June 2024
Mukti ~ Prior to Problems: Sanctuary and Source
A key aim of spirituality is to be in the world, but not of it. This can present as being engaged in the human world, while greatly being informed by Source, the creative and sustaining realm of spirit.
When things feel “off,” or indeed are, within one’s self or the world, a common tendency is to feel disempowered and to relate to life as fundamentally problematic. Meanwhile, the practitioner who orients to liberated consciousness aligns with transformative spirit. Such spirit expresses immeasurable intelligence and possibilities, which can be brought to bear on life’s challenges, dilemmas, and decisions. Moreover, one’s attunement to peace and quietude in spirit can shift problem-centered ways of perceiving to perceptions centered in curiosity, creativity, and resolution.
The blessing of seeing through the limitation of egoic states that generate and dwell in the burdened paradigm of “problem,” is that this seeing can initiate a turn toward illimitable spirit.
Mukti’s presentation will be devoted to investigating doorways to spirit and will point to the undivided state and its power to harmonize, heal, resolve, and rectify. Her presentation will be followed by a Q&A session, in which audience members can join her in furthering the investigations of her presentation.
Mukti, whose name is translated as “liberation,” is the head teacher and administrator of Open Gate Sangha, where she has taught in the lineage of Adyashanti since 2004. Her teaching methods are founded in meditation, self-inquiry, and body awareness. Mukti expresses a power of stillness, as well as feminine nurturing and a refreshing down-to-earth humanity. For teaching excerpts, audio downloads, qi gong videos, and a calendar of Mukti’s current programs, visit: www.muktisource.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
Unmani ~ What is the Awakened State?
Beyond all states that come and go, there is the knowing of them all. The Awareness of whatever is here. This is who you really are as Life itself, always awake, and always aware. This is all very well, however, in your human experience, you might not always feel or acknowledge this knowing that is always awake. You might experience being caught up in your mind, emotions or the dramas of life, and then this Awakening is simply a beautiful and spiritual intellectual concept that is very far from your own experience.
If you have had some kind of awakening recognition, you might experience a kind of flip-flopping in and out of the clear seeing of the Oneness of your true nature, and then being again caught up in the dramas of the apparent separate 'me'. This can be very painful as you experience the strong contrast between these two states of being.
In this Meeting with Unmani, we will discuss what the Awakened State is, and any confusions around this. We will also look at the various misconceptions about Awakening in general. We will then explore how Awakening can be lived in our human lives with all the ups and downs and challenges, as well as the fast pace of our modern human lives.
Unmani gives practical pointers and support on how to live in and as Awakening. Join the 'live' session to be able to ask questions, and investigate your direct experience with Unmani.
About Unmani
Meeting with Unmani is meeting with yourself in the most real and alive way. Unmani is originally from the UK, but has lived in many countries around the world. Since she was a child, Unmani didn't identify with being a separate individual, but assumed there was something wrong with her, until she came across the expression of Satsang and nonduality. Truth has always been her passion. Unmani had teachers including Osho, Dolano, Nathan Gill, Tony Parsons, Gangaji and several other amazing people who are not considered 'teachers'.
In 2013 she met her husband, the wonderful musician, and courageous lover of life, Robert Hanuman. In 2015 their son, Sky, was born. On 3rd January 2018, Robert Hanuman died suddenly from a heart attack while they were in India. Robert Hanuman's presence deeply influenced Unmani's teaching, and in the time they were together it evolved into a more human expression of the courage to live the paradox of the Absolute, living as this human. Robert put Unmani's words to his beautiful classical guitar music and Unmani still plays his songs at her meetings.
Unmani has been holding meetings and retreats all over the world for since 2003, and in this time people have been deeply touched by her work: She meets each person exactly where they are at, and in whatever they need at the time, while at the same time holding them in the truth of who they really are beyond it all. This combination, and paradox, of the personal and impersonal, brings so much depth, openness and healing to people's lives. They wake up to who they really are, and discover how this is lived and integrated into their daily lives.
Unmani has written 3 books 'I am Life itself', 'Die to Love' and 'The Courage to Come Alive'. Unmani holds regular meetings and retreats several times a year as well as monthly webinars on different themes.
