November 2018
Saniel Bonder & Linda Groves-Bonder ~ Waking Down in Mutuality – A Natural Path to Your Radiant Embodiment of the HEART
"Can you imagine living with a deep trust in your being – so strong that you know without a doubt that you are the Heart, the One Being, living uniquely as you, the local, particular, ordinary person you are? Can you imagine having no confusion about who you are, not fundamentally different or separate from your body, others, the world…. the Divine reality?
The Sun in the HEART of every human being and all sentient beings is “rising”: the radiant feeling-intelligence of our eternal nature and condition is intensifying, coming alive and awake in us as both the source-engine and the emergent expression of what and who we are becoming.
This “rising” is as natural a process as being human itself and with guidance it can lead to Radiant Whole Body Awakening.
The HEART is our humanness and our divinity all at once, our Totality Identity encompassing all Spirit and all Matter. It is the Mystery of all mysteries, the Love-Unity that holds us together even when life appears to be falling apart.
As individuals and as a species we have been suffering and perpetuating a chronic developmental predicament, “the Spirit/Matter split.” This nearly universal split manifests in and among us as a paradigm, a worldview. It creates and continually reinforces in each of us a fundamental sense of separateness, confusion, and incompleteness.
The fundamental healing of the Spirit/Matter split is the whole body, whole being, whole world realization or radiant embodiment of the HEART."
For over 22 years, Saniel Bonder and Linda Groves-Bonder have been helping hundreds of people move into their own unique expressions of Embodied Awakening. Their work — Waking Down in Mutuality® — is a primary expression of what human beings go through when the HEART becomes ever more Self-aware in, as, and through them.
In this workshop, Saniel and Linda will discuss key elements of the three foundational principles of this process, Waking, Down and Mutuality, and how you can explore and integrate those principles to further your own Embodied Awakening. There will be a 20 minute talk, a short period of Q&A for immediate questions and responses, followed by 15 minutes of gazing and meditation, after which we will open the rest of the event for questions and answers.
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
Find out more »Pamela Wilson ~ Rest as Yourself
Pamela 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 come and bring your questions!
"Every thought, every feeling, is a visitor. You just say: Welcome. Come in and sit with me."
"There is a notion that we left paradise a long time ago. But this secret garden was the Heart, always here, just waiting for our return."
"Love is a magician. Everything it touches turns into itself."
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
Find out more »John Prendergast ~ The Deep Heart
John is a spiritual teacher, psychotherapist and retired adjunct professor of psychology at CIIS known for his pioneering work in integrating nondual wisdom and psychotherapy. He is the author of In Touch (Sounds True, 2015) and is working on a new book for Sounds True on the subject of the heart that will be published in 2019. A long-time student of both Jean Klein and Adyashanti, he was asked to share the dharma by Dorothy Hunt. He offers quarterly daylong retreats in the SF Bay Area and residential retreats and seminars in the U.S. John brings a depth of experience, insight, warmth, and compassion to his teaching work, and is especially skillful in guided meditative inquiries and one-on-one dialogues Join John for a deep exploration into the true nature of the heart, the wellspring of spontaneous gratitude.
“We are often reminded to count our blessings, which can be a useful practice. However, as we discover our true nature as open, loving awareness, we begin to feel that our whole life is a blessing. Gratitude is an essential quality of Being. As the depths of the heart unfold, we are increasingly grateful simply to be. “
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
Find out more »December 2018
Jeannie Zandi ~ Sovereignty and Relating *Meeting for All*
How do sovereignty and togetherness interplay to yield the most satisfying and sustainable relating possible? How do we root in the ground of Being as the foundation of our sovereign relating? Join Jeannie and friends to explore the dignity of sovereign existence and the play of human relating from embodied Truth.
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, a spontaneous talk, 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 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. Residing in Colorado, she travels widely in the US, bringing a down-to-earth embodied teaching of living as love.
For either in-person attendance or Livestream, Suggested Donation: $15-$25
No one turned away for lack of funds.
No pre-registration for attendace in-person.
For LIVESTREAM Register here....
This is a Livestream event in combination with Local in person event. There will not be interaction with the Livestream viewers, as there is with our regular participatory web events.
