Resources: Nature of Awareness
When Siddhartha (the Buddha) looked into his own mind, he realized the beauty, purity and goodness of his essential nature and was free. The most basic qualities of our being—openness/emptiness, wakefulness, and love—are always here. Getting to know these qualities, and learning to trust and live from them, is truly the heart of the path. Gradually we realize that this awake, tender awareness is more who we are than any story we’ve been believing about ourselves. Rather than a human on a spiritual path, we are spirit– formless loving presence– discovering itself through a human incarnation. As we come to understand and trust this, our life fills with increasing grace.
For more on the Nature of Awareness, you might explore Radical Acceptance – Chapter 12, and True Refuge – Chapters 14 and 15.
Talks on the Nature of Awareness
Homecoming to Loving Awareness (retreat talk)
We have strong conditioning to identify as a separate self, and to feel all the fears and attachments that arise from not realizing our true belonging. This talk includes...
Our True Nature: Emptiness Dancing (retreat talk – Fall 2011)
The most profound question in spiritual life is “who (or what) am I?” This talk explores ways of inquiring into the nature of awareness, and the blessings of embodying the...
Awakening from the Landlocked Self
The Buddha taught that our suffering arises from forgetting who we are. This talk explores the trance of identifying as Somebody, and the compassionate witnessing that allows us...
Homecoming to Our True Nature: Awakening Beyond the Separate, Fearful Self
Homecoming to Our True Nature: Awakening beyond the separate, fearful self. Most of us unconsciously identify as a separate, threatened, deficient self. This talk shines a light...
Namaste: Seeing the Truth of Who We Are
A gift of evolving consciousness is the capacity to recognize and honor the sacred awareness that lives through our own and all beings. This capacity is blocked by our...
True Happiness: Realizing Well-Being
Well being is the deep contentment that arises from a relaxed, wakeful presence. This talk explores the beliefs and habits that contract us away from presence, and several key...
From Human Doing to Human Being – Part 2
Like Sisyphus eternally pushing the boulder up the hill, we can spend many moments busily trying to manage our life. This two-part talk explores how we can awaken from our...
Remembering and Choosing Loving Presence (retreat talk)
We are conditioned to go into a limbic trance—an emotional reactivity to life within and around us—that keeps us identified with a limited, separate sense of self. This talk...
Trusting Our Awakening Heart
The more we trust that our awareness and heart are awakening, the more we find ease, grace and true empowerment in our lives. This talk explores two pathways of deepening our...
Letting Go – The Freedom of Awake Awareness
We know we need to let go of harmful habits like obsessive worry, blame and over consuming to experience true well-being, yet much of the time we are stuck and judge ourselves...
Gateways of Remembrance: The Three Refuges
This talk explores the traditional refuges of awareness (buddha nature), truth (dharma) and love (sangha) that are at the heart of Buddhism, and found in many spiritual and...
New to Meditation?
