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Russ Hudson on the Enneagram: 9 Gateways to Presence a...
The enneagram offers a deeper understanding of personality, emotional patterns, and relationships. Through Russ Hudson’s teachings, the enneagram nine types explained become more than personality labels. They reveal the habits, fears, and motivations that shape everyday life and personal growth.
At Sounds True, we have spent decades sharing transformational teachings that support greater self awareness, presence, and conscious living. Through conversations with teachers like Russ Hudson, we continue to offer guidance for meaningful inner growth.
Below, we’ll look at Russ Hudson’s perspective on the enneagram personality types and how the enneagram can support greater awareness, connection, and personal transformation.
Key Takeaways:
- Self Awareness: Learn how the enneagram helps identify unconscious emotional patterns and habitual reactions.
- Russ Hudson’s Teachings: Understand Russ Hudson’s perspective on presence, compassion, and personal growth through the enneagram.
- The Nine Types: Gain a clearer enneagram types overview and how each type approaches fear, relationships, and motivation.
Why Russ Hudson Says the Enneagram Personality Types Matter for Presence
Many people first encounter the enneagram personality types while searching for answers about relationships, communication, or emotional habits. Russ Hudson teaches that the enneagram offers something deeper than personality analysis alone. He describes the system as a pathway toward greater presence, emotional honesty, and self understanding. Instead of placing people into limiting categories, the enneagram helps reveal the unconscious patterns that shape reactions, fears, and desires.
Through careful observation, people begin to notice the habits that keep them trapped in self criticism, anxiety, avoidance, or emotional reactivity. That awareness creates room for compassion and meaningful growth.
The enneagram also speaks to a universal longing for connection and belonging. Each type reflects a different strategy for seeking love, stability, or recognition. By understanding these patterns, people gain language for experiences they may have struggled to explain before.
Russ Hudson Enneagram Teachings and the Path to Self Awareness
Russ Hudson approaches the enneagram as a living system that deepens through reflection and experience. His teachings encourage people to slow down and notice what is happening beneath their surface reactions and emotional patterns.
The Enneagram as a Tool for Honest Observation
According to Hudson, the enneagram becomes most useful when people approach themselves with curiosity instead of judgment. Every type develops habits that once offered protection but eventually limit emotional freedom and connection. By recognizing these habits, individuals can respond more consciously rather than reacting automatically.
Hudson teaches that lasting growth develops gradually through awareness, not through trying to become a different person. The enneagram supports this process by helping people identify recurring emotional patterns and unconscious motivations.
Self Awareness Creates Room for Change
One of the central themes in Russ Hudson enneagram teachings is that awareness changes the relationship people have with their inner world. Instead of feeling overwhelmed by fear, anger, shame, or anxiety, individuals learn to observe those emotions without becoming consumed by them.
As people strengthen self awareness, they often become more compassionate toward themselves and others. The enneagram encourages reflection on how personal struggles connect to universal human experiences. This understanding can soften defensiveness and create more authentic relationships.
Enneagram Nine Types Explained Through Core Motivations and Patterns
The enneagram nine types explained by Hudson are rooted in motivations that influence behavior, attention, and emotional responses. Each type represents a different way of navigating life while searching for security, connection, or meaning.
Understanding the Core Motivations Behind Each Type
Some types move toward achievement and recognition, while others seek peace, certainty, independence, or emotional depth. Hudson explains that these motivations are not simply preferences. They are deeply ingrained survival strategies developed over many years of experience.
Type Two may focus on helping others to feel needed, while Type Five protects energy through privacy and observation. Recognizing these motivations helps people understand why certain situations feel emotionally charged or difficult to navigate.
Patterns Become More Visible Through Presence
Hudson teaches that emotional patterns become easier to recognize when people practice presence during ordinary moments. The enneagram is not only about analyzing behavior afterward. It also supports awareness in real time.
As people notice how they react under stress, avoid discomfort, or seek approval, they gain greater emotional clarity. This awareness allows individuals to pause before repeating familiar habits. Over time, those pauses can support healthier choices and meaningful personal growth.
An Enneagram Types Overview of Attention, Fear, and Desire
An enneagram types overview often begins with behavior, but Hudson emphasizes the importance of attention. Each type focuses on different concerns, fears, and desires that shape perception and emotional experience.
Attention Shapes the Way People Experience Life
Hudson explains that people rarely notice how selective attention influences their inner world. Certain details feel urgent or emotionally significant depending on type structure. Some individuals focus on possible problems, while others seek harmony, achievement, excitement, or emotional intensity.
By becoming aware of where attention naturally goes, people gain insight into the emotional habits that shape everyday experiences.
Fear and Desire Influence Every Type
Every enneagram type contains a central fear and desire that influences decisions and behavior. A Type Three may fear failure or worthlessness, while a Type Six may fear uncertainty and instability. At the same time, each type also longs for something meaningful, such as peace, competence, connection, or security.
Hudson encourages people to approach these fears gently instead of treating them as flaws. The enneagram creates an opportunity to understand how fear operates beneath the surface and how greater awareness can loosen its influence over daily life.
How the Enneagram Personality Types Shape Relationships and Growth
The enneagram personality types influence communication, conflict, and emotional connection. Russ Hudson teaches that relationships often become mirrors that reveal unconscious habits and defensive patterns. Through reflection, people can better understand how their type affects others and how emotional reactions develop during moments of stress or vulnerability.
- Type One may struggle with criticism and perfectionism in relationships.
- Type Two often seeks connection through helping and emotional support.
- Type Three may focus heavily on achievement and external validation.
- Type Four tends to value emotional depth and personal meaning.
- Type Five often protects energy through distance and privacy.
- Type Six may seek reassurance and stability during uncertainty.
- Type Seven often avoids painful emotions through distraction or activity.
- Type Eight may express strength to avoid vulnerability or losing control.
- Type Nine often seeks harmony while neglecting personal priorities.
Hudson explains that recognizing these tendencies can improve communication and empathy.
Russ Hudson Enneagram Insights on Presence, Compassion, and Inner Work
A consistent message in Russ Hudson enneagram teachings is that inner work begins with presence. Many people spend years trying to change themselves without fully understanding what drives their reactions. Hudson encourages a different approach rooted in observation, compassion, and patience. Rather than fighting uncomfortable emotions, people can learn to stay present with them and listen carefully to what they reveal.
This approach supports a more grounded relationship with growth. Instead of chasing constant self improvement, the enneagram invites people to reconnect with qualities that already exist beneath defensive patterns. Compassion becomes an essential part of the process because shame and harsh self judgment often reinforce the habits people hope to change.
Hudson also emphasizes the importance of awareness in ordinary life. Personal growth does not happen only during meditation, study, or spiritual practice. It also unfolds during conversations, routines, moments of frustration, and experiences of joy.
Using the Enneagram for Self Awareness in Everyday Life
The enneagram for self awareness becomes most meaningful when applied consistently in everyday situations. Hudson teaches that small moments of awareness can gradually transform long standing habits. Pausing during conflict, noticing emotional reactions, or observing patterns of avoidance all create opportunities for greater understanding.
Many people use the enneagram to strengthen relationships, deepen spiritual practice, and improve emotional resilience.
Hudson encourages people to approach the enneagram with humility and openness. The deeper purpose is learning how to live with more awareness, compassion, and presence.
Enneagram Nine Types Explained as Gateways to Personal Growth
Russ Hudson teaches that the enneagram becomes transformative when people use it as a practice of awareness rather than a fixed identity system. The enneagram nine types explained through his perspective invite people to notice how automatic patterns influence thoughts, emotions, relationships, and spiritual connection. Instead of remaining trapped in habitual reactions, individuals can begin creating space for more conscious choices.
