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| 2010 Retreat with John Sherman Ojai, California |
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The only problem anywhere to be found is the false belief that you are in danger here, and at the mercy of your life. The only solution is the truth, which is everywhere and always present and self-evident. Ridding oneself of the false is as easy as repeatedly looking at the truth of being here, unmovingly, unchangingly here. This repeated looking directly at oneself is the infallible method of the vichara. — John Sherman Begins: Friday, November 12 (early evening)
LOCATION The Ojai Retreat
This retreat is a great opportunity to meet with John Sherman in a very intimate and intense way, in a very relaxed and nourishing atmosphere. Meeting with John Sherman at least twice a day provides a supportive environment for a more intense and deeper exploration of the meeting with yourself, a space where you can be totally immersed in the experience of looking at you. The Ojai Retreat is a haven of beauty and tranquility nestled on a five-acre hilltop located five minutes from downtown Ojai and 20 minutes from Ventura and the Pacific Ocean.
This event is free of charge. Registration is required. Participants must arrange for their own accommodations and meals during the retreat. There are a limited number of spaces available. Once you sign up for the retreat, a space will be reserved for you. If for any reason you are unable to attend, please let us know as soon as possible so we can let someone else attend the retreat in your place.
Click here for free registration.
ABOUT OJAI The area surrounding the Ojai Valley has a multitude of campgrounds, hiking and bicycling trails, and free-running streams. Ojai (pronounced "Oh-hi") is a Chumash Indian name now thought to mean "Valley of the Moon," although many residents who favor a previous translation fondly call our mountain-ringed valley "The Nest."
Moon rising over the Topa Topa bluffs - Photo by Ojai photographer Michael McFadden. The Ojai Valley is known around the world as an artists' colony and spiritual mecca, and as the locale of several famous spas and healing centers. It is also recognized for its annual tennis tournament, film and music festivals, as well as its excellent private schools. At dusk, Ojai's distinctive Topa Topa mountains are bathed in the rosy glow of the setting sun. This is a magical time of day, known locally as "The Pink Moment." Come enjoy the beauty, the serenity, and the special quality of life that are to be found in the Ojai Valley.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS There will be one meeting with John in the morning and one in the afternoon every day (on Saturday, Sunday and Monday), one in the evening on Friday and one in the morning on Tuesday. The Friday evening meeting will be open to the public. There will also be small, informal meetings in the evenings. The group will be divided into three smaller groups and each one of these groups will meet with John in the evening one timeduring the retreat. During these small, intimate and informal meetings with John, there will be no microphones and the conversations will not be recorded. For a schedule of activities during the retreat, please click here.
ACCOMMODATIONS The Ojai Retreat was rated #1 of 10 Ojai inns on Trip Advisor. It offers a main house and cottages with twelve completely renovated guest rooms. Ten out of twelve guestrooms have a private bathroom, two have a shared bathroom. The guest rooms, main house and great room offer free wireless internet. All rooms are TV-free and telephone-free. Most rooms have a refrigerator and microwave. All rooms have spectacular views. Special discounts offered by The Ojai Retreat to our group: • 15% if 4 nights or more are booked before September 12, 2010 The Ojai Retreat is a non-profit foundation and does not charge room tax. Reservations are only available by phone or email. Please call Clare at The Ojai Retreat at +1 (805) 646-2536 or email her at info@ojairetreat.com to make your room reservation. Their online reservation system shows all the rooms as BOOKED because they are all reserved for our group. Rooms available at The Ojai Retreat. Click here for a map and driving directions.
Participants who have reserved a room at The Ojai Retreat have a breakfast buffet included, which will be available from 7:30 to 9:30 am in the breakfast area. It is possible to have breakfast at the Ojai Retreat even if you are not staying onsite by paying $10 to the office on the day of breakfast. The kitchen at the Ojai Retreat is not available to guests. Each guest room has a small fridge and a microwave.
Although there are many hotels and B&B's in Ojai, they fill up very quickly on weekends and holidays. Please book your accommodations as soon as possible. Download a PDF file with a list of motels, hotels, camping sites and retreat centers in Ojai. Click here to go to The Ojai Chamber of Commerce website for a partial list of accommodations. Click here to go to the County of Ventura website for a list of camping sites in the Ojai Valley.
