A Conversation With Gangaji

This month Gangaji sits down for an interview on the subject of racism. Gangaji grew up in Mississippi, raised a white southern girl in the segregated town of Clarksdale. In this interview, she speaks about how her own racist conditioning first began to be dismantled. She invites us not only to meet the cruelty and wrongs of the past 400 years, but also to meet the internal system of racism within our own minds today. Part One of this interview covers the human patterns of denial, seeking power for survival, meeting the fear that perpetuates racism, and the possibility of serving true freedom for all beings everywhere.   

In this historic moment, white people have an opportunity to redress the long, cruel legacy of racism in America. Author Ibram X. Kendi said, “The history of racism is a history of denial.” So that is where we begin with this episode: the resolve to end denial and face hard truths. In this recording from 1998, Gangaji recounts an article about Bishop Desmond Tutu. His commitment to truth and reconciliation in South Africa serves as inspiration to all.   “When you are seeking nothing but truth, and in that seeking you are willing to see everything then closure is by-product. Peace is revealed, harmony is revealed, to be your own self.”—Gangaji

What is revealed when we stay conscious in the midst of great upheaval? When we are willing to inquire with an open mind, we can move beyond simply coping with disaster and discover a life changing truth untouched by any loss. Recorded in March of 2011 following a devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, this monologue is relevant to the times we find ourselves in now, confronting a worldwide pandemic. “In our sophistication as human life forms, in our worldliness, in our psychological astuteness, in our pursuit of happiness, we too often lose the direct experience of the boundlessness of love that is life.”

Mistakenly, we define who we are by the roles we play in the theater we call our lives. Then we further define ourselves with our evaluations of how well or how poorly we play those roles. When Gangaji first met Papaji, he told her to stop everything. In her willingness to stop everything and just be, Gangaji saw past the roles (mother, daughter, spiritual seeker, wife, student) and recognized her true face. It is possible for all of us to recognize our true face—the truth of who we are. Then every role we are given can be played fully and authentically. We can live freely, resting in the truth of who we are.  

“When fear is experienced as energy, as feelings, without a story attached to it, without thoughts defining it, when it is not fought or made war with, what is it? What is it in your experience?” Together we are facing a global pandemic. It is something none of us has ever faced, something that is truly unknown. Naturally fear arises in uncertainty, fear that can lead to panic. How can we meet this moment with our natural intelligence? With the willingness to investigate, to open to the fear we may be experiencing, we can discover what is at the core of fear, what is at the core of what isn’t wanted or desired. In opening to fear, you open to yourself, you open to “what is in the heart of the heart.” Selected from a live online meeting Gangaji held on March 22, 2020, Gangaji responds to questions about the pandemic and guides us in an inquiry.

“Thank God you haven’t been able to escape the dissatisfaction with life as it is prescribed.”—Gangaji When we are filled with doubt and overwhelm, and all seems to be falling apart, there is the potential through self-inquiry to discover home. This enlivening exchange with Gangaji, recorded in Santa Fe in 1998, demonstrates how in our willingness to fall apart, we ultimately see what falls away and what remains—the home that is real. 

Is your inner critic running your life? The inner critic tells us how we are not enough, how we should be more, how we should be better than we think we are. Thinking about what is wrong with us can eat up our lives and ultimately distracts us from the essential truth. In this episode of Being Yourself, Gangaji demonstrates how to confront the inner-critic without judgment, and finally end the war between ego and superego.

Where is your attention? Our minds are designed to recognize what is “wrong” and needs fixing. This aspect of our ego serves our survival as human animals. There is nothing wrong with this aspect of our ego, but if we only look for what is wrong and neglect to honor what is already whole and free, then we suffer unnecessarily. Wherever you find yourself, you can take this moment to shift your attention to what is right: the wonder of existence itself. 

"The door is open." How can you discover freedom and peace exactly where you are right now, in your current circumstances, without changing anything? This month, reading a former prisoner’s letter, Gangaji speaks to the egoic prisons we live our lives in, and how it is possible to recognize the door to freedom that is already open.    

