Program Description: She was your average working mother, living your average American life, dealing with the same issues we all deal with-child care, making ends meet, trying to take care of a pressing health concern. Suddenly all the worries and fear fell away, and all that was left was the present moment and an endless state of peace and joy. Jan Frazier was awake. Oddly enough, her new, unexpected state of enlightened awareness felt more normal than anything she'd ever experienced. "It's so ordinary," she explains. "It's profoundly ordinary and plain. It's really nothing at all like what I would have supposed it would be. This new way of being was deeply familiar, and had been there all along. It really is part of human nature, but it's not at all personal. It has nothing to do with me. It feels more like the nature of reality, what everything is made of, except that in our ordinary awareness we don't perceive it because we're so caught up in our minds." Now, in the silent space her busy mind used to occupy, she embraces compassion, suffering, and joy-and then lets it go with each passing moment. She loves more completely because she's no longer shackled by a fear of loss. Most of all, she shares the story of her transformation as a testament to the truth that the same awareness is available to each of us, right here, right now. (Hosted by Justine Willis Toms)
Jan Frazier is a writer and a teacher of creative writing. She has been a student of the work of Gurumayi, J. Krishnamurti, and Eckhart Tolle, among others. Her poetry and prose have appeared widely in literary journals and anthologies, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She is the author of When Fear Falls Away: The Story of a Sudden Awakening (Weiser Books 2007). To learn more about the work of Jan Frazier go to www.janfrazierteachings.com
Topics explored in this dialogue:
What it's like to be unable to feel fear
Why our human minds tend to get caught up in fear
Why being very happy might prevent you from being very aware
When it's okay to turn away from the suffering of others
How you can use your mind in the service of consciousness
