Sekhem: Sekhem, Emotional Awareness and the Peace of Non-Duality

Sekhem and the Awareness of Reaction

Sekhem, Judgment and the Peace of Non-Duality. Teachings by Patrick Zeigler.

Written transcripts can accompany sessions and classes, allowing the spoken teaching to be revisited afterward. Manuals and class transcripts also provide a way to see what takes place in the work.

A session begins with a simple question: What would you like to receive?

Sharing: “Whatever suits me best at the moment. Personally, I have been dealing a lot with duality, with seeing negative things in different people. When I was younger, I was more Zen-like. I tended not to react or have an opinion about those things. Recently, I have noticed myself having more opinions about people.”

Sharing: “I want to return to being more Zen, less easily triggered by things that I do not think really affect me, things that are not my business. But sometimes, in working or business relationships, people do things I do not agree with. That makes me very uncomfortable. Having those judgments in my heart also affects my mental health, I think. I want to release those judgments, or whatever makes me feel triggered.”

Response: As children, we are often naturally closer to that state. It is possible to remember being a child and notice that, as an adult, the reaction is different. Whatever the world presents, the point to notice is your own reaction.

When the thought arises, “This person is doing that, and I am not happy with it,” the next question is, “How do I react to it?” Non-duality is part of this. When you really connect with non-duality within yourself, the reaction is no longer there.

Patrick Zeigler also identifies this as something he has been working with personally. The first step in healing it is awareness. Once the reaction is recognized, there is something to work with.

Physical, Emotional and Mental Experience

Energy can work on different levels. The physical level may be very tangible. Some people experience strong vibrations, waves or movement.

This is one benefit of being in a class. Even when the vibration is not yet felt personally, it may be possible to see other people moving through it. As people become comfortable with the physical vibration, most learn how to experience it themselves.

There is also an emotional level. The energy can activate things that have been held on to or left unexpressed. What has not been expressed may begin to come forward.

The mental level includes what is happening in the mind. The mind may be very busy. Yet there can also be a moment when the experience shifts instantaneously into the space of non-duality.

Recognizing Peace and Allowing Integration

The non-dual space can be difficult to recognize precisely because it is simply peace. There may be no dramatic sign that something spiritual has happened.

Spirituality is often associated with striking experiences: seeing light or angels, having visions, seeing past lives or speaking with extraterrestrials. These are things people may seek and understand as spiritual growth. Simple peace can attract much less interest.

Yet the non-duality being explored here is that eternal peace within. During a session, there may be a moment of recognition: “I am not thinking. I am not judging. I am just in total peace.”

Sometimes this happens toward the end of a session. When it does, lying down and allowing the experience to integrate can be helpful. In a session like this, integration may take about fifteen minutes.

In this session, additional time was available if needed. The teacher could step into another room and leave the person undisturbed until they were ready to say they had finished. The intention was to leave space for peace to be experienced, with the choice of how long to remain resting left to the person receiving the session.

Alongside the physical, emotional and mental levels, spiritual experiences can arise. In this use of the word, spiritual experiences include those associated with dimensions other than the Earth dimension. There may be things seen, heard or felt on a spiritual level.