September 2024
Louise Kay ~ Embodied Awareness (In-Person & Livestream)
Open Circle is hosting a series of events with Louise Kay in various locations ~
In-Person attendance & Livestream available:
Sebastopol, CA satsang: Sept. 22nd (2-4 pm)
Berkeley, CA satsangs Sept. 24th (7-9 pm)
San Rafael, CA satsang: Sept. 26th (7-9 pm)
Berkeley, CA satsangs Sept. 27th (7-9 pm)
DAYLONG...
Sept. 28th, Berkeley, CA (10:30am-4:30pm)
Click here to access details & registration for ALL events.
Sept. 28th Daylong....
You're invited to join Louise Kay for a full day retreat. This event is an invitation to dedicate a whole day to deepening into the stillness of being in a field of pure, unconditional love alongside like-minded community. The day will consist of guided and silent meditations as well as Q&A sessions where you will have the opportunity to explore whatever arises for you in the moment.
Louise will support you to rest your attention as the aware witness while consciously including and feeling the experience of the body as alive sensations. This practice, which Louise calls 'Embodied Awareness,' supports the direct recognition of one's true nature through self-inquiry as well as the integration of unprocessed energies and emotions held in the body. When employed with consistency this practice allows one to live fully in presence in an integrated way and to become a vessel through which higher consciousness can flow more freely, bringing joy to every aspect of life.
You will be supported to surrender fully into the now, dis-identify from the conceptual self and open up to your true nature, pure consciousness, to discover an ever-present dimension of peace.
Whatever emotions or sensations arise in the body will be met with unconditional love under Louise's gentle guidance, allowing for deep healing and transformation to take place on the level of form.
Louise Kay was born in the UK. After graduating from university she worked as an English teacher for 15 years, and during this time began to question the deeper meaning of life. This led her to the path of spirituality, where she found a strong resonance with the teachings of non-duality.
In her early thirties Louise felt a strong call to visit India, where she experienced a profound spiritual awakening. In the years that followed she experienced a deepening and integration of her initial spiritual awakening and as she opened more to this dimension of being a new form of expression revealed itself from deep within her heart.
Louise is passionate about supporting people to live a life of presence and unconditional love. Her greatest joy is to sit together in presence and gently hold space for all emotions, all sensations and all experiences which arise in the moment in order to support the integration of unresolved energies and allow the unfolding of the divine in all who feel the call.
Explorations are usually focused around self-inquiry, the release of limiting beliefs and the integration of unprocessed emotions and energies.
More about Louise: www.louisekay.net
The meeting will be from 10:30am to 4:30pm, with a break for lunch.
Bring your own lunch, or feel free to eat out or pickup prepared food (various places nearby).
Sliding Scale: $60 to $120
No one turned away for lack of funds
Pre-Registration for In-Person attendance is Not necessary,
but encouraged to help us in planning.
Plenty of space at this venue. You can show up and pay at the door.
For those who can register in advance,
pre-registration for In-Person attendance Closes at 11 pm on Sept. 27th
.
For inquiries about IN-PERSON attendance, contact LocalEvents@opencirclecenter.org
For inquiries about LIVESTREAM access, contact web@opencirclecenter.org
The In-person event will be in the Gallery room upstairs.
Parking is unrestricted on Los Angeles Avenue.
Lunch break:
For In-person attendees, there are a variety of places to eat out or pick up prepared food within a few blocks. You can also bring your own food, though there is no kitchen or refrigerator access. People are welcome to eat outside on the lawn. No eating is allowed indoors at the venue. List of Nearby Solano Ave. Food Places
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.
Ellen Emmet ~ Venturing Into the Unlit Corners of the Now
We start at 9:00 am Pacific Time / 5:00 pm UK time /
6:00 pm Central European Time.
Time Zone Converter
Recording will be emailed to participants within a week.
You’re welcome to join even if you can’t attend the live session.
There are times in each of our lives when a bitter wind blows our spiritual torch out. It may be called depression, grief, trauma, illness, the end of a relationship, a sense that we are no longer in alignment with our deepest self.
