#221 Awakening is Available to Us All
Resting with the Sutras Starts Tomorrow
This morning, while I was doing my morning practice, I randomly remembered a conversation I had with one of my teachers about a year ago. Maybe six months ago. Time feels a little blurry these days.
He said to me:
“You’re on the path to full awakening in this lifetime.”
I immediately felt my ego activate. My shoulders lifted a little bit. I think he could see the thoughts running across my face.
“I’m going to achieve full awakening in this lifetime.”
Before I got too carried away, he quickly put me in my place.
He smiled and said:
“Awakening is available to us all.”
I find this statement incredibly comforting.
It reminds me that awakening is our birthright. It’s not something special available only to special people. It’s not reserved for monks, gurus, saints, or spiritual teachers. It’s not that there are awakened people over there and unawakened people over here.
Awakening is available to us all.
This morning, I taught a yoga class around this theme.
The teaching was simple: any practice that guides us into the present moment is guiding us toward awakening.
The story of the Buddha is that he sat beneath a Bodhi tree until he understood the nature of suffering and awakened to the truth. Then he spent the rest of his life sharing that understanding with others.
The Buddha was a normal person. He wasn’t a god. He wasn’t fundamentally different from any of us.
I was sitting in a lecture recently when a teacher said:
“If you see the Buddha on the street, smile at him.”
Everyone laughed.
I realized they were thinking of the Buddha as a historical figure who lived thousands of years ago. But that’s not what he meant. The Buddha simply means The Awakened One. So that means that all of us can be the Buddha. And there is a Buddha within all of us.
Modern neuroscience is actually pointing toward something very similar.
Psychiatrist Daniel Siegel describes two broad modes of awareness: the Narrative Network and the Experiential Network.
The Narrative Network is the part of us that is constantly telling stories.
Why did she say that?
I’ve always been like this.
What if this happens tomorrow?
What happened five years ago?
It’s the network that creates our identity and our sense of self. It’s deeply connected to autobiographical memory, future planning, and what neuroscientists call the Default Mode Network.
The Experiential Network is something very different.
It’s direct experience.
Feeling your feet on the floor.
Listening to birds without analyzing them.
Feeling your breath moving in and out.
Simply being here.
Norman Farb’s research showed that these are actually different modes of awareness that activate different regions of the brain.
What fascinates me is how beautifully this maps onto the contemplative traditions.
In yoga, we might say the Narrative Network corresponds to vrittis—the fluctuations, stories, and movements of the mind.
The Experiential Network corresponds more closely to direct awareness. Witness consciousness. Presence.
Patanjali described it thousands of years ago:
Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ.
Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind.
The Buddha described it as awakening.
Modern neuroscience describes it as moving from narrative awareness into experiential awareness.
Different language. Same direction.
And then there is Step Twelve of the Twelve Steps:
Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
A spiritual awakening.
The more I study yoga, Buddhism, neuroscience, and recovery, the more I feel they are all pointing toward the same thing.
The movement from living entirely inside the stories of our mind toward direct experience of reality.
From thinking about life to actually being here for it.
From identification to witnessing.
From separation to connection.
From suffering to freedom.
This is exactly what we’re moving into in the next section of Resting with the Sutras, which is why I am so excited about it.
When I first started offering Resting with the Sutras in January, I imagined it as a way to make these teachings accessible—not just as philosophy to study, but as something we can actually experience in our bodies and our lives.
And this next twelve-week journey feels especially potent.
Weeks 1–2: Vairāgya — The Practice of Letting Go
Yoga Sutras 1.15–1.16
Together we’ll explore:
Attachment and identity
Addiction and compulsion
Longing and control
Witnessing rather than reacting
Weeks 3–4: Samadhi
Yoga Sutras 1.17–1.18
What happens when the mind becomes quiet?
We’ll explore:
Meditation and concentration
Subtle awareness
Bliss and spaciousness
The inner journey of yoga
Weeks 5–8: Faith, Practice & Spiritual Momentum
Yoga Sutras 1.19–1.22
Together we’ll reflect on:
Consistency and discipline
Building momentum in practice
The role of devotion and sincerity
How intensity shapes our path
Weeks 9–12: Īśvara, Devotion & Om
Yoga Sutras 1.23–1.27
We’ll explore:
Īśvara Praṇidhāna
The guru principle
Divine consciousness
Bhakti and devotion
Mantra as meditation
Om as sacred sound
Finding refuge
Each class includes:
🕊 A dharma talk on the sutra of the day
🌿 A nourishing yin yoga practice
✨ Yoga nidra for deep rest
💬 Time for reflection and community
Whether you’ve studied the Yoga Sutras before or are meeting these teachings for the first time, this series is an invitation to rest, reflect, and deepen your relationship with yoga beyond the physical practice.
We begin tomorrow, and registration closes once the cohort starts.
I’d love to practice with you.
With love,
Alexandra
Awakening is available to us all.
Not because we become someone special.
But because beneath all the stories, all the striving, all the identities we cling to, there is already something awake within us—waiting patiently for us to notice.