Planetary Dharma
A 4th Turning Teaching
A Time of Great Transition
One of the greatest events of the last century might have been the quiet arrival of the Trans-Himalayan teachings, Buddha and Sanatana Dharma, in the West. The history of the Trans-Himalayan has shown over the last 2500 years that as it moves to new civilizations it has the capacity to mutate into forms relevant to the times. While Western culture has psychological and spiritual wealth, it has been challenging for the therapeutic and contemplative knowledge of Clinical Psychology, Western Esotericism and mystical Christianity to be integrated into the heart of modern culture. The power of the Trans-Himalayan approach is that has resonance with the religious needs of humanity, but grounds them in a humanistic vision concerned with the alleviation of individual, cultural and systemic suffering without having to rely upon an outside mythic deity.
The Dharma has gone through three paradigmatic shifts over the millennia. Known as the ‘turnings’ of the dharmic wheel, these shifts in paradigm are a result of a deepening understanding into the nature of suffering and the methods of healing. At this point in time the process of cultural interaction between East and West and its inevitable synthesis is well underway with many of the fundamental insights of contemplative psychology becoming integrated into western psychotherapy.
At present the assimilation of the Dharma has been slowed by Western practitioners looking to direction from the traditional conservative lineage holders of the East, and also by the glacial movement of Western academic scientific research which is corroborating the neurophenomenology of contemplative practice. There is a need for teachings that are grounded in the theory and practice of Trans-Himalayan contemplative psychology and that is synthesized with Western contemporary understandings of psychological healing, and adult development.
Planetary Dharma: Fourth Turning Teaching
At this moment in history the deep archetypal structures of the Eastern and Western psyches are meeting. In this creative confluence a planetary synthesis, a fourth turning of the dharma wheel is unfolding.
Planetary Dharma, is a contribution to this global endeavor, a fourth-turning Trans-Himalayan teaching that synthesizes Buddhist & Hindu contemplative science, psychodynamic integration, plant medicine work, embodiment, adult ego-development, and esotericism into a Western Bodhisattva path of action and community development for the 21st century.
When the path of the Bodhisattva, the awakening warrior, and their path of freedom and fulfillment through service to all, is grounded in a contemporary view of a sacred world we then find a universal vision that goes beyond Buddhism itself. It is a vision of Interbeing, the deep interdependence that we share with an interconnected holonic kosmos in all its planes of expression.
This universal way is a teaching for our time, it is deeply humanistic, planetary in its scope, aspirational in its vision of possibility, and calls us to a heroic altruism based on an evolved perspective of what it means to be a true human-being in relationship with one another.
Practice Path
The core contemplative path of Planetary Dharma integrates four interconnected approaches to human unfolding:
sacred earth practice
individual healing
universal development
essential recognition
The Earth Way leads us on a path of healing our split from the sacred dimensions of our planet, Gaia Sophia. This alchemical, tantric and magical approach embraces non-duality in a concrete literal approach. It invites us to engage our lives in a sacred world on a path of creative transformation that integrates our psychological shadows embodiment, food, plant medicines, ritual, and our intimate relationships with each other and the natural world. Its power is to catalyze profound healing and developmental growth inviting us into a magical sacred world of beauty, truth and goodness.
The Individual Way focuses on learning and embodying the foundations of contemplative self-healing, the understanding of multigenerational trauma, the insights of the four noble truths, four scopes of mindfulness, calm/staying practice and developing a healing and transformative life style through the eight-fold path.
The Universal Way of the the bodhisattva tradition of social-emotional learning supports the development of evolutionary skills necessary for us to grow beyond our personal alienation and competition allowing us to awaken to our collective human intelligence. Through developing the recognition of the fundamental openness of experience and the intimate field of interbeing we are able to clear the self-grasping cognitive codes and install the mind coding of altruistic living necessary for our survival as a species
The Essential Way emphasizes awakening and stabilizing our deepest identity, the primordial and unbounded ground of being. Through cognitive, somatic and heart-centered cycles of learning we learn to release the cognitive reification of language, body construction, self-structure, perceptual-duality, space-time, and the individual subjectivity of the attentional system. This allows us to rest deeply into the sacred matrix of reality where our bodies, hearts and minds reveal themselves as inseparable from the earth, the sun, and vast expanse of lucid space.
The Great Vehicle
The Mahayana, or Great Vehicle, or Great Way, is the practice, path and teaching that emphasizes the path of the Bodhisattva, the awakening being, and their path of freedom and fulfillment through alleviating the suffering of all inter-dependent sentient beings in a journey of many life times. The vision of the Mahayana is a universal vision that goes beyond the Trans-Himalaya itself and is deeply resonant with the original vision of Christianity. In this tradition it is held that the coming Avatar-Buddha-Christ, will not take the form of an individual, but the form of an expanding community of practice as it evolves into a planetary trans-lineage tradition of wisdom, compassion, and action.
Born in London, Dr. Churchill's interest in psycho-spiritual development, Integral theory, Contemplative studies, Western Esotericism, and Mahayana Buddhism began in his adolescence, eventually leading him to spend several years as a Buddhist monk at Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland. During this time, John received the esoteric Planetary Dharma transmissions that would in time unfold as his contribution to a planetary fourth turning teaching.
He is a founding member of the Integral Institute led by esteemed Transpersonal/Integral philosopher, Ken Wilber, and spent 15 years training and teaching in an Indo-Tibetan Mahayana lineage, Great Seal meditation under the mentorship of senior Western teacher, respected author, and clinical psychologist Dr. Daniel P. Brown.
John has received advanced training in: attachment therapy, hypnosis, positive psychology for peak performance, and the “Pointing Out” style of Mahamudra meditation.
For the last 25 years, John has developed a somatically based contemplative practice path; Embodying the Open Ground, that integrates psychodynamic healing, adult development and meditation.
John holds a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology from William James College, and is a practitioner of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Married to his partner, Nicole since 2000, they share two children together - Trinity and Bodhi, and are Co-Founders of Samadhi Integral, and Co-Directors of Karuna Mandala.
DOCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY | TEACHER OF BUDDHA DHARMA | PRACTITIONER OF TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE
