Gangaji Podcasts

"The secret of freedom is giving up the choice to escape yourself." A prison inmate's letter inspires this month's podcast. In one of the most loved monologues in the archives, Gangaji speaks of the essential choice to face what has been feared or run from for most of our lives. When we give up any idea of healing and directly experience the woundedness,  we discover a deeper truth—the truth of wh...

At some point in our lives, we will experience a loss of innocence. Whether that disillusionment is with ourselves, our family, or with life itself, there is a choice that arises in the midst of loss. Will we fall into cynicism and self-betrayal? Or do we meet the pain of that loss directly and in that, discover the innocence that was never lost.    Visit the website to learn more about Gangaji an...

"You are free to discover yourself as Truth. You are free to rest in that Truth. You are free to be happy, regardless of your body, your thoughts, emotions, or circumstances."   In this month's podcast, Gangaji begins with a clear exposition on how it is absolutely possible to discover yourself as Truth, no matter your past history. Then in the lively exchange that follows, she speaks to how we de...

"There is no problem with pain. There is pain. If you are seeking something to avoid pain, that's the suffering. That's the search that must be called off." It takes effort to avoid our emotional pain. We can try to avoid it, but ultimately the common strategies of withdrawing, protecting, and dissociating from feelings of hurt actually turn emotional pain into unnecessary suffering. This lively e...

"If you stop thinking about how to get out of the body that may be painful or how to keep the body that is pain free, you get to experience the truth." Physical pain is an essential aspect of life that serves the survival and well-being of the body, but we can easily turn that necessary pain that alerts us to injury and illness into unnecessary suffering. What is the difference between pain and su...

Where is the life you want? As much as we can fear death, we can also fear living a full and vibrant life. In this exchange, Gangaji helps a woman get to the root of what keeps her fear of vibrancy running. This conversation demonstrates how each of us has the capacity to discover how to live a true and full life.      Learn more about Gangaji at gangaji.org    

"The strategies and avoidance around the experience of "not being" or death are what keep you from the experience of eternal life." As a young boy of 16, Ramana chose to stop running from what he feared and turned to face death directly. In that moment of inquiry, he opened his mind asking, "Who dies?"  All of us share that same opportunity to stop running and inquire into what we fear most—the en...

"It was a fire. It was really a fire because it was a razor's edge. All of sudden there are these huge groups. And if I identified even the slightest negatively or positively…I am sliced on this razor I am living on. It was really a necessary fire. I had to be quiet. I had to be still." This month we share the soundtrack to a special 30 th anniversary video honoring the community of volunteers and...

Gangaji speaks about the role spiritual practice plays in our lives and invites us to discover what we are practicing when we "get off our cushion and the chanting stops." What do our spiritual practices give us? What do we hope they will give us? What can they never give us?     Learn more about Gangaji at gangaji.org  

"It's a lie that any thing gives you fulfilling, true, deep joy. Joy is your nature." We can feel deeply conflicted when following our hearts doesn't line up with what we or others think we should be doing. When we reach the proverbial and often frightening "fork in the road," we have a choice to be true to ourselves. Gangaji begins this meeting speaking about the difference between being normal a...

"Universal, absolute awareness is who you are." How is it possible to be "certain" of who we are? In the wake of an essential and undeniable experience of our true nature as pure consciousness, doubt usually arises —"Did that really happen? Is it real?" Then, we often look to our thoughts for the answer. In this powerful dialogue, Gangaji helps us see past the efforts of the rational, conditioned...

"The error is that you are not what can be thought, or perceived, or felt.  You are that in which all thoughts, all perceptions, all feelings, appear in." In countless ways, we search for a "better" identity to replace who we think we are. This month, Gangaji speaks to the trap of misidentification. How is it possible to see your true face? Where are you looking for yourself?   Learn more about Ga...

"Incarcerated for life in a maximum security prison in Alabama and not using that as an excuse, refusing to use that as an excuse.  In fact, using that as a vehicle." Gangaji reads a powerful letter of realization from a prisoner serving life without parole in an Alabama prison. Learn more about Gangaji at gangaji.org Support/Learn more about the Gangaji Foundation Prison Program here  

"This is not psychotherapy. This is not anti-psychotherapy. This has nothing to do with fixing you. This has to do with discovering fully and completely what is always here and was always here in the worst moments, in the best moments." In this monologue recorded during a recent retreat at Fallen Leaf Lake, Gangaji delineates the crucial difference between psychotherapy and self-inquiry and the di...

"This is an invitation to stop. To not create who you are. To simply be yourself with no idea or memory of who or what that is. Just to be. Then to see, how vast this just is." Our lived experience in a human body gives rise to a wide range of phenomena that include thoughts, feelings, and images of ourselves. Thoughts, feelings, sensations, or memories are not a problem unless that is how we defi...

"When you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that you are this stillness, that you are this awareness, then it doesn't matter what is on the surface."   Human beings have a profound desire to realize a lasting peace. The question is where are we looking, and what desire are we actually chasing? In this very relatable exchange, we see how recurring desires to avoid pain, end confusion, or gain clar...

"To be nothing, to be nobody, is to realize who you are." This month on Being Yourself, we share one the first meetings Gangaji held in Byron Bay, Australia. This is the land of the Arakwal Bumberlin people, who have lived in the coastal landscape around the Byron Bay area for at least 22,000 years. Gangaji begins by acknowledging how the ancient Aboriginal peoples have blessed our lives. Then she...

Discovering the truth of who you are doesn't require a certificate of realization. You don't need to understand Sanskrit or Advaita to know the truth of who you are. The only requirement is the willingness to investigate the thought of who you are. This month on Being Yourself , Gangaji shares what she calls a "sutra from the streets"— a teaching story about the power of inquiry and what is possib...

This month on Being Yourself , we return to the summer of 1993 in Boulder, Colorado. Gangaji speaks about the opportunity to break the trance of fear by directly experiencing fear itself. "This is a kind of contraction against life. Direct experience is the medicine, the remedy. You really experience fear, and fear is not fear."

A timeless message from Gangaji as we begin a new year. Plus an invitation to join her for an upcoming online gathering on Saturday, January 7 at 11AM PT. Learn more at gangaji.org. 

"For our purpose, which is the purpose of discovering the truth of who one is, let us forget why one is and discover who." We often are seeking answers to our questions of "why" and "how." Gangaji invites us to turn our attention to the most important question we can ask ourselves on the spiritual path, the question that can lead to self-recognition and the endless discovery of the depths of who o...

This month we are happy to share a selection from Jami Sieber and Kim Rosen's new album Feast of Losses . Their new album takes a deep dive into that sacred space where grief and gratitude meet. Their collaboration offers a transmission of such beauty that it stops the mind and opens the heart! This selection from the album features What the Living Do by Marie Howe, with music by Jami Sieber and s...

"If your attention is on the story of how you do not deserve what is being offered, this is the continuation of self-denial.  There is an open door in this jail, in this prison." When we seek freedom on the spiritual path, it is often freedom from our mind or mental activity. In this podcast, we focus how we can lock ourselves up inside a mental prison, not recognizing the door that is always open...

Repeatedly telling the story of "not good enough" is a familiar habit to most of us, an aspect of our human conditioning. But what does it have to do with who you truly are? In this exchange, Gangaji, simply and directly shares how to bring an end to the story and "step into freedom." 

"To play the role of yourself, which is the transcendent role, the role of freedom, you have to trust something unknowable." The themes of belonging, freedom from identification, and trusting our direct experience come together in this month's podcast. This powerful interplay of themes opens the mind to the heart and invites an inquiry: What does it mean to be free? Where do you belong?