“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

What does it mean to wake up ?

To wake up is to realize that who you are is not your body, not your thoughts, not your emotions, not your circumstances.

It is to discover what is aware of your body, your thoughts, your emotions, your circumstances.

It is to notice that the body, thoughts, emotions and circumstances all come and go.

To wake up is to discover what they come and go in, what is untouched, what is at peace as they come and go. And even the discoverer falls into that peace so deeply that there is nothing, no one at all.

It is to rest as This. It is to rest as True Self. Empty spacious pure light. “I”.

What is suffering ?

The experience of suffering can arise when the empty spacious light of “I” coalesces into a someone, and there is the belief of limitation that “I am my body, I am my thoughts, I am my emotions, I am my circumstances”. “What I am was born and can die.”

There can be a density with edges and a sense of a separate someone who is weak, incompetent, alone, vulnerable, unworthy. Sensations, thoughts, feelings and circumstances arise that are uncomfortable, terrifying, painful - not what is wanted. Focus and energy go into to resisting, denying, or changing them so that this limited, separate sense of “you” can be ok, and hopefully feel that sense of spaciousness again.

The cycle may continue and magnify - when you can’t fix this limited sense of self, judgement, fear, anger, blame, victimhood can arise. They get directed at you and projected onto the world around you.  We go to war with ourselves and each other and the world looks the way that it looks now.

What is love ?

Love is stopping - right now. Love is stopping the movement against what is arising - the uncomfortable sensations, the waves of emotions and the stories we are telling.  In even a brief moment of stopping, there is the possibility to open, to allow what is arising to arise with no meaning, no labels, no resistance. In this moment of loving surrender there is a willingness for the limited identity to die, and whatever is aware may fall open so deeply in realization that you are not the body, not the thoughts, not the emotions, not the circumstances.

There is no You and no other - What you are is beyond all, includes all, infuses all and is infused by all - empty, spacious, pure light. And all words are too much.