Essay Edition
Community Foundations
To have a community centered on love and light is really a dream. People who love light, people who love love. It is a cultivation of something in the world that is largely not very common: to focus on these esoteric and beautiful things as a central practice.
Sangha requires group meetings, but also practice. Each of us, if we practice, brings something to the field. If each of us experiences a deep quality of light, that brings a beautiful gravity to what we are creating together. If we do not really practice, it does not bring that same level of significance for anybody. If we all go Babaji level, prophet level, it is going to be an epic experience together.
Another part is interpersonal connection. These three things make a really strong community: meeting, practice, and connection.
If you are a solo practitioner, it is a little more difficult to go very far. You can, but a lot of times it takes a lot of isolation. If you are not isolated, you get pulled into the currents of society and mundane life. Having a community of people who paradigmatically are oriented around love and light can be very, very helpful.
Some of you already have meditation practices. The whole idea is that we bring energy and light to your practice, whatever it is, and that can magnify your practice and bring it to the next level. It is not about abandoning your practice. It is about bringing your practice to the next level.
The principle is mindfulness. Principles are ways that we live, the principles that inform our actions and the way we relate to and approach things. Mindfulness means that when you eat, you do not eat in front of the television. When you walk, you do not walk while on your phone. Do one thing at a time and give it your full attention. It is one of the most powerful things on the path to enlightenment, helping us awaken to enlightenment.
If you were in an ashram, you would study scripture for a certain part of the day. In a way, daily reading is our form of studying scripture: fifteen minutes a day reading about enlightenment. It entrains your mind to a particular set of values and a paradigmatic orientation.
The Nature and Path of Enlightenment
What is enlightenment? What does it really mean?
In Western society, there is a lot of misunderstanding about it. It is usually considered very mythical and unattainable. It is important to understand what enlightenment is because this whole Sangha centers on progress along your path to enlightenment.
First of all, enlightenment is a possibility for regular human beings, for all human beings. Enlightenment means we awaken to ultimate truth. That needs some semantic reference. What is ultimate truth? It is not that you discovered a Wikipedia page that told you what ultimate truth was. It is so much more than that.
Enlightenment means that we awaken to a state of awareness that is liberated from the illusions of selfhood. In yoga, there are a number of terms that help us understand the landscape of enlightenment. There is a term called maya. Maya means illusion. Generally, human beings, myself included, live with a degree of illusion.
Illusion is part of sentience. The way we live and the way our mind is structured, we see our self-reflection. We do not see things exactly as they are. In enlightenment, we clear ourselves of maya and come to see reality.
This is not a one-day thing. It is not even a ten-week course possibility. I worked for years and years with my teacher, in dialogue with him over and over about all kinds of topics, and they would click after five years, after ten years, after fourteen years.
Enlightenment is really the heart of all religions. Jesus was talking about enlightenment. Buddha was talking about enlightenment. The Muslim religions and the Jewish religions are talking about the same things.
Usually, religions are considered to be in conflict with one another, but religions are more ontological. They are more like physics. You would not have a Japanese physicist and an American physicist and say they are disagreeing, so let us go to war over it. They are studying something that is intrinsic to life and nature.
Physicists study matter and energy, time and space. An ontologist, a spiritual practitioner, or somebody on the path to enlightenment studies the inner and the outer, the nature of self, and the nature of the universe as one with self. These things are ontological. They pertain to the study of being and existence itself.
Religions point to this. Usually, religion picks up a degree of sedimentation, calcification, and dogma, and it loses touch with the original teachings. These teachers were originally talking about enlightenment. The goal is to renew that, make contact with the actual teachings of enlightenment, and practice them while living in the world. We do not have to renounce the world and enter a monastery. We can practice them in such a way that they make our careers better, make our relationships better, and help us progress along this ancient path to awakening as human beings.
It is highly relevant to every human being. Some people are just not ready for it because it takes a degree of courage, an immensity of courage. You have to let go of your identity. You have to let go of a sense of security and be what you are.
What are we? Fundamentally, at the very substrate foundation of our mind, there is something that is immutable and unassailable. We are something eternally. Is it a witness? Is it beyond the witness? There is something that we are, a substance that is real, true, everlasting, and eternal.
When we become absorbed in that heart of the universe, it takes a lot of courage, but it also awakens a lot of blessings. In enlightenment, we have the courage to dive in and discover the blessings and beauty of the universe, to be awestruck, and to awaken power within ourselves. But our power will not be self-serving anymore. We have to encounter a lot of things that some people are not ready for.
It is not required to become enlightened. To be on the path to enlightenment is enough. Take the next step toward freedom, happiness, and love. You do not have to be the ultimate Buddha in this lifetime. You can just be on the path and live in alignment with these beautiful, ancient, nonsectarian teachings. We are practicing and studying them so that we can become happy.
Enlightenment is a panacea. Panacea means a universal healer. Whatever you are facing, anxiety, depression, career challenges, financial challenges, or interpersonal relationship challenges, enlightenment helps. Perhaps there is some sort of aspiration you hope to develop. You want to be a great athlete or a great engineer. Enlightenment helps with these things because it awakens knowledge, love, and self-command.
Think of progressing along the path to enlightenment less as a sacrifice and more as a curation and refinement of who you are, bringing things to the next level. The practice can empower what you want for your own life.
When we get into light, it is magic because light will change you. I had things I was dealing with, and I encountered the light. It changed me. For example, I was not that good of a dancer. I could not dance. I could not move. I was too locked up on the dance floor. I connected to the light, and within a year or so, I was just going nuts on the dance floor. I was totally free.
It is funny how it shows up in these sorts of ways. You might have social anxiety. Maybe it is hard to talk to girls or boys. Then you go into light, and you accept yourself. You do not need anything anymore. You are just honest, free, and flowing.
Light does this. This practice does this. Silence does this.
Everything we experience in life is experienced through us, through our mind, through our subjective state of consciousness. You could go to Hawaii, and it could be incredibly beautiful, and you could miss it. Or you could go and be awestruck, shedding tears and feeling so happy. You could go to the slums and be so happy.
