Calendar of Events

More details and registration to be announced.

Dates: September 18th (Thursday)
Time: 19:30-21:30 China Standard Time  
West Australia: 19:30-21:30
Europe: 13:30-15:30
UK: 12:30-14:30
East US: 7:30am-9:30am
Location: online

Free offering as an introduction to the Four-Week Zoom Seminar in October
Seminar outline: China Seminar 2025
To register contact our office.

Translated and recorded

* This program is open to all.

* This retreat is open to students enrolled in this Embodied Life Mentorship Program (ELMP).

Read more about the Embodied Life Mentorship Program.

Embodied Life Seminar “Returning to Essence and the Ground of Being”

Dates: October 11th – 12th (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: 10:00am Saturday to – 17:00pm Sunday
Location: Feldenkrais Institut Wien
Taborstrasse 71/1a 1020 Wien, Vienna, Austria

Tuition: € 245 / students: € 220
ELMP participants: € 150
(Please contact us if your financial situation is limited)

Local contact: Contact Johannes Zemanek
Tel: +43 (0) 676 701 8298 info@achtsam-atmen.at

* This program is open to all.

Dear Friends,

You have a unique life, filled with both gifts and challenges.

In the busyness of daily life, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters:

• What is your life calling for?
• How can you bring your gifts into fuller expression?
• How can you listen more deeply to the wisdom within you?

This seminar offers an opportunity to step back, listen freshly, and reconnect with your true self.

Fresh awareness is the key to transformation.
When we embody this awareness, it blossoms. And from this deeper listening, fulfillment naturally emerges.

What to Expect:
Through movement practices based in Feldenkrais, awareness exercises, guided meditations, and group discussions, you will discover new guidance and insight in ways that may surprise you.

Whether you are looking to enhance your physical, emotional, or relational life, this seminar will help you access clarity and direction that supports all levels of your being.

Please join us for a joyful and enriching journey into the heart of the matter: Creating a more meaningful, satisfying and fulfilling life.

With warmest wishes on your path,

Russell and Linda Delman

Practices

Embodied Meditation is a direct, simple way of entering the present moment. Based on Zen meditation, this practice benefits both experienced meditators and beginners alike.

Embodied Movement includes Feldenkrais lessons and other embodied practices. Common results include a deeper connection to the earth, ease in breathing, greater freedom in movement, and the harmonization of the nervous system.

Embodied Inquiry consists of simple yet powerful reflections, often including writing. You will learn ways to access your “wisdom body,” which helps your brain connect with life-giving, healthy memories. You already have experiences of excellent functioning; making them more accessible is not difficult.

Embodied Life Eisenbuch Germany Public Retreat

Dates: October 15th – 19th (Wednesday to Sunday)
Time: Arrive Wednesday after 15:00. Dinner 18:00, program at 19:30. Ends on Sunday after breakfast at 8:05am.

Location: Eisenbuch Zen Center

Tuition: Sliding scale between €325 and €450, or $325 and $450.

Arrange and pay for your lodging

* This program is open to all.

Join Russell and Linda for this annual retreat in Eisenbuch, Germany. Eisenbuch is a precious place for an Embodied Life Retreat. The intimate setting in the idyllic woodlands of upper Bavaria, not far from the Black Madonna of Altotting, lends itself to deep inner work. It is a pleasure to return each autumn. Those in residence support our practices with food to both energize and harmonize the body and mind. This is a Public Retreat, so all are invited to attend.

The Embodied Life explores: “Returning to Essence and the Ground of Being with Russell and Linda Delman”

“Who are you before your parents were born?” This illuminating Zen question, usually spoken as “Original Face”, opens an inquiry into a quality of Being before, within and beyond our usual self-identities. Can we both value and be free from our historic self-identities?

Returning to Essence: Points directly to knowing ourselves before our thoughts, feelings, stories and inner dialogue.Deeper than our cultural conditioning, this essence never goes away.

Ground of Being: When grounded in our bodies and sensing the support of the earth, we can open to the moment, “just as it is”. This ground of Being gives us great confidence for learning from our life challenges.

This Embodied Life stands on three legs:
1) Embodied Meditation – sitting and walking meditation,
2) Embodied Movement – Feldenkrais movements, Spatial Awareness and other original somatic practices,
3) Embodied Inquiry-Awareness explorations based in Focusing, Non-Violent Communication, life-giving memories and deep listening.

