Dear Ones,

As there is much energy arising, falling, as patterns are showing up to be met during this eclipse season, I have been feeling into what it means to take things personally. How we can be open and at peace until someone walks into the room with a scowl on their face or does not return our text or email, and our whole mood changes.

How does this happen? How does a certain circumstance, or set of circumstances trigger waves of energy - energy in motion - e-motion - and corresponding sensations that turn into a narrative we become identified with? How do these energies become “mine” and mean something about “me”? “I am unworthy.” “I am a failure.” How does identification with these narratives spin into projections about the world - “You should be different, so I can feel ok.” Yes, there are ways that this strategy has been useful and kept us safe, and how is it now causing suffering?

This month we will explore together in a sacred container how we take things personally and what happens when it all stops. What is left when the identification of “me” and “mine” falls away - if the world unfolds just as it unfolds internally and externally and there is no one to take anything personally at all.

We plan to gather on Saturday April 6th from 10am to 11:30am Denver time & all are welcome.

5pm - London

6pm - Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here: embodied meditation sign up

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Dear Ones,

This month we welcome guest teacher Liz George who will lead us in the Seven Homecomings Practice of Lama Rod Owens. This is a deeply nourishing practice of opening to the support that is here, always, in all ways. The support that is who we are. From here, the possibility is that everything is welcome, everything can be met - fear and uncertainty, pain and heartbreak, anger and rage. And in allowing everything to be met fully, true liberation can be realized - in yourself, in the world.

You can learn more about Lama Rod Owens and the practice here: Seven Homecomings Certification Course (lamarod.com)

We plan to gather on Saturday March 2nd from 10am to 11:30am Denver time & all are welcome.

5pm - London

6pm - Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here: embodied meditation sign up

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Dear All,

You may have noticed that the subject heading has shifted from “Embodied Meditation and Self- Inquiry” to “Embodied Awakening”. Why is that? Truly, all the meditations and self-inquiry have been arising from and pointing to what is always awake and free - what is always whole , no matter what shows up internally or apparently externally. Bringing in this word “awakening” may stir something in your heart as it does in mine - there is a sense of quiet relief and rest, joy and openness. Or there may something else in you, such as frustration, resistance, fear or confusion - I don’t know.

“In awakening, what’s revealed to us is that we are not a thing, nor a person, nor even an entity. What we are is that which manifests as all things, as all experiences, as all personalities. We are that which dreams the whole world into existence. Spiritual  awakening reveals that that  which is unspeakable and unexplainable is actually what we are.” - Adyashanti

You are all invited to join us in an exploration of “awakening” - what does it mean? What does it evoke? What may be discovered in this sacred space where anything and everything that arises in this exploration is welcome?

We plan to gather on Saturday February 3rd from 10am to 11:30am Denver time & all are welcome.

5pm - London

6pm - Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Dear Ones,

I am grateful to have spent two weeks mostly unplugged, immersed in the natural world of water and wind, tides rising and falling, waves crashing and receding. Fish swimming, birds flying, humans doing what humans do - so simple and natural. I spent days gazing at the wide sky, watching clouds come and go, swimming and wading in the ocean, feeling waves come and go, deeply aware of what is always here internally and externally.

I could feel separation between me and sky and ocean reveal itself as illusion even as thoughts, emotions and sensations moved through like clouds and waves - sometimes small and peaceful, sometimes dark and stormy.

What is here as this illusion of separation falls away? When identification shifts from the clouds and the waves to what they are moving through, arising from and dissolving back into? Vast, open, spacious, empty, full silence - what is always here.

You are all invited to join us in inquiry to discover the living experience of what is always here. What does this feel like right now, and right now? And what does it feel like to live from here, to allow life to be lived from silence, to unfold naturally as it does for the fish and the birds?

We plan to gather on January 6th from 10am to 11:30am Denver time & all are welcome.

5pm - London

6pm - Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

This month I will be traveling, so beautiful souls who are regulars in our monthly gathering will be hosting. As we know, the holidays, whether we celebrate them or not, can bring up all kinds of things for folks - joy, belonging, loneliness, resistance, numbing out, etc. When family is involved, there can be expectations and projections which pull us away from ourselves, into patterns of suffering.

