About
This retreat was recorded live in 2005 at Wisdom School on Thetis Island, BC, and revised and re-released in 2012. This purchase includes an MP3 audio download with a total running time of approximately 7 hours and 40 minutes. In this teaching, Cynthia Bourgeault explores the extraordinary life and insights of Jacques Lusseyran (1924–1971), the blind French resistance leader whose testimony offers profound lessons on perception and spiritual resilience. Blinded at the age of eight, Lusseyran went on to lead a resistance movement during World War II, survived imprisonment in Buchenwald, and later reflected deeply on what it means to “see” with the heart. The first half of the retreat presents Lusseyran’s story and his discovery of an inner light accessible beyond the personal ego. Cynthia shows how his survival and transformation were rooted in shedding the personal “I” and opening to consciousness itself. The second half explores practical applications of his insights, including inner observation, nurturing the heart as an organ of perception, and learning to live as what Cynthia calls “conscious artists of finitude.” Key themes include interior openness, the law of three, the vertical axis of being, heart perception, integrating ego and heart, Centering Prayer as a resting place, and the Welcoming Prayer. Participants are guided into a vision of life where we are nourished by the invisible and sustained by consciousness itself. Cynthia Bourgeault is a modern-day mystic, Episcopal priest, and internationally known retreat leader. She is the author of numerous books, including The Wisdom Jesus and Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, and is recognized for her pioneering work in integrating the Christian contemplative path with other global streams of wisdom.