Calendar of Events
2025 Schedule
January
“Meditation and Poetry 2025
Receiving Inspiration from Evocative and Beautiful Words“
Dates: January 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th (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 $ 10.00 – € or $ 100.00, (includes recordings).
No one refused for inability to pay.
Register and read more
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.
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,
Last January, I offered the first series of classes dedicated to Mediation and Poetry. Recently, we have received numerous requests to offer this again. Using new poems, we will explore how beautiful/evocative words can open our inner world, empower our lives and vitalize meditation.
I hope you will join me…
Russell
As two participants from last year wrote:
“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
Here are two articles on Meditation:
PDF – Embodied Meditation Click Here
PDF – The Essentials of Embodied Meditation Click Here
February
* 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: February 13th – 16th (Thursday to Sunday)
Time: 6:30pm Thursday to 2:00pm Sunday
Location: ZIST Penzberg
Tuition: €470
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.
April
May
Embodied Life Johanneshof Germany Public Retreat
Dates: May 1st – 4th (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: €350 or $350.
Register and pay
Book your lodging
* 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.
June
ELMP Retreat at Anubhuti Center, Novato CA
Dates: June 5th – 9th (Thursday to Monday)
Time: Arrive Thursday after 15:00. Dinner 18:30, program at 19:30. Ends on Monday after breakfast.
Location: Anubhuti Center
Tuition: $450 ($100 deposit to hold a place)
Register and pay
* This retreat is open ONLY to students who have graduated from an Embodied Life Mentorship Program (ELMP).
Embodied Life Seminar “Embodiment and Beyond: Deepening into the Ground of Being”
Dates: June 28th – 29th (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: TBA
Location: Pôle Nautique, Concarneau
Tuition: TBA
Register and Pay: TBA
* This program is open to all.
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.
July
* This retreat is open to students who have graduated from an Embodied Life Mentorship Program (ELMP).
Tuition: €450 (€100 deposit to hold a place)
Register and pay
The Embodied Life Retreat: Awareness through Meditation, Guided Inquiry and the Teachings of Moshé Feldenkrais
Dates: July 10th – 13th (Thursday to Saturday)
Time: 6:30pm Thursday to 2:00pm Sunday
Location: ZIST Penzberg
Tuition: €470
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.
September
October
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
Payment by June 30th: € 205 / for students € 185
ELMP participants: € 150
(Please contact us if your financial situation is limited)
To register: Contact Johannes Zemanek
Tel: +43 (0) 676 701 8298 info@achtsam-atmen.at
* This program is open to all.
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 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.
Register and pay
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.