1. Recognizing ones’ own Essence or Presence
2. Emotional Pain-Body
3. Developing Burdens
4. Mirroring Parental Dialogue
5. Challenging Daily Dilemmas: Regress or Grow
6. Finding the Gold in our Burdens
7. Developing Determination
8. Evolving the 4-Chambers of the Heart (the horizontal axis)
9. S.A.F.T. – Turning IT (one’s life) over to Spirit (the vertical axis)
10. Creating a Spiritual Practice
11. Dedication to Excellence

“We are Spiritual Beings having a Human Experience!”

1. Presence – Our connection to Spirit lies within the embedded human polarity that dominates our consciousness. It is through Spirit that we are connected with the universe and one another. Being in the moment and experiencing oneself is called “presence”. Presence is the ultimate victory of a Spirit Warrior to be fully present in Spirit and committed to deliver one’s mission through connecting with another’s Spirit. “Presence” requires one to process how we regress to our “pain-body” experience. Much like taking a “mission” statement, we take on a pledge, . “I am no longer…, in Spirit I am…”.

2. Pain-Body – As a new being in the form of a young child, all the child really knows is their state of grace and their inevitable collision with the realities of the human experience. Most of what children know is that they are connected to being loved and giving love. Once that bond is broken, there is a pain-in-the-body experience. For some children, the emotional pain comes very early. For others, it inevitably happens before the age of 7 years when the mental recognition of one’s life takes over. The rest of one’s life, there is a memory of the Pain-Body. Knowing how to recognize it and turn the Pain-Body over to Spirit is the way of the spirit warrior.

3. Burdens – Decisions need to be made in reference to the Pain-Body experience, how to avoid the pain or to seek pleasure. Once success is experienced in getting past or around the Pain-Body, one develops new behavior and a new belief system that becomes one’s “winning formula”. While this formula immediately works, it ultimately will not be successful with future events. Therefore, that decision becomes a Burden. We carry these Burdens every day as we try to transact business in the present moment with decisions made to escape the Pain-Body. Like the term, “shadow” which is about what we “hide, repress and deny”, Burden also has an emotional component but the emphasis is on the decision one made to deal with the “pain-body” experience which exposes it more to a working through process. Here we look for “triggers” which set off being On-Burden.

4. Parental Dialogue – which is also referred to as the “parent imago”. The central dilemmas that we face on an every basis can be the almost identical dialogue that is the essence of our parent’s communication. That dialogue gets imprinted into our consciousness and “runs” us and will determine the conclusions of our interactions unless we can learn to bring Presence into our consciousness and transcend these early imprints. We notice, for instance, that the essence of our present Dilemma corresponds almost immediately to the parent’s dialogue in their dilemma.

5. Challenging Dilemmas – all of us experience Dilemmas on a daily basis. A Dilemma is a present and persistent conflict with another person that has a lose-lose outcome. Most of us only see our reality in a one-dimensional way. We don’t allow ourselves to see the risk factors on the other side of the Dilemma. Simply looking at and feeling the other side of the Dilemma can open up new possibilities. Challenging our Dilemmas allows Spirit through Presence to guide us to experiencing a 3rd option.

6. Finding the Gold in the Burdens – Fortunately, our Burdens are the story that we carry with ourselves and somehow we define who we are with this story emanating from the “pain-body” experience. We tend to believe this “story”, where in effect, we are simply a pure spiritual being having a human experience. We convince ourselves that the old conditioning is who we are. Yes, patterns are real and there is a profile to what our tendencies are but that doesn’t define WHO we are. Once you see the “gold” in the Burdens, the pain starts going away and you find a pathway to accept your life for what it is. And we determine that “we are not our story”. We are “Spirit’s Creation”.

7. Developing Determination – there is a basic human tendency toward entropy and wanting to be “accepted just for who I am” or “our story”. The only problem is “who I seemingly am” – ”my story” is still a product of the Pain-Body and the person functions in Shadow. One needs to align with being a warrior and be determined to establish new pathways to success, otherwise the old stale, over-used self-structure will take over again. And “there is no such thing as giving up”.

8. 4-Chambers of the Heart – When Spirit is seen as the core of the Spirit Warrior and one lives in Presence, Spirit emanates to the heart of our lives. Everything is seen in terms of being in relationship. We embrace our determined and orderly commitment to relationships with: Health and Well-Being, Fulfilling Love Relationships, Financial and Career Responsibility and finally living Missions of Service. This is the work of the Mastery Group, and is the essence of re-integrated I-group work.

9. Surrender, Acceptance, Forgiveness, Thankfulness (SAFT) On a daily basis we are reminded of the need to surrender our egos, accept the truth that lies within us, forgive ourselves and others for past transgressions and to live everyday with thankfulness and gratitude. SAFT becomes a guiding principle in being an effective Spirit Warrior.