Here we are, standing at the threshold of our being, knowing that nothing we have used to light the way forward will work.
During this gathering we will venture together, away from the certitudes held by the mind and into the dark wilderness of the body. We will listen inwardly to our felt experience. Perhaps we will face and taste the unconscious layers of defense that portent to protect us yet keep us in a cell of false security.
Perhaps we will touch the vulnerability and strength of Life as she cycles and connects us to the great garland of creation.
Ellen will draw on her experience of Kashmir nondual yoga, the Jungian ideas especially as expressed by Marion Woodman, Authentic Movement, and whatever else may arise from the field of our gathering. There will be time for sharing in a safe container.
About Ellen:
Ellen’s deepest intuition was confirmed when she met her teacher in the non-dual tradition, Francis Lucille. Hearing his words, she recognised the eternal, limitless and universal nature of our shared reality. Over the years, this understanding has continued to unfold and to touch all levels of experience.
At the very same time, Ellen has never ceased to delve into the depths of her human experience, seen and unseen, thirsting for a wholeness and connectedness which appeared to be lost or obscured. This unstoppable quest brought her to therapy, Jungian workshops (and later Jungian analysis), Dream Work, Authentic Movement and creative writing.
More and more, she senses that each of our lives is a journey of revelation and integration, including its darker crossings, through which the face of truth can shine uniquely and anew, wedding us to our direct experience and connecting us to the great family of creation.
To find out more about Ellen and her offering, visit www.ellenemmet.com
Sliding Scale: $25 to $45
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please register early if you can.
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Find out more »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.
October 2024
Lynn Marie Lumiere, MFT ~ EMPOWERED EMBODIMENT: The Deepest Solution to Life’s Challenges
With all that is going on in our personal lives as well as in the world we live in, it can be easy to feel overwhelmed and disempowered. The only way we can be fully empowered is to embody our deepest nature. Having a direct experience of our nature is only the beginning. Then we embark on the beautiful and challenging journey of embodying that on all levels of our human being—somatic, emotional, psychological, and relational. The more we can embody our loving presence on any of those levels, the more empowered we are to transform our lives and the lives of those around us, as well as the world we live in. This is the deepest solution to all that we are facing.
In this event, we will start with the somatic level with group practices that align our nervous system with our calm, open, nature. When those two are out of alignment, it makes life more difficult than it needs to be. We are meant to live as a powerful, integrated whole. You are also welcome to bring whatever issues you have on any other level of your humanness. Lynn Marie will meet it all with open awareness and psychological skills, if needed.
Lynn Marie Lumiere, is a seasoned psychotherapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, spiritual mentor, and author. She offers a rare blend of embodied spiritual wisdom with a skilled therapeutic approach that facilitates healing of psychological trauma and wounding and the embodiment of awakening. Her depth of experience, rooted in her own healing and awakening journey, spans decades of expertly guiding individuals in the resolution of their trauma and into connection with their true nature. Lynn Marie is the author of Awakened Relating: A Guide to Embodying More Love in Relationships.
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.
Jeannie Zandi ~ Sovereignty
Join Jeannie to explore sovereignty - reclaim your connection and trust in yourself, your connection to the divine and clarify your relating to others.
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.
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 and Lisa Ferguson ~ Engaged Nonduality
Engaged Nonduality
Awakening and Action:
Toward an Engaged Nondual Approach
with John Prendergast and Lisa Ferguson ~ Oct. 13th
Recording will be emailed to participants within a week.
You’re welcome to join even if you can’t attend the live session.
In this kickoff to the series, Lisa will present a working framework and practices to open the space to explore an engaged nonduality: how the recognition of non-separation moves in response to our world in crisis. This will include themes of personal and collective awakening, individual action, and collective liberation. We will explore how love and truth might move through us, as well as how we can kindly tend to our conditioned parts and intense emotions - such as terror, despair, rage and shame - that may emerge as we face the enormity of our Metacrisis.
