Adyashanti biography of george

Adyashanti presents a blend of Zen and advaita teachings that’s popular in the West Coast guru scene. Below you’ll find my initial impressions of Adyashanti, as well as updates from 2012, 2019, and 2023.  Years ago, a reader mailed me a DVD of his which I dutifully watched, then put on the shelf. It wasn’t that I didn’t like what I saw — I wasn’t sure of my impression. On one hand, I saw a witty, soft-spoken American with an Indian-sounding name, smiling a lot, pausing for long silences, and talking about how we are already that which we seek. Yet I couldn’t dismiss him outright as I also felt an undercurrent of seriousness and honesty.

Many months later, I read two of his books: a collection of poetry and short quotes (My Secret is Silence), and Emptiness Dancing, a collection of transcribed talks. You can see a selection of his poems at the Poetry Chaikhana. Some poems were clever and humorous and some were calls to action. It’s not that he wasn’t speaking about the profound. For me, there wasn’t a feeling resonance with the imagery of the poems; none that haunted me with the feeling that truth was close.

Emptiness Dancing offers numerous noteworthy points that differentiate Adyashanti from most of the “be here now” advaita shuffling clones in the spiritual marketplace. Some of my favorite quotes:

• Self-inquiry is a spiritually induced form of wintertime. It’s not about looking for a right answer so much as stripping away and letting you see what is not necessary, what you can do without, what you are without your leaves.
• I suggest you ask, “What’s ultimately behind this set of eyes?” Turn around to see what is looking.
• We project our own beauty.
• The me I know myself as, my personality, is toast.
• The best thing that human beings can do for themselves is to always be absolutely, totally, and complete

“… Be still and awaken to the realization of who you Are …” ~ Adyashanti

Indeed, Adyashanti is echoing “the eternal song” in the above quote … which he also expresses as “When we realize who we are, we no longer have this endless confusion, this eternal battle with ourselves.Therefore we tend to not struggle with others or the world.”

A profound reminder to all of us as to how conflict of any kind is “ultimately resolvable” … through realizing who we are, or our True Nature … and from this singular realization emerges abiding compassion for ourselves and our fellow human beings, which in turn allows peace to “seed” and flourish … peace that is especially important in current times as chaos rocks America (and other parts of the world) … chaos stemming from the brutal and utterly unnecessary death of George Floyd … chaos resulting from the pandemic and the ensuing economic collapse … chaos due to “politics seemingly driving the navigation of the pandemic in America” which is mind boggling …

Fortunately, “heroes”  continue to “rise up” – in different segments of society – to meet the challenges of this deeply troubling times …

So, before we get to this “ultimate core” …

As we’ve done since the COVID crisis began … we want to honor and highlight the “heroes” that continue to ensure our health and safety in the midst of the pandemic: Go Fund Me has organized various campaigns targeted towards the COVID-19 relief efforts. All of these campaigns are worthy of our attention … but for now we want to highlight TWO critical ones that we are supporting personally and also as Stillness Speaks (through donations):

We are all facing financial challenges but IF your

It’s early on a Monday morning in April. I am doing my qigong exercises, looking out the picture window at the small forest that my study faces.

I concentrate, breathing in and out in rhythm with my postures, keeping balance, remembering the movements, drifting between focus and instinct, losing, and finding, then losing again, that space where the mind surrenders and movement enters.

I am 15 minutes into my practice. Suddenly my eyes no longer see an undifferentiated forest of green, yellow, white, and brown. There in the center of my vision is a large forsythia bush in full bloom. It has been there all along, and I have been blind to its presence. Outrageous yellow reaching in all directions, tendrils stretching to the rising sun. This early harbinger of spring sings out to be noticed. And I almost missed its song.

Nature is not the only place where our focus can be so narrow that we miss the essence of the experience before us. There is a Good Samaritan training exercise that illustrates how the urgency of time can override intentions and form can trump essence.

In the Good Samaritan exercise, each selected trainee is instructed to go to the building next door where an audience is waiting to hear the trainee speak on the subject of compassion. Some are told they have plenty of time to reach the building down the block where their lecture will be held. Others are told that they are already late and should hurry to reach their destination.

What the trainees are not told is that an actor, disguised as a drunk, has been placed on the sidewalk between the two buildings. Those trainees who were told they had plenty of time stopped, gave comfort to the actor, offered money, and showed a desire to help. Those trainees who were told they were out of time hurried to their destination, ignoring the actor, in order to be on time for their appointment to lecture on the subject of compa