Speaking at SAND 18 Dorothy Hunt reminds us that duality, humanity, is not a mistake; it is what makes it possible for the infinite ground of being to see itself, to love itself, to have the experience called form. Our freedom is the freedom to be here, not to transcend form, but to be human as well as divine.
Spiritual seekers often imagine that awakened living means ridding ourselves of our humanness, or that nondual awareness is somehow at odds with its own expression as human beingness. Egoic thought imagines that “it” is what will become ever-present, compassionate and loving, and so continually falls short in its attempt to become what it will never become. Presence, compassion, and unconditional love are already here in our deepest essence, the Heart of Awareness that we share. Awakened living realizes that the Absolute and the relative dimensions of our Being are simply “not-two.” In such seeing, we honor what is already whole and undivided as well as its infinite expressions as life. Through discussion and experiential invitations, we will explore Presence and personhood, and look at ways to approach our inner struggles by not separating ourselves from them yet being willing to look deeply at where we are divided. We often need reminding, “Without mud, there is no lotus.”
