From Jac: Those of you who have been aware of what I teach over the years will have noticed that the teachings can and do change. New viewpoints are constantly unfolding as I evolve. The viewpoint from where one sees what is real and unreal changes, and I speak of deeper than both. When a significant deepening happens in my understanding and I teach from a new viewpoint, I have found that retreat participants don't get it for some time. They don't 'grok' what I am saying for 12-18 months after I begin to include these new points in the work. It seems as though the concepts are understood and can't register deeper, at the point of inner realization, until there is a critical mass among students. Perhaps it is the hundredth monkey effect. With great joy I received this testimonial yesterday. This student attended her first 'Jac retreat' last weekend, in Jacksonville, Florida. When one student 'gets' it, past experience informs me that recognitions will roll out in the wider community, and we all benefit in a shared maturation. I enjoy hearing students say 'I've heard you say this many times and it's only now I understand what you are saying. I thought I understood but I didn't get it at all before now'. The gem in this testimonial is that one can sense that the student aligned with or recognized what she heard. Authenticity over a rendition of concepts, always. Reflections on the retreat from student, C.B.:
After some inner inquiry, I discovered I didn't have many expectations about this Satsang weekend with Jac. I thought I may have had a preconceived desire or two about it, but couldn't locate one. It was my first Satsang with her. My loose expectation was to be in her presence and the presence of my peers and be open to any unfolding. However, in hindsight, this weekend satisfied a deep inner desire I did not put a name to until now: a desire to experience raw authenticity; of my own and of others, all together in a group setting. This weekend also brought about a few "aha" moments and I absolutely adore those! For all of this I am deeply grateful.
This weekend, Jac's warm, radical inclusiveness created a loving space to expose our group's conceptual traps, fear-based beliefs, dogmatic "shoulds", personal agendas, and past-future myopia without demonizing or shutting anything out. She encouraged us all to look honestly at everything that was going on inside the body-mind and greet it with love and compassion, as it is one way of perceiving. She honored the rawness of our "me" stories, and then shifted our personal laser-focused perception by repositioning the "Seer", guiding us to look from a progressively deeper dwelling: from our shared Oneness and then from deeper still–from emptiness and beyond. She encouraged us, with gentle love, to go as deep as we were able to go. Thank you Jac, for creating an all inclusive space for the authenticity of personal perception, and then championing the repositioning of the "Seer" to view from the perception of Oneness, and then deeper–from the Knowingness of Truth.
This weekend, Jac facilitated many "aha" moments. Her gentle, yet uncompromising question and answer format among her, myself, and peers, allowed one very important realization to peak to fullness for me: Yes! One can truly be Awake and also thrive in the day-to-day phenomenal human existence. Not only is it possible, but it is necessary.
She shined a light on the cultural dogma i had absorbed and unconsciously believed. I believed the lie that in order to sustain an awakened state, one must live a "self-less" life without preferences, boundaries, or personal focus of any kind. But it is our destiny to live "as" human but "from" Truth. I believe she used the phrase "keeping one leg in the absolute at all times". Brilliant visual!
Jac also made it clear that Spiritual seeing is not a tactic to enhance the illusory phenomenal realm, although that may seem to happen. And it also may not! I realized that my personal agenda surrounding living from Truth deserves further investigation.
Thank you to Jac, my peers, the facilitators, and to the Emptiness out of which this beautiful phenomenal experience seemed to unfold.
Infinite Gratitude,
C. B.
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