Chiricahua Mountains, Arizona - 9 Day Advanced Awareness Training Retreat (Cycles 3 & 4)
Mexico ( 4/10/2010 - 4/18/2010 )
Advanced Awareness Training
GaiaFlow
Intermediate Awareness Training
International Pilgrimages
NatureQuest
Sacred Passage

This Advanced Awareness Training is open to anyone who has done at least one Sacred Passage with John before, or equivalent nature-communion and liberation-oriented meditation retreat work with other qualified teachers. John's teachings at this retreat will emphasize six areas: 1) Practices and principles to work deeply with Pan, the spirits of Nature and its devas: learning the process of attunement; 2} How to gather and refine the Essences of Nature for physical, energetic, emotional, and spiritual transformation, transmutation and growth; 3} Internal Alchemy and its relation to harmonizing and balancing the elements - within and without; and 4) an introduction to the ecological principles that are Gaia's laws of natural system behavior that come into play whenever human beings modify the natural world; we will reveal how learning and following these ecosystem laws are vital to coming back into balance with all of life; 5) John will also uncover the pathways to deepening communion with the elements; the Taoist Five Elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water; and and the Tibetan Shamanic Five Elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Space. We will study what these two systems share in common and how they differ. We will also learn how to build on the strengths of each system and integrate the two approaches into a unified way of cultivating our work with the elements. Mastery of Nature's Elements is a critical key to cultivating both personal and societal balance and harmony of Inner and Outer Nature; and 6] John will also teach how to practice and refine the high art of dowsing; all participants will learn how to refine their skill at this practice and how to utilize it in working deeply with Nature.

The goal of the Advanced Awareness Training is to provide profound training leading to the recognition of one's True Nature - and also how to come into harmony and balance with outer Nature. The AAT is also designed to support providing retreat time for deep internal cultivation of the core Principles and Practices of the Way of Nature's Advanced Awareness Trainings. A third goal of the Training is to qualify and provide certification of Guides to lead NatureQuests, Sacred Passages and, ultimately, various forms of Advanced Training.

This Retreat continues the Fourth Cycle of John's popular Advanced Awareness Trainings. All are welcome to attend, including of course, those who have participated in his earlier Advanced Awareness Training Cycles.

John anticipates that we will hold an average of two or three retreats a year, with a longer summer or fall mountain retreat each year to go deeper into the teachings and to allow time for profound personal cultivation. Every effort will be made to keep the programs affordable and to hold them at times of the year when most students have more time available for retreat. The Program is designed to build deepening enthusiasm and great joy in this powerfully liberating process.

Periodically, programs will be offered abroad to provide the extraordinary transmissions made possible by certain sacred areas where John's own training has profound roots. John asks that participants who would like to continue with the Advanced Training Process commit to attending the majority of Retreat Trainings offered each year. This is important to allow the cumulative building of strong foundations each year for going deeper with the teachings and practices offered in each subsequent year.

Those who have studied and trained with John in the earlier Three Cycles of The Advanced Awareness Training often report extraordinary progress on their path to Liberation. Many students have also attained remarkable insight into their true purpose for being here in this life. Even more inspiring, based on this deep connection to their inner truth, many have been emerging as powerful catalysts and leaders for enlightened cultural change.

In addition, cultivating universal energy and communion with Source together over a number of years builds powerful and heartfelt spiritual community. This extraordinary bonding is a great support to spiritual progress as we progress along path of the Way of Nature.

Part of this Adavanced Awareness Training includes daily solo cultivation time in the beautiful mountains, rock spires and canyons surrounding the central Peaks of the beutiful, wild Chiricahuas.

$999 fee.
Teacher:
John P. Milton

Chiricahua Mountain Wilderness - 10 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Arizona ( 4/23/2010 - 5/02/2010 )
Sacred Passage

The Chiricahua Mountains are one of North America's most beautiful and biologically diverse areas. Elegant trogons (a close relative of the Mayan quetzal bird), raccoon-like coati mundis and dwarf deer may greet you in your wilderness quest camp. Golden butterflies, abundant bird life, and rich forests surround your solo camp with one of the most biologically-diverse and abundant environments in North America.

John has discovered ancient stone meditation seats throughout this ancient vision quest valley, which he will teach you to use during your Awareness Training. Numerous individuals have accomplished profound spiritual openings with the help of these primordial shamanic sites. A beautiful stream flows past most of the the solo quest sites, lush with large ponderosa pines and alligator juniper. Nearby cliffs provide soaring views, lifting the spirit towards Source.

Our private base camp cabins', constructed of local stone, are located next to the Chiricahua Wilderness Area; they provide a superb, comfortable support for The Awareness Training with full kitchen, refrigeration, shower and camping facilities. A lovely stream flows through our retreat center, making stream bathing possible, and deep pine forests surround us - filled with ideal locations for our outdoor Awareness Training prior to your solo quest. This Chiricahua Mountain Range is one of the most remote, pristine and beautiful areas in the American Southwest.

$999 fee.
Guide: Led by
John P. Milton

Colorado's Celestial Sangre de Cristo Mountains - 11 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Colorado ( 5/21/2010 - 5/31/2010 )
Sacred Passage

Journey to one of North America's most powerful and ancient sacred places, Crestone and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Our alpine skies are vast, clear and spacious. No pollution mars the mountains or our lungs. The Sacred Passage group training and solo sites are very easy to access with a short walk at 8500 feet. Towering above our solo camps are five 14,000-foot summits that lift above the land here - a dramatic mountain panorama rivaling the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Lovely groves of large ponderosas, aspen and cottonwood line the mountain streams; open savannahs of juniper and pinyon pine wash right up to the base of the mountains. Higher up, forests of bristlecone pine, spruce and fir clothe the slopes below the rugged, cliffy peaks. During your Awareness Training and solo you share the land with mule deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, pronghorn antelope and beautiful black fox squirrels. Bird life abounds and Eagles circle above. A large, beautiful stream flows for more than a mile across our private, protected land where we do Sacred Passage. The stream flows crystal clear and provides superb, revitalizing drinking water for all of us.

