Exploring relativity and ultimate truth, Ethan Nichtern and, author, Caverly Morgan discuss reconciling what we learn in our practice with the noise of the world.
Caverly Morgan is a meditation teacher, author, speaker, and nonprofit founder. She is the founder and Lead Contemplative of Peace in Schools—a nonprofit which created the nation’s first for-credit mindfulness class in public high schools. She is also the founder of Presence Collective, a community of cross-cultural contemplatives committed to personal and collective transformation, creating spaces for wisdom exchange and belonging. Caverly is the author of A Kid’s Book About Mindfulness. Her new book for adults, The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together, will be released through Sounds True November 29th and is now available for pre-order.
Experiencing Reality // Realizing Ultimate Truth
The focal point of Caverly’s new book, The Heart of Who We Are: Realizing Freedom Together, is the interplay of relative and ultimate truth. When Caverly refers to absolutes, she means that which is unchangeable like pure consciousness. When she refers to the relative she is speaking about everything else that appears in our reality. How can we live between these two concepts? It can be jarring to leave a zen experience having realized ultimate truth only to return back to our noisy, conditioned world.
“I knew intuitively that the relative experience of reality was not separate from the absolute and that I longed for a pathway that could allow me to articulate how that is so.” – Caverly Morgan
For another episode on this subject, tune into Ep. 88 of Insight Hour: Relative Truth Versus Ultimate Truth
Benefits of Immersion (15:20)
Western culture is busy and chaotic. It may be hard for some of us to see any benefit to immersing ourselves back into that loud reality after having profound spiritual experiences.
“We see actions on behalf of a collective ego rather than actions that are on behalf of the heart of who we are.”– Caverly Morgan
Caverly says that personally, she enjoys finding ways to see pure truth and consciousness within the chaos. We can be mindful of how we participate in reality and ask ourselves if our actions align with a conditioned, collective ego, or if they align with the heart.
Check out Ep. 38 of Healing at the Edge to learn more about Integrating Practice into Daily Life
Sangha and Authenticity (33:58)
When we are not confused about the heart of who we are, we are not as disturbed by the world. If we care about liberation above all else, we will be less phased by the noise. Instead, we can focus on what in our own selves creates separateness. Living in alignment with truth and being committed to choices that bring us closer to our heart space and a collective unity automatically softens us from the harsh conditions we live in.
“Rather than having this ideal of sangha that is without ripple, through practice we build our capacity to have ripple be an important part of the totality rather than something we resist.” – Caverly Morgan
If you are enjoying this episode, listen to an earlier episode of The Road Home with Caverly Morgan: Peace in Schools
Photo via Caverly Morgan