WST Resources & Assignments Room
This page will be updated with assignments, readings and video links. Please check here for each session.

Greetings WST Cohort Members and welcome to the Resources & Assignments Room.
I hope that this space will allow you to dive into systems awareness and transformation as deeply as you have the desire and capacity for. Here we will post the Pre-work for each Intensive, at least 30 days before the start of the Intensive. We will also post sharable resources presented during each Intensive as well as transcribed notes. (Some videos or handouts will not be shared electronically, and we will request that you not copy or share them with people outside of the cohort.)
To Bring
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[For March Intensive only]
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A) AN ITEM FOR THE COMMUNITY HONORING TABLE. This item should honor your life journey in some way. It might be connected to family, culture, spiritual or religious life ~ a picture, small article, cloth, - you will know! Items are usually left on the table for the duration of 5 days.
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B) A Gifted ITEM REPRESENTING A HOPE, PRAYER, or BLESSING FOR THIS PARTICULAR GROUP ON THIS WST JOURNEY. This item will stay with us through to the November Intensive. In November, each cohort member will choose one of the items to take home with them.
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Bring your pre-work (Instructions below)
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Yoga Mat if you own one. We will have a few extras. (There will be movement sessions daily)
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Please bring a drum or two if you already own one and don’t mind sharing another (other instruments are cool too). You can also bring recorded music that you might want to share with the whole group during preparation and break times.
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Remember to bring articles that make you comfortable in workshop settings (a special pillow, your own water bottle, comfortable clothing, indoor shoes/slippers to keep the floor dry, a writing utensil that you like....)
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Bring your own journal if you please. There will be some writing materials provided.
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Check weather reports for the Kirkridge area.
PRE-WORK will always include at least these 4 Sections: (Please bring all free writing, journal entries or artwork to the Intensive that follows. You will always have the choice of NOT sharing these entries with others, but it will be important that you have access to them.)
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Meditation Free-write
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Reading
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Reflection/Journaling Activity
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Movement, Music, or Visual Arts
Prework Session 1: Shaping the Vessel
Updated February 10, 2025

1. Meditation Practice - Set your timer for 5 minutes. Close/soften your eyes and focus on your breathing for the full 5 minutes. Again, set your timer for 3 minutes and Free write* – whatever comes up for you as you consider stepping into this WST Series. Try to do this practice a minimum of three times before the start of the Intensive. [*Free writing involves writing down all of your thoughts continuously without sopping, and without regard for spelling, grammar, or any of the usual rules for writing.]
2. Read this short piece, notice, and briefly document your reactions/responses in mind, body, and spirit:
“I see that, as a human being, I am the result of innumerable influences, social compulsions, religious impressions, and that if I try to find reality, truth, or God, that very search will be based on the things I have been taught, shaped by what I have known, conditioned by my education and by the influences of the environment in which I live. So, can I be free of all that? To be free, I must first know for myself that my mind is conditioned, that is, I must be fully aware that I am not really a human being, but a Hindu, a Catholic, a German, a Protestant, a communist, a socialist, or whatever it may be. I am born with a label, and this, or some other label of my own choosing, sticks to me for the rest of my life. I am born and die in one religion, or I change from one religion to another, and I think I have understood reality, God, but I have only perpetuated the conditioned mind, the label. Now, can I, as a human being, put all that away from me without any compulsion?” [Jiddu Krishnamurti, Hamburg 1956,Talk 6]
3. Choose an early morning time OR a very late-at-night time – a time when those around you are asleep or quiet (4 am would be ideal, you can go back to sleep): Reflect on who you know yourself to be, essentially, at your core. You might start this writing/or recording in one of these ways: “This is who I know myself to be underneath all of the conditioning.” And/or: “A Niyonu (replace with your name) that has always been present, for as long as I can remember, I would describe as….” And/or: “The parts of myself that seem to always want to come through, no matter the circumstances are….” Write/record at least a full page (or 4-minute recording) and no more than three (12-minute recording).
4. Set your timer for 5, 10 or 15 minutes before beginning to watch the video clip, so that you can move right into your response after watching. If you plan to draw or color in response, have all of your materials ready. If you plan to videotape yourself moving, same. Have it set up.