In the late 1970's, John P. Milton moved to Crestone and was the intitial discoverer of the ancient stone meditation seats that fill the land here. An estimated two thousand such sacred stone meditation seats cluster on the Sacred Land Trust area, the largest aggregation of such sacred sites in the world. Working with Threshold's Sacred Land Trust Project, The Way of Nature is fund-raising to preserve these extraordinary sites in perpetuity. Meanwhile, those of you who choose to do Sacred Passage Awareness Training and Nature Solo here are the beneficiaries; beneficiaries of deep immersion in the Sacred View that is profoundly supported by this amazing land and its stone seats. These special sites have been used for millenia of vision questing, ceremony and prayer. Your pilgrimage here to do Sacred Passage is part of that great lineage of the Land.

Native peoples trace back their vision quests and sacred ceremonies here for over 15,000 years. Our Sacred Land Trust land is also trying to preserve the majority of these ancient and sacred vision quest sites, as well as a large kiva and courtyard complex. As mentioned above, when you do your Sacred Passage here, you join with those who have entered the Sacred Way on this land over many thousands of years. Almost everyone who comes to do a Sacred Passage feels the powerful joy and opening of Spirit that this place offers. Give your good heart to Mother Earth and Great Spirit; receive an incalculable blessing.

$1188 fee.
Teacher and Guide:
John P. Milton or Senior Way of Nature Guide

Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado - Long Mountain Retreats: 28 Day Intermediate Awareness Training or 44 Day Advanced Awareness Training
Colorado ( 8/01/2010 - 8/29/2010 )
Advanced Awareness Training
GaiaFlow
Intermediate Awareness Training

This summer's Intermediate and Advanced Awareness Trainings include powerful, Heart-opening 28 or 44 Day deep solos and personalized Awareness Trainings. Because these Trainings are such profound transformational processes, John recommends that only those consider doing the 44 Day Advanced Training who have completed most of last five years of Advanced Training Sessions with him. Those who have completed the earlier two cycles of Advanced Awareness Trainings with him are also welcome to apply. These two programs are essential components of The Way of Nature's Guide Training, certification and licensing for both NatureQuests (the 28 day solo) and Sacred Passages (the 44 Day solo).

John's Awareness Training time is integrated into both the 28 and 44 day mountain retreats. John will include weekly personalized training with each individual doing either mountain retreat.

Preparation for the powerful 44 Day retreat should include deep cultivation of all the practices taught during the five years of prior Advanced Awareness Training. This spiritual training and practice should include our past work done in Dzogchen, Bon, Buddhism, Taoism, Tantra, Native American Way, Shamanism, Vedanta - and the special training given to open the deeper levels of the Twelve Principles of Natural Liberation.

This 44 Day Mountain Retreat is an essential part of the Advanced Awareness Training.

Those interested in doing either the 28 Day Intermediate Training, or 44 Day Advanced Training Solos this year, (both are normally held in Crestone during mid-summer), should contact John directly to make special arrangements this year. The 28 Day Retreat is open to all who have done at least one full Sacred Passage with John. The 44 Day Mountain Retreat is open to all who have previously done the 28 Day Solo Retreat or the equivalent, and completed a substantial amount of the Advanced Awawreness Training Programs. John reserves the right to determine whether you are properly prepared for the deep transformational processes of either Program.

Allocating ideal space for the long mountain retreats, solos and vision quests are challenging since good long-term sites are limited, and we will be offering both 28 Day and 44 Day Awareness Training Retreat Programs. Therefore, be sure to contact us as soon as possible if you want to do either the 28 Day or 44 Day Retreat this year.

Both the 28 Day and 44 Day Mountain Retreats will be carried out in dramatically beautiful higher elevation mountain areas, between 10,000 and 12,000 feet. Surrounding peaks often lift to over 14,000 feet. Native peoples trace back their vision questing and sacred ceremony in these same places for over 15,000 years. Doing our longer Intermediate and Advanced Awareness Trainings here will join you with those who have entered the Sacred Way on this land over many thousands of years. This sacred land offers profound communion with Mother Earth, birthing of powerful joy and a deep, opening realization of Source Awareness itself.

$2250 fee for the 44 Day Program.
$1800 fee for the 28 Day Program
Teacher and Guide: John P. Milton

16 Day Advanced Awareness Training Meditation Retreat
Colorado ( 8/07/2010 - 8/22/2010 )
Advanced Awareness Training
GaiaFlow
Intermediate Awareness Training
NatureQuest
Sacred Passage

This Advanced Awareness Training meditation Retreat will focus on training in the following subjects:

1) Taoist Internal Alchemy, T'ai Chi and its applications in Sensing Hands

2) GaiaFlow, levels One and Two

3) Non-Dual Advaita Vedanta and

4) an interfaith immersion in the devotional paths of the Goddess, particularly, Kali, Durga, Tara and the Goddesses of the Tibetan Bon lineage.

This meditation and energy cultivation retreat is part of our powerful, heart-opening Advanced Awareness Training. As is apparent from the above outline, this Training focuses deeply on spiritual and energy principles and practices from Taoist, Hindu Tantric and Tibetan Bon traditions. It also introduces, for the first time, a deeper immersion in GaiaFlow - a liberating Sacred Movement system that is unique to the Way of Nature Fellowship. We will continue to deepen the GaiaFlow Training through its third, fourth and fifth levels in later retreats.

We will also go deeper with Teachings on GaiaFlow, and refining how the principles of T'ai Chi and Qi Gong Training apply to deepening GaiaFlow practice. John will also share his series of dyadic (two-person) practices that he designed to realize Source in each other, as well as in Oneself, in close relationship. This series of practices could be described as interpersonal Dzogchen, with an applied continuing view of Source as the basis for all relationships and their changes.

Eight Days in the middle of this Advanced Training will be devoted to solo Mountain Retreat to practice John's teachings at a deep level.

Our summer 2010, 16 Day session of John's Advanced Awareness Training will be held in one of North America's most powerful and ancient sacred places: Crestone and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Southern Colorado. This Advanced Training will be open to anyone who has done at least one Sacred Passage with John before, or equivalent nature-based meditation retreat work with another teacher. Both current Advanced Awareness Training Cycles 3 and 4 are encouraged to attend this AAT Summer Retreat.

