— Neelam

The Direct Experience of Presence informs us about the reality of our True Nature, of the Awakeness, Peace, and Love that are already Here. A moment of Full Trust in that recognition is followed by Spiritual Awakening. There is a fundamental difference between Mind and Presence, our True Nature, and knowing the difference is what Neelam calls Discrimination. You may know about this difference intellectually, but not experientially, which really is the foundation for Awakening, Embodiment, and Freedom. Join us in experiencing Presence Directly! In every event or Private Session with Neelam she invites us to join her in the Direct Experience of Presence. She freely and with deep love and commitment share this with all of us so we can come to know for ourselves the deep Truth of our True Nature – Presence – which is always here.

There is often a gap between our Desire for Truth (which is what brings us here in every moment) and between our actual ability to Be Here, no matter what arises internally or in life. This often causes discouragement in our practice or doubt as to our ability to Be Here. Neelam teaches about the Nervous System and brain and helps us understand how Past experiences affects our ability to Be Here. Her teachings give us an incredible set of skills and practically bridges the gap. Learning experientially how to help the Nervous System and brain to Be Here is what Neelam calls the Missing Link to Awakening and Freedom.

We often have many misunderstandings about Surrender. So much of the time we think of Surrender in terms of a change in behavior, a change in appearance, or a giving up our “free will” to allow somebody else to be in charge, and so on… In Truth Surrender means to abandon all thoughts, beliefs, ideas, identifications, to “take our hands off”, and not try to manage, interfere with, or change our experience. In other words, Surrender means to let go of all internal “doing” and allow the mind to rest in The Heart.

To paraphrase Ramana Maharshi, “The true measure of Surrender is the degree into which the Mind is merging in the Heart (our True Nature).”

Trust is key to Awakening and Freedom and it goes hand in hand with Surrender. As our attention moves between recognizing Presence and going back to the identification with body- mind it shows us the amount of Trust we have in our True Nature. As we keep coming back Here to our True Nature we grow in Trust and a moment of full Trust is followed by Awakening. 

Trust in Truth 
Trust in how Truth speaks to us on the Inner
Trust in the Teaching
Trust in the words of the Teacher

As Neelam reminds us, we are not  “practicing” our True Nature, because our True Nature is already Here! Through learning Inquiry, Neelam teaches us how we can experience our True Nature Directly and break our reliance on the Patterns of the Past. To inquire means to change the direction of what we give our attention to. Instead of giving our attention to thoughts, which is mind, we can shift our attention to look within and meet experientially the identification with the Sense of “I” – which is the very cause of Suffering. 

As we begin to follow the inner calling for Awakening and Freedom and enter the Spiritual Path, we bring with us all our Past experiences as well. That includes Nervous Systems that often lack the capacity to Be Here due to trauma and other events of the Past. Working with her students, Neelam’s first priority is to ground us in the foundation of the Direct Experience of Presence. She also helps us to resolve the limitations of our Nervous system’s capacity to Be Here. That resolution enables us to be fully grounded in Presence and grow in Trust, which is essential. Trust is what leads to Awakening.

Spiritual Awakening, is a powerful shift from identifying oneself as the body /mind to knowing oneself as the spaciousness of our True Nature. As powerful of a shift as Awakening is, and as essential and necessary as it is,  it is only the beginning – a small first step into reality and into coming to fully rest and live in Presence. Neelam makes a distinction between Awakening and Freedom – Freedom being a True Independence from the Patterns-of-the-Past. Before, during, and after Awakening the willingness to truly, tenderly, and openly Be Here and be Present to what arises leads us to True Embodiment of Presence and to Spiritual Freedom. There is no end to knowing ourselves as Presence, Love, and Emptiness and to knowing that in everything that arises.