If we’re not Facebook friends, you might not know that I am currently in India for six weeks. And a month at a place they call a university, but for all intents and purposes is an ashram.
So, 8 people were awakened this week here. EIGHT. As in: buddha. as in: permanently free from suffering.
W H A T ? ?
THIS WEEK.
As in, hey, do what the monks tell you, and awakening is going to happen. And it does. Hello 2012 shift.
If there is any other lineage popping out buddhas this quickly, anywhere on the planet, I have yet to find it. This is not: love yourself a little more, manifest what you want, have a little more peace and happiness, how to deal with your annoying co-worker… this is IT. The thing sages have been teaching about for thousands and thousands of years. Literally: the HOLY GRAIL. It’s here, finally, for reals.
I pulled over one of the lucky ducks before she scooted back to New Zealand to get some inside info to share with you.
Jo Smythe, New Zealand
MN: So, Jo, I know you had a very mystical experience when you first, let’s say had your ‘announcement from the Universe’ that you were awakened, so to speak, but I want to not focus on that and speak more practically about what you’re currently feeling and the shifts you’ve had…
So, why don’t you describe what you feel now, what your state is?
Jo: I guess from a day to day or even minute to minute, I just feel incredibly calm and at peace. I don’t have that constant dialogue, or the term they use, the chatter, in the mind. There is none of that. At all. My mind is at peace, all the time. It’s not that I don’t have thoughts or can’t function or do things, but it’s just that I’m only focusing on the one thing I’m doing, as opposed to: ‘oh, gosh, maybe you should go get a glass of water, or maybe you should have it in five minutes’ you know, all the dialogue we have in the mind is not there.
So, I have more energy. I seem to be much more energized and able to do more. And I just feel the serenity and the unconditional love just flows through. Its like a running tap that keeps flowing and flowing and flowing. And when you see people, and you don’t even know them, you just want to hug them. (laughter) It’s just that feeling of everybody is wonderful and everything is great.
MN: So, based, on that, I have two other questions. I know for me, when I wake up in the morning, I’m a fast person, my mind moves quickly, as does everybody’s… but for me, when I open up my eyes, it starts. When you wake up in the morning and you’re lying in bed, and you open your eyes, what happens? Do you have any of those thoughts?
Jo: No. Nothing. I just lie there, and I go: it’s a new day. And then it’s just the functional stuff. ‘Let’s get up.’ So I get up. ‘Let’s have a shower.’ So I shower. I’m not thinking about what has to be done in the day, I’m not thinking about anything but what I’m doing at the time. There’s no kind of planning, really.
When I go home, I don’t know how it will work out, but for now, it’s just that simple really.
MN: You know, it’s so interesting being here in silence, because you notice when you’re not talking to other people, and you start to notice your mind and judgment you have, and later you get to know them and think: omigosh, I had all of these perceptions about this person: maybe you liked them, maybe you didn’t like them—whatever you thought, you have all these opinions about them, and then later when you start to speak to them, it might shift, it might not—I know I’ve had several experiences like that. I’m curious to know if there were any judgments, you don’t have to name names or point anything out specifically, but is there anything you saw that you had, let’s say a distaste for, anything we might call “negative,” that after the shift, you noticed a different perception for yourself?
Jo: Yeah, before the awakening happened, and it wasn’t so much judgment as it was, like: ‘ah, that’s different or ‘she’s different’ or ‘what’s happening here.’ I guess if I could relate it more to life before coming to India, my approach to people, that first instance might be a scan, of what that person’s about, or who this person is, and so there would have been judgment there, that the mind would have been controlling. But after the awakening, there’s none of that. I just see the person. I don’t approach them or come with anything. There’s no pretense to that. There’s no agenda going on. Now, it’s just so in the moment. Now. What it is.
MN: You said before you came to the University you were feeling some conflict?
Jo: Prior to coming, before June and coming in August, I tossed and turned; is this the right thing for me? And I just trusted the process, and it turns out the process took care of itself, by providing everything that needed to be provided. When I got here, it was about just: be open, don’t expect everything, give everything and be with the whole thing.
MN: That’s great. So, you were only here for a week, and this is a 4-week process, is this your first time studying here?
Jo: My very first time, crazy stuff. And I chose the 2nd week, it was perfect for me, all about relationships—I never expected awakening in that time. It was always, you know, in the back of your mind as a hope, but I wasn’t coming with an expectation of that, so it’s a wonderful place to be in.
MN: How long have you been a blessing giver?
Jo: Since April of this year.
MN: Ok, so that’s four or five months. Wow, that’s amazing. So, What kind of work do you do in New Zealand?
Jo: My training is as a counselor. My role is part of a team of seven women who work with women who are suffering from depression and the effects of trauma in their lives; mental health distress. My job is to help support them, get alongside them and help them make changes in their well-being. It’s a job I am very passionate about. It’s hard, but the rewards to watch a woman’s heart grow, flower, her soul. Many of these souls are damaged, so the reward is there.
MN: And do you think this shift you’ve had is going to help your work there?
Jo: Absolutely. I think that this will have a huge, huge influence on how I work with women, for so much good to improve their lives, so I’m very excited about that.
MN: That’s great. Thank you so much.
Jo was a champ in letting me quickly interview her just a little while before leaving for the airport. Endless blessings and many thanks—mucho joy for your journey!
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If you want some of this special sauce, and you are in New York: go to Skip Miller’s Oneness meditation this Monday, a kick-ass visiting teacher. These are not just traditional meditation; these are divine transmissions solely for the purpose to free you from the conflicted mind.
this Monday, deets here:
http://omskipnycsept10.eventbrite.com/
If you’re not in New York, you can also stream them from your couch. Try ‘em out and find the person/peeps that resonate with you; they all have a different flavor:
http://www.onenessmeditationevents.com/
love.
xx
mags
