The Awareness Podcast, Ep.51: Living in Not-Knowing with Jenny Beal and Francis Lucille: The Joyful, Never-ending Path of Not-Knowing
Jan 12, 2023
In this episode, Francis describes what it means ‘to live in not-knowing’ and explains the distinction between non-duality and non-dualism. Jenny and Francis discuss the different ways in which we can approach the hidden knowledge of awareness. After the first stage in which we discover the absolute reality of pure consciousness, Francis explains why it is essential to recognise that this one reality shines as this world. That’s the only way to be stable in this understanding. Otherwise, we feel nostalgia for the state of pure awareness, and then there is suffering.
In a discussion on practice, Francis explains that after having a first glimpse of the truth, it’s a life-time assignment. The goal is happiness. Practice converges with life. You don’t stop the practice when you are enlightened. After enlightenment, you practice all the time. But it’s important to make sure your practice comes from love and enthusiasm. Otherwise you stay on the path of self-improvement for lifetime after lifetime. How could more effort, more suffering take you closer to the effortless path?
About Francis Lucille:
Francis Lucille is a spiritual teacher in the tradition of Advaita Vedanta. A longtime friend and disciple of Jean Klein whom he met in 1975, he was a friend of Robert Linssen, Wolter Keers, Yvan Amar, William Samuel and Robert Adams. He was also influenced by J. Krishnamurti, Krishna Menon and Wei Wu Wei, whom he knew personally. Many contemporary Advaita teachers have attended his teaching events.
Francis transmits the ancient teaching of nonduality, the common ground of Advaita Vedanta, Ch’an Buddhism, Zen, Taoism and Sufism. Francis’ teachings are not “Neo-Advaitic” but traditional, which means that the experience of our true nature has been transmitted from generation to generation by a lineage of sages. They reflect those of his guru: appreciation for humour, art, music, and poetry, intellectual rigour with a “personal” twist due to his training in Mathematics and Physics, and emphasis on the body and its feelings.
Learn more about Francis on his website.
