The 2007 annual Gathering will take place February 16-17 in the primal beauty of the Central California Coast in beautiful Carmel-by-the-Sea. This year's Gathering will explore "crossing the great water - to your soul" in the spectacular natural beauty of the Monterey Peninsula, nearby Point Lobos and Big Sur at the edge of dramatic cliffs and the ebb and flow of the glistening Pacific. This experience invites you to "be," in the water, without resisting, surrendering to the flow.

This Gathering will provide for a deep personal exploration of your life voyage. You will explore what you thirst for and/or what thirsts for you - what keeps you flowing, being in and allowing yourself to be supported by the water. You will also examine what it is to be adrift, and why it is important to take time to find safe harbor in order to re-create yourself. The Gathering will offer an intimate, probing experience combined with opportunities for contemplation and solitude in the remarkable natural beauty within close proximity of the Gathering site. Music will be woven throughout the experience as the extraordinary Paul Warner, creator of the Symphony for Humanity, will grace the pulsating flow of Gathering events.

The location of the Gathering will once again be the affordable and quaint Hofsas House in the heart of Carmel (1-800-221-2548). Make your reservations soon, as there is no guarantee rooms will be available later in January. When you call for reservations, make sure you request the Gathering rate of $95/night, with a queen size bed (other accommodations with kitchenettes, larger rooms, and ocean views are also available). Continental breakfasts, lunch each day, and dinner our first night is provided in the registration fee of $295.

The village of Carmel possesses one of the most remarkable collections of paintings in the world, with over 120 galleries. It is a mecca of great art, and in keeping with this tradition, the charming Carmel Art Association will host one of our sessions, offering you the opportunity to stroll through the gallery and take in the best from this prolific artist's community. The Hofsas House is only two blocks from the Carmel Art Association gallery and a short walk to the ocean and the Pebble Beach Golf Course. A special feature of the Gathering will be dinner at Barry and Kipra's home in Pebble Beach. Noble Purpose colleague and cook extraordinaire, Anne Hayden Martin, will oversee a remarkable Italian feast on Friday night.

If you have not attended previous Gatherings or visited this part of the country, know that Carmel is nestled between rugged cliffs, densely wooded, Monterey Pines, and the dramatic Pacific on the whitest, most pristine beach in CA. Expect high temperatures to be in the low 60's and lows in the 40's. Bring a lightweight jacket and/or sweater and walking shoes suitable for exploring the surrounding natural beauty.

A special meeting for Noble Purpose Learning Facilitators and Team Spirit Associates will take place on the 15th 1:00-5:00 p.m. at the Hofsas meeting room. Jennifer Cash O'Donnell will discuss the business realities of our work, providing the "State of the Spirit" message on the 17th, describing our important work with our key client, the United Centers for Spiritual Living. For those who can stay through Sunday, a feature of this year's event will be a visit to the incredible Monterey Aquarium, 10 am till noon. Optionally you can choose to explore the extraordinary beauty of the Big Sur coast, including breakfast at Deetjen's Big Sur Inn, Sunday morning, returning to Carmel shortly after noon.

You can fly into San Francisco (2 hours away), San Jose (1 and 1/4 hours away), or Monterey (10 minutes away). Contact the Monterey/Salinas Airbus for van service from either the San Francisco or San Jose airports to Monterey (fees of $30-35, one way) - 831-373-7777. Taxi service is only minutes away from the Hofsas House if you fly into Monterey. For more information about the area go to: http://www.carmelcalifornia.org, http://pt-lobos.parks.state.ca.us, http://www.bigsurcalifornia.org To register please proceed to go to the Noble Purpose web page by clicking this link: http://www.noblepurpose.com/2007gathering.html

Paul Warner will transport Gathering participants to remarkable new sensory delight, mirroring the dramatic natural beauty of the Central California Coast and the inspiration of probing workshop experiences showcased in this year's Gathering. His musical genius will be resonating with you long after you have returned from the Gathering.

