9:00 am
John Prendergast, Lisa Ferguson & Jonathan Gustin ~ Engaged Nonduality
Engaged Nonduality
Non-dual Responsibility -
Exploring Non-duality & the Metacrisis
with John Prendergast, Lisa Ferguson
and Jonathan Gustin ~ Oct. 27th
Recording will be emailed to participants within a week.
You’re welcome to join even if you can’t attend the live session.
For a short 3 minute video preview, watch "Non-dual Responsibility" and read the corresponding paper here.
Many spiritual journeys adjourn with a peaceful detachment. A different finale is possible—a love of the unmanifest infinite with a passionate engagement with material existence.
In this gathering we will explore moksha-dharma (liberation and responsibility). A splitting between Moksha (Liberation/Enlightenment) and Dharma (purpose/duty) is not only false...it may be inadvertently contributing to metacrisis. Non-duality can (and should) evolve, to include dharmic responsibility and 'engaged liberation' where "love leaves nothing out."
We will explore: two varieties of Non-duality and the Metacrisis, Non-dual dharma, Non-Dual Kinship and how this relates to soul-level purpose.
Jonathan Gustin, M.A, MFT, Jonathan is the founder of Purpose Guides Institute. He helps people to find and embody their life’s purpose, and offers training for those who want to become Purpose Guides themselves. He is also a meditation teacher, facilitating meditation gatherings remotely as well as in-person in his hometown of Victoria, BC, Canada.
Engaged Nonduality Series
This series weaves nondual awakening and an embodied response to our world in crisis. We are facing intersecting crises of climate breakdown, the potential of ecological and systems collapse, severe injustice and inequality, rising authoritarianism, unaligned tech and AI, and more. The path of nonduality has much to offer in these times, including a deep recognition of our wholeness and shared Being, and opening to the wellspring of our wise response.
While awakening is often engaged in a more personal context, we are expanding the context to include structural harm and systemic crisis, where the rubber hits the road in our world today. This series invites guest presenters to explore how the wisdom of these nondual teachings may be deeply embodied through a response to our world in crisis. These sessions may include guided meditations, group and dyadic inquiry and group interaction.
Register for one or more dates, or the full series together.
October 13th: John Prendergast and Lisa Ferguson ~
Awakening and Action: Toward an Engaged Nondual Approach
The following events in the series will be hosted by John Prendergast and Lisa Ferguson.
October 20th: Jeremy Lent ~ From Awakened Heart to a Flourishing Earth
October 27th: Jonathan Gustin ~ Non-dual Responsibility - Exploring Non-duality & the Metacrisis
November 2nd: Caverly Morgan ~ Acting on Behalf of The Heart of Who We Are
John J. Prendergast, Ph.D. is the author of The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence (2019 ) and In Touch: How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself (2015) and is working on a new book entitled Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality (March 2025). He is a retired Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies as well as a retired psychotherapist. He studied with the European sage Jean Klein for many years as well as with Adyashanti who gave dharma transmission to John in August, 2023. John and his wife Christiane offer residential retreats in the United States and Europe.
www.listeningfromsilence.com
YouTube channel
Lisa Ferguson, Ph.D. is the founder of Climate Compassion, and has focused on supporting planetary wellbeing as a healing arts practitioner, climate justice activist, organizer and contemplative. She offers psychospiritual support to activists through one-one sessions and small groups, weaving together a focus on awakening, healing and wise action.
www.climatecompassion.org
Suggested Donation: $15 to $40
(any amount acceptable, no one turned away for lack of funds)
Please register early if you can.
REGISTER for Oct. 27th
Full Series: Sundays October 13, 20, 27, and Saturday Nov 2
Suggested Donation: $60 to $120
(no one turned away for lack of funds)
REGISTER for Full 4-part Series
The event leaders are donating their entire share of the event donations, after expenses, to support Rob Schwartz’s vision of maintaining his property to be available as a spiritual retreat space, where Open Circle may hold some of its events.
The events 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, Lisa Ferguson & Jonathan Gustin ~ Engaged Nonduality
Many spiritual journeys adjourn with a peaceful detachment. A different finale is possible—a love of the unmanifest infinite with a passionate engagement with material existence.
In this gathering we will explore moksha-dharma (liberation and responsibility). A splitting between Moksha (Liberation/Enlightenment) and Dharma (purpose/duty) is not only false...it may be inadvertently contributing to the metacrisis. Non-duality can (and should) evolve, to include dharmic responsibility and 'engaged liberation' where "love leaves nothing out."
Jonathan Gustin is the founder of Purpose Guides Institute and a meditation teacher. He helps people to find and embody their life’s purpose, and offers training for those who want to become Purpose Guides themselves.
John J. Prendergast is a retired psychotherapist and Adjunct Professor of Psychology. He studied with the European sage Jean Klein for many years as well as with Adyashanti.
Lisa Ferguson is the founder of Climate Compassion, and has focused on supporting planetary wellbeing as a healing arts practitioner, climate justice activist, organizer and contemplative.
Find out more »2:00 pm
Richard Miller ~ This Which We are Above All Else (In-Person Event)
This Which We are Above All Else
The belief that we are a separate “me-I-self” who is in control is simply that, an illusory captivating narrative where we're the main character in a movie constructed by our thoughts, feelings, actions, and experiences. A first step toward awakening entails recognizing that the separate self has never existed and that its dissolutions isn't a death or a loss. It's a freeing of an illusion that we had to constantly defend and maintain. An important step in releasing this illusion entails realigning with and embodying our intrinsic Essential Essence.
Join Richard as he introduces you to five simple inquiries designed to offer you a glimpse of your Essential Essence, and practical approaches for helping your mind break free of its preoccupation with the illusion of separation and control.
Richard C. Miller, PhD After decades of searching Richard met his spiritual mentor, Jean Klein in 1983, who guided him through the non-path, non-method, and nondual realization of Essential Nature. Founder of iRest Institute, and a co-founder of the International Association of Yoga Therapists and the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology, Richard teaches nondual inquiry and the realization of Essential Nature internationally, as well as serves as a consultant researching and teaching the meditation protocol he’s developed, Integrative Restoration ~ iRest, a modern-day secular adaptation of an ancient nondual practice of self-inquiry and awakening.
Richard's website: shop.irest.org
Satsang: 2-4 pm
Refreshments: until 5
Suggested Donation: $10- $20, no one turned away.
No pre-registration. Pay at door when you arrive.
Location: 8476 Sonoma Ave, Sebastopol, CA. Park on Sonoma Ave.
Note: The address sign says 8474/8476. Park on the street, and walk down the short driveway to the house with the carport.
Please dress mindfully, doors & windows will be open!
If you have covid-like symptoms, or have had a recent Covid exposure or positive test, please stay home out of consideration for others.