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A Conversation with Gangaji

Facing Chronic Pain
October 12, 2012,
Episode 1

Facing Chronic Pain: All of us will at one time or another be confronted with some type of acute or chronic pain, both emotional and physical. As humans, it's normal to try to search for ways to get rid of it, or at least find some relief. In this first episode of A Conversation with Gangaji, we look at the possibility of going underneath the pain to discover what is truer than the experience of pain itself. What happens if, for a moment, we don't try to fix it?

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Just the absolute, unshakeable heart knowledge of what is true, what is real, and what is here. That’s what I invite you to. That’s what these words are spoken for. That’s what this word ‘surrender’ points to.”

In this previously unshared talk from a public meeting in Sydney, Australia in 2005, Gangaji speaks about the willingness to stop trying to understand who we are, and instead have a true experience of ourselves—one that requires the mind to surrender to the heart. Even the word surrender can bring up fear: What will happen to me if I surrender? Gangaji speaks to that fear with such encouragement and clarity, pointing to the discovery of who one truly is.

Listeners are invited to join host Barbara Denempont for a special online gathering on Saturday, November 14, at 9:00 a.m. Pacific to celebrate the 100th episode of Being Yourself. Learn more/Sign up for the Zoom link.





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“Do you put more value on your doubting mind than you do on the reality of what is always present?” 


In this episode, Gangaji speaks about “the wheel of doubt”—addressing the way the mind generates doubt from the "fear of being open, or being still, and not knowing.”  While doubt has a very legitimate purpose in our lives, when we are caught up in a pointed search for certainty, it can become a life-long source of suffering. The invitation she offers is to recognize the activity of the mind and to recognize what is always here regardless of what thoughts are passing through our minds. 





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I was in that place of "I give up. I don't know." And that's a very open place, actually.

On this month’s episode of Being Yourself: Self-Inquiry with Gangaji, we are honored to share Episode 4 of Finding Home, the six-part audio documentary series that traces Gangaji's spiritual journey. 

In the fourth episode, From Disillusionment to Awakening, Gangaji reflects on the disappointments, failures, and unexpected turns that led her to India and her life-changing meeting with Papaji. What appeared to be the end of a path became the doorway to a profound awakening. 

This intimate conversation is both a personal story and a listening journey—an invitation to discover that beneath uncertainty, disappointment, and disillusionment lies the possibility of discovering—home is here. 



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“I encourage you to let your heart be broken. Waking up to yourself has nothing to do with forgetting the suffering of others as if it never existed.”

How do we reconcile the recognition of truth and peace with the suffering, cruelty, and devastating loss we see around us or even in our own lives? How do we face real heartbreak, given this paradox can’t be reconciled in our minds?

Rather than turning away from outrage or despair, Gangaji invites a direct meeting with them—and points to the possibility that even outrage and despair can become a doorway to truth



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