a place before the mind

Here is a quote by Adyashanti which reminds me of Michael Singer's ideas:

Realizing our deep, essential nature and finding the peace and happiness that lie there is not just something for ourselves; it's a gift to all of humanity. Because when we begin to become expressions of what's possible for anybody and everybody, we are contributing to the goodness at the very core of who each and everyone is. When we can relate to ourselves from stillness, from a place before the mind, then we can begin to relate to each other from that same place.    falling Into Grace p. 70

I have had a taste of this kind of relating (i.e., from the place of stillness, embodied love, peace...) and it is  so completely different from how most of us relate to ourselves and each other on a daily basis (i.e., through the lens of the ego/psyche).  During this brief episode I felt a sense of lightness and well-being without any judgment whatsoever.  Can you imagine how lovely it would be to live that way 24/7?  (Pick up Adyashanti's book Falling Into Grace where he talks about this as a real possibility for each of us.)

So whether we are talking about Adyashanti's "place before the mind" or Michael Singer's seat of the Self, when we relate to others from this place of peace and happiness we will be calling out to that same deepness in them.

As both Adyashanti and Michael talk about we access this place by being present in each moment with what is happening within ourselves and in our lives.  Said another way, we need to be willing to accept our life with all of it's inconveniences, frustrations, anxieties and hurts...without distracting ourselves or otherwise avoiding them.  I've been doing this work for a while and still I see how easy it is to avoid the inner discomfort.  But to do that is a decision based on fear not love...and I do not want fear running my life any longer.  So, I set the intention to face it all...the insecurities, fears, disappointments, losses etc.

I have worked with many people who say "I am in touch with my feelings, I feel a lot of anxiety."  What happens for many of us, however, is that we may feel the anxiety/anger/fear...and then we quickly find away to avoid or distract ourselves from the inner discomfort or we try to fix the situation so the discomfort goes away.  We may grab something to eat or drink, turn on the TV, go shopping, try to fix the other person, go for a run, pour ourselves into our work, ruminate about the situation in the hopes of coming up with a solution, or just stay angry.  There is another amazing book (yes I like to read!) called Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life by Steven Hayes, which talks about  how many of these coping skills help us to avoid inner discomfort in the short-run but they never allow us to get rid of the discomfort in the long-run.  The alternative is to feel the feeling and then find ways to "defuse" (or not get sucked into the drama of it) such as moving your awareness to the Observer.  As Adyashanti said this deep, inner peace is our "essential nature" and it is a matter of letting go of that which blocks us from experiencing this truth.  

To summarize, we want to relate to ourselves and others from this deep place of peace, love and happiness.  And as we do so we give others the opportunity to make a shift in their own consciousness.  The way to reach this deep place is by moving beyond the blockages, the ego or self-image that we have created. We do this by staying present with each moment, noticing how the psyche has been hooked, and then letting it go by moving our awareness to the Observer.

I am really enjoying Adyashanti's book, falling into Grace, and I will be focusing more on this book as well as ideas from The Untethered Soul.