Trillium Awakening: Recent Episodes
Trillium Awakening
A short succinct, easy to relate to presentation on the Trillium disposition of 'Greenlighting'.
What do I want to do with my life? What’s my purpose?
Am I missing something? Is there some larger purpose to my existence? Is my life going to end without my realizing my purpose?
In a deeply embodied awakening, a communion with all things arises that turns out to be a two way street of blessing
We can be grateful for things and situation and we can be grateful for what is, creating the disposition of greenlighting, an invitation to be in your life as it is.
A look at how spiritual awakenings define our identity and the evolving effects these transformations can have on the personality.
This guided meditation is the primary one used in Judith Blackstone’s Realization Process work of which I am a teacher. It is a progressive movement of inhabiting the body from toes to head while experiencing the space of the body as a sense of self. It combines a somatic process with an experience of our non-dual nature. If you feel the meditation is moving too fast pause after the movement into each region and sit with it until you feel complete.
Playing with dropping out of the mind into a dense deeper center from which the impulse to move may spontaneously arise and them embodying that impulse to move as it shows up moment to moment.
Your awakening is your own creation. You approach the divine the best way you can assisted by the people who have gone through that transformation themselves. No one can tell you what to do but your own inner guidance if you are sincere and have the determination to find the truth for yourself…Who Am I?
Based on Judith Blackstone's realization process of attuning to fundamental consciousness through your body.Our trauma tries to keep us out and push us away from experiencing those parts of our body where trauma is held.Settle in to each aspect of you body and recognize those places where you are dissociated, the parts of our body that you don't occupy.
Big traumas in life can throw us out of synchrony with space and time. Be aware of your surroundings, your environment, objects, and locate yourself in space. Consciously regulate your breath and reign yourself into time, the cycle of everything. Noticing the difference between "I" and "I am." Making the distinction between our interpretation of reality and reality itself.
Use mindful awareness of the breath and sensations in the body to drop into the space of you: your self as you always already are. Whatever you are experiencing in this moment can be a gateway to deeper awareness of your formless, limitless self.
In this meditation you will be led through a simple self-inquiry process toward a deepening recognition of your fundamental nature. A powerful way to connect as the Being that registers and embodies everything else we are.
We existed in spirit prior to becoming human. When we entered this reality, there was an initiation, the rooting of the intellect. The intellect for most people becomes relegated to a conceptual mind, the matrix of identity. This meditation focuses on the possibility of accessing that consciousness which exists prior to the intellect.
The Core Paradox, that fundamental existential angst that resides deep within each human, which arises from the recognition of a split between our infinite nature and our finite beingness, does not seem present in animals, it seems to be exclusively a consequence of self-awareness in humans. This talk explores how this split might have arisen...
Let yourself relax into yourself through this guided meditation inspired by Judith Blackstone's book, Belonging Here: A Guide for the Spiritually Sensitive Person. Presented by Bill Epperly, this technique enables you to pull yourself back into a witnessing stance where you can be at ease in your body when it feels like you're trying too hard to accomplish something.
Sometimes we can go long periods of time feeling like we're not growing or changing. And sometimes, seemingly out of nowhere, a rush of passion for this work comes back in, and things will start to happen. We can explore this through meditation with interning Trillium teacher Victor Antillon, invoking the energy of passion in order to energize our personal engagement with awakening.
Join Trillium teacher Bill Miller in this simple guided meditation. This is not to prescribe a practice for you, but rather to nurture your own ability to come up with the practice that is best for you. Ultimately, meditation is a very personal way of becoming more intimate with yourself.
Using the process of exploring the breath to get inside of ourselves is a huge step towards wholeness. In this podcast, Trillium teacher Jim Troffater uses a modification of the Judith Blackstone method of inhabiting the body. This is a tried and true, very effective way of integrating the embodiment aspect of awakening. This helps unify our body, mind and spirit into the one whole being that we are.
Bringing our attention into our body and heart can bring us into the sacred "now" moment. In that moment, the heart can taste what is actually here. In order to participate in this beautiful meditation by Cielle Backstrom, one needs to only come home to what is true in this moment. Happiness but also worry, peace yet anxiety, relaxation and frustration, wonder yet also boredom - the heart makes room for everything. Whether you are in a place of ease or discomfort, there is space for all of this here.
