Sruti is a spiritual teacher and feminist advocate. She writes about her experience with an uncommon and painful illness called Interstitial Cystitis. This ongoing and chronic condition challenged her to stay present with daily pain and to look further inward for answers.

In an extreme moment of pain, in which consciousness began to fade, Sruti experienced the erasure of all that clouds over the earliest source of vision. She asks the question: with whose vision are we seeing when the lights are going out? Has this early vision ever known anything at all?

After these extreme episodes of pain Sruti spent time on retreat with teachers such as Gangaji and Mooji. She found no difference in these nondual pointings and the discoveries made directly in painful circumstances.

Sruti finds that we can allow what is painful to become a tool to disrupt the ordinary layers of our experience. Underneath these layers we find the unconditional peace that is our constant being in each moment.

Can we investigate the source of ordinary vision - can we find the place of true seeing that is earlier that who we think we are?

Book: The Hidden Value of Not Knowing

Transcript of this interview

Interview recorded 5/28/2016

YouTube Video Chapters:

00:00:00 - Introduction and Overview

00:04:05 - Living with Chronic Pain

00:08:10 - Seeking Relief from Pain

00:12:42 - The Intensity of Pain and the Undercurrent of Calm

00:19:25 - The Transformative Power of Pain

00:24:45 - Pain as a Pathway

00:30:17 - Writing from a Place of Intense Pain

00:36:57 - The Loss of Control and Silence

00:41:39 - The Silence before Activity

00:46:00 - The Difficulty of Sharing Pain and Suffering

00:50:37 - Inquiry into the Nature of Pain

00:54:57 - The Value of Resolution

00:58:10 - Experiencing Pain in Satsang

01:05:22 - The Non-Doing Prescription

01:11:28 - Love and Humility

01:16:33 - The Gift of Pain and Spiritual Devotion

01:21:54 - Living the Practical: Revealing the Inner Workings of Grace

01:25:38 - God's Presence in Silence

01:28:44 - God is Waiting in the Silence

01:31:19 - The Wisdom of Suffering

01:34:02 - The Value of Contacting What Is Already Okay

01:38:04 - True Prayer and Being

01:41:34 - The Benevolence of the Universe

01:45:45 - The Layers of Awareness

01:50:22 - Coming to Basic Awareness

01:55:32 - The Power of Choice and Attention

01:59:01 - The Profoundness of Direct Experience

02:03:00 - The Benevolent Fabric of the Universe

02:06:21 - The Value of Shared Pain

02:10:08 - The Divine Drama

02:13:10 - Resources and Ways to Stay Updated