March 2025
Amoda Maa ~ An Inquiry into the Living Truth of Freedom (In-Person Event)
Open Circle is hosting a series of SATSANGS & a DAYLONG with Amoda Maa in California, USA.
February 27th (7-9 pm, PT) ~ Berkeley, CA
February 28th (7-9 pm, PT) ~ Mill Valley, CA
March 1st Daylong (11:00am - 5:00pm, PT) ~ Fairfax, CA
March 2nd (2-4 pm, PT) ~ Sebastopol, CA
All events are In-Person ~
Livestream is also available for Feb. 27th to March 1st
Click here to access details & registration for ALL events in series.
Amoda Maa invites an open-hearted honesty to the exploration of what it means to live as freedom in all circumstances. She offers profound pointers to how this freedom reveals itself if we are willing to surrender all resistance to “what is” and how the light of our essential nature shines through all experience when the “veil of self" comes undone. Through dialogue, inquiry, and guided meditation she supports the recognition of that which is beyond the duality of perception, thought and feeling, and takes us to the experience of the ever-present and unchanging reality of awareness. This unbounded awareness is the eternal ground of Being … and this is the source of true peace and freedom.
This is a two-hour meeting, including guided meditation/silence, discourse and Q&As.
Amoda Maa offers a profound invitation to all those who wish to embody the truth of awakened consciousness in the midst of everyday life. Amoda’s teachings are free from any ideology and are not affiliated with any lineage or tradition, and yet the luminous truth is the same nondual understanding at the core of many spiritual traditions.
She offers meetings and retreats in the USA and Europe, is the author of several books, and is founder and spiritual director of the Amoda Maa Foundation.
www.amodamaa.com
Satsang: 2-4 pm
Refreshments: until 5
Suggested Donation: $10- $20, no one turned away.
No pre-registration. Pay at door when you arrive.
Location: 8476 Sonoma Ave, Sebastopol, CA. Park on Sonoma Ave.
Note: The address sign says 8474/8476. Park on the street, and walk down the short driveway to the house with the carport.
Please dress mindfully, doors & windows may be open!
If you have covid-like symptoms, or have had a recent Covid exposure or positive test, please stay home out of consideration for others.
John Prendergast ~ Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality ~ Bay Area Daylong Retreat
Join us for a daylong introduction to John’s new book from Sounds True - Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality. In this meeting we will explore different dimensions of the ground - individual, archetypal, and universal - and experience how to recognize and effectively welcome resistance to opening to our deepest ground. There will be silent and guided meditations, a talk, a group or dyadic inquiry, and experiential conversations.
Copies of the new book will be available for purchase.
John Prendergast, Ph.D is a spiritual teacher, retired psychotherapist, and retired Adjunct Professor of Psychology at CIIS, well known for his pioneering work in integrating non-dual wisdom and psychotherapy. He studied with the European sage Jean Klein for many years, as well as with Adyashanti, who gave him dharma transmission in 2023. He is the author of The Deep Heart (2019), In Touch (2015), and a new book, Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality (March, 2025) from Sounds True.
www.listeningfromsilence.com
YouTube channel
The meeting will be from 10:00am to Noon and 2:00pm to 4:30pm, with a break for lunch.
Please bring your own lunch, or feel free to go into town to one of the restaurants or to Good Earth Natural Foods.
Pre-registration required, as space is limited.
Registration closes at Midnight on March 7th
Suggested donation: $75
(Any amount acceptable. No one turned away for lack of funds.)
PRE-REGISTER HERE & PAY AT DOOR WHEN YOU ARRIVE.
(Cash or Check only)
This event is Co-sponsored by Open Circle & the Schwartz Family Trust.
All proceeds, above covering event costs, will go to the
Schwartz Family Trust to support Rob Schwartz’s vision of
his property being available for Open Circle retreats and events.
Event donations will go directly to the Schwartz Family Trust, rather than to Open Circle.
If you want to contribute more for this project, you can do so at the event,
or contact us for more information (contributuons, loan, volunteer).
For inquiries contact LocalEvents@opencirclecenter.org
Location: The meeting will be held at a private home in the Fairfax hills, with views of Mount Tam and hiking trails. Address and directions will be provided upon registration.
If you have symptoms of a respiritory infection, or have had a recent
Covid exposure or positive test, please stay home out of consideration for others.
Lisa Schumacher ~ Your True Nature (In-Person & Livestream)
A meeting with Lisa is an opportunity to step away from your day to day life and devote time for inquiry into the source of who you are. There will be a few moments of silence to start the meeting and then Lisa will speak and invite you to share about your realizations and ask questions about awakening.
In Lisa’s meetings, she invites you to rest in stillness. Your discoveries and questions about awakening, deepening, and the unfolding truth are welcome. The teaching is in the tradition of Gangaji, who is a student of Papaji, who had his awakening at the feet of Ramana Maharshi.....
LEARN MORE HERE
Lisa Schumacher ~ Your True Nature (In-Person & Livestream)
A meeting with Lisa is an opportunity to step away from your day to day life and devote time for inquiry into the source of who you are. There will be a few moments of silence to start the meeting and then Lisa will speak and invite you to share about your realizations and ask questions about awakening.
In Lisa’s meetings, she invites you to rest in stillness. Your discoveries and questions about awakening, deepening, and the unfolding truth are welcome. The teaching is in the tradition of Gangaji, who is a student of Papaji, who had his awakening at the feet of Ramana Maharshi.....
LEARN MORE HERE
Lisa Schumacher ~ Let Love Lead You: Return to what is Sacred ~ Daylong (In-Person & Livestream)
A meeting with Lisa is an opportunity to step away from your day to day life and devote time for inquiry into the source of who you are. There will be a few moments of silence to start the meeting and then Lisa will speak and invite you to share about your realizations and ask questions about awakening.
