Andrew Harvey – Expanding the Flame of Prayer

Andrew believes we are on a precipice as a planet, choosing between a dark descent into ever-more destructive cycles of greed, or into a more luminous future in which we create a wholly new level of divine embodiment. As we do this, we can become catalysts for the creation of a generous, just and caring world. To make this leap, we need to release our addiction to transcendence, and open to the kind of radical, divine embodiment that will suffuse the heart, mind and being with greater intelligence. This is what many think of as the “Christed Self.” In this first module you’ll:

• Receive a vision that is both transcendent and immanent – unifying passion and peace
• Clearly understand what becoming transfigured or Christed really means in terms of the irradiation of our cells with a higher sacred force
• Begin to unify your mind and heart into one vessel for sacred practice, so a new level of conscious embodiment and power can be born
• Learn from the profound mystical openings and insights of philosophers like Aurobindo, Ken Wilber, Father Bede Griffiths and Jean Gebser

In this module, you will learn the advanced 7-part “Body Prayer,” which has been derived taken from major mystical traditions and yoga. It offers you simple positions that enact the whole path of embodiment – reaching up first to transcendence, then being consciously resurrected in the light, and finally, going out into the world as an emissary of that new evolutionary truth. Repetition of this body prayer forges you as a being who is able to stand in your center and peacefully transform of the world. You’ll learn to:

• Bring higher octaves of consciousness into your body
• Understand how to integrate the evolutionary journey with embodiment
• Open to a deeper experience of your body and its power
• Incarnate a deeper level of presence in your everyday life
• Link your embodiment to your passion and your service in the world
• Find out what mystics like Rumi, Hafiz and Meister Eckhart discovered about the stages of waking up the Divine Body

In this module, we will focus on the esoteric science of activating Shakti in your cells – the “Mother Force” – in a way that leads to the growing of what mystics call your “golden” body. This body represents a higher expression of your normal physical body, and advanced prayer practices will literally baptize you into this body. You will learn:

• How to specifically call forth and incarnate more of the Mother Force in a way that grows your subtle body
• Invoke a cocoon of protection and support to allow this inner alchemy to unfold
• Begin with your crown chakra, and call in light that suffuses and irradiates your body in a sequential way
• Understand more of the Eastern and Western mystical lore around the development of this golden body and its connection to depictions of halos around saints
• Learn the prayer practices that baptize your cells with this feminine light force
• Use Hindu practices of visualization to open a devotional relationship with the Divine Mother
• Taste what it will be like to live in a unified force field of embodied transcendence
• Integrate the understandings of Sri Aurobindo, the Gnostic Jesus and Teilhard de Chardin around this golden embodiment process

This module will focus on the centrality of the heart in your journey into divine embodiment. The real sacred alchemy can only truly be accomplished through an open, ecstatic and illumined heart. It is where transcendence and immanence meet – the place where the dance of opposites becomes harmonious. You’ll learn:

• Prayer practices that concentrate the force of love in your heart to become an intense and focused beam – like a laser
• How to use the heart’s integrative capacities to speed up your evolution
• An advanced teaching on how light makes love to matter, transcendence makes love to matter
• The pathway to opening the Sacred Heart as compassionate love, making possible the marriage of heaven on Earth
• How to reconcile opposites and dualities in your heart
• An esoteric practice to open your heart to the Beloved

This module will take you deeper into the mysteries of the heart’s spiritual capacities – specifically opening a higher “Golden Sun” that is connected to ecstatic union with God, as well as the Golden Body of Module 3. You will undertake practices derived from Hindu Tantric practice that aim to awaken your heart as an immense sun with boundless capacity to shoot out rays of power in all directions. You’ll learn:

• Breathing exercises and mystical syllables that lead to the awakening of the heart
• How to invoke divine shakti power as you imagine the Golden Sun becoming wilder and wilder
• The process of directing the rays of the light of the Golden Sun toward the parts of your own body that need healing and transformation
• A practice to visually irrigate the whole of your being with the fire of the heart – and then extend it to help and heal others
• The keys to conscious irradiation: training the fire of that Golden Sun on different aspects of your physical being, enabling you to experience the secret ecstasy of all of the cells
• A vision of how the whole of your body can become a supernova of sun cells
• Understand the advanced insights of mystics such as Sri Aurobindo, Father Bede Griffiths and Robert Powell in this process

This module prepares you to focus, funnel and embody your loving-compassion as a sacred activist – particularly focusing on the Tibetan practice of Tonglen, in which you use your heart to compassionately transmute negative, dark and destructive energies. The force of unbound compassion is, according to Andrew, the strongest force in the universe. As you integrate this force in a deeper way, you will become wiser, calmer, steadier – and very much more awake to the powers that are given to the divine human to work directly in partnership with God in addressing very dangerous realities. You’ll learn:

• How Tonglen works with the force of unbounded compassion, so that you don’t have to confront the horror directly, but work on the alchemical forces that make up the situation through the prayers and imagery
• Mystical practices that enable you to shift the forces that are blocking progress from within, rather than through direct confrontation
• Navigate encounters with the forces of the dark in a clear and grounded way
• Develop greater heart strength to engage a suffering world
• Receive the wisdom of the mystic Shanti Deva and study the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
• To practice the complete Tonglen cycle (from self to being an agent of worldly transformation), which allows you to become a more luminous sacred activist

The final module will ground you in the core practices necessary for you to become a resilient sacred activist – able to transform the inevitable heartbreaks that occur on the path of compassionate action. You’ll learn:

• How to responsibly engage the education of your heart through being shattered by the suffering
• Skills for navigating suffering that allows you to keep your heart alive, vibrant and buoyant throughout the witnessing of suffering
• How to prevent heartbreak from overwhelming and paralyzing you, and instead allow it to guide you to where you’ll be most powerful in your chosen cause
• Learn why it is essential to follow your heartbreak – instead of following your bliss – to illicit your mission and the power to do something about it
• The practice of unconditional love and compassion in groups
• Be initiated into the greatest bliss of your life by opening to your mission, embodying it and experiencing the joy of enacting it

In this powerful session, Andrew is joined by renowned interspiritual teacher, Mirabai Starr, to discuss the nature of feminine mysticism and transformation. Exploring the use of prayer and other powerful practices, this engaging dialogue is sure to support your own journey immensely.

Mirabai Starr is a critically acclaimed author and translator of sacred literature. She teaches and speaks widely on contemplative practice, interspiritual experience, and the transformational power of loss. Her works include Dark Night of the Soul by John ofthe Cross, The Interior Castle and The Book of My Life by Teresa of Avila and TheShowings of Julian of Norwich, Mother of God Similar to Fire (in collaboration with iconographer, William Hart McNichols) and Contemplations and Living Wisdom (Sounds True). GOD OF LOVE: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, winner of the New Mexico/Arizona Book Award, positions her at the forefront of the emerging Interspiritual Movement.

In this special session, Andrew is joined by his friend and spiritual activist, Adam Bucko. Adam’s work impacts many homeless youth in NYC and he is at the forefront of the growing sacred activism movement along with Andrew. These two respected leaders will discuss the role of prayer in activism that can truly change the world.

Adam Bucko is an activist, spiritual director to many of New York City’s homeless youth and co-author of Occupy Spirituality: A Radical Vision for a New Generation. He grew up in Poland during the totalitarian regime and spent his early years exploring the anarchist youth movement as a force for social and political change. At the age of 17, Adam immigrated to America where his desire to find his path towards a meaningful life led him to monasteries in the US and India. His life-defining experience took place in India, where on his way to a Himalayan hermitage, he met a homeless child who lived on the streets of Delhi. This brief encounter led him to the “Ashram of the Poor” where he began his work with homeless youth. After returning to the US, he worked on the streets of various American cities with young people struggling against homelessness and prostitution. He eventually co-founded The Reciprocity Foundation, an award winning nonprofit dedicated to transforming the lives of New York City’s homeless youth.

In addition to his work with homeless youth, Adam established HAB, an ecumenical and inter-spiritual “new monastic” fellowship for young people which offers formation in radical spirituality and sacred activism.

He collaborates with spiritual leaders across religious traditions and mentors young people, helping them discover a spiritual life in the 21st century and how to live deeply from the heart in service of compassion and justice.

Adam is a recipient of several awards and his work has been featured by ABC News, CBS, NBC, New York Daily News, National Catholic Reporter, Ode Magazine, Yoga International Magazine and Sojourner Magazine.

In this prayer practice video, shot at a live workshop, Andrew gracefully and powerfully guides you through the whole spectrum of the mystical path – so that you can more fully integrate and embody all aspects of your being, and claim the divine human that you are.

The act of prayer has been recognized – by sages and skeptics alike – as a powerful way to enact positive physical, spiritual and emotional change. Prayer has the power to take us beyond the rational mind, opening our hearts and engaging our souls. It brings us peace and health. It’s aim is to uplift our spirits and bring us closer to the divine.

In Light the Flame, Andrew has gathered the 365 prayers that have most influenced his life, offering us a daily reminder of the sacred. Drawing insights from around the world, across religions, and an array of disciplines, Andrew provides inspiration from great spiritual minds like Rumi and Thomas Merton, activists like Cesar Chavez and Mother Teresa, and philosophers like Nietzsche and Voltaire – plus he includes some of his own works. With themes that range from love and loss to unity and transformation, this luminous book will capture your imagination and nourish your soul.