Calendar of Events

Meditation and Poetry: Receiving Inspiration from Profoundly Beautiful Words

Dates: January 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th (Thursdays)
Time: 18:00-19:15 European, 12:00-1:15 pm East US, 9:00-10:15 am West US
Location: Online
Sliding scale tuition for entire series: € 10.00 – € 100.00, $10.00 – $100.00

The Zoom link will be sent upon registration.

This is a time to deepen/widen/expand your practice or, for some, to start on a transformative journey.

Format:
-Talk
-Practice
-Sharing and Q+A
-Join “live” and/or by recording.

Half of all proceeds will be shared between: “Doctors Without Borders” (Focusing on Gaza and other desperate places) and “Finca” (Eradicating poverty through innovative, empowering solutions and helping to educate young girls throughout the impoverished world).

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

Dear Friends,

Profound poetry has the power to inspire our lives. As many of you know, I often offer poems from my heart during retreats to influence our shared space. This class is based on those experiences.

In January, I will offer four weekly meetings of 75 minutes via Zoom. Before each meeting I will send a poem, with encouragement to “live into it”. This means to carry it with you, perhaps on a piece of paper and/or in your heart, saying it to yourself numerous times each day. Perhaps one line, image, word, or the whole poem will speak to you. You might be inspired to learn it my heart.

Embodied Meditation is a simple, direct way of deepening into your experience of Being Alive and resting in your “original home”. Poetry can often help us to sense this invitation. We will practice sitting and breathing with the poem.

When we gather, I will recite the poem, with commentary, followed by a meditation of 20 – 25 minutes. This will lead into a group sharing – a collective meditation practice of listening-speaking. Finding language for your inspirations will help them to live forward, deepening for yourself and perhaps for others.

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

I hope you will join me…

Russell

Embodied Life Munich Germany Seminar

Dates: February 3rd – 4th (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: 9:30am – 4:30pm Saturday, and 9:30am – 4:30pm Sunday
Location: Ya Wali, Kirchenstrasse 15, 81675 Munchen, subway station: Max Weber Platz
Tuition: €225 or $225

Embodiment, means being grounded and at home in our bodies, in our relationships AND on the planet. These are essential for living both fully and harmoniously. Embodiment opens the door to the present moment in an integrated way.

Beyond Embodiment, implies an intimacy with nature, spirit, and spaciousness, while also connecting to the wisdom of the earth and the cosmos. Our physical body is too small for all that lives in and through us. Beyond embodiment opens us to a vast space of interconnectivity.

Ground of Being, when our thinking, feeling, moving, sensing and the outer world are in harmony, we deepen into the Ground of Being. This integrated grounded-ness invites the experience of intimacy between self and world.

Practices:

Embodied Meditation will take us through the body to “beyond embodiment”, where we can sense who we are before our thoughts, self-images, stories, and inner dialogue. Sensing self as part of space is 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 effect and harmonize our whole nervous system. Spatial Awareness, again, is a key element.

Embodied Inquiry will help us cultivate and access the neural networks of life-giving states. We learn how to be present with our own thoughts, feelings and memories in ways that promote a deep sense of wholeness.

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

*this retreat is for students of The Embodied Life mentorship program
Contact office to register

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

Dates: February 15th – 18th (Thursday to Sunday)
Time: 6:30pm Thursday to 2:00pm Sunday
Location: ZIST Penzberg
Tuition: €460

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 for graduate students of The Embodied Life mentorship program
Contact office to register

Dates: April 5th – 10th (Friday to Wednesday)
Time: Retreat begins Friday at 15:00, retreat ends Wednesday after breakfast.
Location: Zen Center Johanneshof
Tuition: €450. Please transfer €100 deposit to hold your spot.

Lodging: Arrange and pay for your lodging

Our picture:

While your interests, questions and passions will guide us, we will certainly investigate the integration of Formlessness and Form, the Absolute and the Relative.

Said another way, we will deepen our experience in and exploration of:

1) The vertical dimension of consciousness – timeless, eternal, Original Self, Awareness.
2) The horizontal dimension of consciousness – time, mind, historic self-identities.

