SUBLIME LIVING

10 Week Personalized Mentoring Program in

Creative, Conscious and Ecological Being

OVERVIEW

Socrates:

Know thyself

Student:

Do you know your self?

Socrates:

No…

but I know something about my not knowing

ABOUT

SUBLIME LIVING is a profound personal journey of discovery.

It is not about “being the best version of my self” but committing to a process of discovery of being.

SUBLIME LIVING is an online personalized mentoring program to cultivate creativity, consciousness, curiosity, and commitment to one’s most authentic Being. It is a structured pathway to better understand and live your Dharma, your most authentic vocation in life

SUBLIME LIVING can be applied potentially to any professional, creative, educational or existential aspiration.

It is based on a lifetime of personal, academic, psychotherapeutic, and creative research of Being. This includes my doctoral thesis, an inter-disciplinary research spanning science, art, architecture, design and existential philosophy:

Towards a Deep Ecology of Technology, Art and Being

It is based on my lifetime of enabling others to fulfill themselves. This is my skill.

Was lost and unable to move forward in my life.

The future was shrouded in uncertainty.

I saw life as a black-and-white landscape

with no room for diverse possibilities.

Raphael guided me to a deeper understanding

through various philosophers,

from ancient Eastern sages, Ancient Greek masters

to modern thinkers.

This opened my soul to a new perspective.

Life is like a game where we create the rules.

There is no single right way to live.

Life consists of small moments

that together form a larger picture.

Every moment, I am the creator of my own life

I can shape my life exactly as I want it to be,

and live in the present like a child,

marveling at the wonders of life

- Tommi, Entrepreneur, Finland

EXCHANGE

$2000, payable on booking

HOURS AND REQUIREMENTS

The SUBLIME LIVING program requires a minimum of 75 Hours commitment, a minimum of 1 hour a day consisting of:

• 10 weekly 2 hour sessions with Raphael

• Daily follow up personal activity of 1 hour to embody the sessional learning; and apply the understanding to achieving specific goals. This is backed by inter-sessional support from Raphael

• Daily personal reflective journal writing - words and/or images on Google Docs which Raphael responds to

It is open to anyone of reasonably functioning good health who is ready to make such a commitment. Practices and exercises can be adapted to suit and embrace a range of abilities and disabilities.

No experience or knowledge - science, art, philosophy, meditation - is required. I explain everything in as accessible way as possible.

What is essential is openness, ability to question one’s self, and willingness to commit to rigorous exploration.

START TIME

You can begin SUBLIME LIVING right now, after booking and arranging a mutually agreeable weekly time to meet

It is an online program.

By special arrangement it is also offered in 2025 in-person to anyone staying in Phuket, Thailand.

Would you like to explore practical ways to embody SUBLIME LIVING in your daily life?

BOOK A SUBLIME LIVING MENTORING PROGRAM

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It is probably quite true, generally,

that in the history of human thinking,

the most fruitful developments

frequently take place at those points

where two different lines of thought meet.

These lines might have there roots

in quite different parts of human culture,

in different times, or different cultural environments,

or different religious traditions. 

Hence, if they actually meet, that is,

if they are, at least, so much related to each other,

that a real interaction can take place,

then one may hope that

new and interesting developments may follow

-  Physicist Werner Heisenberg

SECTIONS

1. SUBLIME LIVING IS NOT SOME NEW TRUTH

2. WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM SUBLIME LIVING

3. SCIENCE AND SUBLIME LIVING

4. EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY OF BEING

5. PHILOSOPHY AS ART

6. HOLISITIC INTEGRATIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY

7. SUBLIME LIVING AND BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY

SUBLIME LIVING IS NOT SOME NEW TRUTH

It is better

to live your own destiny imperfectly

than to live

an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection

- The Bhagavad Gita

The primary aim of SUBLIME LIVING is to foster your personal existential exploration toward a Way of Being in an impermanent inter-connecting world. Such a pathway is rarely carved out without the support of others.

