May 2021
Adam Chacksfield ~ Falling Open Together
“We are invited to receive the ultimate gift, for which there is no substitute , worth infinitely more than all our dreams and fantasies. We accept this gift by simply falling open. When the heart and mind fall open, we find ourselves intimately present and completely available to what is here. Our struggle with reality dissolves into harmony.”
Described by Pamela Wilson as “a great messenger of truth with a unique transmission that does wonderful things for my spirit,” Adam invites us to share the direct experience of the heart and mind falling open. In this effortless opening, the suffering involved in resisting feelings and believing our thoughts spontaneously releases. This allows our natural abundance of joy, peace, wisdom and love to become apparent and available. Heart-centered and direct, Adam offers a path straight into the truth of who you are.
Find out more »Jeannie Zandi ~ God the Mother
Join Jeannie to celebrate God the Mother for Mother’s Day! Explore the themes of God, gender, and the integration of yin and yang that is embodied human wholeness.
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
Jeannie Zandi ~ God the Mother
Join Jeannie to celebrate God the Mother for Mother’s Day! Explore the themes of God, gender, and the integration of yin and yang that is embodied human wholeness.
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!
Find out more »Dorothy Hunt ~ Opening The Door To Not Knowing
This is an introductory session for the upcoming daylong online retreat May 22nd.
You are welcome to attend either one, or both events.
Can we actually know who or what anything is by thinking about it, labeling it, having an opinion about it? Does the word rose deliver its fragrance, or the thought of water quench our thirst? Are we expecting Truth to deliver an intellectual answer to our seeking? What might we discover when we open the door to not knowing? Conception is not perception. We experience life more intimately, lovingly, and profoundly when we cease imagining our thoughts –even the most “spiritual” or “righteous” ones—are truth.
Conventional knowledge is needed to function, of course, but we can so easily be trapped by our conditioned thoughts, opinions, beliefs. We live in a virtual world of our own creation depending on our interpretations of reality. We do not need to be at war with thought to begin to see that thinking that we “know” continually shuts the door on open perception and deep listening. This is as true in relationships as in the spiritual search. What if we approached more moments with “don’t know” mind, “beginners mind,” realizing that thinking does not See?
In this Sunday satsang and daylong retreat the following Saturday, we will explore experientially and meditatively what it feels like to approach life, emotions, and particularly our deepest spiritual longings, from present moment awareness. This Presence moves as openness in the mind, heart, and body. The Truth we seek reveals Itself to itself and not to the idea of a separate “me.” A mind open to not knowing is an awakened mind, open to a spontaneous, authentic and compassionate response to the moment.
Dorothy Hunt serves as Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha, teaching at the request of Adyashanti. She is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy and practiced psychotherapy from 1967 to 2020. She is the author of Leaves from Moon Mountain, Only This!, and Ending the Search: From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness.
Dorothy has a long and deep connection to the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and the path of Self-Inquiry, as well as the nondual teachings of Zen, Advaita and the Christian mystics. In meeting Adyashanti, she was invited beyond identification with either the absolute or relative, finding freedom in what is awake in each of us regardless of the changing faces of experience. Dorothy offers satsang, retreats, and private meetings in the San Francisco Bay area and elsewhere by invitation.
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
Dorothy Hunt ~ Opening The Door To Not Knowing
Can we actually know who or what anything is by thinking about it, labeling it, having an opinion about it? What might we discover when we open the door to not knowing? We experience life more intimately, lovingly, and profoundly when we cease imagining our thoughts –even the most “spiritual” or “righteous” ones—are truth.
What if we approached more moments with “don’t know” mind, “beginners mind,” realizing that thinking does not See?
In this satsang and daylong retreat the following Saturday, we will explore experientially and meditatively what it feels like to approach life, emotions, and particularly our deepest spiritual longings, from present moment awareness. A mind open to not knowing is an awakened mind, open to a spontaneous, authentic and compassionate response to the moment.
Dorothy Hunt serves as Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha, teaching at the request of Adyashanti.
