Navin Amaras’ Take on The Hoffman Process

Everyone seems to have the best doctor, psychologist, housing agent… I’m totally guilty of this cognitive bias as well. When I first heard about this mysterious course out in Byron Bay, I skeptically rolled my eyes at the thought of spending a week of my life imprisoned with strangers that I didn’t know, in a country that was a few thousand miles away, on a program that no one would describe in any meaningful detail. Yep, must be a cult.

Thanks to the encouragement of two trusted friends, I eventually did take the leap and showed up, not just physically but with my entire heart and being. A week becomes a strange concept when you are with people that are deeply present, open-hearted and endlessly compassionate. I stopped being the person that I (subconsciously) was pretending to be, and let the Process tear the idea of me apart, laying bare old scars from childhood, stubborn habit patterns and the imprints that generations of ancestors have left on entire societies.

It’s tempting to say that this Process is a kind of wonder-drug, a tonic to solve all earthly ailments. Truth is, I will never be perfect – no one is. The self judgement is still there today in a softer form that it was, but now I can see how it shapes the way I see the people around me. I see the way it is inherited.  Pain is inevitable in life, but we have some agency in how we suffer, through discovering new ways of seeing. I have always loved the idea that through all our exploration, both of the world outside and the universe within, we arrive back where we started and see it with new eyes for the first time.

The Hoffman Process is a lens that is gifted to us through our effort, and hopefully we can help others, not through condescending words but through our action based on a flourishing wisdom and compassion.

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