Ralph's Blog: New Writing
THE NEW CENTER FOR HOLISTIC LEARNING NY
April 2024
Times have changed in major ways for me in the last few years. While my colleagues and I have been able to maintain the Esoteric Quest conferences and journeys and the Art of Dying trainings and events, the New York Open Center, which I co-founded with Walter Beebe in 1984, is no long operating. It had a 38 year run during which time 400,00 to 500,000 participants came through in buildings both in Soho and in Mid-town Manhattan. It was truly a consciousness vortex in the heart of the Big Apple.
However, the need for a center of holistic learning in New York is in no way diminished. In fact, for someone like me who has been involved in matters of transformation and spirituality for many years, it is apparent that holistic ideas and practices are busting out everywhere. A day barely goes by without me stumbling across some kind of new initiative, increasingly in mainstream culture, that embraces holistic and ecological thinking.
To superficial observation, it may appear that not much has changed. But an alert eye can see a gradual embrace of an integrative worldview in countless areas, despite the many terrible occurrences in the world that barrage our minds through most mainstream and social media, and often show us the dark side of the human experience with all its tragedy and suffering.
So, in late April, early May we will launch a new website for the New Center for Holistic Learning NY (NCNY). Its programs will be both in-person and on-line. It will have an international reach through zoom and make use of various physical locations starting with two in the East and West Villages in Manhattan.
We will also be conducting a GoFundMe campaign to help us withe initial start up costs. More information on this will be provided soon.
I hope those readers familiar with my work will see fit to support this initiative as fully as possible. New York, with all it represents in the world, really can’t be without a center of holistic consciousness dedicated to inner development, well-being, authentic spirituality, creativity and transformation to a sustainable society. We’re doing everything we can to make this happen and we look to you, the holistic community, to aid us in pulling this off.
Robert Bly (1926 – 2021): An Appreciation of a Great American Poet
By Ralph White
The great poet, Robert Bly, died recently as many Open Center readers will know. Robert was a true friend of the Center and a regular presenter and performer with us for quarter of a century.
Nobody led a poetry evening like he did, with his encyclopedic knowledge of much of the world’s deepest poetry. There were so many memorable evenings at our former home on Spring Street when Robert, with his multi-colored vests, his shock of white hair, and his simple but effective bouzouki strumming, both elevated and deepened the audience. We emerged into the Soho night drenched with soul. Whether it was the work of the great Sufi poets, Rumi and Hafez, or the Spanish mystics like Antonio Machado, or his own evocative poems, the event was always deep and joyful and the alteration in consciousness palpable.
Beneath Robert’s gruff and somewhat formidable exterior, was a man of great sensitivity and insight. Like James Hillman, whose psychological astuteness and iconoclasm he valued, he knew that we need to go downward into the realm of soul – certainly before we can go upward to the realm of spirit. His own spirituality was grounded in a deep understanding of the pain and suffering that often accompany a spiritual journey.
Robert was also very politically outspoken and sharp. A leader of the opposition to the war in Vietnam, he cast a withering eye on reactionary politicians. And he was a pioneer in the need for clearer and more open communication between men and women. I vividly recall a packed evening at Cooper Union with Robert and Deborah Tannen, the authority on speech and language, exploring how to enhance communication between the genders.
Though most of his obituaries mention his leadership of the Men’s Movement after the enormous success of his book on the fairy tale of Iron John, it was his deep spiritual attunement and soulfulness that stay with me. He was a vital part of the Open Center’s Esoteric Quest conferences in Bohemia, Florence, Andalusia and elsewhere, and would always take the audience to a deeper place with his hypnotic recitations of poems. He liked to make sure that we grasped the depth, subtlety and insight of each line.
His last words to me, spoken in front of the Alhambra during an Esoteric Quest for the Golden Age of Andalusia, were, characteristically, very much to the point. We were standing side by side during a break in the proceedings. He turned to me and said simply, with no preamble, “You do what you can, then you die!’
