March 2020
CANCELLED!!! Gail Brenner ~ Surrender, Devotion, and Trust in the Spiritual Life
Due to an abundance of caution over the increasing spread of the corona virus (COV-19), we have cancelled this event and all other in-person events for the month of March.
We do want to remind you that we do have Online Events on Sunday mornings as well as longer online courses and retreats. These are found on the ONLINE EVENTS page on our website.. And if Sunday morning is not a convenient time to participate, you will be sent a recording after the event if you register, allowing you to watch at any time that is convenient to you. However, to get the recording, you would need to register before the event.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. We do feel a responsibility to our teachers and our community (both the Open Circle community and the broader community) to do our part to keep everyone safe.
Love always,
The Open Circle Team
October 2022
John Prendergast ~ The Love of Truth
The love of truth ─ a blend of love and wisdom ─ is at the core of our impulse to deeply investigate and discover who we really are. This unveiled truth is neither a personal belief nor a collective dogma. Rather, it is the light of Awareness, our very Being.
This daylong meeting will include a talk, experiential conversations, guided and silent meditations, and dyadic inquiries.
John J. Prendergast, Ph.D., studied for many years with the European sage Jean Klein and with Adyashanti. He is a retired psychotherapist and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology at CIIS, and the author of The Deep Heart and In Touch,
Suggested Donation: $75
No one turned away for lack of funds.
To register:
Email Rob at robmschwartz@yahoo.com
Location:
The meeting will be held indoors in an almost-completed new private home in the Fairfax hills, intended for eventual use for retreats, with views of Mount Tam and hiking trails.
Address and directions will be provided upon registration.
Please bring your own lunch, or feel free to go into town to one of the restaurants or to Good Earth Natural Foods.
Find out more »January 2023
Pamela Wilson ~ New Year’s Day Retreat ~ In-Person Gathering
"May all beings return to natural balance, heartfelt clear seeing, listening within and living as this courageous and unshakeable Oneness"
Join us on New Year's Day for in-person daylong meeting with Pamela Wilson at a private residence in the hills of Fairfax.
In addition to enjoying the warmth of community in the midst of winter, and on this traditional day of renewal, we will explore and enjoy the themes of naturalness, resting in timelessness, and unconditional receptivity.
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. Pamela is featured in the book Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Wisdom.
More about Pamela: www.pamelasatsang.com
The meeting will be from 10:30am to 4:30pm, and is completely by donation.
We hope you will join us!
For more information and to REGISTER:
Email Rob at robmschwartz@yahoo.com
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.
Please bring your own lunch, or feel free to go into town to one of the restaurants or to Good Earth Natural Foods.
Find out more »February 2023
John Prendergast ~ Simply Being Here ~ an In-Person Local Event
What is the experience of simply being HERE – deeply grounded, open hearted/minded, and available for this timeless moment? How can we recognize the Sacred within the ordinary routines and familiar relationships of our daily life? How do we embody our deepest knowing? We begin by welcoming our experience just as it is and by questioning who we mis-take ourself to be. This takes integrity, vulnerability, and a love for the inconceivable truth of who we really are. Our retreat will include silent and guided meditations, a talk, experiential conversations, and dyadic inquiry.
John is a former adjunct professor of psychology at CIIS, the author of numerous books on the intersection of nondual wisdom, somatic experience and psychotherapy, and a student of Jean Klein, Byron Katie, and Adyanshanti. He now teaches in the lineage of Adyashanti in a profoundly experiential manner.
Suggested Donation: $75
No one turned away for lack of funds.
To register:
Email Rob at robmschwartz@yahoo.com
Location:
The meeting will be held indoors in an almost-completed new private home in the Fairfax hills, intended for eventual use for retreats, with views of Mount Tam and hiking trails.
Address and directions will be provided upon registration.
Please bring your own lunch, or feel free to go into town to one of the restaurants or to Good Earth Natural Foods.
Find out more »April 2023
Pamela Wilson ~ Letting Stillness Live and Guide the Life ~ In-Person Gathering
"May all beings return to natural balance, heartfelt clear seeing, listening within and living as this courageous and unshakeable Oneness"
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 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. Pamela is featured in the book Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Wisdom.
More about Pamela: www.pamelasatsang.com
The meeting will be from 10:30am to 4:00pm, and is completely by donation.
We hope you will join us!
For more information and to REGISTER:
Email Rob at robmschwartz@yahoo.com
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.
Please bring your own lunch, or feel free to go into town to one of the restaurants or to Good Earth Natural Foods.
Find out more »June 2023
John Prendergast ~ Emptiness and Fullness ~ In-Person Daylong Gathering
To be filled, we must first be emptied. The spiritual path is initially about subtraction instead of addition. There is a stripping away of illusion, an emptying out of confusion, an unlearning and unveiling. Whatever our self/world view may be, it is not the ultimate truth. We are not who we think we are and the world is not what we think it is. When there is a willingness to not know with the ordinary mind, we are open to the Unknown and available to being filled by an essential Life. This influx of fullness comes of its own – the natural radiance of our true nature.
