Title: Icaro

Gender: Male

Age: 25

Sun Sign: Libra

Chinese Sign: Water Dog

Location: Raleigh, NC

I am currently the organizer of EnlightenNext Raleigh Authentic Ground, a group geared towards awakening to and engaging from the Authentic Self, oriented around the work and philosophy of  Andrew Cohen and EnlightenNext.  The group serves as a forum to communicate with individuals who are dedicated to engaging in life from beyond the confines of ego and narcissism. Working with ENAG constantly pushes me to dive outside the bounds of what I think I already know into an ever-new inquiry into our Condition. 

Along with friends Jenny Jensen and Chris Hunnicut I am also co-organizer of Impulse!, an experiment aimed at bringing together the organizers of other Triangle are human potential and spiritual groups in a context that transcends any one group identity while simultaneosly strengthening each constituent group's autonomyous expression and effectiveness in the world.

I've been blessed to work alongside spiritual heavyweights Augie Turak and Dave Gold, founders and leaders of the Triangle area spiritual community, the Self Knowledge Symposium.  Both were students of American “hillbilly Zen master” Richard Rose, one of the truest, most original, and sincere teachers of transformational spirituality to have emerged on US soil (check out Dave's website www.aftertheabsolute.com for more information on Rose).  Through working as a facilitator and coordinator for the SKS, I've witnessed and come closer to understanding the “nothing less than everything” approach to life and spiritual inquiry that Rose taught and which Aug and Dave embody. 

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Professionally speaking, I presently have the opportunity to put the principles I've learned from working with EnlightenNext and the SKS to work serving as the director of sales for Strategic800, a marketing tools firm I started with Dave.  I am also honored to have recently come on board as a representative for the nothing-less-than- visionary ad network of Terri Hinton, helping to galvanize conscious capitalism by brokering and promoting ad space right here on Gaia! 

I took my first sales job after asking Augie what job choices one should make while on the spiritual path.  His answer: work with your hands or do sales.  Having previously assumed and perceived selling to be the very antithesis of authenticity or anything close to “spiritual,” I've now have become fascinated with the relationship between salesmanship, authenticity, and spiritual inquiry.  I've already learned more than I could have possibly imagined by throwing off inherited and culturally conditioned notions of the archetypal salesman and creatively embracing what it means to be on the leading edge of conscious capitalism. 

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Besides the groups and business, I'll always be a avid music lover.  I play bass and have performed in numerous ensembles and projects from baroque ensembles to calypso bands.  Most recently, I've fallen in love with the music from the favelas and samba schools of Rio de Janeiro, samba pagode.  I am currently leaning to play two instruments which define pagode's core rhythms, the tambourine like hand drum, the pandeiro, and the ukulele-ish instrument, the cavaquinho.  Ultimately I hope to incorporate these rhythms and harmonies back into my bass playing, as part my ever evolving quest to find more ways to express more subtly and flavorfully in a musical context. 

Member Since: Wednesday, June 28 2006

Last Visit: Yesterday.

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