A prolific composer, Paul employs an infinite range of mood, imagery, feeling and sensitivity, and a tremendous palette of musical instruments. His music ranges from the most barely audible tones of a harp all the way to full symphonic scores. Paul played live for the Whales off the coast of Maui in 1976. His music is non-rhythmic, a very important aspect of healing music, and he has been recognized as one of America's foremost composers of music for health and spiritual renewal.

Born in Los Angeles, Paul began his musical training at the age of seven. By his mid-teens he was studying advanced piano composition and technique with the noted Esther Lipton. After completing his studies in literature at UCLA, he continued his musical education in Florence, Italy. It was while in Europe that Paul began to develop an original, yet classical style of composition and performance for the piano. Influenced strongly by well-known composers such as Debussy, Ravel, and Faur, the music of Paul Warner is modern, yet classically based, and wonderful to listen to.

Paul records on location at such breathtakingly beautiful sites as the Grand Canyon, the Olympic rain forest, Yosemite, the deserts of the Southwest, as well as America's rugged western coastline. As a musician in touch with nature, Paul will derive inspiration for his Gathering works from the beauty of the beautiful Monterey Pines, the rugged coast line, thundering Pacific, and the enchanted cottages and shops of Carmel.

A Perspective
"On Thirsting" the Living Water of Noble Purpose

By Barry Heermann

Who you are being as the fullest expression of your essence, the full bodied realization of your Essential Self, is at the crux of unleashing your purpose, transforming life and the world around you.

Visioning in Noble Purpose asserts that "thought is creative" and that really potent thought occurs in conjunction with a thirsting deep within your Essential Self. Thought that is more from your head than your heart is not as powerful, and it rarely calls forth being. Thought that emerges out of your unique yearning or thirsting changes you (critically) and it changes the world.

Consider that thought, in this sense, amplified by a deep thirsting, transcends ordinary thought. The sense of thought that Noble Purpose points to is outside of existing reason and the realm of logical deduction and analysis. It is more nearly "not-thought."

It could be said that this thirsting or yearning lifts you, up, over, and into the rarefied state of your greatest generativity. Although logic is outside of thirsting, there is an incredible intelligence that is part and parcel of thirsting. However, it is not in the realm of our compulsion to categorize, to analyze, to breakup what we know into parts, scattering it everywhere, very much as Luria suggests in the broken chads - the splintering of wholeness - in Jewish mysticism.

Thirsting is given by the Essential Self and is key to wholeness. By staying open to "being" your thirsting - versus "fulfilling" your thirsting - miracles occur. This primordial impulse of the Essential Self returns you to your greatest potency. Time - past and future - go away. You are left with eternity.

The Bounded Self, on the other hand, confuses you into thinking that you want some external event, product, or outcome, really "nailing it down," distinct from "living" within the "field," of thirsting. This is understandable, as quenching one's thirst would appear to be external, not internal - not "being" the thirsting. It is like a Zen koan - e.g., "What quenches thirst by not quenching?"

When you embrace the "thirsting" that is unique to your Essential Self, you ignite your passion. And the ignition is simultaneously part of you and the spark of the divine. Thirsting thirsts for you. You transcend the Bounded Self. Miracles occur.

Thirsting simply seeks to be known as you, without consideration for you getting anything or for the results or outcomes of your thirsting. This is not to say that extraordinary results do not occur in the world as a result of thirsting. They do. This is not to say you should not care deeply about and hold a high intention for the world. Nor is this to say that you should be weary of manifesting results in your art, craft, or domain of work. It is to say that those results and outcomes are completely incidental to the thirsting itself, to the service rendered.

Sounds counter intuitive, heretical? With the Bounded Self you make outcomes into "false Gods," displacing your thirsting or longing. As the Essential Self you know this thirsting IS God thirsting you. Unfortunately, the Bounded Self has us jump immediately to the worldly "matter" of your yearning, to accomplishment, in order that you can know that YOU "matter."

Every cell in your body, including your physical, emotional, and spiritual nature arises from your thirsting. The challenge is to not interfere, change, manipulate, or control your thirsting. The reality is that your thirsting and longing can not be interfered with, changed, manipulated, or controlled. Yet you persistently try to do just that. You begin to feel that you matter only if matter manifests in the world. Yet, another Zen koan, "Does matter, matter?"

