James Wood Teachings

For any real change or growth to occur, it has to be based on something authentic. The conditioned, social self is not sufficient. It cannot be the basis of true change. Most personal growth is about relative, self-based values. Your absolute, true nature is the only value upon which you can build a successful life. It is possible to have personal growth leading to awakening. Awakening involves healthy growth and development. It’s just not necessarily what you think it should be. Letting go and trusting is important. The “you” that you think you are is not who you are.

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Awakening is the end of suffering, the end of anxiety and depression. What’s left is a sense of self that is not anything of itself. It lives and moves and breathes in service to Reality. It’s completely spontaneous and free. As a student, there’s a process along the way. Challenges get easier. You have to face down your fears and anxieties. Practice is important. There’s really nothing like consistent practice to make positive change occur. You can learn to sense intuitively what consistency is best for you. Consistent practice — even in small amounts — is important.

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Getting spiritual help is like having a spotter in weightlifting; it doesn’t necessarily remove all challenges. The path can be difficult. Eventually, it gets easier. Happiness or contentment in practice is possible. Most spiritual seekers have been wounded, or they wouldn’t be interested in spirituality. The path is really more about Being than doing — but it is better to be focused on attainment than not to engage your practice with passion or determination. It takes a rare kind of person to sincerely want awakening. You have to live conventionally while pursuing an absolute aim.

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Awakening is now more common, but still rare. You have to decide that you’re going to beat the odds and wake up. You’re the one. If you think, “It’s kind of rare, I don’t know,” it’s probably not going to happen for you. A helpful attitude is that you will either wake up from the nightmare or die trying. The Teaching is like a rope anchored in rock, something that doesn’t move when you pull. It’s possible to become free of the need for cyclic existence. The end may seem terrifying, but the actuality of awakening is peaceful. It is beyond the logic of the nightmare.

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Meditation is the essence of conscious relationship: witnessing thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment. It might be external or internal; there is no absolute boundary between inner and outer. We may witness an angry person and feel it as a sympathetic resonance. It doesn’t matter whether it’s yours or someone else’s. “Scrubbing” is purifying environmental negativity through your awareness. Negativity is not pleasant, but a conscious relationship to it can be pleasant, like scrubbing a dirty child. The nature of dirt or grime is foul, but as soon as you start washing it off, it’s really kind of enjoyable. The key is not to judge what you experience.

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It’s harder to relate to another person when you are generating your own negativity. All you can really do is be with that content. Witness it nonjudgmentally to the degree you can. If you can’t, notice that and forget about how long it might take. If your practice is good, it may not take that long. Developing that witnessing ability is like building a muscle. It takes practice. What arises may be unpleasant; it may not be. You’re learning to just allow it. Allowing does not mean being passive; it means being awake and calmly active. Eventually the ego lets go.

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Judgment is tied to a sense of separation. The word “God,” implies religious belief, whereas “Truth” does not. Truth is just what is. We usually project parental qualities onto “God” and argue with “God.” But who would argue with Truth? Wouldn’t you have to be insane? Living a lie isn’t wrong; it’s just painful. Truth moves Itself. There is a difference between reacting and responding. Consciousness doesn’t judge, but makes distinctions between healthy and unhealthy functioning. Faith is a relationship with Formlessness that doesn’t require thought.

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From a talk given by James in 2008

If our true nature is formless and what has us captured is form, then the relationship between the two is what I call the Awakener. That’s where Emptiness comes into play. Emptiness means that forms neither exist nor not exist. They have a certain kind of existence. When forms are viewed consciously, they have no ultimate or intrinsic value. Of themselves, they are nothing—and in that sense, they are empty. But they have a conventional kind of existence.

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