In This Episode…

“Authentic spiritual awakening is not about getting to a place where we’re above all the pains and tragedies of life. The transformation I’m pointing to is one where we’re able to stay rooted in the direct knowledge of the sacred essence of reality that is the truth of every moment. It’s the fundamental truth that is immutable in every moment. It never changes, even when our own life may be difficult. The goal is to get to a place where your relative experience of the ups and downs of life never obscures your ability to see the essential radiance shining through everything.” —Craig Hamilton

What if the path to a better world doesn’t begin with striving… but with accepting things as they are?

As we deepen on the spiritual path, many of us come to sense a profound truth: that real freedom begins when we can meet this moment wholeheartedly—without resistance or judgment. We discover the strength that comes from saying an unconditional “yes” to life, just as it is.

But even as we rest in that yes, another current moves through us—a longing to heal, to uplift, to shape a world that more fully reflects the deeper goodness we’ve touched.
Is that longing in conflict with true acceptance? Or could it be what happens when acceptance runs so deep, it naturally gives rise to transformation?

In this episode, Craig responds to three questions from course participants about the surprising relationship between unconditional acceptance and the impulse to change the world. He explores how awakening to the sacredness of life doesn’t end our desire for change—it transforms it.

For a deeper experience of Craig’s approach to meditation, consider joining our Awakened Life membership program which offers in-depth guidance, a meditation workshop, and a live online retreat with Craig. Register today to receive your first month for 50% off at AwakenedLifeMembership.com.

If you’re interested in exploring more of Craig’s meditation experiments, you’re invited to tune in to a 90-minute online workshop Craig will be hosting called Meditation 2.0 – The Miracle of Direct Awakening. Register for free at FreeMeditationWorkshop.com.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Host: On the spiritual path, we’re often taught to accept everything exactly as it is. But at the same time, many of us feel a deep pull to heal, to grow, and to bring more goodness into the world. How do these two impulses fit together? Are they in conflict—or are they part of a greater whole?

Christina says, “To me, saying yes to the moment means accepting the reality of that moment as it is. I get that. When you say see the moment as whole and complete, I understand it in the context of: this is all there is in this moment—there’s nothing more—thus it is whole and complete. I get that. However, when you say see the moment as an unfolding of the perfection and goodness of reality, that I don’t get. If at the moment I’m in physical pain, and I’m anxious because a loved one is seriously ill, I can accept it in the moment and see that moment as whole and complete. But to see it as goodness and perfection seems, to me, like it would be negating my experience of the moment. What am I missing?”

So, Christina, that’s all very rational, and it makes a lot of sense—what you’re saying.

How Could Something Bad Be Good?

To try to drill in on the essence of the problem you’re raising… the problem with the theory is you’re saying, “Look, how could something bad be good?” That’s kind of what you’re asking. Apparently, I’m saying this in one of the practices, because I think you’re quoting it and saying that I’m encouraging you to see everything that occurs as an expression of the unfolding of cosmic reality, let’s say, of the unfolding of ultimate reality in form.

And because ultimate reality is inherently positive—and it’s this big Yes, this creative impulse toward extraordinary potentials that’s unfolding itself through time and manifestation—then I’m saying, well, see if you can relate even to experiences that you would call negative. See if you can relate to those differently, and see that they are part of this unfolding essence that is itself inherently positive.

So you’re asking, “Okay, but you’re telling me to see something bad as good—and that’s a stretch. Why would I do that? How could I do that? If I was doing that, wouldn’t I just be negating the fact that something is actually bad?”

Stepping Into Awakened Consciousness In This Moment

From one point of view, yes, you’re right. That could be taken that way, and it could be engaged in the way you’re describing. But this is where we have to understand that these practices of direct awakening—which means we’re trying to step into awakened consciousness in this moment, during the meditation practice, and relate to our experience from there—I’m inviting us to do that whether or not we actually have a living, activated experience of awakened consciousness.

That’s part of the challenge here. It’s not a “fake it till you make it” instruction. I’m not saying just pretend that everything is wonderful, even when you’re having a horrible experience. I’m not really saying that.

In traditional Mahayana Buddhism—in some of the Buddhist sects—it was called “pointing-out instruction,” where the teacher would try to point out awakened mind in the student’s mind. They were trying to point it out in your own experience. I’m kind of trying to point you there too, to see if you can recognize it, and not have it feel like a contradiction.

Here’s the question: Would it be possible for you to be yourself, having this experience—like you said, you’re in physical pain, or a loved one is seriously ill—and there’s an aspect of that experience that’s very negative? It’s uncomfortable, it’s difficult. Of course, nobody wants to be in physical or emotional pain, or in distress over what could happen to someone they love.

Recognizing the Innate Goodness of Life Independent of Changing Experience

None of us want that experience, as humans, and it’s not that we’re going to go and seek it out. But when that experience is what’s arising for us, can we allow ourselves to be having that experience—not reject it, or say, “Oh, you’re not getting it. You’re thinking it’s bad, but it’s not bad, it’s good.” Not doing that. But instead, making room for the negativity of the experience to be experienced as it is.

