Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Wise Self-Soothing - Deeply Connecting with Ourself

     We humans have a very basic need to be fully accepted as we are - yes, to be loved unconditionally. When we feel that we're not, we become perilously vulnerable, fearing for our safety, our life. The short- & long-term consequences of feeling unaccepted, undesirable, unwanted, unlovable are dramatically illustrated by research on: Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs): https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/acestudy/index.html
     While the support of various communities is desirable & important, the most critical connection is ultimately with ourselves, and this can be & needs to be at the deepest level we can manage. Yet sadly, because of various past traumas, we're all surprisingly, unknowingly, armored against intimacy, particularly with ourselves. In fact, all too often, the relationship with ourself, tends to be militaristic: critical, harshly judgmental (via our internal dialogue or "self-talk"), in the mistaken belief that it will spur us on to success & therefore happiness. At a deeper, wiser relationship with ourself, we're more like a grandparent holding our young 'part' in safety & unconditional love, patiently, gently nurturing her/him to thrive. This relationship can be nurtured to grow indefinitely in depth & breadth, beyond words & concepts, as shown by shamans, mystics, saints, as well as many serious meditators & contemplatives throughout the ages - including right here, right now.

     “Feelings of connectedness, like feelings of kindness, activate the brain’s attachment system. The ‘befriend’ part of the ‘tend and befriend’ instinct has to do with the human tendency to affiliate, to come together in groups in order to feel secure. For this reason, people who feel connected to others are not as frightened by difficult life circumstances and are more readily able to roll with the punches.
      Of course, it’s wonderful when we can get our need to belong met by loved ones such as friends or family. But if you’re someone who has trouble sustaining good relationships, this type of social support may be missing in your life. And even in the best of circumstances, other people aren’t always able to make us feel that we belong and are accepted. In the cavernous halls of our own minds, we may feel isolated in any moment, even if this isn’t the way things actually are. Our fears and self-judgments are like blinders that often prevent us from seeing the hands that are being held out to help us. We may also be ashamed to admit our feelings of inadequacy to those we love, for fear that they wouldn’t love us anymore if they knew the way we really were. Hiding our true selves from others then makes us feel even more alone.
     That’s why it’s so important to transform our relationship with ourselves by recognizing our inherent interconnectedness. If we can compassionately remind ourselves in moments of falling down that failure is part of the shared human experience, then that moment becomes one of togetherness rather than isolation. When our troubled, painful experiences are framed by the recognition that countless others have undergone similar hardships, the blow is softened. The pain still hurts, but it doesn’t become compounded by feelings of separation. Sadly, however, our culture tells us to notice how we are unique from others, not how we are the same.” 
       Kristin Neff. “Self-Compassion. The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself.” HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.

awakeningartsacademy.com

 

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Knowing Who We Are

     It's awfully easy to find oneself feeling desperately alone, lost in darkness. While those, under the illusion of control, may quickly judge this as abnormal, there are far wiser, nuanced explanations. Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist Viktor Frankl MD wrote: "An abnormal reaction to an abnormal situation is normal behavior."
     A stunningly, qualitatively alternative worldview, shared by shamans, meditators, contemplatives, mystics & saints throughout time & all around the world, is that essentially, everything is perfect as it is! These representatives of all the world's different wisdom traditions, who appear to have reached, or come very close to the summit of human psychosocialspiritual evolution ("awakening" or level 6 of Culliford's stages of maturation: http://www.johnlovas.com/2018/10/nurturing-nonpartisan-human-maturation.html), characterized by peace, love, connection, equanimity, harmony, wholeness, empathy, spaciousness & joy within this very human life we all share. 
     One might assume that such a positive worldview & way of being comes from being lucky enough to live an easy life or is purely delusional. However, shamans, meditators, contemplatives, mystics & saints usually arrive at their worldview after living through serious hardships, including one or more "dark night of the soul" experiences. They are fully, experientially aware of, and in open, empathic connection with the very depths of human suffering. AND, they're EQUALLY fully, experientially aware of, and intimate with, the very depth of who we are - something beyond common human conceptual understanding.
     All wisdom traditions claim that in order for us to thrive, to live full, happy lives, we also must learn to open up to this uncommon dimension of who we actually are. Many times each day, all of us experience, though tend not to deeply comprehend, the inherent unsatisfactoriness of ordinary human life. Working harder, smarter, longer hours, being harder on ourselves, running away, distracting ourselves, dissociating, - none of our mental or physical gymnastics can possibly fix, control, or change existential realities.
     Perhaps the "easiest" & most common pointer towards our own depth is experiencing disillusionment with the rat race inherent in ordinary human life. After stewing in stress hormones (adrenalin & cortisol) of the fight-or-flight adversarial survival instinct for decades, we may finally discover the power of self-kindness and tap into our natural mammalian caregiving system ("tend & befriend" instinct), releasing oxytocin - the hormone of love & bonding. "The emotion of care comes naturally to us, because without it our species would not be able to survive. This means that the capacity to feel affection and interconnection is part of our biological nature. Our brains are actually designed to care." In our fear-dominated world, we can & urgently must realize & embody the critically-missing ingredient of love - the polar opposite & potent antidote to fear & stress - see: Kristin Neff. “Self-Compassion. The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself.” HarperCollins Publishers, 2011.