The way we experience life is ourselves. We do not see life as it is. We see life as we are. Life is filtered through our consciousness. When you work on your own consciousness, you augment everything. You want that new car? That new car is going to be more beautiful for you because of your meditation practice. You want a new relationship? It will be more beautiful for you. Everything becomes more beautiful.
There are hard things that become more beautiful because the arc of life becomes integrated and rests upon that wholeness inside ourselves. We connect with the part of ourselves that is eternal, so there is this overflowing blissfulness and wholeness inside us. This is the essential function that causes these changes. We become whole and free. No more seeking, just happening.
The things we want will not be the result of desire and attachment. They will happen as a result of dharma and truth. We have a body. Our body will happen. Our choices will happen, but they will happen in detachment and freedom. It is a whole orientation shift with enlightenment.
A lot of times, religions enthrone some central figure as a savior. But that central figure was usually saying, I figured something out. Join me, and here is how you do it.
Jesus said something beautiful: “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” He was essentially saying that people were calling him their Lord, but they were not practicing what he was sharing. Obviously, he was saying you can do it too. That is what is implicit here. Practice. You can do it too.
The Buddha said this. The rabbis said this and say this. The Sufi masters say this. The Taoists say this. You can become this.
Light Practice and Collective Transformation
This is where practice comes into play. You could do something amazing with your own mind through meditation. The key thing is light. Light is what makes this powerful. It transmutes your consciousness.
Enlightenment is not just an epiphany. Enlightenment is a change in the structure of your awareness field. You clear what are called samskaras. They are impressions that prevent you from seeing truth and being free.
In light, we bask in a divine shower that renews our spirit and helps us return to the essence whence we arose, that spiritual source of truth and love that is absolute bliss, ecstasy, and freedom.
One of the goals is to create a reliable and effective path to enlightenment for everybody. Think of yourselves as co-creators of this Sangha. This is the seed. We grow the Sangha together through practicing, having friends, and giving feedback. Your case study of enlightenment is relevant to making this a reliable and effective path for yourself and for others.
What could be more important in the world than a way for us to become genuinely loving? Not just to have the ideal of love, but to feel it. To look at a stranger and feel that they are my very self. To go into light and see divine sacredness as a visual luminosity in my own mind.
What could be more important than that?
If politicians had gone into the light and experienced love, how would they act differently? Our society is our very self. The way our society is unfolding, it is easy to point fingers and blame, but the way society unfolds is a reflection of the state of mind and state of consciousness in society. It is reflected in the way we study in school and the way we relate to each other.
Sure, we may not do something that somebody else is doing, but we are not far from it. We are so connected. Maybe we are just fighting for an alternative perspective.
The whole idea is to bring more love. Love first. When we love first, we inspire love in others. When we go into light, we dissolve the things that create dissonance between us and the world.
It is absolutely paramount. I feel a great deal of conviction in this work, and I invite you to stand with me in society as practitioners and create this change for humanity. Starting with our own lives, of course. We do not have to be too grandiose, but we could potentially make a difference.
If one percent of the world changed in this way, it would not have to be fifty percent or fifty-one percent. Just one percent would be so potent that things would shift. I feel that is a true statement.
Heart Meditation
Meditate on the heart. If you can go into light, feel your heart chakra. Bring it into light. If you have access to the light, bring the luminosity into that physical part of your body. Bring light into your whole nervous system and your legs. Bring your whole room into light.
If you do not have access to the light, if you do not feel easily in command of making that connection, you can just feel the spot. You can feel positivity and love.
We are sitting down and figuring out how to generate love so that when we walk away, it is just like we are having a good day. Everybody feels so much better after encountering us because we generated love.
Formally take some time, turn away from everything else, and generate love. If you can use the light to do so, even better.
Bring your attention back. When you become aware of your inadvertence, bring your attention back to the heart. It is the conscious generation of love.
One way you can access love is to feel gentleness and let go of resistance. Do you feel any blockage in the heart center? You can actively and gently work through that. Just be attentive to it. Figure out how to clear it. Open it.
Open your heart.
Bring attention to your heart center again. Feel gratitude. Take note of the expanse of existence. Feel at home in your own body, mind, and heart.
Look at the moment and its steadiness.
Full Transcript
Community Foundations
Kayla S Hello! There it is! How are you?
Adam Wes Namaste, everybody! It's here, Love Lights Sangha. Welcome! Ali, so good to see you. Oh my gosh! Kayla, wonderful. Hi, Chad.
Ready to turn on your cameras? Unless you're keeping them off. Let's wait for a couple more people to arrive. Settle in. We'll get started soon. Attention to your heart center.
I think we're probably mostly all here. So welcome, everybody. Welcome to the Love Lights Sangha. This is basically 10 years in the making.
It's beautiful because to have a community centered on love and light is really a dream. People who love light, people who love love.
It's a cultivation of something in the world that is largely not very common, right? To focus on these esoteric and beautiful things as a very central practice.
With this Sangha, I'm also emphasizing practice. Sangha requires group meetings, but also practice, right? Each of us, if we practice, brings something to the field. If each of us experiences a deep quality of light, that brings a beautiful gravity to what we're creating together. If we don't really practice, it doesn't bring that same level of significance for anybody, right?
So if we all go Babaji level, prophet level, it's going to be an epic experience together.
Another part is interpersonal connection. I'd really like to find a way to encourage people to connect with each other. Usually this happens really easily in person because you mingle afterward and exchange phone numbers. I have a few ideas for how to do that, but these three things, I think, make a really strong community.
Also, if you're a solo practitioner, it's a little bit more difficult to go very far. You can, but a lot of times it takes a lot of isolation. If you're not isolated, you really get pulled into the currents of society and mundane life. Having a community of people who paradigmatically are oriented around love and light can be very, very helpful.
I've got a couple more people joining. All right, wonderful. What a nice group we have here. This is excellent.
