About
This retreat was recorded live in May 2001 in Victoria, BC, Canada, and revised and re-released in 2015. This purchase includes an MP3 audio download with a total running time of approximately 4 hours 45 minutes across four MP3 sets. In this teaching, Cynthia Bourgeault explores conscious love flowing from our deeper selves, beyond identification, craving, wanting, and needing. Conscious love abides beyond emotional states and polarities, where boundaries diminish, and egoic perceptions dissolve, allowing pain, fear, and anxiety to arise without overcoming us. It exposes the cages that trap us and guides transformation through an open, relaxed heart. Key themes include conscious presence, conscious vs. emotional love, identification and non-identification, eros and agape, the soul cage, I-It/I-Thou/I-I relationships, healing the human/divine love split, and love's relation to sex, death, and spiritual communion. Cynthia draws on interspiritual insights, addressing sacrifice, the heart as human/divine mediator, and practical paths like opening, yielding, and conscious partnerships. Cynthia Bourgeault is a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, and internationally known retreat leader. She is the author of numerous books, including Love is Stronger than Death, and is recognized for her pioneering work in integrating the Christian contemplative path with other global streams of wisdom.