Tom Kurzka ~ Rest in Being: The Love of Your Life
Live Worldwide Web Event
6:00-8:00 pm (Pacific Time - San Francisco, CA, USA) Time Zone Converter
You are invited to join Tom as we explore this experience called me and my world. We’ll begin with an introduction followed by a brief guided meditation, then open dialogue. There is no question or concern that is too unworthy to be addressed. Often the most deep rooted problems are our gateway to the Love that we all are. Through this process Tom holds a sweet tender kindness that makes many who work with him feel held and safe. Within this supportive framework our full humanness is embraced and touched. As we radically accept and meet the worst of the worst, a gentle piercing happens as the entirety of our human experience melts in Being’s all-embracing arms, this ever present Love. We see that we are that Love, this sweetness that unconditionally holds our humanness.
In 2000, after a lifelong battle trying to hold onto his false sense of a separate self, Tom’s fight against Reality spontaneously ended, resulting in a shift into unitive consciousness or Being. Shortly thereafter, Tom was asked to share and has since been holding small group meetings at his home in Oregon and also with a group in Virginia. Tom is known for his humility and a profound acceptance of what is. The guidance moving through him has flavors of Advaita Vedanta, Sufism, Buddhism and, most importantly, an ongoing revelation of living in the moment.
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
Find out more »“Just This” ~ 3+1-day Online Retreat with Isaac Shapiro
"Just This"
Meetings in Truth with Isaac Shapiro:
Fri 14th, Sat 15th, Sun 16th December 2018
12:30 pm - 2:30 pm Pacific Time
Integration Meeting with Open Circle Facilitator:
Thursday 20th December, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm Pacific Time
“This is an invitation to recognize the Truth of yourself. Who you are, and have always been. As you are already This, there is no need for any effort or "getting there", just the simple recognition of That in which everything appears. As we bring awareness to unconscious habits, there is a shift that occurs. In the course of investigation, we spontaneously recognize the true nature of ourselves. To live like this is an expression of unconditional love in which there is a savoring of this moment`s experience as the beloved.”
~ Isaac Shapiro
Join Isaac Shapiro for a 3-day immersion into simplicity of being with what is. Discover deeper intimacy and enjoyment as the happening of this very moment.
From the comfort of your home, you will have the opportunity to explore yourself with like-minded community from around the world. Through direct yet playful inquiry into what is, we will be unraveling conditioning of the mind and the nervous system. The format of the meetings is interactive and spontaneous, deeply in tune with what wants to emerge in the group in any given moment.
The extra 4th meeting with an Open Circle facilitator will assist a smooth integration of the newly open levels of Reality with your everyday life.
The online retreat is an exciting container allowing for deep work with the support of a teacher and community - without the usual cost and logistics that an on location retreat entails. It provides an opportunity for deep exploration while still living your daily life.
More about Isaac Shapiro: www.isaacshapiro.org
This Three-Day Online Retreat will consist of:
- Three 2-hour Meetings in Truth with Isaac Shapiro
- One 2-hour Integration Meeting with a Facilitator
- Video and Audio Recordings of Meetings with Isaac
Registration: $70 - $100
For questions contact sara@opencirclecenter.org
Marlies Myoku Cocheret ~ An Exploration of Total Inclusion
How Available are You to Stay Awake as a Human-Divine in Today's World?
It is up to us to live the awakened life in every moment and every situation. What does it mean to step into living the total intimacy and inclusion with ALL of life ─ including pleasure, pain, peace, body, suffering, happiness, rage, Self-realization and wondrous emptiness?
My own recent experience ─ of a long and extensive surgery to remove my two kidneys and receive a transplanted kidney, as well as the recovery that followed ─ had and still has many layers of challenges. Through it all, Divine Radiance carries me.
How do we unpack the wrapping paper of adversity and discover what is inside? Life/She helps us cultivate Being through offering the most wonderful challenges. When separation is out the window, all aspects of life are intimately welcomed and experienced. Then, we live in total inclusion with what is, which is the dance of our Humanity and our Divine radiance. Come and explore your delicious Self!
Marlies has devoted her life to the Beloved. She brings a potent invitation into the deep Silence that we are. The kindness of her gentle and direct teaching guides us home like a lighthouse. She helps people to see that freedom and peace lie not in escaping from difficulties, but rather in completely welcoming and receiving all that the Mystery presents.
She has been offering satsang and retreat since 2000 when Adyashanti asked her to teach. Marlies is trained as a psychologist in The Netherlands, a Hakomi therapist, and a Tantric educator. For over 25 years she has been ushering seekers into living the Divine in the body. She has a passion and a gift for bringing together the Sensual Body and the Silence of our Being.