In meeting Adyashanti, she was invited beyond identification with either the absolute or relative, finding freedom in what is awake in each of us regardless of the changing faces of experience.
Marlies Myoku Cocheret ~ Standing Your Ground in the Blizzard of the World
During this regular monthly satsang, Marlies gently guides us to rest in the silence of our being, our secret sacred sanctuary. The more we rest as the silence that we are, the more we can stand firmly as presence in the turbulence of these times.
In this process of falling into the arms of silence, we meet along the way our own inner turbulence.
We invite you to join us to be strongly rooted in your nature in the midst of the blizzard.
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
Dorothy Hunt ~ Opening The Door To Not Knowing ~ Daylong
The event will run from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm, including a 2-hour lunch break.
Can we actually know who or what anything is by thinking about it, labeling it, having an opinion about it? Does the word rose deliver its fragrance, or the thought of water quench our thirst? Are we expecting Truth to deliver an intellectual answer to our seeking? What might we discover when we open the door to not knowing? Conception is not perception. We experience life more intimately, lovingly, and profoundly when we cease imagining our thoughts –even the most “spiritual” or “righteous” ones—are truth.
Conventional knowledge is needed to function, of course, but we can so easily be trapped by our conditioned thoughts, opinions, beliefs. We live in a virtual world of our own creation depending on our interpretations of reality. We do not need to be at war with thought to begin to see that thinking that we “know” continually shuts the door on open perception and deep listening. This is as true in relationships as in the spiritual search. What if we approached more moments with “don’t know” mind, “beginners mind,” realizing that thinking does not See?
In this Sunday satsang and daylong retreat the following Saturday, we will explore experientially and meditatively what it feels like to approach life, emotions, and particularly our deepest spiritual longings, from present moment awareness. This Presence moves as openness in the mind, heart, and body. The Truth we seek reveals Itself to itself and not to the idea of a separate “me.” A mind open to not knowing is an awakened mind, open to a spontaneous, authentic and compassionate response to the moment.
Dorothy Hunt serves as Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha, teaching at the request of Adyashanti. She is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy and practiced psychotherapy from 1967 to 2020. She is the author of Leaves from Moon Mountain, Only This!, and Ending the Search: From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness.
Dorothy has a long and deep connection to the teachings of Ramana Maharshi and the path of Self-Inquiry, as well as the nondual teachings of Zen, Advaita and the Christian mystics. In meeting Adyashanti, she was invited beyond identification with either the absolute or relative, finding freedom in what is awake in each of us regardless of the changing faces of experience. Dorothy offers satsang, retreats, and private meetings in the San Francisco Bay area and elsewhere by invitation.
Sliding Scale: $40 to $80
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
Dorothy Hunt ~ Opening The Door To Not Knowing ~ Daylong
Can we actually know who or what anything is by thinking about it, labeling it, having an opinion about it? Does the word rose deliver its fragrance, or the thought of water quench our thirst? Are we expecting Truth to deliver an intellectual answer to our seeking? What might we discover when we open the door to not knowing? Conception is not perception. We experience life more intimately, lovingly, and profoundly when we cease imagining our thoughts –even the most “spiritual” or “righteous” ones—are truth.
Conventional knowledge is needed to function, of course, but we can so easily be trapped by our conditioned thoughts, opinions, beliefs. We live in a virtual world of our own creation depending on our interpretations of reality. We do not need to be at war with thought to begin to see that thinking that we “know” continually shuts the door on open perception and deep listening. This is as true in relationships as in the spiritual search. What if we approached more moments with “don’t know” mind, “beginners mind,” realizing that thinking does not See?
Dorothy Hunt serves as Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha, teaching at the request of Adyashanti. She is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy and practiced psychotherapy from 1967 to 2020.
Find out more »Bruce Pardoe ~ Heart Fluency® – Directly Feel & Embody Your Awakened Nature
Do you long to continuously experience the freedom and happiness of pure awareness clearly and obviously? Are you frustrated that old patterns, emotional wounds, trauma or anxiety run your life and cloud over a fundamental well-being you know is possible? As it turns out, ordinary physical space is already free and at peace with all of the qualities of pure awareness. Using Heart Fluency's uncomplicated map we can directly sense and explore space in and around our bodies providing an accessible and comprehensive portal to awakening, non-dual truth and emotional healing.
