Diversity and Generosity:
Preserving and Persevering at Esalen
Esalen President & CEO Gordon Wheeler's Blog
February 2009
The migrating whales are feeding close in offshore at Esalen these days, part of their seasonal journey northward. One day recently they were joined by a pod of at least half a hundred dolphins, stretched in a line almost as far as we could make them out from south to north, tossing and leaping entirely out of the water in pursuit of the sardine run, once such a key part of the Monterey Bay economy and way of life. At least at this distance from shore the fish and mammals are in the Marine Wildlife Preserve, and protected from the factory boats that are decimating all their numbers worldwide. But the ocean water knows no boundaries, and the same rich sardine vein that flows here today may shift with the temperature and currents and be vacuumed up tomorrow out in international waters, at some point dipping below critical reproductive levels.
Here on land the issue of boundaries still seems to dance somewhere just outside our human grasp, at the very cusp of our evolving capacity for complexity and creativity. Standing on the cliff with me that day in the blazing afternoon sun, all of us transfixed by the natural display below us, were members of Beyond Words, the heroic band of Israeli women, Jewish and Muslim and Christian, who work with children in Israel and the Occupied Territories for understanding, transformation, and inner and outer peace. Each year for several years, through the generosity of donors and an Esalen grant, members of this group have been able to spend twelve days here at Esalen, doing the deep personal work they have no space or venue for back at home, guided by Esalen teachers who fly in at their own expense and offer their work pro bono. That day was their last full day at Esalen, and together we drank in the inspiration of the scene, drawing strength for the heartbreaks and challenges of the year ahead—they absorbing the sustaining elixir of this magic strip of land and water, while I focused on absorbing all that plus the tonic of these brave-spirited women, their work, and their hearts. My year will undoubtedly be nothing like theirs, but still I need inspiration and recharging too, as we all do to keep going; and for everything that these remarkable women have gained from their time at Esalen, they give back as much and more by their presence here with us, their gratefulness which waters land and hearts here, and the inspiration of their work—across apparent, deeply arbitrary "boundaries," work which is the reason for Esalen's existence.
We don't talk much about it, but most of us who live and work here at Esalen give up other important things to be here: more time with family and friends, more lucrative careers, the comforts or pleasures of other venues, other lifestyles—living in this paradise to be sure, but also under restrictive and sometimes comical living conditions, and at the cost of the 401K's, at least, that we might have been building (or watching dwindle, as in this past year….!).
Our reward of course is the sense of making a difference—important, but still a little abstract. Where that reward becomes tangible, embodied, is in the living contact with each other and all of you: brave women from the Middle East, spirited young people living and teaching the philosophy of Permaculture, the dauntless souls in the group that week studying Dick Schwartz's remarkable IFS process, learning the tools to heal themselves and each other, so they may gain effectiveness as transformational change agents in their own lives and work in the world. The list goes on and on, over 500 programs each year, offered in one way or another to almost 20,000 students and other visitors, year in and year out. Seekers of all ages, ethnicities, and nations, coming here for renewal and new capacity, to seek and build their own unique paths toward that better life and world.
Unity in diversity: those are the words in our Esalen Values statement. Meanwhile, in the world around us, superficial boundaries continue to obscure deeper unities, blocking creativity and paralyzing desperately needed action for our shared world.
You and your creative gifts are why we are here—and how we're able to sustain being here, year after year, from the most mundane to the most creative level. Your presence, your spirit nurture and renew us—and if your experience at Esalen expands and renews you as well, then the circle is unbroken, the synergy is complete, and the circuit of human creativity throbs with new health and life.
Together, we're facing challenging, sometimes overwhelming times—and with them, exciting renewal at the personal, national, cultural, and hopefully world levels. In the end, what we have at hand to meet these challenges is each other. When we meet with our hearts, our spirits, our vulnerabilities and our struggles—and our heartbreaks—all opened up and shared, then together we are enough.
Next month I'll write about how we at Esalen believe we can nurture and create that kind of meeting, that new conversation that Esalen has been noted for for nearly 50 years, and that continues to be our offering to each other and the world. For now, in this Innaugural season, we send you our blessings and ask for yours, for the rich, difficult, exciting, unknown year ahead.