David Deida

The Sexual Body and the Yoga of Light:
A Weekend Workshop with David Deida, San Diego, November 6, 7, 8, 2009

Join David right on the beach at the luxurious Rancho Bernardo Inn Resort and Spa for this breakthrough weekend.

During the weekend, you will…

• Discover how to use the body as a vehicle for ecstatic dissolution;
• Understand why our deepest sexual gifts are often capped by our most intense resistance, and how to relax through blocks in our sexual artistry;
• Follow the course from scary neediness, through safe independence, into the oneness of perfect trust in devotional love;
• Find out how to turn hang-ups into playful gifts of loving humor in the midst of erotic embrace;
• Comprehend why honest and respectful communication can be very different from passionate and heart-awakening sex talk; and
• Learn breathing techniques to increase, decrease, and circulate sexual love-energy.

What many people don’t know is that every Weekend Workshop is unique and unpredictable. There is no “rote” program. Quite the opposite! In fact, the work in the room grows specifically from your interaction with David. To get a flavor of what happens inside the Workshop, here are a few voices from last year’s participants…

“David is hilarious — and a genius on stage. Awesome!”

“This was amazing — a chance to experience the vitality of David’s presence. I knew it would be great but the opportunity for direct learning from David Deida via people asking questions and David directly coaching them was extraordinary!”

“Being with David in person was amazing. His physicality brings tremendous depth to the lessons and practice and meaning of his words!”

“I loved the partner exercise where we stared into each others eyes and spoke about our desire for one another. I SAW the light, quite literally, in the man opposite me!”

“As a woman, I learned how to embody the divine feminine and move in and out of 3rd stage with grace and beauty. This intensive is the way to enlightenment for anyone…”

“How much more powerful David’s work is in person vs. on the page! It was simply PROFOUND!

Please come to the Workshop with your most pressing questions and challenges. Among the many avenues David will explore with you

• Why is feminine energy extremely attractive yet mistrusted by both men and women?
• Why do many men resist marriage even when they are totally in love?
• Why are the five biggest turn-ons for women different than those for men?
• Why is the word “surrender” so offensive to some people and so erotic to others?
• What are the spiritual prerequisites for experiencing the ultimate sexual embrace?
• What must you risk in order to experience deep sexual union and emotional communion?
• Why is it impossible to grow spiritually without embracing our darkest impulses?

“What a weekend! These were life-altering views to transform heart, sex, love and being em-body-ment. Beyond words!”

“I would tell anybody that this weekend would teach you how to live your life with purpose, be true to your mission on earth and to love completely.”

SCHEDULE:

The Workshop begins 7 PM sharp on Friday, November 6. We will finish Friday night’s session at 10 PM. Saturday and Sunday’s session will go from 10 AM till 10 PM with breaks. David will sometimes go beyond 10 PM but no one is required to stay past 10.

LOCATION:

Rancho Bernardo Inn Resort and Spa, with its rural setting, gardens, legendary spa will provide a unique, powerful and relaxing environment for the Weekend. We have arranged a large block of discount rooms for participants, but they are not unlimited. Please reserve your room early. As a service to you, we also create a message board if you would like to share a room with another participant.

NOTE: This Weekend Workshop is open to singles and couples of any sexual orientation. Participants should be prepared for explicit use of language and intensive experiential practice. Actual sex and nudity are not involved.

David Deida

Aligning with Love: The Yoga of Sex, Wealth, and Worship
A Weekend Workshop With David Deida, Miami, October 2, 3, 4, 2009

The Sexual Body and the Yoga of Light:
A Weekend Workshop with David Deida, San Diego, November 6, 7, 8, 2009

The Sexual Body and the Yoga of Light:
A 7-Day Training Intensive with David Deida in San Diego, November 6-13, 2009

This 7-Day Intensive is David Deida’s advanced training for men and women ready to illuminate the unseen depths and shadows of their being. Practitioners from all over the world gather with Deida for an unparalleled opportunity to explore every nook and cranny of their psyche and desire. Journeying solo, partnered, and in groups, virtually no stone is left unturned in seven days and nights of investigation, insight, and celebration.

In this 7-Day training we go far beyond the weekend and dive deeply into advanced practices that enhance our heart’s depth and presence, turning lovemaking into whole-body prayer and true spiritual communion as we learn how to create and sustain the authentic yoga of intimacy throughout the days and nights of our years.

What are you really here to do–professionally, intimately, artistically–and how committed are you to doing and living it? To get there, Deida teaches, we need to surrender to the boundless self that we truly are and learn to live in the unbearable pleasure and vulnerability of that exquisite state of openness. And most of us require a dedicated practice, a living yoga, in order to sustain this.