TRANSPORTATION Door-to-door transportation to and from the Los Angeles International airport (LAX) and Santa Barbara Airport is available by reservation. The shuttle company that serves the area is the Roadrunner Shuttle. Rates from LAX are $92 one-way trip and $184 both ways. From Santa Barbara Airport (http://www.flysba.com ), the rate is $60 for 1-3 people ($120 both ways). Please note that this information may not be up-to-date. Please check with the service providers directly. If you need transportation from and to the airport, please book it directly with Roadrunner Shuttle, at least 2 days in advance. NOTE: The Santa Barbara Airport is a much smaller, closer and nicer airport than LAX, just about 45 miles north of Ojai.
IN AND AROUND THE OJAI VALLEY The Ojai Trolley provides daily service to Ojai, Meiners Oaks, and Mira Monte for 50 cents. There is a stop on Lomita Avenue, at the corner of Besant Road. The one-hour routes are easily accessible from conveniently located stops providing access to schools, medical facilities, hotels, motels, shopping, and senior services. Click here to go to the Ojai Trolley website.
GETTING FROM LAX AIRPORT TO THE OJAI RETREAT BY BUS/TRAIN If you don't want to rent a car or take the shuttle from the airport, the best option is to take the Flyaway bus from LAX to Los Angeles Union Station ($7), then Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner train to downtown Ventura ($19). Then you take the Route 12 bus (Ventura Downtown Harbor Shuttle) ($1.35) or the Route 16 bus to Ojai (Meiners Oaks) ($1.35). Then you'd walk a short distance to Besat Rd and up the hill to the Ojai Retreat (About one mile, 1/2 hour walk upward). Or you can call a cab to take you there.
BICYCLE RENTALS You can rent a bicycle for your stay. There are bike paths all over town and all the way to Ventura. There are two bicycle rental shops in the valley: 510 W. El Roblar Ojai, CA 93023 (Close to the Ojai Retreat) Phone: (805) 798-5193 http://www.project-ride.com/ 108 Canada St Ojai, CA 93023 (Downtown) Phone: (805) 646-7736 http://bicyclesofojai.com/
OJAI VALLEY TRAIL There is well-maintained bike path and trail that follows the Ventura River all the way from downtown Ojai to downtown Ventura. it is a wonderful place to go for a walk or ride a bike. The views of the valley are breathtaking, especially in Oak View.
RIDES NEEDED & OFFERED / ACCOMMODATIONS NEEDED & OFFERED An upgraded BULLETIN BOARD is available on our website, where you can request and/or offer rides and accommodations during the retreat. If you can offer a ride or wish to share accommodations, please visit our Bulletin Board and make a posting. Click here to go to the RiverGanga Community Bulletin Board.
WHERE TO BUY FOOD The Farmer and the Cook is located in Meiners Oaks, on the west side of town, very close to The Ojai Retreat. Rainbow Bridge is located downtown and it has a buffet restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner (onsite and take out). Ojai has a good number of restaurants of all types.
Westridge Market Starr Market Vons
LIVE RECORDING OF THE MEETINGS All meetings with John Sherman during the retreat will be recorded on video and audio. The audio CDs and the video DVDs can be purchased individually or in a complete set. We will offer you the opportunity to pre-order audio CDs, MP3 files or video DVDs of the retreat meetings at a special discounted price. The CDs ordered during the retreat will be shipped to you within 4 weeks after the end of the retreat. The MP3 files will be available for download within 4 weeks after the end of the retreat. The DVDs will be shipped to you within 4-5 months. If you pre-order a complete 8-DVD set, you will receive the MP3 files of all meetings within 4 weeks. The price of each single audio CD is $12 plus postage and a S&H fee. The complete CD set costs $95 plus postage and a S&H fee. The set comes in a plastic case. The MP3 files of the retreat cost $10 each. The price of each single DVD is $16 plus postage and a S&H fee. The complete 8-DVD set costs $120 plus postage and a S&H fee. The set comes in a beautiful plastic case. (Price includes 8 MP3 files).
