Buddhism – The Awakened Dreamer

The Last Satsang: When Suffering Ends, What Next?

I’m sitting in an airy room in Costa Rica, bird song wafting through the open windows along with a warm breeze. The sound of a spiritual teacher answering questions from his seat up front is just a part of the mandala of beauty that is this moment. The day wears on. I am without questions. […]

by Lori Ann Lothian

Empty Mind, Full Heart

Four months ago I fell off the edge of an identity called Lori Ann, into a sweet free-fall where each unfolding moment reveals itself as my lover. Sometimes this lover is rough, riding me hard, bitch slapping me with chaos and change. Other times my beloved kisses me tenderly with the beauty of what is […]

by Lori Ann Lothian

Six Symptoms of Enlightenment

The day after waking up from the dream of being a separate self, the everyday took on an enlightenment afterglow. Three months later I’m still tickled by what I call “the indescribable lightness of wow,” a kind of newborn fresheness from which life is perceived. What is this wow? With the caveat that what arose […]

by Lori Ann Lothian

How to Wake Up

Someone asked me recently, “How do I surrender so that I can wake up?” This made me laugh because there is in this question a paradox: The “you” that would invite surrender (or resist surrender) is not relevant to waking up to your true nature as Awareness. You see, surrender is not something you do. […]

by Lori Ann Lothian

When the House Burns Down

It has been almost forty days now since I woke up, or the unreal me died. Yet each day I rise in the morning with a curious wondering: Is Awareness still here? Or is the old monkey-mind back and running the show? And the day unfolds again in an inner stillness that is like the […]