September 2025
John Prendergast ~ Letting Go ~ Bay Area Daylong Retreat
While the essence of the awakening process is a letting go, it cannot be willed. Rather, it arises from a spontaneous upwelling of our deepest desire to be completely emptied out, opened, and freed from any internal resistance to abiding in and as our true nature as loving awareness. Through guided and silent meditation, dyadic inquiry, a talk and experiential conversations, we will explore attuning with this deepest of desires and recognizing and welcoming the inevitable resistance that arises.
John Prendergast is a spiritual teacher, retired psychotherapist, and retired Adjunct Professor of Psychology at CIIS, well known for his pioneering work in integrating non-dual wisdom and psychotherapy. He studied with the European sage Jean Klein for many years, as well as with Adyashanti, who gave him dharma transmission in 2023.
Find out more »Ellen Emmet ~ Venturing Into the Unlit Corners of the Now
There are times in each of our lives when a bitter wind blows our spiritual torch out. It may be called depression, grief, trauma, illness, the end of a relationship, a sense that we are no longer in alignment with our deepest self.
Here we are, standing at the threshold of our being, knowing that nothing we have used to light the way forward will work.
During this gathering we will venture together, away from the certitudes held by the mind and into the dark wilderness of the body. We will listen inwardly to our felt experience. Perhaps we will touch the vulnerability and strength of Life as she cycles and connects us to the great garland of creation.
Ellen’s deepest intuition was confirmed when she met her teacher in the non-dual tradition, Francis Lucille. Hearing his words, she recognized the eternal, limitless and universal nature of our shared reality.
Ellen will draw on her experience of Kashmir nondual yoga, the Jungian ideas especially as expressed by Marion Woodman, Authentic Movement, and whatever else may arise from the field of our gathering.
October 2025
Stephan Bodian ~ Just This! An Invitation to Rest in the Joy and Fulfillment of Nondual Presence
All those spiritual words mean just one thing: Coming home to the ease and simplicity of right now, beyond the limiting projections of the mind! Most of us spend most of our time suffering in the dream of past and future, of how it should have been then and should be next week. But in the Now there are no problems to solve, just Being endlessly unfolding in its innately perfect, unarguable, and mysterious way.
Let’s come together to rest in the joy and fulfillment of Being as it is. Join us for guided and silent meditation, teachings and pointers, and plenty of time for dialogue and discussion.
Stephan Bodian is a teacher in the nondual wisdom tradition of Zen, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta. As a licensed psychotherapist, he brings a deep understanding of the impact of trauma and early conditioning on the process of spiritual realization. Stephan studied for many years with Advaita master Jean Klein and received Dharma transmission from Adyashanti in 2001.
Find out more »Jim Newman ~ SIMPLY THIS
These meetings share the simple message that what is truly longed for is already "what is". This obvious simplicity is overlooked by a personal sense of separation that "what is" is missing something, and a conviction that something needs to happen. This sense of a personal reality can be recognized as a need for more experience or knowledge. The hope is that enough of the right experience or knowledge will lead to fulfillment or endless happiness. In the meetings this sense of a personal reality and the need for becoming as necessary is exposed as unnecessary and illusory. In his early twenties, Jim experienced an awakening that completely upended his search within the realm of what could be known. Not understanding what had happened, he turned to those who claimed to know: spiritual teachers and gurus. But it didn't work. The practices and explanations didn't resonate. Then he encountered a radical message: one that stated, without compromise, that there is no one. Upon truly hearing this, the dream and the dreamer dissolved. Never having happened.
And yet, all of this being said: there is no path to what is.
* You can join one date or the full Series: * Friday, Oct. 10 ~ 7:30-9pm * Saturday, Oct. 11 ~ 2-6pm * Sunday, Oct. 12 ~ 2-6pm *