There’s a new conversation emerging in spirituality today. What was relevant thousands of years ago is not so relevant today. People are asking new questions that challenge the traditional view of the spiritual path as a turning away from worldly activity. People want to know what it means to awaken in the midst of ordinary life: Can we awaken out of the dream of separation when relationship triggers us? What happens to sex in awakening? Is there such a thing as an enlightened relationship? Does physical health and well-being matter in awakening? Are work and spirituality incompatible? How do we live selflessly in the modern world? Does the ego die and how can we function in the world without an ego? How can money and spirituality be friends? And so on. This is uncharted territory.
As we take steps towards this exploration, what’s emerging is a whole new relationship to life that gives birth to a whole human being — one that is both fully awake and fully human. To be fully awake is to be empty of identification with form, to stop giving your allegiance to the story of “me”, to know yourself as undivided silence and to allow this silence to emanate through you as the invisible light of unbounded awareness. To be fully human is to embrace 100% the bittersweetness of the earthly experience and surrender wholeheartedly to the waves of life as they pour into you and through you, to allow life to break your heart wide open so that compassion becomes the ground of your being, and to stop trying to avoid or transcend anything in order to “be spiritual”. To be fully awake and fully human is to know emptiness as fullness, and fullness as emptiness.
Perhaps you have touched this paradox in moments of unspeakable stillness amidst the turbulence of life, or when resistance to what is unbearable totally falls away. It’s the inexplicable recognition of nonduality within duality, the ultimate cosmic joke that resounds across the universe as “the peace that passeth all understanding”. When this unconditional laugh lands in your belly, the spiritual search is over. You simply become a lover of what is.
Amoda Maa is a spiritual teacher and author. She offers meetings and retreats, and is a frequent speaker at conferences and events, attracting spiritual seekers and people looking for peace and fulfillment in an increasingly chaotic world. Her teachings are free of religion and tradition, and she brings to them a deep understanding of the human journey. Amoda Maa is the author of Radical Awakening and Embodied Enlightenment. She will be presenting at SAND17 US. http://www.amodamaa.com
