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Letters to the SkyAuthor: Adam Rizvi & Stephan Downes
Letters to the Sky is a podcast about waking up to what you are. We explore awakening and nonduality through honest conversation, irreverent humor, and stories drawn from many traditions and our own lives. Instead of fixed answers, we invite listeners into direct inquiry. Be right where you are. No dogma. Just the ongoing experiment of seeing through illusion and resting in what remains. Language: en-us Genres: Philosophy, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture, Spirituality Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Awakening Without Bypassing: Integration, Emotions, and the Ground of Safety
Monday, 16 February, 2026
Send a textIn this episode of Letters to the Sky, Stephan and Adam speak with Dave Biggs, a UK-based nondual teacher whose path grew out of a highly controlled religious upbringing, childhood trauma, and years of anxiety, panic disorder, addiction, and a bipolar diagnosis. Drawing on his experience supporting others in distress through the NHS and Samaritans, Dave explores why awakening can become a subtle escape when intense suffering makes the idea of “no self” feel like a final hope—and how that denial eventually crashes.Together, they unpack the overlooked work of post-awakening integration: the way emotions can become more raw and intense when resistance falls away, why kindness and gentleness still matter, and how labeling and story-making can trap sensations instead of letting them move through. Dave describes an “absolute” ground of unconditioned awareness as a stabilizing landing pad—like a starter before the main course—that makes it possible to face trauma without bypassing the human experience. The conversation closes with Dave sharing brief details of his childhood split between Jehovah’s Witness fear and his father’s atheism, his long search to disprove a malicious God, and the eventual recognition of an unconditionally loving presence, along with ways to connect with him at dualitydetox.com.00:00 Welcome 01:00 How They Met Dave: Voice Memos, Nonduality Groups & Shared Language02:07 Dave’s Background: Trauma, Mental Health, and Teaching Without Bypassing05:53 The Trap of ‘No One Here’: Spiritual Bypassing, Denial, and the Crash11:54 Real Self-Realization: Ordinary, Subtle, and Noticed by the Absence of Suffering13:46 Integration Mechanics: Momentum After Awakening & the ‘Last 5%’ of Work16:41 Emotions After Awakening: Anger, Grief, Tears, and Feeling It Fully19:24 Letting Emotions Move: Disney Tears, Accessibility, and Dropping the Labels22:58 The ‘Child Catcher’ Metaphor: Stop Netting Feelings and Naming Them27:02 Mind’s Story-Making vs Witnessing: Grasping, Aversion, and Waves Passing Through30:18 Groundlessness & Ultimate Truth: Returning to What We Are32:00 The “Landing Pad”: Unconditioned Awareness as the Base34:08 Starter vs Main Course: Letting Experience Move Through You37:02 Macbeth, Despair, and Finding the Ground Beneath the “Sound and Fury”40:32 Post-Awakening Reality Check: Emotions Don’t Disappear41:49 Why the Ground Makes Healing Possible (and the Hand Analogy Explained)44:14 Healing Is Reachable: Safety, Integration, and Trauma Unraveling46:23 When Pain Becomes Identity: The MS Patient Story49:30 Dave’s Lived-Experience Work & Dropping the Trauma “Performance”54:40 Dave’s Childhood & Awakening Turning Point (High-Level Story)59:27 Wrap-Up: Keep Doing the Work + Where to Find DaveSupport the showCopyright 2025 by Letters to the Sky