Five 14,000-foot summits lift above the land here - a dramatic mountain panorama rivaling the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. For deepening our study and training together, this protected land is ideal: lovely groves of aspen and cottonwood line the mountain streams; juniper and pinyon pine meadows wash right up to the mountains. Higher, forests of bristlecone pine, spruce and fir clothe the rugged peaks. Eagles circle above. A large, clear stream flows more than a mile through the private, protected land of Gaia Sanctuary, where we do our solos and Advanced Training.

Native peoples trace back their vision questing and sacred ceremony here for over 15,000 years. An ancient name for this place is "The Corridor of Visions." Virtually all of the Advanced Training is done within the area of the "Sacred Land Trust" (also known locally as "Gaia Sanctuary") just north of Crestone - an area filled with literally 1000's of the Stone Meditation Seats first discovered by John in the early 1980's.

All those who have participated in any previous Sacred Passage or Advanced Awareness Training Retreats are welcome at this Retreat.

$1440 fee
Teacher:
John Milton

Colorado's Celestial Sangre de Cristo Mountains - 11 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Colorado ( 8/27/2010 - 9/06/2010 )
Sacred Passage

Journey to one of North America's most powerful and ancient sacred places, Crestone and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Our alpine skies are vast, clear and spacious. No pollution mars the mountains or our lungs. The Sacred Passage group training and solo sites are very easy to access with a short walk at 8500 feet. Towering above our solo camps are five 14,000-foot summits that lift above the land here - a dramatic mountain panorama rivaling the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Lovely groves of large ponderosas, aspen and cottonwood line the mountain streams; open savannahs of juniper and pinyon pine wash right up to the base of the mountains. Higher up, forests of bristlecone pine, spruce and fir clothe the slopes below the rugged, cliffy peaks. During your Awareness Training and solo you share the land with mule deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, pronghorn antelope and beautiful black fox squirrels. Bird life abounds and Eagles circle above. A large, beautiful stream flows for more than a mile across our private, protected land where we do Sacred Passage. The stream flows crystal clear and provides superb, revitalizing drinking water for all of us.

In the late 1970's, John P. Milton moved to Crestone and was the intitial discoverer of the ancient stone meditation seats that fill the land here. An estimated two thousand such sacred stone meditation seats cluster on the Sacred Land Trust area, the largest aggregation of such sacred sites in the world. Working with Threshold's Sacred Land Trust Project, The Way of Nature is fund-raising to preserve these extraordinary sites in perpetuity. Meanwhile, those of you who choose to do Sacred Passage Awareness Training and Nature Solo here are the beneficiaries; beneficiaries of deep immersion in the Sacred View that is profoundly supported by this amazing land and its stone seats. These special sites have been used for millenia of vision questing, ceremony and prayer. Your pilgrimage here to do Sacred Passage is part of that great lineage of the Land.

Native peoples trace back their vision quests and sacred ceremonies here for over 15,000 years. Our Sacred Land Trust land is also trying to preserve the majority of these ancient and sacred vision quest sites, as well as a large kiva and courtyard complex. As mentioned above, when you do your Sacred Passage here, you join with those who have entered the Sacred Way on this land over many thousands of years. Almost everyone who comes to do a Sacred Passage feels the powerful joy and opening of Spirit that this place offers. Give your good heart to Mother Earth and Great Spirit; receive an incalculable blessing.

$1188 fee
Guide: John P. Milton

Sacred Passage and Workshops and Lectures with John P. Milton in Australia
Pacific Basin ( 11/05/2010 - 11/28/2010 )
Sacred Passage
Tai Chi Training

We are happy to announce our second Sacred Passage in Australia in November 2010. This program is co-hosted with the Way of Nature by Australia's Ensemble Partners and The Way of Nature's Australian Chapter, headed by David Hodes and other Australian leaders (http://www.ensemblepartners.com.au/aus/). John will also be conducting several workshops on T'ai Chi for Liberation, meditation and Qigong. He will also give several public lectures on the Way of Nature while in Australia. For details and exact dates for attending this exciting new Sacred Passage program (scheduled for Nov 5 through 15th) and the other events, contact Gillian or David Hodes and Ensemble Partners by phone at: +61 2 9387 3955 or by the website: www.ensemblepartners.com.au

For an inspiring outline on how Wilderness solos, Awareness Trainings and Sacred Passage-style Vision Quests and Nature Quests can provide Creative Visioning opportunities for leaders and organizational groups see: http://www.ensemblepartners.com.au/aus/index.php/systems-thinking/vision-quest-2009/vision-quest-2009.html

Ensemble's description of our first Australian Sacred passage included:

"As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility program, in April 2009, Ensemble, in conjunction with the Way of Nature Fellowship's Australian chapter was privileged to host John P Milton, who guided a unique and special program known as Sacred Passage. Ensemble invites you to come and join us for the new Nov 2010 Passage, held together with John P. Milton for this very unique occasion."

"John P. Milton is a pioneering ecologist, spiritual teacher, meditation master, vision quest leader and shaman of international note who has led solo nature retreats for international leaders and members of the general public for many years."

"Since the 1950's, John has guided thousands of people into the wilderness, always sharing with them a profound connection with Nature, and a deep commitment to the realization of Source Awareness."

Our second Sacred Passage in Australia will be held from Nov 5 to 15 on beautiful Flinders Island , located between SE Australia and Tasmania. The training will include deep Awareness Training to help individuals and leaders clearly access their source of creativity. This Training will be accompanied by a carefully designed, safe solo journey into nature, modelled in part on the solo journeys of indigenous cultures like the Native American Vision Quest and the Indigenous Australian Walkabout. One unique aspect of our Australian Passage will be the inclusion of creative elements inspired by the continent's ancient aboriginal means for realizing inner truth. As with all our programs, solo journeys into nature modeled after ancient wisdom traditions are a time-tried way to reconnect to nature, reflect upon oneself and access profound levels of creative insight.

