Join us for a week of living in the moment, for the moment, surrounded by the peaceful hills of the Tuscan landscape in Pari. With its beautiful palazzo, rustic bar, and numerous quiet places, the medieval village of Pari serves as an alchemical vessel for growth and personal transformation.
“The idea of bringing people in. They could be business people, they could be environmentalists, whatever, and bringing them in without any sort of fixed program, without them giving talks and powerpoint presentations. Just to sit in the room and see what emerges, because they are in a container, it’s in an alchemical vessel which allows something transformative to take place. So that was the idea of Pari as a container.”
David Peat w/ Jena Axelrod in The Absurdity of Certainty.
Throughout the week you will have plenty of opportunities to cultivate connections with Nature, others, and — perhaps most importantly — yourself. Explore the medieval village and its surroundings, or take in the beauty of the landscape from Pari’s expansive palazzo. Dialogue with others in a supportive atmosphere and experience what it feels like to have others truly listen to your unique perspectives and experiences from a place of genuine interest and curiosity. Set aside thoughts of forcing or striving and experience how insights and interconnections naturally bubble up during dialogue.
Become more responsive and less reactive by learning to actively listen, not only to others but also to yourself. As F. David Peat, one of the founders of the Pari Center states in his autobiography, Pathways of Chance:
“Much depends upon how we react when the unexpected occurs and a new door temporarily opens. Do we compensate as best we can and attempt to remain on our own predetermined track, or do we ask ‘What is life trying to tell me? In what direction could this new possibility take me? Is it worth suspending what I am doing at the moment to explore something new?”1
Somewhat paradoxically, setting aside striving and engaging in gentle action often gives rise to the types of benefits that many people often seek, but seldom find in a sustainable form. Along with feelings of openness, trust, joy, and a childlike sense of wonder, gentle action often gives rise to a deeper sense of engagement with yourself, others, and the Universe.
1. Pathways of Chance, pp. 1-2.