We all play many roles in our lives: parent, child, student, seeker, teacher, boss, and many, many more. But what do we want our lives to be used for? In this episode, Gangaji shares her own experience of being in the role of teacher and addresses how the roles we play can serve the deepest truth—the truth of who we are. Also: In a special interview, Hillary Larson, host of A Conversation with Gangaji, tells us about her recent trip to the Amazon rain forest. Along with sharing her own experience of roles ending and beginning, she tells us what her journey to a very far away place revealed about finding home.  

What if the last obstacle to discovering true freedom and fulfillment is just a thought? Often hiding in plain sight, our common doubts— “I am stuck,” “I am separate,” “I can’t help it”—are how we create our reality and suffer unnecessarily. In this episode of Being Yourself, Gangaji offers a radical invitation and demonstrates how being aware of what we are actually thinking can open the door to freedom. We all have the capacity to see through our doubting thoughts into the vast simplicity of who I am—freedom itself.

One of the ways we commonly define ourselves is by our “problems.” In this episode of Being Yourself, Gangaji powerfully challenges the assumptions we have about our problems and what it means if we can or cannot find the respective solutions. If we can’t solve our day-to-day problems, does that exclude us from living a free and authentic life? What really is the last obstacle that keeps one from discovering natural fulfillment?

    When we let go of our worldly desires, we often replace them with spiritual desires. When we want enlightenment, what is it that we imagine enlightenment will give us? Really? In this podcast Gangaji dares us to set aside all our desires just for one moment, and discover what is already here, completely fulfilled, and awake. “If you have nothing, you only have yourself. When you truly only have yourself, you are awake.”

Chasing success and avoiding failure are natural aspects of our human drive to survive. On the spiritual path, however, ending our struggle with avoiding failure offers a profound realization. This illuminating dialogue between Gangaji and a retreat participant gives us a fresh look at failure, perhaps one you have never considered. Gangaji challenges all of our assumptions and leads us to the recognition of what is deeper than either success or failure ... and is always here.

“Enlightenment at the core is heart opening, and heart opening reveals wisdom. And wisdom is mercy. It’s impossible to be merciful to anyone else if your heart is closed to yourself.” We continue the investigation into self-hatred with this episode of Being Yourself. Gangaji speaks to the necessity of “kissing the toad” if you truly want to be free of patterns of self-hatred and live a life rooted in self-love.

This month, Gangaji begins an exploration into the many facets of self-hatred. Our first installment in a series begins with the egoic cycle of inflation and deflation. How do we get off this wheel of suffering? We are all familiar with feeling great and feeling horrible, but what does that have to do with who we are? This powerful monologue helps us see how the egoic structure works, and that is possible to stop perpetuating patterns of avoidance and patterns of grasping.

We have looked at how we project onto the so-called “other” and the unnecessary suffering that projection generates. This month, we look at how we relate to ourselves as an object in our own minds, overlooking our true face. Objectification also leads to unhappiness and suffering. In this episode, Gangaji offers the possibility to completely simplify our narratives saying, “The ultimate universal remedy to suffering is I AM.”

Projection is an aspect of our human minds that allows us to survive and to function, but projection can also lead us to suffer unnecessarily in all kinds of relationships and within our our minds. In the extreme, when we project fear and hatred onto the so-called "other", tragically it can manifest into horrendous violence. So what can we do as individuals? In this episode, Gangaji addresses how  we end the trance of projection and recognize what is here, now.  

In this podcast, we take a look what drives our desire for purpose and consider, what is our deepest purpose. In two powerful exchanges, Gangaji addresses how the deep fear of being nobody, and the search to be a somebody, becomes its own burden.  

Gangaji speaks to the essential mistake we make on the spiritual path and offers her own resolution for the new year and beyond. Take a listen to Resolve & Resolution, a loving and passionate monologue taken straight out of the archives...