Sometimes your greatest dissonance, pain and suffering originates from thirsting. Your thirsting turns back onto itself so as to transform you, alchemically, provoking cracks in your Bounded Self, opening you to your Essential Self, returning you to your deepest thirsting. Your inner strife strangely calls you to return to your deepest thirsting. Honor the pain as your teacher. Your thirsting seeks to crack open a deeper wellspring of your longing. You learn to return to your thirsting, your deepest self that you have treated so shabbily. This "fire" you walk into, or that walks into you, leaves you naked and alone, so that you can experience your thirst again.

Everything you need to know, do, and be exists deep within you. Your thirsting calls you to give 100 percent to its honoring. Embracing that thirsting turns life upside down, radically reorganizing everything about you. You can never run away from your fundamental thirsting as it steadfastly runs after you, and in your best moments, you surrender, doing the only thing you could do, being the only thing you could be, discovering the Living Water of your own soul.

The first session my new group of twelve Noble Purpose Part One (NP1) initiates met, we practiced a lot of silence. I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to prepare everyone for the "voice of silence." I jumped in with my best attempt to help them be "ok" with the awkwardness one may feel. Every group has its own rhythm and personality, but thankfully there is always someone, or some two that are willing, and so the sharing begins. At the close of our call, I solidly trusted that all is, and will continue to be, Good.

The opportunity to hear a recording of our calls is a powerful learning tool for the facilitator. In reviewing the first evening's tape I knew I needed to give my group more time to get acquainted with each other because I had fast forwarded through introductions. I committed to sending daily emails to participants, keeping them informed while nudging them to engage. The first email included a current photo of myself, which I jokingly labeled my "Fully realized self", and two photo/drawing renditions of my Essential Self at 2 1/2 years and my Bounded Self, at 3 1/2 years.

The second session was easier for everyone. The same few from the evening before did most of the sharing, but we were all more comfortable in allowing the silence. Margaret Wolf's poem, "In Sweet Company," really resonated, and in a way became our group identifier. My email to everyone the next day simply said, "As I awake this morning, I know I am, and have been in 'Sweet Company'." We were all more trusting.

I was looking forward to our third session, where I expected everything to "click," with the group taking off and beginning to self-regulate. My anticipation was soon replaced with the mantra, "Dissonance, Confusion, and Frustration are all Good," I created the space and listening for participants to say: "This needs more time. I'm not sure what we are doing. The book seems to assume that I already know my purpose. I guess I won't know what my noble purpose is by the end of the week." They wanted certainty, answers, a time-line and results. Phew! I recognized this place, remembering my very first NP1 when I was filled with uncertainty, questioning myself, "what if I am not able to clarify my purpose, what if my purpose seems insignificant?" I assured them that this is an introduction to the material, and the process intended to shift their awareness and create a clearing. I took an exhale as we closed that evening, and "knew" I was being called to engage in the spiral: trust, "see," claim, and stand ready to celebrate.

A colleague was facilitating NP1 for another group of participants the same week, as I listened to her recording, I was inspired. She said to them, "wherever you are is perfect, if you are able to do the reading or not ... if you are able to do the processes or not ... you are right where you are supposed to be ... wherever you are is perfect."

Feeling grateful to be in a community where I am continually supported in my work, I prepared my email for the next day. I asked, "What is the unlived life within you waiting to be expressed?" I followed with, "I celebrate each of you, who you are, wherever you are, and whatever you are able to do in this process is exactly right and perfect, all is good. Have an amazing day."

During our fourth session some participants began to refer to colors to characterize the feel and tone of their insights. One participant had so much fun, she described hues changing from deep purple to brilliant orange as she identified important, positive and transforming changes in who she was "being" and able to do in her career. By the end of our call, participants had created a beautiful canvas of brilliant, happy blues, shining yellows, radiant awesome orange, and deep, vibrant purples ... we moved out of our heads and into our hearts. It was a true Celebration!

During our fifth and last session participants were sharing like popcorn popping, with my attention drawn only to being sure there was time for all who wanted to share to have the chance. They "played" with color again, in fact, more images of color, shape and form were used to share experiences, insights, and states of "being."