This month’s meeting will be an opportunity to explore what comes up around holiday gatherings, and to discover what is here regardless of expectations and projections.

We plan to meet by zoom at 10am to 11:30am Mountain time.

5pm - london

6pm - Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Dear Ones,

This month I invite you all to come together to meet the heartbreak of the world. As we witness the violence in the Middle East, mass shootings here in the US, a political system in disarray and so much more, how do we stay open and present without feeling overwhelmed? We may start by noticing all the strategies we use to protect, shut down, ignore, avoid. Then in our safe container, together, we can discover what is deeper than these strategies, what is being protected, and what in even deeper - untouched and whole. We may experience the possibility of bearing everything that arises in us, unmoving, open as love itself. As our capacity for bearing everything that arises in us grows, so does our capacity for bearing the heartbreak of these whole world. Who knows what can come of this?

Please join me to discover together.

We plan to meet by zoom on November 4th from 10am to 11:30 mountain time.

4pm London

5pm Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Dear Ones,

As many of you know I spend much of my time with young folks, working at a school for kids aged 5 to 14. Each week we engage in conversations about what is here for them right now, and often the sense of self-hatred is present. This shows up as thoughts such as “I’m no good.” “I am a failure and a nuisance.” “I should just die, and everyone would be better off without me.” There is often tension and contraction in the body, or a sense of dissociation, or a heaviness so deep that everything shuts down. When I ask about emotions, the answer is often, “I don’t know.” or “I feel numb.” With more inquiry there may be sadness and rage, but usually those are too scary to touch. As we gently support what is showing up, something may thaw and open, awareness can fall in and sense what is whole and untouched by the violent storm of self-hatred, and something new is often discovered.

Meeting the young ones in their vulnerability, I am more aware of the subtle and not so subtle waves of self-hatred that arise in me, and in loved ones around me. What an invitation to drop below the narrative that I am telling myself, to open to the profound discomfort in the body that accompanies rage and terror. To fall so deeply in that the survival strategy of separation dissolves, and what is vast, endless, and open reveals itself as everything, always. Quiet, empty, whole.

I invite you to join me in this journey of meeting self-hatred.

We plan to meet by zoom on October 7th from 10am to 11:30 mountain time.

5pm London

6pm Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Entangled in the Search for a Better Identity — gangaji.org

Dear Ones,

For this month’s exploration I invite you to listen to this podcast from Gangaji. I am reminded of the pain and suffering I felt during my twenties when this search for a better identity was at its peak - the pain and suffering that led me to Gangaji and to the end of the search. Before I met Gangaji, the belief was strong that I am this body mind called Margot, and so much energy was focused on making a better version of what I believed I was. Energy was focused outwards in projection and comparison - if I could just be more like this person or that person, I would be loved and valued, I would finally feel ok, I would finally be safe and secure. I could finally rest.

Gangaji invited me to rest in that moment, to stop the search for a better identity, to stop all projections and comparisons, to be willing be imperfect, flawed, incompetent, afraid and make no movement away. In that willingness to stop, uncomfortable terror arose and it felt like I would die, but in staying open, being willing to die, something else revealed itself - empty spaciousness, vast, unmoving, peace.

No “Margot”, no others, no separation from anything. No projections or comparisons. No safety, no death. Nothing…..and everything. Fullness, joy, love. The body, mind and emotions rising and falling like the wind within an unmoving, endless sky of beingness.

You are all invited to join us to discover what is here when the efforts of self-improvement stop, what is already whole and needs no improvement at all.

We plan to gather on September 2nd from 10am to 11:30 mountain time.

5pm London

6pm Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Dear All,

I finally seem to have caught covid after all this time without it. It has been humbling, revealing, and a gift in its own way. As the body and mind are calling for profound rest, there is little to do but surrender - even that is too much. There is little to do……no energy to project a future, dig into an imagined past or follow any imaginings of the mind that are anything other than right now, this moment. Whatever energy is available is used for the present needs - preparing herbs and nourishing food, whatever else shows up to be met in the moment. The body takes care of itself in its own time, and there is a new intimacy in this slowed down world. Deeper noticing of the way the sun moves across the sky, the subtleties of the wind as it rises and falls in the afternoons. Watching the birds fly in and out the birdhouse we hung on a tree years ago that has never been occupied until this summer. Watching the asters and the daisies bloom.

