The spiritual journey almost always starts from a very personal motivation: I want to find some peace; "I want to know God; I want to get enlightened, I want to stop this busy mind," and so on. But if we take it far enough, to our surprise we may discover that it is not personal at all. We may discover that if it is indeed all One, it is not personal.

These Body/Mind organisms that we inhabit are subject to all kinds of abuses: illness, injury, aging, loss of memory, rejection, disappointment, emotional stress and so on. And then, of course, there is the cessation of this physical form looming out there in the future somewhere. What's not to feel anxious about?​ The question naturally arises: Is there anything that is inherently free of these anxiety causing aspects of Life?

How much of your life energy is devoted to seeking the next experience intended to satisfy the demand for more or better? What is the anticipated payoff and is that hoped-for payoff ever fully realized? If so, for how long. As disturbing as such questions may be, it is fundamental to one's spiritual journey to see the nature and fallacy of these attractions.

It is useful (and shocking) to realize how thoroughly conditioned we all are. It may feel so ingrained that we believe, "Well, that's just who I am." But it is only through seeing clearly the nature and extent and consequences of this conditioning, does it become possible to discover the unconditioned, untainted beingness that we truly are"

Naturally, we often seek in the spirit of what can I gain, such as more peace, more equanimity, and more joy. So, it is somewhat counter-intuitive to ask, "What have I got to lose?" However, it is sometimes necessary to jettison the non-essential to find true peace, equanimity and joy.

From where does compassion arise? We have all heard that compassion is a commendable spiritual virtue, but for whose benefit are we practicing? As long as we believe we are separate from others, the distinction can be blurred. This session will explore the nuances of compassion to discover the heart of the matter of caring for our fellow humans and, indeed, the planet.

We can spend a great deal of life energy trying to avoid the very thing that will free us to live this life wholeheartedly. When we are willing to look inside beneath all the layers of self-identification, what do you find? It has been compared to peeling an onion, layer by layer until...

We may develop attachments to possessions, people or circumstances that we believe are essential for our peace and happiness. In spirituality we may hear that it is desirable to be free of attachments and try to do that.  But why would we want to give up something that we value? A: Only if it is a strategy to gain something we want even more! Enlightenment perhaps? But that would only be exchanging the object of our attachment. Hence the dilemma.

Certainty means wearing blinders, while uncertainty opens us to possibilities that we might not now be aware of. Operating from certainty about how things are or should be is functioning from the known, that is, from the past. With uncertainty, there is no firm ground to stand on, which leaves us aware, alert and receptive to what may actually be happening. But is it practical to live from uncertainty?

Life is not holding anything back; it is doing everything possible to awaken us. It is we alone that create and perpetuate the arguments that deafen us. We can either blame life or investigate our arguments with life. Outcomes differ.

Our thoughts are like the play-by-play announcers at the football game: we watched the play ourselves and then the announcers tell us what happened. After a while most of us trust our thoughts more than what actually happened. But are the thoughts even our thoughts and can they be trusted to tell us the truth of what Life is really about? This inquiry is at the very heart of spirituality.

Who doesn't enjoy bliss when it comes our way? And there is nothing wrong with enjoying it when it does. So then what could possibly be misguided about seeking bliss?

Most of us are quite certain that there is an individual separate self that we call “me,” but when we make a concerted effort to locate such a self we find it surprisingly elusive. We find telltale debris in the form of thoughts, feelings and memories, but there is a curious absence as to the originator of such effects. We tend to dismiss these direct observations in favor of the presumption that “I” must be in there somewhere. This territory is rich with surprises.

For most of us, the word "devotion" can conjure up various feelings depending on what we take the word to mean. Perhaps, it is easier to ask the direct question: "To what are we devoted?" An honest way to answer this question is not by what we think we are devoted to, but rather how we spend our time & life energy? Our true answer is observable. We are then free to ask the follow-up question: "Is that what we really want?

The enlightenment that we seek is already present. St. Francis said the same 800 years ago. The 17th Century Zen Master Bankei called it the Unborn. The difficulty is that we may not know the truth of such statements for ourselves. It is reasonable, therefore, to ask what are we doing to un-enlighten ourselves? If we knew what that was and stopped doing it, our inherent, already present awakeness would be revealed.

Phenomenal duality is easy to see: up & down, light & dark, right & wrong, birth & death. It seems to be how our minds try to make sense of things by dividing and comparing. But then there is the more fundamental duality of me and everything else and the even more fundamental duality of the observer and the observed. Where is the reality in this house of mirrors?

We demand peace out in the world but refuse it within ourselves. If we wait for the world to be to our satisfaction, we will wait a very long time. We can do what we can to relieve suffering out in the world, of course, but the question remains: "what needs to change within myself in order to realize peace here and now?

We may meditate for years, go on retreats, maybe even notice the ever-present quality of awareness, and yet still hesitate. “Yes, I have glimpsed awareness, but how do I know I can really trust it?” The thinking mind can conjure up an endless list of doubts and questions. Any one is enough to obscure that formless purity, much like a hand that is held in front of our face can obscure the enormity of the Sun. What will it take to go all in – into the embrace of the Divine?

A dialogue with Don Oakley and a participant on retreat about Trying to Control the Thinking Mind and working with desires.

In spirituality, we may presume that we are on a path to a distant goal. It is true, on a human level, that there is always more “becoming” to do. There is no end to that. However, in the meantime, this mysterious ever-present beingness is already a done deal. It has never been absent, nor could it be – regardless of whatever we may have done or not done. It is what we are – prior to any idea of ourselves that we may hold. It is purity itself.