society, please visit
their page on our website.
Many thanks to Sarah Murray for her
Scotland photos and Sherri Serino for her vegetable and garden photos!
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