This Terrible Love, a journal of nonduality

  I receive a number of tortured messages from those who say they are trying to heal their shadow or some past experience. There is a poignant beauty in their suffering, and their suffering arises as innocently as the waves breaking on the shore, as innocently as joy. In the story of Miranda, there was great suffering and a desire to heal her traumas. She was diagnosed with PTSD and depression, but trying to heal seemed like trying to dig a hole in the ground to get to the end of the hole. What can sometimes be heard is that these stories belong to no one, that they freely arise like a pain in the knee, that they are not your burden, and you are not broken. That you are not lost in the darkness; you never were. There was only ever this light, this love, and there is no one who has some unconscious darkness they need to heal. Some write that they feel those who seem enlightened may still have shadows they have ignored. They may be accused of manipulating their audience. But there is...

MIRANDA REFLECTS, explorations of Nonduality Today’s quote: THE STORY OF THE ABSOLUTE reflections from Sander Schevers: Once the idea of an underlying essence appears, it often becomes refined into something more subtle. Instead of saying that everything is made of matter or energy, some teachings say that everything is the absolute. Other words may be used. Consciousness. Being. The Self. The One. The divine. Each of these words attempts to describe the ultimate nature of reality. The claim may sound profound. Everything is the absolute appearing as the world. Everything is consciousness appearing as form. Everything is the Self manifesting as experience. Such statements often bring a sense of unity or comfort. They suggest that behind the complexity of life there is a single, sacred source. But again it is worth noticing what is actually appearing. A sound occurs. A sensation arises. Movement unfolds. None of these events present themselves as the absolute. A bird chirping...