     We live in an age of dangerous imbalance between masculine & feminine energies. Shadow patriarchy - the dark side of masculine energy (which can also operate in women) - is running wild with unrelenting drive to power, dominance, & control. This is a doomed attempt to compensate for the loss of (healthy feminine energy) connection, love, & belonging, and ultimately for the loss of our ability to feel intimacy with life - see: Kittisaro & Thanissara. "Listening to the Heart. A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism." North Atlantic Books, 2014. 
     Balance is essential, especially between worldviews! At the level of common, consensual reality, there appear to be differences & thus adversarial relations between individuals, animals, environment, etc. Not just shamans, mystics & saints, but many serious meditators & contemplatives have non-dual perspectives ie live equally in both the ordinary world (common, consensual reality) as well as the non-ordinary, where everyone & everything is known to arise from the same source: "Numinous Ground of Being," "Emptiness," "The Godhead," "The Dazzling Dark" etc. Each of us is being called to return to our true home, to truly feel at home, to have a felt experience of nonduality. This is the only cure for the darkness of feeling trapped exclusively in ordinary reality.
     An interesting, hopefully helpful metaphor for non-dual perspective comes from nature: The largest organism on earth is thought to be Pando, a colony or clone of 46,000 aspen with a common root system, in central Utah’s Fishlake National Forest. Pando, also known as “the trembling giant,” covers over 106 acres, has a total weight of 6,000 tonnes, and is estimated to be 14,000 years old. This “huge underground singular root system sends up tens of thousands of clone aspen trees, each one genetically identical to the next.”



AwakeningArtsAcademy.com
   

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Nurturing Nonpartisan Human Maturation

     Rigidity, expressed through blind partisanship, is seriously damaging the United States. However, every conscious individual, organization, and country is fully capable of psychological flexibility & therefore maturation. A few reasons for hope:

     “for real change to happen, a more humanistic & socially driven logic that embraces deeply rooted universal human capacities & needs for attention, awareness, relationality, & caring has to be legitimated in society at large.”
       Mette Lund Kristensen. “Mindfulness and Resonance in an Era of Acceleration: a Critical Inquiry.” Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion. 2018; 15 (2): 178–195.

     “Life (can be seen) as a journey towards wisdom & maturity, where both good or pleasurable and bad or painful experiences can help people learn & develop through six recognizable stages:
     1. Egocentric (immature, self-referenced existence)
     2. Conditioning (learning through insistent and persistent family & social traditions)
     3. Conformist (seeking to belong by following social conventions)
     4. Individual (starting to think, speak & act independently)
     5. Integration (shifting values & behavior towards altruism, through recognizing one’s deep kinship with the entirety of humanity)
     6. Universal (achieving maturity & wisdom, becoming a natural teacher & healer).”

     Research has shown that in western society, the majority of people past their teen years are at or between stages three or four i.e. are still culturally adolescent.
     Larry Culliford. “Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Manifesto.” Univ of Buckingham Pr, 2018. 

     “A healthy organization … is one that enables mature human functioning … being able to care compassionately for oneself and for others without losing sight of either, while moving comfortably between supporting organizational goals and taking initiative to create what is missing.”
       Kathryn Goldman Schuyler, Michelle Olsen Taylor, Orit M. Wolberger. “Bringing Mindfulness and Joy to Work: Action Research on Organizational Change.” Handbook of Personal and Organizational Transformation, 2018, pp1193-1217. 

