Sedona Zendo of the Awakened Heart

07/06/2023

Do You Exist?
I am serious when I say that you don’t exist. I don’t exist either.

We begin our awakening process by experiencing pure being, pure existence, with nothing specific to be. We leave alone the idea of a body, a mind, a person, a self, a soul, and whatever else you could consider you.

We leave alone such thoughts as Consciousness, Awareness, the Self, Immortal Soul, Higher Self, God, Universe, Divine, and whatever else we can imagine as what we are, and whatever else we can imagine.

When there is nothing left, when we have emptied out all the illusions, what remains? We have finally seen our True Face, to use a common Zen phrase. But don’t take this seriously. That True Face doesn’t exist either. We’ve already jettisoned all our illusions. Why add a new one?

In the absence of you, there is you. Or maybe we should say You, to indicate Truth. In the absence of you, there is You. There is existence, being, is-ness, without anything to be.

Perhaps this is confusing. In a world of illusion, Truth often is.

Perhaps there are some identifications, thoughts, or beliefs you would rather not let go, at least not quite yet. Truth, Liberation, Awakening require letting go of ALL illusions, even what you don’t consider illusions, especially what you don’t consider illusions. How can you awaken from a dream if you’re still holding on to part of it? Awakening is an everything-must-go sale. Everything Must Go.

When you’re ready, it happens by itself. You have nothing to do with it. You never did. You don’t really exist. You never have. In fact, you are the dream. This imaginary you has always been the obstacle to realizing You. When you realize that, You will be very happy. Where do you think Bliss comes from?

06/30/2023

The reason we don’t sell Truth is because we don’t own Truth. Any truth we own is just more of our delusions and cannot really help anyone, least of all ourselves. If we are aware of Truth, we let Truth speak. Mostly it speaks in Silence as the mind is full of delusions. Occasionally it speaks in words that point back to this Silence although that is rarely ever necessary or successfully received. As Ramana said to a student when asked if he could give him his Silence, “I can give it, but can you receive it.”

06/29/2023

A Day of Silence
Even living in a busy household, you can practice at least a single day of silence each week. If you’ve never done this before, you may think it’s challenging. Once you make up your mind to do it, you’ll find it’s not. It’s probably best to choose a weekend if you work during the week, unless you’re employer is amenable.

You don’t need to force everyone else to be silent. This is for you. Just make sure they know so they don’t try to engage you in conversation or ask questions. In emergencies, you can write on a small pad of paper.

If you want to do this or it seems challenging within your household, I am willing to hold the Zendo open for one day per month. I live in silence almost all the time, but I am not always in the Zendo, but one day a month I can make it available if there is enough interest. I may also offer a Silent Transmission one evening at the Zendo for an hour. It is probably a good way to get your feet wet.

Let me know if you’re interested in this.

01/10/2023

There are only three things that keep us from truth and awakening to our True Nature.
1. Thoughts.
2. Sense organs (seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching) and their sense objects.
3. The body.
In the dream, these are highly treasured and most of our attention is directed to them. It's not surprising as this is what keeps us in the dream. If we want to wake up from the dream, we must remove our attention from each of these distractions from truth.
In this video, you will see a 20-minute example of a transmission where attention is removed from each of these three obstacles and focused instead on the infinite, limitless, eternal Self which is our True Nature. This is beyond thought, body, and the material world of form. We call this Nirvikalpa Samadhi. It is in silence. Pay attention to what you feel. You may want to close your eyes so there is less distraction from your senses.

There are only three things that keep us from truth and awakening to our True Nature. 1. Thoughts.2. Sense organs (seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and to...

12/27/2022

Each Monday, I record a small section of the weekly transmission. This was recorded on December 26th for the Christmas Season, an especially auspicious time of year for spiritual practice and awakening.

Live transmissions are held every Monday at 3:30 pm Pacific Time on Zoom. All information and the Zoom link are available on the website.
https://n-lightenment.com/silent-transmission-shaktipat/

Each Monday, I record a small section of the weekly transmission. This was recorded on December 26th for the Christmas Season, an especially auspicious time ...

09/30/2022

The Four States of Spiritual Awakening
This video was made about a year ago. It still rings true and it seems to have helped many people understand what awakening is and the awakening process.

The Four Stages of the Zen Circle explains the process of awakening in the clearest way I have seen. It is a process of progressively letting go of attachmen...

08/01/2022

There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about Samadhi. This is natural as it cannot be translated into words, but in this video, I do my best to describe my experience of Samadhi. Hopefully, some of the flavor of Samadhi will come through. When we think of Samadhi as being "special", "mystical", or something that only certain spiritually advanced people can experience, we are creating a concept about Samadhi that blocks our direct experience of it. In this video, I try to remove this common obstacle. The only way to really understand Samadhi is the direct experience of Samadhi. Hopefully, this video will make that a little easier.

Please let me know if you have any questions. You can find more videos like this on The Enlightened Way YouTube channel.

There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding about Samadhi. This is natural as it cannot be translated into words, but in this video, I do my best to des...