For costs and other details, call: +61 2 9387 3955 or online at: http://www.ensemblepartners.com.au/aus/

Baja California's Wild Pacific Coast - 12 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Mexico ( 1/13/2011 - 1/24/2011 )
Sacred Passage

Immerse yourself in a sacred journey to Baja California's wild, beautiful Pacific Coast. We will also spend time in the lovely historic town of Todos Santos, the "Santa Fe" of Baja California. Our Nature and Source Awareness Training is based at our lovely La Via Natural Retreat Center near Todos Santos. The town is set in the middle of a natural oasis of tropical gardens with palms, mangos, papayas, bananas and citrus - these local gardens provide us with our own fresh fruit and local food during John's Training before and after the coastal wilderness solos. This
prrogram's Nature and Awareness Training will share extensive teachings on John's universal 12 Principles for Natural Liberation: a direct path to enlightenment that honors the essence of all the world’s great liberating traditions. They will also teach on Shamanic, Taoist and Dzogchen practices that open profound connections to Source Awareness, Nature and the Elements. The integrated solo time allows for a great deepening of these practices and is heart-opening and soul-enlivening

For those who would like the option of staying in nearby Todos Santos during the Awareness Training part of the Retreat, we can help you with local accomodations in our three recommended facilities; Hacienda Todos Los Santos Guest House Inn, or The Todos Santos inn - both beautiful and elegantly appointed accomodations in the heart of Todos Santos near our La Via Natural Retreat Center. A clean, charming more budget-minded option also centrally-located is Hotel Maria Bonita. For those desiring to camp, our beautiful campground at La Via Natural is available at no additional cost for the Sacred Passage Retreat. We have showers and a lovely private campground shaded by palm trees. La Via Natural is only a 5 minute easy walk to town and many fine local restaurants. The beach is an easy 15 minute walk from our retreat center.

Your solo is on a secluded beach, often in a beautiful cove enclosed by hills, bluffs and mountains. Most people are visited by friendly whales and dolphins during their solo. Bird life abounds, and a powerful ocean inspires communion with the depth of your Being. Watching the sunsets from these secluded beaches is incredible. From each solo site, clear skies stretch out over the vastness of the Pacific Ocean - opening your Heart and merging your Spirit with sky and ocean's spaciousness and light.

Your Nature and Awareness Training before and after the solo is deep and soul-enlivening. This Training will share extensive teachings on John's universal 12 Principles for Natural Liberation: a direct path to enlightenment that honors the essence of all the world’s great liberating traditions. He will also teach extensively on Shamanic, Taoist and Dzogchen practices that open profound connections to Source Awareness, Nature and the Elements.

$1350 fee.
Guides:
John P. Milton

Baja California's Wild Pacific Coast - 12 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Mexico ( 2/10/2011 - 2/21/2011 )
Sacred Passage

Immerse yourself in a sacred journey to Baja California's wild, beautiful Pacific Coast. We will also spend time in the lovely historic town of Todos Santos, the "Santa Fe" of Baja California. Our Nature and Source Awareness Training is based at a our lovely La Via Natural Retreat Center near Todos Santos. The town is set in the middle of a natural oasis of tropical gardens with palms, mangos, papayas, bananas and citrus - these local gardens provide us with our own fresh fruit and local food during John's Training before and after the coastal wilderness solos.

For those who would like the option of staying in nearby Todos Santos during the Awareness Training part of the Retreat, we can help you with local accommodations in our three recommended facilities; Hacienda Todos Los Santos Guest House Inn, or The Todos Santos inn - both beautiful and elegantly appointed accomodations in the heart of Todos Santos near our La Via Natural Retreat Center. A clean, charming more budget-minded option also centrally-located is Hotel Maria Bonita. For those desiring to camp, our beautiful campground at La Via Natural is available at no additional cost for the Sacred Passage Retreat. We have showers, simple cooking facilities, and a lovely private campground shaded by palm trees. La Via Natural is only a 5 minute easy walk to town and many fine local restaurants. The beach is an easy 15 minute walk from our retreat center.

Your solo is on a secluded beach, often in a beautiful cove enclosed by hills, bluffs and mountains. Most people are visited by friendly whales and dolphins during their solo. Bird life abounds, and a powerful ocean inspires communion with the depth of your Being. Watching the sunsets from these secluded beaches is incredible. From each solo site, clear skies stretch out over the vastness of the Pacific Ocean - opening your Heart and merging your Spirit with sky and ocean's spaciousness and light.

Your Nature and Awareness Training with John P. Milton before and after the solo is deep and soul-enlivening. John will share extensive teachings on his universal 12 Principles for Natural Liberation: a direct path to enlightenment that honors the essence of all the world’s great liberating traditions. He will also teach extensively on Shamanic, Taoist and Dzogchen practices that open profound connections to Source Awareness, Nature and the Elements.

$1350 fee.
Guide & Teacher: John P. Milton

Whale Encounter Pilgrimage, Magdalena Bay, Baja California - 5 Days
Mexico ( 2/23/2011 - 2/27/2011 )
International Pilgrimages

Over the years, many on Sacred Passage in Baja California have experienced the wonderful presence of gray whales passing their solo sites. This year we honor these amazing beings with a special five-day guided trip to Magdalena Bay. In the warm and protected waters of Magdalena Bay, gray whale calves remain in close contact with their mothers while they grow large enough to migrate north. A surreal landscape of huge sand dunes and desert mountains surrounds this whale nursery, providing a dramatic backdrop as we witness these wise beings roll in the sea, spyhop, and tend to their young. Huge numbers of migratory birds, and dolphins also congregate here. Magdalena Bay is ranked by the World Wildlife Fund as one of the nine most important coastal habitats in all of Mexico.

We will enjoy a guided bay tour in small skiffs with many chances for an unforgettable close encounter with magnificent gray whales. It is not unusual for the whales to come quite close to the boats. We will also paddle kayaks through mangrove estuaries rich with wildlife, and explore towering sand dunes along miles of unspoiled beaches.

Our comfortable base camp is situated on a secluded beach, and the trip price includes all base camp food and cooking, camp set-up, walk-in tents with sleeping cots and sleeping bags, camping showers, and helpful naturalist guides.