Hi, Sally. Make sure to sign up on the site. This is not donation-based, and part of that is because the contributions help me to really bring a lot to this. I'd love to work really hard on this program to make an incredible support system and teaching program for everybody, and also be in my best state, with a lot of peace of mind and equanimity and many hours of practice myself. So make sure to check the website for the prices and everything.
I want to take a moment and share the website, but how about this? I'm really feeling we should just go around quickly, and I mean 30 seconds. If anybody goes on for two minutes, I'm going to cut you off. Try to go for no more than 30 seconds. Just your name, where you're from, and maybe something else, like what brings you here, a funny word, or whatever. You can do a handstand for us. It could be anything.
Introductions and Shared Intentions
So, Rachna, how are you? Namaste. Welcome.
Rachna S Namaste, everyone. I'm Rachna. I'm from Toronto. As I said in the earlier session, I have been practicing meditation, but haven't been that regular. Being in this group, I actually want to get back to that practice and try to practice mindfulness, as Adam says. That was one of my aims for this year. Luckily, I got this group, so I'm happy. Thank you.
Adam Wes We're lucky to have you.
Rachna S Thank you.
Adam Wes How about you, Harrison? Harrison and Ali are both in Australia. I wonder if you guys are in the same city. Tell us your cities.
Harrison M Hello, everyone. My name is Harrison, and I'm from Melbourne. I had been practicing a bit of meditation before I came across Adam. Lots of serendipitous events unfolded, and I believe that's why I'm here. My pillars of life are love, trust, and respect, so it feels very aligned with my purpose on this planet.
I appreciate Adam's work. For those who aren't part of the meditation group that Adam's been putting on, that's initially what we've been doing. I can see a lot of familiar faces here. It's pretty special, this group, and Adam's work is excellent. I'm just feeling grateful to be here, really. Thank you.
Adam Wes Thank you, Harrison. Wonderful. We're so happy that you're a part of it.
Kayla! Hi!
Kayla S Hello! Hi, everyone. I'm Kayla. I'm currently in LA. I had been in LA, and that's where I know Adam from, but I live in Salem, Oregon, right now with my daughter, Yuna, and my partner.
I do bodywork, and that's how Adam and I connected. It's been a few years now, and this year is about refinement and bringing that mindfulness even further into my practice of massage, bodywork, and energy work.
Lately, I haven't been doing the 5:00 p.m., but I do 6:45 and watch the next day. So I also see familiar faces, even though mine isn't that familiar.
Adam Wes Just so everybody understands what she means, she's in the Meditation Resolution too, but she watches the recordings. So, Kira and Kayla, you know each other. Well, Kayla knows you. It's like that.
Kayla S Thank you. Blessed to be here.
Adam Wes I'm happy you're participating. Hi, Jen! Jenna West, my sister!
Jenna W Hi, everybody. Nice to be here. Hi, Adam. I'm grateful and honored to be your sister. I'm Jenna, and I'm calling from Seattle, or outside of Seattle.
I'm here to support the mission, to support your mission, and to support the mission of love, bringing more love onto the planet. I'm here to embody some stillness in my mind and an opening of my heart.
I also really like Harrison's pillars of life. What were they? Love, trust, and respect. That and so much more. I'm just grateful to be here.
Adam Wes Speaking of people connecting, you guys should connect. I feel like you guys would totally talk for an hour. Nice. Thanks, Jen. It's lovely having you here. Oh my gosh.
How about Ali? Ali's my old friend. It's so cool to see him here.
Ali T Hello. Hey, Adam. Hi, everybody. I met Adam about 12 years ago. I was meditating on the beach in Santa Monica, and he just walked over and said, "Hey, you like to meditate? So do I." Then we became good friends.
I'm originally from Los Angeles, but I've moved to Australia. I've lived in Fremantle, Western Australia, for about five years. It was really nice to reconnect with you, Adam, and see you again. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens.
Adam Wes It's so cool to have you here.
One thing you guys should know is that there are a lot of incredible people here. You guys are incredible people. Ali is an amazing, I think you can call him a PhD acupuncturist, total mystic, Sufi master, incredible guy. Just an amazing mystic.
Kayla is one of the most incredible massage therapists I've ever encountered. She's like a psychic massage master. It's incredible, right? Those are just two examples.
My sister is literally a PhD, a lifelong, six-year-old vegetarian, this incredible, magical, sensitive human being. For anybody I've left out, I don't want to go through everybody because that'll just get ridiculous, but there are a lot of amazing people here. Ariella, Kira, Irena. Irena is an architect who's bringing futuristic consciousness into her architecture. This is a really interesting group, so I'm just telling you.
All right, next. Welcome, Ali. How about you, Praveen?
Praveen S Hi, Adam. Hi, everyone. My name is Praveen, and I'm joining from Chennai, India. I think it has been a while since I met Adam.
I'm primarily here to strengthen my meditation practice, and I feel that I need to explore a lot of other dimensions of my being. I'm privileged and happy to be here, and I look forward to going ahead.
Adam Wes Love it. Thank you for your devotion to the practice. He's really serious about the practice. I love that about why you're here. Wonderful.
How about you, David?
David P Hello, everyone. I'm very happy to be here. I participated in the summer course last year on Math and Enlightenment, which was really key for a transformation process that I went through.
I was able to install a meditation practice in my life, and this was key to my transformation. Being able to connect with chakras, not as a concept, but by really feeling them, changed the way I see life.
I'm here every Tuesday. I try to be on time, and I'm so glad that you're building this Sangha, which I have really felt a part of for a while. Thank you, Adam, and thank you, people.
Adam Wes Welcome. Where are you from?
David P I'm from Mexico City.
Adam Wes Global Sangha, futuristic Sangha. Welcome, David. Thank you so much. It's amazing to have you here.
Kira!
Kira Hi, everyone! Shout-out, Praveen. I actually got married in Chennai, or had a celebration in Chennai. We have family there. I didn't realize you were there.
I'm Kira, and I've been meditating with Adam for about six years, right, Adam?
