Joy points to awakening! (It isn't a test) | Meditation with Shamil Chandaria tomorrow, Sun 23rd

Hi there,

Predictive processing supports a more gentle and rewarding approach to life:

Perfectionism cranks up an error-hunting prior. If you're always on the lookout for what is wrong, you're bound to find it. (Or create it.) Deferral of joy is a self-fulfilling prediction.

Relaxing these priors can bear immediate fruit.

According to Shamil, joy is both the fruit of awakening and the path. Even joy based on circumstances points to joy that needs none.

This cuts through the anxiety that can happen in spirituality. Trying to get it right, or waiting for some big future payoff.

Every approximation of clarity, peace or joy is a parting in the clouds. You don't have to get it right. Reality is only ever a best guess. You can simply relax into whatever is here now. Even a glimmer of peace gives your reality-model a chance to update.

You can try right now! Your best approximation of letting go. Your best guess at what it would feel like to relax. A curious scan for what is already ok.

If awareness is anywhere, it is here right now.

And weirdly, there is more yet to come!

We explore this together with Shamil at Energy, Awareness & the Nature live online tomorrow, Sunday 23rd August, 6–8pm UK time, 1–3pm EDT.

The session includes guided meditation, discussion and Q&A. A recording is sent to everyone registered, so you can join even if you can't attend live.

Tickets (£10–£20, and no one turned away for lack of funds):
https://dandelion.events/e/c1ez7

With warmth,
Amir

P.S. I always enjoy hearing your reflection if you try any of this. You can just hit reply.

Dr. Shamil Chandaria is a meditation researcher and thought leader in consciousness studies, with roles at Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London and Google DeepMind. Drawing on 38 years of meditation practice and the latest science of how our minds construct experience, he offers a clear, demystifying framework for awakening — and shows how practices like meditation can reshape the brain's predictive processes, reduce suffering, and open up a whole new experience of reality.