How might our beliefs be the biggest obstacle to awakening?
Spiritual teacher Jenny Beal explores what blocks awakening and debunks the limitations that keep us trapped in the illusion of being just a body / mind.
Jenny helps us see that our true nature is not bound by thoughts, perceptions, or physical reality — but instead, we are that which is aware of all experiences. Through deep inquiry, she helps dissolve the false beliefs that cloud our understanding and points directly to the unchanging reality of our being.
Watch this short video clip of Jenny’s teachings, where she reveals:
✓ Why the biggest illusion is believing we are separate from the whole
✓ How scientific and non-dual perspectives reveal one ultimate reality
✓ Why mind-based assumptions keep us stuck — and how to see through them
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Most spiritual paths really start with improving the body-mind, so there's a kind of an assumption that there's something that needs to be improved. The direct path goes as directly as possible for an individual to the understanding of what they really are. So it does vary from one individual to another, and the main thing that blocks awakening is the beliefs that people hold, and often they don't even realize that something is a belief, but it's something that's actually blocking their understanding.
So this is a path of understanding, and it's a path of debunking beliefs for which you have no evidence. That's really what a belief is. It's something you hold to be true, but you actually have no conclusive evidence about it.
The first belief really is the belief that what I am is this limited body and mind, and that's the first one that we debunk. And it's very simple to debunk that one because we are that which is aware of our body and our mind. We're aware of the thoughts that go on in our mind.
We're aware of the sense perceptions that pass through our minds. We're aware of our body. We can see these parts of our body, and we have bodily sensations which give us an awareness of body.
So we can't really be what we are aware of. And if you think about what is meant by I, what you mean when you say I, you're really referring to something which is very much more permanent than a body and a mind. The mind is always changing.
There's a flow of thoughts and sense perceptions, bodily sensations going on all the time. It's always changing. But the body also is always changing.
It's taking in air. It's taking in food. It's totally interconnected with the universe.
And the universe is always changing, and our body is always changing. But there's something about I, there's something that we all feel within us has never changed. It's always the same from the moment when we were tiny babies up to the moment now.
And so that's really what we point people to right at the very beginning of the path.
We're always concerned with that which is changing, everything around us which is changing. And we give very little attention or significance to the unchanging.
But actually the unchanging is what we are. Now, some people do say that the world is totally illusory, but that's not really what the non-dual path actually says. There's different ways of looking at it.
There are some non-dual teachers who take an idealist position, and in that case, they feel that the world is really made out of mind. There's nothing outside of mind. If they're talking about their individual mind, usually they won't be.
But if they were, then they would be solipsists. But more usually they're talking about some concept of a universal mind. But in other words, everything is made out of thought in a way.
We can't actually show that's the case. We really have no evidence that's the case. There's another position which is the realist position, which is also consistent with non-duality.
And that really says, well, yes, we perceive two realms. There's a realm of mind, and there's the realm of physical objects. And the realist position is rather nice, because it fits very beautifully with science.
And so science explores the physical world, and they have explored it. And what's so very beautiful is that when you look deep and deep and deep and deep into what scientists have previously called matter, you find that it kind of all evaporates, and you're just left with what's called quantum fields. And quantum fields are really like probability fields.
And little particles, packets of energy will come into them, go out of them, appear, disappear all the time. So you feel by going through that scientific path, you feel that ultimately everything is a field of probability or field of possibility. And now if you look at mind, on the other hand, the other realm, then mind is really just a flow of bodily sensations, sense perceptions, thoughts, images.
And if we ask ourselves, well, what are those occurring in? And they're occurring in a kind of mind space. And isn't that terribly similar to the physical space? So you can come to a kind of feeling understanding, maybe those two spaces are one, or certainly that they could be one. And so the reality of the physical world, the reality of the mental world is the same reality.
And then you come to the conclusion, there is only one reality.
Interested in more...?
You can catch Jenny starting this coming Monday, March 10th, for her 3-part teaching series "The Effortless Path to Freedom."
Effortless being is available to us in each and every moment of our lives when we remain open to it.
Are you open to evolving your practice of living in the quiet peace of the present moment?
If your answer is yes, this is our invitation to you.
Get continued support with spiritual awakening as a true felt experience that is lived every single day, in every facet of life with this 3-part live series facilitated by spiritual teacher Jenny Beal.
Through guided contemplations, meditation, and Q&A, you'll leave with a deeper, experiential understanding of your true nature and learn how to navigate everyday challenges from a place of profound clarity.
Resolve any doubts or roadblocks that may be encountered in applying these teachings in your daily life. Experience the lasting freedom and peace that comes from realizing your true, effortless nature.
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See you there!