Checks, cash and credit cards accepted (Visa, Mastercard, American Express & Discover). For more information and registration by phone, please contact us at (805) 649-1600.
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Your single donations and monthly pledges make up 91% of all income to the foundation. We need to raise $56,500 to finance and sustain our work over the next twelve months. |
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| Worldwide Online Meeting | Saturday, September 11 at 4 pm PDT (UTC/GMT -7) People all over the world gather together with John for a couple of hours. John is available to listen to your questions, and to help you sort out any difficulties you might experience in your own practice of looking at yourself. This is very much like a call-in radio show. If you simply want to listen to the meetings, all you need to do is to install the software and have speakers attached to your computer. If you wish to speak with John, then you will need a headset with microphone. You can also use earbuds and a microphone. |
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All our events are always free of charge. Spontaneous donations for the support of our work are always welcome and gratefully accepted. All are welcome, with no regard for religious and spiritual beliefs and practices.
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| Download our 2010 Schedule of Events: | |
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| Brief report on what was accomplished in 2009. | |
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| Look At Yourself and Meeting Ramana Maharshi by John Sherman are available as free ebook downloads. | |
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| Featured Letter of the Month | |
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| Podcast | |
A Worldwide Meeting - July 10, 2010 My role in this adventure of trying to bring the simplicity of this work to every human being is not to concoct teachings, ways of looking at things, instructions and practices that are my creation, and then pass them on to you for you to receive gratefully, and try to make sense of. My role here is actually to distill and articulate the product of an ongoing conversation among all of us, over a period of more than ten years now, about the discovery that bringing an end to misery in a human life is actually not only possible but easy and simple, and can be done by anyone. It requires nothing at all to accomplish this except the determination to do one simple, solitary, radical act, and that is to turn the beam of your attention onto the feeling of being you. That's it. In the end, and against all odds and all expectation, this repeated act will bring sanity into your life. It will eliminate the underlying sense that life is treacherous and not to be trusted, and that something desperately needs to be done about it. Complete, live recording of a Worldwide Online Meeting with John Sherman broadcast live from Ojai, California on July 10, 2010. |
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Our Work First, last, and always, my advice is only to look at the feeling of being you, without the mediation of understanding, the need to resolve paradox, or the requirement that this looking lead to any conclusion. Simply make every effort just to look, and persist in that effort as often as you can. In this effort, understanding is irrelevant, belief is irrelevant, even duration is irrelevant — the briefest look, repeated over time, does all the work. A Message from John Sherman, videotaped in Ojai, California on May 15, 2009. |
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| Rides Needed & Rides Offered Accommodations Needed & Offered |
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| Use our BULLETIN BOARD to request and/or offer rides and accommodations for events with John Sherman. | |
| Bulletin Board | |
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Our work is to bring the practice of looking at oneself to all who are interested. The only problem anywhere to be found is the false belief that you are at the mercy of your life, and the only solution is the truth, which is everywhere and always present and self-evident. Ridding oneself of the false is as easy as repeatedly tasting the truth of being here, unmovingly, unchangingly here. This repeated looking directly at oneself is the infallible method of the vichara. Although our meetings are free of charge, they are certainly not free of cost. The money needed for this work must come entirely from the generosity and compassion of those who, like us, have seen for themselves the immense worth of spreading this good news to all humanity. Please help provide financial support for the work of making this method more widely available in the world by making a donation or a monthly pledge in any amount now. All gifts to the RiverGanga Foundation are fully tax-deductible as charitable donations. |
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| Read a brief report on the work accomplished in 2008. |
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RiverGanga Foundation RiverGanga Foundation is a not-for-profit, 509(a)(2) public charitable organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the United States Internal Revenue Code. Our Internal Revenue Service Employer ID Number is 77-0561647. All donations are tax deductible for US residents as charitable contributions. Click to view our letter of determination from the IRS. IRS Tips for Year-End Donations
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Updated daily since July 12, 2009 Click here to see the archived map showing where more than 43,000 visitors came from last year. © 2001-2010 RiverGanga Foundation.All rights reserved. |
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For more information about Ojai, click here to go to the city website: 
