How we speak reflects how our minds work.

 

    This workshop explores the fascinating interplay of meditation and action, of language and silence.

    It offers space and time for Shantigarans, old and new, to gather in the familiar beauty of Shantigar’s gorgeous woods and fields, to be inspired and renewed by the silence and space of nature which connects us with others and to our universal selves.

 

    Silence is a well of potential, a breathing space to digest meaning, to touch a deep wordless place in the abdomen from which new meaning can spontaneously spring forth.

    Speaking, to gain authority and spontaneity, we need to breathe deeply, allow silences.

    A deep and surprising exchange, on or off stage, requires silences. Voltaire speaks. Then silence, however short. Then you quip, or Voltaire does. Another silence. That’s the music.

 

    But today speaking aloud is often a mad cerebral dash to annihilate space, anxiously linking each thought with folksy-sounding stocking-stuffers like “you know,” “I mean,” “like,” AND “and”—the most used yet ignored word in our speaking language. Often we unconsciously whisper “and” at the beginning of our every single new thought, killing spontaneous exchange, reserving the space for ourselves, rushing on in a desperate monologue to win—what?

 

    This workshop offers both traditional and unique techniques to slow down as you think and speak, to plumb your inner depths, to deliberately honor community, and thus to act more spontaneously and effectively in the world.

 

    This workshop, like all Shantigar workshops, welcomes everyone.

​