This process takes honesty and patience. Growth rarely happens through dramatic breakthroughs alone. More often, it develops through small moments of awareness that gradually shift the way people respond to themselves and others. Hudson reminds listeners that compassion is essential during this process because meaningful transformation cannot grow from shame or harsh self judgment.
The enneagram also encourages people to recognize the humanity shared across all nine types. Every person experiences fear, longing, vulnerability, and the desire for connection. Through presence and self awareness, the enneagram offers support for a more grounded and connected way of living.
Final Thoughts
Russ Hudson’s teachings on the enneagram remind us that personal growth begins with awareness. The enneagram personality types are not meant to confine people to labels but to help illuminate the patterns that shape thoughts, emotions, and relationships. Through greater presence and self observation, the enneagram offers a meaningful path toward compassion, connection, and lasting inner growth.
Frequently Asked Questions About Russ Hudson and the Enneagram
What makes Russ Hudson’s enneagram teachings different?
Russ Hudson emphasizes presence, awareness, and inner observation rather than treating the enneagram as a simple personality quiz. His teachings focus on emotional honesty and conscious growth.
Can the enneagram support spiritual growth?
Yes. Many people use the enneagram as part of spiritual practice because it helps uncover unconscious patterns that affect thoughts, emotions, and relationships.
Is the enneagram based on behavior alone?
No. The enneagram also examines motivations, fears, desires, and patterns of attention that influence behavior beneath the surface.
Why do people identify strongly with certain enneagram types?
People often recognize themselves in a type because the enneagram describes familiar emotional patterns, coping strategies, and inner struggles with surprising accuracy.
How long does it take to understand your enneagram type?
For some people, recognition happens quickly. Others need time for reflection because several types may initially feel familiar. Honest self observation usually brings greater clarity over time.
Can someone relate to more than one enneagram type?
People may see aspects of themselves in several types, but the enneagram teaches that one core type usually shapes a person’s primary motivations and emotional patterns.
How does the enneagram improve communication?
The enneagram helps people understand how different personalities respond to stress, conflict, and emotional needs, which can create more empathy and patience in conversations.
Is the enneagram helpful in relationships?
Yes. Many people use the enneagram to better understand emotional reactions, relationship dynamics, communication styles, and personal boundaries.
Does the enneagram change over time?
A person’s core type remains consistent, but emotional maturity, awareness, and life experiences can influence how that type is expressed.
Why is presence important in enneagram work?
Presence helps people notice automatic reactions before acting on them. This awareness creates opportunities for healthier responses and deeper personal growth.
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant, and intuitive healer. She is the author of six books, including Skill in Action and Finding Refuge. Amy Burtaine is a leadership coach and racial equity trainer. With Robin DiAngelo, she is the coauthor of The Facilitator’s Guide for White Affinity Groups. For more, visit https://www.michellecjohnson.com/wisdom-of-the-hive.
High-Functioning Codependency: How to Recognize and Br...
Many people living with high-functioning codependency do not realize how deeply these patterns shape their daily lives. Constantly helping others, avoiding conflict, staying productive, and putting everyone else first can feel normal, especially when those behaviors are praised. Over time, though, chronic people pleasing and self-sacrifice can lead to burnout, resentment, and disconnection from your own needs.
At Sounds True, we have spent decades sharing teachings from therapists, spiritual teachers, and relationship experts who support emotional healing, self-awareness, and healthier ways of relating. Through conversations with voices like Terri Cole, Tara Brach, and Pema Chödrön, we continue helping people build more honest and balanced relationships with themselves and others.
Here, we’ll look at high-functioning codependency signs, people pleasing patterns, codependency in relationships, and ways to begin breaking these emotional cycles.
Key Takeaways:
- Hidden Patterns: High-functioning codependency often appears as success, reliability, and caregiving while masking emotional exhaustion.
- Relationship Dynamics: People pleasing patterns and codependency in relationships can quietly affect boundaries, communication, and self-worth.
- Healing Process: Learning self-awareness, emotional honesty, and healthier boundaries can help break the cycle of chronic overgiving.
Understanding High-Functioning Codependency and Why It’s Hard to Spot
High-functioning codependency often hides behind qualities people admire, like helpfulness, productivity, and reliability. Many who struggle with these patterns appear capable and selfless while quietly feeling emotionally exhausted and disconnected from their own needs.
These behaviors often begin early in life when approval or safety becomes tied to caregiving and keeping others happy. Over time, prioritizing everyone else can become automatic, making it difficult to recognize the emotional toll.
Healing starts with awareness. Recognizing that chronic overgiving and self-abandonment are not signs of strength can open the door to healthier boundaries, relationships, and self-trust.
High Functioning Codependency Signs That Often Go Unnoticed
High-functioning codependency can remain hidden for years because many of its behaviors are socially rewarded. Dependability, generosity, and emotional attentiveness are often celebrated, making it harder to notice when these traits become rooted in fear, anxiety, or self-neglect.
Constant Responsibility for Other People’s Emotions
One of the clearest high functioning codependency signs is feeling responsible for how other people feel. Someone may spend large amounts of emotional energy trying to prevent conflict, smooth over tension, or manage the moods of others. Even minor disagreements can trigger guilt or anxiety.
This pattern often creates emotional exhaustion. Instead of checking in with their own feelings, people become hyperfocused on maintaining peace in relationships. Over time, their emotional needs become secondary to everyone else’s comfort.
Difficulty Receiving Support
People with high-functioning codependency are often skilled caregivers, yet they struggle to receive care themselves. Asking for help may feel uncomfortable, vulnerable, or even selfish. Many believe their worth depends on being useful rather than supported.
This imbalance can quietly shape relationships. One person consistently gives while avoiding honest conversations about their own needs. The relationship may appear stable on the surface, but emotional reciprocity becomes difficult to sustain.
How People Pleasing Patterns Develop Over Time
People pleasing patterns rarely appear overnight. They are usually learned responses shaped by family dynamics, childhood environments, and early experiences of connection and safety.
Approval Becomes Linked to Self-Worth
Many people learn early that love, attention, or approval are earned through achievement, helpfulness, or emotional caretaking. As children, they may have been praised for being easygoing, mature, or accommodating. Over time, they begin associating self-worth with meeting the expectations of others.
This can create an internal pressure to perform emotionally at all times. Saying no may feel threatening because it risks disappointing someone or losing connection. The nervous system starts treating approval as a form of safety.
Authentic Needs Become Difficult to Identify
As people pleasing patterns deepen, individuals may lose touch with their own preferences, emotions, and boundaries. Decision-making becomes centered around keeping others comfortable rather than asking what feels true internally.
Many people describe feeling disconnected from themselves without fully understanding why. They may appear highly capable in daily life while privately feeling resentful, overwhelmed, or emotionally numb. Rebuilding self-awareness often becomes an important part of healing.
The Connection Between High-Functioning Codependency and People Pleasing Patterns
High-functioning codependency and people pleasing patterns are deeply connected because both are rooted in self-abandonment. A person learns to monitor external needs so closely that their own emotional reality becomes secondary.
Productivity Can Mask Emotional Strain
Many high-functioning individuals cope by staying busy. Productivity becomes a way to avoid discomfort, maintain control, and gain validation. They may excel professionally while struggling internally with anxiety, perfectionism, or chronic emotional fatigue.
This outward success can make codependent patterns harder to identify. Friends, coworkers, and family members may see someone who appears composed and reliable, unaware of the emotional burden underneath.
Boundaries Often Feel Uncomfortable
People experiencing high-functioning codependency frequently struggle with boundaries because limits can trigger guilt. They may fear appearing selfish, disappointing others, or creating conflict.
As a result, they overextend themselves emotionally, physically, and mentally. Relationships begin revolving around obligation rather than genuine connection. Learning that boundaries protect relationships instead of damaging them is often a transformative shift.
