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diane hamilton
August 2009 
Integral Practice in Israel w/ Diane Musho Hamilton
Posted on Jun 11th, 2008
by 
Miles
Miles
Diane Musho Hamilton brings Integral Practice to Israel
Last April 27th ~ May 3rd Integral Aikido was very happy to host Diane Musho Hamilton here in Israel for Big Mind and Integral Practice workshops. This was Diane’s first teaching trip to Israel as well as Israel’s first time to have both a Big Mind and Integral Practice workshop.
Day 1 – Big Mind
Diane’s visit began with an evening of Big Mind on Monday night at the Ahavana center. There were 65 people in attendance and for most it was the first experience of the Big Mind process. The evening was scheduled to have a break half way through but instead we went straight through for 3 hours without stopping.
Day 2 – Integral Feminine
On the second day we went over to the “Enlightenext center” in Jaffa where Diane led an evening on the “Integral Feminine”. Diane began the evening with an introduction to the AQAL frame of integral theory.
Day 1 – Big Mind
Diane’s visit began with an evening of Big Mind on Monday night at the Ahavana center. There were 65 people in attendance and for most it was the first experience of the Big Mind process. The evening was scheduled to have a break half way through but instead we went straight through for 3 hours without stopping.
Day 2 – Integral Feminine
On the second day we went over to the “Enlightenext center” in Jaffa where Diane led an evening on the “Integral Feminine”. Diane began the evening with an introduction to the AQAL frame of integral theory.
After this we broke into small groups while Diane lead us through a sentence completion exercise on how the feminine arises in our lives, past, present, and future. Up to this point the evening was going well. Then a rather intense (and unexpected) exchange happened between Diane and one of the participants. In the intensity of the situation the container that Diane had built until this point could have easily collapsed, but the spirit of the integral feminine prevailed and the evening came together in a warm embrace and sharing that was a beautiful expression of what we gathered for.
Day 3 & 4 – Jerusalem and the Old City
Diane’s visit happened to fall on the holocaust memorial day so we had no planned teaching activaties. So we took the opportunity to visit Jerusalem and spend some time at the holy sites.
After checking into the hotel Diane, Jerome Perrin and I met with our friend Harry Dijkshoorn and went to the Muslim quarter in the old city for dinner. After dinner we managed to time it so we could take in the view of Islam’s holy site the “Dome of the rock” at sunset. Harry, who has lived in Jerusalem for a few years was happy to be our guide.
After dark we went to the Jewish quarter and visited the Wailing Wall, Judaism’s most holy site. All in all we spent about 6 hours walking around the holy sites in deep conversations in the midst of worshipers and soaking up the ancient spirit of the Old City.
The next morning we woke up early to catch the morning mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. As we walked out of our hotel we were greeted by sunrise over Jerusalem.
We made it to the church of the holy sepulture before morning mass and sat down in its cavern chapel for meditation. As morning mass began with its ancient chanting the church began to fill with pilgrims and the atmosphere took on a beautifully spiritual atmosphere.
Before saying goodbye to the Old City we stopped in the muslim quarter for a Arab coffee and a visit to the bazaar to get our day started.
Day 5 & 6 – Integral Practice workshop
Back in Tel Aviv we began the main event of Diane’s visit, the Integral Practice weekend workshop. On the morning of the first day Diane taught the perspectives of “I”, “We” and “It”. I followed this with partnered body movement exercises from aikido that helped bring an embodied understanding of the “I”, “We”, and “It” perspectives. The afternoon was filled with Big Mind and finally the life boat exercise.
On the second day of the workshop dedicated to shadow work. In the morning Diane lead us through listening and communicating exercises and then we broke up into dyads and did one on one shadow work. In the afternoon we had a aikido based “body movement” session on dealing with conflict and how the healthy masculine and healthy feminine deals with stress.
This was followed by another Big Mind session working with ego-centric, ethno-centric, world-centric and kosmo-centric perspectives. Diane asked to speak specifically with the voice of “the chosen people” and then the “shadow” of “the chosen people”. It was very interesting to see how the cultural shadow manifested through the different levels. Especially how the shadow often resolves itself at the kosmo-centric level.
This was followed by another Big Mind session working with ego-centric, ethno-centric, world-centric and kosmo-centric perspectives. Diane asked to speak specifically with the voice of “the chosen people” and then the “shadow” of “the chosen people”. It was very interesting to see how the cultural shadow manifested through the different levels. Especially how the shadow often resolves itself at the kosmo-centric level.
After the workshop many of us went to the beach in Tel Aviv for a swim at sunset. It was a beautiful way to finish off a beautiful week.
Thank you Diane for the wonderful gift of your teaching. We are looking forward to your next visit to Israel!
Access: Public
Miles -
Can you go a bit deeper here: “…In the afternoon we had a aikido based “body movement” session on dealing with conflict and how the healthy masculine and healthy feminine deals with stress…” I am both curious what you did as an exercise here, and what you as a group found as the different types responded / moved with / embraced / resisted / etc. physically embodied conflict.
Steve
Hi Steve,
We began by drawing a basic distinction between the masculine and feminine using the metaphor of a river. The masculine being the banks of the river (direction, containment, witnessing) and the feminine being the flow of the river (movement, change and flow). We did this by having the men stand in two lines facing inward as the banks and the women walked between (or paraded I should say) between the banks. We stayed with this and went into several role changing exercises of masculine and feminine having the men and women change both positions and energies (polarities). We also looked at the pathologies, how they manifest in men and women, and the effect it has on a group. It was a lot of fun and everyone really got into it.
After getting grounded in an embodied understanding of the masculine and feminine principles then we went into aikido exercises. First we looked at how these two principles arise when under stress, in other words, an attack. We simulated a simple attack with a straight arm push through and observed how the untrained body/ mind responds. Of course the usual response is a habitual fear based, or emotional based reaction. While reacting from these lower instincts we looked at the pathology of the masculine and feminine. Namely, resistance, control and aggression in the masculine, and succumbing, capitulation and submission in the feminine.
Finally we went into the aikido response. After a short centering exercise we looked at irmi (entering) and tenkan (turning) as aikido responses which exemplify the healthy masculine and feminine respectively. As the participants got used to being centered and moving in active and receptive ways we added music to help with a continuous flow.
Remembering that this wasn't and aikido crowd we kept things pretty basic. None the less, it was a great way to ground the perspectives in the experience of the individuals and the group. It really effective to include the “body module” in an Integral Practice together with heart, mind and spirit modules. In fact, not only is it important, but clearly essential, as it truly does enrich the totally.
Miles