Love is an inner energy that flows naturally when the heart is open, but people block it by holding onto past pain and resisting reality. The external world does...
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Tami Simon’s in-depth audio podcast interviews with leading spiritual teachers and luminaries. Listen in as they explore their latest challenges and breakthroughs - the leading edge of their work.
Join the New York Times bestselling author of The Untethered Soul, The Surrender Experiment, and Living Untethered for this free series of curated teaching sessions, recorded at his Temple of the Universe yoga and meditation center.
There are times when people experience deep love, joy, and inspiration. But these states disappear the moment we close ourselves because life does not match our expectations. We end up storing every uncomfortable experience inside, and these suppressed impressions create the fears, judgments, and egocentric thoughts and emotions that block our natural openness. Spiritual growth is not about achieving something new but about letting go of stored inner disturbances so that the natural state of love and energy can flow freely again.
We live in a world accelerating faster than the human mind was built to handle. So what do we do with that?
This week, Tami Simon speaks with Peter Russell—author, speaker, and leading thinker on consciousness and spirituality, with degrees in theoretical physics, psychology, and computer science from Cambridge—about his new book, How to Meditate Without Even Trying, featuring a foreword by Eckhart Tolle. Decades after coining the term “global brain” and predicting the internet, Russell turns his visionary lens on the present moment: a world of staggering technological power and equally staggering stress.
Join Tami and Peter to explore:
From global brain to global mind: how AI represents the next threshold in humanity’s collective evolution
Why exponential change is not going away—and the hidden costs it’s placing on our personal and planetary systems
Forgiving Humanity: why the crises facing our species may be the inevitable result of accelerating development, not human failure
Accepting the possibility of extinction—and how that acceptance can paradoxically free us to live and serve more fully
The shift from “saving the world” to navigating these times with grace, compassion, and groundedness
Why meditation is more necessary now than ever—and how effortlessness, not discipline, is the key
“Letting in” before letting go: a practice for metabolizing emotion and releasing tension at its root
The tension in thinking—and how noticing it during meditation changes how we think outside of it
Whether you’re overwhelmed by the pace of the world or simply looking for a steadier way to move through it, Peter Russell offers both perspective and practice.
Listen now and find your way back to the quiet.
This conversation offers genuine transmission—not just concepts about awakening, but the palpable presence of realized teachers exploring the growing edge of spiritual understanding together. Originally aired on Sounds True One.
Human suffering comes from trying to control the outside world so that our inner state feels good, all of which is based on impressions from our past experiences. Spiritual growth begins when we stop clinging to these impressions and instead learn to handle whatever reality presents. By letting experiences pass through without resistance, inner energy rises naturally, eventually dissolving the personal self and leading to liberation.
The belief that your inner state is fundamentally not okay, and you must spend most of your life struggling to be okay, is the cause of great suffering. Eventually, you will come to realize that it is only because you stored unresolved past experiences inside your heart and mind that you don’t feel a natural flow of great joy within. These stored blockages get triggered repeatedly, creating mental and emotional turmoil. Real spiritual growth comes through recognizing this pattern and learning to release these inner blockages rather than resisting or suppressing them.
Few luminaries in modern times have opened the doors to the spiritual dimensions of who we are, why we are here, and how we heal and evolve more profoundly than Caroline Myss. In this podcast, Tami Simon speaks with the longtime Sounds True author and renowned medical intuitive about her new online program, The Way of Guardians and Grace, where Caroline shares for the first time an intimate account of her relationship with unseen allies and the energetic realms they opened to her.
Listen now as the inimitable Caroline Myss tells us how these turning-point events in her life can inform your own greater path and calling. She and Tami discuss and illuminate: accessing our latent mystical intelligence; forging a partnership with the Divine; how your biography becomes your biology; life—a sacred spiritual adventure; wisdom, faith, love, and light; shifting from the love of power to the power of love; humanity’s collective shadow at this time; cultivating a high-voltage moral conscience; making grace-filled choices; what to pray for (and what not to); turning on your light in service of the world—and keeping it on; and more.
Note: This episode originally aired on Sounds True One, where these special episodes of Insights at the Edge are available to watch live on video and with exclusive access to Q&As with our guests. Learn more at join.soundstrue.com.