The Emotional Impact of Codependency in Relationships
Codependency in relationships can create emotional imbalance that slowly affects both partners. One person may become overly responsible for maintaining connection while the other grows accustomed to receiving constant emotional labor.
- Communication becomes centered around avoiding conflict instead of expressing honesty.
- One partner may suppress emotions to keep the relationship stable.
- Resentment can build beneath repeated overgiving.
- Personal identity may become tied to being needed.
- Anxiety often increases when approval or reassurance feels uncertain.
- Emotional burnout can develop from chronic self-sacrifice.
These patterns do not mean a relationship is doomed. In many cases, awareness creates an opportunity for meaningful change. Healthy relationships require mutual responsibility, emotional honesty, and room for both people to exist fully as themselves.
Breaking these cycles takes patience and compassion. People who have spent years prioritizing others often need time to rebuild trust in their own emotions, needs, and boundaries.
Terri Cole Codependency Teachings on Boundaries and Self-Abandonment
Terri Cole’s codependency teachings help people recognize how chronic overgiving can mask deeper self-abandonment. Her work emphasizes that boundaries are not punishments but healthy acts of self-respect and honesty.
She also highlights how automatic caregiving patterns, like constantly fixing problems or managing emotions, can create exhaustion and resentment over time. These patterns often feel loving at first, but they can slowly weaken trust in your own inner voice. By pausing before saying yes, people can begin noticing what is true for them, what feels sustainable, and where they may need space. This awareness makes it easier to respond from choice rather than fear, guilt, or obligation in daily interactions and relationships. Healing often involves learning to tolerate discomfort, express needs honestly, and stop seeking approval through self-sacrifice.
How Codependency in Relationships Affects Emotional Well-Being
Codependency in relationships often impacts emotional well-being in subtle but lasting ways. People may experience chronic stress, anxiety, irritability, or emotional numbness without immediately connecting those feelings to relational dynamics.
When someone consistently prioritizes the emotional needs of others, their nervous system can remain in a constant state of vigilance. They become highly attuned to moods, reactions, and potential conflict. This hyperawareness may create temporary feelings of control, but it also drains emotional energy over time.
Many people also struggle with guilt when attempting to make changes. Resting, setting limits, or expressing needs can trigger discomfort because these actions challenge long-standing beliefs about worth and responsibility. Healing often involves learning that emotional care is not selfish. It is necessary for a healthy connection.
Supportive relationships encourage honesty, individuality, and emotional reciprocity. As people begin practicing healthier boundaries, they often notice greater clarity, self-trust, and emotional steadiness emerging in their lives.
Breaking the Cycle of High-Functioning Codependency and Reclaiming Your Life
Breaking the cycle of high-functioning codependency begins with small, consistent acts of self-awareness. Many people try to change their behaviors immediately without first understanding the emotional patterns beneath them. Lasting healing usually happens more gradually.
Self-reflection can help uncover where people pleasing patterns first developed and how they continue shaping relationships today. Journaling, therapy, mindfulness practices, and honest conversations can all support this process. The goal is not perfection. It is greater awareness and choice.
Learning to pause before automatically helping or fixing can also create meaningful change. Instead of reacting from obligation, people begin asking themselves what they genuinely want, need, or have the capacity for in a given moment.
Healing does not require becoming less caring or compassionate. It involves creating relationships where care flows in both directions. As people reconnect with their own emotional truth, they often find greater peace, authenticity, and freedom in the way they relate to others.
Final Thoughts
High-functioning codependency can be difficult to recognize because it often hides behind achievement, caregiving, and reliability. Yet constantly prioritizing others at the expense of your own emotional well-being can create exhaustion, resentment, and disconnection over time.
Healing begins with noticing these patterns without judgment. As boundaries strengthen and self-awareness grows, relationships can become more balanced, honest, and emotionally supportive. Small shifts toward honoring your own needs can create meaningful change in the way you relate to yourself and others.
Frequently Asked Questions About High-Functioning Codependency
Can high-functioning codependency affect friendships, not just romantic relationships?
Yes. High-functioning codependency can appear in friendships, family dynamics, and work relationships. Someone may feel responsible for keeping everyone happy or emotionally supported in multiple areas of life.
Is high-functioning codependency considered a mental health condition?
Codependency itself is not officially classified as a mental health disorder. However, its patterns can contribute to stress, anxiety, burnout, and difficulty maintaining healthy relationships.
Why do successful people struggle with high-functioning codependency?
Success can sometimes reinforce codependent behaviors because people receive praise for being dependable, productive, and self-sacrificing. These traits may hide emotional exhaustion underneath.
Can people pleasing patterns develop in adulthood?
Yes. While many people pleasing patterns begin in childhood, difficult relationships, workplace environments, or emotional stress in adulthood can also strengthen these behaviors over time.
How does social media affect codependency in relationships?
Social media can increase pressure to appear constantly available, supportive, or emotionally responsive. For some people, this reinforces validation-seeking behaviors and emotional comparison.
Are boundaries selfish in close relationships?
Healthy boundaries are not selfish. They create clarity, mutual respect, and emotional balance. Boundaries help relationships function more honestly and sustainably.
What is the difference between kindness and codependency?
Kindness comes from genuine care and choice. Codependency often comes from fear, guilt, or anxiety about disappointing others or losing connection.
Can therapy help with high functioning codependency signs?
Yes. Therapy can help people recognize emotional patterns, improve boundaries, and reconnect with their own needs, feelings, and sense of identity.
Do people with high-functioning codependency avoid conflict?
Many do. Conflict may feel emotionally unsafe, leading them to suppress feelings or overaccommodate others to maintain peace in relationships.
How long does it take to break codependent patterns?
Healing looks different for everyone. Progress often happens gradually through self-awareness, supportive relationships, and consistent boundary work over time.
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant, and intuitive healer. She is the author of six books, including Skill in Action and Finding Refuge. Amy Burtaine is a leadership coach and racial equity trainer. With Robin DiAngelo, she is the coauthor of The Facilitator’s Guide for White Affinity Groups. For more, visit https://www.michellecjohnson.com/wisdom-of-the-hive.
What Is Reverse Meditation? A Counterintuitive Path to...
Many people begin meditation hoping to quiet the mind, reduce stress, or create a sense of inner peace. Reverse meditation takes a different approach by encouraging people to turn toward the thoughts, emotions, and experiences they usually avoid. Instead of escaping discomfort, the practice invites awareness of it. Although this approach may feel unfamiliar at first, it can lead to deeper self-understanding, emotional honesty, and presence.
At Sounds True, we have spent decades sharing wisdom from leading spiritual teachers, meditation practitioners, and contemplative voices through books, audio programs, podcasts, and transformational learning experiences. Our mission has always been to support meaningful inner growth through teachings that are grounded, compassionate, and accessible.
Here, we discuss what reverse meditation is, how it differs from traditional mindfulness practices, and how it can support awakening through awareness, shadow work, and emotional openness.
Key Takeaways:
- Emotional Awareness: Reverse meditation encourages people to stay present with difficult emotions instead of avoiding them.
- Spiritual Insight: The practice helps uncover unconscious patterns that shape fear, identity, and emotional reactions.
- Inner Freedom: Reverse meditation and shadow meditation support greater compassion, honesty, and emotional resilience.
What Is Reverse Meditation and Why Is It So Counterintuitive?
Reverse meditation challenges the привычка to avoid discomfort during spiritual practice. Instead of trying to quiet difficult emotions or achieve constant calm, practitioners learn how to stay present with fear, uncertainty, and emotional tension. Thoughts and uncomfortable feelings are not treated as distractions but as part of the practice itself.
