LIBRARY

The world is in great need of caring spirit. The suffering and tragedy we see, hear about, and directly experience can give rise to feelings of sadness, rage, disempowerment, and heartbreak. These (and other) feelings are valid, and I encourage your allowing yourself to have them. Truly allowing feelings—our own and those of others—is part of caring for the world.

Another part of caring is recognizing wisdom, light, and love and allowing them as well . . . allowing them to be known, to soothe, to heal, and to empower. These divine qualities can be brought to bear upon our feelings, challenges, and actions. Wisdom and love are pillars of the incredible world of care within; they uphold honor and regard for the world in need of care without. 

The notion of “allowing” is sometimes discounted when it comes to suffering. This often occurs because pointers like “allowing what is” are misinterpreted to mean condoning ills. However, it is when we allow the reality of things to truly register that resistant energy is freed and transformed into effective response.

Often when giving counsel, I like to say, “On the other side of every ‘no’ is a ‘yes’ for something else.” For true caring to express, first recognize what you are resisting. Then, look on the other side of “no” or “against” to what you are for. Once you are clear and conscious of what you value, you’ll have your bearings and know what values and principles to nurture.

Can you imagine giving your attention to loving for a whole day? A week? A year? Even longer? Why not go beyond imagining and make it an intention and practice?

In my own life, I have frequently contemplated what a loving heart is and how it functions. In fact, when I made wedding invitations for my marriage to Adya, I stamped each to look gold-embossed with the phrase “A Loving Heart Is the Truest Wisdom.”  I’ve reflected on why I’d been so very drawn to those words. I’ve even contemplated their truth, for certainly a heart can be loving, yet lack wisdom and therefore become misguided.

I’ve appreciated how Adya’s teachings beautifully marry love and wisdom. In his audio set, Caring for the World, and in other talks, such as those in his Redemptive Love course, Adya bridges Christian principles of “Love Thy Neighbor” and selfless love (i.e., agape) with Buddhist principles of wisdom-informed compassion.

Whether one orients to Christ consciousness or the Buddhist principle of “right view,” such perspectives espouse the underlying unity of life. Unitive consciousness mightily informs a wise, loving heart. Such a heart transforms division, separation, and lack—the underpinnings of suffering. Such a heart offers the genuine caring our world needs so very much.

We have a great opportunity before us to steward our consciousness and cultivate what we are for. What we give our attention to grows in our experience, in our fundamental knowledge (i.e., knowledge of being), and in our expression. What we give our attention to is indicative of what we care about.

When we give our attention to wisdom born of silence and to love born of unity, these divine qualities emanate our expression and perfume our presence. Your presence is your light to shine in the world, rippling from your corner and far beyond. The great fulfillment of humanity’s purpose is found in firmly knowing the immeasurable value of our inner light; in lovingly caring for that light; and in making way for that light to shine true.

© 2026 Mukti Gray. All rights reserved.

New Year’s Day can reset how we relate to time. Traditionally, people take the opportunity to reflect upon the past year and how they’ve been spending time, as well as what is important to give time to going forward. This tradition clarifies what’s deeply life-affirming and meaningful, and it strengthens valuable intentions.

The question that turns “how to engage time” on its head is “how to engage timelessness.” I invite you to engage this powerfully transformative question with both your mind and your heart. This article largely speaks to working with the mind to further the inquiry of timelessness. Let’s begin by considering the body-mind connection.

Classic meditation instruction encourages settling both the body and the thinking mind. Some find it helpful to first coach the thinking mind to relax, then to allow things to be and to notice the peace and quiet in the room or in between thoughts. The body then quiets. Others find it helpful to first sense the body becoming more and more still, shifting attention from thinking to feeling. As the body encounters stillness, so does the mind. In both approaches, the emphasis is not in trying to stop thought or to stop movement. Ideally one’s orientation is toward absorbing stillness—energetically, physically, and mentally.

As an exercise, think of the future and notice your inner gaze turn—likely forward and to the right. Then think of the past and notice your inner gaze again turn—likely to the left and back. Consider how that which notices movements of mind—both movements of thought and gaze—is Itself unmoving. Sense the still vantage of what notices movement, and invite this locus of attention to be soft and easeful. Encourage the inner gaze to relax. If thoughts arise, sense the space surrounding them. Encourage the thoughts to loosen and unwind, to blend into the space and quiet. Allow the mind to shift from thinking to sensing, sensing what is bubbling up and appearing as the present moment. Sense your whole body-mind being enfolded in Presence.