Evening guide-led talks about the whales and wildlife of the area will broaden our perspective.

Transportation from Todos Santos or La Paz by van is included in the trip price.

Cost: $1250.00

Guides: John P. Milton & Brad Kahland

Moab and Canyonlands, Utah - 9 Day Awareness Training, Meditation Retreat & NatureQuest Solo
Arches and Canyonlands-SW USA ( 3/12/2011 - 3/20/2011 )
Sacred Passage

This 9 Day Awareness Training, Naturequest Solo and Meditation Retreat will bring our AAT Community together in one of the world's most beautiful and spectacular natural areas .

Beautiful red, white and orange slickrock canyons, waterfalls, extraordinary rock arches and other stone formations create one of our favorite places to enter the Sacred Way. You experience a land that evokes visions of dinosaurs and ancient beings, whose shapes are echoed in the formations of the canyons. Explore the numinous qualities and distinctive energies hidden within the radiant red rock canyons, pristine waterfalls, exquisite natural arches and stone spires of this spectacular region.

Part of this retreat will build on the Dzogchen transmissions John has provided in earlier Retreats. He will emphasize teachings from the great Dzogchen master, Longchenpa. This teaching holds some of the purest teachings of the Way of Natural Perfection. John will also teach on a series of Dzogchen practices to clear, open and empower our right, left and central channels. Half our teaching time will be devoted to both of these extraordinary Dzogchen Teachings.

The retreat will also emphasize some of John's teachings on Taoist Internal Alchemy. He will select from some of the following: Opening the Micro and Macrocosmic Orbit Circulations, Fusion Practice, and a new series of Qi (Chi) Energy Cultivation practices that help with the conversion from Jing to Qi, from Qi to Shen (Spirit) and from Shen to Wuji. Overall, the Advanced Awareness Training emphasis in 2008 and 2009 will include a significant emphasis on cultivating Internal Energy through a series of esoteric yet very practical both Taoist and Dzogchen techniques.

Daily T'ai Chi for Enlightenment training on form will also be included. Also, daily "Sensing Hands/Push hands' practice will be taught. John will also teach on the linkages between these Taoist practices and Tibetan Buddhist, Bon, Native American, and Dzogchen teachings and practices.

We will also go deeper with Teachings on GaiaFlow, and refining how the principles of T'ai Chi and Qi Gong Training apply to deepening GaiaFlow practice. John will also share his series of dyadic (two-person) practices that he designed to realize Source in each other, as well as in Oneself, in close relationship. This series of practices could be described as interpersonal Dzogchen, with an applied continuing view of Source as the basis for all relationships and their changes.

There will be four days of wilderness solo to cultivate these advanced practices during this retreat. The whole focus is on the teachings and the chance for individual meditation retreat practice in the solitude of the wilderness.

All are welcome to attend this retreat.

This Retreat will embrace the vast spaces and natural luminosity of Utah's Canyon Country. The land and John's unique training will integrate to support the special practices he will be teaching - an inner cultivation that will help us to recognize our Primordial Awareness that underlies all Being.

$999 fee.
Teacher: John P. Milton

Canyonlands River Journey, Utah - 12 Day Advanced Awareness Training Retreat
Arches and Canyonlands-SW USA ( 4/28/2011 - 5/09/2011 )
Advanced Awareness Training

This AAT is open to anyone who has done at least one previous Sacred Passage with John, or equivalent nature-communion and liberation-oriented meditation retreat work with other qualified teachers. Teachings will focus on the elements of water, fire, stone (metal), earth, and space. We are excited to offer for the first time, a spectacular river pilgrimage integrated with our Advanced Awareness Training Process. This river is one of the major tributaries of the Grand Canyon. The journey is outfitted with river rafts, and the river rating is beginner to intermediate with full instruction and support for beginners. John, who has run the entire Grand Canyon in a life vest and rowboat, will be assisted by river guides, including Brad Kahland, who has rafted this section of river several times. We will balance on-water time with time in beach camps for teachings and fellowship. The middle of the training will include a 4-night red rock canyon solo to cultivate and ground the teachings. Space is limited for this exceptional journey, and advance reservation of rafting equipment is required, so please register by March 15.

On this sacred pilgrimage we will include ceremony, practice and meditation. We will also learn spiritual and energy practices from a wide variety of sources during our extraordinary journey.

During this retreat, John will emphasize the mutual exploration of shamanic energy and spirit/soul cultivation techniques from both the Bonpo Shamanic practices of working with the elements from Tibet and the Taoist traditions of China - particularly emphasizing Qigong and T'ai Chi. The integrated exploration of these three mountain shamanic paths should be a unique, remarkable process.

More details on this superb pilgrimage will be forthcoming later in 2010.

Fee: To be announced
Logistics Coordinator: Brad Kahland
Guide and Teacher:

John P. Milton

Mt. Kailas Sacred Pilgrimage and Kora - 30 Day Tibet Pilgrimage
Asia ( 6/04/2011 - 7/03/2011 )
International Pilgrimages

John's description of this extraordinary expedition style retreat is as follows: "Our pilgrimage is to one of the most sacred mountains in the world, Mt. Kailas in Southwestern Tibet. This is THE Sacred Mountain to the Tibetan Bon, Tibetan Buddhists and Hindu Tantrikas. Our circumambulation (kora) around Mt. Kailas includes a pass well over 18,000 feet. This trekking part of the pilgrimage is rigorous, and only those who have conditioned themselves thoroughly beforehand should consider coming.

One very unique aspect of our Kora will be making a series of solo meditation retreat and vision quest camps to each of the four directions, as we do our walking pilgrimage around Kailas. If we have the time, and everyone's health holds up, I plan one to three nights of solo mountain retreat (vision quest) at each of the four direction stations to the south, the west, the north and the east. We will probably be the first contemporary Westerners to do this style of deep retreat at Kailas.

If possible, all those considering joining us should be of very good health and spend at least several weeks to a month at an elevation of 11,000 feet or above immediately before the pilrimage to help prepare for the thin air of the Tibetan Plateau.