Adam Wes Yeah, it's been six. Amazing.
Kira It's been amazing. I'm originally from Los Angeles. I'm currently living in Silicon Valley, up in Northern California. I'm deeply trained in kundalini yoga and meditation, and increasingly in light meditation. I also really love tuning into the causic field, and I'm sharing that more with the world now.
Adam Wes Welcome. Kira's a magical practitioner. She's a very, very committed practitioner. Wonderful.
Karen, namaste. How about you, Andrea?
Andrea P Hi, everyone. I'm Andrea. I'm from Mexico City, and I have been practicing with Adam for a few months now. It has been a really great experience. I have meditated in other places, but the energy that we create here is pretty awesome. I'm really happy to be part of the Sangha. Thank you, Adam.
Adam Wes Beautiful. Namaste. Welcome. It's going to get even better. I feel that. Really, it's going to get better because I'm supporting practice more, so I think that'll make a big difference, along with connection and all the other things. Welcome.
Ariella, another magical person!
Ariella I'm a relative of Adam's, and I have been meditating with him for four years on Tuesday nights. He has said, "Meditate on the other days of the week," and I just have not been able to do that.
I'm really grateful to be part of the Meditation Resolution, and I have been meditating for 15 minutes this month. We did it!
Adam Wes Good job, Ariella! Amazing.
Ariella It's a great blessing. Thank you, Adam.
Adam Wes Welcome. Good job.
Just so you guys know, check out Ariella's website, The Pre-Birth Message. She speaks with infants pre-incarnation and with high-consciousness beings. It's really fascinating. Take a look at the website, theprebirthmessage.com.
Ariella Thank you. Also, what was the other thing I wanted to mention? It's gone. Sorry.
Adam Wes When you remember, we'll get back to it. Thank you.
Irena, so good to see you! Glad you made it.
Irena S I barely made it because I have such a flu, and I can't even talk.
Adam Wes You don't have to say anything unless you want to.
Irena S We were having a family game night, and I said, "Let me go and see and support you." We've known each other maybe a month or so, a very short time.
I'm excited because I do practice meditation on my own, and I feel like I've been getting stronger intuition hits. My dreams have been so synchronic, it's unreal.
Adam Wes Beautiful.
Irena S Amazing. I guess I want to connect more to my meditation to bring in more creative flow.
Adam Wes Wonderful. Beautiful.
Some of you have meditation practices. The whole idea around this is that we're going to bring energy and light to your practice, whatever it is, and that can magnify your practice and bring your practice to the next level, right? It's not, "Abandon your practice." It's, "Bring your practice to the next level."
You've got a lot of momentum going. That's wonderful. I'd just like to support the expansion of that until you're literally meditating three feet off the ground in levitation mode.
You guys are not getting my jokes here.
Wonderful. Thank you. How about anybody else? Colleen?
Colleen's my mom. You don't have to turn the camera on if you don't want to.
Colleen Hi.
Adam Wes Hey!
Colleen Hello, everybody. I've been meditating with Adam for three years, I think, although Ariella said four.
Adam Wes It's been four.
Colleen I was going to use your words of energy, light, and love. I experience that, and I hope to be a better student and practitioner and start doing a little bit more meditation.
Adam Wes I love that.
Colleen Thank you.
Adam Wes Thanks for being here, Mom.
This is my dad, Colin. Dad, would you like to share anything?
Colin W Hi, I'm Colin. I'm from Johannesburg, South Africa, and I'm Adam's dad. Guess where Adam was born?
I have been on this program as long as it's been going, which is about four years. My takeaway is a great sense of peace and tranquility. I enjoy attending the group because the benefits are obvious. Keep up the good work, Adam.
Adam Wes Thanks, Dad. Wonderful.
What a gift that I have my parents in these classes with me. I think a lot of you could say, "How incredibly amazing is that?" So thank you. Thanks, Mom and Dad, and everybody for sharing.
I have been doing this for four years now, but it has really changed structure. It's a little bit more serious. I shouldn't say that. It's been totally serious the entire time, but there's a little more structure. I'm essentially giving more to it.
It's been, "Let's meet on Tuesdays. We'll do a meditation." Now I'm creating something that's more expansive. You can come on Tuesdays and just be here on Tuesdays, but you can also practice, be a part of the Circle community, and connect with each other. It's going to grow and evolve beyond Tuesday night.
That has been a beautiful through-line that's been very serious and deeply meaningful for four years. Ariella has been here that whole time, and a few of you have come through at moments throughout that time as well.
Wonderful. Thank you, everybody, for introducing yourselves. How wonderful and global.
Oh, Ariella remembers!
Ariella Yes. I just wanted to say that I live in Los Angeles now, but I was born in Zambia and lived in Zimbabwe. My family are from South Africa. I met my husband and lived in Johannesburg, but we've been here for 40 years now.
At this moment, I'm in San Diego with my oldest daughter and her son, my grandson, because her husband is away. I'm helping her, so I'm in San Diego at the moment.
Adam Wes Thanks for clarifying and sharing, Ariella.
Colin and Colleen, where are you right now? Dad, you're not in South Africa right now.
Colleen We're in Seattle, Washington.
Adam Wes I was born in South Africa, and I grew up in Seattle, just so everybody knows. I've been in LA for 19 years. Can you believe that? Wow.
Practice Resources and Program Structure
All right, let's keep going. The next step is to share the website. Can you see the screen, everybody?
Okay, this is the practice hall. This is growing, so this is the beginning. I recommend everybody take a moment and enjoy this. It's really great on desktop. You can look at it on your phone as well. Take a read through this. It gives you a really good understanding of the program itself.
I see there are three people in the room right now. This is actually real-time. It was really difficult to code this, by the way. Getting it to figure out how many people were actually looking at the website was a lot of fun.
A few things to announce. First of all, the book of the month is Autobiography of a Yogi. I highly recommend ordering that. You can click the button right here, and it'll open right to Amazon. Everything is linked, so you can find Autobiography of a Yogi. It's a great book.