This counterintuitive approach encourages greater self-awareness and emotional honesty. Rather than chasing ideal spiritual states, reverse meditation focuses on presence, openness, and a deeper relationship with inner experience.
The Origins of Reverse Meditation in Spiritual and Contemplative Traditions
Reverse meditation draws from contemplative traditions that emphasize awareness without resistance. Although the language surrounding the practice may vary, the central principle remains similar across many teachings. Freedom develops when people stop struggling against their inner experience.
Ancient Teachings on Turning Toward Experience
Many contemplative traditions teach practitioners to observe thoughts and emotions without immediately reacting to them. In Tibetan Buddhism and nondual teachings, awareness is seen as spacious enough to include discomfort, confusion, and emotional intensity.
Rather than viewing difficult emotions as obstacles, these traditions suggest they can lead to deeper understanding. Reverse meditation reflects this approach by encouraging awareness of the emotions and patterns people usually avoid.
Why Modern Practitioners Are Drawn to Reverse Meditation
Many people are drawn to meditation practices that feel emotionally honest and grounded. While traditional mindfulness can be meaningful, some practitioners realize they are using meditation to avoid discomfort instead of understanding it.
Reverse meditation creates space for vulnerability, uncertainty, and difficult emotions without judgment. Rather than pretending discomfort does not exist, the practice encourages a more open and honest relationship with inner experience.
Andrew Holecek Reverse Meditation Teachings on Awareness and Awakening
The growing conversation around reverse meditation has been influenced by Andrew Holecek, whose teachings combine Tibetan Buddhism, dream yoga, and nondual contemplative wisdom. His work often focuses on the patterns people use to avoid discomfort and reinforce identity.
Reversing Habitual Patterns of Avoidance
Andrew Holecek reverse meditation teachings emphasize how deeply conditioned people are to seek comfort and avoid emotional pain. Fear, anxiety, and uncertainty are usually treated as problems that need immediate resolution.
Reverse meditation interrupts this pattern. Instead of escaping difficult emotions, practitioners learn how to remain present with them long enough to observe what exists beneath the surface. Fear may reveal vulnerability. Anger may uncover grief. Emotional resistance may expose attachment to control.
The practice does not encourage emotional overwhelm. Instead, it develops the capacity to remain aware without immediately turning away from discomfort.
Awakening Through Openness and Curiosity
A central insight within reverse meditation is that awakening begins through openness rather than control. Many people spend years trying to perfect themselves spiritually while remaining disconnected from unresolved emotional experience.
Reverse meditation shifts that orientation. Curiosity replaces judgment. Awareness becomes less focused on fixing experience and more focused on understanding it directly.
This creates a different relationship with meditation itself. Practitioners stop measuring progress according to how peaceful they feel. Instead, they begin developing the ability to remain present with changing emotional states without becoming consumed by them.
Over time, this openness can create greater emotional resilience, compassion, and clarity.
How a Reverse Meditation Practice Changes Your Relationship With Fear
Fear often becomes one of the central doorways within a reverse meditation practice. Most people instinctively move away from emotional discomfort as quickly as possible. Reverse meditation asks practitioners to slow down and examine that impulse instead of following it automatically.
Learning to Stay Present With Discomfort
One of the first things practitioners notice is how quickly the mind reaches for distraction. Restlessness, analysis, and mental storytelling often appear when vulnerability begins surfacing.
Reverse meditation encourages practitioners to remain present with those reactions rather than immediately escaping them. Fear is no longer treated as something that must disappear before peace can emerge.
This shift can feel uncomfortable at first. Yet many practitioners discover that difficult emotions become less overwhelming once they are approached with awareness instead of resistance.
Fear as a Gateway to Deeper Insight
Fear often protects deeper emotional experiences that have not been fully acknowledged. Beneath anxiety, there may be grief, loneliness, uncertainty, or attachment to identity and control.
A reverse meditation practice creates space to observe these hidden layers more clearly. Instead of reacting automatically, practitioners begin recognizing how much emotional energy is spent avoiding vulnerability.
This awareness can gradually transform the relationship with fear itself. Fear becomes less of an enemy and more of a signal pointing toward areas that require compassion, honesty, and attention.
Why Counterintuitive Meditation Challenges Traditional Mindfulness
Counterintuitive meditation often challenges familiar ideas about what meditation is supposed to accomplish. Many people begin meditation expecting calmness, focus, or emotional relief. Reverse meditation introduces another possibility by encouraging awareness of all experience, including discomfort.
- Traditional mindfulness practices often emphasize concentration on the breath or bodily sensations, while counterintuitive meditation opens awareness toward thoughts, emotions, and emotional tension.
- Counterintuitive meditation encourages practitioners to notice resistance itself rather than immediately trying to eliminate uncomfortable feelings.
- Emotional difficulty is not viewed as failure within the practice. Difficult emotions become opportunities for deeper awareness and self-understanding.
- The practice shifts attention away from spiritual achievement and toward emotional honesty.
- Practitioners learn how to remain present with uncertainty instead of constantly seeking resolution or control.
- Counterintuitive meditation encourages greater compassion by helping people recognize the shared vulnerability within human experience.
Although this approach may feel challenging, many practitioners eventually develop a more grounded relationship with meditation. Awareness becomes less dependent on achieving ideal states and more connected to direct experience as it unfolds naturally.
The practice reminds people that awakening does not require perfection. It begins through willingness to remain present with reality in all its complexity.
The Connection Between Shadow Meditation and Reverse Meditation
Shadow meditation and reverse meditation encourage awareness of the hidden parts of the self, including fear, grief, shame, anger, and emotional pain. These emotions often surface during meditation through thoughts, physical sensations, or emotional reactions that are usually avoided.
Instead of suppressing those experiences, reverse meditation invites practitioners to meet them with compassion and curiosity. Over time, this process can reduce emotional resistance and create a greater sense of wholeness, honesty, and self-understanding.
Common Challenges That Arise During a Reverse Meditation Practice
A reverse meditation practice can feel emotionally intense, especially for people who are accustomed to avoiding vulnerability through distraction or control. Difficult emotions may become more visible once awareness slows down and becomes more attentive.
One common challenge involves expectations. Many people believe meditation should always feel peaceful or calming. Reverse meditation asks practitioners to reconsider that assumption. Emotional discomfort does not necessarily mean something is wrong. In many cases, it reflects a growing willingness to encounter inner experience honestly.
Impatience can also become part of the process. People often want immediate transformation or clarity, yet reverse meditation unfolds gradually through consistent awareness and self-compassion.
Support can be valuable during this process. Teachers, contemplative communities, and trusted spiritual resources can help practitioners navigate emotionally complex experiences with steadiness and care.
How Reverse Meditation and Shadow Meditation Support Inner Freedom
Reverse meditation and shadow meditation encourage a more compassionate relationship with difficult emotions and inner experiences. Instead of resisting fear, vulnerability, or uncertainty, practitioners learn how to remain present with them in a more open and grounded way.
Over time, this awareness can create greater emotional freedom and self-understanding. Rather than escaping pain or discomfort, reverse meditation supports a deeper sense of clarity, steadiness, and connection with human experience.
Final Thoughts
Reverse meditation offers a different relationship with awareness. Instead of moving away from discomfort, practitioners learn how to meet fear, uncertainty, and emotional complexity with openness and compassion. Through this counterintuitive practice, difficult experiences become opportunities for greater clarity rather than obstacles to awakening.
By turning gently toward the parts of ourselves we often resist, reverse meditation and shadow meditation can support a deeper sense of presence, honesty, and inner freedom.
Frequently Asked Questions About What Is Reverse Meditation?
Can reverse meditation help with emotional overwhelm?
