HAL ISEN
CORE WISDOM® LIFE COUNSELOR, ONTOLOGICAL HEALER, ORDAINED MINISTER, AUTHOR, AND ARTIST
My spiritual journey over the past 50 years has been composed of two parallel, unfolding, interrelated paths.
The Path of Art
This is the path of creative expression through the mediums of graphic art, sculpture, photography, and writing:
B.A. in Fine Art, American University, Washington, DC
M.F.A. from Pratt Institute, NYC
Drawing Instructor at the Corcoran School of Art
Assistant Professor of Art in Drawing and Printmaking at University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Illustrator for books, magazines, television, and The Washington
Post newspaper
Exhibitions of Drawings, Prints, and Sculptures include: The Baltimore Museum of Art, The Smithsonian Institution, The Library of Congress, Bucknell University, The Ratner Museum, The Corcoran Gallery of Art.
Permanent Collections: The National Library of Medicine, The Smithsonian Institution, The Library of Congress.
The Path of Transformation
This path is an ever-present experiential inquiry into the true nature of the “I” that we really ARE, expressing itself in life as an unfolding illumination of the radiant nature of our BEING. Over five decades, it has been my privilege and joy to share the principles and practices of the perennial Wisdom Traditions with over 160,000 people in the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, Germany, Israel, and India.
Core Wisdom: The Way of the Practical Mystic is the vehicle through which this direct, transformational pathway of the Non-Dual perspective takes form as group seminars, lectures, meetings, writings, and individual counseling sessions in person or online.
The Genesis Principle: A Journey into the Source of Creativity and Leadership – a novel by Hal Isen and Peter Kline. Great Ocean Publishers, 1999. Based on the principles of Core Wisdom.
My infinite gratitude to all of the ancestors, teachers, sages, mystics, yogis, energy healers, and friends from many disciplines who — through their Wisdom and Grace — have guided and pointed me along The Way over the years. Some I have been blessed to know and work with directly in person, some I’ve met through books and recordings, and some have made their Presence and Wisdom felt during deep meditation or sleep.
All of these radiant Beings are ever-present expressions of THAT... the Aware Presence that is prior to all appearances... the Stillness of Being... the Source of all Life... playing Hide and Seek with itself... disguising itself as “I,” “Others,” and the Universe... blessing me to know I AM THAT.
Hal Isen & Associates, inc. is located in Ashland, Oregon.
The Core Wisdom® website is www.corewisdom.com. Address any inquiries and requests regarding Core Wisdom® programs or counseling to: info@corewisdom.com
Core Wisdom
HAL ISEN
No words can satisfy a request for “written proof of the existence of God,” because such a request is based on two false assumptions.
First, it assumes that “God” (the Awareness, Source, and Context for all we call the “Universe”) is separate from the Universe itself, rather than being that from which all of the universe arises and of which it is composed.
Various scriptures, East and West, describe “God" as being all knowing (Omniscience), all powerful (Omnipotent), and all present (Omnipresent). “All” means ALL. Everything that arises. One without a second.
The Hebrew Bible states that the name for “God” is “I AM THAT I AM.” [Exodus III, 14. And God said unto Moses: I AM THAT I AM’; and He said. ‘Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: I AM hath sent me unto you’]. This infinite, self-referential “I AM” is the Source, it is the context in which all the appearances that we call “life” arise, manifest themselves, and dissolve.
Any image or concept of “God” is a limitation, and thus a lie. It immediately shifts the truth of the all-inclusive non-dual perspective of “I AM THAT I AM” to a mistaken illusion of duality, fragmenting and dividing Creation into a false paradigm of subject/object, creator/creation.
The second mistaken assumption is that we can experience the limitless, ever-present I AM through logic and reason. But logic and reason exist only in the mental realm. The explanatory, thinking realm is not where we find “God.” Thoughts and images are mere symbols and representations of what is real, no matter how well-crafted and erudite they are. Words and symbols are not direct experience, they are representations of experience. The map is not the territory, the menu is not the meal.
We experience the “proof" of the existence of “God” as presence, love, freedom, beauty, compassion, and grace in the same way that we understand the reality of chocolate or vanilla ice cream — by direct, non-verbal, experiential knowing. For example, even if I give you a detailed description of what ice cream looks and tastes like, you would still not know the experience of ice cream. In contrast, with one lick, you will experience and directly “know” vanilla or chocolate.
In the same way, one “taste” of the presence of God is all that you need in order to know God. With that, you realize that “I AM” is always present, “closer than your breath, nearer than your hands and feet.”(1) It is the infinite, open, aware presence that is breathing you and all the universe into being.
Footnotes:
1. There are many mystics, yogis, and spiritual teachers who have articulated various versions of this expression.
American mystic, healer, spiritual teacher, and author Joel S. Goldsmith (1892-1964) expressed his experience of God’s relationship with human beings in his classic book, “The Infinite Way,” as “closer than your breath, nearer than hands and feet.” The Persian Sufi mystic and poet Rumi (1207-1273), also referred to the experience of the Presence of God as saying, “God is closer to you than your own breath.”