Dates: October 30th, November 6th, 13th and 20th (Thursdays)
Time: 19:30-21:30 China Standard Time  
West Australia: 19:30-21:30
Europe: 12:30-14:30
UK: 11:30-13:30
East US: Oct 30th: 7:30am-9:30am
Nov 6, 13, 20: 6:30am-8:30am
Location: online
Tuition for entire series:
172€ (Europe), $200 (US), 1440 Chinese Yuan (includes recordings).
No one is excluded for inability to pay.
IF you can not afford the full fee, pay what you can.

Register and Pay

Follow-up classes will be offered each week, free of charge, for English speakers (read below).
Noon East US, 9am West US, 18:00 Europe, 17:00 UK

Seminar outline: China Seminar 2025

Translated and recorded

* This program is open to all.

Dear Known and Unknown Friends,

I enjoyed the two Zoom classes on The Embodied Life with people in China. I have been asked to offer follow up classes to go more deeply into these teachings. With the help for Quan Chen and Vivian Hung, I am happy to offer a four-week seminar this autumn.

On Thursdays, October 30th, November 6th, 13th and 20th, we will offer four weekly, 2 hours meetings, via Zoom. 
Meeting times will be: 19:30-21:30 China Standard Time, 19:30-21:30 Perth, 7:30am-9:30am East US, 13:30-15:30 Europe.

ENGLISH SPEAKERS:
“I am offering follow-up classes each week for English speakers, allowing more time for interaction without translation. We assume that you have either watched the video or attended live. This is a follow-up for registered participants, not a substitute for the main seminar”.

Each class will focus on a different theme (see brief outline below).

The Embodied Life teachings are a deep integration of: Chan meditation, Feldenkrais Movement (and other movement awareness practices), Focusing (developed by Dr. Eugene Gendlin) and Russell’s original teachings.

Practices from these traditions will be taught, along with helpful conceptual frameworks.

In a unique way, this program explores Awareness at all levels: Physical, Emotional, Mental, Spatial and Relational.

The class is:

• Fully translated
• Conceptual and Experiential (learning by doing)
• Includes suggestions for continuing practices
• Includes interaction, questions and sharing on-line
• Recorded if you miss a “live” session or want to review
• The first of its kind in China!

To learn more, please attend the free offering Thursday September 18th at 19:30 (same time as above).

I hope you will join us for this inspiring individual and collective journey.

Sending Blessings……..Russell

Seminar outline

“Meditation and Poetry 2026
Receiving Inspiration from Evocative and Beautiful Words“

Dates: January 8th, 15th, 22nd and 29th (Thursdays)
Time: 18:00-19:15 Europe, 12:00-1:15 pm East US,
9:00-10:15 am West US
Location: online
Sliding scale tuition for entire series:
€ or $ 10 – 100 (includes recordings).
No one refused for inability to pay.

Register and pay
The Zoom link will be sent upon registration.

Dear Friends,

Tender Words

Tender words we spoke
to one another
are sealed
in the secret vaults of heaven.
One day like rain,
they will fall to earth
and grow green
all over the world.

–Rumi

Join us!

One of our most moving and satisfying ZOOM seminars unites two potent and delightful passions: “Meditation and Poetry”

Receiving Inspiration from Beautiful and Evocative Words

In the dark days of winter and in these challenging times, we can call upon the gifts of eloquent language and evocative images to nourish and inspire our soul-life. This year, using new poems, we will explore how beautiful words can open our inner worlds, empower our lives and vitalize/deepen meditation. Both experienced meditators and newbies will find this combination illuminating.

Sending All Best Wishes……..

Russell

As three participants:
“I have been meditating for years. Much to my surprise, the poetry/meditation class last January opened something that has stayed with me all year. Please offer this again. In Gratitude, Danke”
Monica, Munich, Germany

“Russell, The poetry-meditation class started me on regular meditation. For years, I have been trying to meditate, starting and stopping, but these poems went straight to my heart and motivated my regular (mostly) meditation. I still repeat the poems often, especially the Lakota Prayer. Thank you”
Roger, Vancouver, Canada

“Dear Russell, Please offer another “Meditation and Poetry” class soon. In such a surprising way, these poems and our conversations have really changed by life. I don’t say that lightly. These meetings and your writings are a great, great present for me.” 
Julie, North Carolina, U.S.

Here are two articles on Meditation:
PDF – Embodied Meditation Click Here
PDF – The Essentials of Embodied Meditation Click Here

Dates: February 27th – March 4th (Friday to Wednesday)
Time: Arrive Friday 15:00-18:00. Program at 19:45. Retreat ends Wednesday after lunch.
Location: ZIST
Tuition: 450 € (100 € deposit to hold a place)

This event is almost full.
To register please contact our Office .

* This retreat is open to students who have graduated from an Embodied Life Mentorship Program (ELMP).

Dear Friends,

This partially silent, Meditation-based Retreat will include all our usual practices: Meditation, Movement, Listening/Speaking (Focusing) and Conversation, with extra emphasis on meditation.

We see this as an opportunity to deepen your meditation practice (if you have one) or to develop a practice, (if this is your intention). Also, we will support those wanting to offer “Embodied Meditation” to their community, with more detail on what makes this approach unique along with helpful hints/steps. This understanding is helpful for all of us.

We will learn through potent poems, fascinating Zen stories (koans) and two days of silence, except during practices. Time for enjoyable and meaningful social interaction, plus our usual celebration at the end, will also be part of our time together!
The retreat begins Friday evening, Feb 27 with four full- days Saturday – Tuesday, and ends at lunch on Wednesday, March 4.

How will this be different from usual Grad Retreats? Read More

The Embodied Life Retreat: Awareness through Meditation, Guided Inquiry and the Teachings of Moshé Feldenkrais

Dates: March 5th – 8th (Thursday to Sunday)
Time: 6:30pm Thursday to 2:00pm Sunday
Location: ZIST Penzberg
Tuition: €515
Read more and register

* This program is open to all.

All methods devoted to human potential emphasize the importance of awakening to the present moment. All that we long for – love, joy, peace, harmony, truth – require the fundamental capacity for PRESENCE. This seminar uses ancient and modern methods for directly and simply uncovering this natural capacity.

Simply said, we need the capacity to:

1) Sit quietly with our own thoughts,
2) mindfully welcome our feelings/emotions and
3) find comfort in our own bodies.

The meditation we will practice is a bare-bones approach to experiencing the present moment As It Is; this is the basis for being at home in ourselves. Chairs are available and help is given to those who find sitting challenging.

Guided Inquiry includes a variety of awareness experiments based in the Focusing method of Eugene Gendlin. Learning to bring a warm, caring, curious presence to our feelings/emotions is truly transformative.

The movement lessons of Moshé Feldenkrais are perhaps the most neurologically sophisticated and effective ways of transforming our motor patterns and self-image; these lessons are also interesting and fun.

Through meditations, awareness practices, movement lessons and conversation, we anticipate a meaningful and joyful time of learning together. This retreat is open to all people who are interested in living an awakening life.

Embodied Life Seminar “Revisioning Your Life: Embodiment, Awareness, and Fulfillment”

Dates: March 21st – 22nd (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: Sat 10:00am – 5:00pm, Sun 10:00am – 4:30pm
Location: Shared Visions Retreat Center, Durham, North Carolina
Tuition: $235
Early bird (by January 19th): $195
Register and pay

Local Contact:
Lisa Werness: werness@gmail.com Text: (919) 306-4340
Cathy Pascal: cathypascalnc@gmail.com

* This retreat is open to all.

Dear Friends,

You have a unique life, filled with both gifts and challenges.

In the busyness of daily life, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters:

• What is your life calling for?
• How can you bring your gifts into fuller expression?
• How can you listen more deeply to the wisdom within you?

This seminar offers an opportunity to step back, listen freshly, and reconnect with your true self.

Fresh awareness is the key to transformation.
When we embody this awareness, it blossoms. And from this deeper listening, fulfillment naturally emerges.

What to Expect:
Through movement practices based in Feldenkrais, awareness exercises, guided meditations, and group discussions, you will discover new guidance and insight in ways that may surprise you.

Whether you are looking to enhance your physical, emotional, or relational life, this seminar will help you access clarity and direction that supports all levels of your being.

Please join us for a joyful and enriching journey into the heart of the matter: Creating a more meaningful, satisfying and fulfilling life.

With warmest wishes on your path,

Russell Delman

Practices

Embodied Meditation will take you through the body to your whole self, where you can sense who you are before thought, self-image, self-stories, and inner dialogue. Sensing the self as larger than the physical body is a key..

Embodied Movement includes Feldenkrais lessons and other Embodied Practices. We will experience the ever-present support of the earth and an uplifting connection to the sky. These movements affect and harmonize our whole nervous system. Spatial Awareness is a key element.

Embodied Inquiry will help you cultivate the neural networks of life-giving states.  You learn how to be present with our own thoughts, feelings and memories in ways that promote a deep sense of wholeness. These inquiries include: writing, conversation, partner practices and talks.

Please join us for a deep, playful, expansive and restorative journey into the Ground of Being.