Put simply, our direction is to shift our primary self-identity from our historic self (though always including and valuing our history) to a larger space, we often call “the ‘I’ of Awareness”. 

We are learning to see our life – everything from genetics, conditioning, wounds, joys, all experiences, every phenomenal thing) –  as existing in this vast space that we can confidently remember and return to.

Valuing deeply, yet holding lightly the events of daily life.
What does it really mean to say:
“love is stronger than death?”

Sending Blessings to All….Linda and Russell

Embodied Life Johanneshof Germany Public Retreat

Dates: April 11th – 14th (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: €325 or $325

Lodging: Arrange and pay for your lodging

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

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.

Embodied Life Seminar “Embodiment and Beyond: Spaciousness and the Ground of Being”

Dates: May 4-5 (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: Sat 10:00am – 5:00pm, Sun 10:00am – 4:30pm
Location: Shared Visions Retreat Center, Durham North Carolina
Tuition: $235

Local Contact:
Lisa Werness and Cathy Pascal
cathypascalnc@gmail.com
lwerness@gmail.com
Text 919.306.4340

Embodiment, means being grounded and at home in our bodies, in our relationships AND on the planet. These are essential for living both fully and harmoniously. Embodiment opens the door to the present moment in an integrated way.

Beyond Embodiment, implies an intimacy with nature, spirit, and spaciousness, while also connecting to the wisdom of the earth and the cosmos. Our physical body is too small for all that lives in and through us. Beyond embodiment opens us to a vast space of interconnectivity.

Ground of Being, when our thinking, feeling, moving, sensing and the outer world are in harmony, we deepen into the Ground of Being. This integrated grounded-ness invites the experience of intimacy between self and world.

Practices:

Embodied Meditation will take us through the body to “beyond embodiment”, where we can sense who we are before our thoughts, self-images, stories, and inner dialogue. Sensing self as part of space is 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 effect and harmonize our whole nervous system. Spatial Awareness, again, is a key element.

Embodied Inquiry will help us cultivate and access the neural networks of life-giving states. We learn how to be present with our own thoughts, feelings and memories in ways that promote a deep sense of wholeness.

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

Embodied Life Seminar “Embodiment and Beyond: Deepening into the Ground of Being”

Dates: June 1st – 2nd (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: 10am – 5pm
Location: Berkeley Shambhala Center 2288 Fulton St, Ste 202 Berkeley, California
Tuition: $230
Local Contact: Yayoi Lewis yayoilewis@yahoo.com

Embodiment, means being grounded and at home in our bodies, in our relationships AND on the planet. These are essential for living both fully and harmoniously. Embodiment opens the door to the present moment in an integrated way.

Beyond Embodiment, implies an intimacy with nature, spirit, and spaciousness, while also connecting to the wisdom of the earth and the cosmos. Our physical body is too small for all that lives in and through us. Beyond embodiment opens us to a vast space of interconnectivity.

Ground of Being, when our thinking, feeling, moving, sensing and the outer world are in harmony, we deepen into the Ground of Being. This integrated grounded-ness invites the experience of intimacy between self and world.

Practices:

Embodied Meditation will take us through the body to “beyond embodiment”, where we can sense who we are before our thoughts, self-images, stories, and inner dialogue. Sensing self as part of space is 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 effect and harmonize our whole nervous system. Spatial Awareness, again, is a key element.

Embodied Inquiry will help us cultivate and access the neural networks of life-giving states. We learn how to be present with our own thoughts, feelings and memories in ways that promote a deep sense of wholeness.

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

*this retreat is for graduate students of The Embodied Life mentorship program
Contact office to register

Dates: June 4th – 9th (Tuesday to Sunday)
Time: Arrival after 3:00. Retreat begins Tuesday at 6:00pm with dinner, retreat ends Sunday after breakfast.
Location: Santa Sabina Center
Tuition: $450. Please transfer $100 deposit to hold your spot.

Lodging: Includes all meals. Single $1,125, Double $975, Commuter $825

This is actually our final offering at Santa Sabina. We have a one year reprieve after last year’s sale fell through. Hoping you can join us.

Our picture:

While your interests, questions and passions will guide us, we will certainly investigate the integration of Formlessness and Form, the Absolute and the Relative.