Tami Simon speaks with Donna Eden, a renowned energy medicine expert who has taught throughout the US, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and South America. Along with her partner, Dr. David Feinstein, Donna is author of the books Energy Medicine and Energy Medicine for Women. With Sounds True she has produced the multimedia program The Energy Medicine Kit. In this episode, Tami speaks with Donna about her experiences as someone who both sees energy and has healed herself from serious medical challenges. Donna also shares two energy practices: a technique to evolve our fight-flight-or-freeze response, and another for opening with total trust to the energy of the heavens. (1 hour, 3 minutes)
Tami Simon speaks with Karla McLaren, an award-winning author and empath whose approach to working with emotions has helped countless numbers of people heal from trauma. She is the author of The Language of Emotions: What Your Feelings Are Trying to Tell You, as well as the Sounds True audio learning series on The Language of Emotions about how to unlock and learn from the wisdom held within each of our emotions. Karla discusses what it means to be an empath, how to talk to children about their emotions, viewing emotions in terms other than positive versus negative, and learning how to listen to our emotions. (54 minutes)
Tami Simon speaks with Vidyamala Burch, who for over 30 years has lived with chronic back pain as a result of a car accident, multiple surgeries, and congenital spine weakness. Searching for a way to cope with her situation she started practicing mindfulness meditation to help accept and move beyond the pain. She is cofounder of the Breathworks organization in the U.K. where she teaches mindfulness-based approaches to living with physical pain and illness. She is also author of the new Sounds True book Living Well with Pain and Illness. Vidyamala speaks about what it means to turn toward pain and soften, and how to live one moment at a time. (56 Minutes)
There are two viable spiritual paths: one is reaching upwardly to touch your higher self, and the other is working inwardly to release the blockages that keep you bound to your lower self. The latter encourages radical self-honesty, acceptance of reality, and daily inner work to stop resisting life and start letting go of stored blockages that create suffering. Through this surrender-based path, the natural upward flow of energy is restored, leading to lasting well-being, freedom from disturbance and, ultimately, full spiritual liberation.
Spirituality is not about blind faith but about our deep understanding of the truth: suffering arises because we resist or cling to specific experiences and then struggle to avoid them or make them happen again. Our personal preferences are shaped by past events that could have unfolded differently, and liberation comes from recognizing this and ceasing to cling to past impressions. As we release these inner blockages, Shakti flows freely, revealing our true nature as divine consciousness, untouched by circumstance.
At its core, right understanding means focusing on the difference between consciousness and the objects of consciousness—the one and the many. If we falsely identify with an object, we must deal with the inner energy generated by that identification. Resisting that energy causes stored impressions that shape our preferences, desires, and suffering. Permitting the energy to pass through allows us to accept reality as it unfolds and honor the pain, joy, and mystery of life as a vehicle for growth and liberation. This is the essence of self-realization and the path to enlightenment.
Consciousness is the most important aspect of existence, without which nothing has meaning. We suffer because we contract our awareness onto one small, self-centered point of creation—our own thoughts, emotions, and preferences—rather than letting consciousness remain open and expansive. Daily life becomes a spiritual path by using our relationships, experiences, and internal reactions as opportunities to stop focusing on our egos and begin allowing consciousness to remain open, free, and in harmony with all that is.
The spiritual journey begins not with lofty mystical pursuits but with the practical, inner decision to handle reality as it unfolds. Most of our suffering stems from our inability to deal with inner energies that arise due to past events we have stored for years. By learning to stay present, let go, and work with these energies, we purify ourselves and allow shakti to flow freely, eventually reaching a state of inner liberation and wholeness.
Life’s purpose is to evolve by using every experience to remove the limitations created by your personal fears, desires, and judgments that obscure your inherent radiance. Evolution begins by accepting life’s challenges, instead of resisting them, and growing into a greater being because of them. Life is like a Divine Sculptor chipping away the dross of your personal self in order to reveal the magnificence of your true Self.
What if the secret to happiness is not being somebody, but being willing to be nobody? Imagine living without the need to prove or protect yourself, without the constant drive for acceptance or the fear of failure. What if you could just be real? Life would become effortless, free from judgment, and full of peace. True liberation isn’t about escaping the world—it’s freeing yourself to live in harmony with it. Be done with ego and discover true peace.
