Dispatches from Beyond the Dream
It’s about six weeks before the overnight spontaneous awakening of October 23, 2011. I am sitting cross-legged on the floor next to my husband among several rows of seekers here to see a female spiritual teacher named Ganga-gi. He has put up his hand for a question and she is listening quietly as he speaks. […]
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You keep hearing that the whole point of awakening is the end of suffering because the self that suffers is seen as a character in the dream, not the real you. I’ve said it myself in early post-awakening articles and even today, it’s being said repeatedly by non dual teachers. Just this morning I read […]
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If there ever was an historical era where getting past the passive no-self phase of awakening mattered, this is it. Environmental peril, US presidential insanity and all-purpose darkness is on the rise. You see, it’s not enough to just play the equanimity card in the game of enlightenment. Sure, it’s true at one level that […]
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I remember, almost wistfully, the pre-awakening days when I was addicted to falling in love. The heady intoxicant of new romance always came with a huge surge in well-being, optimism, equanimity and even synchronicity. I yearned for the in-love-drug the same way a junkie craves the next hit. Then, abruptly I woke up. The awakening […]
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I’ve given up being Zen about Donald Trump. The truth matters. A refrain has been stuck on repeat in my head for the first week of the new US Presidency: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” These words were spoken by president John F. Kennedy (and […]
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I heard from a friend recently, an author and a teacher who had an awakening two decades ago who told me that the flow of magic had abruptly dried up in her life. By this, she meant the gifts of self-remembrance ( synchronicity, ease, intuitive knowing and mini-miracles) had come to a halt just as if […]
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I’m going to let you in on my dirty little secret. Well, maybe it’s more like a nervous confession —I live my daily life increasingly convinced I am dreaming it all up and that everyone in this dream serves me in some mysterious and magical way. No, I don’t mean servitude but rather service—all of […]
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The consensus among an increasingly alarmed populace of the world’s sane is that presidential candidate Donald Trump displays the attributes of a tyrant—you know, like Hitler, Hussein or Trump’s new bestie, Vladimir Putin. But a closer inspection of The Donald’s actions reveal something even more alarming than a simple authoritarian-bully. If you really dissect Trump’s comments […]
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Have you noticed there’s a not-so-subtle narcissistic weather pattern that prevails in today’s awakening and non-duality climate? It’s a kind of low pressure system of “how can waking up make MY life better” and unfortunately a whole lot of contemporary teachers—me included—have at times accidentally or even purposefully catered to that self-serving impulse. I’ve watched people in […]
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The video footage online this week of two police murders of black men is clearly the detonation that will demolish many cherished and false ideals in the USA, namely that all men are created equal and that racism more or less ended with the impact of the civil rights movement. Alton Sterling was shot in […]
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