I am presently on day two of a six-day retreat with teachers and fellow students of The Diamond Approach and its founder, A.H. Almaas. I have been studying and working with this path for over ten years now, and it has really enriched my life.

The retreat this time has us beginning a new phase of the teachings – about what Hameed Ali (the real name of our teacher, his pen name is Almaas) calls the Boundless Dimensions. As always seems to be the case, the topic of this particular retreat matches the context and content of what has been arising in my day-to-day life leading up to our time here at UBC’s School of Theology (where our retreats occur).

My time at the Living the New Economy conference is a major case in point in the appropriate context for the present retreat. That conference not only demonstrated clearly the depth and breadth of commitment in Victoria to putting new ideas forward in an integrated community of inter-relationship – but it also shows promise for walking that talk. One of the ways the latter can be realized is for the Vancouver Island dollar (vi$) to come into viable circulation. For that to happen, businesses need to step forward and take a no-risk role in kick starting this local currency. For a good introduction for how this works and how businesses and individuals can get this off the ground, you can watch this series of short videos by Michael Linton