' Waking from the illusion '...

This new world starts in your mind as the discovery of that which is awake in you. This is the foundation and nothing radically new can be created without this. It's a fundamental shift in perception. Before the discovery, you see through the myopic eyes of the ego-mind (100 percent me-centered), and after the discovery, your vision is unclouded like a clear sky, without a center. The former is a prison; the latter is a sanctuary of light without boundaries.

This awakening out of the illusion of a separate self is often recognized in the midst of intense suffering. It's as if theself-referencing mind has no escape route and collapses in on itself. Most often, this is experienced as a glimpse of a transcendent reality in which there is no suffering. It's the realization of emptiness as the ground of reality-what we may call a nondual awareness.

As you inevitably move out of the sanctuary of the enlightened mind to navigate the hustle and bustle of everyday life, this nondual awareness is given the opportunity to descend into the fullness of the heart. A deeper surrender is called for here. This is where awakening stops being a mental realization and starts being a living expression. In the crucible of the heart, love demands everything. This love will overturn every stone to reveal that which is still hiding in the shadows of self-defense. It will dig out everything that remains unloved in you and reflect this back to you through the mirror of relationship.

It will push your buttons to test that which is still unconscious in you. Every whisper of previously unmet emotion will be dragged to the surface to be purged in the uncompromising glare of love's eyes. It's an unrelenting spiritual catharsis that demands a deeper opening and willingness to be vulnerable. Radical awakening sows the seeds of transparent communication, genuine communion, and co-creative growth; in other words, authentic relating. This is the basis of true community, of sangha, not of Iike-mindedness but of open-heartedness. This community includes not only our human brothers and sisters but also every living entity, from the tiniest microbe to the vastness of planet Earth.


Amoda Maa - Embodied Enlightenment