Presenters & Musicians |
PRESENTERS Jeff Foster "Think of the word 'nonduality' as a 'finger pointing to the moon' (as they say in Zen) directing your attention to the wholeness of all life, to the Oneness which exists here and now. It points to an intimacy, a love beyond words, a completeness right at the heart of present experience. It points to where you already are. It points back Home. It is beyond comprehension, yet it is as obvious as breathing, as familiar as the feeling of your heart beating in your chest, as ordinary as the sights and sounds and smells appearing in this room." Jac O'Keeffe "Your mind can convince you that attaining a particular object of desire will make you happy. The truth is that when your mind is still, a natural feeling of happiness arises within you. Your true nature is causeless, and living causeless happiness is your natural state of being. When a desire is satisfied, the desire subsides and mind rests for a period. The absence of desire, the absence of thought, allows what is within to be experienced." Francis Lucille "Enlightenment is the direct revelation that consciousness is infinite, not the mere logical conclusion or inference of its infinity. The sole engine of this revelation is the love for the Absolute, an overwhelming desire for Truth, an all-trumping longing for the Divine. This is the only necessary and sufficient condition for true awakening. It is the power of this discovery that transmits itself in the teaching. Without this power, the logical arguments of non-dualism are just empty words." Rupert Spira "All we know is knowledge or knowing, and knowing is made of Awareness alone. Or, we could say that all that is known is 'experiencing' and the only substance present in experiencing is our self, Awareness. That Awareness pervades experience intimately and, as such, is known as love. It is unaffected by changing names and forms, just as the screen is unaffected by the images that appear on it, although it is their sole substance, and is therefore known as freedom." Karl Renz "Questioner: Is realization something that reveals itself in time, or is there a precursor to realization? Karl: Is there ever a moment in time when the Self is not realized? That which you think you are will never be realized. How can an idea or an object be realized? What realization means here, is that consciousness, which once identified with an object, becomes infinite; it becomes conscious about being consciousness. But the Self is never enlightened or unenlightened. It is always prior to all ideas of enlightenment or non-enlightenment, no matter what you say about it. All this is conceptual." Pamela Wilson "As you look inside, are you aware of an aliveness that is naturally open? Right now, all the sensations and emotions have free movement through us. One of the functions of this constant flow of emotions and thoughts is to awaken this alive-intelligence to its innate capacity to soothe emotion and clarify the mind. This is when the natural Self starts to know itself—to recognize that it simply is." Peter Fenner "If we had been engaged in the practice of neither letting go of, nor hanging onto our experience, we see that we are already unable to let go of our experience or hang onto it. We experience the impossibility of holding onto our pleasures and letting go of our painful experiences. There is nothing else we could be doing. We discover that we are already doing what we are trying to do." Stephen & Ondrea Levine (Via Broadband) "Who am I?" beyond our accumulated identities, the "who" and the "I" of the question, being so much heavier than the whole truth, it falls back to earth, and only the am-ness remains—only the unending essence of being, deathless suchness." HOST Prasad Paul Duffy "The realization of the Truth of who you are allows you to constantly let go of whatever rises and allows it to fall back into Emptiness by itself. Resting in this silent Awareness, you watch yourself appear and disappear, as the circumstances of your life rise and fall, and come into existence and then not exist any longer. This is freedom. It's not a concept. It's not something you pursue. What I'm speaking of cannot be achieved; it's your natural beingness. It happens when you stop pursuing, when you stop trying to achieve, and drop all concepts. It happens through effortless grace, in the presence of here and now." MUSICIANS Dave Stringer (Kirtan & Bhajan) "Dave Stringer has integrated his interest in Kirtan, an Indian tradition of devotional chanting, with his masterful grasp of Western popular music, creating an exciting style of psychedelic pop as informed by traditional Eastern music as the Beatles." —All Music Guide" "A volcano of a voice! Stringer transported us to another time and place. His fiery, soulful voice gave the entire room a feeling of a down-home gospel jam and one could not help but sing along." —LA Yoga Magazine Kirtana (Guitar & Vocals) "A brilliant poet, marvelous songwriter and lovely guitarist, Kirtana's albums have become more magical with each release. I've called her a Rumi of our time." —New Age Retailer |
| "I used to go to India to make this happen." |
After graduating from Cambridge, where he majored in astrophysics, Jeff Foster became depressed and ill. This led to years of intense exploration into "spiritual enlightenment." The absolute end of this investigation brought with it the seeing that there is only, ever Oneness. With this clarity, Jeff recognized what his life was in truth: spontaneous, clear, joyful, and fully alive. Jeff then began to write and talk about what he calls "the utterly, utterly obvious." His books include The Wonder of Being, Beyond Awakening, An Extraordinary Absence, and Life without a Centre. Jeff's meetings and retreats are filled with humor and compassion, which help shatter the mind's hopes for a future enlightenment, while revealing the awakening that is always already present, right in the midst of life..
Jac O'Keeffe was raised in rural Ireland. Longing to know about God, she studied theology and music. Her studies left her disillusioned and a non-believer, which led her to focus upon social inequality, adult and community education, thus starting a career that interwove community development with the arts. In 1997 her life changed dramatically when her sixth sense awakened, quite spontaneously. She developed a healing practice offering private sessions and residential retreats, and her work had the primary focus of raising consciousness. She stopped this work in 2006 and left Ireland to deepen her own spiritual awareness. Her quest led to That, which is beyond the mind, and transcends dualistic thought. Jac now spends her time between Ireland and India, facilitating spiritual meetings and dialogues. Jac is the author of Born to be Free.