Said another way, we will deepen our experience in and exploration of:

1) The vertical dimension of consciousness – timeless, eternal, Original Self, Awareness.
2) The horizontal dimension of consciousness – time, mind, historic self-identities.

Put simply, our direction is to shift our primary self-identity from our historic self (though always including and valuing our history) to a larger space, we often call “the ‘I’ of Awareness”. 

We are learning to see our life – everything from genetics, conditioning, wounds, joys, all experiences, every phenomenal thing) –  as existing in this vast space that we can confidently remember and return to.

Valuing deeply, yet holding lightly the events of daily life.
What does it really mean to say:
“love is stronger than death?”

Sending Blessings to All….Linda and Russell

Embodied Life Seminar “Embodiment and Beyond: Spaciousness and the Ground of Being”

Dates: June 29-30 (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: 10:00 – 17:00 on Saturday and 10:00 – 16:30 on Sunday.

Location:
⏐ KINOKHO STUDIO ⏐
• 24/32, rue des amandiers 
  75020 Paris – 2è étage

Tuition: €230
Local Contact: MARION CLEMENCON marionclemencon@icloud.com

Embodiment, means being grounded and at home in our bodies, in our relationships AND on the planet. These are essential for living both fully and harmoniously. Embodiment opens the door to the present moment in an integrated way.

Beyond Embodiment, implies an intimacy with nature, spirit, and spaciousness, while also connecting to the wisdom of the earth and the cosmos. Our physical body is too small for all that lives in and through us. Beyond embodiment opens us to a vast space of interconnectivity.

Ground of Being, when our thinking, feeling, moving, sensing and the outer world are in harmony, we deepen into the Ground of Being. This integrated grounded-ness invites the experience of intimacy between self and world.

Practices:

Embodied Meditation will take us through the body to “beyond embodiment”, where we can sense who we are before our thoughts, self-images, stories, and inner dialogue. Sensing self as part of space is 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 effect and harmonize our whole nervous system. Spatial Awareness, again, is a key element.

Embodied Inquiry will help us cultivate and access the neural networks of life-giving states. We learn how to be present with our own thoughts, feelings and memories in ways that promote a deep sense of wholeness.

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

*this retreat is for students of The Embodied Life mentorship program
Contact office to register

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

Dates: July 11th – 14th (Thursday to Sunday)
Time: 6:30pm Thursday to 2:00pm Sunday
Location: ZIST Penzberg
Tuition: €460
Read more to register

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 is a 3 years ongoing program. For more information about the program The Embodied Life Mentorship Program.

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

Dates: October 12th – 13th (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: 10:00am Saturday to – 17:00pm Sunday

Location: Feldenkrais Institut Wien
Taborstrasse 71/1a 1020 Wien, Vienna, Austria

Tuition: EUR 225/EUR 200 -reduziert Embodied Life – Teilnehmer/innen EUR 112,50 if paid by June 30th, 2023: EUR 195,- / for students EUR 175,-

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

The Embodied Life School™ is an integrated teaching developed by Russell Delman that is based in the Zen practice of “Just Sitting” (Shikantaza) and more than fifty years of studies in human potential.

This work stands on three legs:
1) Embodied Meditation – sitting and walking meditation,
2) Embodied Movement – Feldenkrais Method and original standing movements,
3) Embodied Inquiry– which includes various awareness practices based in Focusing, Non-Violent Communication and deep listening.

The Embodied Life teachings are a path of Awareness and Loving-Kindness, which are seen as the most essential qualities for human beings. Moving from habitual patterns of fear to a natural openness to and celebration of life – Fear to Love as our basic operating principle – is the direction of this study.

This potent seminar is of interest to both those experienced in these practices as well as those who are completely new. Each seminar is unique, changed by the presence of the people in the room. In this way, each person has their most important questions addressed. 

Most people find the seminars both joyful, with much humor, as well as deeply moving and even transformative.

Embodied Life Eisenbuch Germany Public Retreat

Dates: October 16th – 20th (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 €300 and €425, or $300 and $425.
Register and pay
Lodging: Arrange and pay for your lodging

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.