Use code SUMMERPRACTICE for a 25% discount on all On Demand Courses through August 31.

You are Not Alone: Healing the Myth of Separation

With Deborah Eden Tull recorded on March 17, 2019.

Found our teachings useful? Help us continue our work and support your teachers with a donation. Here’s how.

The dharma invites us to face ourselves fully. But through fear, we sometimes distract ourselves, over-fill ourselves, and hold onto external attachments, in order to avoid.…what? The illusion that we are separate and isolated manifests in ways conscious and unconscious, but over time practice reveals to us that it is simply the ego that fears surrendering to presence. Ego fears its own annihilation, which is liberation for the human heart.

Ironically, the root of the word “alone” is “all one.” It is by surrendering to the emptiness within that we remember wholeness. We remember relational intelligence, interconnection, and attunement with life by turning within, and learning to engage through wakefulness rather than habit.

In today’s world, there is a lot of conditioning that reinforces the myth of separation, and we see this through an epidemic of loneliness, competition, self-consciousness, othering (within and out), and superficial connection.

Some of the questions we will explore in this session include…

How do we enable the myth of separation without being fully aware of it? And how do we dismantle this myth?
How do we bring healing to the human experience of feeling alone or isolated?
How does being with aloneness tenderize and open us more deeply to the inherent field of interconnection?
How do the teachings of relational mindfulness ultimately teach us to live in greater reciprocity, cooperation, attunement, and love?
And how is engaged interconnection and a relational immersion in life fundamental for our awakening?

Listen to the audio version below, or click here to download the mp3.

Discussion

Leave a Reply

Discover more from the Dharma Library

  • photo of Martin Aylward smiling

    Practicing for the love of it.

    Before the session Martin wrote: “A Burmese teacher once told a friend of mine to always enjoy his practice. We love meditation in theory, and we want to grow and transform, and we certainly would like to be liberated from our suffering. And yet! We easily turn meditation into a chore, and feel discouraged by…

    Read More

  • An Experience is Not The Point

    A deep application of attention includes the sustained application to any important experience. This includes a vast range of happy or painful, spiritual or conventional experiences. There is the view of the experience and the experience. What is a fresh way to see an important experience? Does the view of the experience matter more than…

    Read More

  • Nirmala Werner

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nirmala Werner – Week of 24 November, 2025

    We are delighted to have Nirmala Werner guiding our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and enrich your practice. This week’s theme is: Embodying the Four (or Five) Elements: Meditation for Everyday Presence. Rooted in Buddhist wisdom, this practice invites us to connect with earth, water, fire, air, and space as living forces within and around us. By attuning to their ever-shifting qualities, we find grounding amidst change-an anchor of presence, steadiness, and clarity to meet the movements of daily life. Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • Celeste Young

    Finding Refuge Within Uncertainty

    During these unprecedented times, it can be challenging to find a sense of refuge amidst the storms of uncertainty swirling around us. While the timeless teachings of the Buddhist Tradition don’t offer us lasting certainty, they do offer the possibility of finding a reliable refuge in what are known as the 3 jewels: The Buddha,…

    Read More

  • chris crotty

    Confidence in the Dhamma, Confidence in Yourself

    As we attune to the truth of impermanence (anicca) the very preciousness of life itself begins to penetrate our awareness: the flowers will not last forever, our dear friends will come and go, those we love will grow old. Even how we chop our vegetables matters if we wan’t to be touched by the the…

    Read More

  • Can We Know the End of the World?

    We find ourselves concerned with the state of the world yet we do not live in one world. Our inner world reveals significant differences from the outer world. The outer world offers a variety of impressions to people. It is not unusual to claim we live in different worlds. The one world view seems to…

    Read More

  • Nourishing Compassion

    His Holiness the Dalai Lama has shared that compassion is not a luxury but a necessity for human beings to survive. There is no more important time to understand and strengthen compassion than right now.

    Read More