SUBLIME LIVING is not some new dogmatic truth. It is simply my Way of living and sharing truthfully in a world seemingly without truth. I share the program to support others find their own Way.

Beyond religious and other dogma, it retains always the sense of uncertainty and ongoing enquiry.

It is a Way of living creatively even with Life’s bitternesses. It is a Way where each day we can potentially taste what I call THE DELICIOUS DELIGHT OF LIVING.

OBJECTIVES WITHIN THE PROGRAM

Foster:

• Critical thinking and clarity about your self and your place in the world

• Clarity of purpose in life through better understanding of your deepest universal need and personal core values

• Problem-solving skills to engage with and adapt to your own life and situation

• Mentality of commitment to daily action toward personal transformation

• Daily practice, ritual that is personal to you, which can support your life-time journey

• Your innate resources to live peacefully creatively and joyfully in a chaotic impermanent world

This approach highlights the transformative power of individual growth: not just for ourselves but as a ripple effect that influences those around us. By cultivating such a rich and purposeful existence, we may inspire others to do the same, toward creating a more mindful and compassionate world.

SUBLIME LIVING is:

• Inter-disciplinary training and enquiry: a meeting ground of Science, Art, Philosophy, Psychotherapy, Coaching and Play. No Experience of or skill in Art, Philosophy, Science, Meditation, Yoga or Psychotherapy is required: I break it all down for you

• Best approached with a Beginner’s Mind, open to any outcome

• Action-orientated and requires daily commitment

• Enabling you to find your own Way of SUBLIME LIVING

The originality and depth of SUBLIME LIVING is in its eclectic interdisciplinarity.

The truth is that

Play seems to be one of the most advanced methods

nature has invented

to allow a complex brain to create itself

and engage fully with the world

- Pioneering Play Researcher Professor Stuart Brown

Living authentically as much as may be possible in an imperfect, transient, impermanent and not fully knowable world.

It is a Deep Ecology: conceiving a world in organic inter-connection.

A sense of Being in symbiotic, non-human-centered relationship.

It is a Way where I cultivate sublime moments in daily life situations; as well as my personal creativity through dance, art and connection with the natural world.

A Way where life can truly feel a dance and a play.

Where Life has the exhilaration of Surfing.

Where each situation can potentially be a moment of wonder and awe.

In this I find a profound sense of  harmony, balance, flow and inner peace.

Are you ready to surf?

BOOK A SUBLIME LIVING MENTORING PROGRAM

ARRANGE AN ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTATION FOR BESPOKE PROGRAMS I CAN DESIGN AND TEACH FOR YOU

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WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM SUBLIME LIVING

I like working with Raphael

because he asks difficult questions

that provoke and stimulate me

in my ongoing journey

- Client

SUBLIME LIVING can benefit as any person wanting to explore a specific career, personal, creative or existential exploration. You need to be reasonably well functioning,  motivated and self-driven. It utilizes meditative practices and some people, especially with certain mental health conditions, have an adverse response to meditation. If in question, please discuss with your doctor or appropriate health professional.

For anyone interested in a looser developmental exploration, a more open coaching process, which can be limited to one or two sessions, consider signing up for general MENTORING.

For anyone interested in more profound mental health recovery please consider my PSYCHOTHERAPY service.

I share this program with any individual who has a genuine rigorous commitment to evolving their own Way of SUBLIME LIVING; their own Deep Ecology.

I share this with any person who aspires for a long-term adventure; a long term “co-creation”; a journey into unknown territory: una terra incognito.

SUBLIME LIVING is a program in living life most blissfully, creatively, and lovingly. It can be a program that you come back to again and again in an endless “way” through life.

SUBLIME LIVING is a personal creative pathway toward the Sublime: toward THE DELICIOUS DELIGHT OF LIVING.

Would you like to explore practical ways to embody SUBLIME LIVING in your daily life?

