October 2023
Marlies Myoku Cocheret ~ Exploring Meditation
Your body is a refined sense organ.
It is a portal into the beautiful Silent Presence that you are.
Let’s sit together … abide as You … for All
Meditation is the art of inner exploration. It’s an opportunity to slow down and receive all of life exactly as it is. Using your body as a portal into your Yourself, we will explore how to connect with and abide as your true essence underneath all the daily busy-ness.
You may have noticed that often the mind does not settle easily. In fact, in quietude, all the things you have been trying to avoid often come bubbling up to the surface. It’s not a problem. They simply want to be met with that gentle, fierce and spacious awareness which is what you truly are.
The more we learn to rest as our underlying silent nature, no matter what arises within us, the easier it becomes to keep our seat when the winds of life pull us back and forth.
Come set the tone for the day and be close with yourself in an embodied way.
Marlies Myoku Cocheret was invited to teach the Dharma by Adyashanti in 2000. She teaches meditation, retreats, and works as a Hakomi therapist and psychologist. She brings a potent invitation into the deep silence that you are, and guides you into embodied connection with your humanity and divine nature. With her grounded presence and therapeutic experience, people feel safe to explore meditation and awakening, knowing that whatever comes up is welcome and can be held.
Suggested donation: $10 to $30
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
CANCELLED – Stephan Bodian ~ Nondual Wisdom in Challenging Times
Due to events beyond our control,
this event had to be cancelled.
On the relative human level of time, space, and history, our species teeters on the edge of self-annihilation. We could easily destroy ourselves (and possibly our planet as well) in half a dozen ways within the lifetime of babies born now. At the same time, from the perspective of awakened awareness, everything is complete and perfect just as it is, no matter how it unfolds. These are the paradoxical truths we embody.
How do we face the facts—not only about our potential fate as a species but about the inevitability of our individual demise—and do what we can, while remaining grateful, open-hearted, compassionate, and joyful? How do we stay connected with our inherent wakefulness while living engaged and dynamic human lives? Please join me in satsang for an in-depth exploration of these themes and more. Our gathering will include guided meditation, direct pointers to our true nature, and plenty of time for dialogue 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 a five-session mentoring intensive 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
Jeannie Zandi ~ The Unconscious
Join Jeannie to explore the role of the unconscious in the embodiment of awakening.
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
Lynn Marie Lumiere, MFT ~ The Healing Power of Embodied Presence
We all have within us the ability to heal ourselves. The power to heal lies within the embodied presence of our own Being. That, and only that, can transform and free our fixed and distorted identity that causes our mental and physical health issues. The false identity cannot change itself. True healing comes from something beyond that, but not separate. It is in the meeting of our infinite being and our finite humanness that the alchemy of true healing takes place.
This healing can include changing our lifestyle, our relationships, our diet, taking medicines, therapy, etc. What is important is we are moved from the deepest wisdom of our Being, not from the separate identity trying to fix it. We rely on the presence of Being to inform our body mind and to meet our mental, emotional and physical pain without resistance. This is how we embody the Presence and heal our humanness.
This webinar will offer a guided meditation and an opportunity to have a direct experience with embodied Presence, as well as receive therapeutic support if needed with the issues you are struggling with.
Lynn Marie Lumiere, MFT is a seasoned psychotherapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and author. Her work is a rare blend of deep spiritual wisdom and decades of skilled therapeutic work with a focus on healing psychological trauma/wounding and embodied awakening. She brings a comprehensive depth of experience hard-won through deeply healing her own trauma and awakening to her true nature. This allows her to be a trustworthy and competent guide for both healing and freedom on all levels. Lynn Marie has a natural empathy and compassion for the human struggles of others that is born of her own life process. She is also the author of Awakened Relating: A Guide to Embodying Undivided Love in Intimate 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
Shakti Caterina Maggi ~ Embodied non duality ~ In-Person in Berkeley, CA & LIVESTREAM
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.
The sharing will be followed by a session of Q&A to integrate the message.
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)
Weekend RETREAT in Berkeley, CA: Nov. 4th & 5th
Suggested donation for this evening In-Person: $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.
For Nov. 2nd, 7th & 8th, Join us IN-PERSON in Berkeley or by LIVESTREAM...
Link to access recording will be emailed within a week after event,
to those registered for Livestream & Recording Access
Chesaray ~ Grounding our Spirituality: Exploring Deep Rest
Join Chesaray for a two hour class on soaking in the restorative practice of deep rest. There will be meditation, exchanges, and engagement in dynamic practice. Resting our seeking mind and receiving the restorative power of Grace is necessary for the body to integrate embodied freedom.
