Wednesdays July 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th, and Saturday August 2nd.
All sessions are 10am-noon Pacific time.
A hybrid event offered in-person and online via Zoom. Hosted by The Priory Spirituality Center and title there as Contemplative Rest: Nurture resiliency and peace in ourselves and the world – with M Freeman
Series Overview
A 5-session summer series on Wednesdays July 9, 16, 23 & 30, concluding on Saturday August 2. All sessions are 10am-noon Pacific time.
This 5-part series will introduce participants to Contemplative Rest, a relaxing, present-moment, embodied meditation practice which draws somatically on previously lived moments of awe, connectedness, mystery, revelation….
In this series, Contemplative Rest founder M Freeman teaches the meditation practice, guiding participants gently through an initial preparation—selecting past experiences, savoring those experiences in vivid somatic detail, and reflecting on them.
Contemplative Rest Summer Series — Contemplative Rest: Nurture resiliency and peace in ourselves and the world – registration fee is $185.00.
You will be redirected to The Priory Spirituality Center website where you can choose how you will participate (in-person or online)
Summer Series Schedule (watch for updates!)
NOTE: For in-person participants who opt in for lunch, add another 30 minutes to each session.
- Wednesday July 9th 10am-noon | Opening Gathering, Contemplative Rest Introduction, Guided Dowsing, Guided Savoring, Reflective Writing, Sharing
- Wednesday July 16th 10am-noon | Dowsing Illuminated, Guided Savoring, Reflective Writing, Contemplative Rest Practice, Guided Journaling, Sharing
- Wednesday July 23rd 10:00am-Noon | Savoring Illuminated – Emblematic Treasures, Reflective Writing Illuminated, Rest Journaling Illuminated, Contemplative Rest Practice, Sharing
- Wednesday July 30th 10:00am-Noon | Cinema Divina on The Numinous, Contemplative Rest Practice, Journaling, Sharing
- Saturday August 2nd 10:00am-Noon | Monthly Contemplative Rest First Saturday Group Practice | Opening, Introductions, Dowse, Savor, Reflect, Contemplative Rest Practice, Rest Journaling, Sharing, Closing
Basic Peace Work
Inspired by decades of heart-centered contemplative practices and by Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s mindfulness teaching that to rest and relax is “the most basic kind of peace work”, Freeman’s Contemplative Rest nurtures experiences of relief, connectedness, awe and other numinous moments as a profoundly fortifying, embodied resources.
We’ve all had remarkable experiences. Maybe it was at the ocean, or on a mountain. In a hospital room or with your cat, your child. Finding yourself in moonlight, or in the buzz of honey bees, or simply lying on the earth, or emerging from a long, hard, dark night. Freeman leads participants through exploring, honoring and savoring such lived moments, and then guides folks into reverent, present-moment contemplative rest.
Contemplative Rest & Making Peace
This is where contemplative practice becomes an art. An imaginative space. A healing space. Operating from the notion that we can make profound change within our own hearts and bodies, Freeman (who reckons with complex post-traumatic stress) creatively engages awe as a gentle antidote to anxiety, fear, and a range of personal challenges.
In this fifth iteration of the Contemplative Rest training, Freeman acknowledges the notion that “The essence of the violence of the world is in our hearts” (James Finely) and puts our communal practice in the context of healing and softening our own hearts for the benefit of all. This work is not about us alone, rather, it’s about us all. To engage contemplative practice communally is a force multiplier. Thich Nhat Hanh tells us, “The collective energy generated on such occasions is a gift that we can offer ourselves, one another, the city, and the world.” Imagine.
About M Freeman
Media artist, writer, and spiritual director, M Freeman works at the intersections of reckoning and resiliency, queerness and film, and contemplative, creative and social art practices. They are creator of Cinema Divina—short films made through and for contemplative practice, author of The Illuminated Space: A Personal Theory & Contemplative Practice of Media Art (The 3rd Thing Press, 2020, and winner of the Nautilus Book Award’s Gold Medal for Creativity & Innovation), and a curator of Good Symptom: A Serial Anthology of Time-based Disturbances (The 3rd Thing Press, 2024). Their text and media arts essays have been published in or at Blackbird, Ninth Letter, TriQuarterly, The Fourth Genre, Rolling Stone, Abbey of the Arts and Good Symptom. Freeman is recipient of The Evergreen State College Faculty Foundation Grant, Artist Trust Grants for Artist Projects, and multiple Washington State Artist Trust Media Arts Fellowships. Freeman’s films are screened on PBS and in galleries, spirituality centers and festivals worldwide, and most recently at London’s MicroActs, Albuquerque’s Experiments in Cinema, Madison’s Midwest Video Poetry Festival, L.A.’s Film & Video Poetry Symposium, Copenhagen’s Nature & Culture Film Festival, Berlin’s Courage Film Festival, at the International Video Poetry Festival in Athens, Greece, and Seattle’s Cadence Video Poetry Festival at Northwest Film Forum and at Frye Art Museum.
M Notes:
About the “numinous” – I first encountered the word, numinous, some years ago in The Idea of the Holy (published in 1923) written by Christian theologian and philosopher, Rudolf Otto (1869-1937) The book is an exploration into religious experience that transcends dogma, morality, and rationality, Otto coined the word numinous from the Latin numen (the Divine) and omen (a happening believed to be a sign). He explains the numinous as non-rational, mysterious…the thrill of awe…rapture and exaltation; a state irreducible to any other; a state that cannot be strictly defined; it cannot be taught, one must be guided and led on by consideration and discussion of the matter until they reach the point at which ‘the numinous’ begins to stir, to start into life and into consciousness…evoked, awakened in the mind (p. 7). For me, the idea of “the numinous” is powerfully liberating.
About “The essence of the violence of the world is in our hearts” – said by James Finley in Turning to the Mystics, a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation. It’s in season 2, (John of the Cross), episode 6, dialogue 2. That line grabbed hold of me and hasn’t let go. It’s a line that, for me, ties directly to Contemplative Rest as a peacemaking practice, a gentle practice that increases capacity for compassion (self-compassion and compassion for others) cultivating an inner peace, the kind of personal peace that might be foundational and necessary work for each of us committed to fostering world peace.
Questions?
Write to marefreeman at gmail dot com or use this form.