Here’s the key. The radical spiritual insight—or shift—is to not let that experience obscure your seeing of the essence dimension of things, which is an unfolding good. The spiritual thesis is that the essence of everything is beyond good. It’s a glorious positivity, beyond our mind’s ability to label it as such.

It’s like, life is GOOD—with a capital G, and a capital O, and a capital O, and a capital D. It’s GOOD. And that is a fact of existence that is immutable. Nothing bad that happens changes that fact. And spiritual awakening reveals that fact to us in our own experience, in a way that, if we get anchored in it, nothing bad that happens will change or dull our knowing of goodness as the essence.

Recognizing Essential Goodness Is Not Spiritual Bypassing

The goal isn’t to get to a place where we’re numb to all the ups and downs, the pains and tragedies of life, because we just go, “Oh, life is good, everything’s good.” You see spiritual people sometimes do that—or people who are trying to be spiritual—and that’s what spiritual bypassing refers to.

It’s like, “Everything’s fine. Everything happens for a reason. Everything is God’s will.” Or, “The universe is up to something, so it’s just doing its thing. I might judge it as bad, but really, it’s all good.”

This is not that. I’m not talking about that.

People do that, though. Hopefully you don’t have to listen to too much of it, but there are a lot of spiritually oriented people who are thinking about it that way. And in philosophy, that’s what’s called a category error or category mistake—where they’re applying a truth that doesn’t apply at that level, trying to apply it in a context where it doesn’t belong.

Staying Rooted in the Direct Knowledge of the Sacred

I know I’m getting almost theological and philosophical here, but I’m just trying to really get at the essence of this. The essence is that I’m able to stay rooted in the direct knowledge of the sacred—let’s just say. I’m able to stay rooted in the direct knowing of the sacred essence of reality that is the truth of every moment. It’s the fundamental truth that is immutable in every moment. It never changes. This whole thing is amazing in that it always is.

So, my relative experience of the ups and downs of life—and the ups and downs of my inner life—never obscures my ability to see what this is, fundamentally. I see the essential radiance shining through everything, including even the things that, on a relative level, I don’t like.

Try that. Try working with that, at least as a thought experiment in your practice. That’s really more what I’m pointing to.

Anyway, I hope that’s illuminating it in some way.

Is Unconditional Acceptance at Odds with Changing the World?

Host: In our next segment, Craig responds to a question from a participant who wonders whether her longing to create a more sustainable, awakened world might be in conflict with the spiritual practice of unconditional acceptance. If we’re truly saying yes to life as it is, she asks, is it a contradiction to want to improve it?

So, you’re essentially saying that you, like most of us, look around at the state of the world, and you see there’s so much that needs to change, and how are human beings going to come together in a new way, and create a more sustainable future?

And you feel those impulses, and you think about projects to participate in, to move the world in that direction, and you want to be part of the solution, not just part of the past. You want to be part of creating the future that’s more positive and enlightened and sustainable, and so many other things. Then you wonder, well, is that my ego saying no to the way things are, and wanting to impose its agenda on reality? Maybe the more spiritual approach would just be to be a big yes to what is, and accept what is as it is, and not try to change the world.

Is Wanting the World to Change an Expression of Ego?

A lot of us on the spiritual path have been taught to think that any form of wanting things to be different is somehow ego—or somehow not the truly enlightened way to live—because enlightenment is about total acceptance of what is, or a total yes to what is.

Here’s how this plays out in reality:

Being an unconditional yes to what is, is a fundamental stance. It’s a realization that says, “I’m not going to try to push anything out. I’m going to let all of it in. I’m going to embrace reality as it is, unflinchingly. And I’m going to see that, in its essence, it’s positive—and that there’s a big yes going on here.”

Even though from one day to the next I might experience all kinds of troubles, tribulations, and grief, I’m not going to let that erode my big yes to being here and showing up in life wholeheartedly.

Because fundamentally, the universe is a yes. Fundamentally, the life force is a big yes. And fundamentally, I’m going to be a big yes, and align with that truth.
So that’s what that’s about. But what we see in practice is that anyone who really does that definitely wants to see the world change more in that direction.

Awakening the Impulse to Evolve the World

In other words, the more we discover the inherent positivity of all of this—the goodness, the beyond-goodness of life, and the possibility for life to be so good, for love to be the law of the land, if you will—and we begin to sense this, the more we want to reshape the world to be a reflection of that.

That desire to reshape and elevate the world is not saying no to what is. It’s part of that bigger yes.

So, there’s this inner practice of saying yes to everything in meditation. But then, outwardly, what it gives birth to is an impulse to evolve the world, to elevate the world, and to change so many things. And they’re not in contradiction in practice—even though, if you just read them, they might sound like contradictions.

