How to experience the ‘ground of all being’

 

‘Monastery Window.’ A photograph by Thomas Merton from an exhibition devoted to his work at the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, in 2014

What is it?

Philosophers, theologians, mystics, spiritual teachers and others have explored the ‘ground of all being’ or ‘divine ground,’ while describing an ultimate, foundational reality that underlies all existence, sometimes experientially and sometimes conceptually. These ideas can go under other names too, like ‘the One,’ ‘Being-itself,’ or ‘Godhead.’

Why go there?

Why would a normal, sane person want to experience the ground of all being? Well, assuming that I am a normal, sane person, this is what got me into it:

1. To uncover deep peace and stillness. You know that endless inner chatter that your mind is so good at? That isn’t in the ground. You’ll experience inner stillness as you never have before!

2. It is deeply real. For most people, day-to-day life feels real enough, but it’s possible to go deeper without the aid of psychoactive substances and it doesn’t get any deeper than experiencing the ground of all being.

3. It’s the end of all duality. If you’ve ever heard people going on about non-duality and wondered what that meant, this is what they were going on about.

4. Some people like exploring the world around them to understand it better. I like exploring the inner worlds. Perhaps you do too...

There is also a decent advert for why you might want to get into it in the video, Samaneri Jayasāra - Wisdom of the Masters (2023) (details in the Sources section below) that talks about this in the language of Tibetan Buddhism, if you resonate with that.

Blog history

I’ve had a couple of goes at this topic in previous blogs: first in July 2024 (https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2024/07/ground-of-all-being-exploring-deep.html) when I shared my experience of the ground and added a few early thoughts about it. Then in August of that year I wrote about some of the philosophical ideas about it and included the Buddhist concept of Sunyata or emptiness.

In this third attempt at describing the indescribable, I want to talk about the methods people have used, to experience it. I won’t say so much about people’s theories of it. If you do a search you will probably find, as I did, that most of the established religious traditions and the syntheses derived from them, have such a concept, although they may call it something else. I even discovered that materialists, who deny that there is such a thing, call their theory anti-foundationalism!

How do I get there?

When I did some background reading for this blog I found that, among those who have spoken or written about ways to experience the Divine Ground, were people who I have to say I had never heard of, or who I didn’t know wrote about methods. I’ll mention a couple now in case you want to research them, but I’ll say no more about them here. They include Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius, and St. Augustine.

I think that my best approach to this would be to write a bit about people whose work I have studied, mainly to illustrate the clear similarities between their methods. Then I’ll devote more space to the details of the method given by contemporary teacher (albeit now retired), Adyashanti. Hopefully this will be an accessible description, as it is the method I’ve had the clearest results with.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) described the ground in The Perennial Philosophy, in which he also said that it is accessible through direct intuition. The methods he wrote about include:

    • Meditation
    • Prayer, and
    • Contemplation to open oneself to the Atman-Brahman, as described in Advaita Vedanta.

He also mentioned practices like being "loving, pure in heart, and poor in spirit”; and spiritual exercises drawn from what he called the perennial traditions to realise identity with the Ground.

By the way, in addition to ‘The perennial Philosophy’, Huxley is probably best known for the dystopian ‘Brave New World’ and his later utopian ‘Island’ – all still well-worth reading IMHO.

My reading of Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328) suggests that he was aware that, in Christianity, not much is said about how to actually find God in the soul. Again, I will simply summarise his method here, but I have included a citation below in which he gives details, although it is not an easy read! Look in the sections called 'Talks of Instruction.' Here is the summary:

    • Detach from all created things and attachments.
    • Empty the self inwardly (silence the senses, let go of thoughts and what we now call ego, let go of images).
    • Rest in the ground of the soul, where nothing created intrudes.
    • Be passive before God — permit God to speak the eternal Word in this ground.
    • Break through to the Godhead, experiencing mystical union.

Trappist monk Fr. Thomas Merton (1915–1968) saw God as the experiential ground of being encountered in the depths of the self. Methods of accessing this include:

    • Contemplative prayer — entering the deep centre of one's being to find God as ground
    • Solitude
    • Quieting social conditioning
    • Probing inner life through silence and unmasking the true self, and
    • Existential engagement with nature as ecstatic ground. 

In this way, according to Merton, God is encountered not as an object of thought but as the ultimate source of being within us — not separate from who we are but the ground from which our real self arises.

Readers may be interested to know that Merton’s work influenced later Christian contemplative practices like centring prayer and the formation of organisations such as Contemplative Outreach.

