Awakening Now

Ilona Ciunaite
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Join Ilona Ciunaite for honest conversations and guided explorations into the nature of self, consciousness, and awakening. This podcast is for those who are looking not just to understand awakening, but to see it — directly, in their own experience. Each episode invites you to slow down, inquire, and notice awareness itself. Through guided Deep Looking sessions and dialogues with teachers, authors, and fellow explorers, Ilona opens the door to what many call spiritual awakening — seeing through the illusion of self, and discovering peace that doesn’t come and go. You’ll explore: – Self-inquiry and direct experience – Deep Looking and seeing beyond the mind – The process of awakening and integration – Presence, awareness, and the end of seeking Ilona Ciunaite is a guide, author, and co-creator of the Liberation Unleashed community. For over 14 years, she has been helping seekers all over the world discover freedom through direct experience. If you are ready to look within, this podcast offers clear guidance and grounded conversation — simple, sincere, and free of spiritual jargon

  1. 14 hrs ago

    Can Sound Take You Beyond The Mind With Sam Kukathas

    Send me your thoughts in a Text Message What happens when someone who spent years questioning everything stops arguing and starts listening. In this episode, I sit down with Sam Kukathas, a former academic philosopher who spent over a decade as a skeptic before finding he could work with the human voice as a kind of frequency, bringing people back into their own body and their own knowing. When I ask him what he actually does, he stops explaining and offers to show me instead. We talk about readiness, about the difference between searching for something outside yourself and remembering what's already here, and about what happened the day a voice moved through him that he hadn't expected and couldn't fully explain. Sam also leads a short experience during our conversation, so it's worth finding a quiet moment to listen. If you've ever sensed that the teacher, the method, or the next insight isn't where the answer lives, this conversation may land somewhere familiar. About the Guest: Sam Kukathas is the creator of Neuro-Resonance Optimisation and the founder of Soul Purpose Leaders and Resonance OS. With a background in academic philosophy, his work explores the human voice as a frequency that can open us to who we already are. He was recently named one of the Top 5 Spirituality and Mindset Leaders Creating Extraordinary Impact by the High Impact Awards. Find Sam: Website: www.soulpurposeleaders.com Resonance OS: www.resonanceos.io Instagram: www.instagram.com/samkukathas ............... If you want to explore this more deeply, I’ve put everything together here. You’re welcome to subscribe to my email list and be the first to know about the next round of Seeing Through the Separate Self Experience. https://zcmp.eu/1XWa Music by Valdi Sabev. In loving memory and gratitude for the music he shared. Support the show Websites http://ilonaciunaite.com http://liberationunleashed.com

  2. Sep 12

    The One Who Is Seeking Is Not the One Who Awakens with Nicole Wordlaw.

    Send me your thoughts in a Text Message What happens when the person who taught you the most about awakening is also the one who needed you to stay small? In this conversation with Nicole Wordlaw, we explore the difference between the awakening we imagine, permanent, painless, almost superhuman, and the one that actually happens, ongoing and fully human. Nicole speaks openly about a cage that formed in her mind long before she met her teacher, and how that same cage was later reflected back to her inside a devoted spiritual relationship. We talk about rest as an unexpected teacher, the quiet work of giving herself permission, and what it means to stop looking for a final arrival. About the Guest Nicole Wordlaw is an African American clinical psychologist, longtime meditator in the Buddhist tradition, spirited coach, and the author of Waking Up Alone, Navigating the Narrow Passage Through Master-Slave Narratives. Her training at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley honed her thinking mind. But the wisdom she needed did not come from a book, nor did it come from staying away from the difficult. The wisdom she needed arose from spirited practice, practices that illuminated the quiet, still voice that always sounds like Love. She lives with her two children and partner on the Indigenous lands of the Monacan people in Virginia. Website: https://www.nicolewordlaw.com/  Substack: https://nicolewordlaw.substack.com/  Book Waking Up Alone: https://www.amazon.com/Waking-Alone-Navigating-Master-Slave-Narratives/dp/1591813735 Join my email list: https://zcmp.eu/1XWa Music by Valdi Sabev. In loving memory and gratitude for the music he shared. Support the show Websites http://ilonaciunaite.com http://liberationunleashed.com

