I am excited to invite you to a special gathering slated for 2:30-5:30 on Saturday, January 24 at the Center for Spiritual Awareness 1275 Starboard Drive, W. Sacramento. Ross Oldenstadt lives in Eugene Oregon and has had several profound awakening experiences and lives in abiding awakeness. Ross led a similar event in July 2014, and he also presented to our ATS group last July as well. Ross is a 31 year old professional artist and a nondual wisdom teacher. For more information on Ross, go to: http://rossoldenstadt.com/
I am excited to announce that the Awakening to Spirit Group will have met for 10 consecutive years in December! The group has morphed over this past decade, and some folks have been along for the ride for many years of the group’s existence.
Even if you are new to the group, I hope you will consider joining us on Saturday, December 13, from 10 am to noon for a brunch, (provided by me and free of charge) and a celebration of our group. After the meditation, we will eat and reminisce about where we have been, where we are now as a group, and then we will put on our creative thinking caps and connect with our heart wisdom as we consider where we are going and what we want to be/do in 2015. Come join us!
I am excited to announce that in December the Awakening to Spirit Group will have met for ten years!! To celebrate, we will meet on Saturday morning, December 13 for both a holiday and anniversary celebration (including food and good cheer). I will share about the group’s evolution and how the group has changed me as the group’s facilitator. Those of you who have attended the group for over a year are also invited to share your experiences of our gatherings and what you have taken to heart from your participation. We will also discuss what each of you wants from the group as we continue to meet. So please mark your calendars now and plan to attend if you can!!
Please also mark your calendars for our next ATS gathering, scheduled for Sat. Nov. 15 from 10 am to noon. Following the meditation, we will embark on a discussion the inquiry questions in Adyashanti’s book, The Way of Liberation” The book is available for $10 (plus shipping) on website http://www.adyashanti.org
During our October gathering, the discussion of Adyashanti’s book, The End of Your World, was lively and enlightening. We had a great turnout as well!
Deborah
Welcome to our ongoing participants and to potential new friends!
Fall has just begun, and change is in the air with our ATS group. Unfortunately, we have lost our Sacramento meeting venue, and I am needing to find us a new one, preferably in the midtown area. I have a possible meeting venue to investigate. Meanwhile, we are taking a break from our Sacramento gatherings for a month or two or three. If you live in the Sacramento area and you want the group to continue to meet once a month in Sacramento, please email me to let me know this! The number of regular participants coming to our Sacramento gatherings has ebbed in recent months, and unless this number increases soon, we may not meet again in Sacramento until the new year. We are coming up on ten years of regular monthly gatherings (in Dec.),and it is not unusual for groups like ours to have periods of less interest and attendance as time goes on.
The Davis gatherings are going strong and will still continue on the third Saturdays of each month. For our upcoming meeting on Saturday, October 18, we will be continuing with our exploration and discussion of Adyashanti’s book, “The End of Your World.” We began this exploration at our September gathering, and since many ATS folks had not read much or all of the book but were greatly enjoying it, we want to continue with our discussion. Please come even if you have not read much of the book. You can still listen in and learn about Adya’s teachings in this wonderful book. We welcome new participants, so come to meet usnd check out our group, even if you haven’t had the chance to read the book.
As always, please email me if you plan to attend in October or if you have any feedback for me. [email protected]
After a bit of a summer break, we are gearing up for regular fall gatherings again in both Davis and Sacramento. However, we are in the process of looking for a new venue for our monthly Sacramento meetings. Sadly, our meeting place at Ancient Future on K St. is closing this fall. We will miss meeting there! I am checking out some other meeting possibilities in mid-town. Assuming I find one soon, we will next meet in Sacramento on Saturday, October 11, from 10 am until noon. (We normally meet the first Saturday of each month in Sacramento but the first Saturday in October I will be attending a reunion.) We will meet at our usual Davis venue–the Davis Holistic Health Center, on Saturday, September 20 from 10 am until 12. For the first of our upcoming fall gatherings in Davis, I will lead us in a meditation and after that we will discuss Adyashanti’s book, “The End of Your World.”
As always, please email me if you plan to attend, and/or if you want to be on the ATS email listserve to be notified about our upcoming gatherings. Can’t wait to see everyone again and meet some new folks!
Namaste,
Deborah
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Hi Friends.
I am excited to share with you about the upcoming gatherings for April through July, when we will not be on our regular schedule.
We always welcome newcomers to come check us out!
Please join us for our gathering at the Davis Holistic Health Center this coming Saturday, April 19.
I will present on the important teachings I have embraced in the past 20 plus years while studying nondual wisdom spiritual teachings. I began this sharing at our Sacramento gathering a few weeks ago, and I look forward to sharing more and having another lively discussion on the teachings! It was a wonderful gathering we had in Sacramento as we explored how some of these teachings fit for many of us, and how some of us struggle with them. Please remember that truth cannot really be spoken in words, because words can only be pointers to truth. And my words are imperfect indeed! I present one sense of what Oneness/Consciousness/Ultimate Reality is, but I have no claim on what ultimate reality is really about. However, what I am presenting is mostly consensus information from the awake teachers whose words I have studied directly while sitting with them, or while reading their books.