In Lisa’s meetings, she invites you to rest in stillness. Your discoveries and questions about awakening, deepening, and the unfolding truth are welcome. The teaching is in the tradition of Gangaji, who is a student of Papaji, who had his awakening at the feet of Ramana Maharshi.....
LEARN MORE HERE
Lisa Schumacher ~ Your True Nature (In-Person Event)
Open Circle is hosting a series of SATSANGS & a DAYLONG with Lisa Schumacher in California, USA.
March 13th (7-9 pm, PT) ~ Corte Madera, CA
March 14th (7-9 pm, PT) ~ Berkeley, CA
March 15th Daylong (11:00am - 5:00pm, PT) ~ Fairfax, CA
March 16th (2-4 pm, PT) ~ Sebastopol, CA
All events are In-Person ~
Livestream is also available for March 13th to 15th
Click here to access details & registration for ALL events in series.
A meeting with Lisa is an opportunity to step away from your day to day life and devote time for inquiry into the source of who you are. There will be a few moments of silence to start the meeting and then Lisa will speak and invite you to share about your realizations and ask questions about awakening.
About Lisa Schumacher
Lisa grew up in Colusa, CA, and attended college at San Luis Obispo in the 1980’s. After she moved to Southern Oregon in the early 90s, a friend invited her to a video satsang with Gangaji. Upon hearing Gangaji say “Be your Natural Self”, Lisa’s heart caught on fire and she fell into a deep bow of surrender. That meeting revealed to her the absolute simplicity of the natural, living truth of Love, inseparable from who one is. Lisa moved to Bolinas in 1999 to be closer to Gangaji and the vibrant community around her.
In 2006, Lisa was asked by Gangaji to meet with people and share her discovery of the Love that is alive in the core of one’s being . She holds meetings in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America. She’s also a long-time student of Eli Jaxon-Bear, Gangaji’s husband, and a founding teacher of the “Leela School of Awakening”. Lisa is the author of “The Stone I Love”, a book of poetry inspired by her meeting with Gangaji, available on her website.
In Lisa’s meetings, she invites you to rest in stillness. Your discoveries and questions about awakening, deepening, and the unfolding truth are welcome. The teaching is in the tradition of Gangaji, who is a student of Papaji, who had his awakening at the feet of Ramana Maharshi.
Lisa's website: satsangwithlisa.org
Satsang: 2-4 pm
Refreshments: until 5
Suggested Donation: $10- $20, no one turned away.
No pre-registration. Pay at door when you arrive.
Location: 8476 Sonoma Ave, Sebastopol, CA. Park on Sonoma Ave.
Note: The address sign says 8474/8476. Park on the street, and walk down the short driveway to the house with the carport.
Please dress mindfully, doors & windows may be open!
If you have covid-like symptoms, or have had a recent Covid exposure or positive test, please stay home out of consideration for others.
April 2025
Dorothy Hunt ~ Honoring the Life and Teachings of Ramana Maharshi ~ Retreat Day (In-Person & Livestream)
“There is no greater mystery than this—that being the Reality ourselves, we seek to gain Reality.”
Ramana Maharshi has been a light shining in the darkness for countless seekers of Truth. His expression of Truth beautifully and lovingly embodies the Absolute, and yet his method of Self-Inquiry does not require seekers to leave home, hearth, job, or family life. In his words, “All that is required to realize the Self is to be still.” Join us for this day of silence and satsang, reflecting on the life and teachings of this great sage. There will be a 1½-hour break for lunch and afternoon tea. Apart from satsang, the retreat will be held in silence.
Dorothy Hunt, Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha will facilitate this retreat day. She is a teacher in the spiritual lineage of Adyashanti and founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy. Dorothy has a long and deep connection with the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and offers this day to any who are interested in coming to sit in silence and listen with the Heart.
Presently, Dorothy offers satsang and retreats via Zoom, and dokusan by phone. For more information, please visit www.dorothyhunt.org
Pre-registration is Required for In-Person attendance.
Pre-registration for In-Person attandance closes at Midnight on April 11th (the night before event)
Sliding Scale: $60 to $120
No one turned away for lack of funds.
OR
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
If you register for Recording access by event, link to access it will be sent to you within a week.
If you register for Recording access AFTER event, please forward your confirmation email to web@opencirclecenter.org with your request that we send the recording.
For inquiries about In-Person attendance contact LocalEvents@opencirclecenter.org
For inquiries about the Livestream Registration & Access contact Web@opencirclecenter.org
Lunch: There will be a 1 & 1/2 hour lunch break.
Bring your own lunch to eat outside on the patio overlooking the Bay.
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.
Izzy Cloke ~ This Boundless Freedom
Co-sponsored by Open Circle and The Open Way
Izzy Cloke is a non-dual teacher from the UK, visiting the U.S. for the first time. She points to the natural freedom that is already everything.
"This Boundless Freedom points to the natural reality that is all there is. There is no such thing as separation. All there is, is what appears to be happening. Freedom never went anywhere. It was always just this."........
LEARN MORE HERE
Amita ~ Your True Nature (In-Person Event)
Amita began her journey in the early 1970’s in San Francisco, and later in the remote jungles of Hawaii. Amita set to break through her conditioned way of knowing herself and the world she lived in. The conscious search for “Who Am I” began when she read the biographies of Einstein and Gandhi, opening her mind to a way of life that was larger and deeper than she understood at the time.....
LEARN MORE HERE
Pamela Wilson ~ From Sorrow to Solace
Join Pamela and your fellow sages in finding the rooted strength within to be with the current chaos. Rising as the transmission of truth in daily life, we are the still spine of the Tree of Life.
Pamela Wilson 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!......
LEARN MORE HERE