For more information about Unmani's work go to: www.die-to-love.com
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Unmani
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/unmani
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unmani_hyde/
Robert Hanuman's music can be downloaded on iTunes here: https://music.apple.com/nl/artist/robert-hanuman/1329878840?l=en
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
Dorothy Hunt ~ Mystery and Manifestation
Although given many names, there is an unnameable Mystery that cannot be spoken. It reveals itself most deeply in Silence. There are also the “ten thousand things”—life in its ever-changing manifestations. When we experience that both Mystery and manifestations arise from the same source, we are invited to the freedom, depth, and aliveness that come from not dividing essence from what is here now. We are invited into the intimate and ever-present mystery that is illuminating our every experience, loving its own expressions, giving worth and beauty to the wholeness of Being, including our uniquely human and precious place within it.
Please join Open Circle and Dorothy Hunt for this 2-hour satsang exploring Mystery and manifestation through guided meditation, silent sitting, and dialogue.
Dorothy Hunt currently serves as Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha, teaching at the request and in the spiritual lineage of Adyashanti. The flavor of her teaching blends Advaita and Zen with a deep welcoming of the human expressions of the Mystery. Dorothy is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy, and practiced psychotherapy from 1967 until her retirement in 2020. She is the author of Only This!, Leaves from Moon Mountain, and Ending the Search: From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness. In addition, she is a contributing author to two books on Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, and the editor of Love: A Fruit Always in Season.
Presently, Dorothy offers satsang and retreats via Zoom, and dokusan by phone. For more information, please visit www.dorothyhunt.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
Jeannie Zandi ~ Women, Spirit & the Body (women only)
Join Jeannie for a special call for women exploring the theme of spirituality and the body.
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
Shakti Caterina Maggi ~ Embodied nonduality
The teaching will be a dive into the heart of nonduality. An open and direct sharing about how our spiritual essence embodies in human experience to wake up to itself.
We will explore how suffering is the way through which we can recognize our self-imposed limitations. With courage and radical honesty we can use suffering as a trampoline to consciously connect to an unshakeable inner peace.
Shakti will offer a talk followed by Q&A.
Shakti Caterina Maggi is a spiritual guide, meditation teacher and author widely recognized as one of the most authentic and profound voices of contemporary spirituality. Combining the vision of Advaita and non-dual Tantra with a contemporary approach, Shakti offers with humanity, compassion and great clarity an inner technology to dissolve that contraction of suffering that accompanies our lives, and access a space of peace and unconditional love towards life.
www.shakticaterinamaggi.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
Lisa Cairns ~ About Love, Wisdom, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
What non-duality means to me is that my life flows in between love and wisdom, or between nothingness and everythingness. It’s on this level that the human experience unfolds. Understanding that I am everything signifies the end of separation, recognizing that everything is love, and acknowledging that I am nothing represents wisdom. In between these realizations, the story of my life, or the life of the person, takes shape.
One of my favorite from his quotes is:
“Wisdom is knowing I am nothing,
Love is knowing I am everything,
and between the two my life moves.”
- Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj was my teacher, although he had passed away before I had the chance to meet him in person. Instead, I encountered his teachings through my own teachers. Initially, I didn’t fully grasp the impact he was having on me, as I lacked direct contact with him. It wasn’t until I read his book that I realized his message was flowing through my teachers, who had received it from their teachers, and so on. His influence was more evident in the effect he had on all my teachers and how they, in turn, imparted that wisdom to me. I feel immense gratitude for the way his teachings entered my life. On a human level, I can say that non-duality saved me. It completely transformed my life, altering its course in every way imaginable. It awakened me from the illusion I had been living under, the suffering of a mental reality.
In my earlier years, I was immersed in Buddhism, which emphasizes the recognition of suffering as one of its initial noble truths. Although the Buddha himself did not experience a life of suffering, being raised as a Prince in a protected palace, his awakening began when he encountered a beggar on the streets. This recognition that life is inherently suffering, without understanding our true nature or being connected to something deeper than the human realm, leads to inevitable suffering. Whether this realization comes in one’s teenage years due to early childhood trauma or later in life due to other challenges, it prompts the fundamental question: Why are we alive? Why do we exist on a planet floating around the sun in an ever-expanding universe? This existential inquiry is profound and essential for understanding our place in the cosmos.