10. Spiritual Practice – Presence can really only be experienced through some means of silence, solitude through meditation and/or prayer. For some, a “practice” can be more informal but it can only happen with focusing on the “space between” our thoughts and behavior. Developing a “practice” comes with commitment to the path of the spirit warrior. There are many forms of Spiritual Practice which can be chosen for your particular personal pattern.

11. Excellence – Being on the path of the spirit warrior happens on the journey towards excellence. We practice “mastering the ordinary” as a means of experiencing our extraordinary nature. Yet, living our higher purpose requires setting strategies and composing a plan to experience and master short and long-term goals. To be conscious requires a plan, a strategy for living that allows for us to be more conscious on a moment-to-moment basis.

“The Warrior prepares for risk, the Spirit Warrior prepares for Happiness”

March 9-11

June 8-10

October 12-14

Where?

Camp Canaan

Mark your calendars.  

Plan ahead and enroll TODAY!

The P2S training is really a path to create a Spirit Warrior and needs to be positioned as such.  Our mission for MKP is to provide a “next” step by bringing a Spiritual presence into a warrior’s mission.  Further, our goal is to not only bless men who participate but also to make an important contribution to the MKP community. 

Contact David Lindgren at mandavidl@aol.com or call at 312 415-7455

In May of 1986, a man named Bill Kauth, a social worker and dedicated to create a men’s training, invited me to attend what is now called a “New Warrior Training Adventure” or “NWTA”, originally called the “Wild Man Weekend.”  He asked me to, “Come and play…” which confused the hell out of me.  Then a friend of his, Ron Hering, himself another pioneer, also called me and explained more about their new venture and how the “Wild Man” was a central part of this unusual training.  Being naturally curious but also doubtful, I encouraged a number of my clients, who I judged “needed” this kind of training, to attend.  I judged that as for myself, “I didn’t need it”.  Thinking of myself as a self-assured psychologist, I questioned what could these guys teach me?  A year passed, at which time the last in a line of 5 clients to attend the training convinced me, with a sense of awe, that I actually DID need the NWTA, and that he witnessed some “miracles” there.  His experience convinced me to attend the New Warrior Training where other “sales jobs” about these weekends didn’t work.

The NWTA I attended in April 1987 was an eye-opener to say the least!  It challenged my skeptical, always questioning, and analytical mind.  I initially feared that somehow they would see through that I was a fraud and covering up my true feelings.  Of course, not being in my true feelings, I was a fraud.  Without getting into the details of my experience, I came out of the weekend changed forever…  My hair stood on end…  I looked forward to challenges everyday…  I had an edge and a mission… The shame I had felt since childhood seemed to slowly disappear…  My experience of “wild man” energy was pretty aggressive.  Walking past a downtown Chicago alley, I would dare some mugger to come out and challenge me.  I was revved up and stripped for action. But where was I going?  I knew that I had the right energy.  But where was the ground that I needed to stand on to step into my leadership?

Then in May 1987, Ron Hering again convinced me to attend the 1^st “Spirit Warrior” Weekend at Haimowoods, a retreat center in rural Wisconsin, the same place I attended the “Wildman Weekend”.  (This was before the ManKind Project, New Warrior Chicago or any other MKP Center was founded.)  At this particular weekend, the same men that staffed my weekend pleasantly greeted me.  I felt invited, totally accepted and not challenged, to engage in a battle, like at the NWTA.  I questioned myself, “is this what real New Warriors are like?”  They assigned me a room and gave me a journal to write down all of the purposes in my life and what I basically wanted to accomplish in life.  I wrote and wrote page after page.  I couldn’t believe how deep and grounded I felt, how accepted I felt.  Stepping into the great mystery of the warrior journey now became possible.  This journey was calling out to me and I needed to trust deeper spiritual truths within me to make it happen.

“Creating New Centers and new programs”

It was this settling experience of the SPIRITUAL WARRIOR weekend that forged me to go forward to start the New Warrior Network Center in Chicago along with Mike Greenwald who attended the “Spirit Warrior” Weekend and John Perrin.  It also moved me to be part of starting Centers in Houston, Indianapolis, Washington D.C., Windsor-Detroit and Denver.  Somehow it was believing in the great mystery of the “movement” and believing in the possibilities that it would happen that shaped my intentions.  Spirit was moving through me and others at an alarming rate.

Yet, ultimately my mission went beyond the NWTA, the training itself, and extended to “creating a community of men to mentor men in mission”.  My concern was more about what happened to men following the NWTA than what happened at the training itself.  NWTA stood on its own and really didn’t need any help.  But I watched as men still struggled in their lives during and after their initial I-group experience.  It was the men who had finished the training that needed more mentoring… and more trainings.