Reverse meditation may help people develop a healthier relationship with overwhelming emotions by encouraging awareness instead of immediate avoidance. The practice focuses on observing emotional experiences with patience and compassion.
Is reverse meditation suitable for daily practice?
Yes. Many practitioners incorporate reverse meditation into daily routines through short periods of self-inquiry, mindful observation, or reflective awareness. Consistency is often more important than duration.
Does reverse meditation require silence?
Not necessarily. While quiet environments can support concentration, reverse meditation can also involve awareness during ordinary daily experiences, emotional reactions, or moments of discomfort.
How is reverse meditation different from positive thinking?
Positive thinking often focuses on replacing difficult thoughts with encouraging ones. Reverse meditation does not attempt to replace or fix emotions. Instead, it encourages awareness of experience exactly as it appears.
Can reverse meditation improve self-awareness?
Yes. The practice can deepen self-awareness by helping practitioners notice unconscious habits, emotional patterns, and reactions that often operate automatically.
Is reverse meditation connected to nondual teachings?
Many reverse meditation teachings share similarities with nondual traditions because both emphasize direct awareness and reduced identification with thoughts and emotions.
What role does the body play in reverse meditation?
The body often becomes an important source of awareness during reverse meditation. Emotional tension, fear, and stress frequently appear as physical sensations that practitioners learn to observe more consciously.
Can reverse meditation support spiritual growth without religion?
Yes. Although some teachings draw from Buddhist and contemplative traditions, reverse meditation can be practiced in a nonreligious way focused on awareness, emotional honesty, and inner reflection.
Why do some people resist reverse meditation at first?
The practice challenges the instinct to avoid discomfort. Remaining present with difficult emotions can initially feel unfamiliar, especially for people accustomed to distraction or emotional suppression.
How long does it take to understand reverse meditation?
Understanding develops gradually through experience rather than intellectual study alone. Many practitioners notice subtle shifts in awareness over time as they continue practicing with openness and consistency.
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant, and intuitive healer. She is the author of six books, including Skill in Action and Finding Refuge. Amy Burtaine is a leadership coach and racial equity trainer. With Robin DiAngelo, she is the coauthor of The Facilitator’s Guide for White Affinity Groups. For more, visit https://www.michellecjohnson.com/wisdom-of-the-hive.
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Life After Awakening, with Adyashanti
Friends, I wanted to share with you a free chapter from Adyashanti‘s inspiring (and very provocative) book The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment.
More and more people are waking up spiritually. And for many of them, the question becomes: Now what? “Information about life after awakening is usually not made public,” explains Adya. “It’s most often shared only between teachers and their students.” The End of Your World is his response to a growing need for direction on the spiritual path. Consider this Adya’s personal welcome to “a new world.”
Here is the excerpt, entitled “Exploring Life After Awakening.”
There’s a phenomenon happening in the world today. More and more people are waking up—having real, authentic glimpses of reality. By this I mean that people seem to be having moments where they awaken out of their familiar senses of self, and out of their familiar senses of what the world is, into a much greater reality—into some- thing far beyond anything they knew existed.
These experiences of awakening differ from person to person. For some, the awakening is sustained over time, while for others the glimpse is momentary—it may last just a split second. But in that instant, the whole sense of “self ” disap- pears. The way they perceive the world suddenly changes, and they find themselves without any sense of separation between themselves and the rest of the world. It can be likened to the experience of waking up from a dream—a dream you didn’t even know you were in until you were jolted out of it.
In the beginning of my teaching work, most of the people who came to me were seeking these deeper realizations of spirituality. They were seeking to wake up from the limiting and isolated senses of self they had imagined themselves to be. It’s this yearning that underpins all spiritual seeking: to discover for ourselves what we already intuit to be true— that there is more to life than we are currently perceiving.
But as time has passed, more and more people are coming to me who have already had glimpses of this greater reality. It is because of them that I am giving the teachings in this book.
The Dawning of Awakening
This discovery I’m talking about is traditionally referred to as spiritual awakening, because one awakens from the dream of separation created by the egoic mind. We realize—often quite suddenly—that our sense of self, which has been formed and constructed out of our ideas, beliefs, and images, is not really who we are. It doesn’t define us; it has no center. The ego may exist as a series of passing thoughts, beliefs, actions, and reactions, but in and of itself it has no identity. Ultimately all of the images we have about ourselves and the world turn out to be nothing but a resistance to things as they are. What we call ego is simply the mechanism our mind uses to resist life as it is. In that way, ego isn’t a thing as much as it is a verb. It is the resistance to what is. It is the pushing away or pulling toward. This momentum, this grasping and rejecting, is what forms a sense of a self that is distinct, or separate, from the world around us.
But with the dawn of awakening, this outside world begins to collapse. Once we lose our sense of self, it’s as if we have lost the whole world as we knew it. At that moment— whether that moment is just a glimpse or something more sustained—we suddenly realize with incredible clarity that what we truly are is in no way limited to the small sense of self that we thought we were.
Awakening to truth or reality is something that is very hard to talk about because it is transcendent of speech. It is helpful, nevertheless, to work with some sort of a guidepost. The simplest thing one can say about the experiential knowledge of awakening is that it is a shift in one’s perception. This is the heart of awakening. There is a shift in perception from seeing oneself as an isolated individual to seeing oneself, if we have a sense of self at all after this shift, as something much more universal—everything and everyone and every- where at the same time.
This shift is not revolutionary; it’s the same as looking in the mirror in the morning and having an intuitive sense that the face you are looking at is yours. It is not a mystical experience; it is a simple experience. When you look in the mirror, you experience the simple recognition, “Oh, that’s me.” When the shift of perception that’s called awakening happens, whatever our senses come into contact with is experienced as ourselves. It’s as if we think with everything we encounter, “Oh, that’s me.” We don’t experience ourselves in terms of our ego, in terms of a separate someone or separate entity. It’s more a feeling of the One recognizing itself, or Spirit recognizing itself.
Spiritual awakening is a remembering. It is not becoming something that we are not. It is not about transforming ourselves. It is not about changing ourselves. It is a remembering of what we are, as if we’d known it long ago and had simply forgotten. At the moment of this remembering, if the remembering is authentic, it’s not viewed as a personal thing. There is really no such thing as a “personal” awakening, because “personal” would imply separation. “Personal” would imply that it is the “me” or the ego that awakens or becomes enlightened.
But in a true awakening, it is realized very clearly that even the awakening itself is not personal. It is universal Spirit or universal consciousness that wakes up to itself. Rather than the “me” waking up, what we are wakes up from the “me.” What we are wakes up from the seeker. What we are wakes up from the seeking.
The problem with defining awakening is that upon hear- ing each of these descriptions, the mind creates another image, another idea of what this ultimate truth or ultimate reality is all about. As soon as these images are created, our perception is distorted once again. In this way, it’s really impossible to describe the nature of reality, except to say that it’s not what we think it is, and it’s not what we’ve been taught it is. In truth, we are not capable of imagining what it is that we are. Our nature is literally beyond all imagination. What we are is that which is watching—that consciousness which is watching us pretending to be a separate person. Our true nature is continually partaking of all experience, awake to every instant, to each and every moment.
In awakening, what’s revealed to us is that we are not a thing, nor a person, nor even an entity. What we are is that which manifests as all things, as all experiences, as all personalities. We are that which dreams the whole world into existence. Spiritual awakening reveals that that which is unspeakable and unexplainable is actually what we are.
Abiding and Nonabiding Awakening
As I’ve mentioned, this experience of awakening can be just a glimpse, or it can be sustained over time. Now, some would say that if an awakening is momentary, it is not a real awakening. There are those who believe that, with authentic awakening, your perception opens up to the true nature of things and never closes back down again. I can understand this perspective, since ultimately the whole spiritual journey does lead us to a full awakening. Full awakening simply means that we perceive from the perspective of Spirit—from the view of oneness—all the time.
