In my last blog essay called “What sustains me during these troubling times” I wrote about a practice called the mutual awakening practice that is happening with an ever-growing community of people from all over the world. I said, “It’s a collective practice that I’ve been doing for the past eleven plus years and points to new potentials, possibilities for us as human beings where there is transparency, trust, acute aliveness and effortless interest” and “in future blog posts, just as I shared my journey into climate activism, I’d like to share my deepening journey in this new shared unified “land” which is pointing to a wholly different way of living and being together.

And so, I continue.

For about 6 months now in addition to doing the practice (which we do on zoom) I have been trained to be a zoom host for the global practice sessions.

As zoom host for these gatherings I have to stay very focused. In a nutshell, first I prepare the zoom room – set the “stage” before we all gather together and check in with the teacher. Then there are various maneuvers throughout the session like record, pause record, mute, unmute, lock, unlock the main room, create break-out rooms, time the segments of the practice, send various messages during the practice and then bring everyone back into the main room for sharing and asking questions. Sometimes I also practice and sometimes not. I watch that everything goes smoothly, ready to address any technical problems that can and do happen.

Being a zoom host was and is a leap for me having been born around the mid-twentieth century and not having touched a computer till I was about 40 years old and then not a lot. I am also not someone who stays generally cool under a lot of pressure. But it’s happening…I am developing more muscle in that area.

The interesting thing is whether I practice or not, when we come back into the main room and people share, I feel totally effected by the practice. Immersed. It is like I’ve drunken in the practice with everyone else – swimming in this rarefied atmosphere where the backdrop is profound silence, a silence that is thick with beauty and reverence and dare I say love.

What is this love? What is this love when it’s not for anyone in particular – a love that deeply touches to the very core of one’s being, a core that has expanded in all directions. What is it like to be with a group of individuals who are all enveloped in this love and no matter who speaks, they speak for all of us and as we drink in the warmth, the light, the depth of their words, we all plunge further in?  It’s like we’ve all become Love…not a love for anyone or anything, but an embodiment of love itself, the essence of love: pure and unblemished. Totally fulfilled. Empty and Full. Alive. Awake. Dissolved.

How can this be? And yet it is. There is this sanctuary, a sacred sanctuary, that holds and embraces us as if we were in the most beautiful cathedral, synagogue or mosque. It’s a bit of a mystery and at the same time we know it simply needs our interest, our willingness, our patience and our humility to be gently guided in the right direction. This isn’t something we have done before. It’s a new practice, the mutual awakening practice, that is tapping into an evolutionary wave of profound and intimate oneness. It holds so much promise and possibility for a new kind of human being. A new way of being together.