This meditation by Trillium Teacher Bill Epperly is focused on sending out loving energy from the heart to others as a way to practice sending out good will. Calling forth the essence of our most loved ones has a way of connecting us deeply to the unlimited loving energy that we hold within. From this place, we may open our hearts in ever widening circles to encompass not only our own friends and family, but also the entirety of the cosmos.
Trillium teacher Jim Trofatter leads us in a meditation inspired by Judith Blackstone titled "attuning to your fundamental consciousness." We will then work on three areas in the body - the head, belly, and heart, to help us return deeper into our center - the natural state of our being.
In the Trillium teaching, we emphasize these three aspects: opening to infinite consciousness, embodiment of this consciousness, and our connection with each other in mutuality. This enlivening meditation by interning teacher Bill Epperly invites us to tap into the first aspect: The vast, primordial consciousness that always resides within, for the intention of bringing awakening, healing, and integration to each part of us.
Breathing is the central element in this meditation by Bill Miller. Looking outward as well as inward are both examples of seeking, and can indicate an anxious mind. Once noticed, they can be an invitation to come back to your breath and let the desire for experience just be. From this place, we can notice the endless pleasures and pains of being human, and connect with the contrast and duality of life.
On our path of awakening, we endeavor to free ourselves from the prison of non-separateness. By widening our circle of compassion to embrace all of life, we can begin to sense our non-separateness from all living creatures - not only those few that we have become close to in our lifetime but to all of the natural world. This larger sense of connection is a reality that's been held by indigenous people since the beginning of time. Join Trillium Awakening teacher Cielle Backstrom in this meditation as she demonstrates an easy doorway to the sense of non-separateness.
What do you do when you can't figure out what's coming down the road? The simple answer is trust. The unknown is not the great barrier that we usually perceive it to be, but rather an empty container in which to house new openings, new explanations, and new points of view. Join interning Trillium teacher Victor Antillon as he shows us the value of coming to peace with not knowing.
In this meditation by Trillium teacher June Konopka, we inquire into our own awareness - the silent, open emptiness that is unchanging and unbounded. Through deeper inquiry, we may also paradoxically discover frequencies arising from, and finding life in, this emptiness, frequencies such as ecstatic movement, love and compassion. These frequencies are available to feed and nourish us in our human daily lives.
The process of meditation is to connect you more with your essential self, to bring your spirit into this physical space. The idea of practicing meditation is to bring greater alignment to what we feel, think, say and do - to harmonize all the different parts of ourselves. Join Trillium teacher Allan Morelock as we locate our consciousness and bring it into this physical moment with us - and use this wholeness to direct our attention outwards to all with grace, benevolence, and love.
In order to fully relax into the moment, it is helpful to see that even the intention to meditate has its inherent effort. Join Trillium teacher Steve Boggs in this meditation and notice the sense of inherent well being that is always inside of us.
Have you ever had the experience of bringing your limbs, bones, organs, cells and mind all into alignment? Most of us in today's world have not developed the skills to live from a body that is truly operating as one unified system. That is the purpose of this exercise originally created by Judith Blackstone. Join Trillium teacher Jim Trofatter in this guided meditation as he leads us in the exploration of inhabiting our whole body.
In the last year there has been a lot of fear, sadness, unpredictability, and isolation. Touching into the vast spaces within allows us to rewire our hearts and minds. There is a spaciousness found within that is bigger than everything and holds everything, even the pain and fear. Join Trillium teacher Cielle Backstrom for a mediation that enables us to touch into and remember that mysterious vastness together.
In this meditation, guided by Interning Trillium Teacher Bill Epperly, you will learn to access and open your three wisdom centers, or brains: the head, heart and hara (or gut). These three centers are locations in the body where significant numbers of neurons are found. Centers that process information in unique ways. In our natural state, all three are open and in communication with each other. As we move through the day, they can become congested or closed. They can begin operating independently, rather than in an integrated fashion. In this meditation, you will practice opening them, getting a feel for each, before integrating them into a seamless experience of spacious, embodied presence.
Allow Trillium Awakening teacher Bill Miller to guide you in this healing meditation. Dragon's Breath is one simultaneous breath that is shared by all life. It is an opportunity to nourish not only yourself, but all beings as one with our gathering and meditation.
