And to some extent, all of these will work. They will help ease the agitation and stress felt in body, emotions and mind.

But when we do things to be calm, we’re not leaving the realm of what changes, what goes up and down. What goes down – gets calm – invariably will go up again. We’re forever oscillating between tension and relaxation, the nervous system being activated or not, speed or slowness of thoughts, intensity or quietness of emotions. All of these inner states and movements change over time.

Most of us are busy trying to influence or control them so we feel ok. It’s a losing battle, because invariably calmness will turn into agitation the moment something happens that we don’t like, are afraid of, or angry or sad about. So most people live their lives in varying states of agitation and stress, forever trying to do things to be less agitated, and ultimately forever failing.

True calm cannot be found in the world of change.

Often, in spiritual teachings, what we find is just an emphasis on the divine, on that which isn’t human, which doesn’t come and go, which is not the body, which is not the thoughts, not the emotions. And this pointing has its very important place. It’s very clear, and it’s much easier to talk about just that than to include our humanity. It’s easier because there can then be a very clear distinction between who we are and who we aren’t. As one of the traditional Eastern teachings puts it, we are not our body, not our thoughts, not our emotions.

And this IS true. Who and what we truly are is not to be found in anything that arises and passes. What we are is the awareness of all of that, the space in which all arises and passes. It’s a space that has no judgment, and that meets suffering with compassion and love. In this space, our humanity is welcome.

If it is welcome, though, it can become confusing as to what really happens in this space.

I love doing water colors, but I’m not an artist and my water color skills are not all that good. You can see for yourself in this extract from a water color that I did recently. It’s a goldfinch sitting on a tulip leaf looking at a tulip… but it sure doesn’t look like a goldfinch! The shape isn’t quite right, and the blue from the sky bled into the beautiful yellow of the bird.

When I looked at it, it struck me that this image captures the nature of our human existence very fittingly. When we come into life we’re pure light, untainted, and when we leave we merge back into this purity. But as we’re living, our life circumstances bleed into us, becoming part of who we are. We are conditioned in so many ways, by our families, the culture around us, the collective human psyche. Trauma and pain cause defensive patterns that become part of our psyche. Our light gets obscured, our shape distorted.

The spiritual search leads us back to where we come from, the purity of our original nature. The question is: how do we understand and live the darker forces, the mess that human life tends to be and create? Knowing that we are indeed goldfinches, how do we respond? By rejecting and trying to escape everything that is not light-filled? By claiming that’s not really us? Or are we open to finding out what this human mess is all about? Are we willing to experience it for what it is, fully, completely, without any disclaimer? What gold could be found in that?

Dear ones,

The theme of support has been on my mind a lot over the last few days. Partly, it's because the spiritual support groups are starting this week and I'm reflecting on how people can be best supported in both their human experience and life and in their spiritual opening (not that these are truly separate). Partly, though, it's also an eternal theme, as old as humankind.

Spiritually, it's important because one of the main ways that we close off from spiritual opening is through contracting into a sense of separation and relying on personality and ego strength alone. We've all learnt this as children because we were told we had to 'get our act together', control ourselves or our impulses, or do or achieve what was demanded of us. In that we were left alone and had to cope by ourselves. As a result, the deeper the discomfort or pain, the more it tends to be closed off from any possibility of asking for help or support.

That's why the experience of sharing something and receiving support is so healing. That's how we open to the reality of Love in a very human way, how we can experience it directly and let it transform us. In that, the heart opens and separation gives way to a sense of connection or even oneness.

I’ve been reflecting recently on why I feel including the very personal aspects of our experience and lives is so important, especially for spiritual people who yearn to awaken to true Being. I don’t feel I have any ultimate answers, but I have some sense of the pitfalls that can be avoided.

For the longest time, I thought that the personal aspect that stood most in the way of my awakening was the mind. I hated my mind for being so incessantly noisy. All I wanted was for it to shut up. Which it did only very rarely, in exquisite moments of bliss or emptiness during retreats or meditation. It calmed down over time, for sure, but it never really stopped. Even when I was inquiring into who I was, the mind wasn’t always empty, even if I had an increasingly solid and unquestionable sense of who I am. (If you are more of an emotional type you can substitute emotions for the mind).
 
We all have ideas of what awakening means. None of them are true,

Some of you have written to ask when the online spiritual support group would start up again, but the time zones and availabilities involved couldn't easily be combined. So I'm now offering two possible times, hoping that all who want to participate will find a time that works for them. The times and starting dates are as follows:

• Wednesdays, 11am PST, 2pm EST, 7pm UK, 8pm MET; starting on Wednesday 10 March.
• Saturdays, 10am PST, 1pm EST, 6pm UK, 7pm MET; starting on Saturday 13 March.

There is some flexibility in terms of the timing (an hour earlier or later). The spiritual support groups are for those of you who feel alone and isolated in their interest in non-dual spiritual teachings, and who are looking for support and companionship in living these teachings in a very concrete, day-to-day way. To find out more about them go to the Online spiritual support groups page. If you'd like to join one of the groups get in touch as soon as possible with the information requested on that page.

Dear ones,

This image was taken in 2018 at a makeshift refugee camp in a warehouse in Tijuana, Mexico. At the time, it was shocking to many that a border could be closed to shut out people wanting to seek refuge. As 2020 draws to a close, closed borders are the new normal, and it is not just refugees who no longer can move freely across borders, it is all of us. As I am writing this, I am on day 11 of a 14-day very strict quarantine. I am limited in my movement because I traveled to Germany for three weeks because my father had passed suddenly and I wanted to be with my very elderly mother at this time of shock, grief, and transition.

Our human reality is not always light-filled and merry, and at no time is this more obvious than at Christmas. At no other time of the year is the contrast between darkness and light more present (in the Northern hemisphere). The outer darkness of long nights resonates with and may even deepen the dark feelings we may feel inside. Pain and suffering can feel very inescapable at this time.

And yet, the magic and mystery of the indelible human spirit shine even then. Children will decorate a christmas tree in a warehouse shelter, a friend or kind neighbor may drop a present at our doorstep or say something that touches the heart, there may be a sense of being held or of some presence or light even at the darkest of moments. We may feel moved to reach out with kindness to others who are steeped in inner or outer darkness.

The reality of the human journey is marked by both darkness and light. The good news is that we are all on our way to discovering, ever deeper, ever more fully, and in ever new ways, the truth of our being, which is beyond darkness and light, but shines through us as light and love.

May you find that light, that love, in yourself, in others, and in all things, all over again, freshly, as if never known before. May that be your sacred Christmas gift to yourself.

In love and gratitude,
grace

PS: If you're having a hard time over the holidays (or any time) you may find heart meditation a good resource. You will find two guided heart meditations on the bottom of this page.

Dear ones,

A few weeks back, it occurred to me that it might be helpful and insightful to continue some of the Life challenges conversations that I had last year, inviting new reflections and insights after a year has passed. The perspective of time -- though meaningless at the level of Self/Being -- is very real at the human level. Circumstances change, to the better or worse, emotional wounds heal or not, we recover from illness, or it may worsen. We don't ever know how life at this human level will unfold, and we are transformed by how it does. All of Life's challenges are an opportunity to meet anew and freshly Life as it Is, instead of playing out some conditioned thoughts, emotions, or responses. This is the background for the upcoming series of conversations, entitled Life challenges Part 2. Four of the teachers who had been sharing so movingly from their lives and experience with their particular challenge last year were open to sharing more, reflecting on what has happened and what insights and/or maturing this has brought, including how this may have changed their spiritual understanding and teaching.

Life challenges Part 2: Program
These are the four themes that we are revisiting, with a new 'life challenge' added in: that of dealing with our own shadows as and when they arise.  

• Sunday 17 February 2019: Unmani, Loss and grief;
• Sunday 24 February 2019: Joan Tollifson, Cancer as an awakening journey;
• Sunday 10 March 2019: Craig Holliday, Opening to the shadow;
• Sunday 24 March 2019: Marlies Myoku Cocheret, Staying awake in the midst of chronic dis-ease;
• Sunday 31 March 2019: Ananta Kranti, Caring for a parent with dementia.

The first two conversations have happened already and the videos are up on the event pages (Unmani and Joan). The last three will all be happening in March. 
I hope you can join us. If you can't, you can find the videos on the event pages within 24 - 48 hours after the live conversation.
​
With love and gratitude,
grace

How to share with you the gift that my journey to India was? It's not really possible, other than to say that it left a deep impression in my heart. In the above photo, you see the river Ganga just upstream from Rishikesh, including the Sacha Dham ashram right by the beach (center left), where ShantiMayi gives satsang when she is in India.

The below photo captures the in your face quality of the experience, full of contrasts and powerful sensory input, including the ever present dust and noise of barking dogs and honking cars and motor bikes (thank you to Fred Bastide for the photos):

I went to satsang with a small number of nondual teachers who were in Rishikesh at the time, all of them unique in their expression of Truth/Love. It was beautiful, and the most precious gift, to experience them directly, rather than via the internet. What cannot be captured in photos is the sacred, deep silence and simple, sweet open-heartedness that are such an intimate part of the experience there and that melt one's heart and mind.

Next online conversation: ShantiMayi
I so much enjoyed and appreciated the freshness and depth of ShantiMayi's teachings, including the Sacha lineage that she carries, that I wanted to bring her to you online. Our conversation, on the theme of 'The Mind Is Not Our Enemy', will be on Sunday, 2 April, at 9am PDT, 12pm EDT, 5pm UK, 6 pm Europe, and 9.30pm India. Please note the unusual time, as Shantimayi will be joining us from Rishikesh. More info about this event and about Shantimayi on the Living from Love homepage. More online events are in the planning stage, and I will keep you posted once they're settled.

Online groups
Two new online groups will begin in April:

• A monthly Awakening as Love group will start on Monday, 10 April 2017. This group is like a once-a-month small group satsang where you have the sacred opportunity and support to inquire into your experience to reveal what is True, the Love that you are. More info HERE.
• A Healing and Awakening 6-week group program will start on Tuesday, 18 April 2017. This is a more sustained and intensive context in which to bring whatever feels unhealed in your life to the light of loving inquiry. If you appreciated the Healing and Awakening retreat last December, you might find this group interesting. More info HERE.
  

SAND online webinar
I have also been asked to facilitate a 6-week webinar with the theme of 'Living From Our Deepest Knowing' that is organized by SAND (Science and Nonduality), with teachers that will probably be familiar to you (Jac O'Keefe, Unmani, Joan Tollifson, John Prendergast, Ellen Emmet, and Amoda Maa). This webinar will start on Sunday, 9 April 2017. More info about this on the SAND website.

Last but not least: your donations
... towards the free online offerings are always welcome! If you've found them meaningful and helpful for yourself, and you'd like to support the work that goes into making them happen and continuing to offer them for free (including covering the monthly overheads of website hosting and keeping a mailing list), your donation is gratefully received and very appreciated. You can make a donation on the donation page.

Ganga blessings to you all!
In Love and Truth,
grace