February 2023
Chesaray ~ Awakening to Ground
Grounding is the most important foundation for blossoming on the spiritual path. Without grounding one can feel overwhelmed, exhausted, scattered and unable to enjoy the fruits of spiritual realization. In this class, we will bring ground to the various awakenings and energetic openings that can happen on the path through guided meditation, somatic inquiry, and exchanges.
Chesaray offers retreats, courses, and classes focused on grounding the magic of spiritual realization into daily life. Chesaray is a gifted healer that is filled with down-to-earth wisdom and loving presence. She invites us to slow down and turn towards our direct experience to discover what we are. For over 15 years she has studied and practiced ancient spiritual traditions, somatic psychology, conscious movement, holistic health, and bodywork. Because she faced tremendous difficulties that eventually opened her into the experience of Divine love, she has a gift for meeting people where they're at and supporting their awakening.
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early if you can.
The event will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
John Prendergast ~ Simply Being Here ~ an In-Person Local Event
What is the experience of simply being HERE – deeply grounded, open hearted/minded, and available for this timeless moment? How can we recognize the Sacred within the ordinary routines and familiar relationships of our daily life? How do we embody our deepest knowing? We begin by welcoming our experience just as it is and by questioning who we mis-take ourself to be. This takes integrity, vulnerability, and a love for the inconceivable truth of who we really are. Our retreat will include silent and guided meditations, a talk, experiential conversations, and dyadic inquiry.
John is a former adjunct professor of psychology at CIIS, the author of numerous books on the intersection of nondual wisdom, somatic experience and psychotherapy, and a student of Jean Klein, Byron Katie, and Adyanshanti. He now teaches in the lineage of Adyashanti in a profoundly experiential manner.
Suggested Donation: $75
No one turned away for lack of funds.
To register:
Email Rob at robmschwartz@yahoo.com
Location:
The meeting will be held indoors in an almost-completed new private home in the Fairfax hills, intended for eventual use for retreats, with views of Mount Tam and hiking trails.
Address and directions will be provided upon registration.
Please bring your own lunch, or feel free to go into town to one of the restaurants or to Good Earth Natural Foods.
Find out more »Ellen Emmet ~ The Shrine of Not Knowing: 2-part Online Mini Retreat
Feb. 24 & 25
We start at 9:00 am Pacific Time / 5:00 pm UK time /
6:00 pm Central European Time.
Time Zone Converter
Event will be recorded and emailed
to participants after each meeting.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend all the live sessions.
We gather, invited to leave our convictions and spiritual beliefs at the door of our shared space.
Together we welcome our direct experience and let it gradually reveal its palpable yet un-nameable, source and reality.
We will not engage with the singularity of our psychology and history. However, in the immediacy of our inquiry, layers of resistance that keep us trapped in the cage of thinking will surface in the form of raw feelings, sensations, and emotions.
Each one of us is invited to fully allow, taste and face these landscapes of exile and separation, which in daily life come in the form of anxiety, addiction, hopelessness, boredom, emptiness, resistance and even despair.
Nothing needs to change and the agendas for change are surrendered as they surface.
In this sacred process something is touched and shared, the openness is made palpable, the One source of all experience begins to flow through, and we partake in the mystery of our humanity and divinity.
There will be guided meditation and conversation.
About Ellen:
Ellen’s deepest intuition was confirmed when she met her teacher in the non-dual tradition, Francis Lucille. Hearing his words, she recognised the eternal, limitless and universal nature of our shared reality. Over the years, this understanding has continued to unfold and to touch all levels of experience.
At the very same time, Ellen has never ceased to delve into the depths of her human experience, seen and unseen, thirsting for a wholeness and connectedness which appeared to be lost or obscured. This unstoppable quest brought her to therapy, Jungian workshops (and later Jungian analysis), Dream Work, Authentic Movement and creative writing.
More and more, she senses that each of our lives is a journey of revelation and integration, including its darker crossings, through which the face of truth can shine uniquely and anew, wedding us to our direct experience and connecting us to the great family of creation.
To find out more about Ellen and her offering, visit www.ellenemmet.com
Sliding Scale: $60 to $90
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please register early if you can.
Ellen Emmet ~ The Shrine of Not Knowing: 2-part Online Mini Retreat
Feb. 24 & 25
We start at 9:00 am Pacific Time / 5:00 pm UK time /
6:00 pm Central European Time.
Time Zone Converter
Event will be recorded and emailed
to participants after each meeting.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend all the live sessions.
We gather, invited to leave our convictions and spiritual beliefs at the door of our shared space.
Together we welcome our direct experience and let it gradually reveal its palpable yet un-nameable, source and reality.
