November 2024
POTLUCK DHARMA ~ with Joryu Myosei & Riyaz Motan
You bring the Wisdom. We’ll bring the Food.
A fundraiser, co-sponsored by Open Circle, honoring Rob Schwartz and his vision to maintain his home and land as a retreat space for spiritual gatherings.
Featuring Dan Huebner as our special musical guest.
Registration closes end of day Sunday, Nov. 17th
Space is limited so register early to save your seat at our table.
About
Potluck Dharma
The idea for Potluck Dharma sprouted from the meals and wisdom shared at our own tables with family and friends. It has now grown into a seasonal gathering where participants are invited to bring their own wisdom, reflections, and experiences to the table, much like the assortment of dishes at a potluck meal.
The day is all about sharing – insights, wisdom, and stories – creating a laid-back yet profound forum to explore spiritual truths and life’s deeper questions. After a morning program of meditation, dharma talks, and discussion, we’ll gather in the afternoon with a delicious, farm-to-table, vegetarian meal that is included with registration, and equally important in feeding the soul. We’ll close with an herbal tisane, dessert, and a special musical guest.
Join us to connect and grow together, while supporting a worthy cause.
Please note that this event will be recorded and potentially shared. There will be video recording of the teachers during the morning session and discrete photography of the group throughout the day. No faces or names of participants will be included on video. Your participation in this event implies consent for us to use your image or your voice, so please share accordingly.
Featuring:
Joryu Myosei
Joryu Myosei is a spiritual guide, mindfulness, meditation, and inquiry teacher, licensed marriage and family therapist, and intuitive healer. She took a formal bodhisattva vow in 2011, dedicating her life to awakening for the benefit of all beings and her work to supporting awakening in others and its expression in daily life. Through retreats, spiritual gatherings, and one-to-one inquiry work with students, she invites all to experience their deepest knowing and to live authentic, fully engaged lives with joy and purpose.
joryumyosei.com
Riyaz Motan
Riyaz is a spiritual guide, teacher, and former marriage and family psychotherapist. His work interweaves Western psychology & Eastern wisdom traditions to help others find freedom from suffering to awaken to their essential wholeness. Through small intimate groups and day-long or multi-day retreats, he supports others in the journey of discovering who they truly are: to uncover who and what they are at essence, and to fully embody and express this in their lives and relationships.
riyazmotan.com
Dan Huebner
Dan Huebner has been playing Jazz for over 50 years, delighting audiences in a variety of settings and the retreat participants of Adyashanti and Rupert Spira in spiritual venues. HIs primary instruments are tenor and soprano saxophones and alto flute, with supporting instruments added into the flow. Dan is drawn to exploring improvised music from a context of the Presence of Being, discovering the nature and how’s of this process as it evolves. It’s never ending, making his performances always new, interesting, spontaneous adventures.
Shakti Caterina Maggi ~ Embodied Non-duality
The teaching will be a dive into the heart of nonduality. An open and direct sharing about how our spiritual essence embodies in human experience to wake up to itself.
We will explore how suffering is the way through which we can recognize our self-imposed limitations. With courage and radical honesty we can use suffering as a trampoline to consciously connect to an unshakeable inner peace.
Shakti will offer a talk followed by Q&A.
Shakti Caterina Maggi is a spiritual guide, meditation teacher and author widely recognized as one of the most authentic and profound voices of contemporary spirituality. Combining the vision of Advaita and non-dual Tantra with a contemporary approach, Shakti offers with humanity, compassion and great clarity an inner technology to dissolve that contraction of suffering that accompanies our lives, and access a space of peace and unconditional love towards life.
www.shakticaterinamaggi.com
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
Potluck Dharma ~ with Joryu Myosei & Riyaz Motan (Note: Registration extended until Sunday, November 17th.)
You bring the Wisdom. We’ll bring the Food! This is a fundraiser, co-sponsored by Open Circle, honoring its co-founder Rob Schwartz, and his vision to maintain his home and land as a retreat space for spiritual gatherings.
The day is all about sharing – insights, wisdom, and stories – creating a laid-back yet profound forum to explore spiritual truths and life’s deeper questions. After a morning program of meditation, dharma talks, and discussion, we’ll gather in the afternoon with a delicious, farm-to-table, vegetarian meal (included with registration) and equally important in feeding the soul. We’ll close with an herbal tisane and dessert.
The day will be hosted by Joryu Myosei, a meditation and inquiry teacher and intuitive healer, and Riyaz Motan a spiritual guide and psychotherapist whose work interweaves Western psychology and Eastern wisdom traditions. We will also be joined by special musical guest, Dan Huebner, who has played at retreats with Adyashanti and Rupert Spira.
Find out more »Shakti Caterina Maggi ~ Embodied nonduality
The teaching will be a dive into the heart of non-duality, an open and direct sharing about how our spiritual essence embodies in human experience to wake up to itself.
We will explore how suffering is the way through which we can recognize our self-imposed limitations and use it as a trampoline to consciously connect to an unshakeable inner peace.
Shakti Caterina Maggi is a spiritual teacher r widely recognized as one of the most authentic and profound voices of contemporary spirituality. Combining the vision of Advaita and non-dual Tantra with a contemporary approach, Shakti offers an inner technology to dissolve the contraction of suffering and access a space of peace and unconditional love towards life.
Find out more »Ishita Sharma ~ Embodiment Lab – Experiments in Embodying Presence
We are not thinking beings who sense; we are sensing beings who think. And re-setting that balance is key to joy, to vibrance, and true liberation!
Join us for Embodiment Lab, an experiential exploration of the body as a doorway to presence and aliveness, returning to the ground of being through our own direct experience.