06/01/2022

Meditation Group
There will be a silent meditation at the Sedona Zendo of the Awakened Heart from 7pm to 8pm each Wednesday beginning tomorrow June 1st. Instructions and directions are available on the website.

This is an opportunity to deepen your meditation practice. Often people have interesting experiences when they meditate with me through a type of energetic transmission. I don't understand it, but it happens. It's not important whether you do or not, but the environment can result in a deeper meditation experience.

Instructions and directions are available here:

Silent Meditation at the Zendo

03/18/2020

Being Together During the Coronavirus Challenges
One Solution to the Challenges Around the Covid-19 Pandemic
I have advised people to do what you can to benefit others during this challenging time. Physically being with or around people is not beneficial at this time. It's also irresponsible. Spiritual teachers who are still encouraging people to physically gather together for meetings and retreats may need to pay more attention to their true motivation during this time.

One of the things I would like to offer is a safe place for people to be together and share their concerns, struggles, fears, and successes during this time. I can do this through my online Zoom meeting room for up to 25 people.

This is not about my teaching, although if it is useful, needed, and asked for a teaching may arise. This is about a safe place for people to share their concerns and their struggles with others and be listened to and heard in a safe environment free of judgment. There is a wonderful process I learned from Thich Nhat Hanh that makes this possible.

To know that others share our concerns, fears, and struggles can already make us feel less alone, fearful, and hopeless.

It can also be a place where people share what has worked for them during these challenging times. Here in the US, we are only beginning this process. In places like Italy, they have already experienced what we are only just starting. There is much we can learn from each other.

I would like to see my role in this as just one of the participants rather than as a teacher, as well as a facilitator of this very simple process that encourages deep listening and sharing rather than the more superficial conversations we are mostly accustomed to.

I think this can be very helpful and I am happy to offer it completely free of any charges. This is for you.

While these challenges are going on, I can begin to offer these Being Together online meetings on Wednesday at 8:00 pm Pacific Time and on Saturday at 1:00 pm Pacific Time after my Facebook Live Satsangs. If there are more convenient times or days for our International Brothers and Sisters, let me know and I will accommodate to the best of my abilities. Please translate the requests into Pacific Time. If people would prefer that I leave those times as is for the continuation of the Satsangs where questions are answered, let me know this as well and I will try to switch to other days.

I feel it is important to offer this because I know many people are experiencing challenges, confusion, fear, loneliness, isolation, and suffering during this time. I also know it is always better to find solutions as a group rather than individually. Because of the demands of social distancing, this too has become more challenging. What I am proposing is already one solution.

If you would like to attend these Being Together sessions, the Zoom Meeting Room number is 783-208-8996. If you are not familiar with Zoom, full instructions for downloading it are on my website here: https://n-lightenment.com/online-instructions/

Each Being Together meeting will last approximately one hour but may run longer if people need it to. We will begin the first one tomorrow, Wednesday 3/18/2020 at 8:00 pm Pacific Time and continue as needed.

Again, there is no charge for this. It is for you.

11/09/2019

New Zen Garden
I just finished a new Zen garden for the front of the Zendo. It welcomes visitors and myself each time I return. I finished it just in time for the falling autumn leaves to add their beauty to it.

"The spring flowers, the moon in autumn,
The cool breezes of summer, the winter's snow;
If idle concerns do not cloud the mind,
This is man's happiest season."
- Mumon, Verse from the Koan Ordinary Mind is the Way in the Gateless Gate

Why do we love autumn so much? I think it is because it reminds us of our death. Everything born dies. This is the perfection of life. When we rely on our conditioned thoughts, we celebrate birth and mourn death, not realizing the two cannot be separated. When our mind is free of such confusion, we celebrate all seasons. We celebrate each moment. Birth, death, isn't it wonderful!

08/29/2019

The Practice of Noble Silence is probably the most profound, useful, and beneficial spiritual practice there is. It begins with stopping the external doing in your life and slowly extends to stopping the internal chattering of your mind. When the mind is still and silent, a great clarity arises by itself. This is the way of True Wisdom. It is the way of Awakening.

These live Satsang videos are available every Wednesday at 7:00 pm and Saturday at noon Pacific Time on Facebook Live. They appear on the page, Satsang with Peter. There is a Zoom session after the Satsang for those who have questions or want to share their experiences. The Zoom meeting number is 983-208-8996. Some of these live Satsang videos will be posted later here on the YouTube channel as this one was. To see when new videos are posted, subscribe to The Enlightened Way YouTube channel and visit the website https://n-lightenment.com.

The Practice of Noble Silence is probably the most profound, useful, and beneficial spiritual practice there is. It begins with stopping the external doing i...

07/17/2019

People travel to exotic locations to have interesting experiences and escape the routine of their daily life. In this video, I show you how your daily life can be the most interesting adventure of all. The movie of your life has been written by society and your social conditioning. Here's how you can change that old script and make it your own. Make each moment of your life the amazing adventure it was always meant to be.

How your daily life can be the adventure of a lifetime.