Robert Bly did a lot for this world through his poetry, his translations, his editing, his cultural insights, and his political courage. He was a soul of great depth, brilliance, and integrity who could move an audience to the core of their being.
So, with deep gratitude for all he gave, we wish him …
Bien Viaje!
Ralph White
2/10/22
Greetings after a pandemic break!
Hello Everyone,
I’m happy to be blogging again after an extended gap resulting from the Coronavirus and its attendant difficulties. I have been fortunate not to contract the virus, but the tempo of our lives has slowed down, travel has become modest, and I have organized fewer events during these difficult times than normal.
This is a strange, intermediate, liminal time. Are we coming out to the pandemic or are we just in a. brief pause. Can we create events, conferences, concerts etc in person in the summer, or will be stay in the realm of zoom. No-one can say.
As you may have noted from my prior post, some time ago, the Open Center is ready for its latest Esoteric Quest. This one will be in Portugal, on the trail of the Knights Templar, the soul force of ‘saudade’, and the profound music of fado. We will follow this with a journey along the Camino of Santiago de Compostella into Galicia in the North West of Spain. An alternative post conference journey takes us into the eastern borderlands, the territory of the ancient towns and fortifications of the Knights Templar.
Of course, all of this cannot be announced with definitive dates in February. But we are hopeful that by spring we may be able to confirm A Esoteric Quest in Portugal and Galicia in September this year.
We shall see.
In the meantime, I want to wish all my readers the very best. It’s good to be coming out of a kind of hibernation and to be speaking and writing again.
Please stay abreast of further updates.
New York, February 1st, 2020
My Personal Pre-Quest in Portugal and Spain
I have just returned from two non-stop weeks in Portugal and Northern Spain planning the 25th Anniversary of the Esoteric Quest conferences that I have directed since 1995. The opening days in Lisbon and Sintra were stressful as I searched for the place to hold the conference. It was only on the fifth day that I came to the town of Tomar, stronghold of the Knights Templar in Portugal for many years after their suppression elsewhere in Europe. With its otherworldly ambience, its pedestrian only old town center, and its great castle overlooking it all, it felt clearly like the place had revealed itself.
We are still finalizing the exact dates of this year’s Quest, but you can be sure it will take place between the 4th and 15th September. So please mark your calendar for Portugal and Spain.
I also drove a thousand kilometers from the Basque city of Bilbao, along the famed Camino, through La Rioja, Burgos, Leon, Santiago de Compostela itself, and finally to Fisterra (Finisterre) the real end of the pilgrimage. Moving, beautiful, cold, and impressive, I won’t forget that in a hurry.
I met many fine people and presenters in Portugal including authorities on Saudade, the unique quality of longing in the Portuguese soul, that finds such perfect expression in the music of Fado. And the esoteric artist on everyone’s lips is the poet Fernando Pessoa, who died in the Thirties after publishing only one book but left behind a trunk filled with amazing work that is said to place him as the greatest poet in the Portuguese language since Camoes, the chronicler of the Age of Discovery in the 16th Century.
Now it’s on to actually making the Quest come alive as an outstanding experience for people in September with the gifted and committed Quest team. Stay tuned.
Robert Bly (1926 – 2021): An Appreciation of a Great American Poet
By Ralph White
The great poet, Robert Bly, died recently as many Open Center readers will know. Robert was a true friend of the Center and a regular presenter and performer with us for quarter of a century.
Nobody led a poetry evening like he did, with his encyclopedic knowledge of much of the world’s deepest poetry. There were so many memorable evenings at our former home on Spring Street when Robert, with his multi-colored vests, his shock of white hair, and his simple but effective bouzouki strumming, both elevated and deepened the audience. We emerged into the Soho night drenched with soul. Whether it was the work of the great Sufi poets, Rumi and Hafez, or the Spanish mystics like Antonio Machado, or his own evocative poems, the event was always deep and joyful and the alteration in consciousness palpable.
