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

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) Mahamudra & Dzogchen - Practical applications for recognition of the Natural State during this retreat's 8 Day solo; an emphasis on how to stabilize this recognition in everyday life.

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

3) GaiaFlow, levels One and Two

4) Working with Pan, The Nature Spirits, Devas and the Elements, Part 2 (the first part was taught at this year's Spring Retreat in the Chiricahua Mountains).

5) Advanced Two-person Dyadic Practices to help simltaneous recognition of Source Awareness in Oneself and One's Partner.

6) an interfaith immersion in the devotional paths of the Goddess, emphasizing Kali, Durga, Tara and Bagala Ma.

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 Dzogchen, Mahamudra, Taoist, Hindu Tantric and Western Shamanic 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

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

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

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