The principle of the month is mindfulness. Principles are ways that we live, the principles that inform our actions and the way we relate to and approach things.
Mindfulness is something to consider, and I recommend practicing mindfulness. That means when you eat, don't eat in front of the TV. When you walk, don't walk while on your phone. Do one thing at a time and give it your full attention.
Perhaps I'll write a sermon on it in detail, but it's one of the most powerful things on the path to enlightenment, helping us awaken to enlightenment.
Without going through everything, here's a Zoom link. This is the room we're in. If you ever need the Zoom link really easily, you can find it right there.
There is a Google Calendar, so I highly recommend everybody add the Google Calendar. If you click this, it'll open your Google Calendar, add all the events to your calendar, and give you reminders.
We've got a quote of the day. Here are recommendations for whether you've meditated today and how much you should meditate. There's also a routine element of the month: daily reading.
If you were in an ashram, you would study scripture for a certain part of the day. In a way, this is our form of studying scripture: 15 minutes a day reading about enlightenment. I highly recommend this. I've described what that means. It entrains your mind to a particular set of values and a paradigmatic orientation. I highly recommend this if you're willing to do it.
Here's a full book list as well. You can read the book of the month, or if you've already read it or want to try something else, here are eight books total that I've recommended. They're all related to enlightenment in some form or another.
I've also got the Mythic Study Room, which has three films. It's nice as a community to have some films that we can share and know about. These three films relate very much to enlightenment.
Groundhog Day is all about love being the answer to the universe. The Matrix is all about awakening to truth and going beyond illusion. The Last Samurai is a really beautiful connection with Japan and Buddhism. You can feel the energy of it in the film score and the story. It's about the samurai.
Down here, this is really fun: celestial events. This will automatically update the next three celestial events, at least the ones I think are particularly significant according to my understanding and personal practice.
These are great times for you to meditate. They're power moments. If you meditate through the full moon at 10:09 a.m. on Sunday, February 1st, or the apogee or the equinox, these are moments when you might be able to access light more deeply and perhaps have a kensho experience, which is a spontaneous revelation of nirvana and truth. These things will often happen during power moments.
Take a look at this. I don't want to go over everything, but one thing you should definitely know is that here are a couple of guided meditations. You can play them on the page. If you click play, it'll play. It's the same with the playlist here. You can literally click play and play songs from the playlist.
If you haven't joined Circle yet, this is our community app. I'm going to be sending you guys a link for this, but you can get the basic membership here. Join the Circle app. This is our community space, where we share things. You can post and chat with each other. It's very, very significant. It's easy to do. It takes two minutes.
Some of you still have not joined it after months of me recommending it. Kira.
If you haven't followed me on Substack, this is another place where you can read some of the things I write about enlightenment.
All right, let's keep going. Today's an initial orientation day, so in the future I won't have to go over this every time. I apologize if you guys just want to get to the practice.
Any questions from anybody? Any comments or approbation of the site? Do you like it? Do you not like it?
Kira That's amazing. Would you briefly share what vision you hope for the Circle community? That way, we can participate in a way that's enlivening.
Adam Wes The Circle community is a private online space. First, it has all the resources. I'll be posting recordings of these sessions there. I'd rather not have to email them every time. I'll just post them there, and you can go and get the catalog.
I keep emailing because I think part of the reason is that I know some of you won't get it if it's just in Circle.
The Circle space has a lot of things. It has all the resources, and it's interactive. You can comment on things. You can listen to one of the guided meditations there, comment on it, or heart it. It's like a little social media space for us.
Hi, Harrison.
Harrison M To riff off Kira's point, I was wondering, with the recordings, is there any chance we can download transcriptions of sermons and things like that?
Adam Wes You mean the live transcription?
Harrison M Yes. Some of the meditations, or particularly the sermons when you're talking, I'd love to get that in writing somehow. Is that possible?
Adam Wes I'm planning to do that. I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew right now, but I can transcribe the words I'm saying, and those should be available on Circle as well.
Harrison M That would be great.
Adam Wes That's the plan. Thank goodness for ChatGPT, because it can take the transcript and write it out properly. Otherwise, it's not very nice.
Cool. Thank you. Anybody else have a question?
Thanks, Ali. It should say 10:00 a.m. Is it not updating? Everything should be updated to your location. I'd love for people to look through and say, "Adam, this is not right."
I haven't debugged it or tested it because I have to buy what's called a proxy server to look at it from different locations on the planet. That costs money, and I thought I'd just ask everybody to let me know if one of the times is not correct.
I'm not sure I totally follow what the issue is, Ali. Maybe if you let me know exactly what's showing up, I can fix it. I think it's showing 6:00 p.m. for some reason.
It should all be updated. Even the celestial events should be in your time zone. The countdown timer should be to the correct time. If you see anything that's not correct, let me know.
We've done about 30 minutes. That makes a lot of sense.
Generally, these sessions will be structured as follows. Five minutes is just arrival and settling in. For 30 minutes, we'll talk about a particular topic related to enlightenment. That could be karma, humility, light, moksha, or various terms, aspects, and themes that we can focus on.
We'll talk about it. I'll spend some time contemplating it and really refining the transmission so that I share something deeply valuable for everybody.
Then we'll spend half an hour meditating in a particular way. We'll probably focus more on the light and gazing moving forward than we've done in the past, but the way we meditate will essentially be thematic. There are a whole bunch of different ways.
Then we'll spend 10 minutes at the end sharing our esoteric, mystical, and metaphysical experiences. It'll just be a quick share for about 10 minutes. Not everybody has to share.
That takes an hour and 15 minutes, so we'll go from 6:00 to 7:15. We're a little bit behind today, obviously, because I wanted to go over this page, introductions, and everything.
I'm going to slow my mind for a moment and tap into the sermon for the day, because I do have a sermon for today. Give me a second.
All right.
The Nature and Path of Enlightenment
The sermon for today is none other than enlightenment itself.
I'd like to talk about enlightenment. What is it? What does it really mean?