When it feels right to complete the exercise and to re-engage the body and mind, feel your body and its place in space. Allow the “spatial mind” to re-engage. In doing so, it functions to assign a location to your body and to the objects around you. You’ll notice assignations like inside and outside, global and local. You may also notice your mind tracking time as well as space. You may have thoughts that conclude the time of day or night. All of this orienting to space and time creates a more individuated sense of self.

If you like and are ready, you can join me in reflecting on possible outcomes of this exercise. Note that when the body-mind is allowed to simply be, a lot can settle—including thought and movement. The mind and inner gaze can cease to cast itself upon the past or future. Attention, which has a tendency to actively map positions, size, and scope, can settle. The sense of separate self, the sense of subject and object (e.g., meditator and moment) can yield and express, free from notions of time. The Eternal—that which is not confined and defined by time—becomes increasingly conscious and bright. It even dances.

The heart plays an important part in this dance. Although the human heart is a repository for past memories and hopes for the future, it is also where we know timeless Presence and where our love of truth resides. It is with interest, care, and curiosity for what is true, that attention shifts from past, future, and time. This shift is communion with stillness. With loving care, you can offer the ever-still source of your attention to the grasping, overly active movements of mind that perpetuate unnecessary separation. It is with heartful intimacy that consciousness merges with the true and present moment, to know Itself as the timeless Eternal.

© 2025 Mukti Gray. All rights reserved.

They speak richly of life lived . . . of journeys, distances, home, arriving, and of a great love that seeks the earthy ground. Such are the boots, as painted in 1886 by Vincent van Gogh. This famed Dutch artist had a supernatural ability to bestow the perception that all around us, the “ordinary” is vibrating with life, even exuberantly grounding the transcendent.

As for van Gogh’s Shoes, 1888 (pictured below), I could have missed them while visiting New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art two decades ago. But I found those shoes where Adya stood captivated before them—he in them and them in him. It was one of thousands of times I have seen Adya inwardly bowing, communing with the totality as two shoes.

His captivation was not surprising, as the first instruction that he received from his respected teacher, Arvis Joen Justi, was regarding his own shoes. When she noticed he’d haphazardly left them upon arriving for the first time at her house to attend a Zen group meeting, she stood wordlessly looking at his pair next to the others placed with care. In that one short encounter, Arvis conveyed volumes about living consciously. I’ve heard Adya share an understanding that he had in that moment: Take care of your shoes; take care of life. And so his conscious relationship with his shoes began then, at the age of 19. And he has passed this pointer on to his students.

I’ve shared about shoes herein because they are a great symbol of grounding spirituality in daily life. This is about bringing forward what is core and essential and manifesting it outwardly. I’m speaking of what you offer when relating with your shoes (or with whatever is before you). And I’m also speaking of being conscious of what your relationship to life is founded upon, the depth that seeks to pour itself into life.

As practitioners, we have a great opportunity before us: to have an ongoing dialogue with depth, to be rooted in depth. I’m not only referring to clarifying what you deeply value, as truly important as that is. I’m advocating for your listening and sensing deeply and for your listening and sensing to sync up with your words and actions. I’m also advocating for your noticing when your words and actions are out of sync. This noticing is a return to conscious awareness that allows you to realign to depth again and again, and—eventually—to know yourself and Self as depth’s root.

As Adya’s wife, I have picked up his shoes many times. I’ve had to move them when dusting the shoe rack or vacuuming where they’ve been placed. And I tell you, the intentional consciousness that permeates the placement of his shoes is noteworthy. Although I’ve often sensed the consciousness that his shoes and the floor beneath embody, the placement is never to be repeated. Each time that I’ve returned his shoes to the floor, it is with my own expression of consciousness, presenting in that moment. So it is with each of us: in each step, each breath, each moment, consciousness expresses uniquely, anew. By expressing our nature as eternal depth afresh in daily relating, wherever our feet take us, we give shoes to the timeless, the mystical.

© 2025 Mukti Gray. All rights reserved.

Attention is like fairy dust. We cast it upon the beings, doings, and things that we value. What we care about responds, becoming more alive, energized, and even sparkling.

