A true master does not shout his greatness from the hilltops or through flashy adds nor does he demand recognition. The depth of his mastery is revealed powerfully during ordinary moments and simple gestures.

This took place last spring at ISTA 1 in Guatemala. I was seated next to the workshop facilitator Bruce Lyons during a lunchtime break when he noticed a speck of food that landed on my chin. He reached out with his hand to wipe it off my face. What happened next was one of those illuminating and transformative moments, that shift your consciousness and light up your psyche when you are least expecting it. In his simple touch there was so much reverence, kindness and tenderness- it took my breath away and melted my heart into openness. Bruce’s touch was an outpouring of universal consciousness as pure love, and that speck of food on my face became the most precious thing that existed in that moment.

I was being very still trying to memorise this touch, as every cell of my body was drinking in the vibrational energy of the teaching pouring into me from his direct transmission. I wanted to take it all in, to take it into the very core of my being, and into my heart. I asked myself - Can I bring this level of sacredness with which Bruce wiped the crumb off my face to everything and everyone in my life - my loved ones, my clients, my friends and strangers i meet? Can I be that way with myself, when I touch my own body, my own heart? Can I access it whenever i have to wipe off all the fallen crumbs that drop down on me throughout my life journey?

That day at a lunch table, as I was receiving from Bruce an expansive heart-opening experiences that allowed for a new window to pop open in my being, I knew i was in the presence of a true master. Months later It still feels like a huge gift — a powerful dose of new awareness received through our connectedness to contemplate and grow. This is the nature of awakening, as I experience it, not transcendent through detachment, but en-heartened awareness through embodied presence. Now when I say I AM LOVE I know what it actually feels like, because the memory imprint of being touched so deeply at the lunch table during the temple training lives on in my temple body.