I think in Western society there's a lot of misunderstanding about it. It's usually considered very mythical and unattainable. It's very important to understand what enlightenment is because this whole Sangha centers on the key value proposition that it offers progress along your path to enlightenment. Those are the words I'm using.
How do we progress along the path to enlightenment, and what does enlightenment even mean?
First of all, enlightenment is a possibility for regular human beings, for all human beings. Enlightenment means we awaken to ultimate truth.
That needs some semantic reference. What is ultimate truth? It's not that you discovered a Wikipedia page that told you what ultimate truth was. It's so much more than that, right?
Enlightenment means that we awaken to a state of awareness that is liberated from the illusions of selfhood.
In yoga, there are a number of terms that help us understand the landscape of enlightenment. For example, there's a term called maya. Maya means illusion. Generally, human beings, myself included, live with a degree of illusion.
Illusion is part of sentience. The way we live and the way our mind is structured, we see our self-reflection. We don't see things exactly as they are.
In enlightenment, we clear ourselves of maya and come to see reality.
There are all these Sanskrit words. I've included 18 Sanskrit words on the practice page that are very useful for understanding enlightenment better, and we'll develop that over time.
This is not a one-day thing. It's not even a 10-week course possibility. This is an ongoing program.
I worked for years and years with my teacher, in dialogue with him over and over about all kinds of topics, and they would click after five years, after 10 years, after 15 years. It's been almost 15 years. After 14 years, things would click.
Enlightenment is really the heart of all religions. Jesus was talking about enlightenment. Buddha was talking about enlightenment. All the religions, the Muslim religions and the Jewish religions, are talking about the same things.
Usually, religions are considered to be in conflict with one another, but religions are more ontological. They're more like physics. You wouldn't have a Japanese physicist and an American physicist and say, "Oh, they're disagreeing. Let's go to war over it." They're studying something that is intrinsic to life and nature.
Physicists study matter and energy, time and space. An ontologist, a spiritual practitioner, or somebody on the path to enlightenment studies the inner and the outer, the nature of self, and the nature of the universe as one with self.
These things are ontological. They pertain to the study of being and existence itself. That's what I mean by the word ontological.
These religions point to this. Usually, religion picks up a degree of sedimentation, calcification, and dogma, and it loses touch with the original teachings.
These teachers were originally talking about enlightenment. The goal is to renew that, make contact with the actual teachings of enlightenment, and practice them while living in the world. We don't have to renounce the world and enter a monastery. We can practice them in such a way that they make our careers better, make our relationships better, and help us progress along this ancient path to awakening as human beings.
It's highly relevant to every human being. Some people are just not ready for it because it takes a degree of courage, an immensity of courage. You have to let go of your identity. You have to let go of a sense of security and be what you are.
Think about it. What are we? Fundamentally, at the very substrate foundation of our mind, there's something that is immutable and unassailable. We are something eternally.
Is it a witness? Is it beyond the witness? There's something that we are, a substance that is real, true, everlasting, and eternal.
When we become absorbed in that heart of the universe, it takes a lot of courage, but it also awakens a lot of blessings. A lot of people are too scared to go on an adventure, right?
In enlightenment, we have the courage to dive in and discover the blessings and beauty of the universe, to be awestruck, and to awaken power within ourselves. But our power will not be self-serving anymore. So we have to encounter a lot of things that some people aren't ready for.
Another thing I should say is that it's not required to become enlightened. To be on the path to enlightenment is enough. Take the next step toward freedom, happiness, and love.
You don't have to be the ultimate Buddha in this lifetime. If you're here, it doesn't mean, "What did I sign up for? Oh no, Adam's going to make me be a Buddha right now." You don't have to do that.
You can just be on the path and live in alignment with these beautiful, ancient, nonsectarian teachings. We're practicing and studying them so that we can become happy.
It's amazing because enlightenment is a panacea. Perhaps you know this word, or perhaps you don't. Panacea means a universal healer.
Whatever you're facing, anxiety, depression, career challenges, financial challenges, or interpersonal relationship challenges, enlightenment helps.
Perhaps let's go in the other direction. Maybe there's some sort of aspiration you hope to develop. You want to be a great athlete or a great engineer. Enlightenment helps with these things because it awakens knowledge, love, and self-command. It's very relevant.
Progressing along the path to enlightenment, and perhaps this is a novel representation of it for some of you, is certainly unusual in the world. Think of it less as a sacrifice and more as a curation and refinement, Kayla, of who you are, bringing things to the next level.
I hope to help you access a practice that empowers what you want for your own life.
When we get into light, it's magic because light will change you. I had things I was dealing with, and I encountered the light. It changed me.
For example, a silly one: I wasn't that good of a dancer. I couldn't dance. I couldn't move. I was too locked up on the dance floor. I connected to the light, and within a year or so, I was just going nuts on the dance floor. I was totally free.
It's funny how it shows up in these sorts of ways, right? You might have social anxiety. Maybe it's hard to talk to girls or boys. Then you go into light, and you're like, "Oh, I accept myself. I don't need anything anymore." You're just honest, free, and flowing.
Light does this. This practice does this. Silence does this.
Everything we experience in life is experienced through us, through our mind, through our subjective state of consciousness.
You could go to Hawaii, and it could be incredibly beautiful, and you could miss it. Or you could go and be awestruck, shedding tears and feeling so happy. You could go to the slums and be so happy, right?
The way we experience life is ourselves. We don't see life as it is. We see life as we are. Life is filtered through our consciousness.
When you work on your own consciousness, you augment everything. You want that new car? That new car is going to be more beautiful for you because of your meditation practice. You want a new relationship? It'll be more beautiful for you. Everything becomes more beautiful.
There are hard things that become more beautiful because the arc of life becomes integrated and rests upon that wholeness inside ourselves.
We connect with the part of ourselves that's eternal, so there's this overflowing blissfulness and wholeness inside us. This is the essential function that causes these changes. We become whole and free. No more seeking, just happening.
The things we want won't be the result of desire and attachment. They will happen as a result of dharma and truth.