BOOK A SUBLIME LIVING MENTORING PROGRAM

ARRANGE AN ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTATION FOR BESPOKE PROGRAMS I CAN DESIGN AND TEACH FOR YOU

NEED MORE INFORMATION BEFORE BOOKING? SCROLL DOWN FOR DETAILED DESCRIPTION

SCIENCE AND SUBLIME LIVING

We live in a world which

man has changed so completely

that in every sphere –

whether we deal with the tools of daily life,

whether we eat food which has been prepared by machines, or

whether we travel in a countryside radically changed by man

we are always meeting man-made creations,

so that in a sense we meet only ourselves

- Physicist Werner Heisenberg

SUBLIME LIVING and the exploration of being is underpinned by contemporary scientific research that explores the inter-relationality in the universe, the understanding of our bodies, how we develop neuroplasticity and life-long creativity

The science includes

• Neuroscience

• Evolutionary Psychology of Gilbert, Keltner and others which teach us that we survive and thrive through cooperation, collaboration and adaptation: “survival of the fittest”

• Biology and the conception of Symbiogenesis by Lynn Margulis

• The Bio-Chemistry of Emotion as pioneered by Candace Pert

• Consciousness and Intelligence on the cellular level developed by Maturana and Varela and Antonio Damasio

• Blue Mind research on the mildly meditative state generated by immersion in Water by Wallace J. Nichols

• Deep Ecology including the ideas of Joanna Macy

• Gaia Theory of James Lovelock

• Sub-Atomic Physics by John Wheeler and others

• Butterfly Effect: the meteorological research by Charles Lorenz, evidencing how even small actions can impact profoundly on the world around us

Science is significant in the exploration. It embraces uncertainty, complexity, life-long curiosity about who we are and how we can live.

The atoms of our bodies are traceable

to stars that manufactured them in their cores

and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy, billions of years ago.

For this reason,

we are biologically connected

to every other living thing in the world.

We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth.

And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe.

We are not figuratively, but literally stardust

- Astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson

Would you like to explore more deeply who you are and what you can become?

BOOK A SUBLIME LIVING MENTORING PROGRAM

ARRANGE AN ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTATION FOR BESPOKE PROGRAMS I CAN DESIGN AND TEACH FOR YOU

NEED MORE INFORMATION BEFORE BOOKING? SCROLL DOWN FOR DETAILED DESCRIPTION

EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY

Freedom without compassion is demoniacal.

Without compassion,

freedom can be

self-righteous, inhuman, self-centered, and cruel

- Existential Psychologist Rollo May

SUBLIME LIVING is underpinned by philosophy Including:

• Philosophy of Yoga of the Bhagavad Gita rooted in living one’s Dharma, ones’ most authentic vocation in life - what we really want to do and how we wish to live based on our personal core values and what we most deeply need.

• The Yoga Sutra’s comprehensive way of living that has Meditation as its pinnacle

• Secular Buddhism including the concepts and practices of Sati (present moment awareness), Metta (Befriending) and Pratitityasampudpada (co-relational origination).

• Wider Existential Philosophy

• The eclectic path of Tantra in India around 1600 years ago where Science, Art and Philosophy were integrated into a pathway of understanding ourselves and the Universe. This is a theme of my post-doctoral level research and doctoral thesis: Toward a Deep Ecology of Art Technology and Being, with particular reference to the Water Temple of Tadao Ando and the rock cut edifices of Ellora and Ajanta.

Sado, the Way of Tea, particularly emphasizes mindful action in daily life. I mentor you to cultivate this.

Are you ready to discover better your Dharma, your most authentic vocation in life?

BOOK A SUBLIME LIVING MENTORING PROGRAM

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PHILOSOPHY AS ART

What is important is to keep our mind high in the world of true understanding

And returning to the world of our daily experience

To seek therein the truth of beauty.

