I’ve been noticing something slightly disturbing about spiritual teachings. For any teaching to survive, it has to attract people. And to attract people, it almost always has to offer some kind of “goodie”. Freedom from suffering.A better life.Authenticity.Peace.Enlightenment. Something the ego wants. Because if a teacher simply stood up and said: “Let’s pursue truth for its own sake, even if it destroys everything you believe and gives you nothing in return.” Almost nobody would show up. So teachings package truth with incentives. Even teachers who deeply care about truth still have to do this. Take Peter Ralston as an example and this community. This work clearly points toward something very serious. But notice how the entry points are things like improving your life, ending suffering, authentic experience, workshops, courses, books, etc. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s probably unavoidable. It just reveals something about us as humans. Most people don’t come for truth. They come for something they want. And maybe, if they stay long enough, truth sneaks in. Which brings me to the funny part: Even writing this post… I can see the same mechanism in myself. Part of me genuinely wants to explore this dynamic. And another part of me hopes people resonate, like it, comment on it… so I can collect enough points to reach Level 2 in this community. So even this reflection isn’t free from the same incentive structure. Which makes me wonder: Is it actually possible to communicate truth without any incentive attached to it at all? Or is some level of “goodie” always part of the game? -Talat

I noticed that when I think about others, I'm only interacting with my thoughts about others. That's how far our relationships go. Yet there is a different way of connecting with others: I notice they are 'in the same place' where I am. It is the same formless seat of our being, unchanged and unlocated. In that seat, we are identical. What follows is an appreciation of this sameness, which I want to call Love. All I can do from that position is simply be That which dreams both of us. So I got curious: is this love? What is love in your experience?

A spiritual "teaching" assumes a separate individual that needs improvement: That needs to become more conscious, as that is what seems to be the only worthwhile Endeavour; to live with integrity, become whole and complete, in the end. That seems to be common sense, solid and true. Now at the same time it is true that you are whole and complete already; there is nothing wrong with you. It's a paradox. As long as this person is experienced as a separate being (this IS you) , with a life and a history and (hopefully) a future in which there is a striving towards a goal of enlightenment, or being bad ass conscious...there is not a chance you will get what is longed for. Sad but true. You will never get it. It is in this context a bit silly to say that you never existed, nor did anyone ever. In this immediacy that cannot be explained, understood or made sense of, such a statement is silly; you are boundless, infinite existence that does not exist and is nothing appearing to be you. But this is true freedom in which everything is always new.

After the EUS workshop: 1. The first thing I got was; waking up the next day with “I am responsible”. It was an insight into my problem of “not being able to choose”. That problem disappeared. The instruction I then gave myself, “to always contemplate from not knowing” opened up the possibility to be active; walk and think without letting that activity distract me from my contemplation. I realized that my body had never distracted me from having an insight or a breakthrough before, so why would my mind distract me? It’s just there. It’s happening as by itself, while there is room for not knowing what its is. That was a cool thought that helped me a lot. 2. Then I came across the concept of “open waiting” and at a certain point the “me” disappeared completely. It became clear, by an apparent deep relaxation of the body that there was no one here. That it was complete and absolute immediately, and that it can never be an experience because it already is as it is. It was a “jezus-f**king-hell” moment lol. A lot of the ideas, sentences, reminders or explanations I had been reading/ hearing about make sense. Like that ‘there is no proces’, or that ‘stuff is not real’ this whole “consciousness babble” that was always interesting to me, but would never bring me into this. Duh..Of course everything is referenced to me! It IS me.” The “me” story shows up as a contraction in the body, always trying to know, to figure out, to have an answer. It is endles, always 'going' somewhere lol and I could call it in itself ‘suffering’ because it is always looking for something else. At the moment it seems silly to dive deeper into the stuff I am NOT conscious of what it is, but not resisting it either. Hanging out. “Open waiting” is a good description. Let’s see where this goes. Thanks Brendan for the facilitation, Peter for the materials and participants for their sharing! Guido

Special thanks to @Ethan Martin for joining the call yesterday. In case you missed it here's the recording. See you in the next one!