Please join me tomorrow as we continue to study the Advaita Vedanta text Self Knowledge (Atma Bodha) by Adi Shankara:
Wednesday, January 4 at 7:30 p.m at OpenEye Studio, 875 4th Street, San Rafael, CA (east end of 4th St., between Cijos and Lootens, on the south side, above Sacred Tibet shop). No charge.
For more info: http://www.openeyemeditationgroup.org/page104/index.html and here.
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REGULAR MEETINGS RESUME WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 19
Our regular group meetings will resume on Wednesday, October 19, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. at OpenEye Studio, 875 4th Street, San Rafael, CA (east end of 4th St., between Cijos and Lootens, on the south side, above Sacred Tibet shop).
We will then meet on the first and third Wednesday of each month.
Our classes begin with a short meditation. We will begin studying “Self Knowledge”, a text from the Indian Advaita Vedanta tradition, written by Adi Śankaracarya. “Self Knowledge” (Atma Bodha) is a masterful unfoldment of the nature of the true self as limitless awareness and being.
Everyone is welcome.
I hope to see you there!
A new weekly group is starting on Monday, April 4, 2016, in San Rafael.
We will meet on Mondays at 7:00-8:30 p.m. at OpenEye Studio, 875 4th Street, San Rafael, CA (east end of 4th St., between Cijos and Lootens, on the south side, above Sacred Tibet shop).
In April, we will be focusing on Natural Mind Dzogchen meditation and teachings. This will include general discussion of Dzogchen and classes on the “Heart Essence of the Khandro,” a Bonpo (indigenous Tibetan) Dzogchen text containing teachings of 30 enlightened Bon lineage women.
All are welcome!
Offered freely; donations welcome.
This group will be replacing the Urban Meditation group that met Mondays at the same location. Urban meditation co-teacher Kisei Jeff Bickner will be forming a new Zen group in the Fairfax area in the near future.
That’s right. I’ll be teaching in Berkeley this Thursday night, August 21, 2014, at the invitation of East Bay Open Circle. Open Circle is an open and non-sectarian group that hosts various interesting spiritual teachers, most of a nondual orientation, at various locations around the Bay Area. They invited me to teach this week in Berkeley. Here are the details:
When: Thursday, August 21, 2014 7:00-9:00 p.m.
Location: Chochmat Halev 2215 Prince St., Berkeley, CA
Cost: Suggested donation of $10-$20; no one turned away for lack of funds.
This should be an interesting and fun change of venue.
I hope to see some of you there.
All the best,
Hal
Hal will be in India and on retreat until mid-August 2014.
Sending prayers and wishes for peace and liberation for all!
SPECIAL EVENT
Tuesday, January 24, 7:30 p.m.
Real Dharma is honored to present an evening with Kenny Johnson, author of The Last Hustle.
THE LAST HUSTLE
AN EVENING WITH KENNY JOHNSON
Tuesday, January 24, 7:30 p.m.
The Common Well
85 Bolinas Rd., Suite 8
Fairfax, CA 94930
Hustler, pimp, thief. Kenny Johnson was a career criminal who spent 20 years in prison, when he was transformed by a profound spiritual experience. Now he proclaims the availability of grace, redemption and liberation for all. Kenny is the author of The Last Hustle, his story of crime and spiritual liberation, and is the founder of This Sacred Space, a program for currently and previously incarcerated individuals.
Happy holidays everyone!
Real Dharma sangha will be on vacation and won’t meet Tuesday December 27. Our next meeting will be Tuesday January 3.
Please have a safe, healthy and happy holiday season and new year, filled with love, liberation and joy.
For Tuesday, November 8 ONLY: The weekly class will begin with meditation at 7:15 p.m. (instead of the usual time of 7:30).
We will have a discussion on the Buddhist teaching of dependent origination (pratitya samutpada or the 12 nidanas). Dependent origination is one of the earliest teaching of Sakyamuni Buddha and is a central teaching in all schools of Buddhism.
The path of nondual awakening is the discovery of innate present awareness as your own true nature and the ground of all. In that awareness there is unconditional fulfillment, compassion and peace.
My approach to nondual awakening presents the essence of the great nondual traditions of Buddhism (particularly the Prajnaparamita, Mahamudra and Dzogchen fruition approaches) and Advaita Vedanta, streamlined and stripped as far as possible of cultural and archaic metaphysical artifacts. This approach is simple and direct, and suitable for modern, especially modern Western, seekers of liberation.
One of the primary methods used in Advaita Vedanta to directly see one’s true nature is the Seer/Seen discrimination. Similar methods are used in Buddhist direct transmission schools. In this method, one begins from the obvious proposition that awareness, “the Seer”, the one who sees, is not the seen. So, what can be seen as an object cannot be the Seer itself. For example, you would obviously not say that my car, my house, or my clothes are “me.” Then one goes through all the objectifiable aspects of what most people usually assume is the self–starting with the body, and progressing through the sense organs, thoughts, feelings, and finally even the “I” thought–seeing that, as they are all objects of awareness, they can not be the Seer, the one who is aware. This contemplation, when done seriously, can lead to the direct knowing of object-less awareness, awareness itself, the formless yet awake true nature.
To listen to a talk on the path of nondual awakening, and the Seer/Seen discrimination, given at the Real Dharma group on October 4, 2011, use the flash driver below
or download or listen by clicking here.
Real Dharma is now on Meetup, the community-building social network site:
http://www.meetup.com/Real-Dharma-Meditation-and-Teachings-Meetup-Group/
Please support Real Dharma by joining our Meetup group! It’s free, there is no obligation, and you will received updates and reminders of our meetings and events.
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