Embodied Life Seminar

Dates: April 11th – 12th (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: 10:00am Saturday to – 17:00pm Sunday
Location: Petrus – Kirchgemeindehaus, Brunnadernstrasse 40, 3006 Bern im Grosser Saal in the heart of the beautiful and quiet embassy district in Berne Kirchenfeld.

Tuition: CHF 360
Early bird (by February 16th): CHF 300
ELMP participants: CHF 200

Register and pay
Directions/Parking

Local contact: Claudia Schären
M: +41 78 789 63 77 Email: claudia.schaeren@a-und-o.ch

* This program is open to all.

Dear Friends,

You have a unique life, filled with both gifts and challenges.

In the busyness of daily life, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters:

• What is your life calling for?
• How can you bring your gifts into fuller expression?
• How can you listen more deeply to the wisdom within you?

This seminar offers an opportunity to step back, listen freshly, and reconnect with your true self.

Fresh awareness is the key to transformation.
When we embody this awareness, it blossoms. And from this deeper listening, fulfillment naturally emerges.

What to Expect:
Through movement practices based in Feldenkrais, awareness exercises, guided meditations, and group discussions, you will discover new guidance and insight in ways that may surprise you.

Whether you are looking to enhance your physical, emotional, or relational life, this seminar will help you access clarity and direction that supports all levels of your being.

Please join us for a joyful and enriching journey into the heart of the matter: Creating a more meaningful, satisfying and fulfilling life.

With warmest wishes on your path,

Russell and Linda Delman

Practices

Embodied Meditation is a direct, simple way of entering the present moment. Based on Zen meditation, this practice benefits both experienced meditators and beginners alike.

Embodied Movement includes Feldenkrais lessons and other embodied practices. Common results include a deeper connection to the earth, ease in breathing, greater freedom in movement, and the harmonization of the nervous system.

Embodied Inquiry consists of simple yet powerful reflections, often including writing. You will learn ways to access your “wisdom body,” which helps your brain connect with life-giving, healthy memories. You already have experiences of excellent functioning; making them more accessible is not difficult.

* This retreat is open to students enrolled in this Embodied Life Mentorship Program (ELMP).
Read more about the Embodied Life Mentorship Program.

Embodied Life Johanneshof Germany Public Retreat

Dates: April 23rd – 26th (Thursday to Sunday)
Time: Registration begins Thursday at 15:00, retreat ends Sunday at 12:15, lunch ends at 14:00
Location: Zen Center Johanneshof
Tuition: (€ or $) 350
Register and pay
Book your lodging

No one excluded for inability to pay.
Please contact us if your financial situation is limited.

* This retreat is open to all.

Join Russell and Linda at the serene Johanneshof Zen Center. This is a Public retreat so all are invited.

“Who are you before your parents were born?” This illuminating Zen question, usually spoken as “Original Face”, opens an inquiry into a quality of Being before, within and beyond our usual self-identities. Can we both value and be free from our historic self-identities?

Returning to Essence: Points directly to knowing ourselves before our thoughts, feelings, stories and inner dialogue.Deeper than our cultural conditioning, this essence never goes away.

Ground of Being: When grounded in our bodies and sensing the support of the earth, we can open to the moment, “just as it is”. This ground of Being gives us great confidence for learning from our life challenges.

This Embodied Life stands on three legs:
1) Embodied Meditation – sitting and walking meditation,
2) Embodied Movement – Feldenkrais movements, Spatial Awareness and other original somatic practices,
3) Embodied Inquiry-Awareness explorations based in Focusing, Non-Violent Communication, life-giving memories and deep listening.

* This retreat is open to students enrolled in this Embodied Life Mentorship Program (ELMP).
Read more about the Embodied Life Mentorship Program.

The Embodied Life Retreat: Awareness through Meditation, Guided Inquiry and the Teachings of Moshé Feldenkrais

Dates: July 9th – 12th (Thursday to Sunday)
Time: 6:30pm Thursday to 2:00pm Sunday
Location: ZIST Penzberg
Tuition: €515
Read more and register

* This program is open to all.

All methods devoted to human potential emphasize the importance of awakening to the present moment. All that we long for – love, joy, peace, harmony, truth – require the fundamental capacity for PRESENCE. This seminar uses ancient and modern methods for directly and simply uncovering this natural capacity.

Simply said, we need the capacity to:

1) Sit quietly with our own thoughts,
2) mindfully welcome our feelings/emotions and
3) find comfort in our own bodies.

The meditation we will practice is a bare-bones approach to experiencing the present moment As It Is; this is the basis for being at home in ourselves. Chairs are available and help is given to those who find sitting challenging.