We shared a big colorful hug on the next day's email, and I signed it with, "Keep living joyfully from the inside out."

To facilitate NP1 is to live Noble Purpose for oneself, for each of the participants, and for the group as a whole, each time engaging more fully in the qualities of the spiral and every time deepening the experience and practice of "being" while "doing."

Susannah Bair is part of the current Noble Purpose Deepening class which began in mid-September, and had its final Clinic on December 15. The image above is an illustration of what Deepening participants are creating, and in the case of Susannah, a collage of art images she collected and posted. The wiki page (think "wikipedia", an encyclopedia developed by sharing knowledge in a common space) is a password-protected Noble Purpose community space where information about the Deepening course, class lists and instructions are posted for easy information dissemination. Additionally, each participant has their own page, where they are encouraged to collect images, poems, songs, and other "imaginative" material that connects to their Noble Purpose journeys. Specifically, these Deepening participants develop a "Portrait" of their Essential Self, and then share this with their Learning Team.

Noble Purpose believes that the Essential Self does not live in the cognitive, analytical and wordy parts of us, but rather in the spacious and fluid zone of the imagination. Poems, songs and a variety of images can lead us to the Essential Self, the soul of who we are. The wiki page is both a community-building space, but also a wonderful chance to catch a true glimpse of who we and our fellow students ESSENTIALLY are.

Noble Purpose community member, Meath Conlan, Ph.D., was born in Australia in 1947. Through travels at a young age he experienced cultures and faith traditions well beyond his own shores. After ordination as a Catholic priest Meath became involved in inter-faith dialogue, and at the invitation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dr. Conlan lectured on Christian Contemplative Spirituality to Buddhist monks and nuns in the Himalayas. In addition to his publications, Dr. Conlan has a private practice as a spiritual director, and takes small groups to remote places of spiritual and cultural significance such as the ashrams of India, pilgrimage sites in Nepal and the Western Himalayas. His website: www.diversejourneys.net

In Meath's new book, Bede Griffiths: Friend & Gift of the Spirit (Templegate Publications), readers voyage from the Australian wilderness to the tropical landscape of South India. In these settings he shares a fascinating and intimate portrait of the humble and holy man, Bede Griffiths, his mentor, friend and confidante. Father Bede's conversation and wisdom come to life through Meath's recollections and vivid photos that chronicle their years of friendship.

Just before he died, Bede Griffiths said that the most important thing one must do on the spiritual path is to surrender the ego, i.e., the Bounded Self. This central theme of his vision involves the plunge from the Bounded Self to the Essential Self, God within.

Having lived in India in the midst of the culture of Hinduism for more than thirty years, Bede drew from the surrounding culture where renunciation is "an essential part of spiritual growth and awakening ... [that is of finding] the 'true self'." This surrender is a descent, in order "to create the space in which the spiritual life can blossom."

So what was this True or Essential Self of which Father Bede spoke? Basically he took the position that fully realized human beings are more than body and soul (the mental level): "they are body, soul and spirit" and it is in relating "consciously to the 'spirit'" that we "find the true self." Further, it is his assertion that "without this 'self-realization' we live in isolation ... unfulfilled and falling short of our destiny as human beings," our innate purpose.

Bede Griffiths, a Christian monk and priest, believed that when we are "united to our true or transcendental selves we find our union with Christ." Of course, he was a man of enormous understanding and respect for religions other than his own, so he held that all traditions have a capacity for finding the True or Essential Self. Indeed, Bede believed when united with the Essential Self, that we have access to unity or communion with others, a "place" where "all barriers of separation are transcended." At the same time as interpersonal communion is achieved there is a "unity with all creation."

To the end of his life Father Bede taught that the unity of humanity "can never be achieved on the level of body and soul alone. Only when we awaken to the True Self can we find that harmony with others and with the created order."

The search for meaning and self-transcendence; in other words the descent from the Bounded Self to the Essential Self, is a significant human experience that is available to all. Meath Conlan's new book provides sources of reflection for people who find themselves at spiritual crossroads. Meath trusts this book will be an encouragement for seekers, who, without having met Bede Griffiths, may be inspired by his life and thought.