June 2021
Georgia Simone ~ Awakened Healing: Become The Space Where Healing Takes Place
Welcome to The Holding Space.
A space where we can gather together and BE exactly as we are
A space where the full spectrum of your human experience is invited
Calm, anxious, open, closed,
ALL is welcome here.
It's in this gentle embrace that everything can start to unravel. It's in this open space that we can begin to unwind the strategies that no longer serve us. This is the space that early mis-attunement failed to foster, the space where love blooms and new life can emerge. This is the space where all that quivers and shakes can come to rest, and where all that contorts can untwist into greater alignment.
Through gentle exploration and somatic awareness you can cultivate a new way of being with your most challenging patterns. No longer a victim of the push and pull of inner disturbance, you can step forward with greater confidence, knowing that whatever comes your way, you embody the resilience and the capacity to meet and integrate it.
You can expect a deeply held space where you’ll be invited to slow down, tune in, and track your present-moment experience. As you awaken and refine a more subtle way of Being and Being With, you can slowly but surely become the space – the container and the field – where healing takes place.
Bio:
The first leg of Georgia Simone’s path exposed her to the teachings of Advaita Vedanta, which provided her with the foundation she needed to dis-identify from pain and suffering. However, despite a growing freedom, a significant bypass took place, as her orientation towards transcendence reinforced her deep disconnection from Life. Upon seeing this, her focus became addressing the unresolved trauma that had woven its way into every fibre of her being.
After many years of wading through this marshland of conditioning, she now shares her discoveries with others. She believes that the spiritual path is as much about arriving here fully - as an embodied human being - as it is about dissolving into the infinite source that makes this life possible. How can we die to the absolute, while deeply embracing our relative human experience? This Living inquiry is her Life’s prayer.
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
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
Gail Brenner, Ph.D ~ Embodied Awakening in Everyday Life: A 6-Part Intensive
6-Part Online Intensive
June 21, 24, 28 and July 1, 8, 15, 2021
9:00 am – 11:00 am Pacific Time, each day
Time Zone Converter
Event will be recorded and emailed to participants after each meeting.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend all the live sessions.
The Embodied Awakening Intensive offers a deep dive into the practicalities of awakened living. Your everyday human life will be the laboratory as we explore the myth of the separate self and how to live the deepest nondual teachings of infinite oneness.
How do you handle a frustrating encounter with someone? How do you navigate your relationships? What about money, sexuality, work, and life purpose? What do you do with feeling disappointed or hurt or bored? What about needs, desires, and stressful times? We’ll carefully shed the light of awareness on your personal attachments, bringing a loving perspective and clarity to these common life situations.
Together, we’ll create a safe and supportive community of pure intention for peace and freedom.
We’ll use specific practices and experiments in our sessions and between sessions to study the living reality of non-separation. You’ll get the felt direct experience of being in life open, without defenses, and free of the mind’s need to control. This is the foundation you need for openhearted awakened living.
Throughout our six sessions together, you’ll practice staying deeply grounded in your present moment experience. From this grounded awareness, you’ll learn to meet your programmed patterns—the inner critic, long-standing shame, feelings of fear and insecurity—with intelligence and loving acceptance. This is how you begin to shed the feeling of separation so you are free to be fully alive in your life as it is right now.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Sessions 1 and 2: No self, no problem; aliveness in everyday life;
Sessions 3 and 4: Early trauma and conditioned patterns; waking up in your relationships;
Session 5: Freedom beyond the mind-driven life; awakened action;
Session 6: Emptiness, surrender, devotion, intimacy with Life.
Come prepared to move out of your comfort zone in all areas of your life. You’ll discover the brilliance of embodying love, awareness, and deep connection with all…available in every moment.
“I have found your approach really works for me. It gives me hope, and I actually believe that that I can live, think and feel differently, no matter what the situation.” ~ F.C.
A free information session with Gail is offered on Saturday, June 19 from 9:00 -10:00 am Pacific. You’ll learn more about the course, and there will be time for Q&A. Please click here for details and to join the session.
You are welcome to email Gail directly at gail@gailbrenner.com with questions.
Gail Brenner, Ph.D. is your guide on this journey. She is a clinical psychologist and lover of truth with a fire that burns brightly. She brings to this work years of experience with individuals and groups and is known for creating the sense of safety and trust needed for this deeper exploration.
Sliding Scale: $100 to $160
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.
Connection in Presence: Community Workshop
During this series of facilitated Community Workshops, we will:
- Meet within the sweet context of what brought us together: our shared Love of Truth
- Offer each other the gift of open-hearted listening and compassionate witnessing
- Inquire into our experience through simple, playful, yet powerful facilitated exercises
- Share our experience and be truly heard by a welcoming, open-hearted community
- Get to know our fellow members of the Open Circle community
The sessions will consist of:
- Meeting in pairs and small groups, as well as sharing in the large group
- Facilitated interactions, as well as free-flowing conversations
- Time for contact information exchange (for those who would like that), and learning more about each other
There may also be an opportunity to present any heart-based initiative you are engaged in - tell us about your work, project, art, hobby, etc. that flows from your heart. Please let Sara know in advance you'd like to present, so a 5-10 minutes slot will be reserved for you: sara@opencirclecenter.org.
