• ABOUT MUKTI
    ABOUT MUKTI

    ABOUT MUKTI

    Mukti’s name originates in Sanskrit and is most often translated as “liberation,” a term used in Vedanta and Buddhism much the way the term “salvation” is used in Christianity. Mukti has been the Associate Teacher of Open Gate Sangha since 2004 and has been a student of her husband, Adyashanti, since he began teaching in 1996, when they founded Open Gate Sangha together.

    Previously, Mukti was raised and schooled in the Catholic tradition and also studied the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda for over 20 years—two paths that have greatly informed her journeys into meditation, introspection, and prayer. She holds a master’s degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine, a license in acupuncture, and a Hatha Yoga teaching certification. These backgrounds in body awareness and the healing arts, as well as her years of study with Adyashanti, largely inform her presentation style, her recommended inquiry methods, and her interest in the energetic unfolding of realization and embodiment.

    PRIVATE MEETINGS

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  • EXPLORE TEACHINGS
    EXPLORE TEACHINGS

    THE JOURNEY OF SPIRIT IN HUMANITY

    Our human journey of coming to know Spirit is made complete in the journey of Spirit coming to know and express itself in our human life and in our shared world. I welcome you to the teachings here, which are meant to facilitate these journeys and to further the union of human and Spirit natures, through processes of conscious realization and harmonization. . . .

    ~ Mukti

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  • QI GONG WITH MUKTI
    QI GONG WITH MUKTI

    Qi Gong with Mukti

    Qi gong is a Chinese term often translated as “cultivating energy” or “cultivating skill with energy.” This routine is based on the Five Treasures qi gong series; it has been modified greatly, giving it more of a yoga feel with some lengthening, stretching, and “noodling” around to release tensions. Mukti teaches qi gong at her meditation retreats to offer balance and energy harmonization, amidst sitting several periods of silent meditation and quiet contemplation each day.

    There are two versions of this routine available. The first one has lengthy instruction and brief standing guided meditations. It runs about half an hour and is recommended for new viewers. See the READ MORE link to access. The other one is about 15 minutes and is given in silence, offered for those who know the background instruction. You can find that video HERE. Please enjoy these videos for health of body, mind, and spirit, and to compliment spiritual practices oriented toward self realization and embodying conscious expression.

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FEATURED WRITING

The Calling of “I Am”

When I consider Adya describing the sense of “I am” as a doorway to the essential, the universal, and the sacred, I am reminded of some powerful self-inquiry questions he has given instruction on. In particular, he has suggested different variations on the question “What am I?”

Before I recount these inquiry variations, I would first like to share one foundational approach to engaging in any self-inquiry question, an approach that Adya has taught. That is to drop a question into one’s system such that it registers not only in mind and intention, but also in one’s body and in one’s whole being. He has used the image of one’s body sitting still in meditation, presenting as a calm lake, and the question being imbued within a smooth stone that could be dropped into this lake of being.

Here’s how I would put it: As the stone, or inquiry, moves from...

When I consider Adya describing the sense of “I am” as a doorway to the essential, the universal, and the sacred, I am reminded of some powerful self-inquiry questions he has given instruction on. In particular, he has suggested different variations on the question “What am I?”

Before I recount these inquiry variations, I would first like to share one foundational approach to engaging in any self-inquiry question, an approach that Adya has taught. That is to drop a question into one’s system such that it registers not only in mind and intention, but also in one’s body and in one’s whole being. He has used the image of one’s body sitting still in meditation, presenting as a calm lake, and the question being imbued within a smooth stone that could be dropped into this lake of being.

Here’s how I would put it: As the stone, or inquiry, moves from one’s head (mind) to below the neck, into the dark waters of stillness (when the body is settled), it can ripple in the unknown, thereby illuminating mystery, while also expressing one’s intention to know, illuminating curiosity. Curiosity causes one to metaphorically “lean in” and “hold forth” with attention as the inquiry evokes the mystery of being, causing it to come forth as well. The sense of mystery may come forth primarily as the questioner shifts into sensing and receptivity.

While sitting quietly, engage the question, “What am I?” Drop it into “the lake of your being,” letting it slowly descend from head to chest to lower belly: “What . . . am . . . I?” (Pause indefinitely.) Let the question carry your consciousness and orientation to silent sensing, to being, to resting in being as being.

After a time, you might also drop the question in reverse, “I . . . am . . . what?” (pause indefinitely) into the silent sensing and mystery. Or, in the spirit of Adya’s article, The Doorway of I Am, and his specific encouragement to focus on the sense of “I am,” you might instead ask, “What . . . is . . . I . . . am?”

This last variation of “What is this ‘I am’?” can be more of an evocation than a simple inquiry—though you are asking the felt sense of being/existing, or the felt sense of mystery (the first perhaps feeling more essential and the second perhaps more sacred) to reveal itself and become more conscious in body and mind—as if to say, “What are you, ‘I am?’ Reveal yourself.” The important thing is to go with what resonates for you, and to make the question your own.

Something else that can be very helpful is to rest in meditation with a sense of general, global awareness, as well as settling in your specific local body. This pairing of universal awareness and body-awareness offers insight for both types of awareness, as the self-inquiry question is at work. So inquiry is then not just about the sense of one’s person engaging in a personal inquiry, but is also about the sense of a global, unbounded awareness being anchored in the question, such that it becomes embodied as the inquiry “stone” drops into the “lake of being,” harnessing awareness that is without specific location to know itself in form, in your body-mind-being, as “I am.”

There are other ways to work with “I am,” but these are ways I have taken Adya’s pointers about inquiry and worked with them myself. Each variation has its own power, and one may resonate for you uniquely. I encourage you to listen within to stirrings of curiosity and to hold forth and call forth.

Copyright © 2021 Mukti Gray.

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FEATURED PROGRAM
Sunday Community PracticePRERECORDED with Mukti
Online

Sunday, October 27, 2024

9:00-11:00 am PT

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FEATURED PROGRAM

Sunday Community Practice meets online twice a month for deep spiritual practice and inquiry. Each practice is two hours and includes meditation and a talk by Mukti. (Adya often joins in for meditation.)

We hope you will join us!