Fast forward to 1995, my second wife, Sarah, had just died of cancer.  My kids had just gone off to college.  In the place of these voids, we somehow (in retrospect, “by the grace of God”) put together a new Center at the Mural Building on Ashland and North Avenue in Chicago.  We were expanding the New Warrior message into mentoring programs.  I kept asking myself, “What did men need to be successful in the world?”   Even though I eventually led close to 100 NWTA Weekends, I realized, inspired by thinking back to my Spirit Warrior Weekend, my mission wasn’t just leading more NWTA’s.  My mission was to mentor men to be successful in the world… to be better fathers, husbands, and prosperous in their careers and business.  Each man needed to leverage his gains at the NWTA and maximize them in expanding their vision through taking charge of their lives and stepping into the great mystery.

“The Beginning of the Path to Spirit Trainings” To be successful in life in being good partners, fathers, lovers and in their careers, men needed to be committed at a deeper, more spiritual level that went beyond learning to grow into mature masculinity. We began questioning, “what does it take to step into mastery in our lives?”  The answer that came up was, “how could I attain mastery in my life if I didn’t get beyond my ego and trust a higher source?”  Then I remembered how centered I was taking on my spiritual mission.  So, along with Rob Ahrens and a number of other men, we put together the 1^st PATH to SPIRIT training in 1996.  And now over 575 men and women (mostly men) have attended P2S.

“The Next Step…”

In my opinion, the New Warrior experience was originally intended to be a TWO-WEEKEND Training Adventure!  The founders, (Hering, Kauth and Tosi) intended to offer the 2^nd weekend officially as the “next” step — through a spiritual retreat.  Actually, it was initially a great success.  They filled about 3 trainings.  Then, somewhere during the expansion of NWTA and its many Centers, the “Spirit Warrior” Training disappeared.  I think it lost its energy because the SPIRIT WARRIOR training got disconnected from the ongoing thrust of the Centers and the NWTA.  Most of the emphasis in MKP became getting men to the NWTA and financially supporting the Center.

“Why Attend a Path to Spirit Weekend Now?”

We understand that the mission to become the man that you were meant to be is incomplete unless your spirit is on track with the higher calling of the KING.  We do “this” work in the NWTA to complete the calling of our manhood.   But we need to answer the call of SPIRIT and how we can be “born of Spirit”.  We need to ask, “What is Spirit calling me to be?”  Typically when we can’t answer that question, much of our warrior energy is dissipated into just “doing more of the same”.  We have watched men trying to achieve great heights and still continue repeating their same “winning” formula over and over again.

Perhaps you hear the call of Spirit… You are ready to be challenged and go deeper…  You would like to complete what you started at NWTA…  Your mission is calling to expand out into the universe…  You are looking for more satisfying love in your relationships…  You want to get your emotional and physical life unstuck and moving foward…  You want to get out of the rut you are in to find true success…

What you are looking for may be at the PATH to SPIRIT TRAINING on March 9-11,2012  at Camp Canaan (formerly Haimowoods).  Remembering when you were “called” to the NWTA, what are you being “called” to NOW?  The P2S training maybe the investment you need for your future and for your success in life.

Here is what others are saying that personally captures the essence and the experience of “P2S”:

“I cannot say enough about Path to Spirit and the work David is doing.  I believe Path to Spirit is the perfect next step for men who have done their initiation work.  I am a graduate and a great advocate of “MKP”.  My Warrior weekend changed my life.  I will forever be grateful for the organization, and the dedicated men who serve there. My I-Group experience was helpful, yet I soon came to realize the limitations of addressing my base “ME” needs and began my search again to continue my developmental journey getting beyond “ME”.   I became acutely aware of the “topping off” effect of the I-Groups. Through another Warrior brother I was introduced to David Lindgren who came and led a process in our I-Group that ultimately led to my  “Path To Spirit” experience. “

– Glenn Barker, Gorrilla, Aurora , Illinois

“Adding new high-quality processes to a group’s repertoire helps long-established groups avoid stagnation by remaining energetic and ever evolving. New processes uncover old wounds in new ways from new angles yielding new insights and new tools for personal growth and efficacy. Building upon “Warrior” processes, P2S processes expand outward from I-statements out to a somewhat more relational approach and consciousness—relationship of self: to others, to work, to success, to higher power, to the world. To that end work toward surrender, acceptance, forgiveness, and thankfulness”.

– Tim Goldich, Gorilla For Real, Chicago, Illinois

“Before dawn on the cusp between Winter and Spring I found myself trudging through the snow with my fellow pilgrims as we were lead to our morning taskmaster.  Scott was a rather skinny fellow who had the nerve to guide us through a rigorous session of yoga followed by an obnoxious discussion about healthy lifestyle choices.