From this awakened perspective, there isn’t any separation anywhere—not in the world, not in the universe, not in all the universes everywhere. The truth is anywhere and everywhere, at all times, in all dimensions, for all beings. It is a truth that is the source of everything that will ever be experienced—in life, after life, in this dimension or any other dimension.
From the perspective of the ultimate, literally every- thing—be it at a higher or lower dimension, here or there, yesterday, today, or tomorrow, everything—is but a manifestation of Spirit. It is Spirit itself that wakes up. So, ultimately, the trajectory every being is on, whether they know it or not, is a trajectory toward full awakening—toward a full knowing, toward a full experiential knowledge of what they are, toward unity, toward oneness.
But the moment of awakening may or may not result in a permanent seeing. As I said, some people will tell you that unless it’s permanent, the awakening is not real. What I’ve seen as a teacher is that the person who has a momentary glimpse beyond the veil of duality and the person who has a permanent, “abiding” realization are seeing and experiencing the same thing. One person experiences it momentarily; another experiences it continually. But what is experienced, if it is true awakening, is the same: all is one; we are not a particular thing or a particular someone that can be located in a particular space; what we are is both nothing and every- thing, simultaneously.
So, as I see it, it doesn’t really matter whether an awakening is instantaneous or continuous. It matters in the sense that there is a trajectory—nobody’s heart will be totally fulfilled until that perceiving from the point of view of truth is continuous—but what is seen is an awakening, whether it is sustained or not.
This glimpse of awakening, which I call nonabiding awakening, is becoming more and more common. It happens for a moment, an afternoon, a day, a week—maybe as long as a month or two. Awareness opens up, the sense of the separate self falls away—and then, like the aperture on a camera lens, awareness closes back down. All of a sudden that person who had previously perceived true nonduality, true oneness, is quite surprisingly now perceiving back in the dualistic “dream state.” In the dream state, we’re back in our conditioned sense of self—in a limited, isolated sense of being.
The good news is that once a moment of this clear seeing has actually taken place, the aperture of our awareness can never completely close down again. It may seem like it has closed down completely, but it never quite does. In the deep- est part of yourself, you don’t ever forget. Even if you’ve only glimpsed reality for a moment, something within you is changed forever.
Reality is nuclear; it’s incredibly powerful. It’s unimaginably potent. People can experience a f lash of reality in the time it takes to snap your fingers, and the energy and the force that enters into them as a result is life altering.
Just one moment of awakening begins the dissolution of one’s false sense of self and, subsequently, the dissolution of one’s whole perception of the world.
Awakening Is Not What You Imagine It to Be
In a very real sense, it is much more accurate to talk about what we lose upon awakening rather than what we gain. We not only lose ourselves—who we thought we were—but we also lose our entire perception of the world. Separation is only a perception; in fact, when it comes to our world, there is nothing but perception. “Your world ” is not your world; it is only your perception. So while it may seem negative at first, I think it’s much more useful to talk about spiritual awakening in terms of what we lose—what we awaken from. This means we’re talking about the dissolution of the image we have of ourselves, and it’s this dismantling of who we thought we were that is so startling when one wakes up.
And it is indeed startling: it’s not what we think it’s going to be like at all. I’ve never had a single student come back and say, “You k now, Adya, I peered through the veil of separation, and it’s pretty much what I thought it would be. It measures up pretty closely to what I’ve been told.” Usually they come back and say, “This is nothing like what I imagined.”
This is especially interesting since many of the people I teach have been studying spirituality for many years, and they often have very intricate ideas about what awakening is going to be like. But when it happens, it is always different from their expectations. In many ways, it is grander, but also in many ways, it is simpler. In truth, if it is to be true and real, awakening must be different from what we imagine it to be. This is because all of our imaginings about awakening are happening within the paradigm of the dream state. It is not possible to imagine something outside of the dream state when our consciousness is still within it.
How Does Your Life Change after Awakening ?
With awakening there also comes a total reorganization of the way we perceive life—or at least the beginning of a reorganization. This is because awakening itself, while beautiful and amazing, often brings with it a sense of disorientation. Even though you as the One have awakened, there is still your whole human structure—your body, your mind, and your personality. Awakening can often be experienced as very disorienting to this human structure.
So it is the process that happens after awakening that I want to explore. As I’ve said, for a very few people, the moment of awakening will be complete. It will be final in a certain sense, and there will be no need for a continuing process. We might say that such people had an extraordinarily light karmic load; even though they may have experienced extreme suffering before awakening, one can see that their karmic inheritance, the conditioning that they were dealing with, wasn’t too deep. This is very rare. Only a few people in a given generation may wake up in such a way that there’s no further process to undergo.
What I always tell people is this: don’t count on that person being you. Better to count on being like everyone else, which means that you will undergo a process after an initial awakening. It won’t be the end of your journey. What I will attempt to do here is to point you in a direction that may be useful and orienting as you embark on that journey. As my teacher used to say, it’s like getting your foot in the front door. Just because you’ve gotten your foot in the front door doesn’t mean you have turned the lights on; it doesn’t mean you have learned to navigate in that different world that you’ve awakened to.
I’m very happy that this book, which is based on a series of talks I’ve given, offers me the opportunity to address this subject—the question of what happens after awaken- ing. The information that exists on life after awakening is not usually made public. It’s most often shared only between spiritual teachers and their students. The problem with that approach is that, as I’ve said, a lot of people are now having these moments of awakening, and there is very little coher- ent teaching available for them. In that sense, this book is meant to be a welcoming to that new world, that new state of oneness.
Golden Tara to Who Helps Manifest and Fulfill Purpose
Meditating on Golden Tara shifts your sense of identity away from the smaller self that experiences itself as a separate being. When you identify with Tara in meditation and throughout the day, you realize that you are always in relationship with a fantastic, complex universe. Your energy increases because you no longer feel alone. You have Tara’s help, the help of friends, and countless other beings as well.
On the one hand, you are an infinitesimally tiny part of the grand whole. On the other hand, you have a role to play in the continuing creation of this complex universe. As you deepen and stabilize your inner Tara consciousness, your actions are imbued with love and compassion, arising from your understanding that you are an integral part of whatever you seek to change.
Remembering Tara also helps preserve your energies when you encounter unexpected obstacles; her golden light reveals the treasures hidden in the unwelcome stumbling blocks of life. Difficult challenges hold keys to awakening. Tara helps you approach problems as an inherent part of the journey, supporting you as you move toward them to uncover wisdom they might offer. They often provide a wake-up call to send you in a new direction, offering greater clarity about your life purpose.
This inclusive attitude creates more health in your personal ecosystem as well as the universal ecosystem. Ask Golden Tara to transform your challenging emotions into love and to increase your energy for discovering meaning and purpose in your life.
Tara’s Appearance
Golden Tara appears as the life-giving female buddha in a body of radiant golden light. She embodies the light of life itself. The vase in Golden Tara’s hand contains the power to increase our life energy, power, and material and spiritual resources. These resources support us in times of ease and times of difficulty, enabling us to discover and fulfill the purposes of our life on a moment-to-moment basis and over the arc of our lives.
For centuries, artists have created statues and thangka paintings of Tara, always adorned with jewelry. These sacred paintings, usually done on fabric and surrounded by brocade, portray the qualities of their subjects and convey teachings as well. Thus we take special note of Tara’s adornments. A crown rests atop her head. Necklaces of varying lengths cascade from her neck to her waist. Bracelets encircle her wrists. All have been crafted from gold with deep red and blue jewels woven into the designs.