Although difficult and demanding, this 30 day journey promises a profound immersion in the deepest levels of Source. The teachings given during the pilgrimage will support this extraordinary opportunity for recognition of our fundamental True Nature."

Although this program is open to all who have prepared well internally and externally, a number of John's senior Advanced Awareness Training students will also be joining in this powerful pilgrimage.

Cost: To be announced
Teacher:
John P. Milton

Sami Traditional Reindeer Mountains, near Are, Sweden - Special Advanced Awareness Training in one of Europe's Last Wildernesses
Europe ( 6/04/2011 - 6/12/2011 )
Advanced Awareness Training
GaiaFlow
Intermediate Awareness Training
International Pilgrimages
NatureQuest
Sacred Passage

Co-sponsored with The Way of Nature by Goran Gennvi and Sweden's Naturakademin, this special Nature Retreat is designed to provide an Advanced Awareness Training accessible to Africans, Asians and Europeans. This is the first in a series of special Advanced Training Retreats planned abroad over the next several years. We are also blessed by the support of Reidar Nordfjall, Kerstin Angantyr and the Great Sami People who have generously provided their wild traditional Sami Reindeer Range for part of our training and solo retreats.

This powerful awareness Training will explore a variety of ways to deepen the experience of Unity with all life.

Building on the Pathfinder's pioneering training, John P. Milton will teach a variety of principles and practices that lead to the direct experience of inner and outer Nature as Sacred. Many of these practices are rarely taught in modern society, so this Training provides a unique opportunity to learn them. They provide all who learn them with powerful "keys" to open the Heart and experience oneness with Nature. They also ground the experience of recognizing pure Source Awareness as the ultimate foundation of all perceptions and all of Nature, both inner and outer.

As Pathfinders, we will learn the GaiaFlow Sacred Movement system as a means for experiencing communion with all life through Nature-connected, flowing postures. We will also learn how to develop Natural Mandala Awareness through a deep exploration of relaxation techniques, presencing and the refinement of sensing exercises. Visualization practices and Ceremonies to honor The Sacred Circle (Sphere) will also aid us as Pathfinders. We will go deep into dyadic (two-person) exercises (both moving and stationary) to dissolve the usual personal barriers to non-dual awareness. Lastly, we will cultivate profound ways to safely purify, refine, amplify and store universal energy. In The Way of Nature we follow three interconnected Pathways to Unity and Liberation: the Pathway of Universal Energy, the Pathway of the Open Heart and the Pathway of Awareness. The spontaneous unification of these three Pathways leads to full Liberation. This Advanced Awareness Training will cultivate all three Pathways at a deep level.

One of the goals of this training is to deepen the process of "Pathfinding," and to help support the training and certification of new guides in the global growth of Nature Quests, Sacred Passages, Rites of Passage and Vision Quests.

For more information and to register contact Goran Gennvi:
Telephone: +46 8 716 3677
email: gennvi@naturakademin.se

Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Colorado, Gaia Sanctuary - 9 Day Advanced Awareness Training - Open to All of John's Students
Colorado ( 7/30/2011 - 8/07/2011 )
Advanced Awareness Training

Our summer 2011, 9 Day session of John's Advanced Awareness Training will be held in one of North America's most powerful and ancient sacred places: Crestone and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Southern Colorado. This Advanced Training will be open to anyone who has done at least one Sacred Passage with John before, or equivalent nature-based meditation retreat work with another teacher. Both current Advanced Awareness Training Cycles 3 and 4 are encouraged to attend this AAT Summer Retreat.

Five 14,000-foot summits lift above the land here - a dramatic mountain panorama rivaling the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. For deepening our study and training together, this protected land is ideal: lovely groves of aspen and cottonwood line the mountain streams; juniper and pinyon pine meadows wash right up to the mountains. Higher, forests of bristlecone pine, spruce and fir clothe the rugged peaks. Eagles circle above. A large, clear stream flows more than a mile through the private, protected land of Gaia Sanctuary, where we do our solos and Advanced Training.

Native peoples trace back their vision questing and sacred ceremony here for over 15,000 years. An ancient name for this place is "The Corridor of Visions." Virtually all of the Advanced Training is done within the area of the "Sacred Land Trust" (also known locally as "Gaia Sanctuary") just north of Crestone - an area filled with literally 1000's of the Stone Meditation Seats first discovered by John in the early 1980's.

This summer we will emphasize:
* Learning highly developed shamanic dreaming practices;
* A unique form of North American Geomancy based on the ancient meditation seats and "power places" of the Crestone area; we will also learn how to cultivate universal energy and spiritual insight with the support of these extraordinary sacred sites:
* Superior Taoist energy cultivation and inner alchemy practices for physical longevity and spiritual realization;
* Advanced meditation practices from Dzogchen, Taoism and Vedanta to realize Primordial Awareness, the unchanging Natural State that is the very root of our Being.

$999 fee.
Teacher: John P. Milton

Colorado's Celestial Sangre de Cristo Mountains - 11 Day Sacred Passage Quest Retreat
Colorado ( 8/25/2011 - 9/06/2011 )
Sacred Passage

Journey to one of North America's most powerful and ancient sacred places, Crestone and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Our alpine skies are vast, clear and spacious. No pollution mars the mountains or our lungs. The Sacred Passage group training and solo sites are very easy to access with a short walk at 8500 feet. Towering above our solo camps are five 14,000-foot summits that lift above the land here - a dramatic mountain panorama rivaling the Grand Tetons in Wyoming. Lovely groves of large ponderosas, aspen and cottonwood line the mountain streams; open savannahs of juniper and pinyon pine wash right up to the base of the mountains. Higher up, forests of bristlecone pine, spruce and fir clothe the slopes below the rugged, cliffy peaks. During your Awareness Training and solo you share the land with mule deer, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, pronghorn antelope and beautiful black fox squirrels. Bird life abounds and Eagles circle above. A large, beautiful stream flows for more than a mile across our private, protected land where we do Sacred Passage. The stream flows crystal clear and provides superb, revitalizing drinking water for all of us.

