DANZ 2_2024_03_22

For most of us, most of the time, our consciousness is unsettled, ragged, stressed out, and agitated. We are often filled with worry, anxiety and guilt. But this is not our natural condition. This weekend non-residential retreat will focus on the nature of consciousness - what it is like in its natural condition - and what keeps us from accessing that. Consciousness in its natural condition is restful and spacious - so easeful and carefree, it feels like you're on holiday. In the Diamond Approach we call it 'the holiday state'.  

Consciousness also has the capacity to know; it is true knowing. Not the effortful knowing we associate with study at school, but an effortless, direct, experiential knowing. 

Through teachings and experiential exercises we will explore: 

• the experience of consciousness in its natural state
• the nature of knowing 
• how accessing consciousness allows our body and mind to release and let go
• what blocks this 'holiday state'
• how this quality supports us to know things for ourselves, with certainty and ease. 

This non-residential retreat will be  taught by Ashley Wain and Vivienne Leahy.

On the Diamond Approach and the New Aotearoa Group

Every spiritual path deals with our common human situation, and each path deals with it differently. The Diamond Approach is a relatively new path, for people living a full human life in the world, who want to know who and what they are beyond their usual stories and ideas about themselves. It uses a range of powerful practices, as well as modern psychological knowledge, to help each person to explore their own experience in ways that bring deeper understanding, as well as the gradual revelation of our spiritual nature, in its vast rainbow of qualities and dimensions.

The Diamond Approach has been taught in New Zealand for over a decade. There is a large, established group that has developed over that time, which is now closed to new members. Diamond Approach New Zealand is now in the process of forming a new group, for those with a sincere interest in inner work and spiritual discovery. 

We are offering in person retreats open to all in 2023 and 2024.

Retreats normally involve meditation, a teaching, experiential exercises in pairs, threes, or small groups, and opportunities to ask questions, share experiences and inquire further with a teacher.