Gold has been the preferred precious metal of jewelry makers for thousands of years. Gold is malleable; gold doesn’t tarnish. Golden light is associated with increasing life-force, healing, and holiness. Holy people of many faiths are often painted in an aura of golden radiance.
Many years ago, I heard a teaching that Tara’s jewels represent her experiences over lifetimes on her way to enlightenment and buddhahood. Profound understanding of the Buddhist teachings and her experiences as a woman led Wisdom Moon to vow to attain enlightenment as a woman and to persevere toward her goal. Tara’s life events were surely difficult and awe-inspiring, ordinary and phenomenal. All of them were precious contributions to her journey, which has benefited countless beings over hundreds of years.
The Mantra
Om Tare Tuttare Ture Sarva Ayur Punye Pushtam Kuru Soha!
“Ohm Tahray Tootahray Tooray Sarwah Ahyoor Poonyay Pushtahm Kooroo Soha!”
When you recite the mantra of Golden Tara, you are urging (kuru) Tara to increase (pushtam) your life energies (ayur) and merit (punye), your contributions to adding positive energy to beings around the world, near and far. Mantra recitations need not be limited to formal practice. Use them throughout the day to slow down and focus on whatever task is at hand.
The Practice
First, visualize the entire mandala of Green Tara emerging into the space in front of you. You are surrounded by your friends, loved ones, and supporters, and she is surrounded by your teachers and all the twenty-one emanations. After the opening prayers, imagine Golden Tara coming into the foreground of the mandala. Recall her praise while visualizing golden rays of light streaming from her heart as well as the golden vase in her right hand, which rests on her right knee, palm open in the gesture of supreme giving.
As you recite her mantra, Om Tare Tuttare Ture Sarva Ayur Punye Pushtam Kuru Soha, imagine that you are absorbing this light and that other beings and other places are receiving the light of Tara as well.
Kuru, which appears in seven of the Tara mantras, carries a particularly bold tone. You’re not meekly asking Tara to help—you’re putting your whole heart and body into this request. “Tara, please do this for me. Remove blockages so more energy flows into my life and work! I’m counting on you!” The same tasks that feel overwhelming in one moment seem entirely possible in the next.
Tara can help you discern the wisdom inherent in the obstacles you encounter in your life and practice. Meditate on the continuity in your life—the joyful moments, the extremely painful moments, and everything in between. Your experiences are not meaningless fragments. Imagine a mosaic forming as you piece the fragments together into a beautiful coherent pattern. Invoke Tara’s wisdom to give you greater clarity about your life purpose and the means to fulfill it.
Recite the mantra at least 21 times or 108 times whenever possible. Then rest in the vibrational field created by your chanting. Allow frustration and doubt to dissolve, releasing energy for healing. You become richer in inner resources, which leads to enriched outer resources as well, both material and spiritual. Affirm your connection to all life forms in the universe. Know that the benefits of your heartfelt wishes and efforts will flow from you into the world.
As you bring the session to a close, visualize Golden Tara receding into her place among the twenty-one emanations. See the whole mandala dissolve into radiant light, which flows into you and merges with your inner light. Dedicate the merit or positive potential generated by the practice to the healing of all beings—with no exceptions.
This is an adapted excerpt from Tara: The Liberating Power of the Female Buddha by Dr. Rachael Wooten.
Rachael Wooten, PhD, is a Zürich—trained Jungian analyst and psychologist who has been in private practice as a therapist for more than 40 years. An enthusiastic interfaith activist, she has studied and practiced in Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and indigenous traditions throughout her adult life.
Rachael has been mentored by spiritual teachers such as her Tibetan root guru Lodrö Tulku Rinpoche and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. She has taught Tara practices under the authorization of Lodrö Rinpoche for more than 20 years. Rachael has offered Tara workshops through the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South, ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, and C. G. Jung Society of the Triangle. She currently teaches a monthly Tara meditation group at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in her hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. To learn more, visit rachaelwootenauthor.com.
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Black Tara Who Destroys All Negativities
In the fall of 2010, our monthly Tara practice began at sundown at the end of Rosh Hashanah, the beginning of the Jewish new year, 5771. The days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are known as the Days of Awe. During these ten days, observant practitioners reflect on the past year to repair harm they may have inflicted on friends, family, or members of the greater family of the planet. They apologize to others and seek to do t’shuvah to make amends if possible. People work consciously to repair and let go of past negativity and set intentions for the coming year to prevent further mischief.
Black Tara Who Destroys All Negativities was on the calendar for that night. We appreciated the synchronistic timing of the two events. I noted that Tara protects us from negativity, internal and external, and helps us release the effects of negative energies we’ve encountered or generated. This protection occurs in part from remembering our connection to the Whole—that we are nurtured and contained by a multilayered universe. When we help another, we are helped. If we harm another, we harm ourselves. Perhaps harder to grasp—if we harm ourselves, we harm the whole universe.
The teaching centered around the meaning of the mantra, which refers explicitly to ingrained behaviors operating outside of consciousness that wreak havoc in interpersonal relationships. Negative energies transferred from one individual to another are potent and destructive, and often have lasting effects.
Tara’s Appearance
Black Tara appears with her mouth wide open in a fierce expression. Like all the wrathful emanations, she sits on a fiery sun disc, which rests in the center of her lotus throne. The sun disc replaces the usual soothing moon disc. She holds a black vase, which contains the power to overcome even the most destructive and negative powers. In this aspect, Tara is known as the Destroyer of All Negativities.
The Mantra
Om Tare Tuttare Ture Sarva Vidya Avarana Ye Bhye Phat Soha!
“Ohm Tahray Tootahray Tooray Sarwah Veedyah Ahvahrahnah Yay Bay Peyt Soha!”
This mantra sheds more light on the meaning of the practice, when you might need to use it, and how to align your own intentions with those of Tara. It insists that Tara remove mental obstacles that block insight into your complexes or the emotional forces that obscure your understanding. Avarana refers to the causes underlying negative tendencies in yourself or others. These instincts, imprints, or potencies are ingrained, influencing behavior outside of awareness. They are unconscious, unquestioned, and unprocessed. They have been denied, repressed, or avoided. You or others around you might struggle to bring them to consciousness or have no wish to do that whatsoever.
As with many words in Sanskrit, vidya has multiple meanings depending on the context. Vidya often means “wisdom”; in this instance, it means “intentions,” particularly negative intentions. Bhye phat urges Tara to destroy these obstacles or difficulties!
The mantra asks Tara to overcome the negative intentions of the enemy. Use it when you want her complete protection in order to fully grasp the difficulties in your situation. Watch for signs that you are being infected or possessed by internal negativity, which would be a natural response to the energy coming at you. Don’t be naive about actual outer dangers you might be facing; you have to remove yourself from harmful situations.
The Practice
Visualize the entire mandala of the twenty-one Taras arising out of vast space in front of you. Green Tara appears in the center in her radiant body of green light. Imagine your teachers surrounding her and all her other emanations in the background behind them. Finally, invite your friends and supporters and all beings you wish to receive the blessings of your practice. Recite the preliminary prayers. Then imagine that Black Tara Who Destroys All Negativities moves into the foreground, seated on her lotus throne with a sun disc in the center. She holds a black vase, which contains the power to destroy even the most virulent forces in the universe. See light streaming out of her heart and from her seed syllable Tam (“Tahm”) standing on a moon disc inside the vase. Just as a seed contains the entire essence of the plant it will become, the seed syllable Tam contains the entire essence of Tara’s infinite powers.
If visualizing a Tibetan syllable proves difficult initially, simply visualize light streaming out instead. The light destroys all malice and negativity.
Invite Black Tara to protect you from the negative intentions and actions of others. Set your own intentions to release the shock of the impact of such energies on your body, psyche, and spirit. Ofer Tara all of your dark emotions; ask her to protect you inside and out as you engage with our imperfect world in which aggression and hatred are too easily encountered.
