September 6, 2023
The Beauty of Choosing Illusion and Waking Up
La belleza de elegir la ilusión y despertar
This session explores the terror and fear that arise during deep spiritual opening, including the fear of death, ending, and loss of identity. The teacher normalizes the difficulty of the process and describes how illusion and wakefulness together create a fuller love than either alone. A meditation guides participants to discover what they love in present experience, leading to a reflection on how pain, freed from fear, reveals itself as love.
dialogue
The Beauty of Choosing Illusion
A conversation about the terror that can arise in deep spiritual opening, the fear of ending, and how the dance between illusion and wakefulness is itself an expression of love.
dialogue
Love, Illusion, and the Freedom to Choose
A student shares how awakening disrupted long-standing relationships, leading to a broader exploration of why illusion and suffering are integral to the deepening of love.
dialogue
The Delicacy of Sharing Difficulties Publicly
A question about why some teachers' public accounts of awakening seem seamless and free of difficulty, and how much of the challenging side should be shared openly.
dialogue
The Greater Love in a Creation That Includes Illusion
A student asks the teacher to repeat a key phrase about the nature of love in a creation that includes illusion and awakening.
teaching
The Love Hidden Inside Pain
A reflection on how pain, when freed from the overlay of fear, reveals itself as love, and how recognizing our own fears allows compassion to come forward.
dialogue
The Privilege of Caring
A student reflects on the unexpected experience of feeling pain on behalf of another person, and discovering this capacity as something precious rather than burdensome.