We have a body. Our body will happen. Our choices will happen, but they'll happen in detachment and freedom. It's a whole orientation shift with enlightenment. It's just wonderful. I love it. I love enlightenment. That's why I do this.
A lot of times, religions enthrone some central figure as a savior, right? But that central figure was usually saying, "Hey, guys, I figured something out. Join me, and here's how you do it."
Jesus said something really beautiful. He said, "And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?"
What does this really mean? "Ye" means "you guys." That's a way cooler word for "you guys." It means "y'all," right? It literally means that.
It's a little bit funny to use in daily speech, but I think you guys should start doing that. It'll be hilarious. David's at dinner with friends, and he goes, "What shall ye want for dinner?"
Ariella, I'm going to get you to smile by the end of the session here.
When Jesus said that, he was essentially saying, "People, you're calling me your Lord, but you're not practicing what I am sharing." Obviously, he's saying you can do it too. That's what's implicit here. Practice. You can do it too.
The Buddha said this. The rabbis said this and say this. The Sufi masters say this. The Taoists say this. You can become this.
Light Practice and Collective Transformation
This is where practice comes into play. I'm sharing this because I want to inspire you guys to be freaking epic practitioners. You could do something amazing with your own mind through meditation.
The key thing is light, though. Light is what makes this powerful. Ali and I have been going into light together for over 10 years now, right? Ali practices the light, and it transmutes your consciousness.
Enlightenment isn't just an epiphany. Enlightenment is a change in the structure of your awareness field. You clear what's called samskaras. They're impressions that prevent you from seeing truth and being free.
In light, we bask in a divine shower that renews our spirit and helps us return to the essence whence we arose, that spiritual source of truth and love that is absolute bliss, ecstasy, and freedom.
One of the goals here is to create a reliable and effective path to enlightenment for everybody. I encourage you to share with me, "Hey, Adam, you said to do this thing. It's not working."
Rather than leave the community, let's work together to create this. Think of yourselves as co-creators of this Sangha. This is the seed.
Andrea said something beautiful. She said, "By the end of the year, we can have 100 people."
We're going to grow the Sangha together through practicing, having friends, and giving feedback. Please don't just let me screw up something. Tell me, "Adam, you suggested this, but it's not working for me."
Your case study of enlightenment is relevant to making this a reliable and effective path for yourself and for others.
What could be more important in the world than a way for us to become genuinely loving? Not just to have the ideal of love, but to feel it. To look at a stranger and feel that they are my very self. To go into light and see divine sacredness as a visual luminosity in my own mind.
What could be more important than that?
I almost got political for a second. I'll just say, if politicians had gone into the light and experienced love, how would they act differently?
Our society is our very self. The way our society is unfolding, it's easy to point fingers and blame, but the way society unfolds is a reflection of the state of mind and state of consciousness in society. It's reflected in the way we study in school and the way we relate to each other.
Sure, we may not do something that somebody else is doing, but we're not far from it. We're so connected, right? Maybe we're just fighting for an alternative perspective or something.
The whole idea is to bring more love. Love first. When we love first, we inspire love in others. When we go into light, we dissolve the things that create dissonance between us and the world.
It's absolutely paramount. I feel a great deal of conviction in this work, and I invite you to stand with me in society as practitioners and create this change for humanity.
Starting with our own lives, of course. We don't have to be too grandiose, but we could potentially make a difference.
I think Sadhguru is a great teacher out there right now. He says that if one percent of the world changed in this way, it doesn't have to be 50 percent or 51 percent, just one percent, it would be so potent that things would shift.
I feel that's a true statement.
All right, I think we should stop there. I've got a very long written sermon that I'm skimming through here. I didn't even get through it. I will post that later this week, and you guys can read it.
For the spontaneous live sermon, I think that's all I have to share for now. Would anybody like to comment, ask a question, or contribute something?
A lot of you are already on the path and perhaps have been on the path for a long time.
Can we meditate? Yes, we can meditate. We should definitely get meditating right now. Thank you.
Heart Meditation and Shared Experience
For today's meditation, let's meditate on the heart. I'm going to start with light, but let's do the heart.
If you can go into light, feel your heart chakra. Bring it into light.
If you have access to the light, what you essentially do is bring the luminosity into that physical part of your body. The heart chakra is all around here. Bring it into light.
Bring light into your whole nervous system and your legs. Bring your whole room into light.
If you don't have access to the light, if you don't feel easily in command of making that connection, you can just feel the spot. You can feel positivity and love.
We're sitting down and figuring out how to generate love so that when we walk away, it's just like we're having a good day. Everybody's like, "Oh, wow. I saw you, and I felt so much better after I encountered you," because you generated love.
Let's sit here and formally take some time, turn away from everything else, and generate love. If you can use the light to do so, even better.
For those of you who are interested in Sanskrit, the word for the center is anahata. It's also the middle dantian in Chinese, but anahata is a nice name. It's specific to this. I think there's a specific name for that dantian. I don't know it, though.
Maybe Ali knows. Ali does know, doesn't he? Let's hear it, Ali.
Ali T It's called Tianzong, which means the heavenly center.
Adam Wes What are the other dantians named?
Ali T There's the dantian, which is the navel.
Adam Wes It's called the elixir field.
Ali T Then there's Tianzong, which is the heavenly center, and Tianmu, which is the heavenly eye.
Adam Wes Beautiful. Love it. That's what happens when you literally go to school for Chinese medicine for many, many years. This guy knows what he's talking about.
I just had a little intuitive sense that you and David should connect. David and Ali, you guys would have a fun chat. That'd be cool.
Ali T Nice.
Adam Wes If you want to. No pressure. Don't be awkward. Maybe I'm being awkward right now. No, you guys should disconnect.
All right, let's get started.
For today, we'll do a slightly shorter meditation and perhaps a slightly shorter share, but we'll go just a little bit over. I'm thinking 25 more minutes, if you guys can hang in there for that.
