Press release from Arjuna da Silva of Culture’s Edge at Earthaven Ecovillage:
The Missing Link
What makes Jeff Carreira like the missing link in spiritual and consciousness-raising circles is his attention to several dimensions at one time, points of view and ways of practice that gather around the essence of reality, yet don’t quite create a whole circle.
Even in a short talk, and certainly in any of his clear, short books, Carreira manages to bring experiential phenomena (intuition, expanded and altered states of consciousness, meditative practice) and philosophical reasoning (pragmatism, speculative realism, science) into an illuminated sphere of anecdotal and phenomenological reflections on the evolutionary possibilities of where we are right now.
My penchant for sniffing out juicy, often charming teachers and talkers first led me to a one-day meditation retreat Carreira offered last November in East Flat Rock at the Highland Lake Cove community. In nothing short of twenty minutes, he was able to point to the purpose and simplicity of meditation—and by the rest of the short day bring into view a totally plausible and enchanting proposal for a new stage of human development that is nothing short of a long-imagined but elusive paradigm shift.
Carreira’s been teaching his method of the Practice of No Problem in the Philadelphia area and around the country for the last few years, having written six (now seven) solo titles, including The Practice of No Problem, The Miracle of Meditation, and The Soul of a New Self. His latest title, Paradigm Shifting, is out now. I recently spent another six days in Jeff’s presence at a retreat near Philadelphia, having my psychological, intellectual and emotional “set point” (or ordinary state of being) lifted enough to feel perfectly natural including paradigm shifting ideas in most of my everyday conversations.
When I realized he would be leading another meditation retreat in East Flat Rock later this month, this time for two days, I suggested an introductory evening in Asheville so more of our community might have a chance to hear directly from him, and was overjoyed to have my suggestion developed into a two-hour workshop preceding the retreat. The workshop begins at 7 pm on Friday, September 22nd, at Base Camp, 56 Ravenscroft, in Asheville. All are welcome and donations will be gratefully received. For information on this evening event, write culturesedge@earthaven.org or call 828 669-1965.
The Miracle of Mediation Weekend Retreat at Highland Lake Cove is offered separately on Saturday and Sunday, September 23rd and 24th. Registration and information are at www.jeffcarreira.com.
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