Awakin Talk “Law of Love” webinar series has just hosted a deeply inspiring and touching conversation with Gary Zukav, whose intrinsically motivated service has touched and transformed millions of minds and hearts. Author of four consecutive New York Times bestsellers, Gary was moved to tears a few times during his sharing of some of the significant moments in his life, a journey that’s filled with deep connections and transformative encounters.

To respond to Meghna’s question about what caused him to change from making life choices from the place of lacking worthiness to following what’s meaningful, Gary shared his life journey from rural Kansas to Harvard University, from a motorcycle wanderer to a sincere seeker, from living for the “me” to serving for the transformation of humanity. Gary repeatedly reminded us to follow and respond to what’s truly meaningful in our lives.

While living in San Francisco where he experimented with drugs and sex, he met a group of physicists who were engaged in discussing: “Are we experimenting with the reality, [or] are we creating the reality that we are experimenting with?” That felt meaningful to him. He was inspired to write his first book, The Dancing Wu Li Masters—his “first gift to life” as he calls it.

Parag: Why do you call it “the first gift to life?”

Gary: Everything in my life to that moment was about me me me me me me me...As I was writing the book, I decided to live my life the way this book was being written, which was spontaneously, intelligently, joyfully... And I also made a decision, never to have any of the energy of a frightened part of my personality enter into a book.

Years after publishing The Seat of the Soul, one day he got a call from Oprah Winfrey. Having lived in a mountain community on Mount Shasta in California for many years, when Oprah Winfrey first called him, he asked how she spelled her name. Later, he was invited to be on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Gary: I could see something as though I were a surfer...and I was on a surfboard. A wave had just arrived and I didn't have to do anything. I didn't have to pedal to catch it; I didn't have to wait for it. All I had to do was stand up and ride. The ride was going to take me a long way.

(Gary has been on The Oprah Winfrey Show 36 times, more than any other guest!)

In creating his “first gift,” The Dancing Wu Li Masters, Gary was led to a monastery in San Francisco, and then a big monastery in Northern California, The City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, where he met a Chinese Chan Master (Master Hua). From the Chan Master’s presence, he saw that indescribable “non-physical reality.”

Gary: I saw something like never seen before. I realized I was talking to a presence, unlike anything I'd ever seen. It wasn't mystical. It was simply I knew I was talking to someone who cannot be manipulated. I couldn't manipulate him, nothing in the world could manipulate this presence, the power that is not manipulatable by the world, and he had a sense of inner joy that does not depend on the world.

During his Mount Shasta years, Gary was also adopted into a Lakota Sioux family to do something with the Native American youth. His Sioux brother Phil’s father melted his heart on their first meeting. This Sioux uncle helped Gary prepare for his vision quest over the phone and said to him, “Let yourself melt into the creator's tenderness.” To prepare for the vision quest, Gary spent the entire summer hiking around Mount Shasta to look for a right spot. And finally, he found it.

Gary: The trees in it felt like a cathedral. It was very peaceful. And it invited me. I felt safe, really safe there...And then, when I was ready for the vision quest...I went back to this place...I made a circle out of the sage that I harvested, and I put my things outside the circle, except some water...that's where I stayed for the vision quest...

At midday, the sun was directly overhead. No part of the circle was in the shade, and it was hot. And I started to feel very tired. Very tired and I thought, “why am I feeling this way?” I've been on a week-long fast before, and this is only the second day. But I could barely move, so I lay down in a fetal position with my back against the sage circle...I felt as though I were a mother with her child. And they were both dying of hunger...I couldn't move. I didn't have the strength to move my arm to touch my child who was starving in front of me...I couldn’t sort it out any further -- I was the child and also I was the mother. And then I felt like I became all the starving mothers with their starving children (choking with a long pause). And it was horrible.

After the vision quest, Gary shared this experience with his Sioux uncle, who said, “Nephew, now you're talking like a man.” That shifted Gary’s understanding of masculinity forever.

Meghna brought up the circle at Gandhi Ashram where Gary shared many sacred moments with other participants at Gandhi 3.0. A message to Gary from Jayesh-bhai was shared as a surprise gift.

Message to Gary and Linda from Jayesh:

When I remember you, I get a feeling of warmth, and a gentle feeling of love. Your presence itself generates warmth...and love. And you both (Gary and Linda) carry such a beautiful intention of goodwill for the world, that is so transformative. You listen with so much love...you appreciate with so much heart. Your heart is open; your minds are clean….

At the end, Gary stressed that meeting Linda Francis, his spiritual partner, another emerging universal human, was another significant turning point in his life.

During the Q&A session, Gary touched on the topic of emotional awareness, which is needed to create authentic power.

Gary: Create authentic power by not acting on the frightened part of your personality...and instead, acting from a loving part of your personality that is grateful or appreciative and caring...When you do that, you turn yourself in a different direction...When you do that again and again and again, that frightened part of your personality loses its control for you, and love starts to become more a part of your awareness. That's how you create authentic power, that's how you grow spiritually...you have to know what you want to change, you have to be able to identify, and you have to use your will, you have to make a responsible choice when you're in the grip or the experience of fear.

You can listen or watch the whole talk here.