September 2022
Lynn Marie Lumiere, MFT ~ TRUE HEALING: Being Present with What Is ~ 3 Half-Days Retreat
A 3 Half-Days Retreat
Sept. 9, 10 & 11, 2022
9:00 am – 12:00 pm 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.
True healing arises from being present with all our experience as it is. In this retreat we will bring together spiritual wisdom and somatic psychology to focus on both waking up to True Nature and resolving the human issues we struggle with such as depression, anxiety, low self-worth, and illness. These issues, along with the life problems they create, can interfere with our ability to rest as Being.
The retreat will offer:
- Deepened recognition of our True Nature through guided meditations and sharing truth
- Somatic practices to help regulate the nervous system and build resilience
- Psychotherapeutic processes for resolving the blocks to our full expression
- Sharing and dialogue in the group
The Presence of our own Being is the only true healing force there is. As we awaken to/as Being and allow it to fully meet all our humanness as it is, we are healed and transformed from within, and directed to whoever or whatever is needed for our healing.
You are invited to join the retreat sessions live to benefit from group interaction and processing with Lynn Marie. You are also welcomed to register and attend the retreat by recording on your own time.
Lynn Marie Lumiere, MFT is a psychotherapist and author with a focus on bringing awakened consciousness to the healing of our human body-mind issues. Her work is grounded in nondual spiritual teachings and psychotherapeutic and somatic training. Lynn Marie is a contributing author for the Sacred Mirror: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, co-author of The Awakening West, and is the author of Awakened Relating: A Guide to Embodying Undivided Love in Intimate Relationships.
For more information se: www.lynnmarielumiere.com
Sliding Scale: $75 to $135
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.
Adam Chacksfield ~ Erotic Embodiment & Intimacy: Bringing Loving Awareness to our Experience
When we dare to open to the erotic dimension of our experience everything comes vibrantly alive for us. We are turned on! There is a delicious pleasurable sensitivity to life. We are touched by so many forms of beauty, and can enjoy the juicy energy inside all our feelings. We find ourselves inspired to engage and create effortlessly, fueled by the same abundant energy that also makes babies.
Yet for many of us, any invitation to open to the erotic dimension immediately brings up shame, fear, and layers of protective conditioning. Even if we've personally been fortunate enough to have been spared experiences of sexual abuse or shaming we are still shaped by the trauma of these experiences in the collective field.
This gathering will offer a rare safe and loving space for opening to and exploring the truth our own direct experience of sexuality, erotic energy, and intimate relationships. This is an opportunity for us to open to the beautiful gift of erotic embodiment and bring awareness to whatever layers of fear and shame invite our loving attention. This is not a “how to” webinar, but an invitation for us to let the truth of our own erotic experience reveal itself. Every part of our direct experience is valid, innocent, and deserves to be met with love.
Adam Chacksfield is a nondual teacher who leads retreats worldwide exploring the depths that reveal themselves as we become more intimate with our embodied experience and the vibrantly alive field of relating. He also holds online groups, and private sessions online and in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, Adam is now offering private sessions on erotic embodiment and intimacy based on the method of the Somatica Institute where he trained.
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
Marlies Myoku Cocheret ~ Women Only: The Free Woman!
During this Way of Woman – ‘WOW’ – gathering, the whole of you is welcome! All desire and passion is welcomed as well as all feeling, sensation, body and emotion. Nothing is excluded.
Silence is the mystery of Her from which we spring, and is sensual in nature. When the female body arrives in awareness and silence, I call that the awakening sensual body.
Our female body is designed for pleasure and goodness. When women realise how free and luscious they are, the world would be changed. Nothing, including our own imprisoned self, is able to withstand the power of embodied love in female form. She is our Innermost, our beloved Self.
In the WOW journey you will connect with your innermost and melt that into the sensuality of your beautiful female body. When you experience this, naturally you shine as who you are – the Free Woman.
Let's come together to journey and taste the finest of our nature and feminine expression - Woman! We will join in silence, movement, sensuality, questions and conversation.
I am so looking forward to joining together as One Woman Flowing.
Special Note from Marlies:
'For my women events, I work best with cisgender women. Working with transgender women is outside my area of expertise. I have a colleague who is well experienced in this field that I am happy to refer transgender women to.' - Marlies
To read more about Marlies' 'Way of Woman' events, please click HERE.
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 $35
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
Boyan Milouchev ~ Being Here Now
Being Here Now is natural and effortless. Yet, at times it feels as though returning to Presence is the hardest thing to do, and it takes great effort to let go of past trauma, self-judgement, and patterns that keep us stuck in one way or another. In these moments, simply Being seems to be unavailable, and there is a strong desire to change and escape the current experience. Yet, the best thing to do is to surrender to what is, to allow it without resistance, and be present as much as possible until the knowing of our innate and untouched Peace returns.
During this event, we will explore:
- What does Presence mean and the different 'levels' of Presence
- The way our experience of reality shifts at each level
- The role of various modalities on the spiritual path (NLP, Law of Attraction, A Course in Miracles, Non-Duality)
- Understanding suffering and negative emotions as a releasing of resistance
- Divination and everything always unfolding perfeclty
- The last stage: simply being, accepting, allowing
This event is for you if you are ready to embrace all that Life gives you and to live from a place of unconditional Love and acceptance. It will begin with a 20-minute meditation followed by a talk and a Q&A session.
Bio:
From an early age, Boyan was fascinated by the nature of the mind and our experience of reality. After exploring NLP, the Three Principles, and A Course in Miracles, his journey of seeking came to an end when he came across non-duality. Today, Boyan supports others along the spiritual journey through one-to-one sessions and online events and programmes. He lovingly guides individuals and groups toward the understanding of the essential cause of their suffering, and to realise their innate wholeness. His approach is gentle but direct and especially well-suited for those who are ready to embrace life and live it fully.
