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

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

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

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

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