Sruti is a spiritual teacher and feminist advocate. She writes about her experience with an uncommon and painful illness called Interstitial Cystitis. This ongoing and chronic condition challenged her to stay present with daily pain and to look further inward for answers.
In an extreme moment of pain, in which consciousness began to fade, Sruti experienced the erasure of all that clouds over the earliest source of vision. She asks the question: with whose vision are we seeing when the lights are going out? Has this early vision ever known anything at all?
After these extreme episodes of pain Sruti spent time on retreat with teachers such as Gangaji and Mooji. She found no difference in these nondual pointings and the discoveries made directly in painful circumstances.
Sruti finds that we can allow what is painful to become a tool to disrupt the ordinary layers of our experience. Underneath these layers we find the unconditional peace that is our constant being in each moment.
Can we investigate the source of ordinary vision – can we find the place of true seeing that is earlier that who we think we are?
Interview recorded 5/28/2016
Video and audio below. Audio also available as a Podcast.
YouTube Video Chapters:
- 00:00:00 – Introduction and Overview
- 00:04:05 – Living with Chronic Pain
- 00:08:10 – Seeking Relief from Pain
- 00:12:42 – The Intensity of Pain and the Undercurrent of Calm
- 00:19:25 – The Transformative Power of Pain
- 00:24:45 – Pain as a Pathway
- 00:30:17 – Writing from a Place of Intense Pain
- 00:36:57 – The Loss of Control and Silence
- 00:41:39 – The Silence before Activity
- 00:46:00 – The Difficulty of Sharing Pain and Suffering
- 00:50:37 – Inquiry into the Nature of Pain
- 00:54:57 – The Value of Resolution
- 00:58:10 – Experiencing Pain in Satsang
- 01:05:22 – The Non-Doing Prescription
- 01:11:28 – Love and Humility
- 01:16:33 – The Gift of Pain and Spiritual Devotion
- 01:21:54 – Living the Practical: Revealing the Inner Workings of Grace
- 01:25:38 – God’s Presence in Silence
- 01:28:44 – God is Waiting in the Silence
- 01:31:19 – The Wisdom of Suffering
- 01:34:02 – The Value of Contacting What Is Already Okay
- 01:38:04 – True Prayer and Being
- 01:41:34 – The Benevolence of the Universe
- 01:45:45 – The Layers of Awareness
- 01:50:22 – Coming to Basic Awareness
- 01:55:32 – The Power of Choice and Attention
- 01:59:01 – The Profoundness of Direct Experience
- 02:03:00 – The Benevolent Fabric of the Universe
- 02:06:21 – The Value of Shared Pain
- 02:10:08 – The Divine Drama
- 02:13:10 – Resources and Ways to Stay Updated
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