During this training, we engage in practices that focus on where we are most contracted, and “for a lot of people that means sexuality, life-purpose, and intimacy,” says Deida. We spend our time deepening and fine-tuning personal practices, both in and out of the classroom, using traditional means such as breathwork, meditation, yoga, and dance, as well as the custom-designed personal practices for which David Deida is so widely hailed. Working in groups, with partners, and individually, we learn to:

* identify our unique gifts and give them more fully;
* learn when to respect boundaries and when to press through them;
* ease beyond fear into ecstatic surrender;
* open out in connection when all we want to do is close down;
* employ ecstasy to heal past wounds and melt open beyond the self;
* offer our deepest presence and love;
* skillfully navigate the differences between men’s and women’s internal sexual circuitry;
* discover how to access the freedom of consciousness and humor amidst anger, lust, and jealousy;
* design a deeply personal spiritual life; and
* create a daily sexual yoga practice, solo and in partnership, that will continue to grow along with the depth of our heart’s desire to turn our entire life into an artful, whole-body offering of love.

Whereas “healing old wounds” is most fruitful amidst patience and firm boundaries, the yoga of transformation that Deida teaches involves carefully stretching to play at your vulnerable edge and just beyond, including your limits and gifts of body, mind, and emotion. Just as you are, sourced in loving awareness, no subject is taboo. All fixations and unique twists of character are welcomed with compassion and humor. Every struggle and life situation is workable in this teaching. Together with an international gathering of men and women dedicated to authentic spiritual practice, you will have the opportunity to go as deep as you choose:

* explore all of your real desires, dark and light, in a compassionate and skillful setting;
* learn how to create a spiritual portal through the sexual act;
* determine when to heal restfully and when to leap beyond being frozen in terror;
* learn the artful use of natural substances, sex, music, and nature to enliven the creative matrix of your life’s offering;
* investigate your taboos and learn how to offer love’s gift in moments of resistance and closure;
* understand the powerful sexual dynamics of money;
* discover the difference between emotional neediness and devotional yearning;
* illuminate the “cult” blueprint often hidden in teacher/student and lover/beloved intimacies;
* develop your capacity for sustaining radical relationship through heartbreak and comfort;
* uncover your deepest purpose and learn why you haven’t yet fully offered yourself;
* familiarize yourself with the basics of straight and gay sexual yoga (and everything in between); and
* cultivate the true yoga of light, bringing authentic presence and bright love to the places in your life and relationships that many are hesitant to illuminate

Participants should be prepared for explicit use of language and intensive experiential practice. Actual sex and nudity are not involved in this training. Precise rules of relating between all participants creates a safe space for magnifying love’s free flow throughout the training. This 7-Day Intensive and the Weekend Workshop are open to singles and couples of any sexual orientation, with a strong emphasis on personal instruction and one-to-one feedback and refinement. Enrollment in this training is by application only.

Lessons learned from the past year

I just turned 34! If we were in China, I would probably have to treat you all to a nice dinner. For that reason I’m glad I grew up with two cultures so I can pick and choose the best of both worlds! That being said, giving is an important practice. Giving is how we express our heart. So today, my birthday gift to all of you is the important lessons I learned from the past year. Some come from personal experiences and others are nuggets of wisdom or sparks of inspiration I thought I’d share. Enjoy.

Go out and get some sun.
Go for a walk in the sun. Go hiking and enjoy nature. I did a lot of that this past year and it’s done wonders for me. It has helped me get back on track with what’s important in my life. It has given me time to reflect and think. Nature is a wonderful teacher and a constant inspiration.

The long term benefits of sunshine are many. First and foremost, you will feel happier and more alive. You will be more active. You’ll look sexier with a tan. It’ll help you stay fit. And your body needs the sun to make vitamin D. The amount of Vitamin D you get from food sources alone is not enough. Depending on the vitamin supplements, absorbency rate can be as low as 10%. So stop wasting money and stop popping pills. Go outside. 15 minutes of mid-day sun is sufficient to make one day’s worth of Vitamin D. Vitamin D in turn promotes optimal health. It’ll reduce your risk of diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and Multiple Sclerosis.

If you do plan on being in the sun an extended amount of time, use sunblock instead of sunscreen. Sunblock uses inert ingredients such as zinc and titanium oxide that washes off at the end of the day. Sunscreen contains cancer causing chemicals that are absorbed into your body.

When your car’s check engine light turns on, don’t keep driving
That’s what I did on my camping trip to Joshua Tree. The Check Engine light came on and I decided I could wait to have it checked out when I get back into the city. I kept driving. 15 miles later and my engine started smoking. I blew the gasket and cracked the radiator. It was an expensive $2800 lesson in taking care of my car.

