October 2024
Amoda Maa ~ Unveiling the Self to Reveal the Freedom of Being
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 Being-ness.
Amoda’s teachings are free from any ideology and are not affiliated with any lineage or tradition, and yet the luminous truth is the same nondual understanding at the core 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.
Since 2016, she has been living in the US, and today her teachings are followed by a growing global community who attend her online programs as well as in person retreats in the USA and Europe. She has been a speaker and guest teacher at a variety of conferences, featured in several magazines, interviewed for numerous broadcasts and podcasts, and is the author of several books including Embodied Enlightenment and Falling Open in a World Falling Apart. She is the founder and spiritual director of the Amoda Maa Foundation, and her life and work are dedicated to supporting an “inner transformation of consciousness” and envisioning a new world of peace and enlightened living.
www.amodamaa.com
Suggested donation: $15 to $40
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early if you can.
The event will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
John Prendergast, Lisa Ferguson & Jeremy Lent ~ Engaged Nonduality
Engaged Nonduality
From Awakened Heart to a Flourishing Future
with John Prendergast, Lisa Ferguson
and Jeremy Lent ~ Oct. 20th
Recording will be emailed to participants within a week.
You’re welcome to join even if you can’t attend the live session.
A deep investigation into the source of the metacrisis reveals, at its root, a worldview of separation: a belief that we’re split between mind and body, separate from each other, and at odds with the natural world.
In this session, Jeremy Lent will show how that worldview has led to today’s civilizational crisis and what’s at stake for our future. Then, we’ll explore an alternative worldview of deep interconnectedness that arises naturally both from modern science as well as the great wisdom traditions of Buddhism, Taoism, and Indigenous knowledge— and what it implies for our identity and values.
Finally, Jeremy will offer a glimpse of what a civilization might look like based on values arising from this worldview—one that sets the conditions for all people to thrive on a regenerated Earth: an ecological civilization.
Jeremy Lent is an author and speaker whose work investigates the underlying causes of our civilization’s existential crisis, and explores pathways toward a life-affirming future. His award-winning books, The Patterning Instinct: A Cultural History of Humanity’s Search for Meaning, and The Web of Meaning: Integrating Science and Traditional Wisdom to Find Our Place in the Universe, trace the historical underpinnings and flaws of the dominant worldview, and offer a foundation for an integrative worldview that could lead humanity to a flourishing future. He has written extensively about the vision and specifics of an ecological civilization and is founder of the Deep Transformation Network, an online global community exploring pathways for a deep transformation toward a life-affirming future on a regenerated Earth. Author website: jeremylent.com
Engaged Nonduality Series
This series weaves nondual awakening and an embodied response to our world in crisis. We are facing intersecting crises of climate breakdown, the potential of ecological and systems collapse, severe injustice and inequality, rising authoritarianism, unaligned tech and AI, and more. The path of nonduality has much to offer in these times, including a deep recognition of our wholeness and shared Being, and opening to the wellspring of our wise response.
While awakening is often engaged in a more personal context, we are expanding the context to include structural harm and systemic crisis, where the rubber hits the road in our world today. This series invites guest presenters to explore how the wisdom of these nondual teachings may be deeply embodied through a response to our world in crisis. These sessions may include guided meditations, group and dyadic inquiry and group interaction.
Register for one or more dates, or the full series together.
October 13th: John Prendergast and Lisa Ferguson ~
Awakening and Action: Toward an Engaged Nondual Approach
The following events in the series will be hosted by John Prendergast and Lisa Ferguson.
October 20th: Jeremy Lent ~ From Awakened Heart to a Flourishing Earth
October 27th: Jonathan Gustin ~ Non-dual Responsibility - Exploring Non-duality & the Metacrisis
November 2nd: Caverly Morgan ~ Acting on Behalf of The Heart of Who We Are
John J. Prendergast, Ph.D. is the author of The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence (2019 ) and In Touch: How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself (2015) and is working on a new book entitled Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality (March 2025). He 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. John and his wife Christiane offer residential retreats in the United States and Europe.
www.listeningfromsilence.com
YouTube channel
Lisa Ferguson, Ph.D. is the founder of Climate Compassion, and has focused on supporting planetary wellbeing as a healing arts practitioner, climate justice activist, organizer and contemplative. She offers psychospiritual support to activists through one-one sessions and small groups, weaving together a focus on awakening, healing and wise action.
