September 2024
Jeannie Zandi ~ True Nature
Who are we really? Join Jeannie to explore the idea and experience of true nature.
Jeannie 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 teaching style.
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.
Pamela Wilson ~ Dark Love: Being the Love That Doesn’t Come or Go ~ 4 Part Online Retreat
Sept. 2, 5, 9 & 12, 2024
10:00 am – 12:00 pm, Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)
Time Zone Converter
Recording will be emailed to participants after each meeting.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend all the live sessions.
In all of us there is a background substratum: Stillness, dark and often overlooked or unseen, as it is unadorned and we, as awareness, are attracted to the luminous. It is sober and wise and anciently ageless. Honoring and including this dark love nourishes it, so that it is more our felt experience. This allows us to live from the ancient heart of everything, to recognize the heart at the core of everyone and everything. Ultimately, embodied balance is revealed hidden within all the opposites, and streaming soothing transmission results. Each one of us is a sage, mystic and warrior, the great promise, the alchemist and the one that allows humanity to rest as ease in grace. Join Pamela and your fellow sages for a four-part retreat.
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!
More about Pamela: www.pamelasatsang.com
Sliding Scale: $80 to $120
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.
Prayers for the Future ~ Satsang & Kirtan
Satsang & Kirtan
with Adam Bauer & Christine Marie
Co-sponsored by Open Circle
Join us for an extraordinary gathering of heart, mind, and spirit as we come together for Prayers for the Future, a special satsang and kirtan featuring global chant artist Adam Bauer and yogini Christine Marie. This event is a call to unite in soulful chanting, deep reflection, and visionary summoning of a world we want to live into.
Highlights:
- Kirtan: Be together in the power of the chant led by Adam Bauer, a renowned kirtan artist who weaves together ancient mantras, soulful melodies, and heartfelt devotion to uplift and connect us all.
- Satsang: Dive into a space of inner exploration and wisdom sharing. Through guided meditation and contemplative dialogue, we wil connect with our clearest hearts to envision our highest possible future.
Come prepared to chant, listen, share, and co-create as we set our intentions and pray for a future that honors the highest potential of humanity and our planet.
Open to all who feel called to join in this sacred work of visioning and manifesting a future filled with light, harmony, and grace.
In community, in love, and in action.
Pre-registration required, as space is limited.
Donation Requested. Pay what you can.
RSVP by REGISTRATION HERE & DONATE AT DOOR WHEN YOU ARRIVE.
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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.
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
Pamela Wilson ~ Dark Love: Being the Love That Doesn’t Come or Go ~ 4 Part Online Retreat
Sept. 2, 5, 9 & 12, 2024
10:00 am – 12:00 pm, Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)
Time Zone Converter
Recording will be emailed to participants after each meeting.
You're welcome to join even if you can't attend all the live sessions.
In all of us there is a background substratum: Stillness, dark and often overlooked or unseen, as it is unadorned and we, as awareness, are attracted to the luminous. It is sober and wise and anciently ageless. Honoring and including this dark love nourishes it, so that it is more our felt experience. This allows us to live from the ancient heart of everything, to recognize the heart at the core of everyone and everything. Ultimately, embodied balance is revealed hidden within all the opposites, and streaming soothing transmission results. Each one of us is a sage, mystic and warrior, the great promise, the alchemist and the one that allows humanity to rest as ease in grace. Join Pamela and your fellow sages for a four-part retreat.
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!
More about Pamela: www.pamelasatsang.com
Sliding Scale: $80 to $120
Some Partial Scholarships Available
Please Register Early if you can.
Louise Kay ~ Embodied Awareness
If you bring your attention fully present into the now and inquire with a genuine, open curiosity into the truth of this moment, what is discovered is that underlying all experiences lies an invisible, potent presence. This presence is often referred to as stillness, being, consciousness or awareness and is the eternal, formless essence of who you are. All else appears in and is perceived by this awareness.
The recognition of this truth through direct experiential knowing is a divine blessing and is followed by a sacred process of integration, which takes place on the level of body and mind. As higher consciousness penetrates the physical body in the surrendered state, unconscious beliefs and conditionings are revealed and released, and unprocessed emotions held in the system rise to the surface to be consciously felt and transmuted. This process of deep healing and maturing takes place over time on the level of form, while one remains anchored in the formlessness of the unending now.
