09:30 am - 04:00 pm
Takapuna, New Zealand
The Practice of Inquiry: Opening up experience to reveal our deeper nature. A 3-day in-person retreat on the central practice of the Diamond Approach.
Oct 26 9.30am – Oct 28 4.00pm
Taitamariki Guide Hall, Auburn Reserve, 8 Auburn Street, Takapuna, Auckland 0622, New Zealand
Humans are naturally inquisitive. To live in this world we need to experience it and come to an understanding of it. Without engaging with the world and making our own sense of it, we wouldn’t be able to function. Whether we know it or not, we are inquiring into this life and this world, into ourselves and our experience. In that sense inquiry is something we all do, even as babies. Some of us, by adulthood, have drawn firm conclusions. We feel we have the answers, that we know who we are, and what the world is, and how to operate in it.
And some of us are still wondering, still discovering.
But sometimes our inquiry just goes in circles. We find ourselves going over the same territory, telling ourselves how things are. Or we try to think things through and although we may come to conclusions, these answers leave us dry, unnourished, or stuck in our heads. Our natural inner dynamism, our instinct to explore and make sense of the world, can be refined, even turbocharged. We can learn to orient to our experience in particular ways, so that it opens up, revealing deeper and deeper layers of ourselves and reality, and transforming our consciousness along the way.
This is the practice of inquiry, the primary practice of the Diamond Approach, which can be applied to any field of knowledge, any topic. When it is applied to the truth of our experience, it becomes a safe and powerful spiritual practice that can transform our inner experience and outer life.
Inquiry as a spiritual practice is particularly suited to our contemporary times. It requires no beliefs, no adherence to dogma or doctrine, no elaborate rituals. It is a way to find out for yourself, in your own experience, what is really going on. As the practice deepens it helps you to discover who you really are, what the world truly is, and the relationship between the two.
This weekend intensive includes teachings, meditations, small group exercises, and question and answer sessions.
On it you will have the opportunity to learn about:
- how to practice Diamond Inquiry
- the subtle qualities that open up inquiry and life, including curiosity, strength, compassion, will, and peace
- how to approach our experience so it can unfold organically into greater richness and depth
- meditation and sensing practices to cultivate embodied presence.
This retreat will be taught by Ashley Wain and Vivienne Leahy.
For further information, please contact Linley Carpenter [email protected]
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 2024. The group will formally begin in 2025. 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.
Saturday 9.30-12.30 and 2.00-5.00
Sunday 9.30-12.30 and 2.00-5.00
Monday 9.00-12.00 and 1.00-4.00
End times are approximate.
NZD 495
Current ongoing DANZ1 students repeating material pay NZD 175.