Suggested Donation: $15 to $40
(any amount acceptable, no one turned away for lack of funds)
Please register early if you can.
Full Series: Sundays October 13, 20, 27, and Saturday Nov 2
Suggested Donation: $60 to $120
(no one turned away for lack of funds)
The event leaders are donating their entire share of the event donations, after expenses, to support Rob Schwartz’s vision of maintaining his property to be available as a spiritual retreat space, where Open Circle may hold some of its events.
The events will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
Silent Group Meditation (Free, No Guidance)
Join us for a silent group meditation. Do your own practice quietly in the company of others. Let’s be present, together. .... more details
Mon.: 8:00am – 8:30am (PT) and Wed.: 9:00am – 9:30am (PT)
Ongoing drop-in group – attend as often as you like.
Weekly, with rare exceptions. Verify dates on Full Calendar.
Stephan Bodian ~ Welcoming What Is
By its very nature, consciousness delights in its expressions in form, and awareness welcomes whatever arises. When we wake up to who we really are, we discover the innate perfection of this moment right now. Nothing is inherently missing or problematic in the sacred mystery of Being. But the ego has its own ideas about how things should be and is constantly resisting what is and trying to impose its agenda on life.
In this satsang, we’ll sit together in the silent mystery of Being and explore how to relate with our resistance to what is, using the Rumi poem The Guest House as our guide. Includes guided meditation, pointers, and plenty of time for Q&A and discussion.
Stephan Bodian is a teacher in the nondual wisdom tradition of Zen, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta. He's been offering the School for Awakening, an annual multi-month intensive program in spiritual unfolding and awakened living, since 2007. As a licensed psychotherapist, he brings a deep understanding of the impact of trauma and early conditioning on the process of spiritual realization and offers individual counseling and mentoring in psychospiritual integration. Stephan 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. For more information, visit : www.stephanbodian.org
Suggested donation: $15 to $40
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Stephan Bodian has offered that all donations for this event will go
to support Open Circle in continuing this work of offering teachings.
Please register early if you can.
The event will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
John Prendergast, Lisa Ferguson & Jonathan Gustin ~ Engaged Nonduality
Engaged Nonduality
Non-dual Responsibility -
Exploring Non-duality & the Metacrisis
with John Prendergast, Lisa Ferguson
and Jonathan Gustin ~ Oct. 27th
Recording will be emailed to participants within a week.
You’re welcome to join even if you can’t attend the live session.
For a short 3 minute video preview, watch "Non-dual Responsibility" and read the corresponding paper here.
Many spiritual journeys adjourn with a peaceful detachment. A different finale is possible—a love of the unmanifest infinite with a passionate engagement with material existence.
In this gathering we will explore moksha-dharma (liberation and responsibility). A splitting between Moksha (Liberation/Enlightenment) and Dharma (purpose/duty) is not only false...it may be inadvertently contributing to metacrisis. Non-duality can (and should) evolve, to include dharmic responsibility and 'engaged liberation' where "love leaves nothing out."
We will explore: two varieties of Non-duality and the Metacrisis, Non-dual dharma, Non-Dual Kinship and how this relates to soul-level purpose.
Jonathan Gustin, M.A, MFT, Jonathan is the founder of Purpose Guides Institute. He helps people to find and embody their life’s purpose, and offers training for those who want to become Purpose Guides themselves. He is also a meditation teacher, facilitating meditation gatherings remotely as well as in-person in his hometown of Victoria, BC, Canada.
Engaged Nonduality Series
This series weaves nondual awakening and an embodied response to our world in crisis. We are facing intersecting crises of climate breakdown, the potential of ecological and systems collapse, severe injustice and inequality, rising authoritarianism, unaligned tech and AI, and more. The path of nonduality has much to offer in these times, including a deep recognition of our wholeness and shared Being, and opening to the wellspring of our wise response.
While awakening is often engaged in a more personal context, we are expanding the context to include structural harm and systemic crisis, where the rubber hits the road in our world today. This series invites guest presenters to explore how the wisdom of these nondual teachings may be deeply embodied through a response to our world in crisis. These sessions may include guided meditations, group and dyadic inquiry and group interaction.
Register for one or more dates, or the full series together.
October 13th: John Prendergast and Lisa Ferguson ~
Awakening and Action: Toward an Engaged Nondual Approach
The following events in the series will be hosted by John Prendergast and Lisa Ferguson.
