Everything is Experience

These videos are taken from the weekly Zoom meetings that I hold, Sunday, 10 am Pacific time. You're always welcome to join: us02web.zoom.us/j/83895163441.
www.johnastin.com

[@user-ew9sx5lt4s]

So clear! Thank you.

[@doloreskuechler855]

💜🙏🏻🕉️

[@liverred]

WOW.

[@murad145678]

Brilliant talk as always. Loved your emphasis on experience without an experiencer. One of the approaches that helped me was to subtly focus on the body that is within my field of vision and to apply your approach of "feeling" it. That helped me realize months back that the perceiver is an experience as well. That was key because I kept creating an artifical space of awareness rather than further deconstructing awareness and the one that is aware. I am glad that you are emphasizing this again in your new video. Now, every single phenomena is closer to me than my heartbeat :). Almost like everything IS me because nothing exists on its own side. I finally understand what the idea of nonarising entrails. I mean, how can anything arise or perish if its an experience :D. Thank you as always John. Would be an amazing privilege to converse with you one day. I never ever get bored in my life anymore because every single moment feels fresh. Sitting in the waiting room of a dentist is as blissful as drinking fresh tea on a mountain in my home country :D

[@chromakey84]

Love you brother

[@collettewhiteman]

❤🙏

[@alreadyshining]

♥

[@keithbell326]

This is an interesting experience. I did feel that sense of oneness that can sometimes be so difficult to feel if you are trying.

[@alreadyshining]

Remember, even moments described as not experiencing oneness are themselves, expressions of this (oneness) that is everything. :-)

[@fitscfo]

It’s wonderful to experience your brilliant teaching!

[@edamons]

Thank you! ❤

[@collettewhiteman]

Just stunning 🙏

[@paulineisabelbell606]

♥️♥️Thank You John

[@PatriciaHarding-li6jp]

❤❤❤❤

[@tommoody728]

It’s great to hear someone else say this.

[@djjazzydean]

Well said

[@murad145678]

Hi again John, I wanted to ask you this before but I kept forgetting to write it down :). You've mentioned in your writings that you have struggled to meditate for decades because you operated under the assumption that something had to be attained during those sessions. Once you realized that reality is intrinsically perfect and nothing has to be accepted or rejected, you were able to breakthrough. Do you think that there is any merit to the idea that you exhausted all of the tendencies of the mind to reify any phenomena by straining yourself on the cushion all those decades? Sort of like in Rinzai Zen where students sweat "white beads" until they one day awaken through a sudden jolt (a stick hitting a bell as an example). So by straining yourself, you were able to untie the knots and ripen yourself to your realization? I personally think that one doesn't have to torture themselves on the cushion to comprehend your teachings. But I am currently reading up on the debate regarding the Zen master Bankei famously suffering through arduous practice before realizing that one's "Buddha-Nature" operates all the time without the need to accept or reject anything. Some believe that Bankei was only able to realize this due to arduous practice, despite him saying otherwise (ripening of the Karma). Others maintain that anyone can realize it at any moment if the conditions are right. I am curious about your thoughts on this :D

[@alreadyshining]

I don't believe arduous practice is required though for some, maybe it can play a role such as revealing the futility of searching for something that already is.

[@murad145678]

@@alreadyshining Brilliant! Thanks for the reply.