Beneath Robert’s gruff and somewhat formidable exterior, was a man of great sensitivity and insight. Like James Hillman, whose psychological astuteness and iconoclasm he valued, he knew that we need to go downward into the realm of soul – certainly before we can go upward to the realm of spirit. His own spirituality was grounded in a deep understanding of the pain and suffering that often accompany a spiritual journey.
Robert was also very politically outspoken and sharp. A leader of the opposition to the war in Vietnam, he cast a withering eye on reactionary politicians. And he was a pioneer in the need for clearer and more open communication between men and women. I vividly recall a packed evening at Cooper Union with Robert and Deborah Tannen, the authority on speech and language, exploring how to enhance communication between the genders.
Though most of his obituaries mention his leadership of the Men’s Movement after the enormous success of his book on the fairy tale of Iron John, it was his deep spiritual attunement and soulfulness that stay with me. He was a vital part of the Open Center’s Esoteric Quest conferences in Bohemia, Florence, Andalusia and elsewhere, and would always take the audience to a deeper place with his hypnotic recitations of poems. He liked to make sure that we grasped the depth, subtlety and insight of each line.
His last words to me, spoken in front of the Alhambra during an Esoteric Quest for the Golden Age of Andalusia, were, characteristically, very much to the point. We were standing side by side during a break in the proceedings. He turned to me and said simply, with no preamble, “You do what you can, then you die!’
Robert Bly did a lot for this world through his poetry, his translations, his editing, his cultural insights, and his political courage. He was a soul of great depth, brilliance, and integrity who could move an audience to the core of their being.
So, with deep gratitude for all he gave, we wish him …
Bien Viaje!
New York, December
I have also written a series of sketches of events that took place in the early years of the Open Center when memorable figures like Colin Wilson, R.D.Laing, Robert Bly, and Fritjof Capra were faculty members, and we produced the first conferences on the Destruction of the Rain Forests, Socially Responsible Investing, and Green Politics.
25 YEARS OF THE ART OF DYING
January 2020
The spring of 2020 marks a quarter of a century since the Open Center organized the first Art of Dying conference, co-sponsored with Tibet House. It took place in a large mid-town hotel and attracted a sell-out crowd of 700 participants.
As we had never produced a major event around death and dying before, we were thrilled and amazed. One of our main speakers, Sheldon Nuland, hit number one in the New York Times best sellers with his book, How We Die, the very week the conference brochures landed in people’s mailboxes. And we received enormously positive feedback from the mostly professional audience of hospice nurses, social workers, psychologists, doctors and many others who were working with the dying. We realized that there was a vast need to address death in a more open, less taboo, more holistic way.
But at the time, it crossed no-one’s mind that the Art of Dying, the title of which came originally from a medieval manual on the conduct of Christian burials, might continue for twenty five years and counting. In fact, it was the Open Center’s first really large-scale conference and opened the door to many national and international programs on major themes. It was clear that we had struck a major chord in the collective psyche. American was starting to open up to a more candid discussion on death and we were in the right place at the right time.
Over the years, the multiple Art of Dying conferences have stayed true to many of the original themes. How can we best prepare for death? How can the prospect of death become less frightening both to ourselves and our loved ones? Does consciousness survive death and, if so, what might we expect? How can we be more present and compassionate in working with the dying?
Since those early days, there has been a discernible growth in awareness about death, and a palpable increase in the national willingness to discuss it openly and honestly. Today we are part of an growing international ‘movement’ of death awareness that is filled with numerous helpful innovations. We have seen the emergence and spread of doulas for the dying, trained to conduct a loving vigil with the dying person and their family during the final hours of life. Recently, there is persuasive scientific evidence that a clinically controlled dose of psilocybin, the essential ingredient of magic mushrooms, can have an enormously beneficial effect on stage 4 cancer patients gripped by existential distress at the prospect of death. And of course there is deepening interest in the wisdom of the Tibetan tradition around death and reincarnation, and increasing awareness of the remarkable research of the Austrian philosopher and teacher, Rudolf Steiner, into the journey of the soul after death.
