Issue 10 March 2011
Quantum
the experience of real freedom and liberation. Sometimes the experience may gently encourage us to acknowledge our higher potential. In other instances it may produce a radical reorientation of our experience of reality.
The more time we spend resting in our ultimate nature, the more familiar we become with the experience. When opportunities arise to let go of our preoccupations and daily concerns, we find ourselves moving effortlessly and without resistance into a more open and accepting way of being.
Healing through Nondual Awareness The experience of nondual awareness heals us in two different ways. The first way is by relieving us of the need to “fix things up” by offering us a profound experience of clarity and contentment– an experience of being in total harmony with ourselves and the world. In Buddhism this is called “going beyond loss or gain.” In this state of consciousness everything is present exactly as it is, but we find it impossible to construe that anything is missing. We’ve moved beyond the familiar cycle of having problems and finding solutions. There’s nothing to remove and nothing to hang onto. The experience is “priceless,” not because we are attached to its value, but because nothing can increase or enhance our fulfilment.
In a psychotherapeutic context, clients arrive at a point where there is nothing left to do–not because they have reached the limit of their therapist’s competence or exhausted the capacity of a therapeutic method, but simply because it is impossible to construct a problem. At this point, even if they are invited to construct a problem, they cannot. They have no energy or interest in creating deficiency.
The other way in which nondual awareness heals is by restructuring our thought-patterns so that we become increasing available to this ultimate state of awareness. The experience attenuates our need to have fixed ideas about ourselves and others. We become less reactive and defensive– and hence better able to release our fears and insecurities. The experience of the unconditioned
www.quantumhealthmagazine.com
mind becomes more available because we are less attached to our identity. In this way, the effects of the experience percolate through the layers of our conditioning long after we have finished resting in the experience itself.
The Yoga tradition of Buddhism describes this reconditioning process as the “transformation of the structural foundations of our being.” Through contact with an unstained stream of pure being, the energies and mechanisms that condition our present and future existence lose their power to distort our experience and thereby to cause suffering. Other nondual traditions describe how the experience of the unconditioned mind infuses the conditioned mind like a sweet perfume or a soothing breeze.
It’s impossible to predict in advance how this healing will unfold. It occurs at its own pace and rhythm, sometimes smoothly and gently, at other times roughly or abruptly. Sometimes we might even think we are moving backwards: returning to an earlier stage of our development with which we felt complete. The unconditioned mind doesn’t discriminate in terms of “how” healing occurs–it doesn’t generate a plan or strategy because it exists beyond such conceptual formulations. Nondual therapists and clients acknowledge that the psychological pathways and physical events through which healing occurs cannot be controlled in a mechanical way. Each of us is infinitely complex and our path to full spiritual evolution is unique and often mysterious. Healing is very much a function of staying open and accepting reality with equanimity and trust.
Peter Fenner, PhD, of Seattle, Washington, is a leader in the Western adaptation of Buddhist wisdom. He was a celibate monk in the Tibetan Buddhist traditions for nine years. He has a PhD in the philosophical psychology of Mahayana Buddhism and has held teaching positions at universities in Australia and the USA. His recent books include Radiant Mind: Awakening Unconditional Awareness, Radiant Mind: Teaching and Practices to Awakening Unconditioned Awareness (7-CD set), and The Edge of Certainty: Paradoxes on the Buddhist Path. Peter also is the creator of the 10-month Nondual Teaching and Therapist Training (
www.nondualtraining.net) and 9- month Radiant Mind Course (
www.radiantmind.net). For information, visit his websites or call (877) 723-6463.
HEALTH
Quantum Health 23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72