Week 48 · modern

Adyashanti

Adyashanti was an ordinary guy in suburban California who spent 14 years meditating obsessively in the Zen tradition. Then, in his mid-twenties, something shifted so dramatically he couldn't go back. He describes the shift as recognizing that the awareness he'd been seeking was already present...had always been present...and was never separate from him. What makes him unusual as a teacher is what happened next: he spent the following decades focused on post-awakening integration, the messy process of living from that recognition.

“"Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth." He says that to students who arrive hoping for cosmic experiences. His message is gentler and more brutal than they expect.”