Note that there is a change in presentation for our special Saturday May 24 Davis gathering: we will have a guest presenter, Kristen Farquhar, present to us about our “inner voices.” She will share with us a very specific breath exercise; one that was given to her alone in ceremony while in Mexico on a Spiritual Pilgrimage to Teotichucan (city of the gods) during the Summer Solstice 2003. The breath exercise is deeply relaxing and highly transformational. It is a first step towards finding one’s inner voice. She will also demonstrate to us how to access this inner voice for our health, wholeness, and healing.
On Saturday, June 14, we will gather in Sacramento and I will offer a presentation on Adyashanti’s teachings, followed by discussion.
One more thing: don’t forget about the morning ATS gathering and then afternoon public presentation by Ross Oldenstadt that is scheduled for Saturday, July 12, in West Sacramento. If you already know that you plan to attend, please let me know this as well. He is an awake teacher coming from Oregon, and we are very fortunate to have him present to us!
After an enjoyable SoulCollage process with our ATS group this morning, I am feeling so very grateful for our ATS group and the wonderful people who come to the gatherings! It truly warms my heart.
April will be the last month for awhile that we will be meeting on our usual first and third Saturdays of the month. In May and over the summer, my travels won’t allow for that.
We will meet next on Saturday, April 5, from 10-12 at our usual gathering place at Ancient Future, and again on Saturday, April 19 from 10-12, at our usual Davis gathering place–the Davis Holisitic Health Center. I will be offering a longer meditation, followed by my sharing of the best of the spiritual teachings I have been absorbing for the past two years. We will also have a question/answer format after I provide an initial presentation. It will be a Part I (Sac) and Part 2 (Davis) presentation once again, and once again you can come to either or both. I should have plenty to share so that I won’t need to repeat myself.
In May, we will meet just once–on Saturday, May 24, 10-12, at the Davis Holistic Health Center. The other weekends I will be out of town. During our May gathering, I will share and we will discuss Adyashanti’s teachings.
As always, please email me if you do plan to attend any of these events.
We may meet in June but it will probably be in Davis on the third Saturday; still to be determined.
Please mark your calendar for a very special ATS event on Saturday, July 12 event with Ross Oldenstadt. This event will take place from 10-12 at the Center for Spiritual Awareness in W. Sacramento. Ross is only 31 years old, and very awake in the world. He hails from Eugene Oregon. He will lead us in meditation and will then offer a satsang and answer any questions the group may have. To sit in his presence will give you a taste of deep abiding ease, peace and joy, if nothing else. But that is enough, isn’t it? Note that this gathering will be our only ATS gathering in July. Ross will also offer an event for the public from 2-6 pm. More details to follow here.
In spiritual circles, the word “soul” is used quite a bit these days. Perhaps overused. But what does it really mean? And what is its significance in our lives? At the upcoming ATS events on Saturday, February 1 in Sacramento and Saturday, February 22 in Davis, I will offer a two-part look at the Soul. We do not “have” a soul, we ARE a soul. Until we wake up and realize there is no individual self with a soul. How does it try to get our personality’s attention? How do we connect with its wisdom? How do we connect with our soul wisdom so that we can manifest our soul’s dream for us, a life of quiet service, compassion, peacefulness, dignity, humility; the life most of us were born to manifest.
If you miss part one, you will still learn a lot from part 2. There will be time for discussion and sharing about ways in which you already connect with your soul. I will also include an experiential exercise during each gathering.
On Saturday January 4, at the ATS gathering in Sacramento, we will create SoulCollage cards once again to bring in new energy and hidden wisdom from our deepest selves relating to what we want to manifest in the New Year. Creating soulcollages has become a yearly tradition for our group. (For those of you new to soulCollages, see http://www.soulcollage.com ) I will also lead us through a guided meditation to help prepare us for manifesting whatever wants to come forth through the SoulCollage cards. If you have never created a SoulCollage card, please know that you don’t need to be artistic. All you need to do is to bring with you 5 pictures or photos from magazines that seem compelling to you. Your magazine pages will be added to the pages everyone else brings, and each person will create their SoulCollage cards from the collection of the magazine photos. I will supply the cards and glue sticks.
On Saturday January 18 at the ATS gathering in Davis, Toni Bernhard talk about her understanding of the Buddha’s awakening –and how it wasn’t a supernatural event but an awakening to the realities of the human condition and to the potential all of us have to find peace and well-being in this very life. Then she’ll go on to discuss those “realities,” and the obstacles to finding peace…and how to overcome those obstacles. See link below of the summary of her new book. I cannot wait to order it myself! She’ll bring copies for purchase. http://www.tonibernhard.com/Summary.html
The ATS Group will meet only once in December–on Saturday, December 7, at Ancient Future in Sacramento. We will not meet on December 21 because of the holidays.
Sandy Kaufman will provide a presentation for us on “Mussar.” Mussar is a Jewish Spiritual tradition which can be enjoyed by all. It is a practical set of teachings for cultivating personal growth and spiritual realization in the midst of day to day life. The ultimate goal is to become a more whole and holy person. The core teaching of Mussar is that our deepest essence is inherently pure and holy, but this inner radiance is obscured by extremes of emotion, desire and bad habits. Our work is to uncover the brilliant light of the soul. Sandy will share a little history of Mussar and it’s rejuvenation in recent years. We will talk about the practice and how it is implemented in our lives daily. We each have a spiritual curriculum unique to us. We discover our curriculum through the study of traits common to all. We will explore one trait as an example of how we grow though the teachings of Mussar.