You’ve probably already noticed some overlap between these methods, but now I will focus on Adyashanti’s approach as I have found it to be clear and effective. I have also added a link below to a particularly helpful audio of his, which includes guided meditations, some of which he deliberately calls ‘evocations’.

Adyashanti's method for experiencing what he sometimes calls the “divine ground of all being”, or the ultimate, timeless foundation of existence, beyond states, concepts, ego, or any separate self (phew!), is rooted in his teachings on spiritual awakening. He emphasises that this ground is not something to attain or experience as an object; it is the ever-present reality underlying all experience, and realisation comes through direct recognition rather than effortful striving.

His approach is practical, straightforward, and non-dual, drawing from his core framework in works like The Way of Liberation (now available as a free download), True Meditation, and teachings on inquiry and contemplation.

His primary method consists of three interconnected practices:

    • Meditation
    • Inquiry
    • Contemplation
      
1. True Meditation (Resting as Awareness / Being Itself)

Adyashanti's practice of ‘True Meditation,’ is central to accessing the ground. Unlike concentration-based or object-focused meditation, it is a passive resting in the natural state of awareness or being:
    • The emphasis is not on observing thoughts, sensations, or objects, but on resting as primordial awareness (or silent being) itself—being the witness without fixation.
    • Allow everything to arise and pass without suppression, control, or goal-oriented effort. There is no need to quiet the mind actively; simply abide in open receptivity and stillness. This reveals silence, presence, and the ground of being as your natural condition, free from identification with thoughts, emotions, or the personal self.
    • It can be practiced formally (sitting) or informally (in daily life), by turning attention to the immediacy of experience and sensing into the here and now without seeking anything extra.
    • The key attitude is surrender to what is, letting go of grasping, control, or personal will. When effort drops, the ground reveals itself as the source from which all arises.

2. Meditative Self-Inquiry (Direct Pointing to "What Am I?")
Adyashanti uses inquiry as a rapid way to bypass conceptual mind and enter the unknown:
    • Ask simple, direct questions like "What am I?", "Who am I?", "What is aware?", or "What is looking from here?" — not as intellectual puzzles, but as pointers.
    • When the mind responds with something like "I don't know," don't fill the gap with thinking; instead, feel it in your body and being. Turn attention to the open, empty space or mystery of not-knowing.
    • Stay with this cloud of unknowing—sense the spaciousness, openness, or what he calls the "big awake space" that remains when no entity or image of self is found.
    • This inquiry can happen anytime (driving, drinking tea, reading), bringing quick recognition of the ground as the ever-present, formless awareness prior to all phenomena.

3. Contemplation and Surrender
    • Contemplate the source of reality by considering thoughts and redirecting focus from ‘what’ is being experienced to ‘where’ experience arises from — the immediacy of being.
    • Embrace surrender: meet lower self (egoic) forces (wanting to control, for example) with letting go, allowing the ground to emerge as the foundation of all states.
    • In deeper phases, this leads to realising enlightenment is not a state, but is that which is the ground of all states of being—timeless, unborn presence.

Overall, Adyashanti stresses simplicity and directness: stop seeking, rest without agenda, and allow grace to reveal what is already present. The ground isn't an exotic experience but the ordinary reality that can be recognised when identification with the separate self falls away. This realisation can transform how one lives, integrating the awakened ground into everyday existence.

“God is is-ness”
“The eye wherein I see God is the same eye wherein God sees me.”
Meister Eckhart

May all beings benefit


Sources

Adyashanti. (2006). True meditation: Discover the freedom of pure awareness. Sounds True.
Adyashanti (2012). The way of liberation. San Jose, Open Gate Sangha.
Adyashanti (2015). Abiding in the divine ground meditation. Guided meditations: Evoking the divine ground of your being. Boulder, Colorado: Sounds True.
Eckhart, M. (1958). Treatises and sermons (J. Midgley Clark & J. Vass Skinner, Trans.). Harper.
Huxley, A. (2004). The perennial philosophy (1st Perennial Classics ed.). Perennial Classics.
Merton, T., & Shannon, W. H. (Eds.). (2003). The inner experience: Notes on contemplation. Harper, SanFrancisco.
Samaneri Jayasāra - Wisdom of the Masters. (2023, July 19). Garab Dorje ~ The Ground of Being ~ Dzogchen (Ati Yoga) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hluvoKd3tLk


Key words

advaita vedanta, Adyashanti, Aldous Huxley, awakening, Buddhism, contemplation, contemplative, divine ground, God, Godhead, ground of all being, liberation, meditation, Meister Eckhart, non-duality, prayer, Thomas Merton, 

Link

https://herethewaking.blogspot.com/2026/02/how-to-experience-ground-of-all-being.html