February 2025
Lisa Schumacher ~ Choose Love: Self-Inquiry Meeting
A meeting with Lisa is an encounter in openness and silence, where you are invited just as you are and where you will find clear and loving support for your awakening.
You are invited into a community space that values the transmission of peace and love that is present here. In your search for freedom, you can rest in stopping. You can find stillness in Satsang.
“Satsang” means “in the company of Truth” – it describes a meeting where we gather together to uncover our True Nature.
Lisa offers guidance for your awakening, and would love to hear what you are discovering in yourself. All of your spiritual questions and reports are welcome as we discover together how to meet the intensity of the world with an open and loving heart.
This is an embrace of inclusion and an inquiry into the heart of the truth, as it transmits through your life.
All are welcome.
During our meeting together, Lisa will support you with deep stillness and skillful self-inquiry to open to your true nature, leaving behind the illusion of a separate self. During the webinar, you may rest in silence. This is deeply nourishing. We will begin each meeting sitting in silence.
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
Suggested donation: $15 to $40
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
Lisa Schumacher ~ Choose Love: Self-Inquiry Meeting
A meeting with Lisa is an opportunity to step away from your day to day life and devote time for self-inquiry into the heart of Love. There will be a few moments of silence to start the meeting and then Lisa will speak and invite the community to share reports about their realizations and ask questions.
Upon hearing Gangaji in the early 90s 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. 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.
Find out more »Silent Group Meditation (Free, No Guidance)
Join us for a silent group meditation. Do your own practice quietly in the company of others. Let’s be present, together. .... more details
Mon.: 8:00am – 8:30am (PT) and Wed.: 9:00am – 9:30am (PT)
Ongoing drop-in group – attend as often as you like.
Weekly, with rare exceptions. Verify dates on Full Calendar.
Silent Group Meditation (Free, No Guidance)
Mondays: 8:00am – 8:30am Pacific Time
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
John J. Prendergast, Ph.D. and Lisa Ferguson, Ph.D. ~ Engaged Nonduality
Engaged Nonduality
Re-Sourcing Ourself in a World in Crisis
with John J. Prendergast, Ph.D. and Lisa Ferguson, Ph.D.
Recording will be emailed to participants within a week.
You’re welcome to join even if you can’t attend the live session.
As an informal community of nondual contemplatives who feel deeply moved by the historically-unique existential crises that we now face, how do we respond in a truly creative way? And how do we not succumb to the burnout that political activists so frequently experience?
The answer lies in our capacity to repeatedly re-source ourself in the ultimate source – the heart and ground of being. As we consciously discover the Great Heart behind the human heart and the Groundless Ground beneath our self-constructed ground, we experience a sense of well-being independent of outer circumstances. This discovery is profoundly nourishing to our conditioned body-mind, allowing us to replenish from the deepest source of life. This brings an openness, freshness, spontaneity, and love for life that inspires our creative action in the world.
This meeting will include silent and guided meditations, self-inquiry, a talk, and experiential conversations.
The Engaged Nonduality series
This Engaged Nonduality series, hosted by Lisa Ferguson, explores how nondual wisdom may respond to our world in crisis. We live in a time of multiple intersecting crises that threaten the wellbeing of all life, including climate breakdown, unaligned tech and AI, injustice, war and authoritarianism. The recognition of nonduality has much to offer in these times, including a deep knowing of our wholeness and shared Being, as well as opening to the wellspring of our wise and creative response. This series invites guest presenters to explore how nondual teaching may respond to planetary crises through talks, practices and group participation.
John J. Prendergast, Ph.D. is the author of The Deep Heart: Our Portal to Presence (2019 ) and In Touch: How to Tune In to the Inner Guidance of Your Body and Trust Yourself (2015) and is working on a new book entitled Your Deepest Ground: A Guide to Embodied Spirituality (March 2025). He is a retired Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies as well as a retired psychotherapist. He studied with the European sage Jean Klein for many years as well as with Adyashanti who gave dharma transmission to John in August, 2023. John and his wife Christiane offer residential retreats in the United States and Europe.
www.listeningfromsilence.com
YouTube channel
Lisa Ferguson, Ph.D.is the founder of www.climatecompassion.org, and has focused on supporting planetary wellbeing as a healing arts practitioner, climate justice activist, organizer and contemplative. She offers psychospiritual support to activists through one-one sessions and small groups, weaving together a focus on awakening, healing and wise action.
Suggested Donation: $15 to $40
(any amount acceptable, no one turned away for lack of funds)
Please register early if you can.
The events will be recorded and emailed to participants within a week.