If you need to drop off early, that's fine, but if you can hang in, it's always nice to say goodbye together. Next week, we'll go to a nice 7:15 stop time.
Andrea's literally yawning. She's like, "Adam, I'm tired." No, she's good.
All right, let's go.
Can you hear the music?
Generate some love.
Keep bringing your attention back. When you become aware of your inadvertence, bring your attention back to the heart.
It's the conscious generation of love.
One way you can access love is to feel gentleness and let go of resistance.
Do you feel any blockage in the heart center? You can actively and gently work through that.
Just be attentive to it. Figure out how to clear it. Open it.
Open your heart.
Bring attention to your heart center again.
It's good to feel gratitude.
Take note of the expanse of existence.
Feel at home in your own body, mind, and heart.
Let's look at the moment and its steadiness.
Namaste.
Hi, Mom. Would you like to share?
Colleen Not much to say today. I'm still suffering from a bit of jet lag, so I'm going to pause.
Adam Wes Okay. Thank you, Mom. Namaste.
I'd love to hear from Kayla.
Kayla S I'm feeling really peaceful and centered. I was able to grow the heart and feel that energy. A lot of it was just gathering, and I was moving it through. It was beautiful. Thank you.
Adam Wes You're welcome. Namaste. I'm so happy you're here, Kayla. What a treat.
How about you, Ali? I'm pretty ecstatic that Ali's here. It's good to see you, Ali. I miss you, man.
Ali T That was amazing. It was a very palpable experience, and it actually caught me off guard. I was just looking at the screen, but I felt so much clearing.
Especially when you opened out your hands like that, I could really feel as if you were connecting directly to me and blasting me with light. It felt like I was getting supercharged. It was palpable, and it threw me off.
It's almost as if I forgot how palpable and strong it is to meditate with someone who can open up that energy.
I could immediately feel where there was some stagnation and some blocks. It was so nice to have so much attention, attention that was then expanding my awareness.
It was really interesting. I know we've obviously meditated before, but it was something quite unique. I felt like I was being taken for a ride, almost. Something was coming at me, and I was like, "Whoa!"
Adam Wes I love it. It's been a while since we've meditated together. That's such a beautiful reflection. We should do it more often.
Ali T Yes.
Adam Wes I really loved it.
Ali T Thank you. It's really nice to feel that.
Adam Wes Thanks for going on that ride with me. It was amazing. I don't know if you saw, but I was quite moved myself.
It was really beautiful, just touching the world and the universe beautifully. Namaste, Ali. Thank you.
Ali T Thank you, Adam.
Adam Wes You're welcome. How about you, Harrison?
Harrison M Every time, there are so many things I feel like I could say after these meditations. I always find that when I try to say something, it condenses. I'm constantly left speechless. That's probably my comment.
I think this practice is really planting the seed, in its simplest form, of how infinite the potential of your mind is. When you shut your eyes and put intention into meditation, you're tapping into the infinite source of everything.
Without getting too deep, it was amazing. I really appreciated it, and I could feel the energy. I had also meditated just before with you guys, and that was amazing as well.
Doing it back-to-back is making me realize that I could definitely sit in meditation for a lot longer than I've been doing and enjoy it. Thank you.
Adam Wes Love it. Namaste. Wonderful.
Anybody? Kira, are you around? Andrea, are you around?
Andrea P Hi.
Adam Wes Does anybody feel like they'd like to share? Rachna, would you like to share? Ariella, would you like to share?
Rachna S Today, I actually felt something going through the whole body. There's a wall in front of me with a world map, but when I was meditating, I felt an artificial wall and things moving up.
I don't know why, but I saw something scrolling upward, and then I felt that sensation through the whole body. Today was different from the other meditations we have been practicing, and it's still around. I don't know.
Adam Wes Wonderful. Have you heard the phrase "kundalini rising"?
Rachna S I think so. That's what I just felt, and it's still there.
Adam Wes Just be with that and process it. The kundalini can awaken and rise. It runs through all the chakras.
There's a central tube called the sushumna. It runs through the sushumna, which goes all the way up to the third eye and out the nose, and it can jump up into the crown area.
Wonderful. Lovely.
Rachna S Yes.
Adam Wes All right, one more. Ariella, would you like to share? Ariella's super blissed out. Are you able to speak? No words?
Ariella It's very hard to put it into words. What I've done before is call it spacing out, but I just expand, and I'm not aware of any of the physicality. It's just so expansive.
Adam Wes Beautiful.
Ariella Thank you, Adam.
Adam Wes You're welcome. Good job.
Here are a few ways I would phrase it other than "spacing out," because when I think of spacing out, I think of some 12-year-old in a boring math class. That's spacing out. They have to take my math class instead. No, I'm just kidding.
You're being absorbed in the unknown. Your self-reflection is moving into abeyance. You're entering into Brahman or Atman. You can find some Hebrew words for this if you like.
You're transcending individuality. You're expanding, but you're expanding without self-reflection, so there's no idea of self in your expanded state. These are very beautiful states.
Beautiful. Namaste, Ariella.
Would anybody else like to share before we get off? I guess we actually did a pretty good job. We're only four minutes over on the first day.
I recommend meditating first thing in the morning. Meditate for 15 minutes if you're a beginner, or 30 minutes twice a day if you feel like you can do that.
Some of you have children and you're busy. I understand, but I would encourage you to lie in bed and not open your eyes. Nobody will know. Just meditate. When you wake up, don't open your eyes. Nobody will know, and you can meditate at that time.
You can also meditate in the bathroom. I'm actually serious. The mirror in the bathroom is a great place to meditate because everybody gives you space.
All right, I'm being too silly here.
I'd love to see everybody next week, if you can make it. I'm excited to have some continuity here in practice.
Check out the practice room. Send me an email. I'd love to connect and keep this going throughout the week, if you like.
Namaste. Thank you for being here. I'm so grateful for every one of you. We're making it happen together.
Wonderful. Bye, everybody!
Irena S Bye! See you soon.
Ali T Thank you, Adam.
Kayla S Nice to meet you all.