Sruti is a spiritual teacher and feminist advocate. She writes about her experience with an uncommon and painful illness called Interstitial Cystitis. This ongoing and chronic condition challenged her to stay present with daily pain and to look further inward for answers.
In an extreme moment of pain, in which consciousness began to fade, Sruti experienced the erasure of all that clouds over the earliest source of vision. She asks the question: with whose vision are we seeing when the lights are going out? Has this early vision ever known anything at all?
After these extreme episodes of pain Sruti spent time on retreat with teachers such as Gangaji and Mooji. She found no difference in these nondual pointings and the discoveries made directly in painful circumstances.
Sruti finds that we can allow what is painful to become a tool to disrupt the ordinary layers of our experience. Underneath these layers we find the unconditional peace that is our constant being in each moment.
Can we investigate the source of ordinary vision - can we find the place of true seeing that is earlier that who we think we are?
Book: The Hidden Value of Not Knowing
Transcript of this interview
Interview recorded 5/28/2016
YouTube Video Chapters:
00:00:00 - Introduction and Overview
00:04:05 - Living with Chronic Pain
00:08:10 - Seeking Relief from Pain
00:12:42 - The Intensity of Pain and the Undercurrent of Calm
00:19:25 - The Transformative Power of Pain
00:24:45 - Pain as a Pathway
00:30:17 - Writing from a Place of Intense Pain
00:36:57 - The Loss of Control and Silence
00:41:39 - The Silence before Activity
00:46:00 - The Difficulty of Sharing Pain and Suffering
00:50:37 - Inquiry into the Nature of Pain
00:54:57 - The Value of Resolution
00:58:10 - Experiencing Pain in Satsang
01:05:22 - The Non-Doing Prescription
01:11:28 - Love and Humility
01:16:33 - The Gift of Pain and Spiritual Devotion
01:21:54 - Living the Practical: Revealing the Inner Workings of Grace
01:25:38 - God's Presence in Silence
01:28:44 - God is Waiting in the Silence
01:31:19 - The Wisdom of Suffering
01:34:02 - The Value of Contacting What Is Already Okay
01:38:04 - True Prayer and Being
01:41:34 - The Benevolence of the Universe
01:45:45 - The Layers of Awareness
01:50:22 - Coming to Basic Awareness
01:55:32 - The Power of Choice and Attention
01:59:01 - The Profoundness of Direct Experience
02:03:00 - The Benevolent Fabric of the Universe
02:06:21 - The Value of Shared Pain
02:10:08 - The Divine Drama
02:13:10 - Resources and Ways to Stay Updated