January 2023
Mukti ~ Liberation & Incarnation: Embracing the Human Experience
The movement of consciousness from separation toward wholeness is one in which the individual’s identity can be liberated from the egoic state, and be recognized as awareness, which can realize itself as oneness. Often, following a short or prolonged shift into the liberated state, consciousness moves to individuate once again—not to be rooted in ego but to be rooted in one’s authentic incarnation. Through returning focus from the transcendent to the imminent, consciousness becomes more free to express and reflect the presence and undivided consciousness of spirit.
Mukti’s presentation will be devoted to investigating how spirit enfolds what is separate and informs what is uniquely distinct.
Mukti, whose name is translated as “liberation,” has been a teacher at Open Gate Sangha in the lineage of her husband, Adyashanti, since 2004. Her teaching methods are founded in meditation, self-inquiry, and body awareness, and bring flavors of healing, nurturing, quietude, and a refreshing down-to-earth humanity.
Find out more »February 2023
Pamela Wilson ~ Letting Stillness Live and Guide the Life ~ Local IN-PERSON Berkeley Event
Pamela invites us to uncontain the field of presence, clarity and strength within by noticing the ongoing inner satsang that appears in the heart, body and mind. Bringing warmth and compassion to what is tight or troubled liberates the past from the body, allowing a rooted, clear and free flowing expansion. Life then can live itself, no role play required!......Pamela Wilson evokes through dialogue, inquiry and her very presence the qualities of unconditional love and radical acceptance. She endears herself to her audiences with her playful and light-hearted humor, combined with compassion and deep understanding of what it is to be human. She is celebrated for her ability to open the heart, call forth our own inner sage, and create a space in which long-held struggles and notions about one’s identity relax.......
Event will be in the large Sanctuary room at Chochmat HaLev.
March 2023
Stephan Bodian ~ Meditation without a Meditator: From Deliberate Awareness to Nondual Presence ~ 2-Part Online Retreat
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.
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.
Stephan Bodian is a teacher in the nondual wisdom tradition of Zen, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta. He 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.
Find out more »Pamela Wilson ~ Nourishing Stillness, Nourishing Ourselves ~ 4 Part Online Retreat
Like a kink in a garden hose, "I can'ts", ideas and habits can separate us from the all pervading loving sustenance of Life.
As Life, we are uncontained, receptive and at ease with receiving and giving….from our breath, sunlight, evening stars, friends, creativity. Life can appear to wear us down, but in the deep rest of the rooted return to substratum we rise, refreshed, with less history.
Pamela Wilson evokes through dialogue, inquiry and her very presence the qualities of unconditional love and radical acceptance. She is celebrated for her ability to open the heart and create a space in which long-cherished struggles and notions about one’s identity relax.
Find out more »April 2023
Pamela Wilson ~ Letting Stillness Live and Guide the Life ~ Local IN-PERSON Berkeley Event
Pamela invites us to uncontain the field of presence, clarity and strength within by noticing the ongoing inner satsang that appears in the heart, body and mind. Bringing warmth and compassion to what is tight or troubled liberates the past from the body, allowing a rooted, clear and free flowing expansion. Life then can live itself, no role play required!
Pamela Wilson evokes through dialogue, inquiry and her very presence the qualities of unconditional love and radical acceptance. She endears herself to her audiences with her playful and light-hearted humor, combined with compassion and deep understanding of what it is to be human. She is celebrated for her ability to open the heart, call forth our own inner sage, and create a space in which long-held struggles and notions about one’s identity relax.
Find out more »Manilai ~ Sound Bath ~ In-Person in Berkeley, CA
Join us in a space of connection, honoring and healing.
We will relax and re-harmonize to the sounds and vibrations of crystal singing bowls performed by Manilai. Each singing bowl is attuned to one of the 7 main chakras and helps to clear and align them. You will be invited to completely relax during this one-hour full-bodied, immersive experience that invites deep healing and restorative processes. Bring what you like for your comfort such as a foam or yoga mat, pillows and blankets.
Find out more »Gail Brenner, Ph.D ~ Bringing Heaven to Earth: Fully Alive in Everyday Life ~ 3-Part Online Course
The nondual teaching invites us to recognize the truth of who we are beyond any conditioned ideas about ourselves. And this recognition changes everything. We no longer believe the fear-based, limited ideas we hold about ourselves and the world, and we open to everything, flowing with things as they are. Rather than needing to fix and control, we get out of our heads and rest effortlessly as the Being that we are, loving whatever appears. This knowing radically transforms our relationships with others, how we relate to ourselves when we’re triggered, and how we meet the challenges that arise in the course of human life. Where before we felt stuck and limited, we now live in wonder, curiosity, and heart. Let’s gather in loving community to explore living everyday life with nothing in the way…endlessly available to all that is. Gail Brenner, Ph.D. is a psychologist, author, and teacher, who transmits a love of truth with a fire that burns brightly. Gail is an expert in healing from early trauma and brings to this work years of experience with individuals and groups. She is known for creating the safe space needed for deep inner exploration.
Find out more »Pamela Wilson ~ Letting Stillness Live and Guide the Life ~ In-Person Gathering
Join us for an in-person daylong meeting with Pamela Wilson at a private residence in the hills of Fairfax.
Pamela invites us to uncontain the field of presence, clarity and strength within by noticing the ongoing inner satsang that appears in the heart, body and mind. Bringing warmth and compassion to what is tight or troubled liberates the past from the body, allowing a rooted, clear and free flowing expansion. Life then can live itself, no role play required!
Pamela Wilson evokes through dialogue, inquiry and her very presence the qualities of unconditional love and radical acceptance. She is celebrated for her ability to open the heart, call forth our own inner sage, and create a space in which long-held struggles and notions about one’s identity relax.
Find out more »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 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.
Find out more »Peter Russell ~ Nonduality and the Science of Consciousness ~ In-Person in Berkeley, CA
The spiritual teaching of nonduality, which stems from the Indian philosophy of advaita, teaches that consciousness is the primary reality, the fundamental essence of the cosmos. On the other hand, the current scientific worldview holds that the physical world is primary, and that consciousness somehow, in ways that we do not yet understand, emerges from it. Both views have their challenges. If consciousness is primary, why do we not see it in all things? Conversely if the physical world is primary, how does consciousness arise from something as insentient matter?
Peter Russell is a leading thinker on consciousness and contemporary spirituality. He coined the term "global brain" with his 1980s’ bestseller of the same name in which he predicted the Internet and the impact it would have on humanity. Other books include Waking Up in Time, From Science to God, and his most recent, Letting Go of Nothing.
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