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PRIVATE SPIRITUAL DIRECTION
The Rev. Brendan Ellis Williams, CMR
with
(Ngakpa Pälden Dorje)
Experience more peace, freedom, growth, and expansiveness in your life.
Learn to let go into the already perfect flow of Being, your own deepest nature.
Spiritual direction originates in the ancient custom of seeking out elders on the path of spiritual practice: experienced contemplatives or mystics who have uncompromisingly dedicated their lives to the project of human transformation, who have borne genuine fruit in that pursuit, and therefore have something to offer others by way of direct guidance and support on the path. Traditionally, the one giving spiritual direction is a highly devoted, long-time spiritual practitioner—a seer, yogī, or sādhu, for instance—who lives outside the bounds of normative, materially oriented society. He or she acts as a bridge between the ordinary, visible world and what in my ancestral Gaelic inheritance would be called the 'Otherworld': the unseen, numinous dimensions of reality.
Acting as such a bridge for sincere seekers—and handing on to them the effectual spiritual tools I have received from my own teachers, lineages of practice, mystical experiences, and insights to help facilitate in each student the unveiling of wisdom and ultimacy—summarizes the approach to spiritual direction I have come to organically develop and embody over many years of practice, study, formation, and ascetical discipline. I feel strongly that truth, virtue, real equanimity, and illumined awareness must be discovered by each soul directly, and my primary work is to equip and support students or directees in making those discoveries for themselves. This is the spirit in which I offer teaching and guidance to others as a spiritual director.
We live in a time and cultural environment of extraordinary pressure, uncertainty, endless distraction, corrosive stories, and unhelpful beliefs about what’s actually important in human life. If we wish to walk a genuine and fruitful spiritual path in our present time and place, it is therefore crucial to have the guidance of a qualified teacher and wayshower who can point out the pitfalls before we fall into them, transmit to us genuine practices with transformational capacity, help us to integrate those processes and their results into our lives in a way that actually gets us nearer to the highest aims of human experience.
As a long-time spiritual director and formator, I have accompanied many souls through the spiritual, psychological, somatic, and external, ‘real-world’ challenges of developing a sustainable and transformative spiritual life—one that’s especially right for each individual seeker and that's fully integrated into his or her daily life. Taking on the development of meaningful spiritual practices—particularly meditative and contemplative disciplines, which are really the foundation of any true spiritual journey—and making them into regular commitments that actually change our lives is a particularly challenging affair in today’s world; but the benefits, if achieved, cannot be overstated. In fact, I would argue that an integrative and genuinely fruitful spiritual life is the single most important thing that any human being can pursue.
As a priest, ngakpa (yogī), contemplative, religious scholar, mystical theologian, and dedicated spiritual practitioner for over thirty years, the work of the spiritual guide or teacher is simply what I live and breathe, and it is my joy to humbly offer support to others along the way, in dedication to the ‘wholing’ and liberative illumination of every being.
Spiritual direction sessions are one hour in duration.
The required donation for each session is $125.00, payable via PayPal or Venmo (or by cash for in-person clients only). Payments must be made at least twenty-four hours prior to the scheduled session.
To schedule a session, please email Father Brendan (Ngakpa-la) directly through the Contact page on this site. Emailing to request an appointment implies that you have read and agreed to all that follows below, as well as to the above cost and payment policy.
Cancellation policy: Any client who does not show up to a spiritual direction appointment or cancels an appointment with less than twenty-four hours notice will be required to pay the full hour session fee in full. If a session has been scheduled on Zoom and the client is late, Ngakpa-la will wait fifteen minutes for the client to arrive. If the client does not arrive on the Zoom call within that fifteen minute time-frame, it will be considered a no-show and the client will be responsible for the full cost of the session. No exceptions will be made to these policies, barring a life-or-death emergency that is clearly demonstrable.
Real spiritual growth comes only through honoring one's commitments: to the path, to one's teacher(s), to oneself, and to all beings. Receiving genuine spiritual direction from a qualified teacher is rare and should be treated with seriousness, care, and respect. It is not an accessory or an ancillary add-on to one's life, but is in fact among the most important things one can engage in, because it is work related to the highest aims of human existence.