I was very lucky. My car broke down in one of the few areas on a lonely stretch of highway that had cell phone reception. My friend Ian, whom I called for help, happened to be hanging out with his friend Charles, a AAA plus member. Using his membership allowed me to make the 100 mile, $800 towing trip back to LA, for free. Thanks Charles! Thanks Ian! I am now also a AAA plus member.

When you hear a loud humming noise while you’re driving, stop to check it out.
You’d think I would have learned from the check engine incident. I think it’s sinking in now. At the time I thought it was a plane flying overhead or that cranky old truck in the next lane. Or perhaps a UFO hovering nearby getting ready to abduct me. Nope. I drove for about 2 miles on the 10 Freeway with a flat tire before the tire started coming loose. Luckily, no accident and there was a shoulder I could pull off to. The tire was on the side that was away from the freeway so I had no trouble getting the spare in.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours.
‘Nuff said.

The secret to longevity is to do what makes you happy
The energy that sustains us comes from feeling good, not necessarily from eating well or sleeping well. If you look around, health nuts aren’t exactly the happiest of people. When life is about constraint, limits and “have-to’s” rather than inspiration and possibilities, life simply isn’t fun.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t eat well or sleep well or take care of your health. They are all very important. But being happy should come first. When you’re happy and balanced, eating healthy, sleeping well and taking care of your health will come naturally. When you do it the other way around, it becomes forced and you have to constantly discipline yourself.

Doing what makes you happy comes from knowing your purpose
There are two kinds of happiness: false happiness and true happiness. False happiness is doing stuff that makes you happy for the moment. They are activities that distract and numb you from the daily pain that you feel while you’re avoiding something or uncertain what your life is about. True happiness, on the other hand, comes from knowing your purpose and having it give direction to everything that you do in your life – from waking up and making your way to work to how you plan your day and how you interact with others.

There’s something calling out from deep inside each of us to live whole, inspired and fulfilled lives. We all have a purpose and it is up to each of us to discover what that is. Most of us don’t know what that is because we’re too distracted by the things we feel we “have to do” in our lives. Work. Money. Family. Career. Business. Legacy. Peer/Cultural Pressure. Looking Good. Fear.

Truth is, it doesn’t have to be a mutually antagonistic relationship. When you discover your purpose it doesn’t mean quitting your day job as a corporate executive to become a basket weaver. You may end up doing what you are already doing but now you have a sense of purpose behind it. With purpose, a mundane task like moping the floor becomes moping the floor to create a clean and light environment for others to enjoy and be inspired by. Heading to the check out counter becomes having a great interaction with your cashier, who in turn is going to share that positive energy with all the customers that come through that counter the rest of the day.

Your purpose may change and evolve over time. You may lose focus. Give yourself time for regular silent contemplation to stay connected to what your purpose is.

Acting on your purpose requires execution and planning
Once you know your purpose, you have to breath life into it through action. For example, if your purpose is to make extraordinary movies to inspire the world to end global hunger, it doesn’t just happen on its own or right away. There are steps to get there, a lot of hard work and most likely a lot of struggle and pain along the way. And you may not see the fruits of your labor in your life time. But your purpose is what it is. It is what you have to do. To do otherwise, you’re not living. You’re suffering.

Execution is what differentiates people who make things happen and people who watch things happen or wonder what happened. The world does not lack ideas or ideals. We all have tons of them. What we do lack are people who can stick to something, plan it out and make it into reality. Once you find your purpose, start working on your long term plan. Envision your life and what you want. Then take solid concrete steps, however small, to get there.

Get your love life handled
Love is one of the most beautiful experiences of being human. When we’re in love we feel completely alive and inspired. Yet it is often one of the last things in our lives that we work on. While we take endless classes, seminars and workshops for work, hobbies or self-help, we let our love life stagnate, we put up with the person we’re with or we try to convince ourselves we’re happy being single and independent.

Love is a state of being for creating a deep intimate connection not just on the physical and mental levels but also on the spiritual level. It’s not just about hot physical sex and sharing similar interests. It is about living with an open heart, becoming free from our self-imposed constraints and being inspired to live life fully.

Being love and being open to love is a lifelong practice that requires having a partner who will play with you on this higher level. Make love a priority in your life.

Further Exploration
Words To Live By: Author/physician Shigeaki Hinohara
7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Intimate Communion: Awakening Your Sexual Essence by David Deida
Way of the Superior Man by David Deida
AAA Road and Travel Services