It’s no wonder that spiritual teachers throughout time have urged aspirants to have clear intentions and focus. Gathered attention has power; and when one’s attention joins another’s or even a whole group’s, attention can be profoundly powerful.

In my teaching, I have consistently offered guided meditations. Each meditation is an opportunity for listeners, and myself, to join our forces of attention to elicit aspects and expressions of wakeful consciousness. These meditations have been informed by my own inner journeys as well as the pointers that I have received from my teachers.

In my youth, I took Paramahansa Yogananda to be my teacher, despite the fact that he had already passed beyond this world in 1952 (several years before I was born). I would listen to those who continued on with his ministry, when they offered instructions in meditation posture and heartful receptivity. I particularly recall the following evocation: Speak to God in the language of your heart repeating, “Reveal Thyself. Reveal Thyself.”

With this simple, short, guided meditation, I was given a means to channel both my love for God and my desire to know God. It helped me attune to my heart’s depth and to become practiced in openly listening and sensing. I became conscious of holy desire, a portal to deeper union with the ground from which the desire to know God arises. It was a conscious experience of desire that differed greatly from my experiences of unconsciously acting upon or suppressing desire.

Many guided meditations aim to bring that which is unconscious into consciousness, as well as to dismantle structures of mind. I was largely exposed to such guided meditations in my years studying with Adyashanti. Assumed reference points were called into question, as he pointed to awareness as a fundamental aspect of Self. In the meditations he guided, Adya would ask, “Does awareness have an age? . . . a gender? . . . an edge, or boundary?” As I listened and came to know awareness more intimately, I felt limiting reference points loosen and default perceptions dissolve.

While these guided meditations were freeing, others pointed to what remains when overlying structures yield or are simply sidestepped. One pointer that Adya has wisely given is to ask, “Is peace present here now, already (before I go looking for it)?” This question redirects attention away from mind, to direct experience in ever-present being.

My own interest when guiding meditations has largely been to keep attention on an atmosphere of deep calm, providing a context into which structures of mind and separate self can let go. I feel this approach connects mind and body and anchors attention and body awareness in nourishing aspects of spirit, including silence, peace, vitality, and spacious freedom.

Guided meditations play an important part in clarifying how one can give the precious gift of attention. They offer means of repatterning how attention is directed. Attention is often filtered through the thinking mind and the me-centric view. Guided meditations point beyond these filters to direct experience and knowledge in being. They offer an avenue, beyond thought and separation, to an atmosphere of peace in which the sense of self or “the meditator” can find ultimate rest in universal consciousness.

If you would like to explore further . . . Open Gate Sangha offers guided meditations as video and audio teachings (for free), and as audio downloads from our online store (for free and varying prices). Follow these links for Adya’s video and audio teachings, and store downloads, and Mukti’s video and audio teachings, and store downloads. Enjoy!

© 2025 by Mukti Gray. All rights reserved.

Healing love comes from an undivided presence. It requires a departure from ego that is based in division and lack. For a love that heals is born of wholeness and of a complete alignment with the truth of circumstances.

Within each one of us is a home for wholeness. It becomes known when we cease looking for a time or a self that is “different,” “improved,” “better.” Coming into wholeness is both a falling into the moment and into essential being. Not an improved being, but a forgotten being that always was and ever shall be a pure expression of the interconnected whole.

In a divided world, based in fears of the future and of “other,” it may be more important than ever to become intimate with the moment and to remember the eternal that is the source of all.

For when one’s consciousness resides in the present, not only in mind but also in body, the light of consciousness fills the spaces of lack. The emptiness becomes warm, shining presence.

With care, and with a courageous curiosity that genuinely wants to see beyond initial conclusions, consciousness meets and embraces the thoughts and feelings that have been held apart, that have waited for its light.

With the gift of our undivided attention, we join. We turn toward, align with, and come to know the hidden essence in what has been suppressed and denied.

We open to the moment, just as it’s unfolding, and discover anew the power of true listening and bearing witness to ourselves and to each other.

Each one of us knows that thoughts can be scary, and feelings can be strong. Do you also know that each of us has been innately empowered with a consciousness, of thought and feeling, that can never be harmed? When we recognize and remember that we are not defined by what we are conscious of, but by consciousness itself, we have powerful choice. We have choice in what thoughts we pull toward us and give our energy to, and those we release and free. We have choice to allow ourselves to feel, knowing that the human heart can yield, giving way to the universal heart that can never be broken—for by its very nature, it has no boundaries.