In this podcast, Interning Teacher Victor Antillon invites us to tune into the silence, openness, and freedom that lies at the core of our being. He reminds us, that even in the midst of the chaos and challenges of life, we can tune into this essential aspect of existence. By bringing awareness to how we experience this freedom and openness in our own unique way, we continue to open and deepen this inner connection.
Join Trillium teacher June Konopka in this very deep meditation on embodiment. Taking the time to fill each part of the body with the spaciousness of awareness, and with prana (the life-giving force of the breath), proves beneficial for both inhabiting the body and unwinding tension.
Join Trillium Awakening Interning Teacher, Victor Antillon for a brief exploration of how consciousness interpenetrates the physical body and extends into mutuality, which is followed by a silent meditation imbued with transmission.
It's easy to go into meditation with the intention of improving your situation, or changing something about our reality. However, one of the greatest benefits of meditation is how deeply it allows us give up the resistance and surrender to our current circumstances. This often creates the space within that's needed to integrate the challenges that we are facing. Join Trillium teacher June Konopka as she guides us through the core Trillium teaching of letting go of the need to fix ourselves.
We invite you to join Trillium Teacher Sanji Hills in a meditative exploration of embodied experience as a route to consciousness. Deliberately shining the light awareness onto specific parts of our body can serve as a gate to drop into consciousness. It is "The mystery of not knowing, which lies at the heart of all our experience. Can you feel comfortable just resting in this not knowing?"
Join Trillium teacher Bill Miller in this second Dragon Heart meditation. The dragon represents the ability to master any circumstance, to navigate in any world regardless of what it encounters. This meditation uses the dragon heart metaphor to represent choiceless awareness, the nature of reality itself as it unfolds. When noticing the effortless movement of attention, one can start to become fully embodied just as we are.
Gravity is an attractive force present throughout the universe drawing everything into closer communion. Embodied awakening is an apprenticeship to love--we fall into it. It's a surrender to something mediated by a force that's larger than us--more fundamental. This meditation with Steve Boggs helps us to explore the field of love and how our deep surrender takes us into it through the question: How much of that force can I let in?
Radical Embrace is one of the most effective practices in our toolkit - and it is one which we can either let happen on its own, or be a little more encouraging with in order to receive its gifts. Join Trillium Awakening teacher Cielle Backstrom as she guides us through embracing whatever is true for you in the present moment, and fully Greenlighting anything that is arising in order to be fully felt and integrated.
Join Trillium Interning Teacher, Victor Antillon, on this guided meditation to get in touch with that which is timeless. From this space, you can simply just observe what goes on around you without a sense of attachment. At the very root of consciousness, there is only an endless sense of calm, peace and well-being. It is the foundation from which we think, feel and see: a primal stillness.
These unusual times are calling each of us to deepen our capacity to “hold” ourselves, others and current events. In the Trillium dharma, holding is defined as being in Presence with something or someone with heartfelt support for the other as they are. There's a way in which this definition engages the three petals of the Trillium teaching. In this meditation, Trillium Awakening Interning Teacher Denise Gallagher explores the multiple dimensions of holding.
This guided meditation will show you how to welcome back into heart-consciousness aspects of yourself that have been exiled. By reclaiming our exiled parts, we reduce our need to project them onto others. Trillium Awakening Teacher Margit Bantowsky draws from a deeply transformative, somato-imaginal process called Inner Relationship Focusing, developed by Ann Weiser Cornell, an offshoot of Eugene Gendlin's original work called Focusing www.focusingresources.com
"There’s a quiet corner of every human heart that longs for release from continual pressure at the heart of their spiritual quest: a restless quiet hunger that there must be something more than all of this." This meditation starts from that quiet corner, the start of your spiritual quest, "the sacramental impulse that has shaped your spiritual life." Join Trillium teacher Steve Boggs on this journey back to the start of your spiritual investigation.
The Hebrew word RUACH, meaning wind or breath, is the archetype for SPIRIT, which is the always available bridge leading us from gross to subtle states of Consciousness. In this meditation, Trillium teacher Sandra Glickman leads us to work with our breath as we explore these important questions: Where are you in life right now? Where do you want to go? What is in the way of attaining this desire? What is the next step? If you explore and feel into the answers to these questions and begin to include them into your being, you can build a bridge toward your vision.