October 20th: Jeremy Lent ~ From Awakened Heart to a Flourishing Earth
October 27th: Jonathan Gustin ~ Non-dual Responsibility - Exploring Non-duality & the Metacrisis
November 2nd: Caverly Morgan ~ Acting on Behalf of The Heart of Who We Are
John J. Prendergast, Ph.D. is the author of The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence (2019 ) and In Touch: How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself (2015) and is working on a new book entitled Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality (March 2025). He 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. John and his wife Christiane offer residential retreats in the United States and Europe.
www.listeningfromsilence.com
YouTube channel
Lisa Ferguson, Ph.D. is the founder of Climate Compassion, and has focused on supporting planetary wellbeing as a healing arts practitioner, climate justice activist, organizer and contemplative. She offers psychospiritual support to activists through one-one sessions and small groups, weaving together a focus on awakening, healing and wise action.
Suggested Donation: $15 to $40
(any amount acceptable, no one turned away for lack of funds)
Please register early if you can.
Full Series: Sundays October 13, 20, 27, and Saturday Nov 2
Suggested Donation: $60 to $120
(no one turned away for lack of funds)
The event leaders are donating their entire share of the event donations, after expenses, to support Rob Schwartz’s vision of maintaining his property to be available as a spiritual retreat space, where Open Circle may hold some of its events.
The events will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
Silent Group Meditation (Free, No Guidance)
Join us for a silent group meditation. Do your own practice quietly in the company of others. Let’s be present, together. .... more details
Mon.: 8:00am – 8:30am (PT) and Wed.: 9:00am – 9:30am (PT)
Ongoing drop-in group – attend as often as you like.
Weekly, with rare exceptions. Verify dates on Full Calendar.
November 2024
John Prendergast, Lisa Ferguson & Caverly Morgan ~ Engaged Nonduality
Engaged Nonduality
Acting on Behalf of The Heart of Who We Are
with John Prendergast, Lisa Ferguson
and Caverly Morgan ~ Nov. 2nd
Recording will be emailed to participants within a week.
You’re welcome to join even if you can’t attend the live session.
This gathering is about the act of being. It’s about knowing a happiness you can’t explain because you have no reason to point to. The joy of pure being. Together we’ll explore knowing who you are, resting in presence, and what it means to act in the world on behalf of this deep knowing.
We’ll give our attention to the pleasure of being aware of being aware, and seeing what gets in the way of this—personally and collectively—while exploring how to let it go, to undo, to realize freedom together.
This gathering will consist of a guided meditation, a teaching, and a group discussion. It is based on Caverly’s book: The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together.
Caverly Morgan is a spiritual teacher, non-profit founder, speaker and writer who blends the original spirit of Zen with a modern nondual approach. She is the author of The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together as well as A Kids Book About Mindfulness. Caverly is the founder of Peace in Schools, a nonprofit that created the nation’s first for-credit mindfulness class in public high schools. Her practice began in 1995 and has included eight years of training in a silent Zen monastery. She has been teaching contemplative practice since 2001. Caverly leads meditation retreats, workshops and online classes internationally. Learn more at caverlymorgan.org.
Engaged Nonduality Series
This series weaves nondual awakening and an embodied response to our world in crisis. We are facing intersecting crises of climate breakdown, the potential of ecological and systems collapse, severe injustice and inequality, rising authoritarianism, unaligned tech and AI, and more. The path of nonduality has much to offer in these times, including a deep recognition of our wholeness and shared Being, and opening to the wellspring of our wise response.
While awakening is often engaged in a more personal context, we are expanding the context to include structural harm and systemic crisis, where the rubber hits the road in our world today. This series invites guest presenters to explore how the wisdom of these nondual teachings may be deeply embodied through a response to our world in crisis. These sessions may include guided meditations, group and dyadic inquiry and group interaction.
Register for one or more dates, or the full series together.
October 13th: John Prendergast and Lisa Ferguson ~
Awakening and Action: Toward an Engaged Nondual Approach
The following events in the series will be hosted by John Prendergast and Lisa Ferguson.
