How Big Is The Universe?

It's stuff like this that puts into perspective just how small we really are. But then, if the universe is within us we are pretty darn big too!

Truth

“In my experience, everyone will say they want to discover the Truth, right up until they realize that the Truth will rob them of their deepest held ideas, beliefs, hopes, and dreams. The freedom of enlightenment means much more than the experience of love and peace. It means discovering a Truth that will turn your view of self and life upside-down. For one who is truly ready, this will be unimaginably liberating. But for one who is still clinging in any way, this will be extremely challenging indeed. How does one know if they are ready? One is ready when they are willing to be absolutely consumed, when they are willing to be fuel for a fire without end.” 

(Adyashanti)

Ashtanga Yoga Demonstration by Mark Robberds

Here's an inspiring demonstration video by Certified Ashtanga yoga teacher, Mark Robberds from Australia. He'll be making his way to Stockholm for the first time this October to lead a four day Ashtanga yoga workshop. More details to come soon! Until then, enjoy the video. 

Split The Sack

Why does the soul not fly

when it hears the call?

Why does a fish, gasping on land,

but near the water,

not move back into the sea?

What keeps us from joining the dance

the dust particles do?

Look at their subtle motions

in sunlight.

We are out of our cages

with our wings spread,

yet we do not lift off.

We keep collecting rocks and broken bits

of pottery like children

pretending they are merchants.

We should split the sack

of this culture

and stick our heads out.

Look around.

Leave your childhood.

Reach your right hand up

and take this book from the air.

You do know right from left, don't you?

A voice speaks to your clarity.

Move into the moment of your death.

Consider what you truly want.

Now call out commands yourself.

You are the king. Phrase your question,

and expect the grace of an answer.

(Rumi)

Thank you, Anna! xo

This Living Teaching

Nonduality is not ‘anti-duality’ – how dualistic that would be. It does not reject or deny the astonishing diversity of creation – it embraces totally those myriad appearances, just as the ocean does not reject its waves (how could it?) but loves them to death so they are no longer waves, so that in their infinite, beautiful, intimate, intricate manifestations, they are none other than itself. 

And so this awakening we speak of is not detached from the world, it is not some arrogant life-denying philosophy, no, it is fully engaged with the world, even if ultimately that ‘world’ is dream and appearance. But who cares, right? For, grounded in the deep knowing of who you really are, then, my friends, then you are free, finally free, to plunge fearlessly into this awake dream, this mysterious, transparent world, free-falling head-first into the dreamy realities of this life, this precious gift of a life – into rich, intimate relationships, into work, art, family, friendship, love, adventure, sacrifice, exploration, into the mysteries of the body, and the mysteries of death itself – until there is no longer any division between ‘real’ and ‘unreal’, ‘world’ and ‘absence of world’, ‘person’ and ‘absence of person’, ‘duality’ and ‘nonduality’, even ‘life’ and ‘death’. Until there is only One, and Advaita is a living, breathing, thing, not an abstract philosophy or clever, comforting word-game for the already-comfortable. 

I know no other Advaita but an Advaita inseparable from the living of daily life, from the chopping of wood and the carrying of water. I know no other Advaita but the Advaita that holds my dear father’s trembling hand as he tries to cross an icy patch of road. It is contact. It is being here. It is open. Connected, always connected, forever connected. And ready. The nondual dogmatists retort “who is open? who is ready? whose father? what road? who cares?”, and miss the whole point.

(Jeff Foster) 

Book Recommendation: The Deepest Acceptance

I've been quoting Jeff Foster a lot lately and just wanted to share one of his books as well as his website that has many thought provoking and heart deepening quotes and writings. Check it out if you feel so inclined or inspired. He really brings it down to the basics. Down to what is essential. It doesn't have to come in heavy, over the top language that is hard access. This is simple stuff. Not always easy but nevertheless, simple.

The Deepest Acceptance website

Jeff Foster website


Sitting in Discomfort

The deepest part of realization comes not from trying to become realized – for who would want that, or do it? – but from just sitting with discomfort, sitting with everything you’ve been trying to escape, without expectation, without a goal in mind. 

For years, I would just sit for hours with grief, frustration, anger, fear, just resting in that bubbling, burning, melting pot mess of life, without trying to escape, without hope, until peace was discovered even in the midst of the storm – the peace that I am. 

So, instead of trying to escape discomfort, we let discomfort reveal its secrets. We sit with discomfort, and watch all boundaries between ‘me’ and ‘discomfort’ melt away, until it is no longer ‘me sitting with my discomfort’, and never was. We sit with frustration in the place where it has not yet coagulated into “I am frustrated”. We sit with fear prior to the resurrection of the image “I am a person who is afraid”. 

