Step into the realm of spiritual awakening with Unmani, where the ordinary meets the extraordinary. From childhood musings to profound moments of realization, Unmani unveils her journey towards truth and self-discovery. Explore her unique blend of open meetings, individual sessions, and transformative retreats in the newest edition of MysticMag interviews.
What was the moment of your own spiritual awakening and what led you down this spiritual path?
I feel like it really started when I was a child. Unlike many people, I didn’t forget what I knew as a child when I grew up to be an adult. Of course, it meant that I went through a lot of challenging times growing up in a world where I felt very isolated. No one around me confirmed what I had recognized, or what I always felt natural. Everyone around me seemed to be taking themselves very seriously as if all of this world of experience and thinking is all very meaningful and serious. I could always see that it is simply a play or a game that we are playing. We are just pretending.
Then, as an adult, I started searching for how to consciously acknowledge that and how to be that in the world. I went to many different spiritual teachers, and from each one, I received incredible gifts and insights. Finally, I went to a teacher in India called Dolano. By listening to her speak, I realized that what she was pointing to was what I had always known. At first, I just assumed she was just speaking words like everybody else, giving meaning to this play of experience. Then, suddenly, I asked myself “Could it be that she is actually pointing to what this child in me has always known, and has never forgotten?” I realized that that was actually the case. That was my awakening moment. I had many awakening moments afterward where this knowing was getting even more integrated into my adult human life, but that one was the first major shift moment that had a big impact on me.
What ideas and principles do you base your work on?
Actually, the essence of my work is pointing to the Innocence that we truly are, which is beyond all ideas and principles. This means going beyond what we think and who we think we are, beyond all the thoughts, stories, and the different roles and identities that we play in life. Letting go of what we have assumed is true, and freefalling in not knowing. This can be scary, but at the same time is what we are most deeply longing for. My work is an invitation to come home to our true self. This brings deep rest and peace into our lives.
We also discover how we can embrace the human and how we live in the world, knowing that we are never limited to the human experience. In my work, we also explore together how the recognition of our true nature can be integrated into the human daily experience.
What are your open meetings like and how much are they different from individual sessions?
The Open Meetings serve as an introduction, offering a taste of my teaching. We can go much deeper, but many people need to dip their toes in a little bit to test the waters before diving deep. Diving into this exploration can be quite scary at first for some people. The purpose of the Open Meetings is to provide an introduction, and also offer people a chance to ask questions that are on their minds.
Online Open Meetings are live-streamed twice a month on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month. Each one is on a different theme, so it is another chance for people to dip their toe in. This message is essentially for people who are ripe and ready to let go of who they think they are.
As for individual sessions, I provide one-to-one guidance to people wherever people are on their journey. Some people want to address specific areas of their life that they are struggling with, while others bring fundamental existential questions, ranging from the sense of belonging or wanting to be free or wake up. I meet them where they are at, which also happens in Open Meetings, but in a more general way. However, in one-to-one sessions, it goes deeper and becomes more personal.
What can you tell me about the Love of Truth community?
As the name says, it is for those who are in love with the Truth. For those who are passionate about living out this recognition of who they are, and exploring this idea in their daily lives. It is also for people in need of a supportive community of like-minded people who are similarly in love with the Truth.
As part of the Love of Truth community, we meet online twice a month to explore and go deep into all kinds of areas of people’s lives that they bring up. I give a talk each time and then each person can share and ask questions.
We also have an online private members group where everybody can share whatever they are going through in their lives and connect with each other. I encourage members of the community to also come regularly to retreats because of course, when we meet in person, it is always a lot deeper, more intense, and more intimate.
When we are immersed in this pointing to the Truth regularly, the lived recognition of our true nature, grows and becomes a new-normal way of life.
As you just mentioned, you also organize different retreats. What can people expect form those?
I love to hold retreats. It’s my favourite way of working with people.
I hold either five-day or ten-day retreats in beautiful places. A retreat is an intensive experience involving usually a small group of between 15 and 20 people. So it’s quite intimate, and also very deep. We go through a journey together as a group, but each individual also gets to explore their own individual path in a very profound way. We address the beliefs that they have been holding on to related to the identities that they have been playing at in the world. We question and investigate. And all the time we hold the paradox of who we really are that is beyond it all, and simultaneously we look at how this is lived in the daily human experience.
And beyond all of the words, we meet in the silence, and the energy of True meeting beyond all separation.
The activities schedule for each retreat is quite full, but there’s also a lot of free time for people to integrate in between the sessions. We also do a lot of movement. Every day there is dancing and movement. Sometimes, we also do art and artistic expression as a way of exploring our true nature, but the essence of the retreat is talks, silence, meditations, and dialogues.
To learn more about Unmani and her work, you can visit www.die-to-love.com
