A Conversation With Gangaji

This month we are happy to share a selection from Jami Sieber and Kim Rosen's new album Feast of Losses. Their new album takes a deep dive into that sacred space where grief and gratitude meet. Their collaboration offers a transmission of such beauty that it stops the mind and opens the heart! This selection from the album features What the Living Do by Marie Howe, with music by Jami Sieber and spoken word by Kim Rosen. Read about their inspiration for this work on the Gangaji Commnuity Blog.  Purchase a download of the complete album at jamisieber.com/feast-of-losses

“If your attention is on the story of how you do not deserve what is being offered, this is the continuation of self-denial.  There is an open door in this jail, in this prison.” When we seek freedom on the spiritual path, it is often freedom from our mind or mental activity. In this podcast, we focus how we can lock ourselves up inside a mental prison, not recognizing the door that is always open.    

Repeatedly telling the story of “not good enough” is a familiar habit to most of us, an aspect of our human conditioning. But what does it have to do with who you truly are? In this exchange, Gangaji, simply and directly shares how to bring an end to the story and “step into freedom.” 

“To play the role of yourself, which is the transcendent role, the role of freedom, you have to trust something unknowable.” The themes of belonging, freedom from identification, and trusting our direct experience come together in this month’s podcast. This powerful interplay of themes opens the mind to the heart and invites an inquiry: What does it mean to be free? Where do you belong?    

We have been blessed to hear Aea Luz sing at Gangaji's retreats. Now, we are happy to share her beautiful voice with you. This podcast extra features a new song from Aea that was actually inspired while she was on retreat with Gangaji—One Thing Goin' On. It is taken from of her recently released album, Dust & Light available on aealuz.com.

A key strategy for our human survival is to “be special.” If we stand out in some way, get noticed by others, we may find ourselves better positioned in the “herd.” That isn’t necessarily a problem, until the drive to be more and more special becomes an addiction and in that, is ultimately destructive. This lively exchange offers great insight into what it means to be absolutely ordinary and still discover what is truly extraordinary.

“Stop all effort to get whatever it is you think will give you fulfillment.  All that is required is one instant of truly stopping.” The longing for true freedom, for lasting fulfillment is no ordinary desire. Unlike the desires for food, shelter, or social connection that serve our physical survival, true fulfillment cannot be attained, even if we employ spiritual techniques and meditation practices. In this monologue, Gangaji speaks to the resolution of the paradox this extraordinary desire presents in our lives—true fulfillment can only be realized if you don’t do anything for its realization. 

In dealing with life’s hardships, we naturally identify what is broken, what emotions need to be controlled, which circumstances need to get better. That is part of the human drive to survive. But there is something beyond brokenness, beyond any emotions we wish would go away. In the willingness to directly meet the pain we fear, rather than trying to control or get rid of it, there is a life-changing discovery of what is whole, complete, and has no need of fixing. 

Our most sublime experiences of acceptance, wholeness, and truth, are commonly followed by a fierce “mind attack.” If there is a willingness to investigate what is underneath the experience, there is a revelation of what is untouched in the wake of any mental phenomena. 

“All of your life you have wanted to be who you are.  That is what authentic means, isn’t it?” Recognizing you are just “faking it” is a moment of discriminating wisdom that reveals an essential choice point. Will you keep faking it? When the desire for the truth of who you are overwhelms every other human desire, the choice becomes clear. In this exchange, Gangaji takes us on a deep dive into the desire for authenticity and the habit of postponement.   

Many have taken a spiritual path to escape the pain of human suffering that flows from war and injustice. But the truth is, we are never separate from it all. Where can we discover the strength and the capacity to bear that pain? How can our lives be beacons of true peace? 

A new composition from Scott Reich blends Gangaji's spoken word with his music. Listening is an opportunity to drop deeply into the message, "You, yourself, are Home."

If you were totally and completely seen and heard, what would that give you? As human beings living in relationship to each other, we play many different roles: partner, mother, father, son, daughter, or co-worker. In these roles, we may have the experience of not being seen or feeling invisible. In this inquiry, Gangaji takes us into the direct experience of “not being seen” to discover what is actually not being seen.  

“The willingness to be silence is the willingness not to be who you think you are. To not get what you think you need. Not have what you think you have. There is a nakedness in that.” In her latest podcast, Gangaji and interviewer Mark Groves share a compelling conversation about what it means to be still, to stop.  How does our fear of silence lead us away from our true self, especially in the midst of our active and often chaotic sensory world. Where do silence and sobriety meet?

“There is some force that is seeking itself.  That desires itself. That is praying for itself.” As we begin a new year, you can take a moment for reflection. You can tell the truth about what you are desiring, what you are hoping for, what you are praying for as you walk on your spiritual path. Sharing her own personal experience, Gangaji also invites you to inquire into the source of your prayers and see what it reveals.

Musician and composer Scott Reich incorporates Gangaji's spoken word into a his new composition entitled "This Space of Stillness."  “I write music to create a place of refuge - for myself, and for all who are drawn to a place of deeper peace.”

“We are here to retreat from the trouble, so that actually when the trouble returns, we have a bigger capacity, a stronger foundation to meet whatever appears.” When we choose to walk on a spiritual path, our first aspiration may be to transcend our problems or at least transcend the world’s problems. From the mundane to the catastrophic, problems are part of living a human life. So where is peace? What if true fulfillment is realized when we actually stop trying to transcend what Gangaji calls “trouble?”

“Maybe grace, deliverance comes to get you.  Knocks on your door and says, ‘You have a chance to be at peace.’  In your willingness to take that chance, to accept that invitation to be at peace, then you have an opportunity to share this peace, everywhere.” Living our daily lives, we may find ourselves actually attracted to war. We can also be fed up with that attraction.  We can recognize that there is no need to postpone peace in our own minds. In this podcast, Gangaji speaks about the roots of war and the opportunity of being at peace for ourselves and the world.

The human desire for understanding is powerful. We naturally want to understand where we fit in or how best to fix a problem. Understanding satisfies particular needs in our daily life, but on the spiritual path, is understanding enough? Gangaji addresses the crucial difference between realization and understanding that transforms our life experience.  

When we are willing to set aside our beliefs, our thoughts, our powers of mind for an instant, the peace we long for and search for, is immediately revealed. In this lively exchange, Gangaji speaks to the experience of “losing our peace” because some thing has changed, and where finally it is always found. “You live your life in Truth, you live your life knowing that even though ‘my breath changes, and my feelings change, and my body changes,’ this Peace does not change. It is here, always.”