December 2019
John Prendergast ~ The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence
The great human quest is to discover who we really are—a discovery that changes our lives and the lives of those around us. With The Deep Heart, John Prendergast invites you on a pilgrimage within, using the heart as a portal to your deepest psychological and spiritual nature. The Deep Heart is John’s term for the subtle center of emotional and energetic sensitivity, relational intimacy, profound inner knowing, and wholeness found within our hearts.
In this experiential guide, John offers precise and potent meditative inquiries to help you open your heart, see through your core limiting beliefs, and discover the true nature of your being. He brings a depth of experience, insight, warmth, and compassion to his teaching work, and is especially skillful in guided meditative inquiries and one-on-one dialogues.
John J. Prendergast is a spiritual teacher, psychotherapist and retired adjunct professor of psychology at CIIS, known for his pioneering work in integrating nondual wisdom and psychotherapy. A long-time student of both Jean Klein and Adyashanti, he was asked to share the dharma by Dorothy Hunt. He is the author of the forthcoming The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence, as well as In Touch: How to Tune in to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself.
Suggested Donation: $15-25
No one turned away for lack of funds.
John Prendergast ~ The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence
The great human quest is to discover who we really are—a discovery that changes our lives and the lives of those around us. With The Deep Heart, John Prendergast invites you on a pilgrimage within, using the heart as a portal to your deepest psychological and spiritual nature. The Deep Heart is John’s term for the subtle center of emotional and energetic sensitivity, relational intimacy, profound inner knowing, and wholeness found within our hearts.
In this experiential guide, John offers precise and potent meditative inquiries to help you open your heart, see through your core limiting beliefs, and discover the true nature of your being. He brings a depth of experience, insight, warmth, and compassion to his teaching work, and is especially skillful in guided meditative inquiries and one-on-one dialogues.
John J. Prendergast is a spiritual teacher, psychotherapist and retired adjunct professor of psychology at CIIS, known for his pioneering work in integrating nondual wisdom and psychotherapy. A long-time student of both Jean Klein and Adyashanti, he was asked to share the dharma by Dorothy Hunt. He is the author of the newly released The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence, as well as In Touch: How to Tune in to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself.
Find out more »Richard Miller ~ Resting as Inherent Joy
Why is it that some people flourish through seemingly insurmountable challenges while others struggle with even the smallest of life's difficulties? Is it possible to experience resilient joy and well-being during even our most challenging of times?
Come experience the healing and revitalizing effects of a special iRest Yoga Nidra meditation that is designed to help you recognize, reconnect with, nourish and embody your capacity to experience indestructible joy and well-being as innately present, no matter your circumstances, so that you can ease your way through this holiday season and beyond!
Richard’s teachings are based upon a lifetime of inquiry into the nature of freedom. Following a series of awakenings, all sense of separation fell away while working with his spiritual mentor, Jean Klein. Richard experiences this awakening as always fresh and alive, yet forever opening to itself.
Richard Miller, spiritual teacher, yogic scholar, clinical psychologist, author, and researcher, is the founder and chairman of the iRest Institute, co-founder of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and a founding president of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology.
Author of iRest Meditation: Restorative Practices for Health, Healing and Well Being and The iRest Program for Healing PTSD, Richard serves as a consultant researching the meditation protocol he’s developed—iRest Yoga Nidra— studying its efficacy on health, healing and well-being with diverse populations including active-duty soldiers, veterans, survivors of human trafficking, youth, seniors, the homeless and the incarcerated, with issues including sleep disorders, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, pain, and chemical dependency. Richard leads trainings and retreats internationally.
Suggested Donation $15-$25
Find out more »Richard Miller ~ Resting as Inherent Joy
Come experience the healing and revitalizing effects of a special iRest Yoga Nidra meditation that is designed to help you recognize, reconnect with, nourish and embody your capacity to experience indestructible joy and well-being as innately present, no matter your circumstances, so that you can ease your way through this holiday season and beyond!
Richard’s teachings are based upon a lifetime of inquiry into the nature of freedom. Following a series of awakenings, all sense of separation fell away while working with his spiritual mentor, Jean Klein. Richard experiences this awakening as always fresh and alive, yet forever opening to itself.
Richard Miller, spiritual teacher, yogic scholar, clinical psychologist, author, and researcher, is the founder and chairman of the iRest Institute, co-founder of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, and a founding president of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology.
Find out more »January 2020
Neelam ~ The Power of Self Inquiry, and the Role of Nervous Systems in Awakening, Embodiment and Freedom ~ 3-hour TeleSatsang
This call is an invitation to Presence and to Neelam’s teaching, and a practical exploration of the role of the nervous system in Awakening and Freedom. The nervous system and its capacity to Be Here are essential elements for Awakening, Embodiment and for Freedom.
When unmet, un-experienced tendencies from the past arise, and we so often believe them and identify ourselves with them, so that they affect and manifest in our physiology and show up as thoughts, feelings, emotions and sensations.
When Ramana Maharshi was first asked by a devotee, deeply attracted by His Presence, to impart some direction on how to reach that state, he has written the simple instructions of who am I? Inquiry. This very direct approach - when done in the right way 🙂- immediately appraises us of the fact that Who we really are is Emptiness or Presence.
My personal path to Awakening was more through Devotion, Silence and "meeting of what is" rather than formal Inquiry; however, since I started teaching in 1996, I realized the value of Inquiry in my own Embodiment process, and for Awakening, Embodiment and Freedom. And in addition to Ramana’s Inquiry, I have developed several Inquiry processes with very practical and effective steps.