She lives in Santa Cruz; California, but works internationally. Marlies is interviewed in the book Awakened Relating. A Guide To Embodying Undivided love in Intimate Relationships by Lynn Marie Lumiere, and in the book Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Wisdom by R.M. Robinson
“With Adya, the bottom fell out. I deeply knew I am not this body, mind, thought, psyche, and I am also all these things as well. There was no in and/or out. All is One.”
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
Find out more »Jeannie Zandi ~ Giving from the Heart
The holiday season is a time of giving and when the spiritual heart is flowing, it’s capacity is unlimited. Yet our human aspect is bound by the laws of earth. Join Jeannie and friends to explore expressing the bounty of the spiritual heart while balancing the limitations of our earthly walk, including self-care and boundaries.
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, a spontaneous talk and exchange with participants, Jeannie will host a space of clarity and warmth where the true richness of life can be experienced, and your innermost spiritual questions can be met fully. Come join us!
Jeannie 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. Residing in Colorado, she travels widely in the US, bringing a down-to-earth embodied teaching of living as love.
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
Find out more »Richard Miller ~ Living Enlightenment
Throughout the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, Richard had the good fortune of meeting a series of spiritual teachers, including Laura Cummings, J. Krishnamurti, Adi Da, Dadaji, Jean Klein, Adyashanti, and Suzanne Segal, who helped him directly realize the nondual teachings, as exemplified in the paths of Advaita, Kashmir Yoga, Taoism, and Dzogchen. Richard now shares this realization, and its integration into daily living, through meditative self-inquiry, the presence of being, and what lies beyond all sense of separation and self-awareness.
Richard is the co-founder of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, co-founder and past president of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology, and founder of the iRest Institute, where he teaches retreats and trainings internationally, and conducts research on the nondual program he’s developed—iRest Meditation—a synthesis of ancient nondual practices of yogic meditation, studying its efficacy on health, healing, well-being, and awakening.
“Living enlightenment entails no less than a fundamental figure-ground reversal within our psyche, where our center of gravity shifts from identification as a separate ego-I to Essential Nature—the Mystery that has given birth to the entire cosmos—that is simultaneously everything, and no-thing.
“Living enlightenment takes us beyond duality and nonduality, where we recognize there is no condition, state, realization, or accomplishment that is ultimately definitive and final. Here, life is a continuous unfolding, with Essential Nature living us—and everything—as Its what, where, when, how, that, and this of each moment.
“Living enlightenment both exposes our absolute helplessness and insecurity when we live identified as a separate ego-I, and reveals our absolute security and stability when we give ourselves over completely to being lived by the intelligence of Essential Nature. Here, we awaken beyond conflict and suffering to living true compassion, kindness, love, joy, and equanimity, and respect for the preciousness of life and the environment, amidst all the changing circumstances and relationships of our lives.”
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
Find out more »January 2019
Shakti Caterina Maggi ~ Awakening in Daily Life
Shakti is a teacher very well known in Europe and her native Italy, who offers a contemporary and accessible vision of true awakening that is profoundly in tune with Advaita and nondual Tantric traditions.
The spiritual journey inevitably leads to the confrontation between our "spiritual life" and our "material life", discovering how and where we truly embody the truth of our heart. Realizing the emptiness of our true nature is just the starting point of an integration process that can take several years and involve all aspects of our lives, and leads us to several moments of crisis in which old egoic patterns of behavior that are still based on the separative mind emerge to be dissolved by the light of Awareness.
Shakti has spent many years deepening this integration process. With wisdom, humor, and heartfelt connection, she shares a message of discovering our divinity at the very core of our humanity. Shakti has been sharing this message of non-separation since 2003 with many people around the world, especially in Italy and in Europe, where she holds satsangs and retreats.
"Peace is not a destination, but a starting point. Find that Peace that rests behind anything and anybody and bring it into your world. Every human being looks for Peace in their inner or outer reality. In this call for clarity, what we are looking for is what our true nature actually is.
“We are used to imagining that the dissolving of inner and outer conflicts comes as the result of some action, whereas it is only when we move from Peace that those actions will bring the end of any conflict. Moving and living from Peace is recognizing what we are, and integrating it in our everyday life.
“Awakening to your true nature means to wake up to your true essence that lies behind any conflict of daily living. Thoughts and feelings are not an obstacle to this recognition, but the direct expression of how we know or ignore ourselves. Once we find that silence that rests behind manifestation, the ego will come back, out of habit. If we can recognize its presence, not as a disturbance but as an opportunity to integrate the message, our everyday life becomes our true spiritual journey. The Peace of our Being becomes the world we see and live in.”
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
Find out more »