BEYOND THE PENDULUM OF EXPERIENCE

Is it possible to remain in the subtle field of open awareness, untouched by the ceaseless movement of thought, emotion, and sensation? Experience unfolds—perception happens, sensations arise, thoughts come and go. And yet, is it not true that awareness itself remains unbounded, untouched by what moves within it?

Ordinarily, in the unexamined state, the self becomes entangled in the content of experience. Identity forms around what is perceived: I am this thought. I am this emotion. I am this reaction. Like a pendulum, we swing between identification and resistance—clinging to what we desire, rejecting what we don’t. This movement creates an underlying restlessness, a constant tension within. The divided self emerges: I must hold on to what feels good. I must get rid of what feels bad. In this unconscious position, experience is filtered through the lens of self-definition, making life a struggle between control and surrender, attachment and aversion.

At some point, this cycle becomes exhausting. The mind tires of the endless struggle, the heart longs for something beyond fleeting states of pleasure and pain. The yearning for freedom arises. But true freedom is not found in manipulating experience—seeking different emotions, silencing thoughts, or striving for an imagined state of peace. Freedom does not come from changing the content of experience; it comes from recognizing what has been present all along.

Awareness itself does not struggle. It does not hold on or push away. It simply is. Like the vast sky that remains open no matter the weather, awareness is the silent, unchanging space in which all experience arises and dissolves. Thoughts may appear, emotions may swell and subside, but they do not define what you are. The invitation is to step back from the pendulum swing, to cease identifying with what arises, and instead rest in the space from which everything arises.

This recognition is profoundly simple. Yet, fully embodying it in lived experience takes time. The conditioned self resists this simplicity, addicted to seeking, to grasping, to fixing. But again and again, the invitation remains: Be still. Witness. Recognize the awareness that has never left. When the restlessness settles, when the search quiets, the truth reveals itself—not as something attained, but as something that was always here.

Join us for a weekend online retreat:
“Deepening into the I AM” : April 12th & 13th, 2025

This Weekend Retreat is an exploration of the ‘I Am’ at the core of our being, and how the recognition of this “I Am” is the foundation of inner peace and unshakable presence.

Thanks for reading.