Diamond Approach South Africa is the first Diamond Approach group in South Africa. The group has begun with a three year programme.
New students are invited to join the programme at any time in the first few years.
Covid-19 Update: The global coronavirus pandemic has lead to travel restrictions and social distancing requirements. We have restructured the 2020 programme into a series of weekends which will most likely be online. If travel restrictions lift, some may be in-person.
Registration is open for the two remaining weekends of 2020.
Register for DASA Weekend 3
5-6 September 2020
Register for DASA Weekend 4
30 October – 1 November 2020
Past Weekends / Now Available as Online Courses
DASA Weekend 2 “Consciousness & Conditioning”
18-19 July 2020
The July two day retreat is now available as an online course, or for students who attended the weekend to review. The course explores our individual consciousness – which we call the soul in the Diamond Approach. We look at how our malleable soul is shaped and impressed by our personal history and conditioning. This has many elements including around culture, gender, sexual orientation and most topically with the Black Lives Matter movement at present, race, which is so much part of the South African story. Our deepest resulting loss is of contact with the qualities of our inner nature such as strength, compassion, joy, grounding, intelligence, will, power, love and value. These universal qualities are part of every soul, regardless of race, gender or any other characteristic. Bringing our curiosity and inquiry to the conditioning of our soul opens the possibility of discovering who and what we are more fundamentally than any history, while embracing the truth of our history.
This course is open to new and existing students.
If you did not attend the Awakening Curiosity long weekend April, then those teachings are available as an online course here. They will be a support for you, but are not required, and you can always review them in future.
After registration you will be emailed important information about accessing the materials. Please check your spam filter or junk mail if you do not seem to have anything.
Click the image for registration or to review recordings.
Follow up Saturday 1 August
2:30pm – 5:30pm
South African students: R2300 standard rate (billed as £105) / R3000 higher rate (billed as £140) /R1600 (billed as £74) lower concession rate on application
European students: €232 standard rate
DASA Weekend 1 “Awakening Curiosity”
This is the first weekend of the Diamond Approach SA group, now available as an online course for anyone to take. Human beings have an inherent capacity for wonder and delight in exploring and discovering life. The Diamond Approach brings this quality to exploring our inner experience and learning about ourselves. That natural curiosity gets limited and shut down in many ways. The limitations result partly from how our wonderment and curiosity was met when we were young. It is also limited to our inherent tendencies, for example to only be interested in things that seem interesting or feel good. In this course you will explore directly your own experience of curiosity and what limits it. By exploring and understanding the limitations they can begin to open them up and free up your openness to explore.
Click left to go to the course.
2020 Retreat Dates
Weekend 1: 25-27 April 2020 (3 days) – fee R3600 / €320
Follow up Saturday afternoon 30 May
Follow up Saturday afternoon 20 June
Weekend 2: 18-19 July 2020 (2 days) – fee R2300 / €220
Follow up Saturday afternoon 1 August
Weekend 3: 5-6 September 2020 (2 days) – fee R2300 / €220
Follow up Saturday afternoon 10 October
Weekend 4: 30 October – 1 November (3 days) – fee R3600 / €320
Follow up Saturday afternoon 12 December
Follow up Saturday afternoon 9 January
Creating a Retreat Environment at Home
Here are a few guidelines for creating a sacred retreat space for when we are on retreat together, that will support us all while participating remotely by Zoom.
Find a quiet and private space to participate in the retreat. Arrange your computer so you can see and hear well. If you like, you can arrange a small altar near you with a candle, flowers, a cloth and objects that help you connect with your inner depth. Keeping a small candle burning throughout the day helps to remind us we are practicing on retreat.
We realize creating space will be different for everyone, so do the best you can in your personal situation.
Entering the Sanctuary together. We want to create a space that feels like we are in person with each other as much as possible. Even though we are not in person, arriving on time is still important. Arrive 5-10 minutes before the start time, and begin to sit quietly. Logging in early for each meeting may help with being on time. Consider your computer or device as a necessary part of the sanctuary. It is your portal to the retreat space.
Familiarise yourself with Zoom. Registering for a free Zoom account is optional, but ensure zoom is downloaded and test your zoom link ahead of time. If you can, ensure that you can hear and see on a zoom call, and that you can be seen and heard. Try using a headset if you have difficulty hearing or being heard. Familiarise yourself with the Zoom controls, including:
- Start/stop your video camera at the bottom of the Zoom screen
- Mute/unmute your microphone – and please keep your microphone muted until the exercise or you are called in on the questions and commentsAt the top right of the Zoom screen, the icons that let you switch between gallery view and speaker view
Being present and attentive during the meetings. We want to hold the space together and being present and attentive is crucial to creating a field of presence. Your complete attention to yourself, to your presence, and to the retreat space, will help to create the right environment for us all.
Limit distractions. Be mindful of the temptation to pull yourself away from the meetings. Because you are home there could be many things that distract you. Do what you can to limit distractions, i.e. turn off phones, don’t check e-mails, try to keep children and pets in the other room. Remember we are all online and our videos are on, and everyone else could be distracted by the goings on in your immediate space. During interruptions, if you need to turn your video off for a brief period of time, that’s fine. However on the whole, we do want you to be visually present, as this creates more of an in-person feel to our retreat experience. Please do not just leave your video off.
Creating a time for community sharing. There will be time to open the space up and share. This will happen during the comments and questions, after the exercises, as well as during the community meeting. You may also want to arrange informal social time with other students to catch up or get to know one another.