Diving into Life: Inner Guidance Group for seekers aages 30-50 with Gayan Macher

Gather with kindred seekers with a shared dedication to the inner life. Retreats provide companionship, training and support for your spiritual development. All are welcomed who feel resonance with the Sufism of Hazrat Inayat Khan.

Led by Gayan Macher, Diving into Life weaves contemplative inquiry with the Sufi teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan and traditional practices. Our schedule may be enriched by offerings of music and movement. This retreat is offered twice per year – once in late Spring and again in the late Fall. The group size is limited to between 15-30 people.

To sign up for membership, contact Elizabeth

The goal of Sufism is to live as real, mature human beings.  It is to know who we truly are and to express that realization in our relationships, and in how we navigate through life.  

Inner guidance groups practice contemplative inquiry.   The practice supports stable spiritual maturity through three primary areas of focus: 

• Purification of the heart and mind:
  There are veils that cover the heart and limit the fullness of life.  These can be seen, in large part, as defenses and mental patterns formed through life, including reactions to the pain of life.   Contemplative inquiry reveals both the veils and the Real beneath them.  The process brings us to a state of intimacy and honesty with our own hearts, where surprisingly we have been strangers.
• Using life’s circumstances as spiritual practice:
  All that occurs in life is material for wisdom.  The greater our capacity for contemplation the more fully we understand and assimilate life’s lessons.  Then we are not governed by emotional reactivity. We gain from life and, at the same time, are not at the mercy of its ever-changing conditions.  We experience strength, faith and joy that are independent of circumstances.
• Discovering the voice of guidance within:
  Contemplative inquiry begins with a question, a desire to understand, or to know the truth.  A heartfelt question calls forth a response from within.  The great art is in realizing the spirit of guidance that arises in the present moment.  It is learning to listen beneath the thinking mind. Connection to guidance brings confidence and self-sufficiency in navigating both inner and outer life.

The format includes teachings as well as traditional practices of meditation and zikr.   The additional unique element is the contemplative inquiry process.   

In this process we sit in a circle while Gayan works one on one with someone in the silent presence of the group. You take a turn when you are in touch with your “burning question”:  a heart-felt desire to explore or understand something more deeply.  You may inquire into anything though frequently it is about something stirring or troubling as these often call us most strongly.  

Our main purpose is not to solve problems but to treat them as material for exploration.  We want to come close to their meaning, and to allow their alchemy to work within us.   This requires being honest with ourselves and learning to hear the voice beneath incessant thinking.

There is special value in doing inquiry in a group setting. First, the shared experience connects us in true spiritual friendship, which is precious and rare.  On the surface our situations are unique; but as we look further we recognize an underlying unity in our deepest questions. Secondly, witnesses who are practicing being present provide a powerful “field” of support to the person working. Lastly and most importantly, witnesses benefit by observing how guidance functions. Inquiry is not intellectual. It is a moment-by-moment encounter with the truth that unerringly speaks to us from within as we learn to listen. Thus, an inquiry group is a laboratory for learning something most valuable in our lives: to be in intimate contact with the guiding spirit that reveals the direction and meaning of our lives.