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

  • Jill Satterfield

    Apply as Needed; the Benefits of Skillful Means

    Becoming quiet allows for deeper listening – to the whispers of the body, heart and mind as parts of a whole and as harmonic convergence. How we tune our instruments depends on what we hear. Skillful means provide a variety of tools to self prescribe and address what is needed in the moment. We’ll practice…

    Read More

  • Leslie Booker

    Practicing Belonging in a Divisive World

    The precepts are often shared on the first night of retreat to kind of go into a social contract of how we’re going to care for one another on retreat, while holding the nobility of silence. And out in the world, without the protection of silence and this commitment, we often forget how deeply we…

    Read More

  • Daily Meditation Recordings, with Milla Gregor – Week of 26 May, 2025

    We’re delighted to have Milla Gregor leading our Daily Meditation sessions this week. May these sessions support and deepen your practice.

    This week’s theme is: Being Grounded: Five+ Ways

    What is it, to feel grounded, for you? Contact with the earth, with fundamental interrelatedness, your body, values or lineage; with the histories of the land? What’s the opposite of being grounded? We’ll explore such ideas, grounding our reflections in embodied meditation practice.

    Our Dharma Library thrives through collective generosity. Your donation helps sustain this offering for our entire community.

    Read More

  • Zohar Lavie

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Zohar Lavie – Week of December 13, 2021

    This week’s theme is: A Bright Presence.

    Making an effort isn’t always easy; yet, how we show up really matters. Dharma teachings can help to enliven our sense of enthusiasm and energy on the path of practice. This week we’ll dive into different ways of engaging with our life, on the meditation seat and off. From soft delight to sustained dedication, let’s wake up fully with life — in life, and for life.

    Read More

  • Bart van Melik

    Wise Mindfulness will Protect You

    Awareness isn’t something you make. It’s already here when you pause and notice. Mindfulness knows the good and helps it grow happily. It also knows the difficult and helps us hold it with care. Join us to explore how wise mindfulness protects us, bringing kindness and wisdom to each moment.

    Read More

  • Ven. Pannavati Bikkhuni

    Developing insight into power.

    The Buddha talked about eight qualities of one who has transformed insight into a power. We examine these eight and apply introspection to assess where we are on the path to awakening and what is needed for completion.

    Read More

  • Nathan Glyde

    Daily Meditation Recordings, with Nathan Glyde – Week of March 21, 2022

    This week’s topic is: Harmonising Our Life. The Buddha’s wisdom highlights how we often live entangled in stress and distress. The earliest mentions of this disharmonious state called it being in an argument with life. Dharma teachings invite us away from habitual rigidity and reactivity into a responsive and harmonising release. This week we will uncover deeper and more creative ways of attuning to life that support inner and outer freedom and well-being.

    Read More