In some traditions, the Dragon is a creature that is comfortable in any environment. Like us, whatever the world she's in, she is what she is, and she has to be able to respond. Living and dying is happening in every moment, and it is sorrowful and difficult. Feeling into the source of things, even just for a brief moment, is greatly relieving and easing to whatever degree we create the space beyond boundaries and mistaken views.This Dragon's Heart Practice helps us to live as the dynamic and flowing expressions of reality that we are. As Trillium teacher Bill Miller puts it: "Fear is certainly part of our experience, but it doesn't have to run the show."
Many of us have wondered how to make meditation a regular practice, or we ask, "how do I carry this into the rest of my life?" In this meditation, Trillium teacher Steve Boggs assures us that "successful meditation is often related to the effortlessness of the process." What is more effortless than the breath? Down through the ages, the breath has been a gateway to access subtle inner states and is completely natural.
Join former Trillium Awakening teacher John Bottone in a guided meditation designed to help you drop in to your body and take the time to find what you would like for yourself in the moment. By gently scanning the body from head to toe and noticing what you feel, you can make everything welcome. It's an intimate meeting of yourself as a sensing body, to become more grounded in your body, and from this place to deepen into embodiment.
In Trillium Awakening, Mutuality is the key to relatedness. A common misunderstanding is that it means getting along. In actuality, it means that we are able to stand in our own truth while allowing the other to do the same. This requires several key factors: mutual respect, vulnerability, the realization that knowing is always partial, and the ability to see things from the others' point of view. Join Trillium teacher Fax Gilbert as he leads a discussion through this important part of the Trillium path.
Join Trillium Awakening teacher Cielle Backstrom in the present moment for an "Awareness Tune-up." As we awaken, three major energy centers start to come alive. The head, heart and belly, are vast inner spaces, and paying more attention to them can help us feel like we are arriving more fully in ourselves. Often, people have their Whole Being Realization primarily in one of these centers. This meditation is intended to be a resource that you can return to again and again on this path of awakening.
In this chakra-based guided meditation, Trillium Awakening Interning Teacher, Kirstin Eventyr, leads us through transcending and then re-entering our bodies, energetically mingling heaven and earth. Even uncomfortable places are okay -- you can trust that your body knows what needs filling and what needs emptying all on it's own. In filling up the often neglected parts with presence and energy, we can deepen into our infinite nature as embodied beings.
A wise man once said "all love is directed to the self." This observation led Trillium Awakening Teacher, Steve Boggs, on a journey to understanding what he calls the "field of love." He discovered that "We don't steer into love, we don't climb in love, we fall in love. It's something that's filled with mystery and grace." Join Steve on this journey into the "field of love" in awakening life where, even in the farther reaches of non-separateness, we can still feel distinct, connected and intimate.
Anytime you pay attention to something, you become the host of that experience. Being a host gives you the opportunity to experience it more honestly, more authentically. Trillium Awakening teacher Allan Morelock offers a guided meditation that can help us to "host" our lived experiences. Starting from an object and flowing out to everything that surrounds us, he leads us to notice its tranquility and feel it within ourselves "not just mind but whole body." In becoming the host to all sensations that arise in us gives us the opportunity to bring more honesty and authenticity to our experiences.
This guided meditation by Trillium Awakening teacher CC Leigh takes you deep. Starting with gentle rhythmic breathing, the breath is then directed, in turn, to the body locations that correspond to the three primary frequencies of embodying Consciousness: Awareness (head), Being (belly), and Heart (chest). Your noticing of, and access to, the felt senses of clarity, peace, and unconditional love is heightened, and the meditation concludes in the unbounded divine Heart of All where the frequencies mingle and radiate outward to friends, loved ones, community, and world.
In this guided meditation, Trillium Awakening teacher Fax Gilbert helps us to bring parts of ourselves and the things we carry into awareness in the felt sense of them in our bodies. Through this process, these parts may tell us that they want relief or relaxation. or maybe they just want to feel safety and security. Maybe we can even feel gratitude for them. Practicing in this way can assist us in meeting ourselves profoundly, and also lead us into a space ripe for self-inquiry.
What do we mean by subject and object when we're speaking of realizing Consciousness? Which am I when I'm perceiving? How can I distinguish one from the other? Join Trillium Awakening teacher Ted Strauss as he answers these and other questions in this guided meditation that will help distinguish the subjective from the objective aspects of our being.