Inquiry, especially when combined with a practical knowledge of the Nervous System and the Brain, and of the role of the Nervous System's capacity to Be Here, in Awakening Embodiment and Freedom, is a very powerful way to identify, address, and end suffering in the moment.
I want to invite you all to join me in this very direct and practical exploration.
Topics that may be covered during this program:
- Elements necessary for Awakening Embodiment and Freedom
- Everything arises in Presence And Everything is Ok just the way it is
- Embodied Okayness and what does it mean to Be Here
- The Cause of Suffering
- Introducing the Inquiry process and the Role of the Nervous Systems capacity in Being Here
Neelam is a direct disciple of HWL Poonja (affectionately known as Papaji), whose own teacher was Ramana Maharshi. Neelam’s unequivocal commitment to Truth helps us turn inward and release underlying patterns of conditioning which block the recognition of our True Nature. With the utmost tenderness, she invites us into the same recognition of Truth that her teacher, Papaji, transmitted to her, while helping us to address all aspects of daily living, including past conditioning and trauma.
“Awakening is a shift from identifying yourself as this body to knowing yourself as Presence. Freedom means a true independence from the past, where our ability to Be Here and the action in the moment are not guided by our attachment to the arising past. To truly be Free we need to embody our recognition of Presence, and that requires growing of the capacity of our nervous system to Be Here. It is in the meeting of what arises that we find true and lasting freedom.”
3-Hour Experiential Intensive
Sliding Scale: $20 to $45
Tilicho ~ Setting the Foundations ~ Weekend Online Retreat
2-day Online Retreat with Tilicho:
Setting the Foundations
January 11th & 12th, 2020
10:00 am - 1:00 pm Pacific Time
Time Zone Converter
There is light in the whole house, but it's not always on in the room you're in. Similarly, you already are what you are looking for and yet, you may not be conscious of it. You may also be afraid of the content of your room. How to be the Light? How to maintain a steady current? How to open to what is "Here and Now"? Tilicho offers this retreat to set the foundations to Be the Self, through Self-inquiry and healing exercises. Each of the 3-hour sessions begin with a silent meditation, followed by Q&A. The teaching unfolds according to your questions.
About Tilicho
Tilicho spontaneously realized the Self in 1998 without following any teaching or practice. The absence of spiritual conditioning allowed her to see through the veils of spiritual idealism and illusions. She ended up spending thirteen years in Tiruvannamalai in south India, the seat of Ramana Maharshi and the sacred mountain, Arunachala. While recognizing the beauty of the Advaita teachings, she also observed that they can easily be misunderstood and distorted. Although the Self is eternally free from the world, it is not separate from it. Clarity does not exclude openness. Her teaching stresses the need to combine Masculine and Feminine qualities and approaches. It is an invitation to find unity within and without.
“May all beings realize who they truly are! Om Sat Chit Ananda.”
More about Tilicho: www.tilicho.fr
Find out more »Marlies Myoku Cocheret ~ Settling In and Shining as Silence
We are so lucky to know of this most precious place inside of us. Do you visit frequently to connect, taste, steep in, and be taken? When we rest as the bliss of Being, we allow ourselves to shine as That. Naturally, any form of mind will disarm and soften into Being.
Please know we cannot bring anything with us into this most precious place that we are. It’s like melting into the arms of the Great Mother. We can only open ourselves to be touched, and taken more deeply into Her. She holds all of us. We are so helped and supported beyond what we can imagine. Be nourished by Her!
Come and join this day of abiding and deepening in and as the True Nature that we are, and be completely nourished. There will be periods of meditation, talk, sharing, dialog and movement.
Marlies Myoku Cocheret has devoted her life to the Beloved. She brings a potent invitation into the deep Silence that we are. The kindness of her gentle and direct teaching guides us home like a lighthouse. She helps people to see that freedom and peace lie not in escaping from difficulties, but rather in completely welcoming and receiving all that the Mystery presents.
She has been offering satsang and retreat since 2000 when Adyashanti asked her to teach. Marlies is trained as a psychologist in The Netherlands, a Hakomi therapist, and a Tantric educator. For over 25 years she has been ushering seekers into living the Divine in the body. She has a passion and a gift for bringing together the Sensual Body and the Silence of our Being.
She lives in Santa Cruz; California, but works internationally. Marlies is interviewed in the book Awakened Relating. A Guide to Embodying Undivided love in Intimate Relationships by Lynn Marie Lumiere, and in the book Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Wisdom by R.M. Robinson
Suggested Donation: $45-$125
Find out more »Stephan Bodian ~ Working with Trauma on the Path of Awakening
When I asked my first Zen teacher about becoming a monk, he said, “Monasteries are places for desperate people.” Many of us are drawn to the spiritual path because of the suffering we experience as the result of early-life trauma, be it childhood abuse or neglect, life-threatening experiences, or repeated situations where our physical or emotional survival or integrity seem to be at stake.
Compared with the ordinary range of painful life experiences, trauma has a unique impact on the psyche and the nervous system that can complicate the awakening process and leave us feeling especially frightened, isolated, or unintegrated.
In this satsang, we’ll explore how to relate to the effect our trauma continues to have on our lives, in the context of awakening. Includes teachings, guided meditation, and dialogue.
Stephan Bodian has been sharing the direct approach to spiritual awakening for more than 40 years. A former Buddhist monk and a longtime student of Advaita master Jean Klein, Stephan received Dharma transmission from Adyashanti in 2001. Since 2007 he has taught the annual months-long School for Awakening, which will begin again, in online form, in January 2020. His books include Wake Up Now and Beyond Mindfulness.
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
Find out more »