ROSEwork – Radical Organismic Sentient Emergence

The “Perennial Philosophy” holds that spirit is the source principle of Reality, from which matter and all other things and events come into being.

Advanced modern science appears to support this idea. It holds that matter is only concentrated energy and that the material universe originally appeared out of nothingness in the “Big Bang.”

We (Linda and Saniel) have each realized limitless conscious spirit. We abide as That always, without effort. Our natural “feeling of Being” knows no bounds. We have also realized extraordinary identification with our material bodies and the earthly and psychic dimensions of Reality. So we are deeply surrendered into personal boundaries and limitations. We live without conflict as the “Ocean” of all that IS and the particular “waves” of our human persons.

From this “both/and” perspective, we have to question the Perennial Philosophy’s assumption that spirit is the senior principle of reality. We don’t make a contrary proposition. We just wonder.

For all its venerable profundity, we also question that philosophy’s underpinnings. In his writings Saniel points to its roots in reactive prejudices of “hypermasculine dissociation.”

We offer these wonderings with grateful respect. We hold that spirituality is not just evolutionary – it is itself evolving. And the greatest homage anyone can pay to predecessors in an evolving science is to take it further, explore alternatives, and clarify it even if only with persisting curiosity.

Therefore, we have coined a phrase for how we see Reality and how we see humans becoming increasingly “Real-ized”:

Radical Organismic Sentient Emergence

or “ROSEwork.”

This orientation is radical. It appears to spring from the roots of Spirit and Matter, Consciousness and Phenomena, Emptiness and Form. In our experience and what we gather from others, it appears to foster radical – “at-source,” “origin-al” – marriages of these apparently polar opposites.

ROSEwork is organismic. It holds that human bodies and all other things participate in and mysteriously “own” conscious spirit in an eternal, paradoxical dance in Being. Its practitioners find the human body and its natural, personal psyche and even ego to be as divine, real, and important as impersonal consciousness. They cultivate first deep feminine surrender to conditions as they are and then true masculine capacity to change them. Remarkable, perhaps unprecedented developments occur in the bodily self and its relationship to others.

ROSEwork is sentient. For most, it moves directly into unshakable divine unity with impersonal Being. No longer an elusive goal, this enlightenment accelerates natural spiritual development. It catalyzes unforced, often unsought expansion into awakened artistic, scientific, shamanic, prophetic, yogic, mystical, saintly, sage-like, and/or avataric expressions.

Thus, Radical Organismic Sentient Emergence is emergent. Those who embrace such a mysteriously spontaneous life-path grow rapidly. They adapt whatever traditional or contemporary disciplines best serve their own evolutionary impulses, and become lifelong journeyers into the unknown and Unknowable.

Radical Organismic Sentient Emergence begins by anchoring the transcendental identity in natural, fluid unity with the material body and personal psyche. Early in his work, Saniel termed this transition “the Second Birth.” From there ROSEwork will tend to pass through stages of Second Infancy, Childhood, Adolescence, Young Adulthood, Maturity (or Middle Age), and Eldership.

These awakened life-passages first ripen into increasingly integral presence and responsible participation in life. Then will come a time, perhaps prolonged, of balancing activity and repose, participation and seclusion. With age, one will most likely enter an awakened “retirement” of serene simplicity, dispassion, and extraordinary, compassionate radiance. Such abiding in divine rapture leads eventually to a truly ecstatic letting go of this bodily life and world.

This condensed description of Radical Organismic Sentient Emergence may raise more questions than it answers. But, it’s a start.

We (Saniel and Linda) call our particular expression of ROSEwork “The White-Hot Yoga of the Heart,” or “The White-Hot Way of Mutuality, or Trust.” In the course of revealing the first great evolutionary phase of that process, Saniel named it “Waking Down.” The Waking Down work is now shared and continues to be developed together by dozens of teachers, mentors, and participants. None of them are required to “believe” the principles of ROSEwork or practice our specific White-Hot Yoga.

As complex as it may sound, Radical Organismic Sentient Emergence is all about fundamental and essential things:

Developing true freedom to love.

Understanding that matter and all limited, changing things are truly as divine, real, and important as limitless, unchanging spirit.

Deepening in trust: trust in self, trust in others, trust in Being.

Becoming a sane, whole, profoundly humane, compassionate, and peaceful person.

Learning to connect with and respect the mystery of every other being.

Learning to live with fundamental joy, even in the hardest times.

Daring to fulfill one’s unique destiny and make one’s greatest possible contribution to humanity and to Life.

Blossoming into everything one can possibly Be.

ROSEwork.