September 2022
Gail Brenner ~ Coming Home Together: Tending the Ground for Awakened Living
Satsang: 2-4 pm
Refreshments: until 5
Suggested Donation: $10- $20, no one turned away.
Location: 8476 Sonoma Ave, Sebastopol, CA. Park on Sonoma Ave.
Note: The address sign says 8474/8476. Park on the street, and walk down the short driveway to the house with the carport. Please arrive 10-15 minutes early.
The satsang starts with a short meditation, then comments by Gail, then Q&A and discussion.
Come and gather together for a deep dive into the practicalities of awakened living. Your everyday human life is the laboratory as we explore the myth of the separate self, unexplored trauma patterns, and living the deepest truth of nondual reality.
You are welcome as you are with your fears, doubts, shame, and questions - and simply to share space with like-minded friends. Together, we lovingly embrace our humanness as we expand into pure openness, overflowing appreciation, and deep connection with all of Life.
Gail Brenner, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and lover of truth with a fire that burns brightly. She brings to this work years of experience with individuals and groups and is known for creating the safety and trust needed for this deeper exploration. Gail is the author of the award-winning The End of Self-Help and Suffering Is Optional.
Find out more »Gail Brenner ~ Coming Home Together: Tending the Ground for Awakened Living
Come and gather together for a deep dive into the practicalities of awakened living. Your everyday human life is the laboratory as we explore the myth of the separate self, unexplored trauma patterns, and living the deepest truth of nondual reality.
You are welcome as you are with your fears, doubts, shame, and questions - and simply to share space with like-minded friends. Together, we lovingly embrace our humanness as we expand into pure openness, overflowing appreciation, and deep connection with all of Life.
Gail Brenner, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and lover of truth with a fire that burns brightly. She brings to this work years of experience with individuals and groups and is known for creating the safety and trust needed for this deeper exploration.
Find out more »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
Chesaray ~ The Joy of Being: Expanding Our Capacity to Embody Innate Happiness
Our deepest challenges contain gems that surpass all understanding. We become more of ourselves as we find tender ways of leaning into our edges of growth and aliveness. We learn to live from our innate Joy when our mind’s notions of duality dissolve into this great knowing.
This two hour meeting is an invitation into the experiential understanding of the Divine. Our time together will be a still or moving meditation, a talk and exchanges. These palpable guided meditations and exchanges enrich ones receptivity to Grace, encourage deep somatic inquiry, and support awakening in all directions.
Chesaray's search for “What is Real?” began as early as she can remember. After losing several significant loved ones in her teens she was driven into a deep contemplation of grief, God, and death. This drew her interest to travel and live in India where she studied with several masters. Upon returning she began to immerse herself with other master teachers from the west. This opened a series of profound awakenings which set her in the direction of devoting her life to Self-Realization. After years of development, a plunge into a dark night of the soul and two brain injuries, Chesaray was stripped of her common sense of self and the world. Her initially unbearable descent became a bow to Life, an unconditional love for the grit and joys of living. It is this Love that guides her heart and mind as she serves the awakening of humanity.
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
Lynn Marie Lumiere, MFT ~ SOMATIC AWAKENING: Body-Mind-Spirit Embodiment
Online Monthly Group Meetings
Although our true nature is not affected by all that we experience in life, our human body and mind are impacted by experiences that result in emotional wounding and trauma. Any experience, especially early in life, that is outside our window of tolerance, can overwhelm our nervous system and create chronic stress patterns in the body/mind. These stuck patterns can affect our spiritual awakening process by making it more difficult to relax, trust, be in the moment, and allow everything to be as it is—all of which are necessary for awakening and embodiment.
This ongoing monthly group will offer deep support for body-mind-spirit healing and awakening so you can rest more deeply in the great peace, love and unity that resides in all of us.
The webinars will offer:
- Guided meditations for embodied awakening
- Somatic practices for regulating the nervous system
- Flash Technique for releasing the charge on traumatic memories and negative beliefs
- Group sharing and processing
It is encouraged to attend the live session so you can receive the support of the group as well as Lynn Marie’s therapeutic support if needed. You can also register and attend by listening to the recording on your own time.
Lynn Marie Lumiere, MFT is a nondual psychotherapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner and author. She offers knowledge and wisdom gained from over 30 years of experience both as a therapist and with nondual spiritual teachings. She is the author of Awakened Relating:
A Guide to Embodying Undivided Love in Intimate Relationships and The Awakening West: Evidence of a Spreading Enlightenment.
Suggested donation for each meeting: $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
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
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