You are invited to join Louise for an exploration of Embodied Awareness comprising a guided meditation and opportunity to ask questions.
About Louise
Louise Kay was born in the north west of The UK. After graduating from university she worked as an English teacher for 15 years, and during this time began to question the deeper meaning of life. This led her to the path of spirituality, where she found a strong resonance with the teachings of non-duality.
In her early thirties Louise felt a deep call in her heart to visit India, where she experienced a profound spiritual awakening. Shortly afterwards Louise began channeling and traveled around the world sharing this gift for several years. During this time she experienced a deepening and integration of her initial spiritual awakening and as she opened more to this non-dual truth a new form of expression revealed itself from deep in her heart.
Louise is passionate about supporting people to live a life of presence and unconditional love. Her greatest joy is to sit together in presence and gently hold space for all emotions, all sensations and all experiences which arise in the moment in order to support the integration of unresolved energies and allow the unfolding of the divine in all who feel the call.
Explorations are usually focused around self-inquiry, the release of limiting beliefs and the integration of unprocessed emotions and energies.
Louise holds group events online and around the world.
More about Louise: www.louisekay.net
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
Louise Kay ~ Embodied Awareness
If you bring your attention fully present into the now and inquire with a genuine, open curiosity into the truth of this moment, what is discovered is that underlying all experiences lies an invisible, potent presence. This presence is often referred to as stillness, being, consciousness or awareness, and is the eternal, formless essence of who you are. All else appears in and is perceived by this awareness.
The recognition of this truth is followed by a sacred process of integration, which takes place on the level of body and mind over time, while one remains anchored in the formlessness of the unending now.
In her early thirties Louise Kay, who is from the UK, felt a deep call in her heart to visit India, where she experienced a profound spiritual awakening. As she opened more to this non-dual truth, a new form of expression revealed itself from deep in her heart. Her greatest joy is to sit together in presence and gently hold space for the integration of unresolved energies, and allow the unfolding of the divine in all who feel the call.
Find out more »John Prendergast, Lisa Ferguson & Jared Michaels ~ Engaged Nonduality ~ InPerson Daylong
Engaged Nonduality: Attending to Our World in Crisis
A Daylong with John Prendergast,
Lisa Ferguson and Jared Michaels
This daylong event is an opportunity to turn toward our world in crisis from an awakened heart. Whatever is touching your heart is welcomed, including climate and ecosystem breakdown, war and conflict, injustice and polarization. How is Being moving through us in response? We will explore through meditation, dyadic inquiry, and group interaction what it means to open to our awakened nature, while also being moved by our deepest knowing to respond to our world in crisis.
Bios
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 Climate Compassion, 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.
www.climatecompassion.org
Jared Michaels is a psychotherapist in private practice in Berkeley, a Zen priest in the San Francisco Zen Center lineage, and a longtime student of John Prendergast. For decades, he asked what he could offer humanity that would make a difference. His answer has been consistent for years: To invite us to walk a path of personal and systemic transformation.
JaredMichaels.com
Suggested Donation: $75 per person
(any amount acceptable, no one turned away for lack of funds)
Pre-registration is recommended, through you can pay at door if not pre-registered.
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.
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.
Nearby parking may fill up quickly. Plan accordingly.
John Prendergast, Lisa Ferguson & Jared Michaels ~ Engaged Nonduality ~ InPerson Daylong
This daylong event is an opportunity to turn toward our world in crisis from an awakened heart. Whatever is touching your heart is welcomed, including climate and ecosystem breakdown, war and conflict, injustice and polarization. How is Being moving through us in response? We will explore through meditation, dyadic inquiry, and group interaction what it means to open to our awakened nature, while also being moved by our deepest knowing to respond to our world in crisis.
John Prendergast 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 is the founder of Climate Compassion, and has focused on supporting planetary well-being as a healing arts practitioner, climate justice activist, organizer and contemplative. Jared Michaels is a psychotherapist, a Zen priest, and a longtime student of John Prendergast. For decades, he asked what he could offer humanity that would make a difference. His answer: To invite us to walk a path of personal and systemic transformation.
Find out more »