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
November 2023
Marlies Myoku Cocheret ~ Exploring Meditation
Whether you are starting to meditate or already have a meditation practice, this bi-monthly meditation with Marlies will help you drop deeper into connection with yourself, setting the tone for the day in an embodied way.
Your body is a refined sense organ.
It is a portal into the beautiful Silent Presence that you are.
Let’s sit together … abide as You … for All
Meditation is the art of inner exploration. It’s an opportunity to slow down and receive all of life exactly as it is. Using your body as a portal into your Yourself, we will explore how to connect with and abide as your true essence underneath all the daily busy-ness.
You may have noticed that often the mind does not settle easily. In fact, in quietude, all the things you have been trying to avoid often come bubbling up to the surface. It’s not a problem. They simply want to be met with that gentle, fierce and spacious awareness which is what you truly are.
The more we learn to rest as our underlying silent nature, no matter what arises within us, the easier it becomes to keep our seat when the winds of life pull us back and forth.
Come set the tone for the day and be close with yourself in an embodied way.
Marlies Myoku Cocheret was invited to teach the Dharma by Adyashanti in 2000. She teaches meditation, retreats, and works as a Hakomi therapist and psychologist. She brings a potent invitation into the deep silence that you are, and guides you into embodied connection with your humanity and divine nature. With her grounded presence and therapeutic experience, people feel safe to explore meditation and awakening, knowing that whatever comes up is welcome and can be held.
Suggested donation: $10 to $30
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
Dave Oshana ~ Delicious Human Consciousness
Since Existence is so fantastic, alive and desirable, I'm not sure why non-duality and other religious views are so often presented as dry and boring. Is it fear, culture, contraction, fetishization, objectification, or just a dispassionate transcendence of desire, drama and tendencies? Hmmm...
Whatever! Speculation knows no end.
All I know is what I know, which is that life after Enlightenment (Awakening/Liberation) is so much more tasty, juicy - and, well, alive, naturally. I also know, and you are certainly in on the secret, that humans thrive on contact. Truly deeply connecting - the kind of connection that only happens when the conditioned self (false identity/Ego) gets out of the way, off the potty and turns off.
So, this is an invitation to do what we humans do best (and long for) - to mix, mash and merge. Oh, don't worry if you are shy, the enlightened company present won't be holding anyone's feet over the flames, scorching and roasting them into Enlightenment. You'll be able to be just as you are, and snooze by the campfire, as the stars come down to co-mingle with our consciousness.
This is an experience to be had, live and direct, not read about after. You are welcome to join in.
Read the warm and amazing feedback after Dave's debut last month ‘Dave Oshana at Open Circle Center: Enlightenment Transmission, Enlightenment & Healing’.
Advice:
For full receptivity and comfort, it is recommended that you have space to lay down, away from WiFi and phones, hydrate well and abstain from addictive and mind-altering substances, both before and after our meeting.
Newcomers are invited to make an early connection with Dave Oshana and Enlightenment Transmission, prepare in advance, experience the energies and receive guidance and updates about the event - use email or contact-form.
About Dave Oshana:
After 25 years of intense spiritual seeking, I was surprised to find myself Enlightened at 5am on 19th June 2000. I share the profound transformation in the energetic fields we create together, and call this phenomenon: Enlightenment Transmission.
Enlightenment Transmission online resources
include YouTube, audio, writings and online events.
enlightenment-transmission.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
Dorothy Hunt ~ Grace and Gratitude
Grace is always present. You imagine it is somewhere high in the sky,
far away, and has to descend. It is really inside you, in your Heart.
Grace is the Self. . . .You are never out of its operation.
--Sri Ramana Maharshi
Whether life’s unfolding gifts are birth or death, tears or laughter, understanding or confusion, challenge or compassion, it is all grace. Grace fills the world, but only a heart awakened to its true nature will taste its depths. Whatever is here expresses life’s wholeness and can be an invitation back to our unborn Source.
Awakening itself is a movement of grace that allows us to freely appreciate the gifts of impermanence and life’s continual flow, no longer bound by the suffering that comes from perpetually wanting “more,” different, or unending experiences. The working of such grace depends on our ability to receive it.
When we realize the movement of grace in our lives, the natural response of the heart is gratitude. Gratitude is not simply being thankful for things we deem beneficial or pleasurable. It is really a way of living and an expression of the love we discover that is right here in all circumstances. Like Brother David Steindl-Rast, we may discover that “It is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.”
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 ~ Gratitude
Join Jeannie to explore the authentic impulse to gratitude that rises in the full heart, as well as how gratitude can be used gently to open to the blessing of being alive.
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