Spacious Mind
Coaching
Coaching
Welcoming Life As-it-is:
Coaching, Conferences and Courses
Contemplative Dialogue based on Non-dual Buddhism and Advaita
Coaching, Conferences and Courses
Contemplative Dialogue based on Non-dual Buddhism and Advaita
Michael Shandler, Ed. D.
Life is full of twists and turns and I've had my share. I grew up in Cape Town, South Africa and came to North America when I was twenty-one. Now, forty plus years later, I'm a father and grand-father. I've lived in five countries and had the privilege of working with people in many walks of life. Whatever
experiences and success I've had as a coach and consultant have always reflected my personal and spiritual values. One of my values is that we have responsibility (response-ability) to learn, change, and grow. As
a young man suffering an early disappointment, a wise mentor at the time told me – “there’s no
garbage, only manure for the tree.” I've tried to take this pithy teaching to heart and shared its central theme with all whose paths have crossed my own. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to learn from several great teachers, mentors and coaches, both in the eastern and western traditions. There are too many people who have had strong influences to mention here by name, but excerpts from the writings of some can be found on this site. I am grateful for their guidance and direction.
My professional experience has spanned a wide variety of situations and contexts. For the past thirty years, I’ve worked with people as a life coach and therapist and as a change management consultant in organizations worldwide. My clients have ranged from non-profits such as the MacArthur Foundation to leaders in Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurs in small start-ups. I’ve collaborated on six books in the human relations field, ranging from The Marriage and Family Book: A Spiritual Guide (1978) to Vroom! - a graphic comic about collaboration and teamwork (1996). My Planning Inspired Performance program – an intensive visionary planning and organization-building process - has been used in numerous for-profit and non-profit organizations as a practical way to organize around a commonly held purpose.
I earned a Masters degree in Counseling in1981, and a Doctorate in Leadership and Group Psychology, in 1983, from the University of Massachusetts.
I’d like to share with the reader, an experience with one of my early teachers that has been highly formative in the development of the Spacious Mind coaching approach:
My first introduction to spiritual work – sadhana – began in the early1970’s under the guidance of Baba Hari Dass, a master yogi and life-long monk, who has observed continual silence for more than fifty years. "Babaji," a term of respect and endearment, teaches and provides advise by writing on a small chalkboard. He has the marvelous knack of offering profound statements and insights in just a few words. In 1973, my wife and I had the good fortune to host Babaji for ten days in our house in Vancouver, B.C. Hosting a silent yogi from the Himalayas is highly unusual; in 1973, it was revolutionary. Word soon got out that the silent yogi who had been Ram Dass' teacher in India and whom he had written about in his seminal book, Be Here Now - was in town.
People came to see Baba Hari Dass with mixed motives. Some were merely curious, some were sincere spiritual seekers looking for guidance, and others didn’t know why they were there. Babaji sat in a simple, unostentatious room that soon overflowed with people. People asked questions about various spiritual topics – mantras, meditation techniques, yoga methods, sexuality, differences between Hinduism and Buddhism, why Babaji was silent – the questions went on and on. And Babaji answered them all, patiently and sometimes in great detail. After a few days, I began to notice a pattern. At first, especially with new people, the questions would flow, often for hours on end, the only sound in the room, the scratching of the chalk on the tiny chalkboard as Babaji responded. Sometimes he'd respond to a questioner with a shrug and a pithy teaching like:
“Mind makes and mind takes."
Sometimes the explanations were a little longer:
We inherit mental conditioning
from the past life, from the teachings
of our parents, from society, and
from our religious beliefs.
In this way we live as our elders lived.
Only if one is capable of deconditioning
the mind from all old beliefs, dogmas,
and the latencies of the past,
can one find eternal truth.
from the past life, from the teachings
of our parents, from society, and
from our religious beliefs.
In this way we live as our elders lived.
Only if one is capable of deconditioning
the mind from all old beliefs, dogmas,
and the latencies of the past,
can one find eternal truth.
When he'd completed writing on his chalkboard, Babjaji would face the chalkboard so that one of us could read what he had written to the others. This was usually followed by silence as we all took in the full import and implications of the statement. Sometimes someone would ask follow-up questions, but gradually, something else would happen. People’s questions began to peter out and Babaji would just sit quietly, perhaps twirling the string attaching his chalk to the chalkboard, sometimes making a spontaneous joke, or occasionally engaging with one of us in a dialogue. The atmosphere was spacious, reinforced by the relative slowness of the written communication. There was a deep feeling of safety and effortless presence in the here-and-now. Sometimes, someone would share a deep truth about their own lives, laughing or crying at their mistaken notions. But, then that exchange would be over and we’d just sit there, with nothing further to do. A delicious, soft silence enveloped the room, for many minutes, a stillness and quietness that is impossible to describe. If there is an opposite of a tense silence, this was it. We weren’t meditating or doing anything “spiritual” and yet the peace in the room was palpable. Even when someone spoke or asked a question, there was nothing neurotic or compulsive about it. This was probably the first time in my life when I had been in a gathering where there was no commitment to doing anything, an OKness with just being quietly together. Day after day, the same people would return to just sit in the room.
Michael Shandler with Baba Hari Dass (circa 1973)
Those early days in our house in Vancouver had a very profound influence on my work. Now, as I sit with people and engage them in spoken and silent conversations about their experience in the present moment, the experience is of the same spirit of spacious mind I was introduced to back then.
Since that seminal time, I’ve been influenced by teachings and teachers from a variety of perspectives. The life and teachings of Ramana Maharshi, the great Indian non-dual sage, have been very important to me. Although he died in 1950, his primary inquiry: Who am I? is a living legacy and the foundation for much of the deconstructive inquiry work I have engaged in from various other traditions. Ramana is in many ways the "grandfather" of a contemporary group of spiritual teachers who are gaining in popularity, including Eckhart Tolle, Adyashanti, and others.
Ramana Maharshi
For the past four years I have been working intensively with Peter Fenner, a leader in the adaptation of Non-dual Asian wisdom for Westerners. Peter has synthesized the ancient teachings into a powerful contemporary learning experience called the Radiant Mind. The nine-month Radiant Mind Course is fast gaining a reputation as one of the most innovative training programs for integrating the liberating wisdom of Asia’s nondual wisdom traditions at a deep level in all aspects of our life. It is especially appropriate for Westerners because it is refreshingly free of dogmatism and rituals, yet provides step-by-step coaching support and experiential insight into the transcultural wisdom of Mahayana Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta.
