Seeing Through Your Own Illusions (Excerpt)

Adya advises that you strengthen your spiritual muscles by watching your own patterns, conditioning, and illusions which tend to cause you pain, and consciously make new choices. Excerpted from December 16, 2015, Broadcast, “Exploring Revelatory Moments”: bit.ly/3Txzm3A
KZbin MEMBERSHIP INVITATION: Join Adyashanti’s KZbin community at the BASIC MEMBERSHIP level and get access to the full-length video of THIS TALK plus OTHER FULL-LENGTH TEACHINGS every month. / adyashanti
Quote from this Video: “One of the most important things to realize in spiritual work is that there are spiritual muscles or capacities of consciousness and attention that in so many of us human beings are atrophied out of misuse or disuse.” adyashanti.org

[@GratefulZen]

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.”-T. S. Eliot

[@dudidas4]

So beautifully in tune with Adya's talk Could you please tell me where it's taken from?

[@GratefulZen]

@@dudidas4 a quote by T. S. Eliot from Little Giddings. The quote is a meditation on the journey of life, and a reminder that the quest for understanding is never-ending. It also suggests that many profound discoveries often lie within ourselves and our origins, not in distant lands

[@dudidas4]

Beautiful T.S Eliot is amazing Thanks !

[@rul4522]

This is exactly what my teacher said n a talk.

[@SuperSwagBr0]

It is so true.. you are born a child, think and or conditioned to believe you’re not a child, then through that struggle and confusion you come back to being a child once more

[@Always-There]

“Wherever you find Yourself… Stay. Go neither inside nor outside.” A quote from Abhinavagupta who lived in Kashmir about 1000 years ago. This great video reminded me of that.

[@clinttoner6239]

Wow. Adya has such a gift for making complexity easier to understand. A rare rare gift. Thank you !

[@Ionica777ful]

It always surprises me when humans can be on the “same page” like this. All he says is familiar to me.

[@Islaras]

same 😭

[@Jivano84]

Beautiful words Adya! Thank you 🙏

[@renakmans3521]

This captures the highest step most of us need to practice. 🙏❤️

[@celinef3551]

Thank You! I love how your messages are straight, concise and simple. 🙏💜

[@msd1531]

Thank you for confirming my understanding and practice of Spirituality. If I may put it another way - "be yourself" for you are the knower, not the thinker.

[@Will_14_years_ago]

I got it,and I lost it. That video was me. It wasn't but it was. I've watched adashanti ever since,what an amazing being.

[@ksale22]

Thank you. Much love 🙏

[@foxdenham]

My take, is that 'decision' is the amalgamation of 'Choice' and 'No Choice'. Both reside in the profound mystery of becoming 'both' and 'neither'. They stand at either side of the present moment, almost like they are just about to plop into alignment with 'the now'. Nudging us out of duality and into oneness. So pick whichever word/door floats your boat and step towards, or simply realise, 'What Is'.🙏

[@kimbirch1202]

We can only know Truth , by negating the illusions of ego.

[@Jo.And-so-on]

Thank you for this clear explanation. This is a key🙏🌼

[@AriElfyn]

‘It’s not a matter of belief, it’s just knowledge…but you have to decide to do it ; to make it a discipline, to start make different choices - and you will feel something in you resisting that because you’ve made the same choices for decades (your conditioning …). And you’re not trying to defeat your conditioning, not even trying to get rid of it, you’re just in the moment making a different choice than the one that’s habitual - which will seem the easiest because it’s the one you’re programmed with. But you just start making these little moments of decision a hundred times a day. This isn’t complex- it’s doing something very simple with great consistency. (…) What do I want to be devoted to right now, and what HAVE I been devoted to? Eye-opening when you start to see that you’ve been devoted to inward choices that cause so much pain.’ Ouch, and thank you Adya. I was actually just going to quote the difference between belief and knowledge (or knowing…just a word I prefe, somehow less intellectual) because it’s so central, and then found myself (once again) transcribing the whole thing (supposedly for myself, as a reminder, but I’ve decided to leave it here in the comments, disobeying the censor as a gesture of my willingness to choose differently) - and then he reached that point, about realising you’ve actually been DEVOTED to the cause of your own suffering; not a new idea but there was something about the phrasing… I’d been reflecting about it just prior to this coming up in my feed - the fact that when our brains are forming, we make gods of our parents, or more to the point, create belief systems and whole cosmologies due to the survival-based need to make meaning of what’s happening. And so that phrasing was very poignant for me, and also helped something very important to ‘land’ in a new way…I’ve literally been *devoted* to obeying lies - in spite of knowing that’s what they are - out of the same kind of fear of ‘hell’ that has made people obey the dictates of religion for centuries. In this case, it’s really about trying to stop something that’s already happened. The fact that it’s impossible doesn’t stop the ego from trying. It’s made the knowledge that I need to choose differently much more urgent- indeed, imperative. I need to devote myself to the truth (and therefore walk my talk, seeing as I always say that’s what matters most to me). And it helps to think of it as a discipline, and that it doesn’t matter if I ‘get it wrong’ (something I’m still always trying to avoid even though I know I can’t) - because I’m bound to, but in a different way to the previous helpless phrasing, if I’m reprogramming a system that’s pretty hardwired. The extent of the trauma meant I didn’t even know choice was an OPTION until a few years ago, unbelievably, so perhaps I can decide to be a bit kinder to myself. And to think of discipline in the truest sense - like something a loving parent knows their child needs (especially because my neurodivergent brain resists it, heheh, and makes it out to be disciplinarian instead. Clever ego…). Thank you Adya for making the complex simple yet again - even if I’ve gone and complicated it - and cutting through the resistance created by the patterns that think they’re keeping me alive from a threat that ended decades ago (obviously, I’ll need to remember this again and again and again - that helps too because my internal critic berates me mercilessly for not just getting it.) I love the way you can hear the same kind of thing almost countless times but then suddenly hear it almost for the first time, or with fresh ears (that sounds wrong 🤔😅). Or perhaps it’s simply about the readiness he talks about at the start…🙏