     The goal of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is to help a wide range of participants discover, befriend, and gradually inhabit, embody & express the deepest domain of their being. Given a lifetime of very different conditioning, the task is not easy, but possible and highly desirable.

     "The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions. Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinions? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving up — ever — trusting our fellow citizens to join with us in our determined pursuit of a living democracy?" Terry Tempest Williams 

     “Throughout history, the really fundamental changes in societies have come about not from the dictates of governments and the results of battles, but through vast numbers of people changing their minds, sometimes only a little bit.” Willis Harman



Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Unconditional Love

     “… scientific methodology is the product of human hands and thus cannot reach some permanent truth. We build scientific theories to organize and manipulate the world, to reduce phenomena into manageable units. Science is based on reproducibility & manufactured objectivity
     As strong as that makes its ability to generate claims about matter & energy, it also makes scientific knowledge inapplicable to the existential, visceral nature of human life, which is unique and subjective and unpredictable.
    
Science may provide the most useful way to organize empirical, reproducible data, but its power to do so is predicated on its inability to grasp the most central aspects of human life: hope, fear, love, hate, beauty, envy, honor, weakness, striving, suffering, virtue.”

       Paul Kalanithi MD. “When Breath Becomes Air.” Random House, 2016.
 
      "The essential dynamic of the shadow patriarch (dark side of male energy), whether operating within a man or woman, is the unrelenting drive to power, dominance, and control. In many ways this attempts to compensate for the loss of connection, love, & belonging, and ultimately for the loss of an ability to feel intimacy with life.” Thanissara

     “It’s great if we become a super cool meditator ... but if the heart isn’t free from sufferingor at least moving in that directionwe may have missed the point. In other words, we need to reflect on the results. What are the effects of meditation practices in my life? Are wholesome qualities of heart increasing – like generosity, kindness, & wisdom? Are unwholesome ones – greed, hatred, & delusion – decreasing?" Kittisaro

     “Love is the bridge
      between you and everything.”
Rumi

     “If you judge people (* including yourself *), you have no time to love them.” Mother Teresa
 
     “The love & attention you always thought
      you wanted from someone else,
      is the love and attention
      you first need to give to yourself.”
Bryant McGill 

     “It’s not a luxury to feel loved and cared for — it’s what makes us emotionally secure. If it didn’t happen when we were children, meditation can help us develop a secure emotional base now.
     … connecting with our true nature in order to gradually make our minds freer is a real possibility. And that same capacity for attunement translates into more genuine connections.” Tara Bennett-Goleman PhD

     “Your task is not to seek for love,
      but merely to seek & find all of the barriers
      within yourself that you have built against it.”
Helen Schueman

There is a light in this world, 

a healing spirit more powerful 

than any darkness we may encounter.  

We sometimes lose sight of this force 

when there is suffering, too much pain.  

Then suddenly, the spirit will emerge 

through the lives of ordinary people 

who hear a call 

and answer in extraordinary ways.”

Mother Teresa



www.buddhadoodles.com







Sunday, October 21, 2018

Acceptance and Discretionary Suffering


     The core of meditation practice IMHO is carefully investigating the difference between unavoidable vs discretionary suffering: investigating how we can minimize our tendency to unwittingly cause LOTS of unnecessary problems for ourself & those around us.
     A reasonable starting point is Reinhold Niebuhr's "serenity prayer":
          Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
          courage to change the things I can;
          and wisdom to know the difference. 

     Let's look at the rather large & often frustrating "things I cannot change" category. Many people suffering with chronic pain, as well as a variety of mental health issues including addictions, can potentially benefit greatly from the following teaching:

     “Accepting and releasing into just what is, is the homeopathy of Zen. Being willing to settle into just this experience – this is the teaching of saying yes to our life, not giving in to thoughts of another life. We learn that our resistance strengthens whatever we want to avoid.
     Trying on the attitude of yes is the not-knowing mind, whereas the conditioned mind creates conditions. This is too much (or not enough). No way am I going to stay in this situation. The not-knowing mind is willing to know and feel whatever is happening.
     Recently I was thinking about a difficult situation in my life, trying to find a way to make it acceptable. For days I would think about it, invite my mind to reimagine it in a less painful way. After weeks of trying, I realized, I’m helpless. I can’t solve this by myself: I just have to be it. That realization was an enormous relief. Like Ram Dass saying, I’m going to be on this train forever, I settled into my own circumstances: There isn’t anything I can do about this situation. There is no way to escape it. I must live with it and let it become digested and transformed internally on its own. Thinking I had to solve the problem became the problem.”
        Katherine Thanas. “The Truth of This Life. Zen Teachings on Loving the World as It Is.” Shambhala, 2018.




Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Towards Intimacy

     “The evolutionary imperative of our times demands we evolve from seeing the world ‘out there,’ separate and alien from us, to directly knowing our intimacy with all things. This is the shift from a dualistic consciousness to an awake awareness that recognizes nothing is apart from anything else, or from our deeper nature. 
     If we harm someone, we harm ourselves. If we destroy and pollute, we do likewise to ourselves. If we drop bombs on other countries, we rip our a piece of our own soul. And unlike in any other time in human history, if we only look out for ‘our own’ at the expense of everyone else, we will further precipitate the catastrophe of our collective demise.”
     Kittisaro & Thanissara. "Listening to the Heart. A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism." North Atlantic Books, 2014.  

“Your task is not to seek for love,
but merely to seek and find all of the barriers
within yourself that you have built against it.” Helen Schueman

     "In essence, mindfulness - being about attention, awareness, relationality, and caring - is a universal human capacity akin to our capacity for language acquisition. It is a way of being in wise and purposeful relationship with one's experience, both inwardly and outwardly, with oneself and with others. Thus there is an intrinsic social dimension to its cultivation as well. It usually involves cultivating familiarity and intimacy with aspects of everyday experience that we often take for granted. These include our experience of the present moment, our own bodies, our thoughts and emotions, and above all, our tacit and constraining assumptions and our highly conditioned habits of mind and behaviour, both as individuals and in society at large." Jon Kabat-Zinn


Sunday, October 14, 2018

Wise Relationship with Difficulties


     When we forget who we actually are, we tend to become isolated & imprisoned in claustrophobic self-concern. All our relationships - with ourselves, others, nature, every aspect of life - are distorted, resulting in a vague, lingering dissatisfaction with life all the way to the absolute depths of human suffering ('dark night of the soul'). When we live in direct contradiction to who we fundamentally are, we're 'fish out of water,' flopping around on the ground. Without awareness of & living in harmony with our true nature, we're fish trying desperately to feel at home, happy & fulfilled on dry land.
     Our true nature, according to wisdom traditions, is spacious, grounded loving awareness. To achieve some clarity about who we are and thus resume healthy, normal relationships, we need to open our heart-mind. Metta and seed of metta practices are key:
 
     “The Buddha identified loving-kindness – metta – as one of the essential qualities of heart that carries us to awakening. He encouraged his disciples to develop it and extend its healing blessing to all beings universally. He taught in the Metta Sutta: ‘Even as a mother protects her life, her child, her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings.’ This might seem impossible, but the Buddha is showing us the direction, and revealing the boundless treasure hidden in our own heart. We cultivate this large-hearted attitude, little by little, patiently and persistently. We can notice when we are touched by someone and naturally wish them well; be interested in that feeling of kindness and expand it to include ourselves and others – those we like, the one’s we’re neutral about, and even beings we dislike. This takes practice, but when we remember how important loving-kindness is for healing ourselves and the world, we’ll find the energy arrives. Actually, all living beings are our brothers and sisters in birth and death. We all suffer and wish to leave it behind. Reflecting on this, we don’t do to others what we don’t want them to do to us. An important premise for this practice is the principle: to others as to oneself.

     Our teacher Ajahn Sumedho taught us that the seed of metta is the attitude of non-contention, non-fighting, the willingness to allow things to be as they are and welcome them into our hearts. Sometimes if we try and convince ourselves we love everyone, it just feels false, or we end up in denial about all the reactions of resentment and aversion that regularly assail the heart. On the other hand, when we practice this friendly intention with all our thoughts, sensations, and moods – pleasant and unpleasant, beautiful and ugly – we find ourselves in an openhearted abiding that is not disturbed by anything. Whatever is bothering us, we welcome that too, just as it is, with an attitude of not-fighting, not harboring ill will. I’m very grateful to have been taught a gateway into this practice that is accessible.”