John and Lisa will offer space for group sharing, meditation and a deep meeting of what arises as we face our Metacrisis in community, from the heart of being.
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.
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.
Rupert Spira ~ The Essence of Non-Duality ~ In-Person & Livestream ~ Berkeley, CA
“Meditation is what we are, not what we do; the separate self is what we do, not what we are.”
In the last few years Rupert Spira has become one of the most respected and sought-after teachers of non-dual wisdom, known for his crystal clear use of language, laser-like intellect, skillful guided inquiries, and powerfully direct pointing to aware presence—all delivered with warmth, wit and an unmatched and distinctive eloquence.
In his meetings, Rupert explores the perennial, non-dual understanding that lies at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions, such as Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mystical Christianity, Sufism, Zen etc., and which is also the direct, ever-present reality of our own experience. This is a contemporary, experiential approach involving silent meditation, guided meditation and conversation, and requires no affiliation to any particular religious or spiritual tradition. All that is required is an interest in the essential nature of experience, and in the longing for love, peace and happiness around which most of our lives revolve.
After thirty years of intense seeking, Rupert met his primary teacher Francis Lucille, who introduced him to the direct way taught by his own teacher, Jean Klein. He is the author of several books, including his latest, You are the Happiness You Seek.
The meeting will start with a contemplation led by Rupert followed by a Question and Answer session.
Open Circle events are typically recorded and made available to others, including, but not limited to use in our Library, YouTube, social media, etc. No participant faces are recorded, only their voices. Your participation implies consent for us to use your shares, so please share accordingly.
Suggested Donation: $25 - $40
No one turned away to lack of funds.
No pre-registration for In-Person Attendance.
Just pay at the door.
Cash Preferred. Check or Venmo OK.
Card payment may be an option.
PARKING: There is some street parking in the neighborhood, free and without time limit.
Nearby parking fills up quickly. Plan accordingly.
For inquiries contact LocalEvents@opencirclecenter.org
If you have symptoms of a respiratory infection, or have had a recent
Covid exposure or positive test, please stay home out of consideration for others.
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.
We will use the fullness of our experience to tune and attune to our bodies, illuminating our deepest healing and freedom. Engaging and transcending our senses, awareness, breath, movement and sound and more, we will use our body's signals to return to sensate presence.
TOGETHER ON OUR CALL WE WILL:
- Explore states of inner coherence in our own experience.
- Engage simple yet profound somatic and energetic practices.
- Experience the healing power of inner and group coherence.
- Have space to share, ask questions and learn from within and together.
- Learn about ways to deepen our access to embodied presence.
All levels of experience are welcom.
BIO
Ishita Sharma serves as a spiritual teacher, healing mirror, embodiment guide, and Core Energetics Practitioner of body-based psychotherapy. 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.
Growing up in India, asking big questions, Ishita's curiosities about the nature of All Things fueled a series of profound openings. Having her relationship to Self, Life and others re-calibrated, while learning to honor her own body's signals as the ultimate path to God, led her to study various spiritual, neurological, relational, somatic and shamanic modalities, through the Grace of her teachers and the Book of her Life.
Ishita has coached visionaries and leaders from Google, Harvard, MIT, Silicon Valley, Broadway artists, and renowned scientists, coaches, teachers, artists and activists. Clients come to her to grow through their deepest longings and challenges, held and mirrored in their perfect wholeness. She points every one of them back to center.
Ishita’s teachings, like her learnings, support self-study through direct realization. They marry western mind and eastern spirit through the human body and heart to facilitate embodied awakening and authentic connection, the balm for our tumultuous times.
Care for our sacred shared world informs all her endeavors. Ishita now uses her skills to help clients connect with their inner signals so they can find rest in minds, ease in their bodies, joy in their hearts, and embody their True Nature in right relation with Life. She brings 15 years of advanced facilitation, a refined meditation practice, and a fierce devotion to her own healing to serve. She looks forward to meeting and supporting you!
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