Why Courage?
Sometimes I’ve been asked why I talk about courage, because apparently it sounds very ‘dual’ to suggest that there is someone who could have courage. And of course this is one of those very annoying (for the thinking) paradoxes.
It’s true that there is no actual separate individual who is separate from the rest of life. Life itself has no need for courage, or for anything else for that matter. It is already everything that we ever try to become, and never lacks or misses anything that we may imagine is missing. Recognising this is freedom.
The Truth
It is easy to say that you want to discover the Truth, but when you understand that the Truth is not just the experience of love and peace, you may not be so sure that you want it any more.
Recognizing who You really are will rob you of your deepest held ideas, beliefs, hopes, and dreams. It will turn your view of yourself and your life upside down.
Realising Your Real Power
Although the title of this article may sound like I am about to recommend a New Age self-affirming practice, it is anything but that. Those practices, although they may be helpful to a point, are based in the idea that you are not already absolutely whole, free and absolute power itself, and therefore need to practice remembering or trying to be more powerful. In fact when we are searching, we are assuming that there is something wrong or missing in myself, or my life experience.
No Goal
There is a common myth among seekers of the truth, that there is a final goal that you will arrive at once you become self-realised. Thought can be so clever at holding on to an idea of a goal of some kind. Whether that goal is to appear and to feel really peaceful, to have no more worries or pain, or whether it is the non-dual goal of being ‘no-one’. It seems that the more you dive into ‘this’ message, and the more you see through old concepts, the more thought seems to become cleverer at hiding behind even higher or more subtle goals or resting places.
What Is Surrender
Whether it is to a god, or a guru, a teacher or a lover, we love to surrender totally. This is why the devotional path is so popular in some religions and cultures, and also becoming more popular in the West. We long to surrender. It does not matter to what or to whom, it is the very act of surrender which sacrifices all arrogance and separation to the altar of Life. In the act of surrender the protecting game is exposed for what it is. In surrendering totally to a guru or to a lover, there is no inside and no outside, no guru or lover. In the total surrender, all that is left is Love.
Money, and the Identity It Gives Us
Money is such a provocative subject for most people. So many of us have ideas about money and what it means about who we think we are. It so often provokes us to defend who we think we are. We live in fear of not having enough or losing what we have. Ideas about money seem to define who we think we are, and what we think about others.
What Is Love?
So we started touching a little bit, yesterday, on this word Love… and I know that this word has a lot of connotations and meanings. Most of those meanings seem to be about an experience of love, and of course I am not denying that there are experiences of love. Not denying any experience. And in fact that not denying any experience, is the Love that I am talking about.
Never Forgotten
From the confusion of a child whose extraordinary awareness of our oneness was never mirrored by the adults around her, to the young adult who traveled the world over searching for herself in various spiritual traditions and cathartic psychotherapies; Unmani’s search for the deepest truth finally came to an end with the realization that all thoughts, concepts, doubts, confusion, fears, and conditioning could never mean anything about her because it was all appearing in her.
The Feminine Expression of Non-Duality
To me the word nonduality has always felt so very dry and masculine. As a woman, although I am often called a nondual teacher, I have shied away from using this term much myself. The word ‘nonduality’ seems to have attracted a lot of men interested in playing with words and concepts rather than diving into the depths of feeling and sensation.
Die To Love
‘Die to Love’ is a paradox. Death is Love. Love is Death. This Love is not the conditional and personal love of relating, but the unconditional Love that is right now as this experience. Recognising that you are what is right now, is the death to the Love that you are.
Why Are We Afraid of Other People
Why is it that other people seem to hold the keys to your happiness? With just a look or a gesture, they can either give you everything you want or take it all away.
Knowing Who You Are is the Only Real Safety Net
Knowing who you are is the only safety net. In that net, everything happens. Knowing that it all comes and goes in that, there is the freedom to see all the ways in which we try to protect the false sense of who we think we are.
Is There Any Point In Practice?
When I was searching and longing for answers and a permanent resting place, I did believe that there was a need for practice. I did meditate intensely for a while and I did various energetic healing practices and therapy. At the time I did feel that I was getting some benefit from it.