Recite the mantra, Om Tare Tuttare Ture Sarva Vidya Avarana Ye Bhye Phat Soha, at least 21 times or 108 times whenever possible. Then rest in the subtle vibration created by the mantra recitation. Notice the qualities of the energy around you. Remember and be grateful for the inherent goodness in the universe that is continuously giving birth to positive impulses inside of you and other beings in the world.
Black Tara brings you back to the radiant spaciousness at the core of your being. As she dissolves obstacles created by negativity, try to identify the signs of true knowing versus the cynical and damaging commentary of the complex. Learn to distinguish what’s coming from inside, what’s coming at you from outside, and how the two are related. Reach out to the cosmic Mother Protector in the form of Tara. Reach inward to her indwelling presence and open yourself to access wisdom and compassion, which offers the greatest protection no matter the circumstances.
As you bring the meditation to a close, visualize Black Tara receding into the background among all the other emanations. See the light streaming out of the entire mandala and then allow the mandala with all its beings to dissolve into space. The light flows into your body and heart, vivifying and stabilizing the essence of Tara within you, and then disperses into the universe. Dedicate the positive potential of the practice to the healing and awakening of all beings everywhere, with no exceptions.
This is an adapted excerpt from Tara: The Liberating Power of the Female Buddha by Dr. Rachael Wooten.
Rachael Wooten, PhD, is a Zürich—trained Jungian analyst and psychologist who has been in private practice as a therapist for more than 40 years. An enthusiastic interfaith activist, she has studied and practiced in Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, and indigenous traditions throughout her adult life.
Rachael has been mentored by spiritual teachers such as her Tibetan root guru Lodrö Tulku Rinpoche and Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi. She has taught Tara practices under the authorization of Lodrö Rinpoche for more than 20 years. Rachael has offered Tara workshops through the Resource Center for Women and Ministry in the South, ALEPH: Alliance for Jewish Renewal, and C. G. Jung Society of the Triangle. She currently teaches a monthly Tara meditation group at Pullen Memorial Baptist Church in her hometown of Raleigh, North Carolina. To learn more, visit rachaelwootenauthor.com.
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The Way of the Feminine to Save the World
You feel special. Sometimes this feels like a curse. Like no one will understand you. Ever. Like you will always be an alien walking among regular humans, pretending to blend in. You have learned to live with this gulf, but what you really crave is community. You long to belong to the human family. To Mother Earth.
Participating in the human condition can be bewildering. It is just not always cozy and easy—rather, it’s humbling at best, downright humiliating when it is not flowing. It can seem so much simpler to ride solo, slaying your own dragons and singing the ballads you wrote about yourself. Collaboration can be tedious, and the prevailing masculine value system may have conditioned you to feel like you are giving away your power when you share it with others.
So what? Give it away. The time of the singular sage bestowing his unique wisdom is over. That was a method devised by the men in charge who sought to regulate wisdom. They taught us to suffer alone in the desert for forty years, collecting our insights in a secret box called “Esoteric Knowledge.” Then, we were supposed to dispense those insights stingily to those who proved themselves worthy by also suffering alone for the requisite forty years in the desert.
It turns out that the world is filled with special beings, grappling our way through the anxiety of solitary conundrums and tasting the occasional reprieve of connection. When you realize this, your body lets out its breath and relaxes. The curse lifts. You come in from the cold. You hold out your cup, and some other special being fills it with sweet, milky tea spiced with fragrant herbs. You drink.
Our way, the way of the feminine, is to find out what everyone is good at and praise them for it and get them to teach it to one another. Maybe you know something about the hidden meaning of the Hebrew letters, or how to build a sustainable home from recycled tires and rammed soil, or loving-kindness meditation. You, the one who knows the Islamic call to prayer, climb this minaret and call us all to prayer. You, the one who knows how to sit quietly at the bedside of the dying, show us the way to bear witness. You, the one who knows how to get us to wake up to the shadow of privilege, please wake us the #*#@ up. It will be chaotic, all this community building, but your cooperation will save the world.
Besides, it will be fun.
I Did a 40-Day Rest Cleanse and Here’s What Happened
For 40 days, I had the most soulful rest. And I did it in the comfort of my own home, with a full-time job, a family, and a social life.
Every day I awoke around 5:30 am and tiptoed to my Rest Cave (set up in a corner of our spare room). I laid on my back on an exercise mat (under my favorite blanket with a sleep mask) and plugged earbuds into my phone. Then I hit play on Karen Brody’s Daring to Rest yoga nidra meditation and let her soothing guidance lull me into a state of deep rest—or as Karen puts it, a return to myself. If you’re not familiar with yoga nidra, it’s a meditative practice for entering one of the deepest states of relaxation imaginable. And you do it lying down.
I’m not a morning person, but getting up to lie down (ironic, right?) was lovely. The stillness of the early morning quickly became my friend.
For the first 15 days, I listened to the Rest Meditation (20 minutes) to shed physical exhaustion, followed by 15 days of the Release Meditation (30 minutes) to let go of limiting beliefs. The last 10 days consist of the Rise Meditation (40 minutes), allowing life purpose exhaustion to lift, so that you can hone in on your true-hearted desires. Every five days I read a chapter in the book itself, Daring to Rest, for insight into what I was experiencing and supportive practices.
Gradually these aspects of my life began to shift—providing a depth of experience new to me, and oh so, beautiful.
- An underlying sense of sweetness in my day. I discovered a natural flow to my day, felt light and at ease in my skin, and second-guessed myself less.
- Deep intuition. Karen guided me to breathe in through my heart, then follow my breath, see where it landed, and listen for what she calls a “soul whisper”—a word or image that offers a clue to how you’re really feeling. Some days all I could think about was my to-do list or obsess over a worry. But when my soul whispers did arrive, they were often crystal clear and I journaled about them.
- Patience and connection. Mornings were less frantic. When my seven-year old son had stressful moments getting ready for school, I felt calmer and more present for him. When we walked to the bus stop, my awareness of the outdoor world was more acute—the blue sky, cloud formations, the crescent of a morning moon.
- Craving control. On days when I felt overwhelmed or anxious, my inclination to relieve those feelings with a glass of wine or binging on television lessened. Sometimes I would simply sit, gaze outdoors, and do nothing more. In those moments, I loved not feeling the need to do anything—not clean, not sort the mail, not check Facebook. I began to understand rest outside of my Rest Cave.
- A connection to beyond. This was a big one. Karen calls it your “council of women” and teaches you to summon it for love and support. It can be women in your circle, women who have passed, even women you don’t know personally. I saw my grandmother (who died before I was born) looking at me lovingly and felt my sister-in-law, who I’ve known since I was a baby, standing beside me. At times the feeling of these and other women was so strong that tears ran down my cheeks.
While my life became deeper and rosier, it was not until I went cold turkey for a few weeks that I realized just how powerful this rest cleanse was. I’ve always been someone who can go the distance, then neglect the sustaining part, like training for a half-marathon but not running for months after the race. And it’s so easy to fall back into old habits.
So now I’m learning how to translate this cleanse into an ongoing practice, for which Daring to Rest offers sound insights. My Rest Cave is an essential element. It’s not only a dedicated space for yoga nidra, but one for self-care in general—to journal, to listen to music, to just be.
Karen ends every yoga nidra meditation with the words, “Be good to yourself.” And in that spirit, I invite you to download her free Rest Cave Guide to create your own. And once you do, I dare you to rest and see what happens!
Christine Day has been a member of Sounds True’s sales and marketing team for more than five years and loves diving into our books on a personal level to learn both theory and practice. She also works on Sounds True’s children’s books and enjoys doing storytimes at her son’s elementary school.
