Spacious Mind
Coaching
Coaching
Welcoming Life As-it-is:
Coaching, Conferences and Courses
Contemplative Dialogue based on Non-dual Buddhism and Advaita
Coaching, Conferences and Courses
Contemplative Dialogue based on Non-dual Buddhism and Advaita
Michael Shandler, Ed. D.
Greetings! If you are interested in my credentials and basic orientation, please read the first few paragraphs below. If you want more details, I've provided a little elaboration about my formative experiences and the major teachers and teachings that have influenced my approach.
- My professional experience has spanned a wide variety of situations and contexts. For the past thirty years, I’ve worked with people as a healer and life coach, and as an organization development consultant. I’ve worked with managers and leaders and their teams in businesses and non-profit organizations in several different countries. I’ve authored six books in the human relations field, including The Marriage and Family Book: A Spiritual Guide and Vroom! - a graphic comic about collaboration and teamwork. My Planning Inspired Performance program– an intensive team development process, has been used in over fifty organizations.
- I earned a Masters degree in Counseling in1981, and a Doctorate in Leadership and Group Psychology, in 1983, from the University of Massachusetts
- Whatever experiences and success I may have had in my career and relationships has always been a reflection of my personal and spiritual growth. As one of my early spiritual mentors, Baba Hari Dass said – “there’s no garbage, only manure for the tree.” As a result, I’ve sought out people from whom I could learn and, indeed, over the years, I’ve been fortunate to learn from several great teachers, mentors and coaches. Through their guidance and direction, and through intensive trainings in personal growth and spiritual approaches, my own peace of mind and compassion for others, has grown immensely.
My first introduction to spiritual work – sadhana – began in the early1970’s under the guidance of Baba Hari Dass, a master yogi and life-long monk, who has observed continual silence for more than fifty years. "Babaji," a term of respect and endearment, teaches and provides advise by writing on a small chalkboard. He has the marvelous knack of offering profound statements and insights in just a few words. In 1973, my wife and I had the good fortune to host Babaji for ten days in our house in Vancouver, B.C. Hosting a silent yogi from the Himalayas is highly unusual; in 1973, it was revolutionary. Word soon got out that the silent yogi who had been Ram Dass' teacher in India and whom he had written about in his seminal book, Be Here Now - was in town.
People came to see Baba Hari Dass with mixed motives. Some were merely curious, some were sincere spiritual seekers looking for guidance, and others didn’t know why they were there. Babaji sat in a simple, unostentatious room that soon overflowed with people. People asked questions about various spiritual topics – mantras, meditation techniques, yoga methods, sexuality, differences between Hinduism and Buddhism, why Babaji was silent – the questions went on and on. And Babaji answered them all, patiently and sometimes in great detail. After a few days, I began to notice a pattern. At first, especially with new people, the questions would flow, often for hours on end, the only sound in the room, the scratching of the chalk on the tiny chalkboard as Babaji responded. Sometimes he'd respond to a questioner with a shrug and a pithy teaching like:
“Mind makes and mind takes."
Sometimes the explanations were a little longer:
We inherit mental conditioning
from the past life, from the teachings
of our parents, from society, and
from our religious beliefs.
In this way we live as our elders lived.
Only if one is capable of deconditioning
the mind from all old beliefs, dogmas,
and the latencies of the past,
can one find eternal truth.
from the past life, from the teachings
of our parents, from society, and
from our religious beliefs.
In this way we live as our elders lived.
Only if one is capable of deconditioning
the mind from all old beliefs, dogmas,
and the latencies of the past,
can one find eternal truth.
When he'd completed writing on his chalkboard, Babjaji would face the chalkboard so that one of us could read what he had written to the others. This was usually followed by silence as we all took in the full import and implications of the statement. Sometimes someone would ask follow-up questions, but gradually, something else would happen. People’s questions began to peter out and Babaji would just sit quietly, perhaps twirling the string attaching his chalk to the chalkboard, sometimes making a spontaneous joke, or occasionally engaging with one of us in a dialogue. The atmosphere was spacious, reinforced by the relative slowness of the written communication. There was a deep feeling of safety and effortless presence in the here-and-now. Sometimes, someone would share a deep truth about their own lives, laughing or crying at their mistaken notions. But, then that exchange would be over and we’d just sit there, with nothing further to do. A delicious, soft silence enveloped the room, for many minutes, a stillness and quietness that is impossible to describe. If there is an opposite of a tense silence, this was it. We weren’t meditating or doing anything “spiritual” and yet the peace in the room was palpable. Even when someone spoke or asked a question, there was nothing neurotic or compulsive about it. This was probably the first time in my life when I had been in a gathering where there was no commitment to doing anything, an OKness with just being quietly together. Day after day, the same people would return to just sit in the room.
Michael Shandler (l) and Baba Hari Dass (circa 1973)
Those early days in our house in Vancouver had a very profound influence on my work. Now, as I sit with people and engage them in spoken and silent conversations about their experience in the present moment, the experience is of the same spirit of spacious mind I was introduced to back then.
Since that seminal time, I’ve been influenced by teachings and teachers from a variety of perspectives. The life and teachings of Ramana Maharshi, the great Indian non-dual sage, have been very important to me. Although he died in 1950, his primary inquiry: Who am I? is a living legacy and the foundation for much of the deconstructive inquiry work I have engaged in from various other traditions. Ramana is in many ways the "grandfather" of a contemporary group of spiritual teachers who are gaining in popularity, including Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti, and others.
Ramana Maharshi
- If you are so inclined, right now, spend a few minutes looking deeply into Ramana's eyes in this photograph. Personally, the practice of simply gazing into the Maharshi's eyes has never failed to bring me peace.
Here are a few of the more important teachers who, more recently, have powerfully influenced my own development. I have deep respect for the work of Eckhart Tolle. His inspiration continues to be a source of wisdom and rememberance. The teachings of Adyashanti have provided me with a contemporary revitalization of the spirit of Ramana's teachings, and also continue to be of great inspiration. I use both Eckhart and Adyashanti's teachings in my classes and workshops and in my coaching practice.
Peter Fenner
Most recently, I have been working with Peter Fenner, a leader in the adaptation of Asian
wisdom for Westerners, who has synthesized the ancient teachings into a powerful contemporary learning experience. The eight-month
Radiant Mind Course is fast gaining a reputation as one of the most
innovative training programs for integrating the liberating wisdom of
Asia’s nondual wisdom traditions at a deep level in all aspects of our
life. It is especially appropriate for Westerners because
it is refreshingly free of dogmatism and rituals, yet provides
step-by-step coaching support and experiential insight into the
transcultural wisdom of Mahayana Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta.
.... Then, if you don't redefine this moment or rebox it in some concept, rethinking yourself into existence, your true state of being starts to present itself. What you really are begins to awaken. The true I am is so unbelievably empty. It's so free of everything you thought you were. It has no limitation. It has no definition.... All that is left is consciousness and it's not even that because that's a word."
Adyashanti
Emptyness Dancing
Emptyness Dancing