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
October 2022
Stephan Bodian ~ Heart Wisdom in Challenging Times
“All you need to do is find out your source and take up your headquarters there.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
This is a simple and elegant prescription for an awakened life from one of the great sages of the nondual tradition. But of course it’s trickier and more elusive than it might sound at first read. How do we realize our source, our natural state of inherent wakefulness? And once we do, how do we establish our headquarters there?
This is part of a two-part series of online meetings, in which you will be guided to ground yourself in your deepest inner knowing, the source of all genuine wisdom and compassion, and respond to life’s inevitable challenges from this awakened perspective. Sat sang (“being together in truth”) features guided meditations, pointers and teachings, and ample time for dialogue and discussion. I invite you to join me and look forward to seeing you there.
The other date in this two-part series is Nov. 12th (click for info & registration).
See Register button below for Oct. 8th.
You are welcome to attend either one, or both meetings of this series.
Stephan Bodian is a teacher in the nondual wisdom tradition of Zen, Dzogchen, and Advaita and the founder and director of the annual School for Awakening, an intensive six-month program of exploration and study. Trained as a Buddhist monk for a decade, he studied Advaita for many years with Jean Klein and received Dharma transmission from Adyashanti in 2001. His books include Wake Up Now; Beyond Mindfulness; Meditation for Dummies; and Buddhism for Dummies (with Jon Landaw).
More about Stephan Bodian: www.stephanbodian.org
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
Rupert Spira ~ The Essence of Non-Duality
“Meditation is what we are, not what we do; the separate self is what we do, not what we are.”
In the last few years Rupert Spira has become one of the most respected and sought-after teachers of non-dual wisdom, known for his crystal clear use of language, laser-like intellect, skillful guided inquiries, and powerfully direct pointing to aware presence—all delivered with warmth, wit and an unmatched and distinctive eloquence.
In his meetings, Rupert explores the perennial, non-dual understanding that lies at the heart of all the great religious and spiritual traditions, such as Advaita Vedanta, Kashmir Shaivism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mystical Christianity, Sufism, Zen etc., and which is also the direct, ever-present reality of our own experience. This is a contemporary, experiential approach involving silent meditation, guided meditation and conversation, and requires no affiliation to any particular religious or spiritual tradition. All that is required is an interest in the essential nature of experience, and in the longing for love, peace and happiness around which most of our lives revolve.
After thirty years of intense seeking, Rupert met his primary teacher Francis Lucille, who introduced him to the direct way taught by his own teacher, Jean Klein. Rupert lives in Oxford, England, with his wife Ellen Emmet, a therapist and yoga teacher in the tradition of Kashmir Shaivism. He is the author of several books, including his latest two, The Nature of Consciousness and Being Aware of Being Aware, and two book/CD box-sets, Transparent Body, Luminous World and The Light of Pure Knowing.
www.non-duality.rupertspira.com
$60 - Supported: for those who would like to attend but are unable to do so for financial reasons
$90 - Standard: for those with sufficient financial resources to attend at a fair price
$120 - Sponsor: for those with adequate financial resources and a desire to support attendance for others.
If you are not able to contribute the "Supported" amount contact us at localevents@opencirclecenter.org.
Pre-registration is strongly suggested as seating is limited and this event may sell out. Please print your receipt from Rupert's website and bring it to registration at check in.
Covid Protocols & Cancellation Policy for In-Person Attendance
Lunch Break: There are places close by to go out for lunch, or you may bring your own lunch, though there is no refrigerator access. There's a nice small yard with lawn, and limited indoor space for eating at the premises.
NOTE: The venue is a kosher-style facility, so no pork or shellfish, and no meat mixed with dairy on premises.
PARKING: There is some limited street parking in the neighborhood, free and without time limit on weekends. There is also parking a few blocks away at the east parking lot of the Ashby Bart station: www.bart.gov/stations/ashb/map
You may also find paid parking just a few blocks away at Alta Bates Parking Garage: Enter on Colby between Ashby and Webster St.
November 2022
Stephan Bodian ~ Heart Wisdom in Challenging Times II
“All you need to do is find out your source and take up your headquarters there.”
~ Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
This is a simple and elegant prescription for an awakened life from one of the great sages of the nondual tradition. But of course it’s trickier and more elusive than it might sound at first read. How do we realize our source, our natural state of inherent wakefulness? And once we do, how do we establish our headquarters there?
This is part of a two-part series of online meetings, in which you will be guided to ground yourself in your deepest inner knowing, the source of all genuine wisdom and compassion, and respond to life’s inevitable challenges from this awakened perspective. Sat sang (“being together in truth”) features guided meditations, pointers and teachings, and ample time for dialogue and discussion. I invite you to join me and look forward to seeing you there.
The other date in this two-part series is Oct. 8th (click for info & registration).
See Register button below for Nov. 12th.
You are welcome to attend either one, or both meetings of this series.
Stephan Bodian is a teacher in the nondual wisdom tradition of Zen, Dzogchen, and Advaita and the founder and director of the annual School for Awakening, an intensive six-month program of exploration and study. Trained as a Buddhist monk for a decade, he studied Advaita for many years with Jean Klein and received Dharma transmission from Adyashanti in 2001. His books include Wake Up Now; Beyond Mindfulness; Meditation for Dummies; and Buddhism for Dummies (with Jon Landaw).
More about Stephan Bodian: www.stephanbodian.org
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