Love As A Mountain

We have the privilege of having Anne Douglas, a senior iRest teacher, coming to Columbus in November. Those of you who have taken the ShivaShakti Synthesis yoga teacher training with me know that I struggle with explaining non-dualism. It is a concept I can “get” in my Being but descriptions elude me. This summer a friend and I went to a workshop with Adyashanti, a meditation teacher from northern California and a friend of Richard Miller’s. He describes himself as a “recovering Zen” practitioner. He started practicing when he was 14 years old and like Buddha, realized about 23 years later, that the rigor of that system wasn’t serving him and created his own path, much like Richard Miller and iRest has done. Adyashanti talks about “heady” subjects such as non-dualism in such a practical manner. One of the things he said that really struck me, was that when you close your eyes and ask yourself “Who Am I” (or any of those probing meditation techniques), in that moment of nothingness that is everything, is who you truly are. However the mind does not like to sit with that confusion so it begins to fill in the blanks with “I am this and I am that.” Something about this resonated in a new way for me.

Another beautiful soul who has helped shine the light of “all is one” is the teacher Anne Douglas. Her blog is below and shares her real life example of non-dualism and unity. For those of you who may have been confused in the past, I would love to hear what you think about what Adyshanti and Anne have written. For those of you who have always had greater clarity, I would love to hear your real life examples. When do you remember that you are the spacious complete nothingness and everythingness that is always there? Hope to hear from you soon.
Shanti, Janice

                                                       Love As A Mountain
                         A blog by Anne Douglas, iRest certified supervisor and trainer and
                                    facilitator of the November workshop and training

Nature has an astounding way of showing us who we really are. It mirrors our perfection in infinite ways and forms and perpetually points us to our home ground of Being that is ever present, still, open, and unperturbed.

I have the great privilege to live in a National Park in the Canadian Rockies, where nature’s magnanimous beauty is waiting to be revealed in every moment and glance. It is rare for a day to go by in which my heart has not been slayed open by some subtle or spectacular scene.

On one of my favorite local walks there is a lakeside bench that rests at the foot of Cascade Mountain whose peak reaches almost 3000 meters or over 9800 feet high. I will often perch myself here, on the bench, and open. Not out of intention. Openness simply happens.

At first it is an opening of the senses that quickly and spontaneously opens in all directions and I feel myself AS the mountain, as the sky, and as openness itself.

I am struck by the flavors of each object. The lake, the trees, the mountain seem to have unique feeling qualities. Yet each of these occurring within the One flavor of True Nature.

Cascade Mountain stands like an ominous pyramid, towering over the valley. As I open to it’s Presence, I feel a deep resonance like the continuous Om that the monks of the east chant, and a profound love that cascades in and through me and my heart opens into infinity.

I notice thoughts proclaiming, “I love this” as ego’s way to affirm itself and yet there is a sensing through to the truth and simplicity of pure open love without a “me”. Love As a lake. Love AS the sky. Love AS a mountain.

Anne Douglas
anahatayoga@telus.net