To check your local time, use a tool such as: Time Zone Converter
John J. Prendergast, Ph.D. and Lisa Ferguson, Ph.D. ~ Engaged Nonduality
As an informal community of non-dual contemplatives who feel deeply moved by the historically unique existential crises that we now face, how do we respond in a truly creative way? And how do we not succumb to the burnout that political activists so frequently experience?
The answer lies in our capacity to repeatedly re-source ourself in the ultimate source – the heart and ground of being. As we consciously discover the Great Heart behind the human heart, we experience a sense of well-being independent of outer circumstances, which brings a love for life that inspires our creative action in the world.
John J. Prendergast is a retired Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies as well as a retired psychotherapist. He studied with the European sage Jean Klein for many years as well as with Adyashanti who gave dharma transmission to John in August, 2023. Lisa Ferguson, Ph.D. has focused on supporting planetary wellbeing as a healing arts practitioner, climate justice activist, organizer and contemplative.
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 disidentify 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.
During this period, Georgia was influenced by Inner Relationship Focusing, a presence based approach that works with the Felt Sense and the split-off parts of self. She also trained as a NARM informed practitioner, which addresses developmental trauma from a psychotherapeutic perspective. Her approach is now a seamless blend of mystical insight and psychological understanding.
After many years of wading through this marshland of conditioning, she 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 $40
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
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, where the full spectrum of your human experience is invited.
It's in this open space that we can begin to unwind the strategies that no longer serve us.
Through gentle exploration and somatic awareness you can cultivate a new way of being with your most challenging patterns
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.
Georgia Simone 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.
Find out more »Dorothy Hunt ~ Flowing with Love’s River ~ Bay Area Daylong Retreat
A road might end at a single house,
but it’s not love’s road.
Love is a river. . . .
--Rumi
Known or unknown, there is a river of Love flowing in the heart. It may appear as longing, seeking, laughing, weeping, birth, life, and death. Its current can turn our attention inward, burn our illusions, and return us Home. Sometimes it overflows the banks of pain and pleasure and delivers gratitude for even the most challenging moments. Its movement can be felt when we are touched by some small act of kindness. At times, we might run away, hiding from love, fearful of our vulnerability in the face of its power. Or we might try to demand love, or argue with love, not knowing we will lose. This river flows to the ocean of our essence, where our separation dissolves in its silent depths.
Please join Dorothy Hunt for an exploration of Love’s presence and spontaneous movement in our lives. This daylong will include guided meditation, silent sitting, satsang, poetry and discussion. Perhaps we may discover, in the words of Nisargadatta, that “Awareness is love in action” here and now--the awake Mystery that knows no “other,” and loves us unconditionally. To discover this love is to BE love.
Dorothy Hunt currently serves as Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha, teaching at the request and in the spiritual lineage of Adyashanti. The flavor of her teaching blends Advaita and Zen with a deep welcoming of the human expressions of the Mystery. Dorothy is the founder of the San Francisco Center for Meditation and Psychotherapy, and practiced psychotherapy from 1967 until her retirement in 2020. She is the author of Only This!, Leaves from Moon Mountain, and Ending the Search: From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness. In addition, she is a contributing author to two books on Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy, and the editor of Love: A Fruit Always in Season.
Presently, Dorothy offers satsang and retreats via Zoom, and dokusan by phone. For more information, please visit www.dorothyhunt.org
The meeting will be from 10:30am to 4:30pm, with a break for lunch.
Bring your own lunch, or drive 5 minutes into town where there are restaurants, as well as the Good Earth Natural Foods Store that has a full hot and salad bar, plus deli.
Pre-registration required, as space is limited.
Registration closes at midnight on Feb. 8
Sliding Scale: $60 to $120
No one turned away for lack of funds.
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 viral infection, or have had a recent
Covid exposure or positive test, please stay home out of consideration for others.
Dorothy Hunt ~ Flowing with Love’s River ~ Bay Area Daylong Retreat
Known or unknown, there is a river of Love flowing in the heart. It may appear as longing, seeking, laughing, weeping, birth, life, and death. Its current can turn our attention inward, burn our illusions, and return us Home. This river flows to the ocean of our essence, where our separation dissolves in its silent depths.
Please join Dorothy Hunt for an exploration of Love’s presence and spontaneous movement in our lives. This daylong will include guided meditation, silent sitting, satsang, poetry and discussion.
Dorothy Hunt currently serves as Spiritual Director of Moon Mountain Sangha, teaching at the request and in the spiritual lineage of Adyashanti. The flavor of her teaching blends Advaita and Zen with a deep welcoming of the human expressions of the Mystery.
Find out more »