Shift into Freedom: The Science and Practice of Open-Hearted Awareness

One of the most important things to learn is how to separate awareness from thinking, and then we can see that thoughts and emotions are not the center of who we are. We then discover that awareness is the source of mind that brings the peace that passes understanding. One student said, “This is what it feels like to be open-minded.” It is our natu

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It’s still possible to get caught up in habitual patterns of the thinking mind and the compulsive body. But eventually, there is a remembering, a coming home. The mind stops, the body quiets, the heart opens. When this happens, in that natural stillness and wakefulness, everything is complete and nothing more is needed. There is no me, no resistanc

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Awakening from our habitual way of perceiving things requires a profound shift in our intuitive understanding of the nature of reality. Awakening is a cognitive event, the culminating Insight in a series of very special Insights called vipassana. This climax of the progress of Insight only occurs when the mind is in a unique mental state called śam

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Our ability to run off into thoughts and stories that used to offer us false comfort in the form of distraction is now waning. At other times, there is peace, timelessness, and flow. It becomes obvious that we are not in control of when we feel peace and clarity, and when we feel resistance patterns and disorientation. With this recognition, a cert

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