This is a teacher-less event, focused primarily on presence-based interactions between members of the community. The facilitator will offer enough structure for the event to run smoothly and safely, leaving plenty of space for what wants to emerge naturally. There will be no lecture and no personal guidance offered ─ simply a welcoming container for the miracle of True Community to happen.
About the facilitator:
Sara Kasprowicz has been living in deepening dedication to Truth since Life called her to India about 8 years ago. Upon joining the team of her first teacher, Sri Saraswathi Ma, a life of spiritually-driven travels began. A few years (and countries) later, she met her second important teacher, Aisha Salem, and spent a few years close to her Being. Sara recently moved back to her hometown Warsaw, Poland, and feels deeply nourished by the embrace of the Motherland.
Sara holds a Master's Degree in Psychology, a postgraduate diploma in Life & Business Coaching, as well as IT and Business education. She is passionate about supporting heart-based entrepreneurs, experienced in online media work, as well as facilitating online and in-person workshops. Since 2018 Sara has been taking care of the online program here at Open Circle Center.
Suggested donation: $10 to $20
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early if you can.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
Find out more »Marlies Myoku Cocheret ~ The Flowering of Freedom
The spontaneous gift of a taste - big or small - of freedom is the beginning of a new life. It seems a wave of new beginnings is happening on our precious planet earth. The earth shakes us. We are the earth. Awakening is happening. Naturally the first taste of freedom wants to be incarnated and expressed.
During this monthly satsang we will explore what it is like to live as freedom in our body being and owning that in our personhood as well as in our divinity. Truly, they are not different. They are one and the same. Simultaneously a process of shedding old identities as we step into owning our blossoming brilliance.
Will you join us?
There will be an opportunity to share, so please bring your experience, presence and questions to share with the group.
Marlies Myoku Cocheret de la Morinière 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. Marlies has been offering satsang and retreat since 2000 when Adyashanti asked her to teach. She lives in Santa Cruz, California and works internationally as a psychologist, Hakomi therapist and Tantric Educator.
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
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
Neelam ~ Freedom in the changing world “LET THY WILL BE DONE” — The True Meaning of Surrender ~ 3-hour TeleSatsang
Areas of Interest that we may touch on:
-
- Awakening Embodiment & Freedom
- The true meaning of Surrender: Be Here Now and how to follow the movement within
- Capacity on the Nervous System to Be Here
- What is Ego/ Mind and the role of Ego in Awakening
- Individual Will versus Universal Will
- Direct experience of Presence-Does this belong to you?
In the ever changing world, and especially now, with the still ongoing pandemic, the invitation to Awakening and Freedom remains very strong.
The world around us is undergoing a very profound transformation — not always fully visible right away and yet for sure perceived in our collective and in our individual experience.
What this invitation to change and the ongoing challenging circumstances are showing us — and what is also so very true in our spiritual search 🙂 — is that we can either follow the invitation and learn to surrender more deeply or experience even more challenge and suffering.
Surrender is not always easily or well understood here in the West and I want to take some more time to clarify it for you and to make it more practical as it is so key to linking our recognition of Presence moment-by-moment.
All areas of interest in this upcoming program are geared towards the strengthening of our Discrimination and of a more refined and subtle understanding of the difference between Past and Present.
I am looking forward to our time together and diving into the true meaning of "Let Thy Will be done!"
With Love
Neelam
About Neelam
Neelam is a direct disciple of HWL Poonja (affectionately known as Papaji), whose own teacher was Ramana Maharshi. Neelam’s unequivocal commitment to Truth helps us turn inward and release underlying patterns of conditioning which block the recognition of our True Nature. With the utmost tenderness, she invites us into the same recognition of Truth that her teacher, Papaji, transmitted to her, while helping us to address all aspects of daily living, including past conditioning and trauma.
Testimonials from Program Participants.
“What’s different about Neelam is that she demystifies the actual practice of being present – she’s helped me see what’s actually happening when feelings and emotions come up, and how, in a very practical way, to deal with them. Her strong point is “how to actually do this being the present thing.” It really helps to take it out of the mind and into the body”
“Neelam showed me that Being Here was what I was looking for. Then she showed me how to build Nervous System capacity to Be Here and that took time and repetition”
“Awakening is a shift from identifying yourself as this body to knowing yourself as Presence. Freedom means a true independence from the past, where our ability to Be Here and the action in the moment are not guided by our attachment to the arising past. To truly be Free we need to embody our recognition of Presence, and that requires growing the capacity of our nervous system to Be Here. It is in the meeting of what arises that we find true and lasting freedom.”
Neelam's website: www.neelam.org
Sliding Scale: $20 to $35
Some Partial Scholarships Available
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 ~ Body, Mind and Spirit
Join Jeannie and friends to explore the roles of body, mind and spirit in unfolding spiritually.
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. Come join us!
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 $25
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 2021
Silent Group Meditation (Free, No Guidance)
Mondays: 8:00am – 8:30am Pacific Time
and Wednesdays: 9:00am – 9:30am Pacific Time
Ongoing every week, with rare exceptions.