In the late 1970's, John P. Milton moved to Crestone and was the intitial discoverer of the ancient stone meditation seats that fill the land here. An estimated two thousand such sacred stone meditation seats cluster on the Sacred Land Trust area, the largest aggregation of such sacred sites in the world. Working with Threshold's Sacred Land Trust Project, The Way of Nature is fund-raising to preserve these extraordinary sites in perpetuity. Meanwhile, those of you who choose to do Sacred Passage Awareness Training and Nature Solo here are the beneficiaries; beneficiaries of deep immersion in the Sacred View that is profoundly supported by this amazing land and its stone seats. These special sites have been used for millenia of vision questing, ceremony and prayer. Your pilgrimage here to do Sacred Passage is part of that great lineage of the Land.

Native peoples trace back their vision quests and sacred ceremonies here for over 15,000 years. Our Sacred Land Trust land is also trying to preserve the majority of these ancient and sacred vision quest sites, as well as a large kiva and courtyard complex. As mentioned above, when you do your Sacred Passage here, you join with those who have entered the Sacred Way on this land over many thousands of years. Almost everyone who comes to do a Sacred Passage feels the powerful joy and opening of Spirit that this place offers. Give your good heart to Mother Earth and Great Spirit; receive an incalculable blessing..

$1188 fee.
Guide: John P. Milton

Vermont Fall Colors Nature Quest - 9 Day NatureQuest Training Retreat & Nature Solo
Eastern North America ( 10/01/2011 - 10/10/2011 )
NatureQuest

Join our special Vermont Fall Colors Nature Quest Program. This exceptional 9 Day Nature Quest is held at the peak of fall color in northern Vermont. The solos will be held in spectacular solo camp sites in a beautiful wilderness area; the sites are far enough apart to assure privacy, but close enough together to assure mutual support and community if needed. The NatureQuest Training will be held nearby at Jan Bodendorf's lovely farm near Hardwick, just west of St. Johnsbury.

Our Nature Quest Programs are designed to allow a deep Nature Retreat experience, while still keeping the time away from home limited to a single work week and the weekends on either side. The program begins with a full travel/arrival day on saturday October 3 and finishes sunday morning, so that people can return home by sunday evening. The NatureQuest Training Retreat covers four days, two days before the solo and two days after. The Nature Quest Solo lies in the middle, with the solo starting late monday afternoon and finishing early friday morning.

The NatureQuest Training will include a comprehensive training in John's unique '12 Principles for Natural Liberation." This Training includes sharing a range of practices that support the opening of these principles in your body, heart, mind and soul. The Nature Quest solo time is a time to enjoy and celebrate the beauty of the Fall with all of life. The Training's creative principles and practices help you go deep with this profound immersion in inner and outer Nature.

$888 fee
Guide & Teacher: John P. Milton

Sikkim Pilgrimage - 16 Day Advanced Awareness Training Retreat (Cycles 3 & 4)
Asia ( 10/22/2011 - 11/06/2011 )
Advanced Awareness Training
International Pilgrimages

This sacred journey to Sikkim will emphasize the study and cultivation of Tibet's Dzogchen Teachings - one of the most profound paths to full Liberation available on Earth. Our practice will be integrated with pilgrimage to many sites sacred to Dzogchen practitioners, both Bonpo, Kagyu and Nyingma. Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava) and Yeshe Tsogyal spent much time here, and considered Sikkim to be one of the most important sacred "Hidden Lands." During our last Advanced Awareness Training Retreat here in the Spring of 2007, we completed pilgrimage many of his sacred caves, mountains, lakes, rivers and valleys to do deep practice. We will continue this sacred tradition on this extraordinary 2009 pilgrimage and Advanced Training with John. The retreat will be open to all who have completed at least one of his Advanced Trainings on realization of Source.

Sikkim is gifted with one of the world's greatest sacred mountains, Kanchenjunga. This spectacular, massive mountain is over 28,000 feet high. Its name translates as "Five treasuries of the Great Snow." Many have tried to capture its presence in words, for example, here is a quote from the book Everest, The Challenge: "Kanchenjunga is the very queen of mountains. The view of it from Darjeeling is the finest in the world. No other can compete with it." In an experience from his last solo mountain retreat with Kanchenjunga, John Milton noted: "this great sacred peak lifts One's eyes into the vastness of the sky, where form itself dissolves into rainbows..."

This year of our Advanced Awareness Training will be focusing on powerful methods to recognize Primordial Source Awareness, in preparation for our 44 Day Solo Retreat in the summer of 2010. The openness, spaciousness and clarity of sky, combined with the powerful spiritual presence of Kanchenjunga and the Himalayan Mountains will be a tremendous support to our practice here.

$1440 fee for contributions to Fellowship expenses & John's Teachings. (meals, housing & transport to be organized by AAT sangha)
Teacher: John P. Milton

Sacred Island of Bali - 10 Day Advanced Awareness Training & Pilgrimage (Open to all)
Asia ( 11/08/2011 - 11/18/2011 )
Advanced Awareness Training
GaiaFlow
Intermediate Awareness Training
International Pilgrimages
NatureQuest
Sacred Passage

Join us on a 10 day Advanced Awareness Training and Pilgrimage to magical, sacred Bali. Our teacher and guide, John Milton, has led pilgrimage and done spiritual practice here over many years. The extraordinarily friendly people of this amazing Hindu island culture have preserved one of Southeast Asia's most deeply spiritual ways of life. We will immerse ourselves deeply in Bali's ceremonies, sacred temples and incredibly beautiful landscapes. Our Balinese friends will share their secrets to opening a life of harmony, ceremony, beauty and sacredness in every step.

In addition, John will teach his carefully-developed system of Qi Gong for health, for revitalization, for building powerful life force and for spiritual development. Qi Gong, which is a major foundation of Chinese health care, is easy to learn, safe for all ages, and fun to practice. John will also teach on Taoist Internal Alchemy - a spectrum of powerful practices for spiritual illumination at the heart of the Taoist Path. Additional teachings on Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu will complement the strong immersion in Taoist cultivation at this retreat. John will also share meditations from his extensive background training in the meditation practices of many traditions. With John's 12 Principles for Spiritual Cultivation as our guide, each day we will devote at least three hours to learning and cultivating complementary forms of Qi Gong, Advanced Taoist Yoga, Dzogchen, Tantra and practices from other meditation systems.

