Living Awakening Relationally

beyond ego and relate to one another from the deepest possible basis: the indivisible oneness of our True Nature. But, the actual breakthrough moment in our spiritual experiment occurred on July 30th, 2001, during an explosive eruption of collective enlighten- ment among a group of my students that lasted for several months. It was the most significant development in our work as a Sangha – and I consider it one of our signature contributions to the world of spirituality. It marked the true beginning of the project we had been working toward since I first began to teach. What we found was intriguing and nothing short of ground- breaking: Enlightened awareness can not only come alive in the interior of an individual – as a ‘Higher I’ – but also in the interior of a collective – as a ‘Higher We’. We discovered that when com- mitted people come together beyond ego, the Enlightened Mind itself can emerge between them. Whenever this occurs, the direct recognition of their Prior Union becomes the ground of their rela- tionships. Being in this shared state of enlightened unity together is beyond exhilarating! Whenever such an awakened We-field comes alive between people, the self-contraction drops and they leap beyond their separate self-sense. From there, a profound state of intimate communion with one another emerges, often accompanied by a mysterious and powerful current of enlightened awareness that fills the room – blissful and ecstatic – engulfing everyone pres- ent. This naturally ushers in a sense of perfect coherence, absolute trust, great love and unimaginable intimacy among everybody in the group. What is so groundbreaking about this mysterious new kind of