Do you know who you are? Not just who you THINK you are, but who you REALLY are?
A Taste of Truth was the topic of our Monthly Tantra Talk. “Truth” is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart. As a storyteller, a theater director and a public figure on a reality TV show, I find it important to constantly interrogate the stories that I’m telling myself and others. The line between subjective and objective truth can be a slippery one, which I love to examine with an age old yoga practice called: Self Inquiry.
As usual, we kicked off the Tantra Talk with fun icebreakers, a meditation, talking circle and then I got to discuss my all time favorite tantric meditation which I’ve been doing at by Enlightenment intensives over the last 7 years. Not everyone believes that enlightenment is possible. It has been universally assumed that enlightenment is necessarily preceded by a long, hard struggle, and available only to a dedicated few. But this is a new Era. Consciousness is accelerating, and by combining the ancient meditation on ‘Who am I’ with potent modern communication tools, the Enlightenment Intensive has a record of leading people to enlightened within one week-end! Since the origination of this process in California over 37 years ago, thousands of sincere truth seekers in over 40 countries around the world, have a taste of enlightenment in under 4 days.
The basic meditation takes approx 40 minutes and is called a “Dyad” because it involves two people doing self-inquiry and it was developed by Charles Burner. The technique is simple, but the results are profound!
The dyad process:
One partner asks the other their question and listens
intently without any response. The “talking” partner seeks
a direct experience and reports it to their partner.This continues for several minutes when, in response
to a bell or chime, the “talking” partner becomes the
“listening” partner for several more minutes. This goes
deeper and deeper for up to 40 minutes before resuming
with another partner. Through this process participants
may have a direct experience of the true nature of the self.
The premise of this meditation is that True Self is essentially free and connected to the way of the universe. The barrier to such a direct experience of reality is our attachment to intellectual conclusions about reality: our judgments, projections, preconceptions, and conditioned beliefs; even our analytical and logical faculties.
The following excerpt from my Tantra novel entitled: Don’t drink the Punch: an Adventure in Tantra, was inspired from my transformative experiences at the Enlightenment Intensives. This scene takes place at an ashram in India where one of the devotees is channeling teachings from a disembodied guru named Das:
“There is one question that rises out of awakened consciousness. It is the same question you were born asking yourself. It penetrates beyond words into pure experience. The most direct path toward Self-realization: simply ask yourself:
‘Who am I?’ It’s not like an intellectual question to which there is an intellectual answer. No, it’s much deeper.
‘Who am I?’ “It is the only important question. All other questions are peripheral.
Who am I? It has a magical power to it, like a mantra or an incantation. This question opens you directly to the energy of the divine eternal Self, the part of you that is God. In Sanskrit, it’s called Jiva or Atma. It’s the part of you that has always been with you, and will always be with you. “In the West, it’s called the soul, but the concept is not as clear.
People have fear-based notions that if they really contemplate this question, they’ll become selfish or self-centered. You see, in the West, there’s a huge emphasis on individuality. People seek be different and stand out. Instead of pursuing oneness, Westerners often pursue unique expression. They over identify with their possessions: the car and house and clothes that make them different. You can get stuck on who you think you are or how others see you, but this is not your eternal nature.
“Asking this one question takes you beyond your self-concept and allows all those mental trappings to fall away. Who are you beyond your clothes, name, and ethnicity? Who are you beyond your gender and even beyond your chakras? What is your true nature? Dive whole-heartedly into this question and you will find a doorway, directly to the divine, to the part of you that is absolute and real.”
I hope you experience as much pleasure out of this practice as much as I do. Blessings to you, who ever you are!
PS We will be taking a 3 month break from all events, to work on our next big media project, and the next Tantra Talk will be held on July 11th, 2013. See you there!