      Kittisaro & Thanissara. "Listening to the Heart. A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism." North Atlantic Books, 2014. * an exceptionally valuable book *


www.buddhadoodles.com

Monday, October 8, 2018

Releasing from the Tyrrany of Thoughts


     The practice below works wondrously well when one is ready. Readiness is absolutely key.

     “Consciously bringing into awareness the impermanent nature of conditions is the gateway into emptiness.

     The transformative power of a conscious, mindful thought is that it reveals its own transiency. For example, the thought ‘Who is thinking?’ is an invitation to make contact with the present moment. In doing so, the thinking process is recognized for what it is. When we’re not so enchanted by our thoughts, we notice something else, something quite simple. We notice that all thoughts manifest and dissolve back into silent listening. This is a great relief. We don’t have to become shaped by our thinking. We can be liberated from its bondage. In seeing thought as ‘just thought,’ the sky of the heart is revealed, with no footprints. ‘You won’t find the sage out there.’ When there is wisdom, the endless searching for happiness ‘somewhere else’ vanishes. Where is there to go? Beautiful thoughts and ugly thoughts, all arise and cease in awareness, and yet awareness remains unmoved.
      In a moment of letting anxiety, or out-of-control worry, be just what it is – not fighting or getting swept away by it – the heaviness disappears. Right where there was suffering, peace appears. Sometimes in those moments, painful sensations may still be experienced in the body, but the added distress of believing ‘it shouldn’t be this way’ vanishes."


       Kittisaro & Thanissara. "Listening to the Heart. A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism." North Atlantic Books, 2014.


AwakeningArtsAcademy.com

Saturday, October 6, 2018

Downward Slide - after 20 ???

     The 2018 book, “Boy Wonders: A memoir.” by Cathal Kelly is “about the good and the bad of those brief years (before our 20s) when we find purpose without end, obsession without limit and joy in the strangest of places.”
     It's very important & instructive to see to what extent we agree with the author Cathal Kelly. For him, the years after his 20s are "sad," because he stopped being in the moment, stopped living vibrantly, because awareness of his mortality prevents him from being blissfully distracted by senseless, compulsive, but completely engrossing activities. Now he's anxiously cramming stuff into his last few (60+?) remaining years before death.

     We live in a death-denying culture that glorifies child-like behavior as long as possible. HOWEVER, aging wisely INVOLVES living in the moment, and is filled with progressively deepening, conscious JOY that's rarely experienced in childhood. It is NORMAL, HEALTHY and ESSENTIAL for adults to "let go of childish things" AND fully accept the reality, inevitability & universality of death - only THEN can we live freely & fully. 
          "I was born
           when all I once feared
           I could love.”                          Rabia Basri


     Shelagh Rogers’ interviewed the author on Oct 1, 2018: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1331958851980
     SR “Cathal, you end your memoir when you’re in your early 20s - arguably the time you left childhood behind. What do you think shifts inside someone when they cross over that threshold and into adulthood?”

     CK “Heidegger has a concept called ‘a being toward death’ - that there’s a point when all of us fully realize that we will die. And then our focus shifts from living in the moment to trying to accomplish something before that happens

     At that point in my life … there was a realization that things would not surprise you in the same way again. That there comes a point when you have run out of completely new experiences. So that is to say you will do things again and there will be much pleasure taken from your life, but in large part, you are never going to have those personal revelations the first time you heard a certain band, when you saw a movie that changed you … You’re just not getting that at 30. And you’re certainly not getting it again at 50.
     And that’s a sad realization. In the final chapter is when I think I recognized in the moment that that was it. That may have been the last one. It happens in a farmer’s field in Western Europe, on a goofy little trip, still trying to figure things out, and I just realized this was the last one. From now on, there is going to be a sort of sameness to things. This is not a tragedy by any means. But it’s ‘triste’ (sad) you know - that sense of loss. And it’s something we don’t talk very much about in this culture.”

