Awakening Now

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message What if the version of yourself you're trying to become is the very thing standing in the way? In this conversation, Ilona speaks with Giotto De Filippi about enlightenment as realization rather than achievement. Giotto walks through the beliefs that quietly run our lives, the idea that things should have gone differently, the sense of being in control,...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message What happens when someone who spent years questioning everything stops arguing and starts listening. In this episode, I sit down with Sam Kukathas, a former academic philosopher who spent over a decade as a skeptic before finding he could work with the human voice as a kind of frequency, bringing people back into their own body and their own knowing. When I...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message What happens when the person who taught you the most about awakening is also the one who needed you to stay small? In this conversation with Nicole Wordlaw, we explore the difference between the awakening we imagine, permanent, painless, almost superhuman, and the one that actually happens, ongoing and fully human. Nicole speaks openly about a cage that form...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message There's a question the voice in your head has never been able to answer. Most of us have never actually asked it. In this episode, the second part of a live Zoom meeting, I work directly with four people, each caught in a different version of the same voice. Shame that's become an identity. Guilt over other people's feelings. The quiet certain...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message The voice in your head has been talking your whole life. But have you ever actually stopped and asked it who it's talking to? In this live meeting, we look directly at the voice in the head, not as something to argue with or quiet down, but as something worth seeing clearly. We trace how it turns into the inner judge, why it can be so convincing, and wh...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message Can awakening happen through relationship, or only in solitude? In this conversation, Guy Sengstock, founder of the Circling® Institute, makes the case for the former. For almost thirty years he's built a practice around real, unmanaged contact between two people, and he traces what happens when someone stops performing and actually lets themselves be m...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message What happens when the last illusion falls away, and it doesn't feel like peace? In this conversation, Christiane Michelberger returns two years after her first appearance to talk about what actually happened when her final fetter fell away. Rather than the bliss she expected, she describes hours of disorientation, the sudden loss of a place to withdraw...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message Something in you is looking for relief right now, whether you call it awakening, peace, or simply wanting to feel okay again. If that's where you are, you're welcome to join Deep Looking Immersion: [ LINK ] What are you really looking for underneath the hope for awakening? This episode comes from a live meeting, opening with a short talk on where s...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message Here's the Buzzsprout description for episode 133, in your voice, mentioning the live Zoom recording and the open invitation to join next time. You can already understand that there is no separate self, clearly and without doubt, and still feel that nothing has changed. The understanding sits in the mind like a fact you have memorised, while life keeps...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message There is a particular kind of loneliness in believing you are in here, and everything else is out there. Most of us carry that feeling for years without ever asking where it came from, or whether it was ever true. In this episode of Awakening Now, I'm speaking with Sabina Witzel, a German awakening guide and author who has spent years supporting people...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message In this episode of Awakening Now , I speak with Sukhdev Virdee, author of sixteen books on Advaita Vedanta and nondual philosophy. Sukhdev works with people who have already explored the teachings deeply. They have read the books, watched the videos, understood nonduality intellectually, and yet still feel that something hasn't fully landed. We explore...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message In this episode of Awakening Now , I speak with Jim Newman, a well-known voice in radical nonduality. Jim shares one of the most uncompromising messages in the spiritual world: there is no separate self, no path, no one becoming awakened, and nothing to attain. Together, we explore seeking, liberation, free will, embodiment, and the challenge of speaking abo...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message “How do I awaken?” is the question many sincere seekers carry. Hidden inside it is often an expectation that awakening will bring permanent peace, clarity, or distance from difficult emotions. In this live Zoom meeting, Ilona explores that expectation directly with participants. Together we look at what happens when confusion, fear, hopelessness, or inner te...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message In this episode of Awakening Now , Loch Kelly and Ilona Ciunaite explore awakening, nonduality, effortless mindfulness, and the subtle places seekers often become stuck after the first glimpse. Loch shares a clear and grounded perspective on awakening as a shift of identity — from living as the separate self to recognizing awareness as primary. The conversat...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message In this episode of Awakening Now , I speak with Greg Goode about self-inquiry and what is actually being seen through. Greg Goode is a nonduality teacher and author with a background in philosophy. He is known for his clear and structured approach to inquiry, guiding people to look directly at experience and question what seems obvious — especially the sense...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message In this episode, I speak about the upcoming 8-week guided experience and what it is really about. The enrollement is open untill the 20th of April.  More info here.  https://ilonaciunaite.com/8-week-program/   There is no shortage of information about awakening. You can read, listen, understand more and more. And still, something may feel unsettled. Here we...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message Today I share a very simple way of looking at experience. Using a drawing of two lines, we explore what is here in direct experience. One line represents life as it is happening — movement, thoughts, sensations, everything that appears.  The other points to simple being — the sense of presence, the knowing that you are here. Between these, there is what we o...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message In this episode of Awakening Now , I speak with Ananta Kranti about awakening and what the word actually points to. When Ananta first began sharing this message, awakening was described very simply — waking up from the dream of being a separate self. Today, the word is used in many different ways, and this can create confusion about what is being pointed to....

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message In this episode of Awakening Now , Ilona Ciunaite speaks with psychotherapist and author Robert Saltzman about awakening, the illusion of a separate self, and what actually changes when the sense of a personal controller is questioned. Rather than presenting awakening as a dramatic transformation, Robert describes it as a shift in perspective. Life continues...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message If there is no mind, why does it feel so loud? In this episode I look at what we call “the mind” as a living stream of thoughts appearing. Images, commentary, expectations about awakening, ideas about how this should feel and what should happen next. We explore thinking by looking at it directly. Thoughts arise. They move. They dissolve. And it becomes clear...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message In this episode of Awakening Now, I sit down with Angelo DiLullo to explore the myths that quietly shape how people think awakening is supposed to unfold. We look at the belief that awakening should resemble someone else’s story, feel pleasant, bring special abilities, or resolve the human experience once and for all. Angelo points directly to how these expe...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message In this episode of Awakening Now , Ilona Ciunaite is joined by Steven D’Souza — author, leadership guide, and creator of Leading From the Dark — for a deep conversation about shadow work, awakening, and becoming more human. Steven describes the shadow as “the me I don’t see,” and together we explore how it shows up through projection, strong emotional reacti...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message In this episode, I invite you to look directly at the sense of self — not as an idea or a belief, but as lived experience. Before thoughts arise, before emotions move, before any story about “me” appears, there is a simple knowing of being here. A sense of existing. A feeling of “me.” This sense of self is so familiar that it is rarely questioned and often t...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message After awakening, many people expect the body to relax and life to feel settled. The belief in a separate self has dropped, so ease should naturally follow. Yet for many, the body still contracts. Emotions rise. Old protection remains. This often creates confusion and self-doubt. In this episode, I speak about why this is a natural part of awakening, and why...

Send me your thoughts in a Text Message Many people on the spiritual awakening path reach a moment where understanding is no longer enough. You may clearly understand non-duality, awakening, or the self illusion intellectually. You may know the language, have had glimpses, and seen moments of clarity. And yet something hasn’t shifted. There is still confusion. There is still a sense of “me.” And t...