Through guided and silent meditation, heart-felt inquiry, and experiential conversations we will explore this natural process of emptying out and being filled.
We hope you will join us!
John is a retired Adjunct Professor of Psychology at CIIS and the author of several books on the intersection of nondual wisdom and psychology, including The Deep Heart and In Touch. He studied for many years with the European sage, Jean Klein, as well as with Adyashanti, and now teaches in a profoundly experiential manner.
Suggested Donation: $75 No one turned away - any donation accepted.
To register:
Email Rob at robmschwartz@yahoo.com
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.
Please bring your own lunch, or feel free to go into town to one of the restaurants or to Good Earth Natural Foods.
Find out more »November 2023
Shakti Caterina Maggi ~ Embodied Non-Duality ~ In-Person Event in San Rafael
Join us for a direct and compassionate immersion into the field of non-duality, an invitation to the conscious embodiment of our true nature. Our daily life itself can then be actively experienced as our most important spiritual practice.
This event will be an introduction to the retreat that weekend, but is open to all.
Shakti Caterina Maggi is a spiritual guide who has, since 2003, been sharing a message of non-separation and awakening to our true Self. Her contemporary and heart-centered approach to Advaita and non-dual Tantra has supported thousands of seekers who meet her in retreats and seminars all over the world.
www.shakticaterinamaggi.com
Open Circle is hosting a series of events with Shakti in various locations:
See Shakti's California Tour Page for details.
Berkeley, CA satsangs: Oct. 26th & 31st and Nov. 2nd, 7th & 8th (7-9 pm)
Mount Shasta, CA satsangs: Oct. 27th (7-9 pm) & 28th (3-5 pm)
Sebastopol, CA satsang: Oct. 29th (2-4 pm)
Pre-Retreat satsang, San Rafael, CA: Nov. 3rd (7-9 pm)
(Included when you register for the Retreat and can be attended separately, open to all)
Retreat in Berkeley, CA: Nov. 4th & 5th
Suggested donation for this evening: $10 to $30
No pre-registration. Pay at door when you arrive.
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.
December 2023
CANCELED – Jeannie Zandi ~ Everyday Mystic ~ In-Person Local Event
Due to illness, Jeannie will be coming out to California later than planned and will not be able to have events until Thursday, December 7th.
Please join her for the public gathering on Thursday, December 7 in Berkeley and the Friday & Saturday (December 8 & 9) intensive in Sausalito if you are able!
Awakening Mercy Retreat with Jeannie Zandi (In-Person Local Event)
Co-sponsored by Open Circle
Join Jeannie and friends to explore practical tools for embodying love and clarity in a presence-filled, humor-pervaded holy hall of now.
Along with opening to who we most truly are, the spiritual path includes reckoning with this pesky humanness, which can pull us out of living from presence right into conflict and suffering. Developing mercy for our human foibles as we open to all that we are allows us to walk our open hearts into the world with dignity and consistency. Join Jeannie and friends to explore practical tools for embodying love and clarity in a presence-filled, humor-pervaded holy hall of now.
Dates
Our retreat begins on Friday, December 8th at 2 pm (PDT) and ends on Saturday, December 9th at 9 pm (PDT).
Location: Sausalito, CA
Click here for details & REGISTRATION
Jeannie’s gift for inviting people to join her in resting and rooted presence evokes a deep meeting with oneself and reality. Within that, Jeannie’s humor and iconoclasm serve to bring people into an understanding that is beyond the intellectual. Through silent and guided meditation, spontaneous talks and exchange with participants, Jeannie will host a space of clarity and warmth where the richness of relating can be explored safely and your innermost questions met fully.
Jeannie Zandi is the director of Living as Love, a nonprofit organization dedicated to seeding a culture of the Heart on the planet, inspiring, teaching and supporting people to live from their essence as Love. A year before the birth of her daughter, Jeannie was plunged into a dark night of the soul that culminated in a radical shift of consciousness. She is known for her fearless clarity, tender mercy toward humanness, and a juicy, poetic and often humorous style that draws from Advaita Vedanta, Sufism, Christian mysticism and the ongoing revelation of fully engaged living.
Find out more »January 2024
Pamela Wilson ~ New Year’s Day Retreat ~ In-Person Gathering
"May all beings return to natural balance, heartfelt clear seeing, listening within and living as this courageous and unshakeable Oneness"
Join us on New Year's Day for in-person daylong meeting with Pamela Wilson at a private residence in the hills of Fairfax.
In addition to enjoying the warmth of community in the midst of winter, and on this traditional day of renewal, we will explore and enjoy the themes of naturalness, resting in timelessness, and unconditional receptivity.
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. Pamela is featured in the book Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Wisdom.
More about Pamela: www.pamelasatsang.com
The meeting will be from 11:00am to 5:00pm, and is by donation.
We hope you will join us!
For more information and to REGISTER:
Email 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.
Please bring your own lunch, or feel free to go into town to one of the restaurants or to Good Earth Natural Foods.
Find out more »