A choice is continually before us to return again and again to the expression of being that is unbounded and undivided. It takes up what is “broken,” “flawed,” and “wrong” and allows them to be bathed in the healing light of awareness and a consciousness of wholeness.

When wholeness perceives form truly, it sees itself. It does so without resistance, for it inherently knows that nothing can be set apart from the whole. And there is great power in this knowledge, for it transmutes resistance and energizes transformation.

Life seeks transformation in the whole, by the whole. It’s not waiting for death. It is waiting for you. The immeasurable you who is no less for its limitations and no greater for its infinitude.

What will you give the full measure of your attention to this moment? What is here that calls for the light of your awareness? Or is the light of awareness calling you?

Free your mind and open your heart by allowing fixed positions to dissolve. Fall into this moment again and again, and become the healing presence of wholeness that expresses as love.

© Mukti Gray 2024

Devotion is an offering of time, energy, and attention that requires one to give and even to pour out. And while the extended hand is giving, so to speak, it cannot grasp. Grasping arises from a sense of egoic self that is based in lack. True devotion is never founded in lack and therefore has the power to deliver one beyond the strictures of ego-identification.

Devotion to truth becomes possible when one drops the focus on egoic desires and deficiencies, allowing for a direct encounter with what remains in their absence. This direct encounter is a shift from the illusory to the true and real.

At first glance, a desire for the true and real may appear like any other desire that is based in lack. But on closer examination, and by inquiring “What is this?” one can discover that the desire for truth arises as a movement of Consciousness to know Itself. When you turn your attention within and trace the desire for truth back to its root origin, you can experience your human consciousness returning home to the very seat of Consciousness Itself.

This return can be catalyzed all the more when one’s inquiry or fresh curiosity is imbued with devotion. An attitude infused with sincerity when inquiring “What is this?” presents more like “I don’t know (the truth, or where this desire for truth comes from), but I intuit that such knowledge is available, and my heart is fully open and committed to receiving it.”

It is this very openness of heart that gives power to devotion, as openness gives space for fullness to reside. Such fullness is not only a counterpoint to all lack; it is a movement toward unity and wholeness. In unity, self is revealed as the One, the same One expressing as all of life.

© Mukti Gray 2024

Tijdens een interview kreeg ik eens de vraag: ‘Wat is een emotie?’ Er verscheen een brede glimlach op mijn gezicht, en ik antwoordde: “Dat is een raadsel!” Daarna begon ik uit te leggen dat ik emoties heel sterk voel, maar dat het voor mij een raadsel blijft wat ze zijn, een mysterie dat omarmd moet worden.

Zo dadelijk zal ik meer zeggen over het omarmen van het mysterie van de emotie.Voor nu nodig ik je uit om af te gaan op je rechtstreekse ervaring van emotie en mijn observaties te vergelijken met die van jezelf. Een emotie lijkt zich in het begin aan te dienen als een samenballing van energie, die vervolgens waargenomen en geregistreerd wordt als een gevoel. Het woord ‘emotie’ wordt vaak gebruikt als dat waarnemen en voelen een toestand wordt.Vaak vindt er dan een identificatie met die toestand plaats waar bewustzijn zich naar voegt; ‘Ik voel verdriet’ wordt dan ‘Ik ben bedroefd’. Als er sprake is van identificatie raken de ervaring en het gevoel de ervaarder te zijn met elkaar verstrengeld. Als er toegewerkt wordt naar bevrijding, wordt die verstrengeling weer opgeheven.

Onderzoekende vragen als ‘Wie is er dan bedroefd?’ of ‘Wie voelt er dan verdriet?’ worden meestal gesteld om de aandacht weg te halen bij de ervaring en het gevoel de ervaarder te zijn te vervangen (als er geen ervaarder wordt gevonden) of de eigen aanwezigheid te omarmen, vrij van identiteit. Als de identificatie wordt losgelaten, kan de emotie die overblijft helder gezien en geobserveerd worden (als die nog aanwezig is) en kan die innig omarmd worden. Bij het observeren van een emotie kan het zijn dat je er niet uit komt als je probeert vast te stellen wie het is die de emotie ervaart. Maar zelfs zonder subjectgevoel kan er toch sprake zijn van een hele hoop gedachten die tezamen een verhaal vertellen over de emotie. De meeste verhalen versterken de emotie of brengen haar juist tot bedaren, of ze doen het allebei een beetje.