We will not engage with the singularity of our psychology and history. However, in the immediacy of our inquiry, layers of resistance that keep us trapped in the cage of thinking will surface in the form of raw feelings, sensations, and emotions.
Each one of us is invited to fully allow, taste and face these landscapes of exile and separation, which in daily life come in the form of anxiety, addiction, hopelessness, boredom, emptiness, resistance and even despair.
Nothing needs to change and the agendas for change are surrendered as they surface.
In this sacred process something is touched and shared, the openness is made palpable, the One source of all experience begins to flow through, and we partake in the mystery of our humanity and divinity.
There will be guided meditation and conversation.
About Ellen:
Ellen’s deepest intuition was confirmed when she met her teacher in the non-dual tradition, Francis Lucille. Hearing his words, she recognised the eternal, limitless and universal nature of our shared reality. Over the years, this understanding has continued to unfold and to touch all levels of experience.
At the very same time, Ellen has never ceased to delve into the depths of her human experience, seen and unseen, thirsting for a wholeness and connectedness which appeared to be lost or obscured. This unstoppable quest brought her to therapy, Jungian workshops (and later Jungian analysis), Dream Work, Authentic Movement and creative writing.
More and more, she senses that each of our lives is a journey of revelation and integration, including its darker crossings, through which the face of truth can shine uniquely and anew, wedding us to our direct experience and connecting us to the great family of creation.
To find out more about Ellen and her offering, visit www.ellenemmet.com
Sliding Scale: $60 to $90
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please register early if you can.
Jeannie Zandi ~ Love
Join Jeannie and friends to explore presence and discover that that’s most primarily what you are.
Jeannie’s gift for inviting people to join her in resting and rooted presence evokes a deep meeting with oneself and reality. Within that, Jeannie’s humor and iconoclasm serve to bring people into an understanding that is beyond the intellectual. Through silent and guided meditation, spontaneous talks and exchange with participants, Jeannie will host a space of clarity and warmth where the richness of relating can be explored safely and your innermost questions met fully.
Jeannie Zandi is the director of Living as Love, a nonprofit organization dedicated to seeding a culture of the Heart on the planet, inspiring, teaching and supporting people to live from their essence as Love. A year before the birth of her daughter, Jeannie was plunged into a dark night of the soul that culminated in a radical shift of consciousness. She is known for her fearless clarity, tender mercy toward humanness, and a juicy, poetic and often humorous style that draws from Advaita Vedanta, Sufism, Christian mysticism and the ongoing revelation of fully engaged living.
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early if you can.
The event will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
March 2023
Stephan Bodian ~ Meditation without a Meditator: From Deliberate Awareness to Nondual Presence ~ 2-Part Online Retreat
March 4 & 5, 2023
9:00 am – 12:00 pm, Pacific Time
Time Zone Converter
Event will be recorded and emailed
to participants after each meeting.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend all the live sessions.
Many seekers who shift from progressive approaches like deliberate mindfulness to a more direct approach continue to search for the right meditative strategy, the sweet spot that allows them to let go of their efforting and drop into their natural state of nondual presence. But paradoxically it’s this very strategizing that needs to drop away as presence reveals itself to be the nature of reality, the deeper ground beyond a separate self, not something that you can strategize into being. You can’t do it—you can only join the nondual presence that’s always already taking place.
So how exactly can you position your awareness to fall into nondual presence? In this two-day mini-retreat you’ll learn how to take the backward step to illuminate the deeper ground of Being as your true nature or true Self beyond all division. Once that deeper identity has been revealed, you no longer have to search for what is already so blatantly obvious. You merely need to be it.
The retreat will feature self-inquiry, direct pointers to the nature of reality, and a series of guided meditations that lead you through the stages of awakening to nondual presence. In nondual presence life unfolds effortlessly, without an illusory someone in charge of the unfolding, as an expression of the exquisite intelligence at the heart of the Mystery. Absolute and relative dimensions of Being—universal and individual, trans/impersonal and personal, one and many—dissolve into a single, vibrant, multidimensional, perfectly imperfect current of love and manifestation. Just This!
Bio
Stephan Bodian is a teacher in the nondual wisdom tradition of Zen, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta. He's been offering the School for Awakening, an annual multi-month intensive program in spiritual unfolding and awakened living, since 2007. As a licensed psychotherapist, he brings a deep understanding of the impact of trauma and early conditioning on the process of spiritual realization and offers individual counseling and a five-session mentoring intensive in psychospiritual integration. Stephan studied for many years with Advaita master Jean Klein and received Dharma transmission from Adyashanti in 2001. His books include Wake Up Now and Beyond Mindfulness.
More about Stephan Bodian: www.stephanbodian.org
Sliding Scale: $60 to $90
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.