The mind can act as either a prison or a liberator, depending on how we use it. By holding on to uncomfortable past experiences, we trap ourselves in suffering. Expanding our thoughts beyond ourselves allows us to break free of the prison of mind. Through this process, we canliberate our consciousness, experience peace, and ultimately achieve enlightenment.
[UPDATED EPISODE] Please note, this episode was originally released with a teaching from another recording. If you would like to ensure you’ve heard “E144: Spirituality Beyond Rules—Transmuting Passion into Divine Flow,” please delete any existing downloads of this episode and re-download. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Spirituality is not about rules or suppression but about releasing the inner blockages (samskaras) that obstruct the natural flow of divine Shakti energy. Passion, anger, jealousy, and other intense experiences arise from blocked energy trying to express itself, and the spiritual path involves learning to relax, release, and transmute that energy rather than suppress it or act it out. True freedom comes from inner purification, where unconditional passion for life arises through consciously letting go into the divine energy flow.
Meditation alone cannot bring lasting peace into this world. This is because we return from meditation to the same deeply seated, unresolved disturbances we’ve been storing in the mind. True liberation comes by relaxing through and releasing these disturbances rather than struggling with them on a daily basis. As we purify the mind, divine energy (Shakti) rises naturally, lifting our consciousness into our true nature—oneness with all of creation.
Spiritual liberation is not about rearranging the contents of the psyche but about stepping back and observing the psyche with clarity. If you do so, you will see that most emotional and mental suffering is rooted in fear: fear of failure, loss, and rejection. Spiritual freedom requires the courage to look upward toward truth, God, and the vastness of the universe while letting go of the deep internal fears that drive our actions. Liberation is not earned through outer success, control, or acceptance from others, but by choosing to be free from the tyranny of the personal self.
Spiritual growth comes from treating daily life and spiritual practices as one and the same. To do this requires accepting reality and responding to life’s events with calm awareness rather than reacting out of desire or fear. By surrendering to the present moment and acting without personal motive, one can achieve true spiritual evolution and live in harmony with life as it unfolds.
Human suffering arises from the belief that life must match our inner preferences, which are simply selectively stored past experiences. This attempt to control reality leads to anxiety, resistance, and endless struggle, because the outside world unfolds according to its own laws—not ours. True spiritual freedom comes through surrender, acceptance, and dying to the ego-self, allowing us to rest in the seat of consciousness and live in peace, love, and service to what is.
True spirituality is not about getting what you want or fixing the outside world, but learning to be okay inside by letting go of preferences, stored pain, and inner resistance. Reality unfolds through universal causes, not personal desires, and suffering comes from pitting yourself against what is. Enlightenment comes from witnessing your inner experiences without suppression, honoring all emotions, and living in harmony with, and selflessly serving, whatever life presents to you.
There are two fundamental truths that can help free you from the bondage of the ego. The first is your relationship to the vastness of the universe, and the other is how short your time is on this tiny planet. By acknowledging these truths, you can free yourself from the burden of personal preferences, opinions, and the mind’s fixation on past experiences. Embracing these deep truths leads you to a greater sense of perspective and a life of freedom that comes from releasing ego and harmonizing with Reality.
Spirituality is not about what you do, but why you do it—and most of our actions stem from a place of inner discomfort, driven by clung-to past experiences. This inner resistance distorts our perception and leads us to believe we must manipulate life to feel okay. A much clearer state of being is realizing that we are divine consciousness experiencing God’s creation. The path to liberation is learning to relax and honor our experiences in life so we can act from a place of unconditional wellbeing, love, and inspiration.
As you enter this new year, reflect upon how clinging to past experiences and resisting reality leads to suffering and prevents you from knowing the true meaning of life. Spiritual growth is about learning to let go of inner disturbances through conscious awareness and relaxation, rather than trying to make the outer world match our inner programming. By releasing your inner blockages, you expand into a being of unconditional love and clarity who uplifts the world around you through genuine presence and service.
True spiritual growth naturally evolves from a disciplined practice into a spontaneous art, where life is experienced and expressed without inner resistance. For example, working off one’s karma is actually done within, by releasing stored impressions that we formed by resisting past experiences. These impressions block the natural flow of energy (Shakti) within us. Liberation is found by learning to relax through discomfort, letting go of past impressions, and ceasing to use the outer world to manage our inner wounds. This becomes the sacred art of spirituality.
