Adyashanti
Submitted by david9 on Mon, 06/02/2008 - 19:44.Tags:
Biography
Adyashanti was born in 1962 in Cupertino, California. His given name is Stephen Gray.
At the age of nineteen, he came across the idea of enlightenment in a book, and it ignited a desire to experience that ineffable state. He built a hut in his parents’ backyard and practiced meditation there with all the vigor of a competitive athlete, training under the guidance of Zen teacher Arvis Joen Justi. When he was twenty-five, he experienced an awakening, which he describes as “a realization of the underlying connectedness and oneness of all beings.”
For the next eight years he continued to meditate — though he says that all sense of effort and anxiety vanished — and work in his father’s machine shop. In 1996 Justi encouraged Gray to start teaching on his own. He gave his first talks in his aunt’s spare room above a garage to just a handful of students. Sometimes no one would show up. Over a few years the small gatherings grew, until there were hundreds of students in attendance each week. During this time Gray took the name “Adyashanti,” Sanskrit for “primordial peace.”
These days Adyashanti gives talks and weekend “intensives.” He also leads five-night silent retreats, which have become so popular that registration now takes place by random lottery. The nonprofit organization Open Gate Sangha supports his work and sells his books and recordings of his talks.
Adyashanti is married and lives with his wife in the Bay Area, not far from his childhood home.
Teachings
Adyashanti's teachings are rooted in the heritage of the early Chinese Zen masters, as well as in the Advaita - nondualistic tradition, whose basic tenet is that a separate self, distinct from the rest of the world, is an illusion.
In the end spirituality is not about watching the breath. It's about waking up from the dream of separateness to the truth of unity.
Adyashanti says humans tend to identify with a sense of self that essentially does not exist, sometimes referred to as empty. The Buddha called this idea no-self, or anatta.
Suffering is thus said to be caused by the belief in a separate self that seems to be divided from the world. If someone was to realize that he, as an individually isolated self, was not real, but that there is only one being, known as Buddha-nature in Buddhism or Brahman in Hinduism, then they would be awakened to the true nature of their being, to oneness. To have such an awakening is to realize that there is no me and no other, there is only one. One being, one universe, one everything.
Adyashanti illustrates this idea when he says:
There is only life living itself, life seeing itself, life hearing itself, life meeting itself as each moment.
Suffering, however, does not necessarily end here. After an awakening it is suggested that there is often a long process of embodiment where the old beliefs of the body and mind, sometimes called sanskaras, gradually yield to the new understanding of one's true nature.
True Meditation
True Meditation is the form of meditation that Adyashanti suggests his students to practice while on his retreats.
It has two components: Silent Sitting and Meditative Self-Inquiry.
In Silent Sitting, the purpose is for the practitioner to let go of control and let his/her attention to rest in the natural state that he/she is already in. He states: "When you cease trying to control and manipulate your experience, meditation spontaneously happens."
In Meditative Self-Inquiry, the student can ask what are considered to be spiritually-significant questions. These questions are meant to expose illusionary thoughts and give rise to insight. An example of such a question is the "who am I?" inquiry, popularized by Ramana Maharshi. In My Secret is Silence Adyashanti explains: "A spiritual question is like an alarm clock thrown into the dream. "Who am I?" calls into question everything the dreamer believes in, namely him or herself. It disrupts the dream. That's its purpose."
Locations
Adyashanti provides public Satsangs where he gives a Dharma talk and then engages the audience with Questions and Answers. He also provides intensive sessions of all day, or weekend long, format. He also offers silent retreats several times a year. On these retreats participants refrain from speaking for several days, except during the Q&A in Satsangs, and also practice several hours of silent sitting.
For locations and schedule see http://www.adyashanti.org/index.php?file=satsangs
View Video
Books & Media
The Impact of Awakening: Excerpts From the Teachings of Adyashanti
(Paperback)
\"The Impact of Awakening\" is a collection of excerpts from the dharma talks and dialogues of spiritual teacher Adyashanti on the nature of spiritual awakening and the embodiment of self-realization. These discussions explore the true meaning of enlightenment in a down-to-earth language that reflects Adyashanti\'s roots in Zen Buddhism and non-dualism. These talks give many spiritual seekers the gift of freedom as a lived human experience.
True Meditation: Discover the Freedom of Pure Awareness
(Hardcover)
What would happen if you were to allow everything to be exactly as it is? If you gave up the need for control, and instead embraced the whole of your experience in each moment that arose? In the fourteen years that he studied Zen, Adyashanti found that most seasoned meditators had used the practice as a means to a goal they never reached. What he ultimately realized: that only when you let go of all techniques—even the concept of yourself as a meditator—will you open to the art of true meditation: dwelling in the natural state. True Meditation invites you to join the growing number of seekers who have been touched by the wisdom of Adyashanti to learn: • How to make the \"effortless effort\" that will vivify the present moment • Meditative self-inquiry and \"The Way of Subtraction\": how to ask a spiritually powerful question—and determine the real answer • Three guided meditations on CD intended to reveal what Adyashanti calls \"your home as awareness itself \" \"We’ve been taught that awakening is difficult,\" explains Adyashanti, \"that to wake up from the illusion of separation takes years. But all it really takes is a willingness to look into the depths of your experience here and now.\" True Meditation gives you the opportunity to reclaim the original purpose of meditation— as a gateway to \"the objectless freedom of being.\"
(Paperback)
Discovering our true nature could be called the discovery of emptiness--of the vast stillness and loving silence that lies beyond and within all that exists. Our lives are the dance of this emptiness as it flowers into form. \"Emptiness Dancing\" offers dynamic teachings that come directly from this emptiness and draw the open heart into profound realization. Adyashanti reveals valuable insights and explores important themes relevant to those seeking and deepening into the Truth. He shares an enlightened perspective on the seeker\'s struggle, the joys and challenges of spiritual awakening, the symptoms of spiritual addiction, the essence of sacred relationship, the true meaning of enlightenment, the simple secret to being happy.
(Audio CD)
For those serious about enlightenment, author and teacher Adyashanti has some advice: better know what you\'re getting into. Because with spiritual awakening, you find that the strongly held beliefs and perceptions you\'ve taken to be \"you\" and \"your world\" vanish into the unmanifest nature of all that is. The End of Your World presents a landmark six-CD course on the reality of enlightenment and the total \"re-wiring\" of your being that accompanies it--what Adyashanti calls \"our journey into the infinite, our true nature as pure consciousness itself.\"
(Audio CD)
Listeners can join this sought-after spiritual teacher on retreat in their own homes with Spontaneous Awakening. For those who are seeking a path of simplicity, not bound by the trappings of spiritual practice, Adyashanti brings a fresh and humble approach to Zen wisdom.
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