The timing is just right for this - still on summer break from school which starts in August and the great privilege of being able to rest and not have to work through this time beyond a few zoom calls. Despite the permission to rest, there can still be a tendency to move out of right now, to pick up something with the mind as a way to stay in control, to avoid the terror of the emptiness of the apparent nothing. And yet, when awareness falls into the terror of the emptiness, it reveals itself and fullness and everything, rich, colorful, abundant life. Love. Nothing else needed, nowhere to go.

I invite you to join me in rest, to feel the deliciousness of the present moment, discover what moves away, and what happens when the movement is not followed.

We plan to gather on August 5th from 10am to 11:30 mountain time.

5pm London

6pm Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Dear Ones,

Last month we explored surrender - how and why we avoid whatever we think it means. What keeps us running in a belief in a someone who is in control of something.

This month join us to dive deeper into the possibility of true rest. Right now. No fixing or making better, no strategizing to get somewhere or get something. An invitation to rest - just for a moment - not touching any idea of a future or a past. Surrender as what is here right now, what is always here - deeper than any thoughts or sensations.

Nothing to do, no one to be. Peace.

We plan to gather on July 1st from 10am to 11:30 mountain time.

5pm London

6pm Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

I am curious, what happens in you when you hear the word - surrender? When the invitation comes to stop, to surrender all control for just a moment? To give up trying to fix or manage, to co-create or manifest? Is there a sense of relief or does some resistance arise? What sensations happen in the body? What thoughts arise? What emotions? Why? How has this served?

What could happen if whatever believes it is in control lets go of that story? Opens the grasping hand, melts into the everythingness of everything, as the everythingness of everything?

Join me this coming Saturday on a journey of deep surrender - no one surrendering to anyone or anything - even that is too much. The deep surrender of no one to be, nothing to do, no separateness from anything at all. The deep surrender as what you have always been and always are. Effortless. Now.

We plan to meet on Saturday June 3rd at 10am Denver time

5pm London

6pm Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Tolerating discomfort - why would I want to do that? I do everything I can to avoid discomfort!

Yes, this is true, we often do everything we can to avoid discomfort, for some very good reasons. It can trigger a response from a time that was unsafe - it can activate the nervous system into a fight, flight, freeze or shutdown reaction that at one time protected us. In turn this activation can feel terrifying, overwhelming, even more uncomfortable and the reaction spiral builds until we numb out, distract, sooth ourselves through whatever means necessary. Discomfort can be both a trigger and a response to a trigger, and we can become masterful at avoiding these sensations.

I am curious, though, what else gets avoided in this process? What else are you numbing, distracting yourself from, shutting down in the attempt to protect yourself? How are you silencing your own deepest wisdom?

What beauty and majesty of shakti are being denied?

And what do you really want?

What if it is possible to support the nervous system to tolerate sensations that have been labeled “uncomfortable”, “too much”, “overwhelming”? What if you can safely build the capacity to not just tolerate, but open to your own life force as it shows up in you in the form of intense sensation?

What if this capacity grows with a natural discernment so that you can be fully present no matter what arises? What if tolerating discomfort can support the falling open as a deep pool of wisdom that can respond as love itself - nothing avoided or denied? No one, no thing, no other. Pure, empty, open grace of being?

Please join guest facilitator Liz George and me to discover what is possible as we build the capacity to tolerate discomfort and discover its gifts in the sacred container of our shared gathering.

We plan to meet on Saturday April 1st at 10am Denver time - please allow 2 hours for this gathering.

5pm London

6pm Amsterdam

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

The other day, a familiar circumstance triggered a familiar, uncomfortable feeling inside my body. The sensations were connected to emotions of helplessness and despair, a story of unworthiness and unlovability. Instead of feeling all of this, my mind got busy trying to find a solution - what could be done to fix the situation so that I did not have to feel these feelings. I found myself stuck in a loop of mental projection trying to gain control over a situation that felt like it was out of my control - focusing on external circumstances. I was turning away from the emotions and uncomfortable sensations within. I was avoiding truly meeting myself.