Please join us to listen to Lisa's sharing about this topic, and for the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with Lisa.
About Lisa:
In Bali in 2011, Lisa suddenly lost total control while eating banana fritters with ice cream, and there was a sudden and explosive energetic shift; at that moment it was understood, beyond the intellect, non-dual philosophy.
For the past eleven years, she has traveled around the world, sharing an amazing Indian Philosophy called Non duality. She has spoken in book shops, cafes, yoga centers, universities, schools, the UK’s NHS (National Health Care System), conference centers, festivals, theatres and in someone’s front room.
In her talks, she tries to communicate the limitless nature of life, which you could say is at the root of every philosophy, religion or story. This is a tall order, so failing that, she hopes to open doors for anyone who wants to listen, providing a broader perspective on this magical thing we call life.
More about Lisa: www.lisacairns.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
July 2024
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.
Chesaray ~ Somatic Self Inquiry: Embodied Awakening and Psychological Integration through Movement
Experiential Divinity in our everyday lives requires a holistic approach that embraces the whole self. Let us turn from the temptations of spiritual bypassing and lean into the fire of embodiment.
Somatic Self Inquiry supports people in discovering their true nature by welcoming below-the-mind, bottom-up approaches to integration. When we are reminded of our Divinity deep within, we can be liberated from patterns that hold us back from joy and freedom. Through exploring the richness of the somatic depths and opening to the unknown, we find ourselves "in the world but not of it."
Let us come together in the spirit of Inquiry for a guided movement exploration, meditation, and exchanges with Chesaray.
Chesaray is passionate about supporting those to awaken to the lived experience of Unconditional Love and Being. She is the Spiritual Director of Loving Ground, a 501 c3 non-profit. She offers online and in person retreats and courses based on a wide range of psychological, spiritual, holistic healing modalities that support human evolution.
Please find out more about Chesaray’s offerings at www.chesaray.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
Shakti Caterina Maggi ~ Embodied nonduality
The teaching will be a dive into the heart of nonduality. An open and direct sharing about how our spiritual essence embodies in human experience to wake up to itself.
We will explore how suffering is the way through which we can recognize our self-imposed limitations. With courage and radical honesty we can use suffering as a trampoline to consciously connect to an unshakeable inner peace.
Shakti will offer a talk followed by Q&A.
Shakti Caterina Maggi is a spiritual guide, meditation teacher and author widely recognized as one of the most authentic and profound voices of contemporary spirituality. Combining the vision of Advaita and non-dual Tantra with a contemporary approach, Shakti offers with humanity, compassion and great clarity an inner technology to dissolve that contraction of suffering that accompanies our lives, and access a space of peace and unconditional love towards life.
www.shakticaterinamaggi.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
Louise Kay ~ Embodied Awareness
If you bring your attention fully present into the now and inquire with a genuine, open curiosity into the truth of this moment, what is discovered is that underlying all experiences lies an invisible, potent presence. This presence is often referred to as stillness, being, consciousness or awareness and is the eternal, formless essence of who you are. All else appears in and is perceived by this awareness.
The recognition of this truth through direct experiential knowing is a divine blessing and is followed by a sacred process of integration, which takes place on the level of body and mind. As higher consciousness penetrates the physical body in the surrendered state, unconscious beliefs and conditionings are revealed and released, and unprocessed emotions held in the system rise to the surface to be consciously felt and transmuted. This process of deep healing and maturing takes place over time on the level of form, while one remains anchored in the formlessness of the unending now.
You are invited to join Louise for an exploration of Embodied Awareness comprising a guided meditation and opportunity to ask questions.
About Louise
Louise Kay was born in the north west of 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 deep call in her heart to visit India, where she experienced a profound spiritual awakening. Shortly afterwards Louise began channeling and traveled around the world sharing this gift for several years. During this time she experienced a deepening and integration of her initial spiritual awakening and as she opened more to this non-dual truth a new form of expression revealed itself from deep in 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.
Louise holds group events online and around the world.
More about Louise: www.louisekay.net
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