Francis Lucille is a disciple of Jean Klein, the late highly-respected Advaita teacher. Francis' meeting with Jean Klein marked the beginning of a close association between the two that lasted until Jean's death in 1998. Klein met his teacher, Panditji Rao, in the nineteen-fifties. Professor Rao taught Sanskrit at a college in Bangalore, and he belonged to a respected lineage of traditional Advaita Vedanta teachers. Francis holds meetings and retreats in Temecula, CA and throughout the world, carrying on the tradition of his teacher. His books include: Eternity Now, The Perfume of Silence, and Truth Love Beauty.
Rupert Spira is a renowned English ceramic artist who first studied pottery with Henry Hammond. It is through this medium that Rupert examines the relationship between consciousness and form. Rupert's inspiration comes from Atmananda Krishna Menon, Jean Klein, and Francis Lucille. Rupert's experiential pointing is both simple and clear, and he refers to this both in meetings and in his book, The Transparency of Things, as often allowing a sudden and complete experience of "seeing." This exploration can demonstrate the fallacy of our inherited beliefs about reality, replacing them with the understanding of direct experience—our True Nature.
During the 1990s Karl Renz encountered a complete clarity in which there was no desire to change anything or to avoid pain or suffering. He felt, "If I must remain in this condition for the remainder of my existence, so be it." Karl travels throughout the world sharing with spiritual seekers. He doesn't give instruction in a traditional way, but his paradoxical logic works to help the mind relax and let go of its grasping and seeking, so that the questioner may recognize the changeless, absolute freedom that is our true nature. Every idea, theory, or sacred idol of the mind, is fair game and he turns his attack to our most cherished beliefs, amidst laughter and the relaxed atmosphere of acceptance that he generates. His books include: The Myth of Enlightenment, If You Wake Up Don't Take it Personally, and A Little Bit of Nothingness.
Pamela Wilson shares the presence of openness and love directly from the heart. Traveling widely in the United States, Canada, and Europe, Pamela holds public and private sessions, speaking from the ground of awareness and silence. Pamela describes these meetings as a gathering of people to honor Truth, to rest from the conflict and confusion of the world, and to take refuge in the Heart. She has endeared herself to many through her lighthearted humor, compassion, and deep understanding of what it is to be human. The "Fellowship of the Heart" is a non-profit organization that supports Pamela's work.
Peter Fenner met the Tibetan Lama, Thubten Yeshe, who accepted him as his student, and in 1978 he was ordained as a monk. In 1983, he completed a Ph.D. in the philosophical psychology of the Madhyamika school of Mahayana Buddhism. His other teachers include Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, Geshe Thubten Loden, Geshe Lhundup Sopa, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and Sogyal Rinpoche. After nine years as a monk, Peter handed back his ordination. As a post-monastic he embarked on an intensive exploration of Western forms of healing and nondual therapy. Peter holds workshops throughout the world. His books include: Radiant Mind, The Ontology of the Middle Way, and Reasoning into Reality.
For over thirty years, Stephen & Ondrea Levine have combined the compassion of Buddhist teachings with modern psychology, developing original methods to help people deal with death and dying. Throughout their journey they collaborated with other teachers, including Ram Dass and the Dalai Lama. Jack Kornfield said of Stephen and Ondrea, "their work is among the deepest, most healing and heartfelt contributions to modern spiritual life in America." They draw from the teachings of a variety of wisdom traditions, including Native American, Sufism, mystical Christianity, and Theravada Buddhism. Stephen is the author of numerous books, including Who Dies, Turning Toward the Mystery, and A Year to Live. Ondrea's autobiography is presently being published. They live in relative isolation in northern New Mexico and have not actively participated in public talks for more than 10 years.
Sixteen years ago American born Prasad returned from India, having awakened to the reality of our true Self through the grace of his teacher Papaji, a direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi. Since then Prasad has assisted many others to realize their own true Self through his satsangs, intensives, and retreats. Self-Realization is not a path; it's not a technique; it's not a process; it's the direct realization of our true nature by breaking free from our misidentification with our story, and dropping the idea that we have come from anywhere or are going anywhere. In this stillness, the truth reveals itself to itself.
Dave Stringer's sound marries the transcendent mysticism of traditional Indian instruments with the exuberant, groove-oriented sensibility of American gospel, and he is regarded as one of the most gifted singers in the genre. Stringer, who is also an accomplished composer and multi-instrumentalist, has a special ability to bring people together and inspire them to sing. His work creates a modern and participatory theatrical experience out of the ancient traditions of kirtan, open to a multiplicity of interpretations, and accessible to all. Dave probes the dilemmas of the spirit with a wry and unorthodox sense of humor. Based in Los Angeles and Berlin, Stringer has produced varied recordings with other celebrated World musicians including Azam Ali, Vas, Axiom of Choice, Rasa, Suzanne Teng, Shaman's Dream, and the Open Door Orchestra.
Born and raised in a small coastal town in Maine, Kirtana has played the guitar and written songs since the tender age of eleven. For the last twenty years she has lived on the central coast of California, drawing constant nourishment and inspiration from the beauty and energy of the area. A long time student of spirituality and meditation, Kirtana's music reflects the themes of personal transformation, healing, and a growing self-awareness. The songs from her CD, This Embrace, reflect the love and self-recognition sparked by her life-altering encounter with Gangaji. Her CD, A Deeper Surrender, has been described by one reviewer as "an exquisite paean to the ineffable longing for the Beloved." Her sixth and most recent CD, Falling Awake, continues the expression of that deepening.