GOED OF FOUT
Ik herinner me nog heel goed hoe Adya mij niet lang nadat we elkaar hadden ontmoet iets duidelijk maakte in een café op een van onze eerste afspraakjes. Ik vertelde hem dat ik die dag nogal geschrok- ken was op het werk. Een leidinggevende met wie ik heel goed door één deur kon en die een soort mentor voor me was werd ontslagen, ondanks het feit dat degene die hem ontsloeg me twee weken daarvoor had verteld wat een goede verkoper mijn leidinggevende was en dat ik heel veel van hem kon leren. Het besluit van die persoon om mijn leidinggevende te vervangen door iemand met meer naamsbekendheid kwam als ‘fout’ op me over. Adya vroeg of hij iets mocht inbrengen dat zou kunnen helpen, en toen ik aangaf dat ik dat fijn zou vinden, zei hij: “In zen wordt ons geleerd om de dingen niet te bekijken in termen van goed of fout.”

Ik had zoiets nog nooit gehoord, of nooit werkelijk gehoord. Ik voelde de onderbouwing van mijn conclusie dat het ‘fout’ was onder me vandaan glijden, en mijn hele verhaal stilvallen. Ik kwam open te staan voor onbekende mogelijkheden. In die open- heid was ik bereid een nieuwe weg in te slaan in het gesprek en te luisteren naar wat Adya nog meer te vertellen had. Als ik erop terugkijk, werd ik een zenleerling op het moment dat ik hoorde wat hij toen zei.

Onderzoeken wat emoties zijn vraagt om een helder doorzien van de etiketten en verhalen die over gevoelens heen gelegd worden. Die overdekkingen hoeven niet meteen afgewezen te worden, maar het kan handig zijn om ze tijdelijk terzijde te leggen om zo een frisse blik te kunnen hanteren. Een emotie omarmen begint vaak bij de eenvoudige erkenning dat er gevoelens aanwezig zijn en jezelf de ruimte geven om te voelen wat er gevoeld wordt zonder dat te koesteren of je ertegen te verzetten. In mijn gesprek met Adya in het café koesterde (versterkte) ik het gevoel van ‘fout’ en verzette ik me ertegen. Zelfs als je merkt dat het een gevoel van verzet is waar het om gaat, kun je ruimte maken voor dat gevoel zonder je te verzetten tegen het feit dat het er is en ervoor openstaan om het met nieuwe ogen te bekijken.

Getuige zijn is kijken door wat ik graag ‘de ogen van de Levenskracht’ noem. Het gaat dan om observeren vanuit dat wat altijd in stilte door jouw ogen heeft gekeken en onophoudelijk getuige is geweest van alle ervaringen in je leven zonder ze in te kaderen in de tijd, voorkeuren of conclusies. Als het verhaal terzijde wordt geschoven en gevoe-lens met zorg en liefde worden waargenomen en beschouwd, krijgen ze de kans om zich energetisch te ontvouwen en uit zichzelf tot uitdrukking te ko-men. Op die manier werken gevoelens en emoties toe naar hun eigen bevrijding, zonder inmenging. Die avond in het café, vele jaren geleden, gaf Adya een weg aan naar emotionele transformatie. Door je bereidheid te tonen en om hen te geven, kan ook jij een model zijn voor anderen door die transformatie in jezelf teweeg te brengen, in het hier en nu.

On this New Year’s Eve, many people the world over will be joining in a chorus of “Happy New Year!” And I imagine just as many are asking how happiness might be revitalized once again. In this new year’s dawning light, I invite you to join me in exploring the nature of happiness, its foundation, and its furtherance.

I imagine most would agree that the happiness we wish for one another is a pleasing state, one of contentment, fullness of being, and even joy. Whatever its degree, from ease to elation, I propose that happiness is founded upon sufficiency, not lack.

It is a core orientation to lack, in oneself or in others, that perpetuates dissatisfaction. Habitually rejecting what is within us, or before us, and seeking “more, better, and different” perpetuates struggle, opposition, and the sense that life is inherently problematic.

