March 2025
Amoda Maa ~ Discovering Freedom as the Natural State of Open Awareness ~ Daylong (In-Person & Livestream)
An opportunity to meet and dialogue with Amoda Maa in an intimate setting. In this sacred meeting space, there is an amplification of the field of presence and the possibility to open to the innermost discovery of what is already here as the natural state of open awareness.
Amoda Maa 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. Through dialogue, inquiry, and guided meditation 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 … and this is the source of true peace and freedom.
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 from Sounds True - 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.
Copies of the new book will be available for purchase.
John Prendergast, Ph.D 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. He is the author of The Deep Heart (2019), In Touch (2015), and a new book, Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality (March, 2025) from Sounds True.
www.listeningfromsilence.com
YouTube channel
The meeting will be from 10:00am to Noon and 2:00pm to 4:30pm, with a break for lunch.
Please bring your own lunch, or feel free to go into town to one of the restaurants or to Good Earth Natural Foods.
Pre-registration required, as space is limited.
Registration closes at Midnight on March 7th
Suggested donation: $75
(Any amount acceptable. No one turned away for lack of funds.)
PRE-REGISTER HERE & PAY AT DOOR WHEN YOU ARRIVE.
(Cash or Check only)
This event is Co-sponsored by Open Circle & the Schwartz Family Trust.
All proceeds, above covering event costs, will go to the
Schwartz Family Trust to support Rob Schwartz’s vision of
his property being available for Open Circle retreats and events.
Event donations will go directly to the Schwartz Family Trust, rather than to Open Circle.
If you want to contribute more for this project, you can do so at the event,
or contact us for more information (contributuons, loan, volunteer).
For inquiries contact LocalEvents@opencirclecenter.org
Location: The meeting will be held at a private home in the Fairfax hills, with views of Mount Tam and hiking trails. Address and directions will be provided upon registration.
If you have symptoms of a respiritory infection, or have had a recent
Covid exposure or positive test, please stay home out of consideration for others.
Lisa Schumacher ~ Your True Nature (In-Person & Livestream)
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. There will be a few moments of silence to start the meeting and then Lisa will speak and invite you to share about your realizations and ask questions about awakening.
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.....
LEARN MORE HERE
Lisa Schumacher ~ Let Love Lead You: Return to what is Sacred ~ Daylong (In-Person & Livestream)
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. There will be a few moments of silence to start the meeting and then Lisa will speak and invite you to share about your realizations and ask questions about awakening.
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.....
LEARN MORE HERE
April 2025
Dorothy Hunt ~ Honoring the Life and Teachings of Ramana Maharshi ~ Retreat Day (In-Person & Livestream)
“There is no greater mystery than this—that being the Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.”
Ramana Maharshi has been a light shining in the darkness for countless seekers of Truth. His expression of Truth beautifully and lovingly embodies the Absolute, and yet his method of Self-Inquiry does not require seekers to leave home, hearth, job, or family life. In his words, “All that is required to realize the Self is to be still.” Join us for this day of silence and satsang, reflecting on the life and teachings of this great sage. There will be a 1½-hour break for lunch and afternoon tea. Apart from satsang, the retreat will be held in silence.
Dorothy Hunt, Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha will facilitate this retreat day. She is a teacher in the spiritual lineage of Adyashanti and founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy. Dorothy has a long and deep connection with the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and offers this day to any who are interested in coming to sit in silence and listen with the Heart.
Presently, Dorothy offers satsang and retreats via Zoom, and dokusan by phone. For more information, please visit www.dorothyhunt.org
Pre-registration is Required for In-Person attendance.
Pre-registration for In-Person attandance closes at Midnight on April 11th (the night before event)
Sliding Scale: $60 to $120
No one turned away for lack of funds.
OR
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
If you register for Recording access by event, link to access it will be sent to you within a week.
If you register for Recording access AFTER event, please forward your confirmation email to web@opencirclecenter.org with your request that we send the recording.
For inquiries about In-Person attendance contact LocalEvents@opencirclecenter.org
For inquiries about the Livestream Registration & Access contact Web@opencirclecenter.org
Lunch: There will be a 1 & 1/2 hour lunch break.
Bring your own lunch to eat outside on the patio overlooking the Bay.
If you have symptoms of a viral infection, or have had a recent
Covid exposure or positive test, please stay home out of consideration for others.
Pamela Wilson ~ From Sorrow to Solace
Join Pamela and your fellow sages in finding the rooted strength within to be with the current chaos. Rising as the transmission of truth in daily life, we are the still spine of the Tree of Life.
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. Featured in the book Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Wisdom, Pamela is at her best in heart-felt dialogue, so please bring your questions!......
LEARN MORE HERE
May 2025
Marlies Myoku Cocheret ~ Presence: Our Only Refuge ~ Bay Area Daylong Retreat
Open Circle is hosting an evening Satsang and two DAYLONGS with Marlies Myoku Cocheret in California, USA.
May 2nd (7-9 pm, PT) ~ Berkeley, CA (In-Person & Livestream)
May 3rd (11am - 5pm, PT) ~ Fairfax, CA (In-Person & Livestream)
May 4th Way of the Women Daylong (11am - 5pm, PT) ~
.....Fairfax, CA (In-Person only - Women only)
Presence: Our Only Refuge
Abiding presence is the only ground from which right action can flower in our world.
During this Daylong Meditation Retreat, we sit and share together sacred space to welcome in our true nature, our silent nature, that is always here and never changes. Marlies takes you by the hand into the cathedral of your being so together we connect, taste and abide as Presence: our only refuge......
LEARN MORE HERE
Marlies Myoku Cocheret ~ Silence and The Female Body ~ Bay Area Daylong Way of Woman Retreat
Open Circle is hosting an evening Satsang and two DAYLONGS with Marlies Myoku Cocheret in California, USA.
May 2nd (7-9 pm, PT) ~ Berkeley, CA (In-Person & Livestream)
May 3rd (11am - 5pm, PT) ~ Fairfax, CA (In-Person & Livestream)
May 4th Way of the Women Daylong (11am - 5pm, PT) ~
.....Fairfax, CA (In-Person only - Women only)
Way of Woman Retreat
(For Women Only)
Silence and The Female Body
Letting your silent nature melt with your feminine body of beauty.
Deep inside your heart you know it’s possible to be an embodied, sovereign, luscious Woman of Beauty. When you truly rest as your silent heart, naturally your feminine body wants to flow and shine. Come play together and take your place in this wonderful dance of life, and honor your precious temple as Woman......
LEARN MORE HERE
Miranda Macpherson ~ Turning everything into the path of Awakening ~ Daylong Retreat, Bay Area & Livestream
If ever there was a time to stay spiritually connected, so we can remain open-hearted, responsive and awake, its now.
This daylong with Miranda Macpherson, on a beautiful property in west Marin, is a day for deep spiritual nourishment and community support to help us find calm amidst the chaos, deepen in to our fundamental human unity, and explore what timeless spiritual Truths have to offer us practically in living meaningfully and navigating life from our spiritual depth.....
LEARN MORE HERE
John Prendergast ~ “Seeing through False Ground” ~ Bay Area Daylong Retreat
Description: Almost all of us unknowingly stand (or have stood) upon a highly conditioned, self-constructed ground that we mis-take as being solid and real. As we become more honest and intimate with our experience, this constructed ground, much like the foundations of a house, begins to give way revealing a breath-taking openness – a groundless ground – that is our true nature.
In this daylong retreat, we will welcome this false ground into Presence via silent and guided meditation, talks, dyadic meditative inquiry, and experiential conversations.....
LEARN MORE HERE