Anyone in Northwest Arkansas looking for some non-religious Spiritual company? We would love to host some local Satsangs – loose gatherings to explore Peace, Silence, and the depths of our own Spiritual impetus together!
Past offerings:
Resting in the Truth of our Being
Satsang with Elly and Bruce
Friday, November 13th, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
“I am luminous, open, empty Awareness – I am the truth of your Being and am eternally with you, in you, as you, shining quietly at the heart of all experience. Just turn towards Me, and acknowledge Me, and I will take you into Myself.”
© Rupert Spira
The Truth of our Being – we can’t explain or describe it, we can’t attain it, because it has never left our side. And at the same time, the reality is that in our everyday lives, it is so easy to feel as though we’ve lost our connection with it. When we come together, it awakens and enlivens that connection with Spirit, with peace, with our deep sense of who we really are, for which we’ve been longing.
“Come, come whoever you are
This caravan knows no despair
Even though you have broken your vows,
Perhaps ten thousand times –
Come, come again!”
~ Rumi
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It Doesn’t Need to Look “Spiritual”
Satsang with Elly
and Bruce
Friday, April 24th, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
“Without any artificial, fancy way of adjusting yourself, to express yourself freely is the most important thing for your own happiness and the happiness of those around you”. Suzuki Roshi
As spiritual people, there are often certain emotional experiences that we don’t want to have because they don’t look spiritual to us – whether it be anger, fear, irritation, distress, depression, etc. The irony/paradox is that as we open spiritually, the emotional places that are still contracted or triggering will naturally arise more into our consciousness for us to look at and embody. So, the idea of achieving some kind of ‘perfection’ as a human being can actually get in the way of our spiritual maturation and alienate us from ourselves and other people.
What would it be like to let go of this ideal – of trying to ‘fix’ ourselves – and to let our “perfect imperfections” hang out a little: to just be ourselves? What would it be like to move closer to these places we’ve tried to overcome and to meet them in the wider expanse of presence?
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“Embracing Chaos, Finding Peace”
We have experienced, and have heard from many friends, that the last few months have been a particularly chaotic time. It can be quite easy to be thrown off center and lose one’s sense of stability or inner compass. Even when things seem to be flowing along pretty well, life can throw us unexpected curves that trigger an underlying discomfort, unease or mistrust in life itself. At times like this what do we rely on?
Uncertainty: the Open Doorway
The events in our lives that thrust us into uncertainty and confusion can turn out to be open doors into a deeper understanding which comes not from our minds or egos, but from the very foundation of our Being. This requires a sincere willingness to, at least for a moment, let ourselves dive beneath the immediate, fixed positions we take and listen to
the quiet voice of our heart, which never stops loving us.
“The peace that we’re looking for is not peace that crumbles as soon as there is difficulty or chaos. Whether we’re seeking inner peace or global peace or a combination of the two, the way to experience it is to build on the foundation of unconditional openness to all that arises. Peace isn’t an experience free of challenges, free of rough and smooth, it’s an experience that’s expansive enough to include all that arises without feeling threatened.”
~ Pema Chodron, Taking the Leap
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The Unspoken Wisdom
of Our Heart’s True Questions
A Six-week Course in Spacious Presence
Thursdays 7-9 pm, April 24th – May 29th
with Bruce Nygren and Elinor Nygren Szapiro
Bring your deepest questions into the playground of Spacious Presence –
where what is precious and everlasting is effortlessly revealed…
You will have the opportunity to bring whatever is stirring inside, or calling to you from within, into the light of Spacious Presence. The course will be a blending of living meditation and living inquiry.
Hidden beneath the questions we ask ourselves when we get quiet or alone, there lies a treasury of unspoken wisdom – your wisdom – brilliant in its simplicity, radiant in its beauty, universal in its understanding.
What questions do you find yourself asking …
- When you’re upset, or when bad things happen?
- When you’re feeling stuck?
- When you’re worried about your health, or about dying?
- When things are going your way, do you wonder how to keep the good stuff coming?
Sometimes the questions may sound spiritual or philosophical. At other times they may be quite nitty-gritty or nuts and bolts. They may be intentional or they may be percolating just below the surface, barely conscious.
Together, in the safe and loving embrace of Spacious Presence, we will explore our questions and unwind the mystery they reveal. We may be surprised, we may be humbled, we may be speechlessly overjoyed. Speaking our questions into the great Silence, without preconceptions, we can hear the voice of our true self whispering its secrets to us.
Each session will begin with an effortless meditation that will open us to the field of Spacious Presence – the ‘peace that passes understanding’, that is always here and available to rest in.