Next Time You’re Suffering, Ask Yourself This Question | Caverly Morgan

Overview

This episode explores profound concepts like the illusion of the self, non-duality, and how these ideas can help alleviate suffering. Meditation teacher Caverly Morgan shares insights from her Zen training and modern mindfulness practices, offering practical tools to navigate life's challenges with greater awareness, compassion, and freedom.

Notable Quotes

- You can't be right in that sense and be free. — Caverly Morgan, on the cost of clinging to being right.

- The self, this ego that seems like the CEO of your life, is actually quite illusory and insubstantial. — Dan Harris, on the Buddhist concept of no-self.

- What happens to my practice when I realize that I am unconditional love? — Caverly Morgan, on the transformative power of self-compassion.

🧠 The Illusion of the Self

- Caverly Morgan explains how the self is a construct shaped by conditioned patterns and societal influences. She shares how her early mindfulness practices reinforced her egoic patterns until she began asking, Who am I really?

- The practice of questioning the self can lead to a liberating realization: the self is unfindable, and awareness itself is vast and boundless.

- Dan Harris reflects on his own glimpses of this truth, describing the experience as a vast empty room filled with everything except for me.

🕰️ Relative vs. Absolute Truth

- The conversation distinguishes between relative truth (our everyday reality of time, identity, and roles) and absolute truth (the deeper reality of interconnectedness and non-separation).

- Caverly emphasizes that these two truths are not separate; they collapse into one when we recognize our shared being.

- Practical examples include navigating relationships with the understanding that we share the same being, which fosters deeper connection and love.

🔦 Practices for Awareness and Freedom

- SNAP Practice: See It, Name It, Allow It, and Return to Presence. This mindfulness tool helps identify and release conditioned patterns, bringing attention back to awareness itself.

- Effortless Awareness: Instead of scrambling to focus on the present moment, relax the attention and let it naturally return to its home base of awareness.

- Joseph Goldstein's techniques: Use phrases like breathing is being known and ask, By what? to explore the nature of awareness.

💡 Love as Our True Nature

- Caverly describes love as the natural state that arises when the illusion of separateness dissolves. When the 'I' disappears, what's left is love.

- This perspective reframes self-compassion as not just a tool for soothing pain but as a recognition of our inherent wholeness and interconnectedness.

- Dan Harris notes that turning down the volume on the ego makes us more available to others, which is the essence of love.

📜 Fleshing Out Conditioning

- A reflective practice to uncover hidden beliefs and narratives driving behavior. Prompts include: In order to be loved, I need to… and I’ll be happy when…

- This exercise helps bring unconscious conditioning into awareness, allowing for disidentification and greater freedom.

- Caverly suggests applying this practice collectively to explore societal conditioning and its impact on shared suffering.