Adyashanti's Basic Teachings

[Outer]

I've watched Adyashanti's Basic Teachings p.1-2 and it's good, around 12 minutes into p.3. Gary Weber who is enlightened recommends Adya.

http://www.adyashanti.org/cafedharma/index.php?file=video

 

[Forestluv]

@Outer I've listened to them as well. I think they are wonderful for early awakenings.

[Joseph Maynor]

Adyashanti is one of my favorite Enlightenment teachers and he's a natural comedian as well.  He's very well-suited to do what he does.  When I watch him sometimes I see him as a comedian whose audience just so happens to be a bunch of Enlightenment students.  Apparently he was also an athlete when he was younger, he said so in one of his videos.

Edited November 8, 2018 by Joseph Maynor

[Forestluv]

3 minutes ago, Joseph Maynor said:

Adyashanti is one of my favorite Enlightenment teachers and he's a natural comedian as well.  He's very well-suited to do what he does.  When I watch him sometimes I see him as a comedian whose audience just so happens to be a bunch of Enlightenment students.  Apparently he was also an athlete when he was younger, he said so in one of his videos.

Yes, he was a talented rock climber and semi-professional cyclist.

He is brilliant at poking fun at the self. This can relax the personality and allow insights to appear.

[Outer]

@Charlotte

[peanutspathtotruth]

Same here, listened to it the first time about three years ago, then once or twice again since then. Always good to remind oneself of the basics  

[kieranperez]

23 hours ago, Serotoninluv said:

Yes, he was a talented rock climber and semi-professional cyclist.

As a serious athlete for ALL my life my favorite thing I’ve heard him say in an interview was when he was telling his story about how he dropped the whole athlete identity (which for those of you who aren’t athletes and never loved sports is HARD) and how he was in a bike race and he started having this question arise of “why am I out here? What am I doing?” And he would say in the interview “if you’re an athlete and you start asking ‘why am I really doing out here?’ Your career is over. Too much clarity,” and I just burst out laughing because of how accurate that’s been in my life and how fucking true and on point that is. 

[Forestluv]

@kieranperez I saw a video of Adyashanti saying that he continued to train as a competitive cyclist even after he awoken that it was just an identity - that it wasn't real or the true him. He said something to the effect that his mind-body still had to go through a process before it was ready to give up cycling. 

[kieranperez]

2 hours ago, kieranperez said:

(which for those of you who aren’t athletes and never loved sports is HARD)

@Serotoninluv that's why I emphasized that. I know the interview you're talking about (with conscioustv on YouTube). What he's saying is totally on point. The identity of an athlete, especially when you start getting really good and then really good is hard to give up. There's so much at play with that identity because that identity is really empowering in a very straightforward way. You're getting faster, stronger, etc. it's fucking hard to give that up. It's like when @Leo Gura talks about how hard it is to give up a very profitable business that earns you lots of money even though it's not authentic and maybe even unethical. At first I never understand the business analogy because I personally never had interest in business so I couldn't really see what would be so hard about dropping that until I connected the dots on how similar it is with me dropping my identification as an athlete. A lot of people like to use people like Peter Ralston as an analogy for just using enlightenment/spiritual/consciousness work to deepen their mastery in their sport. Yes, it can help you with that stuff no doubt about it. What happens though when your consciousness work and pursuit of Truth butts heads with your inauthentic motives in sport (which is most people I've found)? "Success" and improvement in sport tastes good. Sure it's healthier than most things psychologically speaking but it's still a dog chasing it's tail which is what keeps the game going. 

It's not the sport or activity that matters, it's how you relate to it. Ralston was genuinely drawn towards martial arts. Most people I've found aren't genuinely drawn to their sport... and that includes professional athletes. Which is what Adyashanti was talking about.