Devotional cultivation of the path to the Divine Feminine will be an important part of our Bali Retreat. This will focus on honoring of Kali, Durga and Bagalama through ceremony, prayer, mantra and meditation as part of our deep exploration and cultivation of the Divine Feminine.

John is keeping this pilgrimage-based Advanced Retreat open to those new students who are either joining the Advanced Awareness training for the first time, to students who have done training or Passages with John before, and to those wanting to experience deep Pilgrimage on this extraordinarily sacred island.

With the help of the rich tradition of spiritual teachers from Bali, we will also delve deeply into the ceremonies, practices and modes of spiritual cultivation of the remarkable Balinese People. In particular, we will discover the Balinese mastery of bringing the Sacred View into every aspect of everyday life - and explore how to create this spiritual harmony in our own lives, wherever we are.

$999 Fee for John's Teaching
(meals, housing & land transport costs shared upon request)
teacher: John P. Milton

Sacred Earth Conference - Historical Calender Document
Colorado ( 5/19/2012 - 5/21/2012 )
Workshops and Custom Retreats

THIS HISTORICAL DOCUMENT IS INCLUDED HERE FOR THOSE INTERESTED IN OUR MAY 2008 SACRED EARTH CONFERENCE - WE HOPE TO HOLD ADDITIONAL GATHERINGS OF THE SACRED EARTH CONFERENCE IN THE FUTURE.

This Inaugural Gathering in Crestone, Colorado is sponsored by our Way of Nature Fellowship, Crestone-A Sacred Earth Journal, Native American Research and Preservation, Inc. and Manitou Institute as well as Floracopea and Native Landscape Solutions. The Conference will be held at the main auditorium, Colorado College Campus in Crestone. Beginning monday morning (May 19) at 8 am, this unique three day gathering will include a special concert presentation by Paul Winter and members of his Consort of their new, 2008 Grammy-Award winning album: "Crestone." The Conference will unfold over the three days (ending after an evening presentation on shamanic sound healing by John P. Milton on wednesday, May 21) in Crestone and will focus on how to identify, commune with, and preserve our Planet's Sacred Lands. We will explore how differing cultures have each found ways to relate to the Earth as Sacred. Our Gathering will give special focus on Sacred Places and Sacred Sites in Nature. Particular emphasis at this initial sacred Earth Conference will be on the Sacred Sites of the upper Rio Grande BioRegion. At future conferences, we hope to host similar gatherings focussing on other critical bioregions of this Sacred Earth. In this spirit, we are fortunate to have Martin Gray, who will present a showing of his extraordinary visual journey through the world's sacred places.

Other presenters include: Hanne Strong's overview of the planet-wide status of sacred lands, Maria Valdez Mondragon on the sacred view of the Earth within the Hispanic Community of the Upper Rio Grande BioRegion, Lorain-Fox Davis' Native American prayers and ceremonies, Nick Standing Bear's presentation on protecting sacred sites - particularly in the Upper Rio Grande area, Peter May's sharing on home rule as a powerful way to protect sacred lands, Earth Café sessions led by Paul Shippee on how to protect the Earth as Sacred, Margaret and Ernie Wilkinson's views on grassroots education in wild Nature as a means to protect wild sacred land, and Kenny Frye's presentation on Rock Art in the San Luis Valley. We will also have presentations by Leigh Ann Phillips, Susan Pierce, Zita Xavier, Mike Snovak, Naomi Lake, Peter May, John P. Milton and David Crow - who will share on ways to work with meditation, energy cultivation, prayer, sacred sound, ceremony, natural oils and flower essences to deepen communion with the sacredness of Mother Earth. We will also be inviting contributions of ways of prayer, ceremony, and meditation to commune with Nature's sacredness from the Native American, Christian, Hindu, Tibetan Buddhist, Tibetan Bon, Taoist and Way of Nature interfaith traditions.

John P. Milton will present on The Way of Nature's approaches to meditating and cultivating universal energy with Nature as partner, teacher and Loving Mother. The role of our local Sacred Land Trust initiative will be shared as a powerful model for communities elsewhere to safeguard and honor local sacred lands as community "churches, temples and synagogues of the Earth." John will also give a presentation on his discoveries of stone meditation seats from around the world, and reveal their role in bring humanity back into greater harmony, balance and spiritual communion with Gaia and local BioRegions

The registration fee is $50 for each day of attendance.

Macchu Picchu and Sacred Peru & Bolivia
South America ( 3/16/2013 - 3/31/2013 )
International Pilgrimages

This 16 day special retreat will be The Way of Nature's first Pilgrimage to Macchu Picchu and some of the great Sacred Mountains, Valleys and cultures of the Andes Mountains. John was an early explorer (1965) of the wild canyons mountains surrounding Macchu Picchu and its downstream territory. He also did one of the earliest National Park Plans for Machu Picchu. He was the first western explorer of the upper Cutibereni Watershed and an extremely remote part of the Vilcababamba Range. His expedition also revealed the discovery of some of the world's highest waterfalls. (John was also also an early explorer of the river systems of east-central Peru, traversing the core of the Peruvian Andes by on foot and by river. He explored most of the Cutibereni, Apurimac, Ene, Tambo and Ucayali Rivers on a small balsawood raft he tied together with jungle vines with three local Native American friends from the Campa tribe).

On this sacred pilgrimage we will include ceremony, practice and meditation at some of the Andes' most sacred sites and mountains. We will also learn Andean spiritual and energy practices from indigenous Quechua and Aymara Shamans during our extraordinary journey.

During this retreat, John will emphasize the mutual exploration of shamanic energy and spirit/soul cultivation techniques from both the shamans of the high Andes, the Bonpo Shamanic practices of working with the elements from Tibet and the Taoist traditions of China - particularly emphasizing Qigong and T'ai Chi. The integrated exploration of these three mountain shamanic paths should be a unique, remarkable process.

More details on this superb pilgrimage will be forthcoming later in 2013.

Fee: To be announced
Guide and Teacher:

John P. Milton