An Overview of The Way of Liberation - Part 1: The Five Foundations
As some of you know, I consider Adyashanti to be one of the best contemporary spiritual teachers around. He has a way of putting things into words that cuts right through all the BS that you might find in other teachings. One thing I thought was pretty great was that he gives away one of his books, The Way of Liberation.
The Way of Liberation is a short book, but then, most of these teachings are relatively simple. Extremely challenging for most of us, but simple. In the book Adya says "You will get out of The Way of Liberation teachings exactly what you put into them." It is a practical book, meaning we have to apply the teachings in our own life in order to have an hope for success.
The first main section of the book discusses what Adya calls "The Five Foundations," which provide the context for the teaching. I've given a brief overview below:
The Five Foundations
Clarify Your Aspiration - This means knowing what you value most in your life, not in the future, but in each moment. Basically what is most important to you. This is something that should be contemplated deeply rather than assumed. Even though we may think we value truth or reality, sometimes we're putting other values first in the way we act. Clarifying your aspiration isn't a one and done thing, we should come back and reflect on issues relevant to our current understanding in order to stay on the cutting edge of our unfoldment.
Unconditional Follow-Through - After clarifying our aspiration we need to follow through on it. This has to do with what we are willing to do or let go of. Aspiration shows us what we truly love and value, and we reflect that in our actions. By following up on our aspirations with action, we create a strong force for that aspiration to survive any obstacles and distractions in our lives.
Never Abdicate Your Authority - This means taking full responsibility for our lives. No blaming others or having others do the work for us or projecting our own issues onto others. Basically just owning ourselves and our position in life. We can remain open to guidance, but can't follow blindly.
Practice Absolute Sincerity - Adyashanti says "Sincerity encompasses the qualities of honesty, genuineness, and integrity." This means being honest with ourselves and how we are right now, truly owning ourselves despite our flaws. "In order to be sincere you just let go of being judgemental."
Be a good Steward of Your Life - Not using spirituality as a means of avoiding other aspects of life. The Way of Liberation is a way of completely facing yourself and your life without withdrawing into denial, judgement, or magical thinking. It is a means of piercing through the veils of illusion and awakening to Truth."
Just a quick overview of the foundation of The Way of Liberation. I definitely recommend checking out the book. It's free, straight to the point, and well-written.
Thanks for reading!
Unconditional follow through - I like this. It's like the knowing-doing gap. How often do we know deep down what we should be doing then "life gets in the way" and we're off track.... again!
Exactly haha
I like the sound of this-- sounds like a balanced approach. The notion of "unconditional follow-through" makes a lot of sense in this world where we so often get trapped in "spiritual mind games" that we often forget to actually "walk our talk."
Bright Blessings!
Right, gotta walk, it's easy to say we are going to do something, or even think we are in our heads
Thanks so much for this summary. You know, I've had this book on my "to read" stack since it first came out, but just can't get myself to read it for some reason. I've started a few times, but always wind up spacing out until I finally give up and go do something else. Maybe now that I know it more I'll be able to get myself to really read it from cover to cover.
Btw, funny little story: I almost got to interview Adya when I had a spiritual radio show and that's how I first learned of him. My first few guests were people you've never heard of, but then after I got Byron Katie on the show SoundsTrue decided to send me materials for a bunch of their up-and-coming authors. Aday was one. They sent me a bunch of his books and CDs. I read the first few pages of one and was immediately taken into a direct experience of pure awareness. I've adored him ever sense, and now live in the same general region as him, so sometimes get to see him in person. Funny how spirit uses everything to help us find what we need to advance, isn't it?
It's a really quick read, but applying it could be something that is worked on for a while. Either way, good stuff to think about.
Thats so cool! Yes, it's so weird sometimes how these things come to us at the right time and how things link up sometimes. For a while I was getting random free books from this pdf site online. THere was a month where it was these spiritual gems from back in the early 1900's. Pretty cool, after that it was like cook books and diaries haha
Thanks for sharing!
Interestingly - even being very close to Zen and Advaita teachings - I could never get warm with Adyashanti. I have tried several times, but there is zero resonance.
Which doesn't mean, that his teachings are not very valuable.
Especially these 5 points are very natural to me and I live by them 100% - but not as rules. In fact, I couldn't imagine how to live a life without these principals. 😀
Lately I've been getting more value out of Spira's book, but there was a while when I listened to adyashanti everyday. I think he's really easy to listen to and doesn't give any concrete answers which makes me look for things myself. This book is really solid because it's so simple and straightforward. Whose teachings did you get guidance from before Matt Kahn
Well, my spiritual life before Matt Kahn was very multi-faceted. 😀
In 1996 I met Papaji and in '97 during a 2 week silent retreat with Isaac Shapiro (Papaji "died" during this time) there was the first dropping into the vast void beyond the I thought. After that followed some months, where there was no world at all. I was very young back then and there were many unresolved vasanas. Not integrated, as Matt would say. What followed was a search to get back to this peace and into the state of samadhi. Master after master, course after course and going for old paradigm teachings, that couldn't explain, what was happening to me. I sat with nearly every teacher there was available at that time, read all the books, watched every video - from Rupert to Mooji... One teacher who was very important to me - because I could sense. that he was talking out of direct experience, was Stephen Wolinsky (a direct disciple of Nisargadatta). I did his Quantum Psychology courses in the early 2000 and he formed my understanding of integrating enlightenment with a western psychology. I still value him very highly and can recommend also his latest videos he did on YouTube after his retirement. Well... a long story... and then there is the life after Matt! 😀
Thanks for sharing a bit of your story, atmosblack. It's great to know a little of your spiritual lineage.
Oh, I really did that, right? 😀I guess, I should have done an introductory post about my spiritual background on my blog - although I never talk about that, unless I'm asked. Thanks for reading! Much Love! ❤️
Oh interesting, you're quite experienced with different teachers too I see! I actually haven't gone to a retreat or anything like that, but would really like to. Not much going on as far as non-dual circles in MT, but might be going to either Colorado or California this year. I'll look into Wolinksy and more into Matt's work. Thanks :)
I'd never heard of Adyashanti until you mentioned him previously. This time I googled him, so now will watch some videos and check out the library for books.
I like step one - clarifying aspirations. It is very easy to get lost on a side loop.
Thanks for the recommendation!
No problem, the book is quick and free so be sure to check it out too if you like his videos :)
Hey Jake, I have not come across this book, It sounds very accessible and certainly challenging. I did used to listen to Adya on loop, he is impressively clear, I will certainly explore this book. Thanks
Ya, check it out!
nice write up.
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