Raising a Child Requires Total Sacrifice
“What is the importance and the responsibility of a parent now at the end of Kali Yuga?” Shunyamurti addresses this question with a brief description of the devolution of parenthood throughout the Yugas, and in the last centuries of Kali Yuga in particular, and with a reminder of what truly dharmic child raising is all about.
Related Teachings
Will Relationships Collapse With the Ego?
Question:
I really want to know Shunyamurti’s opinion: do we have to try to recover men and women’s relationship, or is it going to collapse like any other fractal? The loneliness epidemic seems to destroy most humans.
Shunyamurti’s Reply:
Yes, the energy that moves the ego is the desire of the Other. When that is absent for too long, the ego shuts down its limited creativity, and becomes progressively more hardened and cold. This is the end of the era of the ego. That self-limiting structure of willful ignorance and terror of the infinite is already beginning to disappear, along with its nightmarish world. In those who turn away from the lure of the ego and discover the source of consciousness within, the Infinite Self is directly revealed. This explains the classic zen aphorism: First, there is a world of egos. Then, after attaining satori, there is no world, only the Light of Consciousness free of differences. Then, in the final phase of revelation, there is again a world, but now it is the expression of the perfect love, blissful intelligence, and power of freedom of the Inconceivable Absolute Self.
Namaste,
Shunyamurti
The Art of Friendship Is Divine
What does it mean to be a friend of the world? In this Q&A, Shunyamurti explores the archetype of God the Friend—known in Christianity as the Comforter, in Buddhism as the Bodhisattva, and throughout the world's wisdom traditions as the compassionate presence that heals, supports, and uplifts all beings. True friendship is not merely kindness or sympathy but the capacity to embody divine serenity, to speak truth without judgment, and to hold others in a field of love that transforms suffering into peace.
How Can We Explain Our Collective Stupidity?
In this intellectually dazzling and spiritually transformative satsang, Shunyamurti bridges ancient nondual wisdom with modern philosophy to illuminate one of the deepest mysteries of existence: What is this world? Drawing on the insights of Jean Baudrillard, Abhinavagupta, Adi Shankaracharya, and Sri Ramana Maharshi, he reveals why reality is better understood as a simulacrum—a mirror reflection without an original—than as a material universe existing independently of consciousness.
Moving from a penetrating critique of consumer culture, desire, and the modern "Matrix," Shunyamurti then unveils the seven states of consciousness, showing why the waking ego is the least qualified to judge reality. True awakening begins when we transcend the limitations of ordinary awareness and enter the luminous stillness from which all experience arises.
This teaching is excerpted from Shunyamurti's latest seminar, "The Thrill of the Infinite: You Must Take the Leap." Access the complete teaching series here: https://www.satyoga.org/shop/products/retreat-package/the-thrill-of-the-infinite/
We Are Powerless to Stop the Loss of Power
In this timely teaching, Shunyamurti presents a sweeping analysis of humanity's current death spiral: the necrocosm, a civilization that has lost its reverence for life and all that is sacred—that is governed by death, distraction, and the negative commodification of consciousness. This shift is nowhere more evident than in the current West Asia conflict, which he describes as a "heartland war" deliberately choking the lifeblood of modern civilization by disrupting the fuel and supply systems upon which humanity depends. Yet beneath this stark and sobering diagnosis lies an inspiring and urgent message. The true crisis is not ultimately external, but internal. The ego itself is the program that convinces us we are guilty, worthless, separate from God, and destined to sabotage our own highest potential. As long as we remain identified with this false self, we waste the precious gift of human life. This teaching reveals how the ego was conditioned to perpetuate fear, shame, distraction, and self-destruction, and why only a complete return to our divine nature can free us from its grip.
The Doors
Don’t Go Through the Wrong Doors:
or, How the Daimon Becomes a Demon:
A Study of Psychotic Brilliance
Oliver Stone has made a highly impactful, provocative, and disturbing film about the life and demise of Jim Morrison and his infamous band The Doors. While screening the film, it became clear that the cinematic sinfulness of the presentation itself is a monstrously perverse enactment, putting Stone as auteur into the place of the Lacanian object cause of the desire of the Other—in this case of whoever is lured into watching the film and consuming its images.
Because of its perverse intentionality, I would be an accomplice to the flagrant immorality and envy of the perverse and psychotic jouissance depicted so graphically as well as subliminally and with plausible deniability by the film, covering its hook with the justifiable bait of perusing an approved cultural artifact, offered as protected expression under the aegis of being a work of art...
A Father's Task as the Final Days Approach
In this special Father's Day Q&A, Shunyamurti reflects on one of the most sacred responsibilities a father can undertake: preparing children for reality itself. Responding to a father's question about raising children in an age increasingly disconnected from truth, Shunyamurti explores the importance of spiritual education, rites of passage, inner freedom, and the courage to let one's children walk their own path.