In realizing this, the mental activity stopped for a moment. Long enough for me to take a deep breath and feel my feet on the ground. From there awareness fell down and in - dropping deeper than the stories I was telling myself, noticing the qualities of the sensations in the body. Pressure in the chest that was covering a sense of hollowness under the heart. As awareness fell into the hollowness something else revealed itself - a sense of warm, lush love that has no end. From this love with no end, the triggering event dissolved and love guided the connection that was desired to begin with.

I am curious, are there emotions and sensations that arise in you that feel uncomfortable, overwhelming, shameful or unbearable? How do you turn away from what is arising in you? What would it be like to stop and turn in to yourself instead - welcoming everything?

Join us to discover.

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

We will meet at 10am Denver time

5pm London

6pm Amsterdam

I look forward to inquiring with you.

Last month we had a special treat - guest teacher, Amilia Elliot shared with us a beautiful intervention from Lama Tsultrim Allione of Tara Mandala called Feeding your Demons. It was such a profound experience for us that she will be offering it again

The process can be found here and is very powerful and transformative:

5 Steps of Feeding Your Demons® - Tara Mandala

Together we plan to gather and begin with embodied meditation to support us in being fully present. Amilia will share the process, and we will have a chance to share our realizations and discoveries as a group.

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

We will meet at 10am Denver time

5pm London

6pm Amsterdam

I look forward to seeing you soon.

This month we have a special treat - a guest teacher, Amilia Elliot - will be sharing with us a beautiful intervention from Lama Tsultrim Allione of Tara Mandala called Feeding your Demons.

The process can be found here and is very powerful and transformative:

5 Steps of Feeding Your Demons® - Tara Mandala

Together we plan to gather and begin with embodied meditation to support us in being fully present. Amilia will share the process, and we will have a chance to practice with each other, give feedback, and share our discoveries as a group.

If you would like to join us, please contact me here for the link.

The gathering is free and donations are accepted here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

We will meet at 10am Denver time

5pm London

6pm Amsterdam

I look forward to seeing you soon.

Dear All,
During our gathering last month, the issue of "control" came up several times - wanting to stay in control, wanting to let go of control, and I got curious. What is this that we call "control"? What happens in us physically, emotionally? What thoughts do we have, what stories do we tell? What are the circumstances that trigger these feelings? How is this strategy protective?

I am wondering, when it comes to control, what is it that we really want?

Please join us on Saturday to explore more deeply who we are when this strategy of control falls away and when the one controlling disappears. What is left?

All are welcome - please use the contact page to message me for the link to join.

Denver - 10am-11:30

Boston - 12pm
London - 4 pm
Amsterdam - 5 pm
San Francisco - 9am

Everyone is welcome. The gathering is free and donations are accepted $0-$20 here:
https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

In the meantime, here is a guided meditation by Eli Jaxon-Bear: https://insighttimer.com/.../the-essence-of-who-you-are

I look forward to seeing you soon,

Margot

Recently I have discovered even more subtlety in the ways of slippery projection - how how energy splits off, and what is uncomfortable or intolerable or perceived as unsafe in me gets attributed to those around me. Ahh..there can be a sense of relief in this projection, but it is temporary - this splitting off of energy and creation of a world separate from who I am feels profoundly painful. Familiar, but painful. This is where war begins - initially with what has been disowned in me, and eventually with the world around.

I am curious to explore how this mechanism of projection works; what fuels it, what gets avoided as certain aspects of energy/ life force are disowned, and what happens when it is all reclaimed - even for an instant. What if you could be wholly yourself? If there was full capacity to embody all of yourself with no need to create separation? What if you could rest deeply in the Truth of who you are and live from here?

Come join us to discover.

contact me here to receive the link to join by zoom.

Denver - 10am-11:15

Boston - 12pm
London - 5pm
Amsterdam - 6pm
San Francisco - 9am

Everyone is welcome. The gathering is free and donations are accepted $0-$20 here:
https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Who are you? Deeper than the circumstances of this life, deeper than thoughts that come and go, deeper than emotions and sensations that arise and fall?