Guided Inquiry includes a variety of awareness experiments based in the Focusing method of Eugene Gendlin. Learning to bring a warm, caring, curious presence to our feelings/emotions is truly transformative.

The movement lessons of Moshé Feldenkrais are perhaps the most neurologically sophisticated and effective ways of transforming our motor patterns and self-image; these lessons are also interesting and fun.

Through meditations, awareness practices, movement lessons and conversation, we anticipate a meaningful and joyful time of learning together. This retreat is open to all people who are interested in living an awakening life.

* This retreat is open to students enrolled in this Embodied Life Mentorship Program (ELMP).

Read more about the Embodied Life Mentorship Program.

Embodied Life Seminar “Returning to Essence and the Ground of Being”

Dates: October 10th – 11th (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: 10:00am Saturday to – 17:00pm Sunday
Location: Feldenkrais Institut Wien
Taborstrasse 71/1a 1020 Wien, Vienna, Austria

Tuition: € 245 / students: € 220
Early bird (by June 30th): € 205
ELMP participants: € 150
(Please contact us if your financial situation is limited)

Register and pay

Local contact: Contact Johannes Zemanek
Tel: +43 (0) 676 701 8298 info@achtsam-atmen.at

* This program is open to all.

Dear Friends,

You have a unique life, filled with both gifts and challenges.

In the busyness of daily life, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters:

• What is your life calling for?
• How can you bring your gifts into fuller expression?
• How can you listen more deeply to the wisdom within you?

This seminar offers an opportunity to step back, listen freshly, and reconnect with your true self.

Fresh awareness is the key to transformation.
When we embody this awareness, it blossoms. And from this deeper listening, fulfillment naturally emerges.

What to Expect:
Through movement practices based in Feldenkrais, awareness exercises, guided meditations, and group discussions, you will discover new guidance and insight in ways that may surprise you.

Whether you are looking to enhance your physical, emotional, or relational life, this seminar will help you access clarity and direction that supports all levels of your being.

Please join us for a joyful and enriching journey into the heart of the matter: Creating a more meaningful, satisfying and fulfilling life.

With warmest wishes on your path,

Russell and Linda Delman

Practices

Embodied Meditation is a direct, simple way of entering the present moment. Based on Zen meditation, this practice benefits both experienced meditators and beginners alike.

Embodied Movement includes Feldenkrais lessons and other embodied practices. Common results include a deeper connection to the earth, ease in breathing, greater freedom in movement, and the harmonization of the nervous system.

Embodied Inquiry consists of simple yet powerful reflections, often including writing. You will learn ways to access your “wisdom body,” which helps your brain connect with life-giving, healthy memories. You already have experiences of excellent functioning; making them more accessible is not difficult.

Embodied Life Eisenbuch Germany Public Retreat

Dates: October 14th – 18th (Wednesday to Sunday)
Time: Arrive Wednesday after 15:00. Dinner 18:00, program at 19:30. Ends on Sunday after breakfast at 8:05am.

Location: Eisenbuch Zen Center

Tuition: Sliding scale between €325 and €450, or $325 and $450.

Register and pay

Arrange and pay for your lodging: TBA

* This program is open to all.

Join Russell and Linda for this annual retreat in Eisenbuch, Germany. Eisenbuch is a precious place for an Embodied Life Retreat. The intimate setting in the idyllic woodlands of upper Bavaria, not far from the Black Madonna of Altotting, lends itself to deep inner work. It is a pleasure to return each autumn. Those in residence support our practices with food to both energize and harmonize the body and mind. This is a Public Retreat, so all are invited to attend.

The Embodied Life explores: “Returning to Essence and the Ground of Being with Russell and Linda Delman”

“Who are you before your parents were born?” This illuminating Zen question, usually spoken as “Original Face”, opens an inquiry into a quality of Being before, within and beyond our usual self-identities. Can we both value and be free from our historic self-identities?

Returning to Essence: Points directly to knowing ourselves before our thoughts, feelings, stories and inner dialogue.Deeper than our cultural conditioning, this essence never goes away.

Ground of Being: When grounded in our bodies and sensing the support of the earth, we can open to the moment, “just as it is”. This ground of Being gives us great confidence for learning from our life challenges.

This Embodied Life stands on three legs:
1) Embodied Meditation – sitting and walking meditation,
2) Embodied Movement – Feldenkrais movements, Spatial Awareness and other original somatic practices,
3) Embodied Inquiry-Awareness explorations based in Focusing, Non-Violent Communication, life-giving memories and deep listening.