November 30, 2022
Transmission, Identity, and the Unknown Self
Transmisión, identidad y el yo desconocido
This session explores how to practice meditation when overwhelmed by intense emotions, the nature of spiritual transmission between teacher and student, and investigations into the illusory sense of a located, separate self. The teacher describes transmission as a mutual recognition of shared essence rather than a one-directional giving, and discusses the responsibility and power that come with it. Themes of identity dissolution, the ego's resistance to change, and humility as a natural byproduct of seeing through arrogance weave throughout.
dialogue
When Everything Feels Like Too Much
A student describes feeling overwhelmed by life circumstances and asks how to practice when emotional intensity makes meditation feel impossible.
meditation
Union with the Unknown
A meditation exploring how letting go of fixed ideas about who and where you are can open into a deeper, more spacious sense of self.
teaching
The Substance That Is Already There
The teacher explores the nature of transmission between teacher and student, describing how what seems like receiving from another is actually the recognition and activation of something already present in oneself.
dialogue
The Responsibility of Transmission
The student asks the teacher about his direct experience of energetic transmission, exploring questions of control, directionality, and the weight of responsibility that comes with it.
dialogue
The Force of Transmitted Presence
A student asks about the effect of intense energetic transmission between teacher and student, and whether it serves as a method of dissolving the sense of separate self.
teaching
When Experience Challenges the Deepest Sense of Self
A reflection on how profound experiences can unsettle one's most fundamental sense of identity, and the ways the ego attempts to contain or control what has been encountered.
dialogue
The Arrogance at the Root of "Not Good Enough"
A student describes the experience of shedding layers of inner resistance and contraction, then wonders whether the parts she stops identifying with might go into shadow. The conversation moves through the nature of anxious thought during moments of shift, the roots of humility, and the discovery that the one who resists is itself only a story.