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Throughout the 1970’s, 80’s and 90’s, Richard had the good fortune of meeting a series of spiritual teachers, including Laura Cummings, J. Krishnamurti, Adi Da, Dadaji, Jean Klein, Adyashanti, and Suzanne Segal, who helped him directly realize the nondual teachings, as exemplified in the paths of Advaita, Kashmir Yoga, Taoism, and Dzogchen. Richard now shares this realization, and its integration into daily living, through meditative self-inquiry, the presence of being, and what lies beyond all sense of separation and self-awareness.

Richard is the co-founder of the International Association of Yoga Therapists, co-founder and past president of the Institute for Spirituality and Psychology, and founder of the iRest Institute, where he teaches retreats and trainings internationally, and conducts research on the nondual program he’s developed—iRest Meditation—a synthesis of ancient nondual practices of yogic meditation, studying its efficacy on health, healing, well-being, and awakening.

“Living enlightenment entails no less than a fundamental figure-ground reversal within our psyche, where our center of gravity shifts from identification as a separate ego-I to Essential Nature—the Mystery that has given birth to the entire cosmos—that is simultaneously everything, and no-thing.

“Living enlightenment both exposes our absolute helplessness and insecurity when we live identified as a separate ego-I, and reveals our absolute security and stability when we give ourselves over completely to being lived by the intelligence of Essential Nature. Here, we awaken beyond conflict and suffering to living true compassion, kindness, love, joy, and equanimity, and respect for the preciousness of life and the environment, amidst all the changing circumstances and relationships of our lives.”

www.irest.org

Suggested donation: $15 to $25

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Shakti is a teacher very well known in Europe and her native Italy, who offers a contemporary and accessible vision of true awakening that is profoundly in tune with Advaita and nondual Tantric traditions.

The spiritual journey inevitably leads to the confrontation between our "spiritual life" and our "material life", discovering how and where we truly embody the truth of our heart. Realizing the emptiness of our true nature is just the starting point of an integration process that can take several years and involve all aspects of our lives, and leads us to several moments of crisis in which old egoic patterns of behavior that are still based on the separative mind emerge to be dissolved by the light of Awareness.

Shakti has spent many years deepening this integration process. With wisdom, humor, and heartfelt connection, she shares a message of discovering our divinity at the very core of our humanity. Shakti has been sharing this message of non-separation since 2003 with many people around the world, especially in Italy and in Europe, where she holds satsangs and retreats.

"Peace is not a destination, but a starting point. Find that Peace that rests behind anything and anybody and bring it into your world. Every human being looks for Peace in their inner or outer reality. In this call for clarity, what we are looking for is what our true nature actually is.

“We are used to imagining that the dissolving of inner and outer conflicts comes as the result of some action, whereas it is only when we move from Peace that those actions will bring the end of any conflict. Moving and living from Peace is recognizing what we are, and integrating it in our everyday life.

“Awakening to your true nature means to wake up to your true essence that lies behind any conflict of daily living. Thoughts and feelings are not an obstacle to this recognition, but the direct expression of how we know or ignore ourselves. Once we find that silence that rests behind manifestation, the ego will come back, out of habit. If we can recognize its presence, not as a disturbance but as an opportunity to integrate the message, our everyday life becomes our true spiritual journey. The Peace of our Being becomes the world we see and live in.”

www.shakticaterinamaggi.com

Video

Suggested donation: $15 to $25

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10 am to 12 noon (Pacific Time - San Francisco, CA, USA) Time Zone Converter

"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 of 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

This call is an invitation to Presence and to Neelam’s teaching and a practical exploration of the role of the nervous system in Awakening and Freedom. The nervous system and its capacity to Be Here is an essential element for Awakening, Embodiment and for Freedom.

When unmet, un-experienced Tendencies of the Past arise - and we so often believe it and identify ourselves with that – it affects and manifests in our physiology and that shows up as thoughts and as feelings, emotions and sensations.
If there is no awareness of that, and no Capacity to Be Here, our nervous system reacts and moves into fight / flight / freeze or overwhelm, and we end up re-enacting or suppressing and thus perpetuating the Past.

The capacity of our nervous system to Be Here and experience the arising Past is often the missing link between our Desire for Truth and our ability to independently experience Presence and Self-Inquiry, which is what takes us directly into Awakening, Embodiment and Freedom.

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 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”

www.neelam.org

Suggested donation: $15 to $25

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