As an understanding of the world that is at once philosophical, scientific and spiritual, non-dualism has recently been gaining more traction within Western thought. Its principles—a sense of total unity and a lack of separation between the 'I' and the 'not-I'—make sense to many of us, and yet it can be difficult to remove the 'I' from our experience.
Here, Miranda Macpherson discusses her holistic, feminine approach to non-dual awakening and surrender.
“Be nothing
Do nothing
Get nothing
Become nothing
Seek for nothing
Relinquish nothing
Be as you are
Rest in God”
In 2005, I received these words as a transmission of Grace while meditating in a cave that was once home to the Indian sage Sri Ramana Maharshi. In a moment, it silenced every concept I had of self, God, and the world.
For decades prior to receiving this transmission, I had been extensively studying the great wisdom traditions of the world and practicing meditation, prayer and psychological excavation. As spiritual director of the OneSpirit Interfaith Seminary in London, I had been guiding others into a life of service. However, this transmission dissolved my familiar identity, initiating powerful changes to every aspect of my life and requiring a deep letting-go of control.
Grace comes alive through surrender.
However, surrender is not something you can 'do'. Rather, it is something you allow – through learning to be open and undefended with what is. In the years it took to integrate my own experience, I discovered that the more we learn to be open and undefended, the more Grace can come alive within you, bringing back online the real love, clarity, peace, strength and joy that is your deepest nature. I view Grace as a direct experience of Divine Presence. I saw that Grace is the key to gaining real traction on the spiritual path – wherever we are upon it.
Grace is what transforms our suffering into wisdom, making us receptive to the inner support and blessings we need. Most importantly, it helps us become more graceful human beings in these times of tremendous change and uncertainty across the globe.
In the years it took to integrate my own experience, a potent body of teachings began to emerge. It brought forth a practice that brings Grace alive – Ego Relaxation.
You cannot do spiritual transformation.
Relax the interference, and Grace finds you.
Ego Relaxation is a holistic, feminine approach to non-dual awakening. It shows you how to open in and through every aspect of your experience, letting it become a gateway into deeper wisdom. This allows for authentic surrender – not by struggling to push past your personality, but by compassionately dissolving the commentary, fear and judgment that typically block access to the essential qualities of our true nature.
Ego Relaxation reconnects you to the living stream of blessings that are always available, providing the inner nourishment to deeper spiritually and to thrive in every aspect of your life.
What does Ego Relaxation address?
Ego Relaxation first
settles the agitation in your body, heart and mind that is caused by rejecting your experience or grasping for something different.
Ego Relaxation
guides you how to be here, and do nothing with compassion and curiosity.
Ego Relaxation then
soothes the suffering that drives your ego activity, bringing loving kindness, understanding, and healing to the parts of your consciousness that cannot let go without them.
Ego Relaxation then
dissolves the identity of your separate self. While at first this can feel like a vulnerability, it opens doors to the direct experience of boundless love, peace, clarity and joy, allowing your luminous true nature to shine.
Ego Relaxation then becomes
embodied wisdom with which to live meaningfully, respond to everyday challenges, and be more graceful with life.
Truly, there is no need to beat yourself into spiritual shape! Instead, learn to yield to a luminous presence within. Just as a hard block of ice will melt in contact with the warmth of the sun, in the presence of unconditional love fear and control melt. You can kindly be with the important themes of your life, harnessing the ordinary challenges we all face in our relationships, at work, and with our ageing bodies into the path of awakening.
Ego Relaxation returns you to greater fluidity and freedom from which you experience Grace not just as a beautiful state, but as the primordial foundation of life and the depth of your heart. While it often brings up fears that we will become lazy or ineffective as a parent or professional in the world, Ego Relaxation surprisingly makes your ordinary functioning and relating much clearer, because it liberates your natural intelligence and gifts.
I invite others to practice Ego Relaxation in many ways – as a formal practice of meditation, in inquiry, with our heart’s deepest prayers and also as we move through any ordinary day. It helps us to get out of our own way, and allow our true nature to shine forth.
This work of Grace and Ego Relaxation is informed by ancient wisdom traditions, especially the teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi, the embodied non-duality of Kashmiri Shaivism,
A Course in Miracles and more recently the Diamond Approach. It has emerged from my own ongoing realisation process and almost three decades of experience guiding others, discovering what truly works and what doesn’t.
It has emerged as a gift to help more of us become graceful human beings, and it continues to evolve as I share it with others.
The practical value of Grace in our world
Surprisingly, often what seems most mystical has the most power to practically change not only our inner landscape but also our world. Non-dual awakening reconnects us to the felt understanding that we are inherently part of everyone and everything, ultimately dissolving our self-centeredness. This awakens the love and compassion of our deepest heart, making us kinder, more forgiving, and more content.
The primary point of this work is that not just a few of us have a gentler ride through this life, but so that many more of us become more mature, graceful human beings, capable of turning our primary attention to being beneficial to our world– a world that is in need of more Grace.
May you settle into your direct experience as it is right now, greet your humanity with compassion and humbly come to live as the embodiment of the Grace you were born to be — a vessel for boundless love, beauty, clarity, pure awareness, joy and all kinds of gifts to extend deeper into our world.
Find out more:
Miranda Macpherson founded OneSpirit Interfaith Foundation in London, where she trained over 600 ministers. She is the author of The Way of Grace: The Transforming Power of Ego Relaxation.
For more information:
www. mirandamacpherson.com
@MirandaMacphersonTeachings
