HOW I WORK WITH PEOPLE

My name is Derek Sheahan and “The Lenses That Liberate” has developed over the last 18 years of my inner work and exploration with others, In my training, I have spent many years with meditation instructors, spiritual teachers and psychotherapy trainers and have practiced thousands of hours of meditation on silent retreat. From my own path, I have come to see that there are many important avenues for us to explore that lead to a healthy, integrated life and this model reflects and embodies an amalgamation of all of the integration and understanding that I have gained over the years. I use this model both in individual sessions with clients and also in the group work I regularly facilitate.

As we explore each lens in depth of this model, I will introduce how I work with people to activate that particular way of seeing. To begin with, I start by assessing to what degree each lens has been cultivated and activated in an individual when I meet them initially, that is, what lenses are they naturally drawn towards and what lenses they have neglected in their development. I then work in a unique way with each person so that these seven lenses can be brought into harmony over time. We always begin with the “Introductory Practices”, learning to inhabit our felt sense in a uniform and holistic way before we start the more subtle exploration of focusing on particular centers of the body and their archetypal qualities.

As we explore this model together, I will suggest a variety of practices that we can do to cultivate each specific lens of relating. While our intellectual understanding of this model is important, it is the direct, experiential aspect of engaging with the specific practices that brings about change in us and allows our understanding of the model to become real and embodied. It is usually not necessary to engage with all of these practices but rather to explore and discover what opens each way of seeing for each of us. I refer to these as our “keys” for opening each way of seeing.

Please hold this map lightly as you explore your experience with it because, like all maps, it is a useful tool at best. Our actual experience in any momentshould be the priority.

THE LENSES THAT LIBERATE

The first level of the “Lenses That Liberate” model, is the Sage. Through the lens of the Sage we direct our attention towards the ground of our being, that place within us that has always remained unchanged. We are invited to contemplate, “What is the ground of my life?, “What never changes?”.

We all come to this model at varying levels of development in each lens and we start with practices that are suitable for where we are on our journey. Before we look through this lens, it is important that we are sufficiently rested so our focus and attention is truly available to explore. Therefore grounding and relaxation practices are often a prerequisite before we can turn towards the deeper ground of our being. Essentially, we all start our enquiry through this lens at whatever grounding means for us. For many, this will be to recognize that the earth is holding us and we explore the felt sense and safety of this holding.. As we become settled in this experience, a deeper seeing becomes activated as we notice there is something in our experience that even holds the earth (not sure about this), something that holds everything and that never changes. At this point we are ready to look through the deeper aspects of the lens of the Sage, we examine, “What is the true ground of my being?”

OPENING TO THE GROUND of being

As we progress deeper with this lens, we start to long for the true ground of our being to reveal itself. At this point we are encouraged to turn all of our attention to the very core of ourselves that is changeless and by its very nature, free. That is, to ground ourselves in the truest way possible. In fact, at this deeper experience of the Sage, grounding oneself in the earth or even the body is secondary and useful in so much as it ultimately allows us to look more deeply at what never changes.

The objective here is to get a taste of a whole new way of experiencing life, a radical shift in the ground of where we are looking from. Whether this shift occurs through sheer will power, deep relaxation, complete somatic embodiment or of having no sense of the body whatsoever, the way we come to this initially isn’t important. One Zen master said that before we have this first taste of the ground (called “Satori” in the Zen tradition), our spiritual life is like “throwing rocks in the dark”. Once we taste this, we have a sense of a whole new way of life and from the Lenses That Liberate perspective, the deeper journey truly begins.

There are many ways for the Lens of the Sage to awaken, to uncover the ground of our own being. For some, it can awaken by being in contact with the resonance of a person already seeing through this lens, for others the ground can be opened through psychedelics, strong breathwork, extreme fasting and intense meditation retreats. Whatever the method, as we look through the eyes of the Sage we strip away all that isn’t essential to us, until all that remains is the core essence of ourselves. The more we can get the felt sense and direct understanding that what we are most fundamentally IS this open ground, the more the rest of the journey comes into alignment with a true and unshakable foundation. We have an authentic inner reference point to meet life from. As we spend time cultivating this way of seeing, we learn to reside naturally more and more in this open ground . Sooner or later, we have the experience that what we are is the ground of being itself. This is the core realization of the Sage. Our own true inner compass is activated and it increasingly becomes the unshakable foundation of our life that paves the way for the journey ahead, We are finally building our house on solid ground.

Initially as we explore this deeper ground of our being, our systems are often frozen and may not have much capacity to feel. All of us, to varying degrees, have experienced traumas and difficulties in our life, The memories of these traumas are often stored in our body as blocked energy and frozen feelings. Therefore practices here to activate the Sage often initially work best when they are intense, especially for those who are very energetically stuck and unable to access their felt sense of themselves to help loosen and free this trapped energy. Through strong energetic practices, we open and activate our energy system allowing us to experience the spaciousness that has always been underneath this trapped energy. For people who already have a very sensitive and open system, starting with more gentle practices is important as it can be very counterproductive to over-stress the nervous system.

In summary, awakening the Sage is fundamental to how we experience the other lenses. It will not be possible to remain rested in the Sage in an embodied way without the integration of many of the other ways of seeing, so we move onto the next Lens, that of The Nurturer.

How I WORK

In my work at the level of the Sage and opening the ground of being, I offer a variety of practices depending on the individual and their degree of awareness at this lens. Initially, I teach grounding practices that help people connect with energy and inherent safety of the earth. Spending time in nature and connecting the stillness of the natural world is also a very useful practice that I often recommend.

When I feel people are ready for a deeper experience of their ground of being, I often use strong breathwork as I’ve found it to be a powerful resource and the most suitable tool for the majority of people to facilitate a life-changing opening. I find breathwork most suitable because it’s completely natural, it does not require the reliance on another person for transmission, it does not rely on a substance to alter your state and it’s the most gentle method for the body and has no side effects if done correctly.

Through strong breath practices over a period of days, weeks or months, our system can release more and more energetic blocks. As a psychotherapist and breath work facilitator I’ve come to see that removing these energetic blocks allows us to look more clearly through the Lens of the Sage and the ground of being can be naturally awakened. In my experience, often one session of strong breathwork can be enough to open the depth of this lens and propel someone forward with a strong commitment and excitement for their journey. Others may need to revisit these strong practices multiple times before the Lens of the Sage become available to them.

For individuals with a lot of prior awakening experience who are already established in the ground of Being, I usually start with gentle practices where stronger break-through experiences may not be necessary. For example, I teach people how to focus on the emptiness and spaciousness that is always available in our experience so that the ground of our being can strengthen as we regularly turn our attention to this spaciousness. For all practitioners, over time the practices at this level become more gentle as we learn to touch and rest as the ground of being more consistently with less and less effort. The more we can touch and rest as this ground of our Being, the more all the other levels can come into harmonious relationship as we stabilize in the true foundation of who we are.

TALK

AUDIO

ART

POETRY

books and movies

BACKGROUND