Description

After many years of Zen training, Adyashanti had a series of profound awakenings that transformed his life. This audiotape touches on Adyashanti's own life experiences and includes responses to questions from the audience.

Excerpt

A good actor takes on the persona and pretends to be that persona. The better someone can take on the persona, the more we enjoy the performance. The root meaning of persona is "to peer through the mask." So right now you and I wear a mask, the clown costume. That is our persona, our personality structures, and all of the rest. And the real question, spiritually speaking, is "What is peering through?"

If you can suspend judgment of yourself for just a moment, you may be able to sense that not only behind, but within the very structure of our familiar persona, there is something very quiet. This is something within the structure of the persona that is awake, that is not at war with the persona-not trying to change it, not trying to get thought to stop thinking or feeling. It is a sense of silence and presence that is not manipulating the interior experience or the exterior environment. This is the part of you that has always been here; it is the same now as when you were five years old. You should be willing not to hold, suspend, or name that awakeness-but to allow yourself to just experience what is underneath the persona, inside of the persona-and feel who it is that responds as this inner presence becomes more conscious.