BEST PRACTICE: Daring to Transform

Mon, 06/02/2008 - 11:39am — spiritandhealth
Issue: 
2008 March/April
Article Type: 
Column

I don’t think that you have to get all your inner stuff together and totally integrated before you can actually be what you’ve realized. You’re going to wait forever if you wait for that. Just start being what you know now. That’s a scary thing for people, because all of a sudden we come out of hiding — and then everything comes out of hiding. Even for people who’ve had an authentic awakening and realized truth, it can be scary. Maybe they’ve had a relationship that really hasn’t had truth in it. There are a lot of things that have not been discussed and those things we’ve pushed away into the corners. Now we have an awakening and those things we’ve pushed into the corners are just glaring at us. Are we going to keep pushing them into corners? If you keep pretending that things aren’t there that you know are there, you’ll slip right out of your awakened state.

It might be frightening to totally come out of hiding, because who knows what’s going to happen now? Am I going to keep my relationship? Am I going to keep my job? Are my friends going to like me? There will be certain areas where it feels very risky, like there’s quite a lot at stake. But there must be an absolute willingness to be totally truthful with yourself and with everybody.

Adyashanti

Excerpted from Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation in Everyday Life by Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, Cassandra Vieten, Tina Amorok New Harbinger Publications, Inc. Jan. 2008, $16.95

WEEKENDS OF TRANSFORMATION

The new book Living Deeply reports on a 10-year research project at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) exploring the art and science of human transformation. The project distills the wisdom and experience of more than 60 teachers, such as Adyashanti, representing many traditions. To help spread the information, IONS and S&H are sponsoring three weekend workshops. These are opportunities to learn to notice catalysts, windows of opportunity, and moments pregnant with transformative potential, large and small. Join us in Los Angeles, May 3; Petaluma, California, May 23 to 25; or Chicago, June 6 to 8. For more information, go to SpiritualityHealth.com/workshops.