Wisdom from Adya
I don’t typically post material from other living teachers,
but I greatly admire Adyashanti,
and a student of mine sent this quote of his to me recently.
I find that I “can’t not” print it.
The book it’s taken from really meant a lot to me.
~Fred
In my case, which I think is similar for many, many people, the greatest solvent for ego is found within our lives, the fabric of our existence, the grit of what’s actually happening in our everyday experience. I find that this is often overlooked within the context of spirituality. Many of us are using our spirituality as a way to avoid life, to avoid seeing things we really need to see, to avoid being confronted with our own misunderstandings and illusions. It is very important to know that life itself is often our greatest teacher. Life is full of grace, sometimes it’s wonderful grace, beautiful grace, moments of bliss and happiness and joy, and sometimes it’s fierce grace, like illness, losing a job, losing someone we love, or a divorce. Some people make the greatest leaps in their consciousness when addiction has them on their knees, for example, and they find themselves reaching out for a different way of being. Life itself has a tremendous capacity to show us truth, to wake us up. And yet, many of us avoid this thing called life, even as it is attempting to wake us up. The divine itself is life in motion. The divine is using the situations of our lives to accomplish its own awakening, and many times it takes the difficult situations to wake us up.”
~ Adyashanti
The End of Your World
November 6, 2016 @ 5:21 pm
“And we’ll get it (in this case the above) WHEN we get it!” is one of the kindness pointers (reminders – i always like hearing, like being reminded to notice my breath). As maddening as it might be while we’re “trying” to get it (and maybe really hoping we can be “made” to get it), part of us IS getting it (that it’s about the letting and the not fighting and then something already here can dawn on me).
Because it turns out our experiences comes, in a sense, from Not accepting the grace. And THAT resulting experience has the “louder” grace to just notice THAT new experience (and ever louder, such as addiction). We start where we find ourselves, because that’s the same place/time where we accept we ARE Grace. That’s why examples such as addicts and felons can show so much grace. It’s the contrast that can be mystifying, from the side of not having found ourselves yet. The deep grooves we cut in resisting grace, instantly can be like the grooves in records when listened to from Grace. And I’ll get that when (or AS) I get it!
Amazing Grace was written by a former slave-trading ship’s captain. How’s that for contrast?!
November 6, 2016 @ 8:45 pm
The suffering and powerlessness cut down the ego, which is why we want to run from it. But in facing it we can lose the ego and make room for the Self.
November 6, 2016 @ 11:25 pm
I had this one in my archive. This one is ….no words….. thank you for posting it.