February 2025
John J. Prendergast, Ph.D. and Lisa Ferguson, Ph.D. ~ Engaged Nonduality
As an informal community of non-dual contemplatives who feel deeply moved by the historically unique existential crises that we now face, how do we respond in a truly creative way? And how do we not succumb to the burnout that political activists so frequently experience?
The answer lies in our capacity to repeatedly re-source ourself in the ultimate source – the heart and ground of being. As we consciously discover the Great Heart behind the human heart, we experience a sense of well-being independent of outer circumstances, which brings a love for life that inspires our creative action in the world.
John J. Prendergast 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. Lisa Ferguson, Ph.D. has focused on supporting planetary wellbeing as a healing arts practitioner, climate justice activist, organizer and contemplative.
Find out more »Georgia Simone ~ Awakened Healing: Become The Space Where Healing Takes Place
Welcome to The Holding Space.
A space where we can gather together and BE exactly as we are, where the full spectrum of your human experience is invited.
It's in this open space that we can begin to unwind the strategies that no longer serve us.
Through gentle exploration and somatic awareness you can cultivate a new way of being with your most challenging patterns
As you awaken and refine a more subtle way of Being and Being With, you can slowly but surely become the space – the container and the field – where healing takes place.
Georgia Simone believes that the spiritual path is as much about arriving here fully – as an embodied human being – as it is about dissolving into the infinite source that makes this life possible.
Find out more »Dorothy Hunt ~ Flowing with Love’s River ~ Bay Area Daylong Retreat
Known or unknown, there is a river of Love flowing in the heart. It may appear as longing, seeking, laughing, weeping, birth, life, and death. Its current can turn our attention inward, burn our illusions, and return us Home. This river flows to the ocean of our essence, where our separation dissolves in its silent depths.
Please join Dorothy Hunt for an exploration of Love’s presence and spontaneous movement in our lives. This daylong will include guided meditation, silent sitting, satsang, poetry and discussion.
Dorothy Hunt currently serves as Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha, teaching at the request and in the spiritual lineage of Adyashanti. The flavor of her teaching blends Advaita and Zen with a deep welcoming of the human expressions of the Mystery.
Find out more »Community Work Party, Fairfax, CA
Come enjoy community and help work on the beautiful land in Fairfax that was purchased by Open Circle co-founder Rob Schwartz a few years before his death. Help us in continuing to realize Rob's dream of using this special property as a place to gather together in satsang. The emphasis of the day will be on clearing trails and creating space around the outdoor meeting sites on the property. We will start at 10:00am with a brief meditation. We will then work until noon, enjoy a potluck lunch until 1:30, then go back to work, ending around 4:00 pm with another brief meditation. You are free to come and go as your schedule allows. Heavy rain will cancel. RSVP/Registration is requested (though not required) to give us a sense of how many people are coming. We will also then provide the address and directions.......
Find out more »Ishita Sharma ~ Embodiment Lab – Experiments in Embodying Presence
We are not thinking beings who sense; we are sensing beings who think. And re-setting that balance is key to joy, to vibrance, and true liberation!
Join us for Embodiment Lab, an experiential exploration of the body as a doorway to presence and aliveness, returning to the ground of being through our own direct experience.
Ishita Sharma serves as a spiritual teacher, healing mirror, embodiment partner, and Core Energetics Practitioner. Teaching Universal principles of healing and mysticism, she is devoted to supporting healing and awakening in all those committed to living a bright and connected life, sharing their gifts for the good of the Whole.
Find out more »Amoda Maa ~ An Inquiry into the Living Truth of Freedom (In-Person & Livestream)
Open Circle is hosting a series of in-person SATSANGS & a DAYLONG with Amoda Maa in California in late February and early March:
Berkeley, CA, February 27th (7-9 pm);
Mill Valley, CA, February 28th (7-9 pm);
Fairfax, CA, March 1st Daylong (11:00am - 5:00pm);
and Sebastopol, CA, March 2nd (2-4 pm, PT).
Livestream is also available for the Feb. 27th to March 1st events.
Amoda Maa invites an open-hearted honesty to the exploration of what it means to live as freedom in all circumstances. She offers profound pointers to how this freedom reveals itself if we are willing to surrender all resistance to “what is,” and how the light of our essential nature shines through all experience when the “veil of self" comes undone. She supports the recognition of that which is beyond the duality of perception, thought and feeling, and takes us to the experience of the ever-present and unchanging reality of awareness. This unbounded awareness is the eternal ground of Being, the source of true peace and freedom. The luminous truth in Amoda’s teachings is the same nondual understanding at the core of many spiritual traditions.
Find out more »March 2025
Lisa Schumacher ~ Choose Love: Self-Inquiry Meeting
A meeting with Lisa is an encounter in openness and silence, where you are invited just as you are, and where you will find clear and loving support for your awakening. In your search for freedom, you can rest in stopping. You can find stillness in Satsang.
Lisa offers guidance for your awakening, and would love to hear what you are discovering in yourself. This is an embrace of inclusion and an inquiry into the heart of the truth, as it transmits through your life.
During our meeting together, Lisa will support you with deep stillness and skillful self-inquiry to open to your true nature, leaving behind the illusion of a separate self.
Find out more »Stephan Bodian ~ Waking Up Through the Metacrisis: Finding Deeper Ground in Challenging Times
The Buddha said it succinctly 2500 years ago: human existence is, and always has been, marked by constant change and uncertainty. Yet we find ourselves today in uniquely challenging and uncertain times. Perhaps our civilization is on the verge of collapse, like so many before it. But since it covers the globe, this raises the unprecedented prospect that the future of human life on Earth may be threatened as well.
We can always seek refuge in the simplicity and innate perfection of right now. But what about all the painful consequences at a very human level? How do we find peace in a deeper ground while acknowledging and welcoming our fear, outrage, or grief?
Stephan Bodian is a teacher in the non-dual 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.
Find out more »John Prendergast ~ Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality ~ Bay Area Daylong Retreat
Join us for a daylong introduction to John’s new book, Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality. In this meeting we will explore different dimensions of the ground - individual, archetypal, and universal - and experience how to recognize and effectively welcome resistance to opening to our deepest ground. There will be silent and guided meditations, a talk, a group or dyadic inquiry, and experiential conversations.
John Prendergast is a spiritual teacher, retired psychotherapist, and retired Psychology Professor, 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 »Lisa Schumacher ~ Let Love Lead You: Return to what is Sacred ~ (In-Person Satsangs & Livestream)
Open Circle is hosting a series of SATSANGS & a DAYLONG with Lisa Schumacher in California,.
* March 13th (7-9 pm, PT) ~ CORTE MADERA
* March 14th (7-9 pm, PT) ~ BERKELEY,
* March 15th Daylong (11:00am - 5:00pm, PT) ~ FAIRFAX
* March 16th (2-4 pm, PT) ~ SEBASTOPOL
All events are In-Person ~Livestream is also available for March 13th to 15th *
A meeting with Lisa is an opportunity to step away from your day to day life and devote time for inquiry into the source of who you are.
In Lisa’s meetings, she invites you to rest in stillness. Your discoveries and questions about awakening, deepening, and the unfolding truth are welcome. The teaching is in the tradition of Gangaji, who is a student of Papaji, who had his awakening at the feet of Ramana Maharshi.
Find out more »