We will use the fullness of our experience to tune and attune to our bodies, illuminating our deepest healing and freedom. Engaging and transcending our senses, awareness, breath, movement and sound and more, we will use our body's signals to return to sensate presence.
TOGETHER ON OUR CALL WE WILL:
- Explore states of inner coherence in our own experience.
- Engage simple yet profound somatic and energetic practices.
- Experience the healing power of inner and group coherence.
- Have space to share, ask questions and learn from within and together.
- Learn about ways to deepen our access to embodied presence.
All levels of experience are welcom.
BIO
Ishita Sharma serves as a spiritual teacher, healing mirror, embodiment guide, and Core Energetics Practitioner of body-based psychotherapy. Teaching Universal principles of healing and mysticism, she is devoted to supporting healing and awakening in all those committed to living a bright and connected life, sharing their gifts for the good of the Whole.
Growing up in India, asking big questions, Ishita's curiosities about the nature of All Things fueled a series of profound openings. Having her relationship to Self, Life and others re-calibrated, while learning to honor her own body's signals as the ultimate path to God, led her to study various spiritual, neurological, relational, somatic and shamanic modalities, through the Grace of her teachers and the Book of her Life.
Ishita has coached visionaries and leaders from Google, Harvard, MIT, Silicon Valley, Broadway artists, and renowned scientists, coaches, teachers, artists and activists. Clients come to her to grow through their deepest longings and challenges, held and mirrored in their perfect wholeness. She points every one of them back to center.
Ishita’s teachings, like her learnings, support self-study through direct realization. They marry western mind and eastern spirit through the human body and heart to facilitate embodied awakening and authentic connection, the balm for our tumultuous times.
Care for our sacred shared world informs all her endeavors. Ishita now uses her skills to help clients connect with their inner signals so they can find rest in minds, ease in their bodies, joy in their hearts, and embody their True Nature in right relation with Life. She brings 15 years of advanced facilitation, a refined meditation practice, and a fierce devotion to her own healing to serve. She looks forward to meeting and supporting you!
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
Ishita Sharma ~ Embodiment Lab – Experiments in Embodying Presence
We are not thinking beings who sense; we are sensing beings who think. And re-setting that balance is key to joy, to vibrance, and true liberation!
Join us for Embodiment Lab, an experiential exploration of the body as a doorway to presence and aliveness, returning to the ground of being through our own direct experience.
Ishita Sharma serves as a spiritual teacher, healing mirror, embodiment partner, and Core Energetics Practitioner. Teaching Universal principles of healing and mysticism, she is devoted to supporting healing and awakening in all those committed to living a bright and connected life, sharing their gifts for the good of the Whole.
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
December 2024
Ishtar ~ Flowing Wholeness – Melting into the Heart of Life
When the mind settles into Silence, the heart opens to the great mystery hidden everywhere in plain sight. The formless takes the form of Love, melting the barrier between self and world, reconnecting us to primordial Wholeness. This Wholeness is like a song that is already playing within. Every moment of life- sublime or awful- can be experienced as a flowing wholeness.
We’ll walk into a few powerful ways of melting into wholeness: effortless mantra practice, heart-engaging appreciation, tuning directly into Silence, and opening to the flow of Shakti. These are all different words for the singular practice of letting Presence move through us like a song. This is the way of praying until we become the prayer. Woven into shared practice will be time for questions, answers, and conversation.
Ishtar is a meditation teacher, monk, gardener, and head teacher of the School for Awakened Living. At age 13, he experienced an NDE, and fell into a Samadhi. The desire to return to Samadhi propelled him on a spiritual path. His first teacher was a shaman, who taught primarily through the magic of Presence. A meditation practice known as the Ishayas’ Ascension brought him to an Ashram at age 18 in the early 2000’s. Since then, he has worked as a guide, teaching effortless meditation, and helping people relax into Wholeness.
For those wanting to learn more about Ishtar’s work, his interviews can be found on Buddha at the Gas Pump, Conscious TV, Guru Viking, and Next Level Soul.
His websites are: www.ascension-meditation.com and www.awakenedlightastrology.com
Suggested donation: $15 to $30
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Pre-registration for In-Person attandance closes at Midnight on Nov. 30 (the night before event)
Pre-registration is encouraged, but you can also just show up & pay at door. Come & join us!
OR
If you register for Recording access by event date, link to access it will be sent to you within a week.
If you register for Recording access AFTER event date, please forward your confirmation email to web@opencirclecenter.org to notify us that you registered after event date.
PARKING: There is some street parking in the neighborhood, free and without time limit.
For inquiries contact LocalEvents@opencirclecenter.org
If you have symptoms of a respiratory infection, or have had a recent
Covid exposure or positive test, please stay home out of consideration for others.
Ishtar ~ Flowing Wholeness – Melting into the Heart of Life (In Person: Berkeley, CA & Livestream)
When the mind settles into Silence, the heart opens to the great mystery hidden everywhere in plain sight. The formless takes the form of Love, melting the barrier between self and world, reconnecting us to primordial Wholeness. Every moment of life − sublime or awful − can be experienced as a flowing wholeness.
We’ll walk into a few powerful ways of melting into wholeness: effortless mantra practice, heart-engaging appreciation, tuning directly into Silence, and opening to the flow of Shakti. This is the way of praying until we become the prayer.
Ishtar is a meditation teacher, mystic, monk, gardener, and head teacher of the School for Awakened Living. At age 13, he experienced a near death experience (NDE ), and fell into Samadhi. The desire to return to Samadhi propelled him on a spiritual path. A meditation practice known as the Ishayas’ Ascension brought him to an Ashram at age 18. Since then, he has been teaching effortless meditation, and helping people relax into Wholeness.
Find out more »