     It's VERY easy to become depressed & cynical with advancing age - even on hitting the big 30!!! May I humbly suggest learning ways of aging WISELY? We ALL have far better QUALITY of life to enjoy than we can imagine, even if we have only a few months to live!: http://mindfulnessforeveryone.blogspot.com/2013/11/431-transformative-power-of-acceptance.html

AwakeningArtsAcademy.com

Friday, October 5, 2018

Curing Power of Kind Attention and Awareness

     The more we practice meditation, the more we recognize the effects of traumas we've sustained over a lifetime. Reading a book like Van Der Kolk's “The Body Keeps the Score. Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma” may be a revelation to some of us in this regard. Some of us would clearly benefit from psychotherapy, and all of us would benefit from remarkably wise tools for healing found in meditative practices. 
     Adyashanti teaches an advanced practice he calls "conjoining the opposites." A more easily approachable practice is to hold difficult emotions, as they arise, within the heart area. This is instead of usual tendencies: acting out and or intellectually fighting difficult emotions. Holding the physical manifestations of these emotions in the heart area to me is quite similar to dealing with "open questions." In both cases, we let all of our intelligences slowly, without time limits, work away on big, complex issues, that our (modest) intellect alone is ill-equipped to handle.
     Below is, IMHO, a clear, helpful excerpt from a superb book:

     “It is not easy to maintain mindfulness when our primary defenses are activated. These defenses are forged in reaction to intense feelings, felt from conception through our preverbal years. Our psychological defenses are not ‘bad,’ they are simply strategies we learned that helped us survive as tiny babies. Neither are they necessarily there because of a lack of care. Just our vulnerability or waiting to be fed as babies can evoke powerful feelings of abandonment, fear, and longing. These feelings overwhelm a tiny baby and infant. In response, our defenses were built to protect us from these feelings. However, as we grow up our defenses become imprisoning. They split us away from our innate energy, and we become locked in dysfunctional patterns and end up limping through life rather than having access to the fullness of our energy.
      The desire for nonexistence or annihilation (vibhava-tanha), which manifests as psychological desolation, despair, depression, and self aversion, is a common primary defense. As we bring mindfulness to this dynamic, behind the sophisticated ways we deny and dissociate, we will encounter unsettling feelings. We will find ourselves faced with our ‘shadow,’ a term Carl Jung coined to refer to powerful emotions and beliefs held in the unconscious that influence our life. Behind our ‘shut down’ can be fear, rage, or a fog of confusion. At times when these become triggered, we need to take a lot of care. When touching deep areas of primary feeling, behind our defenses, we need to take space, have kindness, and be patient.
     Instead of crashing out, we can be mindful, one breath at a time. Gradually this becomes a strong container to help us withstand our deepest pains without defaulting to self-harming or acting out. This container is strengthened through moments of kind attention and awareness to the feeling tones that are present. When these factors are in place, then as painful feelings emerge, like despair, or the wish to annihilate ourselves in some addictive pattern, we will know an opportunity has offered itself.
     As our capacity for awareness strengthens it is possible to tolerate the deeper wounds within the psyche. Often these are disguised beneath the restless momentum of desire and our attempts to fulfill its demands.”


       Kittisaro & Thanissara. "Listening to the Heart. A Contemplative Journey to Engaged Buddhism." North Atlantic Books, 2014.

with kind permission from: www.buddhadoodles.com


Monday, October 1, 2018

Depth


“When mind is still, then
truth gets her chance to be heard
in the purity of the silence.”                         Sri Aurobindo

     “Silence is the basis and the background of everything. We are an expression of this primordial silence and stillness. But the habits of our mind overlay this simple truth and keep us from experiencing ourselves as a full-spectrum human being. 
     … we awaken to our true nature and experience the deep nourishment that comes with this realization. As we recognize and embody our true nature, our conditioning naturally dissolves and we see that when we rest in silence we can move into anything in life, including chaos and sorrow, with a sense of ease and well-being. … we learn that deep inquiry is not something the mind does, but the process of love perceiving its own nature through your physical form.”                           Sharon Landrith 

     "If you try to apply these teachings without a connection to silence, they get top-heavy and intellectual. Breathe and drop into your heart space in order to feel what is happening.
     Stop trying to solve (exclusively) through understanding. Just drop into your own being and let the quiet space within you glow. Otherwise, (meditation) practices won’t allow a transformation to happen."                                 Adyashanti, "A Revolution of Being" 3-Month Online Retreat

     “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”                                                             Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet


     "True meditation is abidance as primordial awareness."      Adyashanti
https://www.adyashanti.org/index.php?file=writings_inner&writingid=12