I would like to address the question, “How has the transformative practice of ITP played a role in navigating your life’s transitions?”
I had the privilege of attending a seminar at Esalen entitled “Integral Transformative Practices” at the end of April 1991. It was then and there that Mike Murphy and George Leonard introduced me to ITP. This is my 34th ITP anniversary. And yes, it was the year before the formal launch of ITP.
It was an incredibly beautiful spring week at Esalen in a variety of ways. It was also the first time George and Mike co-led an Esalen seminar. This was my second meeting with George and my first with Mike. It was a defining experience.
With two sessions of LET and George’s getting me on the mat for Aikido, I settled into a rhythm of daily practice following that week. With the book The Life We Are Given, I made some refinements in my practice, albeit continuing a somewhat more diverse pattern. With brief exceptions, I have been a sole practitioner.
These 34 years have also corresponded with a move into my second career, from project management to public office, working with a wonderful diversity of people and at times soul-challenging experiences.
The affirmations have been part of my daily personal practice; my experience of life and transformation. And transformations there have been. For all of us on this practice, there has been the foundational affirmation: “My entire being is balanced, vital and healthy.” At eighty, I retain physical and mental vitality. I have a deep sense of calmness.
I have experienced cycles of transformation; significant episodes lasting a span of years. Each starts with an awakening. My encounter with George and then Mike came with such a stage. It was motivated by a need to understand the dynamics of the Human Potential Movement they defined. It coincided with a deepening engagement in community service. And it took me into that realm of inner being, an expanded personal practice leading by further stages into an evolving understanding of life, of being and of service. It just happens that I have begun a new cycle.
Is it only coincidental that ITP has been part of my life during this time, these 34 years, these successive stages of growth? ITP is about continuity. For me, each day of practice brings back images of that beautiful week at Esalen and, particularly, a friendship George shared over the remaining years of his life. I recall other insightful experiences. It’s been an evolutionary experience. Gratitude was an important word for George.
Why did I continue ITP all these years? It just seemed the right thing to do. I can’t say it is a causative factor in my ongoing growth, but it seems more than merely coincidental. I just know that it has been a gift, a seed planted that has borne much fruit.
Gassho
Bill Sharp