TEACHER BIOGRAPHY
Gail Brenner
My interest in suffering and the end of suffering is long standing. Like all of us, I just wanted to be happy. Years of conventional therapy didn’t help me feel much better, so I kept searching…
Since the Buddha turned to meditation, so did I, and it was pivotal. Rather than unconsciously playing out conditioned patterns, I learned to observe what I was feeling and thinking. I couldn’t believe how much negativity was present in my mind, and my attachment to it began to soften. But I knew I needed to go deeper.
I became curious about the nature of reality and discovered non-dual teachings offering the possibility of enduring peace. I was absolutely on fire to know what the teachers and sages described.
It led me to an intense study of what lies beyond the material world of thoughts and feelings. As I looked inside, no wonder I was suffering! There were long-buried emotions and many physical sensations that had occupied my mind and body for decades. I learned to work with these experiences by just letting them be rather than feeding the drama of stories and emotions.
I found that the more I became disinterested in thoughts—any thoughts—the happier I was. I started feeling so alive in the moments of my life!
As the contractions of the personal self dissolved, I made the amazing discovery: that who I am is not the unlovable, fearful self my thoughts told me I am. Shedding this limited identity revealed wide-open space, clarity about people and situations, a flow of creativity, and an aware, peaceful, silent, loving presence right here, at the heart of every experience I’ve ever had. Where had this presence been? I was too distracted to recognize it because I was identified with the content of my unhappy thoughts and feelings.
Opening to the reality of the boundless field of awareness, there is no inadequate me, no fear, no painful past, and no self-doubt. This vast, loving space is what’s always here and available as the reality of every moment, and it’s discovered once the attachment to thinking dissolves.
Seeing through these limiting thought patterns, I realized exactly what I’d been looking for all along: utter contentment and the deepest peace beyond imagination. And now I know that this experience is always available.
Living this discovery is a continual unfolding. Old, familiar programming arises, and it’s seen and unraveled. Emotions appear, and they are welcomed with the deepest acceptance. There is a profound, compassionate knowing that all is love. Returning to presence over and over, each time is a homecoming.
I live a normal human life. I love the world! But what is ordinary on the surface is also extraordinary. The deepest peace…a heart overflowing…complete acceptance of things as they are…intimacy with all being…clear seeing…unwavering willingness to not move when things get hard: It’s love in motion. And I know in the deepest place in my heart, that this possibility is available to all.
What are people saying…
“Your teachings are a gift of grace and love.”
Thank you so much for your teachings and for all the compassion and love you transmit to me, and so many others. Your teachings are a gift of grace and love.
Pat Brown
“What a gift you are to seekers everywhere.”
What a gift you are to seekers everywhere. I’ve been searching for decades, and yours is the first teaching that I feel can help me break free!!
Anna F
“I just cannot express to you how transformative your approach has been for me.”
What you’re pointing to is so difficult to talk about in words, but you describe it so brilliantly and give such practical, actionable steps to follow that I truly, deeply get it. I just cannot express to you how transformative your approach has been for me. I am inhabiting my life with so much more peace and openness, flow and freedom,
