Dear Eli,
Wow. Observing what is unfolding in this retreat feels like watching alchemy, or magic, or some other such thing. The culmination of so many converging factors: your initial vision for the school to serve the awakening and peace for all beings; your lifetime of work- as beautifully outlined in The Awakened Guide – the transmission of Silence that radiates through you as the current manifestation, along with Gangaji, in form of this lineage; the initial coming into form after conversations in Maui in 2015; the stumbling early years, us not knowing what the hell we were doing; the false starts and re-assessments; the learning from mistakes; the opening and deepening that has progressively occurred in those who are on fire and drawn to stay involved; the addition, piece by piece, of other beautiful supporting energies – Leigh, Joey, Monique, Margot, Caroline, Heidi, Johannes, etc, etc.
Now we are seeing the fruits of all of this holy work. “Blessed fruit!!”
For me personally, at this moment it feels like in the past two years I’ve been following a trail of breadcrumbs that you have been laying. I feel here, I feel free, I feel equanimity, I feel home, and I am so, so, so grateful to you and Gangaji, and for you both seeing the Truth, alive and awake, in me. Thank you.
The transition that happened this week started with you saying that one of the requirements for awakening is the ability to discriminate the real from the unreal. I recognised that I had been avoiding using the terms ‘real’ and ‘unreal’ because the direct experience of Reality was not permanently embodied for me. I had tasted it many times, deeply, but not permanently. In this moment, however, I know what’s real, and there is absolute freedom and fulfilment in that.
This feels like the culmination of an inquiry that began in Byron in 2019 when you made a throw away line about me being good at ego strengthening, but not so good with ego transcendence, or something to that effect. This clearly said to me – in the nicest possible way – that I wasn’t awake, not once-and-for-all. When you said in a meeting last week, “Those who know, know,” something dropped, and I was fully here. Thank you Eli.
I feel so blessed to be able to work closely with Jared and Lisa; what beautiful shining beacons of Love they are.
Sending love from here,
Stevie