[@galah771]

A particularly deep and powerful one of Adya's videos.

[@eequalsemceeprayer]

💯 All of Adya's teachings resonate with such lucidity for me, but this one has such wonderfully profound practical utility. Powerful and deep indeed. Gratitude. Om

[@Islaras]

I share the feeling. This one is so practical.

[@DavidRivera-wr4up]

Very good! 👏I totally agree! And thanks for the reminder 🙏

[@altnarrative]

Thank you for this. Exactly what I needed. 🙏

[@richardsnyder6413]

Great pointers, Thank you 🙏 ❤

[@itsmejanny]

Bless you, Adya, for all you have done for so many years to inspire us to remember our True Nature. Your pointings to Self have helped me and consistently remind me to rest in what is always Present. Sending happy thoughts that your retirement is joyful.

[@francesbarker5292]

Gratitude as always for your simple and profound pointings. Deeply appreciate your presence in my life xxx

[@zerkton2648]

So good ❤

[@p.l.champs6505]

Thanks a lot. Î’ll try not to forget to practice that.

[@johndempsey6142]

Thank you for this. 🙏 Been struggling with addictions lately and trying to find spiritually grounded practical advice and found this clip, which honestly should be shown in rehab centers. Thank you for being genuine and speaking about more than just attracting material junk.

[@aaronhatefi7897]

Thank you for sharing these quick insights

[@ecovolved]

Thank you for your clarity

[@yepsme21]

My oh my ... thank you for that simple clarity.

[@yepsme21]

Broken wings? learn to fly, learn to sing. My oh my. .... Thanks for the candle Adya.

[@ParityASMR]

Oblivion that we notice is not true oblivion. True oblivion comes from never caring enough to take the time to look within. If you have the genuine desire to reach mental parity you will take to the actions necessary to arrive in the direct presence of being.

[@barbrathompson9798]

Thank you 🎉 I will use this in future ❤

[@patviva9212]

Thank you so much Ady .

[@Islaras]

How is this so timely? I just began training myself to develop different habits. All this talk about conditioning and consistency is so damn relevant. Thanks Adya ❤

[@SScherliss]

Now that you tube and other platforms offer many earnest followers of non dual teaching expressing their understanding it is important to acknowledge the shortcoming of the intellect in its attempt to claim credit for comprehending a piece of the unbound inseparable unobtainable All. understanding is a necessary it seems contraction in the process of expanding beyond the limits of the mind. An attempt to integrate infinite experience into finite being. Fortunately something even more essential than that, witness it IS The Knowing before and after our personal experiences that moves us into the unknown and the unknowable . Thank you Adya for giving that a voice .

[@DaleCrommie]

A fearless moral inventory.🔥❤️

[@Darkpheria]

Gratitude.

[@_missreverie_]

Thank you adya. 💚🙏🏾

[@wisheswarmly8647]

so amazing .

[@Jack-Australia]

Thank you!

[@Mariuszzboczek-ok6dc]

Thanks a lot

[@Niki-uk333]

Thank you ❤

[@lindaszlagowski8888]

Great pointer😮😊

[@rupalim8565]

Thank you 🙏

[@rajneeshmilarepa6090]

thank you

[@jakihall7015]

😊 amazing

[@sophiajp1]

Thanks 🙏🏼❤️

[@Lucyfer619]

thanks

[@emmaluciaev1938]

Following my breath

[@kimulm0619]

Be the observer.❤

[@SnakeAndTurtleQigong]

🙏

[@kimbirch1202]

We certainly dont have a choice about truth, or Reality, as it is a given thing.

[@rayhilchey6706]

Listening to this as the sun rises outside my Window this morning raises my awarenes of the miracle of light. Can you dercribe that light in words? I myself cannot yet I am are of it

[@viviennecarty2418]

❤

[@cosmosaic8117]

It’s like Alchemy

[@msbeecee1]

🙏 🙏 🙏

[@pb2970]

🙏🙏❤

[@kimbirch1202]

There must be something within us that doesnt want peace, joy freedom and love . Could that be guilt , and self - hatred ?

