Full Circle Enlightenment

"In the beginning, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. And then, mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no longer rivers. And, finally, mountains are once again mountains and rivers are once again rivers."

In an illuminating retreat talk, Adyashanti offers clarifying insight into this well-known Zen phrase. He reveals how realizing absolute reality is enlightenment, but it's not the whole of it. He shows how the enlightenment journey matures and comes full circle, where true nature awakens within the ordinary domain of our relative humanness.

Topics Include:

• Reflections on the Mountains and Rivers Sutra 
• Infinite Causality
• The Fuller Meaning of Interconnectedness 
• All of History Is in Now 
• The Compulsion to Identify 
• Seeing into the Emptiness of Things
• Recognizing Everything as God 
• Divinity in the Ordinary    

Quotes:

“This moment is the outcome of infinite varieties of causes and effects throughout all space and time. We don’t have a number high enough to account for the influences that shape any instance.” 

“The cause of anything that’s ever happened is the cause of everything that’s ever happened.” 

“What is it that endlessly looks to define ourselves?” 

“How are you going to move in a world where everything is God?” 

“Freedom is where nothing is left out.” 

“Abide in non-abiding. Don’t land anywhere.” 

“Sitting with a cup of tea is as much awakening as the biggest experience that ever happened.” 

“In the end, it's as if you have one foot in eternity and the other foot in the relative world. In eternity, it's all connected sameness and it's perfect, even with all its absolute horror and disaster, as well as beauty. There is something that is perfect about it—perfect, not as a philosophical statement, but as an experience of being. The other foot is in relative reality.”

Please Note: This recording was originally published in the download set: Silent Retreat Vol. 77 ~ Talks: Asilomar December 2019.

Recorded at Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, California on December 5, 2019.
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