No matter what we may be doing at a given moment,

We must not forget that it has a bearing upon our everlasting self

Which is poetry

- Haiku poet Matsuo Basho

SUBLIME LIVING involves Zen and other practices where Art meets Philosophy such as:

• Sado, the Way of Tea, known in the West as the Japanese Tea Ceremony

• Ma Hsia School of Painting in China

• Music of John Cage

• Architecture of Tadao Ando such as The Water Temple

• Tantric rock-cut edifices of Ellora and Ajanta

• Dance-Theater of Tatsumi Hijikata and Pina Bausch

• Films of Andrey Tarkovsky, Yasujiro Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Robert Bresson

• Poetry of Matsuo Basho

• Art of Vasily Kandinsky, Fluxus, Happenings

Are you ready to breathe art into your life and life into your art?

BOOK A SUBLIME LIVING MENTORING PROGRAM

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HOLISITIC INTEGRATIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY

Therapy for the Soul

The Zen ceramic art practice of Kintsugi

is of a life to be lived, honoured and treasured,

however it is

As required, I bring in components from my PSYCHOTHERAPY system to support clarification of goals actions to take, commitment to goals and cultivating mental flexibility. Here I particularly ACT: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Solution-focused Therapy, Egan’s Three Stage Model and Mindfulness approaches

To cultivate neuroplasticity I use play therapy for adults

For artists and other creatives, I utilize more Dance and Movement Therapy, Art Therapy, Photographic Therapy Play Therapy, Ecotherapy and water Therapy

Ultimately I work in a very flexibly way in-tune wherever you are at in life and whatever your goals.

Kintsugi corresponds to a modern concept of

Mental Health Recovery:

Recovery is a deeply personal, unique process of

changing one's attitudes, values, feelings, goals,

skills and/or roles.

It is a way of living a satisfying, hopeful, and contributing life

even with limitations caused by the illness.

Recovery involves the development of

new meaning and purpose in one's life

as one grows

- Psychiatrist Dr. William Anthony

Are you ready to live a rich satisfying life?

BOOK A SUBLIME LIVING MENTORING PROGRAM

ARRANGE AN ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTATION FOR BESPOKE PROGRAMS I CAN DESIGN AND TEACH FOR YOU

NEED MORE INFORMATION BEFORE BOOKING? SCROLL DOWN FOR DETAILED DESCRIPTION

BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY

Reshape the Mind: Transform Your Life

The Toyota style, rooted in the philosophy of Kaizen,

is not to create results by working hard.

It is a system that says

there is no limit to people’s creativity.

People don’t go to Toyota to “work”.

They go there to “think”.

- Creator of the Toyota Production System, Taiichi Ohno

Neuroscience, contemporary Psychotherapy such as ACT Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Business Philosophy such as Kaizen, originated at Toyota, teach us that small actions, consistently completed, can create significant change.  

For example, a simple savoring practice, which I share, of just 1 minute per day is evidenced in only a few months to impact significantly on wellness and     well-being.

We can re-wire the brain and transform our lives.

Our brains can evolve throughout our lives

I train you in this process.

There is a vital importance of identifying deepest universal needs, personal core values and goals based on these. Then there is is requirement to take actions each day and through each day, to enable realization and richness of life. As sports psychologist Sir Dave Brailsford says when we make “marginal gains’ in different areas of our life activity, it can lead to significant improvement in performance.

When we operate in this way, each life activity - professional nd personal - becomes a space to think, to be, to create.

Choose a Sublime Ideal.

If you dedicate yourself to a sublime ideal,

your life will continually grow in richness, strength and intensity.

It is like a capital investment:

you place your capital in a Heavenly bank so that,

instead of deteriorating or going to waste,

it increases and makes you richer

- Philospher Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov

Are you ready to transform you business and your life

BOOK A SUBLIME LIVING MENTORING PROGRAM

ARRANGE AN ORGANIZATIONAL CONSULTATION FOR BESPOKE PROGRAMS I CAN DESIGN AND TEACH FOR YOU