| Endorsement Letter from Cloud Mountain Retreat Center Dear Friends,
It is Cloud Mountain’s usual policy to not share our
mailing list or to use it for purposes other than to
bring your attention to Cloud Mountain’s own scheduled
events. This is the first time we have made an exception
to that policy and announced any event other than a
retreat at the center. However, David and Laura have
found our work with Michael Torresan and the Authentic
Living Institute so meaningful and impactful on our own
lives and practice that we are making this
mailing exception to let you know about it... |
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Click here to Read Entire Letter |
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My Experience
with Authentic Living
~Tsukina Blessing,
Student of Western Sufism
for seven years and ALI student for one year
Noticing a change in me, an old friend asked me
recently how it's been. It's been an amazing
journey to an authentic life. I feel as though a
beautiful melody that was always there but
mostly inaudible has been born into the world,
and many of the old screechy parts of myself are
fading to background noise. There is peace,
fire, and joy in my life, instead of
frustration, hope, fear and disappointment. I'm
more spontaneous, capable, and present. In
practical terms, what this means is that my
husband tells me I'm a lot easier to be around
most of the time; I no longer find myself in
fits of impotent rage when dealing with my
family of origin; my career is still stagnant,
but that's no longer a source of frustration or
anguish; and my satisfaction rating of life in
general has gone up 1000%. |
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to Read Entire Letter |
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Endorsement from (Shaikh)
Hafizullah Chishti
hafizullah@aol.com
Authorized Representative, Sufi Order International
(http://www.sufiorder.org)
I would like to draw your attention to a series of talks
to be given by a dear friend of mine, Michael Torresan.
Michael was a senior teacher in the Ridhwan School for
two decades, and is now pulling his own wagon as the
director of the Authentic Living Institute.
Michael has a capacity to tune the participants of his
workshops, with grace and humor, to a level of being and
of compassionate and fearless personal inquiry that is
equaled by very, very few of those working in the field
of spiritual unfoldment. This body of work is
light-years ahead of almost anything else out there. It
has been my privilege to both participate and
occasionally to guest-instruct in Michael's workshops
over a five-year period in the 1990s; my experience
there catalyzed my transformation in a most amazing
manner. I owe a significant boost in my capacity as a
teacher --- and a huge increase in the love, joy, and
clarity in my life --- to my work with him. While my
teachers in the Sufi tradition have shown me the "what,"
Michael gave me invaluable keys to the "how" of getting
unstuck from some very problematical places in my being,
and making what I had received in Sufism "grounded" in a
way that would have taken far longer otherwise. This
approach is entirely compatible with Sufism --- and I
should think, any path --- and provides unparalleled
ease-of-access to the actuation of deep consciousness in
one's being. This is a wholly unsolicited personal
testimonial. I can't recommend this approach too highly,
and it is out of profound gratitude that I invite anyone
who is truly serious about their self-transformation to
investigate Michael's work. |
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I have been expanding my
appreciation of the my essential nature for over eight
years with Michael Torresan. I have meditated, chanted,
explored, drawn pictures, stuttered, cried, ranted,
studied and delved into the pursuit of truth and light.
During this time I have had the incredible pleasure and
joy of working with other dedicated beings in trying to
honestly commit ourselves to losing our minds. Wheeee!
~Jeanne
ALI Student for
eight years |
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Before coming to this work I
felt like I had run out of places to go. I had tried a
lot of other things and they had meager results. Here,
every time I come to a weekend, small group, or private
session things happen that unfold my Being in a
consistent way.”
~Donald
ALI Student for 5 years |
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I have found through this work
that I have become more relaxed and accepting of myself,
others, and life's unfolding. Life has become an
interesting and adventurous journey.
~Connie
ALI student for six years |
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(This work) has created more space and freedom in my
life... I am moving through life infused with increasing
strength and will...
~Katie
ALI Student for one year |
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This work saved my life.
Trying to create a meaningful life through the
mechanical viewpoint of ego was only serving to destroy
my career, undermine my health and wreak havoc in my
relationships, leaving my deeply disillusioned and
unhappy in the process. Through the work, I came to a
deep reconnection with the core of my being and found
the freedom to create my life in ways I had never
dreamed possible.
~Debra,
ALI student for seven years |
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This work takes you on a compelling journey to
Being. As a guide, Michael is grounded, skillful,
compassionate, part guardian and part trickster. I find
these ingredients lend a powerful spark to my inner
journey. What I have learned through the Authentic
Living Institute touches every aspect of my life from
relationships, intimacy, work and parenting through my
deepest longing for union with the Divine.
~Danielle,
ALI student for
seven years |
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I am grateful to Michael
Torresan, former teacher in the Ridhwan School, for
first organizing this material (on the superego) and
presenting it as a body of teaching in workshop format.
He was an inspiring and provocative model for assisting
others inconfronting their judges.
~Byron Brown
author of Soul Without Shame: A Guide to
Liberating Yourself from the Judge Within
Ridhwan Teacher and senior student of A. H. Almaas |
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Being a practitioner of
insight meditation, I am delighted to discover how much
the ALI work and Vipassana add to each practice's means
of dispelling delusion. I am further pleased to see Jack
Kornfield write that he could commend the work of
Michael’s teacher, A. H. Almaas, ‘to anyone interested
in living the life of the spirit’.
~Magrit
ALI student for one year |
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I am forever grateful to have
Michael as my guide in the work. He is extremely
skillful at presenting the knowledge in an articulate,
sensitive, and lighthearted way.
~Carla
ALI student for six years |
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The solid support and
compassionate nature of the group field feels like a
safe place for me to share and explore the places in
myself that feel scary.
~Susan
ALI student for one year |
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The presence and energy of the
group field reveal both my ego resistance and my
essential nature in a way that would not happen on my
own.”
~Leslie
ALI Student for five years |
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After reading where Ken Wilber wrote that he could
"recommend the Diamond Approach as probably the most
balanced of the widely available spiritual
psychologies/therapies" I began searching for a path
incorporating that type of work and found my way to one
of Michael’s free talks.
~Juan
ALI student for one year |
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