The Always and Already

“Generally, once during each retreat I try to give a talk that's aimed exclusively for anybody who wants to awaken.”  - Adyashanti

There is an extremely common tendency in spirituality to be pursuing or waiting for an awakening experience to come along. Yet this anticipation is the very barrier to awakening. In this focused and rich retreat talk, Adyashanti guides you to remove the clouded and unconscious layers of identification, grasping, and resistance so that the light of your always-and-already presence of being can shine through.

Topics Include:

• An Essential Spiritual Orientation
• The Trap of Anticipating Awakening
• The Common Denominator of All Experiences
• When the Witness Collapses
• “Lights On” Awareness
• That Which Can’t Be Lost
• Mature Spiritual Realization
• Psychological Processing vs. Spiritual Awakening

Quotes from this Download:

“Probably the most useful place to start regarding awakening is to get the orientation straight, because if you don't get the orientation straight, you can spin your wheels for years in spiritual frustration.”

“Spirituality is about getting out of the conceptual realm of spiritual fantasy and theology. It’s a deep exploration of the direct experience of being. It’s not an attempt to escape the direct experience of being, which is often what’s happening.”

“The ego is completely addicted to experience. It’s an ‘I want that.’ It’s like an immature lover.”

“The only thing that notices awareness is awareness. The idea that you are somehow back there behind it doing the awareness is the fundamental illusion.”

“The funny thing about ‘the witness’ is there is no ‘the’—there’s just witnessing.”

“What it means to be in the present moment is to not look outside of what’s presently occurring right now. Look into the nature of what’s presently occurring.”

“At the root of reality, all of the opposites seem to come together. Formless awareness is the mountains, clouds, and sky. And the mountains, clouds, and sky are formless awareness.”

Please Note: This recording was originally published in the download set: Silent Retreat Vol. 63: Mt. Madonna 2018 ~ Talks

Recorded in Watsonville, California on February 27, 2018.
© 2018 by Adyashanti. All rights reserved.