Yes, yes, don’t “rest in pure awareness”, my friend, rest in the mess of life! Rest in the shit! That’s true rest. Otherwise, the shit is always waiting there in the background, ready to pounce after the satsang love-fest is over, staining your so-called pure awareness. Awareness cannot really be stained, for it is the purity that loves impurity, and so it fearlessly welcomes all. 

You are vast enough to hold all of life, including the mess, for you are life, and this is true meditation. 

(Jeff Foster)

Be Passionately Alive

They used to say, “follow your dreams”, “fulfill your destiny”, “achieve your life’s purpose”, “listen to your heart’s true desire”, “follow your passion”, and I never knew what the hell they meant. 

So I compromised and settled for less than what was possible and worked in jobs where I felt half-alive and so, so far from the wonder of existence. Life and creativity and adventure and passion wanted to burst out of me, but I had no idea how to facilitate or release them, and besides, I was too terrified to unleash these energies lest they disrupt the status quo too much… or destroyed me completely. 

I said to myself, “a life of adventure is not possible for little old me. I’m too introverted, too afraid, too weak, too ugly, not intelligent enough, not brave enough…” 

I comforted myself with spiritual concepts like ‘there is no choice’, ‘all is One’, and ‘everything is predestined’ and lived each day waiting for the evenings, the ‘remains of the day’, when I could breathe again and be authentically myself for a few brief moments. 

What was my destiny? What did my heart really want? What was my life’s purpose? Where was my passion? I didn’t know where to begin. Everyone else seemed to have answers, and I had none. What was wrong with me? 

I felt numb and bored in my jobs, but at least I felt safe. I was hiding from possibility but at least money was coming in. I ‘fit in’, and I had a solid story about myself that I could regurgitate in polite conversation. But there was no risk in it. I was half dead, and only in my twenties. I often thought of suicide. At least then I’d feel alive, if only for a few moments. 

What to do with this one precious, fleeting gift of life? That is the question. To be, or not to be, or to be but only half-heatedly, living out of the ‘shoulds’ of others?And the answer is simple, because life is short. Do whatever makes you feel passionately alive. Find a way – however much you have to struggle at first – of making a living from truly living. Honor your unique talents and abilities. Do what moves you and connects you to the deepest truth of yourself. Trust prosperity and passion over profit and comfort and the approval of others, because all the approval in the world is empty if it is for something your heart was never really in. 

Breaking out of the known can be terrifying, and you may lose what you thought was yours, and your trusted images of yourself may melt in the fire of newness, and you may face fear and trembling, uncertainty and doubt, rejection and even ridicule. You may have to learn the hard way to open yourself up to more pain and life may become more uncomfortable than ever… that is, until you fall in love with the deep comfort of insecurity, and the security of doing what makes life worth living. 

You will be swimming in the unknown, but you will be vast and alive. You will feel life running through your veins once again – as it did when you were young and you hadn’t yet settled for a life of compromise and clock watching and justifications for your quiet desperation – and you will channel this aliveness back into creation, and the cycle of prosperity will keep flowing, and yes, you may even make a good living, better than expected. 

But however much money you make, or don’t make, you will be making a unique contribution to the world, doing something that nobody else can do, at least not in the same way as you, creating something original and fresh, giving something back to life, honoring your total uniqueness and your own talents, and so you won’t feel second hand, a slave to others, a piece of wood, and a deep trust of life may replace your fears of failure and poverty, and your cynicism and jealousy of others may die completely. 

Sometimes you will doubt what you are doing, and you may romanticize the old days when things were easier and more predictable, but then you will suddenly remember that the old way was false and never worked for you and that’s why everything had to change. 

Yes, it’s a risk to donate your life to what you love and what moves you and brings you joy, but I can only speak from experience and say that it’s absolutely worth it, because having a comfortable and predictable life pales in comparison to feeling deeply, passionately alive and meeting each new day with fresh eyes and an open heart. 

If, many years ago, someone had told me that one day I’d be traveling the world, holding meetings and retreats, speaking my intimate truth in front of people I’d never met before, having published several books which had been translated into several languages, I would have laughed out loud – perhaps in disbelief, or perhaps out of the fear of the overwhelming vastness of life’s possibilities. 

Honor this life that is trying to express itself in and as and through you. You are not nearly as limited as you may have been led to believe by those who have not yet come alive. 

(Jeff Foster)