Honouring and Awakening Atum’s Presence – Online

Honouring and Awakening Atum’s Presence (Online)

A Workshop in Bad Bevensen & via Zoom
Week 3, August 10 – August 16, 2025

In his seminars, Atum O’Kane would often remember encounters with great spiritual teachers, and tell stories of how sometimes just a sentence from them would eventually change his life’s trajectory, for example Pir Vilayat in the 1972 camp. Meanwhile, people meeting him during his half a century of spiritual teaching were often making similar experiences in the conversations they had with him. His practices were weaved together from different traditions like Buddhism, Sufism, Judaism or Carl Gustav Jung’s deep psychology, and the way he introduced them softly and with a great sense of meaning would leave participants deeply touched and re-connected with themselves. With Atum’s sudden passing last October, he’s left behind a network of communities all over the world, people that feel deeply connected to him. With this week Zenith camp seeks to create a meeting place, to share stories, to remember, to grief and to enjoy together.

We’re happy that we could win Atum’s son Emmanuel O’Kane to coordinate this program, as well as Ulrike Greenway, who taught together with Atum many times, and who’ll lead us through a retreat process on Atum’s footsteps. Many long-term friends and organizers of Atum’s seminars are involved as well. Unfortunately, Emmanuel is hindered from joining us in person, but he will still coordinate the different offerings and join us daily via Zoom or Video. This seminar will be fully hybrid, and we’ll have the possibility to engage with friends from all over the world, to listen to Atum’s recordings, to weave in photos and videos. Click here to take a look at the option to participate in person.

In the mornings, Ulrike and Emmanuel will weave remembering Atum into their teachings. Certain Zen approaches, especially sitting in silence also resonate strongly with Ulrike’s first contact with Sufism and were often the theme of the discussions with Atum. Ulrike will offer instructions on how to practice Zen style, tell Zen stories and encourage everyone to reflect and share their experiences. The cultivation of spiritual friendship called Kalyānamitta has been her emphasis for years and was at the core of her friendship with Atum. (The mornings will focus on teachings for the in-person participants, but will be live-streamed as well.)

In the afternoons, Emmanuel and Ulrike will create and hold an intimate space to honor Atum and our individual and collective journeys with them. From grief to gratitude, we will explore what it means to honor loss and to continue to live and be guided by Atum’s presence. Together, we will gather as a community to share stories, personal qualities, and teachings that Atum embodied. We will call upon these to welcome and awaken Atum’s presence within us. (The afternoons are where most of the remembering part happens, and they are designed to work well for a hybrid setting with many people joining from afar.)

Emmanuel and Ulrike are greatly looking forward to teaching this program together. They first met at the Zenith camp. They have been on pilgrimages together and were both at Upaya Zen Center during the initial onset of COVID-19.

Shun’E Ulrike Greenway Sensei is a Zen teacher in the lineage of Shunryū Suzuki Roshi. She received a Ph.D in Molecular Biology from the Max-Planck-Institute in Heidelberg. Her first spiritual teacher was Irina Tweedie who initiated her into the Sufi path. Her passion is to implement practice into daily life and respectfully investigate how different spiritual traditions can learn from each other. For many years Atum and Shun’E cultivated a deep spiritual friendship. This summer they had planned to teach together in Hollyhock on Vancouver Island. She is most comfortable in nature where she likes to hike and write Haikus. She divides her time between Germany and Colorado, U.S.A.

Emmanuel “Kodo” O’Kane, devoted 10+ years of his life to traveling the world, gathering different perspectives of life, and seeking out experiential teachings. The Zenith Institute Camp is one of Emmanuel’s spiritual homes. He first came to the camp as a 12-year-old; many years later, his bell-ringing skills as a volunteer staff led to him serving as the assistant to Gulrukh Deepa, the camp director, a position he held for 5 years. Emmanuel has led pilgrimages and taught programs with Atum around the world. Service has been at the heart of his spiritual path. He has completed a two-year Buddhist Chaplaincy program at Upaya Zen Center and is M–LISADA Africa Foundation’s Vice President. Emmanuel lives in Uganda with his wife. He is currently working on projects dedicated to honoring Atum and keeping Atum’s Spiritual Guidance Community connected.

Schedule, Central European Time:

9:00 – 10:15: Morning session 1
10:45 – 12:00: Morning session 2
15:00 – 16:15: Afternoon session 1
16:45 – 18:00: Afternoon session 2

Online Schedule, Eastern Time (New York):

3:00 am – 4:15 am: Morning session 1
4:45 am – 6:00 am: Morning session 2
9:00 am – 10:15 am: Afternoon session 1
10:45 am – 12:00 pm: Afternoon session 2

Info & Registration for this online program:

♥ We’ll stream all teaching sessions in good quality via Zoom. At the moment, we don’t plan to stream morning meditations and evening programs, should this change, we’ll inform you about it.
♥ Recordings will be supplied via Zoom cloud (within 24 hours, unedited). Edited HD camera recordings will be made available within a week and free of charge for the online participants.
♥ To register for this program, click the “Register” button and select the desired number of tickets.
♥ Click “Add to Cart”. You will then be redirected to the checkout. If you would like to book another program, simply click the menu button “Registration” again. Don’t worry, your details will be saved.
♥ If registering via the website doesn’t work for you, you can also register by sending an email to info@zenithinstitute.com.