When I first heard Adya speak of the nature of egoic seeking, my ears perked up. He conveyed that when a seeker obtains the object of their search, they are only temporarily happy. He proposed that such happiness is due to the absence of seeking in the moment of finding, and not due to the object gained.

The point is to question the dynamics of seeking as well as one’s identity as a seeker. You may find that happiness is fundamentally linked to an absence of the seeker-identity, as well as to an absence of egoic identities in general. Seeing these workings clearly brings new possibilities for responding in moments of resistance and seeking.

Within seeing itself is awareness free of struggle. To reside in freedom from struggle, one must stop. Let personal thoughts, feelings, and the circumstances be, and open to the inherent allowance of pure awareness, which is already free of wrongness and lack.

Return again and again to commune with the sense of what remains, free of unconscious patterns and notions of self. The initial doorway is awareness, free of struggle. At first awareness may appear overly simple. Over time, its allowance and freedom register more and more fully in your mind, heart, and body—your whole being. Embodied awareness is the ground of true satisfaction and, yes, even happiness.

I hope you hear my good news. You are not the seeker. Your true identity and happiness are not bound by the temporal world of gain and loss. Your essential nature is not bound in wrongness and lack. The ground of being, your being, is ever-present, just behind your thoughts, feelings and struggles. It is eternally open, allowing, free, sufficient, and whole. Your communing in and as your eternal nature is my unceasing wish for you, my wish for your happiness.

© Mukti Gray 2023

Change. No change. Both are the comforts and challenges of life. Both can drive the spiritual search, in which permanence and impermanence can be resolved in the knowledge of one’s true nature, in the knowledge of the ground of being, all being.

Open Gate Sangha is amidst change as Adyashanti retires at the end of October and as I come forward as head teacher. For some this change is not so significant. Perhaps because what calls them to Open Gate teachings sounds louder and shines brighter than any particular voice or face of this teaching; perhaps because they’ve solely known Adya from his recorded talks, which continue to remain available; perhaps because they’ve internalized his presence in their minds and hearts so completely that he is more near and alive than he ever has been. Yet for others, this change feels monumental. For them, and perhaps for you, Adya has been their one true teacher, with a connection so exceptional that it can never be replaced. I, myself, have called him “the liberator of my soul” and others have described him like a north star who has changed the course of their life, their destiny.

From wherever you are, I ask you to join me in paying special tribute to Adya at this juncture, to take a tremendous pause and to accede space in your heart, mind, and being in order to deeply feel, honor, and celebrate the brilliance that Adya has been and will forever be.

For myself, Adya is given primary place in my heart, and I bless him going forward. And each heart has capacity for many, with every person or being who finds its place in one’s heart doing so uniquely. As you may know, I was born to two Catholic parents who became interested in the teachings of Paramahansa Yogananda when I was quite young. Yogananda had passed on from his body a couple of decades prior. When my exposure to Yogananda’s teachings was new, I told my mother that I did not feel particularly close to him. She told me that I could develop a relationship with Yogananda like I had developed a relationship with Jesus, by speaking to him in my heart and by listening to his words and stories of his life. I followed her advice, and before too long, I associated Yogananda with a felt sense of inner guidance, blessing, and sacred presence. For a good many years, I ascribed the divine presence within me to be Yogananda, and by doing so this presence held my attention, my devotion, and my heart. And the presence within flowered and grew stronger, especially as I attended the ground of peace within.

I share this because I feel the sense of spirit within can often come alight in relationship to a face without—a teacher, a guru, a guide, a lover, a friend. And we can find teachers everywhere, even in some of the people who challenge us most. But a true teacher without, always points to the eternal and essential presence within that has no face, even as it wears many faces. To borrow a sentiment of Yogananda’s, the spiritual aspirant’s task is to discover that the One within you and the One within the guru (or spiritual teacher) is the same One in all of life.

The task of orienting to oneness remains the focus of Open Gate Sangha teachings. Open Gate will continue to make Adyashanti’s and my teachings available to those who are called to peace, truth, and oneness. Our staff and organization continue to be rooted in principles of integrity, sincerity, and loving awareness, and welcome those whose lives are founded in these same principles, and who dedicate themselves to spiritual practice and cultivating depth and clarity.