The evidence from near death experiences, unusual and anomalous end of life events, and those returning from induced resuscitation, all point to what the British psychiatrist, Peter Fenwick, has called ‘the magic of dying.’ The more science looks closely at what occurs at and around the moment of death, the more extraordinary it seems.
On a practical level, recent years have seen the growth of interest in green burials where ashes can be placed in biodegradable boxes beneath the roots of a tree. We also see the return of individually painted burial shrouds instead of coffins and families using a funeral as an opportunity for the joyful celebration of the deceased’s life through music and dance. Of course, we can never forget the loss, sorrow and anguish that often accompany the death of someone we loved. How then do we approach bereavement holistically using insights from the world’s wisdom traditions? How do we cultivate tenderness toward the suffering and pain of our family members, our patients and ourselves?
These are some of the questions and practices that continue to animate the Open Center’s commitment to the integration of greater spiritual and scientific wisdom into the field of death and dying. Today, the Open Center has a very active Art of Dying Institute that provides a holistic training to participants drawn to the noble work of tending to those at the end of life.
The wise have always known that developing right relationship to dying is a key to living each moment as fully and compassionately as possible. Unlike the fears that incline many people to ignore death until crisis arrives, our work encourages living with an awareness of the brevity and wonder of our lives, the inevitability of death for all of us, and the gift we can then receive of being fully present and engaged in each precious moment of our existence on this earth.
So we look back on a quarter century of work in this most profound of all fields with a sense of time well spent. The Open Center is, of course, committed to the emergence of holistic practices and ideas in all areas of life. But our work with the great matter of life and death remains among our most precious achievements. We have been proud to pioneer much needed and fresh approaches to the poignant and often wrenching experiences at the end of life and their aftermath for family, friends and community. To our own surprise, our initial foray into the field of dying back in 1995 has become a valued part of a growing movement toward more conscious dying in America. Our mission is thus well served, and we look forward to continuing our contribution to this vital field long into the foreseeable future.
December 2019
THE ESOTERIC QUEST IN BULGARIA
Crossroads of the Mysteries
A look back at our 2019 conference and a glimpse going forwards
For many North Americans, Bulgaria is off the beaten track, hidden away in an obscure corner of Southeast Europe. Our experience this past August in this beautiful country, however, showed us that Bulgaria has a deep, complex and fascinating history with multiple spiritual dimensions that most Westerners know little about.
Thanks to Yuri Stoyanov, author, scholar, adventurer, and expert on the Hidden Tradition in Europe, we were introduced to a remarkable range of speakers and topics. Without Yuri, we never could have penetrated the world of Bulgarian esotericism with its talismans, seers, Bogomils, Paulicians, modern spiritual teachers and exquisite polyphonic a capella music. We also were blessed to have with us one of the most knowledgeable archeologist in the country, Diana Gergova, whose friendly and gracious presence added greatly to our experience.
The region currently known as Bulgaria was called Thrace in the ancient world. It was the land of Orpheus, whose caves and sanctuaries in the Rhodope Mountains we visited after our conference. Herodotus tells us that Thrace was the birthplace of the Mysteries, and Bulgaria maintains a mystical charm in the countryside despite the centuries when it was governed by forces outside its control. Somehow the soul of Bulgaria has weathered all the political and military storms of two millennia to remain intact and charming.
Our base for the Quest was the ancient city of Plovdiv, the oldest continuously occupied city in Europe. Its multiple levels of civilization over the past 6,000 years – Thracian, Hellenistic, Roman, Ottoman and Soviet (not to mention the era of the medieval Bulgarian empire) – are clearly evident from the walls, ruins, houses and amphitheaters that dot the old city. We reveled in the feeling of rediscovering the half-forgotten spiritual traditions of Bulgaria’s many-threaded history, something that has characterized the Quest since our very first one in Cesky Krumlov, the Southern Bohemian mecca of alchemists, in 1995.