There I sat, age 44, extremely overweight and out of shape, huffing and puffing and wondering what any of this had to do with my spirituality.

When I caught my breath I volunteered that I had once cared about my body but hadn’t exercised in twenty years.  Diet and exercise were reserved for those who were vain and I had matured beyond that.  After all, wasn’t I giving up a precious weekend  to find a spiritual path?

Then “yoga man” asked me how I felt and I wanted to cry.

Slow but sure something stirred.  Three months later I began eating with greater awareness.  Ten months later I ran my first mile.  Two and a half years later I ran my first marathon.  Eight years have passed now and making healthy lifestyle choices is still a priority.  Its part of my spiritual journey, along with meditation, prayer and making myself vulnerable to change.

More happened that weekend than I can begin to share in a few words, more than I actually comprehend.  So last Fall when I learned that Path to Spirit was being rekindled I jumped at the chance to sign up.  What a blessing.  I don’t think running more marathons this time is my direction.  What I I do hope for is to show up in the more mundane things which make up the fabric of my life, like returning phone calls, doing what I say I am going to do and being an honest man.”

– Michael Burns, Haiku Bunny Rabbit with Samurai Sword, Chicago, Illinois

PATH TO SPIRIT, December 3-5, 2010  HAIMOWOODS

In my pantheon of male heroes, most of them are of African descent, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Mohammed Ali.  Not that I am making this a race distinction, although I do believe that seemingly suffering of our Black brothers begets wisdom and compassion.  Tiger Woods has always been a favorite of mine.  I believed his father, Earl, when he predicted that Tiger would have a far greater impact in the world than what he would accomplish as a golfer. 

Up until now, Tiger hasn’t really found his “cause”.  He has initiated educational programs for inner-city kids and made it possible for other African-American kids to by-pass the color boundary and ascend to the possibilities of their own greatness.

Yesterday, Tiger checked himself out of the Players Tournement Championship because of a “neck” injury.  He apparently has had this condition for “awhile”.  He didn’t want to report it because he apparently didn’t want the world to know about it.  And apparently to Tiger, it wasn’t any of our business anyway.

From my understanding, the neck resides in the part of the body which we refer to as the 3rd chakra.  This area of the body holds the energy for speaking ones’ truth.  If you have some resistence to telling the truth, you might have trouble speaking.  Something might get stuck in your throat.  You might have to clear your throat to speak the truth.  You might also have some hankering for “necking”.   Now all this is unconscious awareness.  But it feeds the premise that Tiger has not only been circumspect in withholding his truth but also hiding his true feelings.  As my yoga teacher, Steve, mentioned yesterday, there are “facts’” and then there is “truth”.  Truth comes from a full awareness of our feelings.  Tragically, you never get the full scoop when Tiger speaks. 

I am still a Tiger-fan, although I am waiting until he begins to fulfill father-Earl’s prophecy of making a big impact on the world.  I would suspect that some spiritual transformation is due.  The Buddhist principle of ahimsa would seem to apply here.  In Tiger’s case, not bringing harm to himself or to others.

Ahimsa begins with as all things “breath” and a letting go of all things injurious to oneself and others.  This requires “speaking ones truth”.  Can you imagine Tiger sitting in one of our circles sharing his truth and then coming to the awareness of how this is burdening him and his golf game.  And how through forgiveness he could be a model for others who ignore the shame of keeping a secret. 

At Path to Spirit there are more secrets shed than any one place that I know.  It is intrinsic to our process to find the truth in each element of our own burdens.  Each “split” is an opportunity to comes to terms (in God’s eyes and ears, so to speak).  Imbedded in each split is the truth that “passes all understanding”.  I am looking forward to Tiger coming forth and healing his 3rd chakra.  Tiger the “time is NOW” and the “place is HERE”.

SEPTEMBER 10-12, 2010

And you know the song, “STAND BY ME”.  The utube site gave me goosebumps in bringing people together.  Then I got this vision of having us use live instruments on Sunday sharing with the Pilgrims our version of Stand By Me and connecting with them.  Then continuing it with the additional admonition to share it with pictures of their loved ones before they departed on Sunday. 

Not sure about you, but it really grabbed me.

Later,

David

Click on the link above and watch this video for a concise introduction to a new service offered to men in divorce. It is an invitation for men to take this once in a lifetime opportunity to do the deep work necessary to carry them across the bridge from where they are now (over the dangerous and troubled waters of their relationships with women) to the other side – a place of true transformational change where they can reclaim their life as a man.

If you are a man or know a man who is in desperate need of this service, call David at +1 (847) 859-2562. Thanks.