While the underlying focus and principles at Open Gate Sangha continue, we also begin a new chapter. I envision this next chapter to present the legacy of Adyashanti’s teachings in both similar and new ways. Please read on to learn more about how you can participate. What I’m most excited about is to see how these next years with Open Gate Sangha will contribute to your lives and to the changes occurring in our world.

I encourage you to remain engaged and to dive deeply into spiritual practice. By way of support, we will continue to offer free Wednesday broadcasts and also the Sunday Community Practice program twice a month. One free Wednesday broadcast each month will be a replay of a previous talk by Adyashanti, others will be talks of my own and responses to submitted questions. And during one Sunday Community Practice each month I plan to bring forward a written or spoken teaching of Adyashanti’s and delve into it further by giving commentary and sharings.

We will continue to make Adya’s talks available via our subscription services on YouTube and The Stream. Periodically we will also offer special programs, such as online retreats or talk series, and interviews. And at some point, I would like to offer a light sprinkling of some in-person programs, including retreats.

A deep commitment of my own has been caring for both Adyashanti and this sangha (i.e., community members). Of great importance to me is how Open Gate Sangha’s teachings will carry you and others going forward. Behind the scenes we have been working, as we are able, on a Living Legacy project. Previously unreleased audio and video from our archives are being digitally formatted, making them ready for downloading or streaming. Talks are continuing to be catalogued—described and identified by subject and keywords for greater searchability. We are visioning ways to curate the material for students and practitioners who want to explore specific topics and territories of awakening and embodiment. By building our active library and presenting Adya’s teachings in new ways, we very much hope to keep his presence near and dear, living and potent.

You can be of great support in keeping Open Gate Sangha’s teachings alive. Most important is how you receive and live the teachings, and join others in doing so. And you can join our work by volunteering or by making a donation to the our Living Legacy Fund. We would greatly appreciate your support in making this vision a reality.

Please know that you can continue to send messages to us here . . . perhaps to love bomb Adya, or to share how Open Gate Sangha is making a difference in your life. Thank you for being a part of our circle of community and conscious living, now and ever forward.

© Mukti Gray 2023

When I was a practicing acupuncturist in the ’90s, working in a clinic, I regularly contemplated “What is healing?” In the context of Chinese medicine, I routinely considered how to support energy and its flow, direction, and resilience.

I was new to Adya’s teachings and studying them very actively also at that time. I contemplated the nature of awareness and consciousness and the various states it would flow into and out of . . . flow that also revealed directionality and health or lack thereof. In both the body and mind, when energy and consciousness pulls inwards toward stagnation or contraction, it becomes stuck and blocked. The mental correlation would be concretized and identified.

What I encourage is your own exploration of states of mind as states of conscious energy, energy that can be spacious, fluid, and dynamic as much as it can be contracted, stagnant, and corrosive. This activity of witnessing and exploring states of mind and energy can shift consciousness from a sense of being that’s compulsively personal to a sense of being outside of the conditioned push and pull of desire and aversion.

Now, consider that these pushes and pulls are imbued with a consciousness of their own. A consciousness that insists “Pull!” or “Push!” “Get this!” or “Reject that!” By introducing these directional states to stillness and space, the energies of assertion and denial are supported to entrain and repattern to greater ease, flow, and health  . . a health in which the body thrives and in which the mind clarifies and brightens.

We are conditioned beings. All of life is. Our innate conditioning is patterned to organic rhythms of nature. A primary task of a spiritual practitioner is to steward the conditioning that they experience and express away from ego-identification and toward greater integration with the inherent, organic rhythms and intelligence of life.

One can do so by sensing the space in which patterns arise and take shape and then return to space  . . and through recognizing aware space as the very essence of this life, of this moment.*

In the context of sensing or abiding as aware space, stuck patterns of ego can reharmonize and return to organic rhythms. The release of contracted patterns can even brighten in recognition of aware space. Aware space can be known as the essence forming all patterns and the essence from which all life expressions are never apart.

Meditation is an arena that is conducive to returning to essential being. It can reveal that you are fundamentally aware space appearing as a human being. Over time, meditation can also reveal how aware space can shift from contracting into overly identified, egoic states (of division and separation) to gathering anew in the potency of an incarnation consciously lived. This ever-present opportunity is calling.

*In order to get a sense of aware space, Mukti invites you to read, or reread, a previous teaching that she wrote about meditating on global awareness, called Embodied Awareness.

© Mukti Gray 2023