We were so very fortunate to have connected with an outstanding collection of Bulgarian speakers who covered the esoteric history of this land from the most contemporary to the most ancient. Peter Deunov, the 20th century spiritual teacher who founded Paneurythmy and was a contemporary of Rudolf Steiner, is surprisingly popular today. A recent poll found that he is the second most admired Bulgarian of modern times. What other European country, we might ask, reveres such a profound modern spiritual teacher at a national level?
But of course, Bulgaria is not new to the spiritual quest. In the early middle ages, the Paulicians, followers of the Mesopotamian prophet, Mani, creator of the first world religion, were sent to Plovdiv on the orders of the Byzantine Empire. Later, the Bogomils, who preceded the Cathars in the South of France, had a powerful influence in the Balkans. And then there were numerous seeresses or sybils, usually peasant women, who uttered remarkable prophecies and became internationally famous for their enigmatic visions.
Looking back now from the beginning of the 2020, our Quest in Bulgaria seems magical, delightful in the exuberance of its artists and performers, and with a scholarly and esoteric tradition deeper than we’d even imagined. And as is typical of our Quests, we were able to explore so many evocative locations that would have been difficult to find on one’s own - without a driver or rudimentary knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet – and were received by so many lovely, warm and open local people.
Every time the Esoteric Quest visits a new location, we add another section to the tapestry of Western holy wisdom. Europe is, in fact, possessed of as much spiritual wealth as the East; we just have to dig for it past the centuries of destruction through war, religious persecution, political oppression and materialistic ideology. What we find are true gems, hidden traditions that inspire and uplift us in this challenging age of rising nationalism and fundamentalism.
In 2020, we will celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Esoteric Quest, and we will do it in Portugal. There we will bring alive the legacy of the Knights Templar who continued to operate under a new guise and who played a vital role in the Age of Discovery when Europe began to open to a larger geographical and spiritual world. And, of course, we will attune to the soul of the country, the saudade, that finds such perfect expression in the music of Fado with its exquisitely felt longing and its transmutation of melancholy into melody.
But as we look back on 2019, we can only feel gratitude for our experience in Bulgaria and for everyone we met who generously shared their time, wisdom and blessings. We emerged from our sojourn there, and in northern Romania too, nourished intellectually and heartened emotionally, and we learned, yet again, that the esoteric streams continuously rise to the surface and enrich a culture in spite of all the difficulties, even tragedies, that so many lands have endured.
CHINA’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON HOLISTIC WELLNESS
Co-organized by Bene Wellness, Beijing, and the Holistic Centers' Network
November 10 to 13, 2018
I will be speaking on the evolution of the holistic movement in the West at a major conference in Beijing in early November. After twenty five years of unrelenting economic growth, China seems to be hungry for a deeper approach to life than mere materialism. I wrote about this at some length in a blog post here in a piece entitled the New, Emerging Holistic China.
Difficult though it may be to grasp, many Chinese people, especially the young, are eager for sense of meaning, holistic approaches to personal growth, and even for the exploration of spiritual paths. There is a sense that China has lost connection to its enormously refined and wise ancient culture and that many deeply human values have fallen away in the rush for prosperity. And the government does not seem to object, as long as this desire for change is channeled into inner transformation rather than political activism.
His upcoming conference is co-organized by Bene Wellness in Beijing, a new holistically oriented center in the heart of the city, and the International Network of Holistic Centers of which I have been part for over thirty years.
My month in China last spring firmly convinced me of the authenticity of this yearning for inner growth and meaning in China. Everything holistic is at the height of interest for many young, educated Chinese people. And when they look at the holistic movement in the West, they see a cultural impulse in which there is nothing imperialistic. There is instead a great respect for the Wisdom of the East, including the profound beauty of the I Ching and the Tao Te Ching. So much of the holistic worldview has been influenced by Asian wisdom that there is a significant element of familiarity in it.
I'll post a link to an English language version of their website when it becomes available.
You could make a case that the awakening in China is one of the great consciousness stories of the present time. I'm happy to be returning there in November and will update readers of my blog on the freshest developments.
Here are a series of short articles written for the Open Center’s weekly newsletter.
