Several people have asked me recently: “Jim, with all this talk about circling, are you still into non-duality?”
The short answer is yes, absolutely. But there is a longer answer that I’d like to unfold here.
My own journey seems to have followed 3 distinct phases, with each phase adding to the previous rather than replacing it.
The first phase began with the recognition that something fundamental was missing from my life. It was the longing to discover what that ‘something’ was that led me into spiritual seeking and ultimately to non-duality.
Through meeting with a long list of teachers and absorbing the non-dual message, I found what I was looking for: the aware presence that I AM, beyond all phenomenal experience; the imperturbable peace that is always, already here.
And then came the wondrous discovery that all of experience is never separate from that presence that I AM, but is its very expression, its dance, its song!
That discovery was and is truly miraculous, and ever-fresh. But then, of course, life goes on . . .
With all the pressures and responsibilities that come with being married with two young children, before long I had to accept that I was suppressing myself in order to try to hold it all together; that despite whatever I’d realised, my life was still being orchestrated by unconscious, fear-based patterning.
That’s when phase 2 began: a deep listening to what was going on in my body and psyche, illuminating what was split off and unconscious in me, and integrating it back into wholeness.
I’ve found unmet anger, rage, frozen grief, fear, nauseating shame, a severe lack of healthy boundaries, and a whole host of other characters that were influencing the course of my life from the shadows; along with their physical counterparts, showing up as various tensions in my body.
Through connecting with these split off parts—including even the ‘spiritual’ parts that in frustration wonder, “With all this inner work, why am I not healed yet?” Including those too—I am being continually humbled into a deeper acceptance of life as is it.
It’s with this genuine acceptance—not as another clever technique, but as a fundamental shift in orientation—that I’ve been experiencing ever greater ease, freedom and aliveness in my life, as well as important relationships flourish.
Which leads me on to phase 3.
With that increasing sense of freedom and aliveness has come the desire to express my ‘Jim-ness’ ever more fully, freely and authentically; to be a faithful servant to the life energies that are present in me in each moment; to experience what its like to live in flow, in surrender to life: what the Taoists call ‘wu wei’, the Buddhists ‘non-action’, and the Christians ‘into Thy hands I commit my spirit’.
As a result of these developments, the format I was using for all my events—a kind of transpersonal group coaching—although powerful and effective in its own way, started to feel restrictive, and I found myself looking for a new way of working; one that was more versatile, and could also tap into the collective wisdom of the group.
That’s when I found circling.
For me, circling is the only paradigm I’ve come across that can embrace all 3 of these phases, and often simultaneously.
Through connection, curiosity, self-revealing, co-creative play, free expression, conscious touch and mutual support, circling offers the chance to not only discover what’s unconscious in us, but also explore what it’s like to live in flow, to experience naturally the non-dual nature of reality, as well as explore together whatever deeper, collective themes might be constellating through us as a group.
That’s why I felt drawn to circling; why I feel so passionate about it and now practice it with all my groups; and why I warmly invite you, if any of what I’ve expressed here resonates, to join one of my upcoming events and discover what’s possible directly for yourself.
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