Through the Gate of Ayin: Freedom without Limit

But what actually is it that we are practicing here?

It is difficult to put ayin coherently into words, for reasons that become clear when we explore the emptiness of language itself.

As a starting point we will say that ayin is a verb: that the essence of these practices is not a fact about reality but a movement of unbinding and flow, a stillness in not having to grasp or cling, a willingness and ever-deepening trust in softening all the way down, through body and heart and throughout the expanse of awareness itself. The primary goal of the exploration is to enable ever deeper ease, ok-ness and love.

Course Outline

Class 1: What is emptiness?

Tuesday March 2

Classes 2-7 will each introduce one aspect of experience that we can pay attention to and practice with in order to learn more about the territory of ayin. Each class will include text study, practice and discussion. We will move between intentionally cultivating a certain view, and then resting in and enjoying the fruits.

Class 2: Impermanence

Tuesday March 16

(This session will begin at 3pm UK and 5pm Israel time due to clock changes.)

We practice to see up close the radical change that is always happening. This reveals the futility of our habits of grasping and clinging. As we drop these habits, we immediately become more open, and we receive more deeply the fullness and richness of the present moment.

Class 3: Non-solidity

Tuesday March 30

We practice to see and absorb that experience is not entirely solid. We learn that there are always gaps, spaces, openings. When we are in touch with non-solidity, we are never trapped or stuck. 

Class 4: Insufficiency

Tuesday April 13

We practice to see that no experience is entirely sufficient. No achievement, state or insight will solve everything once and for all. With this perspective, we start to release the need for anything to provide that lasting satisfaction and, in doing so, find freedom. We learn that what we desire and long for is no longer a ‘must have’, though it may still be beautiful and worthy of our effort and devotion. 

Class 5: The emptiness of language

Tuesday May 4

We tangle ourselves up in words. We shame ourselves and others with them. Examining what words are, we find ayin here too. Words don’t carry meaning as concretely or definitely as we often imagine. Then we can be precise and careful with our words but not bound by them. Words can open up insight, but also don’t block other ways of experiencing that are beyond words.

Class 6: Mystery

Tuesday May 18

However carefully we refine our explanations and understanding of ourselves and our world, there will always remain the possibility that we are somehow mistaken. When we see that this is ineradicable and nothing personal we can come to love mystery as an eternal refuge, which in no way squashes or blurs our efforts at knowledge but always holds them in a wider space.

Class 7: Non-separateness

Tuesday June 1

The culmination of ayin is connection and love. We see that everything we fear and everything that holds us back is riddled with holes. Then, we are able to really be here, in relationships, in the world, in commitments and in life, and to find the space that we need right here too. Eventually ayin shows us that all the obstacles are empty and the path of love is unobstructed.

Class 8: What is emptiness?

Tuesday June 15