What is always whole and untouched even as waves of fear, shame and anger flow through?

An answer may arise for you or not. This may be a familiar line of inquiry or it may be new. When my teacher Gangaji asked me these questions, the mind stopped in its tracks, fell in on itself, and what was discovered was beyond language and words. The world stopped, identity stopped, separation stopped. There was nothing - no me, no other, no inside and outside. Nothing at all. Open, spacious.

Then there was the challenge and gift of staying true to what revealed itself through grace without following the doubts that arose. Staying open, embodied and present and not turning this discovery into something to get, to have, to lose.

This is what I invite you to explore this month with me.

How does this experience of pure essence get co-opted by the mind’s activity? How does it become a mental concept of “oneness” or “love” that feels outside of the present moment, the present experience of day-to-day living? How does this that is whole and untouched become something to be experienced while in morning meditation, but then lost while caring for children, attending to a job, negotiating with a spouse?

What does it mean to live life from this pure essence, in every moment - embodied and fully present every moment, no matter the challenge?

Let’s discover together.

Denver - 10am-11:30

Boston - 12pm
London - 5pm
Amsterdam - 6pm
San Francisco - 9am

Everyone is welcome. The gathering is free and donations are accepted $0-$20 here:
https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

contact me here to receive the link to join by zoom.

in the meantime, here is a beautiful video of Gangaji speaking to Freedom and Desire: (423) Gangaji: Freedom and Desire - YouTube

I am loving this exploration into Natural Creativity - what is already living us, naturally, with no effort. What is naturally wise and creative, loving and trustworthy. What has brought you here, right now, into this moment as you read these words. What is beating the heart and breathing the breath. What is already open, and at peace. Together let's bring awareness to this Natural Creativity - feel the flow. And let's discover what gets in the way of it - how we turn away from this life force through doubt, drama or resistance. what happens if it isn’t touched?

We will start with guided meditation, then have time and space to allow natural creativity. We will end by sharing what we discover.

Gather any kind of art materials you have handy - crayons, watercolors, paper, playdough - anything that calls to you. Let’s discover together what can arise when what is naturally creative is trusted fully.

Denver - 10am-11:30

Boston - 12pm
London - 5pm
Amsterdam - 6pm
San Francisco - 9am

Everyone is welcome. The gathering is free and donations are accepted $0-$20 here:
https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

contact me here to receive the link to join by zoom.

Last month we gave ourselves the gift of full permission to create with no agenda, no expectation, no critiquing or commenting. We gave ourselves time and space to allow the natural flow of creativity to move through us - open, impersonal, loving. And it felt so good! It felt so good that we are doing it again for June’s Embodied Meditation and Self-Inquiry gathering. We will start with guided meditation, then have time and space to create focusing on the process, not a final product. We will end by sharing what we discov.

This is an introduction to our upcoming in-person workshop called “Intuitive Creativity - Living and Painting from the True Essence of Who You Are”. Even if you won’t be able to join us in July in Chama, you are welcome to join this introduction, and if you are considering joining us in July, here is a taste.

Gather any kind of art materials you have handy - crayons, watercolors, paper, playdough - anything that calls to you. Let’s discover together what can arise when the thinking, judging mind falls into its own source and love leads.

“Give up seeing with the outer eye, and the Divine eye will open.” - Papaji

Please contact me here to receive the zoom link to join. All are welcome - no art or meditation experience is necessary.

For our embodied meditation this month I am offering up an introduction to our upcoming in-person workshop called “Intuitive Creativity - Living and Painting from the True Essence of Who You Are”. Even if you won’t be able to join us in July in Chama, you are welcome to join this introduction, and if you are considering joining us in July, here is a taste.

Gather any kind of art materials you have handy - crayons, watercolors, paper, playdough - anything that calls to you. Then join us for embodied meditation, inquiry into true essence, and time to create freely together. Let’s discover together what can arise when the thinking, judging mind falls into its own source and love leads.

“Give up seeing with the outer eye, and the Divine eye will open.” - Papaji

Please contact me here to receive the zoom link to join. All are welcome - no art or meditation experience is necessary.