Stephan Bodian ~ Meditation without a Meditator: From Deliberate Awareness to Nondual Presence ~ 2-Part Online Retreat
March 4 & 5, 2023
9:00 am – 12:00 pm, Pacific Time
Time Zone Converter
Event will be recorded and emailed
to participants after each meeting.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend all the live sessions.
Many seekers who shift from progressive approaches like deliberate mindfulness to a more direct approach continue to search for the right meditative strategy, the sweet spot that allows them to let go of their efforting and drop into their natural state of nondual presence. But paradoxically it’s this very strategizing that needs to drop away as presence reveals itself to be the nature of reality, the deeper ground beyond a separate self, not something that you can strategize into being. You can’t do it—you can only join the nondual presence that’s always already taking place.
So how exactly can you position your awareness to fall into nondual presence? In this two-day mini-retreat you’ll learn how to take the backward step to illuminate the deeper ground of Being as your true nature or true Self beyond all division. Once that deeper identity has been revealed, you no longer have to search for what is already so blatantly obvious. You merely need to be it.
The retreat will feature self-inquiry, direct pointers to the nature of reality, and a series of guided meditations that lead you through the stages of awakening to nondual presence. In nondual presence life unfolds effortlessly, without an illusory someone in charge of the unfolding, as an expression of the exquisite intelligence at the heart of the Mystery. Absolute and relative dimensions of Being—universal and individual, trans/impersonal and personal, one and many—dissolve into a single, vibrant, multidimensional, perfectly imperfect current of love and manifestation. Just This!
Bio
Stephan Bodian is a teacher in the nondual wisdom tradition of Zen, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta. He's been offering the School for Awakening, an annual multi-month intensive program in spiritual unfolding and awakened living, since 2007. As a licensed psychotherapist, he brings a deep understanding of the impact of trauma and early conditioning on the process of spiritual realization and offers individual counseling and a five-session mentoring intensive in psychospiritual integration. Stephan studied for many years with Advaita master Jean Klein and received Dharma transmission from Adyashanti in 2001. His books include Wake Up Now and Beyond Mindfulness.
More about Stephan Bodian: www.stephanbodian.org
Sliding Scale: $60 to $90
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.
Jeannie Zandi ~ Meeting Gnarly States
Join Jeannie and friends to navigate the terrain of meeting challenging human states and how to stay present.
Jeannie’s gift for inviting people to join her in resting and rooted presence evokes a deep meeting with oneself and reality. Within that, Jeannie’s humor and iconoclasm serve to bring people into an understanding that is beyond the intellectual. Through silent and guided meditation, spontaneous talks and exchange with participants, Jeannie will host a space of clarity and warmth where the richness of relating can be explored safely and your innermost questions met fully.
Jeannie Zandi is the director of Living as Love, a nonprofit organization dedicated to seeding a culture of the Heart on the planet, inspiring, teaching and supporting people to live from their essence as Love. A year before the birth of her daughter, Jeannie was plunged into a dark night of the soul that culminated in a radical shift of consciousness. She is known for her fearless clarity, tender mercy toward humanness, and a juicy, poetic and often humorous style that draws from Advaita Vedanta, Sufism, Christian mysticism and the ongoing revelation of fully engaged living.
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early if you can.
The event will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
April 2023
Amoda Maa ~ Knowing Our Essential Nature as Open Awareness ~ In-Person in Berkeley, CA
Amoda Maa offers a profound invitation to all those who wish to embody the truth of awakened consciousness in the midst of everyday life. Her meetings include silent or guided meditation, discourse, and an opportunity to ask questions from the innermost. Speaking with clarity and grace, she invites an open-hearted honesty to the exploration of what it means to recognize and live from our essential nature as open awareness.
Amoda’s teachings are free from any ideology and are not affiliated with any lineage or tradition, and yet the luminous truth is the same nondual understanding at the core of of many spiritual traditions. Arising from her own direct experience and expressed in a contemporary language, these teachings are relevant and accessible to all people from all backgrounds and cultures. She is known for her authenticity, depth, and unique expression of “masculine” clear-pointed insight and “feminine” unconditional acceptance.
Since 2016, she has been living in the US, and today her teachings are followed by a growing global community. She has been a speaker and guest teacher at a variety of conferences, featured in several magazines, interviewed for numerous broadcasts and podcasts, and is the author of several books including Embodied Enlightenment and Falling Open in a World Falling Apart. Her life and work are dedicated to supporting an "inner transformation of consciousness” and envisioning a new world of peace and enlightened living.
More info on Amoda, her teachings, and events, including Bay Area daylong gathering at www.amodamaa.com
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
Find out more »