Heart Fluency® founder Bruce Pardoe will lead this 3 hour experiential journey with group exercises, Q&A and guided meditations to directly feel your awakened nature. With Heart Flueny's 3 step practice you will also learn to utilize an embodied balance that harnesses the ever present, unlimited capacities of space to allow emotional wounds, traumas and afflictive patterns to transform into your deepest gifts.
Bio:
For more than 40 years Bruce Pardoe has been navigating and facilitating the path of inner healing and non-dual wisdom. Bruce's journey through the fires of his own complex trauma led him to develop the radically accessible and gentle Heart Fluency® method for healing emotional wounds and opening to non-dual well-being and happiness. Heart Fluency combines neuroscience and the unconditional nourishment of pure awareness in a highly accessible, heart-centered approach.
After spending over two years on silent retreat Bruce became a meditation teacher in the Vipassana tradition of Buddhism. He has completed Spirit Rock Meditation Center's 2 year Dharma Leader training and has studied extensively in Asia in the traditions of Tibetan Buddhism and Advaita. Bruce has also trained in Polyvagal Theory, Feldenkrais Awareness Through Movement and Hakomi's body-centered psychotherapy. Since 2007 Bruce has shared Heart Fluency trainings and workshops with hundreds of conscious individuals, therapists and healers on 4 continents.
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
Isira ~ Why Enlightenment is not enough: 3 Part Retreat
Three-Part Retreat
May 28, 29 & 30
7:30 – 9:30 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.
The true quest of enlightenment is to expand beyond the self, and the transcendent experience, to live an awakened life by fully integrating the spiritual and the physical worlds for the next level of human evolution and environmental wellbeing.
And in fact, our awakening is not complete without this integration.
Awakening the “self” is not enough
What truly matters is how we integrate the awakening in our daily lives ~ what we do with the awakening; where and how we live with the awakening.
Our awakening must be fully integrated and sustainable in all aspects of our lives.
It’s about living our awakening globally, not just personally.
There are two traps committed spiritual seekers can fall into
The first is to focus only on the transcendent experience; believing that this will take you all the way. And that sitting in pure being is the end game. There is a sense of removal; of not being fully immersed in the world; not facing and moving through and with the shadow; the grit and the ordinariness of life. Isira calls this “spiritual escapism.”
The second is “spiritual self centredness” to focus only on ‘self’ and forgetting that your awakening is intrinsically connected to everything around you - your environment, your relationships, and the cosmos. We do not awaken in isolation.
In this 3 day retreat
In this 3 day retreat Isira will share what it takes to not just be spiritual but to live spiritual ~ to integrate and fully live a sustainable and an awakened life.
You will:
- Discover how to integrate the spiritual and physical worlds with “The Four Pillars.” These are the foundations of holistic enlightenment, an awakened society and an awakened world.
- Understand how to move with, and through, the personal and collective (global) shadow, rather than bypass it.
- Be guided into transformative meditations that you can use again and again.
- Have your deepest questions answered.
This will support you to expand and embrace holistic enlightenment ~ to live awakening - emotionally and psychologically - in your relationships, our community and our environment.
About Isira
Isira (pronounced "I-sai-ra") is a wisdom keeper and spiritual leader of Australian Indigenous heritage who has been ordained by His Holiness Dalai Lama. Embodying wisdom from the teachings from her ancestors, eastern initiations, and the many challenges of her life experience; Isira brings rare clarity and unconditional love, to the challenges we face.
Isira is an author, teacher and speaker bringing the power of consciousness to people around the world. She offers a way to respond, realign ourselves and move forward to a new more empowered life. In the words of many - she is a truly transformative presence.
“I am Universal. I am not of one religion, one lineage, one race or one country. My lineage is consciousness. My religion is love. And the world is my sacred home.” ~ Isira
Watch an hour-long conversation between Isira and Open Circle's Sara.
Sliding Scale: $50 to $80
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.