Seeing Through the Structure of Ego:
Realizing Your Essential Self
with Eli Jaxon-Bear, Lisa and Jared
April 21 – 25, 2022
This course is offered in-person in Ashland, Oregon or Online

Seeing Through the Structure of Ego (leelaschool.org)

This course will combine Eli’s groundbreaking webcasts mapping out a new understanding of the traditional structure of Ego as well as the Enneagram subtypes. We will have live discussions and questions as Eli works with people to see through fixation to essence.

Group exercises to bring personal insight and revelation will be led by experienced Leela School Teachers and Trainers Lisa Schumacher and Jared Franks.

This 5 day course is a lead in for our Module 1 True Friend Immersion, and is open to anyone. You do not have to be in the Leela School to register.

Hybrid Details:
This course will be offered in-person with Eli and Leela School Teachers in Ashland, OR, US. For those that do not wish to travel, you can be a full participating member of the retreat via Zoom in real time.  Eli will be holding his meetings in-person and interacting with those in the room as well as those on Zoom.
*Please use the notes section in the webshop cart to specify if you are registering for in-person or online version of this event.*

Tuition:
$550 USD

Location (for in-person participants):
The Leela School
685 A Street
Ashland, OR 97520 US

Schedule:
Ashland, US (PDT) Times:
Thursday April 21: Open Meeting with Eli at 6pm
Friday April 22 – Sunday April 24: Three Meetings per day at 10am, 2pm and 6pm
Monday April 25: Last Meeting at 10am

Please allow 90-120 minutes for each meeting

Australia (AEST) Times for Online Participants:
Friday April 22: Open Meeting with Eli at 11am
Saturday April 23 – Monday April 25: Three Meetings per day at 3am, 7am and 11am
Tuesday April 26: Last Meeting at 3am

Please allow 90-120 minutes for each meeting

As we watch war and violence unfold around the world and in our own communities, I am curious about what we avoid. What do we avoid outside of us - the suffering of others, the root causes of what is unfolding & the part we play? How do we avoid through spiritualizing? And what do we avoid inside of us? I notice that sometimes I can be quick to judge others - going to war in my mind - but if I look deeper, I can recognize that the judgement is a way to avoid something more painful - sadness, hurt, fear, hopelessness or despair. Moving out against another through my thoughts, words and actions, lets me avoid dropping in to meet what is uncomfortable, overwhelming, perhaps terrifying. Then there is the opportunity to turn in and meet what has been avoided - discover what is here deeper than any thoughts, labels or reactivity. This is the way in to True Peace.

You are welcome to join us in discovering how we go to war & what gets avoided in the process. You are invited to drop in and discover True Peace.

We plan to gather on Saturday April 2nd from 10 to 11:30 am Mountain Time for guided meditation, silence and inquiry.

Everyone is welcome. The gathering is free and donations are accepted $0-$20 here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Please contact me to receive the zoom link.

What if you are not your thoughts, not your emotions, not your gender, not your body? What if you are not the role you play - mother, son, partner, boss? What if there is no past and no future? What if there is nothing to attain, nothing to fix, and no one to be? I am curious what is left, right now, without any identification as any one at all.

You are invited to join us to discover what is here now - whole, quiet, naturally loved and loving. And from here open to letting yourself be lived and used in service to this discovery. Together let us rest as effortless simplicity.

We plan to gather on Saturday March 5th from 10 to 11:30 am Mountain Standard Time for guided meditation, silence, and inquiry.

Everyone is welcome. Contact me here to receive the link. The gathering is free and donations are accepted $0-$20 here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Discover the Gift of Being a True Friend
A free meeting with Lisa Schumacher open to anyone interested in learning more about The Leela School

We all want a good friend; someone who knows you and sees you, who understands and sympathizes when times are hard, and who would be there for you when you need them. In exchange, you are there for them, you listen to their story and help them see the bright side of things. This is what we call friendship – and it is in fact, support to make a better story, a story where the main character is always the one who is right and is justified in his or her actions, feelings and thoughts. In this way, the narrative of personal drama continues, and we feed off of each others pain, perpetuating the cycle of suffering, and it spreads.