[@TerryFimbres]

Catch Kiss Let Go!

[@nickbaigent2714]

Beautiful, so glad you didn’t retire after all Adya. But…could you give some advice on where to draw the line?. Is there even a line? I mean act only on some thoughts, which ones? the practical ones? But where do I draw the line? My mind says that ALL my thoughts are practical.

[@billusher2265]

he did retire, these are clipped from old videos

[@Adyashanti]

@nickbaigent2714 - Sorry to disappoint, but Adyashanti retired from teaching in October 2023. This video was excerpted from an online broadcast he gave in 2015. Adya doesn't read or respond to comments. However, his wife, Mukti, is a teacher in his lineage. She offers a free live online broadcast once a month, during which she responds to questions submitted via email. If you would like Mukti to address your question, you can send it to [e-mail]. Her next broadcast will be on Wednesday, May 8. Here is a link to more information: mukti.opengatesangha.org/programs/online/broadcasts/ ~ Amy from the Open Gate Sangha Support Team

[@nickbaigent2714]

@@billusher2265 oh 😔

[@nickbaigent2714]

@@Adyashanti many thanks for that Amy. I’ll do that 🙏

[@lauragibson777]

💖🙏

[@elisabethk7103]

❤❤🙏

[@kimbirch1202]

Great to hear a voice of sanity in this crazy world. My only question is how can we be aware of what is UNCONSCIOUS ?

[@windmonk3233]

"Forget the question.. follow your breath" any question to 'help' is just another hook of the mind to keep you within the mind. ❤️🙏

[@kimbirch1202]

@windmonk3233 It's impossible to awaken without asking for help from enlightened sources, as the ego is a closed illusory thought system. All religions use prayer .❤️

[@kimbirch1202]

@windmonk3233 Following the breath in meditation is a concentration exercise , and although brings about calm abiding, this can only be temporary. 90% of the mind is unconscious, and it is actually the unconscious ego mind running the whole show. Specifically guilt. The whole world, according to Christ is a projection of unconscious guilt and fear, which is why forgiveness of sin is the remedy. 🙏

[@windmonk3233]

@@kimbirch1202 Mind says "it's impossible to awaken..." Mind says "following breath...can only be temporary" Many movements of the mind to keep oneself within its own realm. If you believe the mind then it will most certainly feel true and experience it to be true. Simple, relaxed and direct perception of what's actually going on, without believing the movements or interpretations of the mind. 👁

[@kimbirch1202]

@windmonk3233 The Buddha knew that Mindfulness of breathing could only get one so far, which is why he developed Vipassana. Yet , only very few have the time and inclination to meditate all day, for years, like Adyashanti, in a monastery. ACIM proposes a different path.

[@Corteum]

Is seeing through ones own illusions the same as seeing through shared or collective illusions? does it operate on the same principle?

[@trevorfurness5695]

A fun suggestion, why not decided, right now, to discover whether or not there is choice- your choice!

[@windmonk3233]

It is indeed a fun suggestion. Different minds are always great ways to learn in life. Some minds are beautiful, others are destructive. Your mind is one of the beautiful things there is. ❤🙏

[@trevorfurness5695]

@@windmonk3233 Oh thank you so much! I've just remembered- it takes one to know one! Bless you Windmonk3233......

[@jayyaj53]

does he have book that expound on this idea? 2:06

[@Sylar-451]

Are you the same Adyashanti from the Waking Up app??!? ❤

[@ostentatiouscat899]

Yes

[@gameofthrones5655]

Jep...its the job and only job 2 be worthy called a job...lol. The rabbit hole can run deep...as Buddha said: Gate gate paragate...parasamgate...bodhi svaha. My heart Self Satguru said...never stop anywhere and when u arrived...noone have 2 tell u;)). Be devoted 2 ur Heartself only...the mind= indeed a liar and blind without a Master in the house as Gurujideff also mentioned... . I ❤Ramana...Nisargadatta...Gurpreet...all sages.. who bring the end 2 this futile mental hospital and bow down only 4 those who speak prior 2 this insane play...even spiritual futile play= called Maya or illussion.The real will succeed...the unreal never was anyway...what a Awakening❤Aum shanti shanti Aum. May all return home 2 the HeartSelf...the real Master of All who knows and is infinite perfect Love and Light and the End of all darkness and ignorance Maya plays apparently out as a dreamdelirum.❤

[@windmonk3233]

Different minds pointing to the truth. ❤🙏

[@AwakenedEmptiness]

Mind Control or Mind Controlled 🌝

[@markbrad123]

LOL, drama queens are going to breath a sigh of relief as they abandon that hype.

[@alfreddifeo9642]

🙏

[@cbligerman]

❤

[@sarajohn6855]

🙏

[@kattlaydee8160]

❤