“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 the deeper essence, pure consciousness, is-ness, that infuses and enlivens the body, the emotions, the thoughts and to allow awareness to be so deeply absorbed as this essence that you can feel free and at peace - right now, in this moment, no matter the circumstances.

To wake up is to know yourself and all apparent others as this same essence. To deeply realize that you are not separate from this essence - it cannot be lost or gained, it does not come or go. To trust this essence to live you, to recognize that is has always lived you, it is always here - before birth, during life and after form has fallen away. To know this as your True Nature.

To wake up is to rest as This - empty, spacious essence. Open, free.

What is suffering ?

The experience of suffering can arise when the empty spacious essence 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, but it never lasts.

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, the unwanted circumstances and the stories we are telling about them.  In even a brief moment of stopping, there is the possibility to open, to allow what is arising to just be - with no meaning, no labels, no knowing, no resistance, no attachment. In this moment of allowing everything to be as it is, right now, it is possible to effortlessly sense the essence that is the True Nature of it all.

In my experience - True love is living from here.