Check Full Calendar to verify dates.
Join for a group meditation – just us, without a teacher. Do your own practice silently in the company of others. There will be no talk or guidance – only a bell to start and finish. Let’s be present, together.
After half an hour of silent sitting, there will be space for a brief hello in the end, if we like.
Please be seated by the time meditation starts, so that we can begin together. You are welcome to have your camera and microphone on (unless you have a lot of background noise), so that we can feel as if we were in one space.
The zoom link remains the same for all the sessions, so you are welcome to register only once and save the link for future reference.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
Pamela Wilson ~ The Sovereignty of Silence is within All of Us ~ 3 Part Online Retreat
July 9, 10 & 11
10:00 am – 12:00 pm, Pacific Time
Time Zone Converter
Event will be recorded and emailed
to participants after each meeting.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend all the live sessions.
When we gather together and explore the felt sense of sovereignty within, it strengthens us. Lending deep rootedness to our being and body. The Heart can rest and be guided by resonance and the support of ancient still wisdom. We can stand tall in our being, letting swirling phenomena dance around and within, knowing ourself as the unmoving, constant love everything is seeking. Feeling the rooted relaxation of life down to our toes, even feeling the certainty of the eternal in our body.
Join with Pamela and your fellow sages in being curious and listening within!
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 bring your questions!
More about Pamela: www.pamelasatsang.com
Sliding Scale: $50 to $80
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.
Connection in Presence: Community Workshop
During this series of facilitated Community Workshops, we will:
- Meet within the sweet context of what brought us together: our shared Love of Truth
- Offer each other the gift of open-hearted listening and compassionate witnessing
- Inquire into our experience through simple, playful, yet powerful facilitated exercises
- Share our experience and be truly heard by a welcoming, open-hearted community
- Get to know our fellow members of the Open Circle community
The sessions will consist of:
- Meeting in pairs and small groups, as well as sharing in the large group
- Facilitated interactions, as well as free-flowing conversations
- Time for contact information exchange (for those who would like that), and learning more about each other
There may also be an opportunity to present any heart-based initiative you are engaged in - tell us about your work, project, art, hobby, etc. that flows from your heart. Please let Sara know in advance you'd like to present, so a 5-10 minutes slot will be reserved for you: sara@opencirclecenter.org.
This is a teacher-less event, focused primarily on presence-based interactions between members of the community. The facilitator will offer enough structure for the event to run smoothly and safely, leaving plenty of space for what wants to emerge naturally. There will be no lecture and no personal guidance offered ─ simply a welcoming container for the miracle of True Community to happen.
About the facilitator:
Sara Kasprowicz has been living in deepening dedication to Truth since Life called her to India about 8 years ago. Upon joining the team of her first teacher, Sri Saraswathi Ma, a life of spiritually-driven travels began. A few years (and countries) later, she met her second important teacher, Aisha Salem, and spent a few years close to her Being. Sara recently moved back to her hometown Warsaw, Poland, and feels deeply nourished by the embrace of the Motherland.
Sara holds a Master's Degree in Psychology, a postgraduate diploma in Life & Business Coaching, as well as IT and Business education. She is passionate about supporting heart-based entrepreneurs, experienced in online media work, as well as facilitating online and in-person workshops. Since 2018 Sara has been taking care of the online program here at Open Circle Center.
Suggested donation: $10 to $20
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Please register early if you can.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
Find out more »Georgia Simone ~ Awakened Healing: Become The Space Where Healing Takes Place
Welcome to The Holding Space.
A space where we can gather together and BE exactly as we are
A space where the full spectrum of your human experience is invited
Calm, anxious, open, closed,
ALL is welcome here.
It's in this gentle embrace that everything can start to unravel. It's in this open space that we can begin to unwind the strategies that no longer serve us. This is the space that early mis-attunement failed to foster, the space where love blooms and new life can emerge. This is the space where all that quivers and shakes can come to rest, and where all that contorts can untwist into greater alignment.
Through gentle exploration and somatic awareness you can cultivate a new way of being with your most challenging patterns. No longer a victim of the push and pull of inner disturbance, you can step forward with greater confidence, knowing that whatever comes your way, you embody the resilience and the capacity to meet and integrate it.
You can expect a deeply held space where you’ll be invited to slow down, tune in, and track your present-moment experience. As you awaken and refine a more subtle way of Being and Being With, you can slowly but surely become the space – the container and the field – where healing takes place.
Bio:
The first leg of Georgia Simone’s path exposed her to the teachings of Advaita Vedanta, which provided her with the foundation she needed to dis-identify from pain and suffering. However, despite a growing freedom, a significant bypass took place, as her orientation towards transcendence reinforced her deep disconnection from Life. Upon seeing this, her focus became addressing the unresolved trauma that had woven its way into every fibre of her being.
After many years of wading through this marshland of conditioning, she now shares her discoveries with others. She believes that the spiritual path is as much about arriving here fully - as an embodied human being - as it is about dissolving into the infinite source that makes this life possible. How can we die to the absolute, while deeply embracing our relative human experience? This Living inquiry is her Life’s prayer.
Suggested donation: $15 to $25
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