I want to introduce you to the possibility of ending this cycle and discovering what it is to be a True Friend, with an open heart, a quiet mind and not taking anything personally. When you are available to meet someone where they are, without falling into a movement to help, to fix, or to teach, you are standing for their personal freedom from the bondage of the story of me.

In this two hour workshop, you will have a chance to experience the hidden movements behind egoic desires, becoming conscious of how you move toward, away or against in your wanting to help, thus strengthening the identity of the narrator and adding justification for the continuation of the same old story.

To stop all movement is simple, to stay true is the challenge of a lifetime. Becoming conscious of how you move is a gift, and as a True Friend, you reflect the integrity of true meeting for yourself and everyone you meet.

This is a 2 hour meeting for anyone who is interested in our school, and interested in learning more.  We will open up the meeting for questions at the end.

Date and Time (in various locations):
US PST: Saturday February 19th, 1pm – 3pm
US EST: Saturday February 19th, 4pm – 6pm
Sydney AEDT: Sunday February 20th, 8am – 10am
Auckland NZDT: Sunday February 20th, 10am – 12pm

to register use this link

Discover the Gift of Being a True Friend (leelaschool.org)

Dear All,

We are here in times of profound change, shift and transformation. As structures and foundations of what we have known appear to be dissolving, I am curious, what strategies do you have for protecting yourself from heartbreak, from the grief of the world? From the rage and despair? How do these strategies serve? How do they get in the way of what you really want?

What would it be like to meet the heartbreak, the grief of the world, with no strategies? Just for a moment, no movement to fix and stabilize? What would it be like to just stop, allow it all to fall apart, and meet what is here just as it is, just as you are?

Then how could your life be used in service of what you really want?

We plan to gather on Saturday February 5th from 10am to 11:30am Mountain Standard Time for support: guided meditation, silence, and inquiry into the sacred offerings of grief and heartbreak.

Boston/ Miami - 12pm
London - 5pm
Amsterdam - 6pm
San Francisco - 9am

Request the meeting link here.

Everyone is welcome. The gathering is free and donations are accepted $0-$20 here. Thank you to everyone who has donated in the past.
https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US

Enneagram Mastery Course
Online with Live Interaction
Eli Jaxon-Bear and Staff
January 6 – March 3, 2022

A live, online course with Eli. Exercises, inquiries, breakout groups, and worksheets, to fully immerse in the subtleties of the Enneagram, will be lead by Leela Trainers, Lisa and Jared.

You will discover how the enneagram of liberation reveals fixated patterns in yourself and your relationships, and how it shows us the doorway to true freedom.

Using Eli’s comprehensive Livestream videos, we will focus on one fixation in each session, allowing time for in-depth, detailed exploration. Focused on interactive learning, we’ll be breaking out into smaller groups for exercises and deep personal inquiry.

Online Enneagram Mastery Course - Leela Foundation (leelaschool.org)

Recently, through a creative collaborator, I discovered this book: The Wild Edge of Sorrow - Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief by Francis Weller. What a beautiful exploration of the many facets of grief and the ways that we in western industrialized society, where white ways are the dominant norm, have lost the capacity to bear the sorrow of losing all that is impermanent. Even in spiritual circles we can be told to “think positively” and if we focus on loss we will manifest it. So painful.

What is lost in our “grief-phobic” “death-denying” culture?

How much of ourselves and others do we avoid because of the discomfort of allowing our hearts to break fully? And what would it be like to create sacred space to honor our grief? To honor everything that we have loved and lost, the places in us and others that have not known love, the sorrow of the world, what we expected and did not receive, as well as the grief of our ancestors? What if we are naturally capable of allowing the heartbreak of the world to be met in us? What could be discovered then? I am curious, are you?

Please join us to find out.

We plan to gather on Saturday January 1st from 10 to 11:30 am Mountain Standard Time for guided meditation, silence, and inquiry into the sacred offerings of grief and gratitude.

Everyone is welcome. Contact me here to receive the link. The gathering is free and donations are accepted $0-$20 here:

https://paypal.me/openheartwisdom?locale.x=en_US