The questioner in this dialogue has been experiencing heartache and loneliness. John speaks about the reasons for and purpose of heartache, revealing the opportunity for awakening that’s in it. The heartache is there to bring you to what your whole life is for; you ache in your heart until it opens.
“What is love?” is the question, and John’s response takes us first to the answer, and then into the many levels of love to be lived here in this life, and what remains after death. He then describes the purpose of integration and what is deeper, even, than being: what we are as meaning, aware … and moving.
This young woman speaks the uncertainty of many in today’s spiritual marketplace. She wants to give her heart away to truth, but experience has revealed that many teachers are untrustworthy. John reveals the differences between a teacher of truth and one completely mastered by truth; to listen to all but to give her heart only to what she genuinely knows.
This man has taken steps beyond his addictions and difficulties but fears ultimately succumbing to their power: it’s all just too painful. John encourages him in the one way that really works – to become gentled in his heart and to live his daily life in the realization of the nurture he will find there.
This interviewer wants to get at how John’s teachings can open the territory many of us share – the world of relationship and sexuality. What gives relationship a true foundation? How can sexuality go deeper than want and need? You speak of connectivity and dearness, John, but how can we relate to that when we don’t like each other? These questions and more are worked out in this dialogue.
In this interview with Rishi Itzhak, therapist and meditation teacher from Israel, John is asked questions about the essence of his teaching and what happens in his presence that is so much more than teaching. This rich dialogue opens and explores what is real; how to access the full potential of our selves through openness and softness of heart; why there is so much suffering and depression in the world, and the particular gift of being in John’s presence.
The Questioner feels guilty and trapped in her inability to deal with the pain of others. She knows that separating from them or confronting them doesn’t help. John shows her how a simple return to openness and softness of heart allows the cycle of their pain and hers to end… in her.
Most of us experience emotional turmoil, destructive behaviour and mental difficulty in our lives from time to time. What is the cause of these states? How can we find equanimity of being in the midst of any situation? You, being the simplicity of this, is you directly resting into the beloved within.
When we work hard on our projects and goals, it can be difficult not to be dependent on the outcome. Striving for success or fear of failure… how to overcome this source of stress? In this talk, John offers keys to connecting our outer life on the surface, with deep inner beingness.
How can a person with strong mental conditioning connect to their heart? Through the example of loving someone, John shows the questioner how to be in his heart and, despite shyness and embarrassment, let it come into his face, filling his body and changing his thinking.
This conversation addresses destiny. Does it just happen or can we do something to change it? John explains how it can only be changed with a shift of awareness: away from our emotional makeup into what we know the truth of in our heart, bringing stability, freedom and healing that before seemed impossible.
“My sole purpose is to be, in life, what we are after we’ve died. Through openness and softness of heart and core-splitting honesty at any personal cost, I live as that while actualizing the same in others I meet. I am available as a resource for anyone who recognizes and values this way of being.”
– John de Ruiter