I think maybe the simple way to deal with that tension is to just acknowledge that in meditation, I’m inviting you to not have any preference, to not reject anything as less than, to not judge anything as inadequate or as something that shouldn’t be here. Like today, in the third practice—to make room for everything, to include everything.

That’s a meditation practice. It doesn’t work in your life in the same way. You can’t just go out and try to do that during the day. Because in life, we have to discriminate, we have to discern. We have to see the things happening every day that shouldn’t be happening and that we want to fix.

So again, maybe just keep that in meditation, because it’s designed to open a door to a different consciousness. And then see how that different consciousness manifests in your life—because it will manifest differently in daily life than it does in meditation.

Staying Rooted in Unshakable Well-being

Host: In our final segment, Craig responds to a question about the deeper nature of contentment. Can we stay rooted in a sense of unshakable well-being—even in the face of suffering, injustice, or the potential collapse of the world as we know it?

David in San Diego says, “I’m continuing to struggle with the assertion of underlying deep and unshakable contentment in the face of all that’s wrong in the world. One spiritual teacher I’ve read stated that given the infinite, timeless, true nature of everything, even if the entire earth were obliterated in some cosmic event, as we know will happen at the latest 5 billion years from now, when the sun burns out, that would have no impact on the underlying goodness of reality.”

So this is what the other teacher said that even if the whole earth were obliterated in some cosmic event that would have no impact on the underlying goodness of reality. David says, “This seems like a sensible extrapolation of what you teach. Do you have any comments?”

Changing Your Belief System Is not the Same as Awakening

Well, I have to say, David, that when I read your quote there, I felt like I had to agree. I felt so I think you’re right. I felt, Yeah, that’s true. There’s nothing under the sun that could occur, that would change the fundamental goodness of reality. I would say. But here’s the thing. Believing that or not believing that, as a concept, doesn’t really change our state of awakening. Like awakening isn’t about coming to believe that as an idea, it’s not about going and thinking, I wonder if that’s true. Is the universe good? Fundamentally good? Even so good that you know, even if some really the whole earth were wiped out in the universe would still be a good thing. Still, the essence of things is still good.

I mean, I’m not saying it’s bad to think about it’s interesting to reflect on, certainly. It’s valuable to reflect on these things, because you might come to some radical insight through reflection, contemplation, go, wow, well, I guess I would have to say, I would still feel like existence was a positive and was a net positive thing, even if they’ll even if Earth was gone. But coming to that new belief system, about the inherent goodness of the universe, regardless of what happens to the planet Earth isn’t a mystical thing. It’s not the same as the underlying unshakable contentment that you’re pointing to, that you mentioned in your first sentence.

We Can’t Think Our Way to Unshakable Contentment

You can’t get to that underlying deep and unshakable contentment just through thinking about these things. That’s something that you either discover, through spiritual awakening, you discover a dimension of reality, that is content that is whole that is lacking nothing and is unperturbed by no matter what happens in creation, in this world. You discover this depth that is untouched by the ups and downs of life and you become rooted in that through discovering it. So you either discover it, or you practice it, as we’re doing here, in some of our meditations.

That’s something we sometimes practice, we practice taking the position that nothing that happens in this meditation is a problem. That nothing that’s happening in this moment is a problem. We take a position of radical contentment with what is. I’m choosing to be with what is as it is, without any belief or judgment that it should be other than what it is. So I’m letting it be as it is, without any conviction that it should be otherwise.

So we can practice this in meditation that can lead to the discovery, by practicing it we can open ourselves to the actual discovery of this place in ourselves of fundamental contentment.

Fundamental Contentment Isn’t Nihilistic

I think why people struggle with this philosophically, and this may be what’s going on for you, David, is we feel therefore that this is a nihilistic relationship to the world. Kind of apathetic, nihilistic, like, I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters. And that’s not what this is about at all. It doesn’t lead to apathy, it doesn’t lead to a lack of conviction, it doesn’t lead to a kind of passivity where we just don’t do anything anymore.

Quite the opposite really, the discovery of this profound dimension of contentment, this profound unshakable rootedness in the inherent goodness, of the life of life itself, of existence itself, the cosmos itself, just the inherent, yes, that this event of existence is—being rooted in that? It gives us a kind of strength, and a kind of passionate conviction to address everything in this world that’s messed up, and that needs to be changed. To bring it into its full potential and its highest possibility. It’s more like you discover the perfection of the essence of the universe, and that makes you want to bring that perfection into manifestation and makes you want to perfect this messed up world because you now see its potential to be an ever more beautiful expression of that essential goodness. So you want to bring it out, you want to express it in your own life, you want to help other people step into it, you want to organize the world and society and everything into an ever more perfect, beautiful expression of that essential goodness, and even perfection at the heart of things.

But again, all of these things have to be discovered for real in our own practice in our own awakening are not things we can just believe and impose. In my experience, that’s how it works, what I just shared. Thank you.