October 20th: Jeremy Lent ~ From Awakened Heart to a Flourishing Earth
October 27th: Jonathan Gustin ~ Non-dual Responsibility - Exploring Non-duality & the Metacrisis
November 2nd: Caverly Morgan ~ Acting on Behalf of The Heart of Who We Are
John J. Prendergast, Ph.D. is the author of The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence (2019 ) and In Touch: How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself (2015) and is working on a new book entitled Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality (March 2025). He 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. John and his wife Christiane offer residential retreats in the United States and Europe.
www.listeningfromsilence.com
YouTube channel
Lisa Ferguson, Ph.D. is the founder of Climate Compassion, and has focused on supporting planetary wellbeing as a healing arts practitioner, climate justice activist, organizer and contemplative. She offers psychospiritual support to activists through one-one sessions and small groups, weaving together a focus on awakening, healing and wise action.
Suggested Donation: $15 to $40
(any amount acceptable, no one turned away for lack of funds)
Please register early if you can.
Full Series: Sundays October 13, 20, 27, and Saturday Nov 2
Suggested Donation: $60 to $120
(no one turned away for lack of funds)
The event leaders are donating their entire share of the event donations, after expenses, to support Rob Schwartz’s vision of maintaining his property to be available as a spiritual retreat space, where Open Circle may hold some of its events.
The events will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
Lisa Schumacher ~ Choose Love: Self-Inquiry Meeting
NOTE: As of SUNDAY morning 2 AM on NOV. 3rd, clocks in most of the USA are turned back 1 hour. Daylight Savings Time ends.
Times shown here will be Pacific Standard Time starting early morning Sunday Nov. 3, 2024
~~
A meeting with Lisa is an opportunity to step away from your day to day life and devote time for self-inquiry into the heart of Love. There will be a few moments of silence to start the meeting and then Lisa will speak and invite the community to share reports about their realizations and ask questions.
About Lisa Schumacher
Lisa grew up in Colusa, CA, and attended college at San Luis Obispo in the 1980’s. After she moved to Southern Oregon in the early 90s, a friend invited her to a video satsang with Gangaji. Upon hearing Gangaji say “Be your Natural Self”, Lisa’s heart caught on fire and she fell into a deep bow of surrender. That meeting revealed to her the absolute simplicity of the natural, living truth of Love, inseparable from who one is. Lisa moved to Bolinas in 1999 to be closer to Gangaji and the vibrant community around her.
In 2006, Lisa was asked by Gangaji to meet with people and share her discovery of the Love that is alive in the core of one’s being . She holds meetings in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America. She’s also a long-time student of Eli Jaxon-Bear, Gangaji’s husband, and a founding teacher of the “Leela School of Awakening”. Lisa is the author of “The Stone I Love”, a book of poetry inspired by her meeting with Gangaji, available on her website.
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.
Lisa's website: satsangwithlisa.org
Suggested donation: $15 to $40
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early if you can.
The event will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
Silent Group Meditation (Free, No Guidance)
Join us for a silent group meditation. Do your own practice quietly in the company of others. Let’s be present, together. .... more details
Mon.: 8:00am – 8:30am (PT) and Wed.: 9:00am – 9:30am (PT)
Ongoing drop-in group – attend as often as you like.
Weekly, with rare exceptions. Verify dates on Full Calendar.
Susanne Marie ~ What Do I Really Want? The Importance of Intention
It is good to take stock now and then and sincerely look at what one is wanting spiritually. In order to attain undivided Truth, one needs to be intentional, even if knowing how to get there is undefined. In actuality, having clarity in the moment as to 'how', while also allowing divine intelligence to guide, are both important frames of mind to hold in realizing your true nature.
It is important to recognize that the purpose of the seeking energy is to motivate one to come home to oneself. In fact, it can be a guide for you if you learn how to listen. Having an inner drive to wake up is the first step, learning how to listen and follow your inner guidance is the second step, and finally, surrendering and resting in the unknown is the third step. But nothing happens without inner clarity of what we are sincerely wanting. Without intention, one can float a long time in confusion as to how to realize.
The aim of this meeting will be to go beyond the ideas you hold about awakening, lovingly letting go of any false beliefs you may encounter, and access the current true desire you have to wake up. This helps reboot your spiritual intention, bringing it into the now, and enlivening its potentiality.
About Susanne Marie
Featured in conversation with Adyashanti on Buddha at the Gas Pump as well as on Conscious TV, Susanne Marie offers teachings in support of freedom and the celebration of our common essence of love and unity with all life. Susanne, who lives in Northern California, is the parent of two young adults. She offers spiritual mentoring, online and in-person group facilitation, as well as retreats.
Find out more about Susanne Marie: susannemarie.org
Suggested donation: $15 to $40
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early if you can.
The event will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter