ATP Formal Training Program

This is a brief description of the intention behind the formal training program offered by Awakening to

Presence with Michael Fleming

Purpose and Intention of the Training

One of the services I offer is a long term training program that unfolds over a number of years in a

committed group format with lots of personal attention and support. There are two main intentions:

1. The primary intention is to support each person in waking up to their True Nature as pure divine

Presence to the point where they can sustain this Presence in all areas of their lives and be who and

what they are meant to be.

2. The secondary intention of the training is to provide in-depth training in how to professionally

support others in waking up to their True Nature.

These two intentions complement each other in precise ways.

If you want to be able to effectively and competently support others, you need to commit to your own

awakening work first. The ability to support others comes from your own awakening. We have to

heal ourselves first.

Yet, simultaneously focusing on learning how to support others will greatly accelerate your own

awakening process. Having the motivation to do your growth work for the benefit of others takes

you beyond the self-absorbed habits of the ego. By also focusing on learning how to support others,

you are doing the work not just for yourself, but for the benefit of all, including the people in your

daily lives.

Therefore, these two intentions synergistically complement each other.

Why the need for a long term training?

Basically, the need for long term group work is that the average person needs long term support in

order to get over the “hump” of the strong habits of our conditioned mind. Group work with a

teacher (that can embody Presence in a sustained way) is a more efficient and effective way for many

people to understand Presence than what usually happens with solo-only efforts.

Having single, powerful experiences of expanded awareness and Presence are possible with solo

practices. It is even easier in a good private session or one-time workshops. Having such

experiences of enlightenment or expanded awareness is actually the easy part. The problem for

many is the difficulty of holding onto the new awareness.

For the average person, the habits of our mind are too strong, too entrenched, and we have difficulty

holding on to the awareness in the long term. The habit patterns of our mind, and our story, and

our life situation, often pull us back into our old patterns.

We attend a workshop, have a big breakthrough, and then go home feeling like a completely new

person---only to have our existing relationships in our families and workplace “pull” us back into our

old roles, patterns of behavior, and stressful thinking.

After a relatively short amount of time, we find ourselves back in the same old consciousness

(unconsciousness) as usual.

Over the years, I have found that the process of truly waking up to our true nature has a continuum

of stages that can be generally spread out thru 3 stages of unfoldment:

1.

1. The experience of enlightenment, or having initial experiences of true nature, essence, or

Presence.

2.

2. The transitional process of ego-purification and learning to stabilize this awareness.

3.

3. The integration process of embodying this awareness and living from it.

Long term group work with a good teacher can help you get to the place where you are firmly

grounded in Presence and can embody this in your daily life, in every moment.

For more discussion of these 3 stages of unfoldment, scroll down to “The 3 Stages of Awakening”.

The Value of Committed Group Work

inquire into true nature, and be present in every moment that is the biggest factor in waking up to

Presence and integrating it into every part of their life---many people find it very helpful to be part of

a community or group of similarly committed people, especially in the beginning.

There are powerful synergistic effects that occur in group work, which include:

1.

1. The energy and presence of the group has an exponential effect, where one plus one is much

more than two. By doing this work in a group, you will experience a great acceleration of your

process. The unfoldment of everyone happens much more efficiently.

2.

2. Within a committed group, where the same people are involved in an ongoing way, you get to

witness the sequential transformations of others. You get to experience first hand that change is

possible. You get to see other people give up their story step-by-step and watch how they mature

the value of it.

Witnessing the process and change of others gives you more courage and faith to believe in your

own potential.

3. For professional development, it is very helpful to see how people of different temperaments and

different patterns of conditioning can be supported over time. No single method works universally for

all people. In this training program, you get to learn a variety of methods and see what the relative

value is in relation to a variety of different personality and body types.

The Different ATP Training Groups

Ongoing Groups

I currently have two ongoing classes, one in Japan, and one in Colorado.

These two classes are already underway and are not open to new members.

New Classes Forming

I do intend to begin a new class for English speaking students in 2010. The public intensives in Dec

and Jan are partially intended to be lead-ins for people to come experience the work and find out

more about the formal training program.

I also intend to begin a new class for Japanese speaking students in 2010. The public intensive in

Japan in May is a lead-in for that new class.

What is Involved in the Training Program?

The best way to discover what is involved and whether the training program might be for you is to

attend one of the public workshops or intensives and experience this approach first-hand. There is

no way you will really understand by just reading about it. It is a new, fresh, original approach.

On one hand, the ATP approach is an integration of many different principles and draws on influences

from a great variety of methods and teachings, and there are lesson plans designed to learn from and

about these teachings. On the other hand, the actual work itself is an original “arising” from

within. My experience is that how I work with and support people is a continually evolving, intuitive,

and spontaneous arising that comes from the choice to BE PRESENT.

The needed response or

action in any given moment arises from the simplicity of Presence. The same is often true for the

teaching. The teaching also arises as a present-moment response to the needs of the overall group

and the individuals in the group.

The highest intention and “curriculum” of the training program is therefore to show you or help you

learn how Presence operates, so you can surrender to the spontaneous guidance and brilliance of your

own point of Presence.

That said, if you would like to read a list of the various teachings and methods that you would learn

The 3 Stages of Awakening

1.

1. The Initial Experience of Presence

The first stage is where the student investigates and works through their “story” stuff to the point

where they are present enough to have initial experiences of expanded consciousness and the felt-

sense recognition of various aspects of their true nature. This level of “enlightenment” can be

sometimes experienced in a single, stand-alone workshops, or during a private session, or even

during solo meditations and investigations.

These single events can be life changing turning points sometimes.

However, for the average person, the habits of our mind are too strong, too entrenched, and we have

difficulty holding on to the awareness in the long term. The habit patterns of our mind, and our

story, and our life situation, often pull us back into our old patterns.

We attend a workshop, have a big breakthrough, go home feeling like a completely new person---only

to have our existing relationships in our families and workplace “pull” us back into our old roles,

patterns of behavior, and stressful thinking.

After a relatively short amount of time, we find ourselves back in the same old consciousness

(unconsciousness) as usual.

That is where the support of a committed group can prove invaluable. By participating in a

unfolding magnificence that you are.

2.

2. The Transitional Process of Purification of ego and Stabilized Remembering of Presence

While a single big experience of enlightenment may result in a permanent stable awakening for some

people, I have never met one. Have you?

Many of the people who claim this happened to them actually did a lot of emotional work, meditation,

and/or investigation over many years prior to their “spontaneous” experience. They had gone

through a long “ripening” process. Life had ripened them prior to the sudden expansion that

seemed spontaneous.

What I have observed in my own journey and in the journey of the people I have supported is that

Yes, on the one hand, the felt-sense awareness of Presence can only happen NOW, in the present

moment. It is not an achievement that we get in the future, or gain over time. When we actually

perceive Presence or true nature, the experience often comes with this awareness that it has always

been who we are, and that all of our work on ourselves, all of our striving, has nothing to do with our

True Nature as Presence. There is nothing we, as the little ego self, can

“do” to become it,

because we already AM it. This “I AM” or point of Presence is what we are without our story, NOW.

we need to go through an educational process of learning, unfoldment and purification. We have

strong mental habits that do take time and investigative repetition and inquiry to see through and un-

learn. More accurately, Presence is not something the mind-identified self can stabilize, it is more

choose to be present in greater and greater percentages of the day.

So, in this second stage of transition, we could say we have one foot in the world of Presence, and

one foot in the world of our conditioned mind and story, and we gradually unfold to where we are

living less and less from our mind-identified story, and more and more from Presence.

The committed group format can continue to provide valuable support and acknowledgment to us as

we move through this transitional stage of the journey.

3.

3. The Process of Integration and Embodiment

transformation accelerates and our old habits and patterns begin to drop away at high speed. We

enter the process of integrating this awakened perspective into every part of our life. We remember

to choose to be present with everything we are doing, until it becomes our natural way of being. We

then can say we have embodied Presence into our daily physical existence.

Our sense of community then expands to all of life. All of life becomes our support group. We see

that everything that happens is here to support our awakening.

As we make the choice to be present in each moment, moment by moment, we open to the

experience and perception that Life is living thru us. We are no longer a little “me” trying to live life,

but rather, we realize we are a point of Presence that is one with all of existence, and LIfe is living

itself through us.

Presence is the source of the Joy of Being. It’s cool, it’s awesome, it’s a great adventure! And it is

great fun and deeply rewarding to learn about this in a committed group format!