Join Trillium Awakening teacher June Konopka on this guided meditation through what she calls the "three fields of radiance: the field of Consciousness, the field of Love and Heart, and the field of Will and Creation. Focusing our attention on these areas can help shift our identity from the mind and body to our connection with the Source of everything. In doing this, we can experience a landing in Being that grants us empowerment and freedom.
Join Trillium Awakening teacher John Bottone in a combination of different practices in this guided meditation. In a blend of somatic presencing and Vipassana, John leads us through noticing sensations within the body as we scan within from head to toe. This practice helps us become more grounded in our bodies, and from this place to deepen in our meditation practice.
Join Trillium Awakening teacher Sandra Glickman as she honors the Divine Mother, the one who holds and nurtures us throughout our lives. This is an invitation to open into the arms of divine Being and put our trust into our ever changing reality. This simple mantra - “I Don’t Know,” can help us relax out of constantly grasping for meaning and control over what is happening in our lives.
Join Fairfield teacher, Steve Boggs in this enlightening talk about the very nature of Tantra. "The material world is not a mirage, and not a trap, but an integral part of ultimate reality that has a unique and indispensible role to play in the embodied awakening process."
This talk from a virtual sitting in May, 2019, examines this essential part of the Trillium dharma. In Sugandhi's brief talk, she characterizes greenlighting as "recognizing and allowing what is buried in the basement that needs to come into the light." The talk includes a guided "recognition meditation" to help you bringing your hidden parts out of the basement.
In this talk from one of her online sittings, teacher and Visionary Council member, Cielle Backstrom, explores the nature of a forever connection in the unfolding of Whole-Being Realization. In the Trillium work, one of the aspects of the awakening process is a "direct experience, recognition, and realization of that ground of Being that underlies all creation." Join Cielle as she unpacks this Forever Connection of awakening.
Join Trillium Awakening teacher and psychotherapist, John Bottone, in this lively discussion of our work from a psychological perspective. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs eventually went beyond "self-actualization," which is reminiscent of the rot and core paradox, to "self-transcendence." Learn how our own survival strategies align with self protective strategies that can impede our awakening to our true and total nature.
How do we understand and apply the idea of Greenlighting? It's a revolutionary concept that invites us to come forward and bring our story to life rather than bypassing or transcending it. "Bring yourself to the forefront, and allow yourself to be seen to yourself." Join Sandra and Deborah Boyar for a discussion on the nature and practice of Greenlighting.
This "Guided Conscious Awareness Exercise" audio is a recording of an improvised guided exercise (with some explanation) that Van Nguyen provided for his small group at the Northeast Deep Dive Retreat on September 17, 2015, to help one of his students clarify Consciousness.
This talk was given at the 2018 Transfiguration Retreat in Olympia, WA, by Trillium teacher and psychotherapist, John Bottone. "When all is said and done, the fundamental need of our time, the precondition of creating a peaceful and sustainable world is the spread of a new and more evolutionarily adaptive consciousness, a consciousness of oneness and belonging." Join John as he explores how this "consciousness of oneness and belonging" is reflected in the Trillium path.
We are both absolutely uniquely embodied, and totally at one with all beings and the entire cosmos. Different psychological and spiritual perspectives tend to emphasize one or the other poles of these perspectives, but what does it mean to live both as a way of life? Join Trillium Awakening teacher Kelly Yi as he explores this paradox.
One of the beautiful aspects of the Trillium path is that leads us to holding paradox as our lived experience. How do we balance our mind's desire for logic and the persistent messiness of our lived "reality?"
Pausing . . . in today's fast paced world do you take time to pause? When people speak of awakening they often use the word "presence" or the expression, "present moment awareness." Pausing, even for just a moment, can bring us in direct contact with presence.
Trillium Awakening teacher and Visionary Council member, Cielle Backstrom speaks about the connection between presence, consciousness, the ground of being and fundamental wellness.
In this interview by Deborah Boyar for the Trillium Teachers Living Library, Teacher Steve Boggs discusses his journey from a follower of "practices" to the transformed "effulgence of the Self . . . and the Divinity of everyday life."
In this interview by Deborah Boyar for the Trillium Teachers Living Library, Margit describes whole being listening with simplicity and clarity. She offers us many pearls from her insightful mind and caring heart.
Trillium Teacher and Visionary Council members Fax Gilbert and Cielle Backstrom discuss the three petals of the Trillium Awakening Dharma.