  3. Sep 5

    The Question That Makes the Voice in Your Head Go Silent

    Send me your thoughts in a Text Message There's a question the voice in your head has never been able to answer. Most of us have never actually asked it. In this episode, the second part of a live Zoom meeting, I work directly with four people, each caught in a different version of the same voice. Shame that's become an identity. Guilt over other people's feelings. The quiet certainty of not being good enough. An inner critic that still feels completely real even when it's seen clearly. Each time, we ask the voice one simple question, and each time, something in it goes quiet. These live meetings happen every third Thursday of the month, and everyone is welcome to join. Sign up to my newsletter to receive the link.  If you want to explore this more deeply, I've put everything together here. You're welcome to subscribe to my email list and be the first to know about the next round of Seeing Through the Separate Self Experience. https://zcmp.eu/1XWa Music by Valdi Sabev. In loving memory and gratitude for the music he shared. Support the show Websites http://ilonaciunaite.com http://liberationunleashed.com

  4. Aug 29

    I Never Knew This About the Voice in My Head Until I Asked It Directly

    Send me your thoughts in a Text Message The voice in your head has been talking your whole life. But have you ever actually stopped and asked it who it's talking to? In this live meeting, we look directly at the voice in the head, not as something to argue with or quiet down, but as something worth seeing clearly. We trace how it turns into the inner judge, why it can be so convincing, and where this pattern actually came from in the first place. Rather than trying to fix what the voice says, this conversation points somewhere simpler: seeing it for what it is. Partway through, I bring in a question I use often in Deep Looking. Mind, are you at peace? It's simple, and it opens something. If you've ever felt caught between believing this voice and hating yourself for believing it, I think this one will speak to you. If you want to explore this more deeply, I've put everything together here. You're welcome to subscribe to my email list and be the first to know about the next round of Seeing Through the Separate Self Experience. https://zcmp.eu/1XWa Music by Valdi Sabev. In loving memory and gratitude for the music he shared. Support the show Websites http://ilonaciunaite.com http://liberationunleashed.com

  5. Aug 22

    Can Awakening Happen Through Reationship with Guy Sengstock

    Send me your thoughts in a Text Message Can awakening happen through relationship, or only in solitude? In this conversation, Guy Sengstock, founder of the Circling® Institute, makes the case for the former. For almost thirty years he's built a practice around real, unmanaged contact between two people, and he traces what happens when someone stops performing and actually lets themselves be met. We talk about wonder as the root of his work, what it means to listen to someone's deepest humanity rather than just wait for your turn, and a line that stayed with me after we stopped recording: I find being a self a strange thing to be. Guy also shares the idea that you could sit with another person for a thousand years and still not get to the bottom of who they are.  Guy shares the main principles of Circling®  and invites you to try it out through his website. This episode marks three years of Awakening Now, and I want to thank you for being part of that, for listening, sharing, and writing in with what's landed for you. If you've done real inward work and find yourself wondering whether it holds up under contact with another person, this conversation is for you. About the Guest Guy Sengstock is the founder of the Circling® Institute, a relational practice rooted in wonder, authentic presence, and deep listening that has been running for nearly 30 years. He teaches people how to meet each other and themselves with more honesty, curiosity, and genuine contact. 🔗 Self-study courses: https://circlinginstitute.com/self-study-programs/ 🔗 Live courses: https://circlinginstitute.com/programs/ 📧 Contact Guy directly: guysengstock@gmail.com Music by Valdi Sabev. In loving memory and gratitude for the music he shared. Support the show Websites http://ilonaciunaite.com http://liberationunleashed.com

  6. Aug 1

    When the Last Illusion Fell, There Was Nowhere Left to Hide with Christiane Michelberger

    Send me your thoughts in a Text Message What happens when the last illusion falls away, and it doesn't feel like peace? In this conversation, Christiane Michelberger returns two years after her first appearance to talk about what actually happened when her final fetter fell away. Rather than the bliss she expected, she describes hours of disorientation, the sudden loss of a place to withdraw to when things got hard, before it resolved the next morning into something she calls relief. We talk about the difference between direct pointing and direct experience as paths to seeing through illusion, why awakening doesn't mean the end of anger, fear, or being triggered, and why no teacher can transmit realization to another person. Christiane also shares a striking way of thinking about illusion itself, as a kind of hallucination, sensory experience without sensory input, and what it means to keep returning to what is actually here. This one is for anyone who has had a glimpse and is quietly wondering what a fuller shift might cost. Music by Valdi Sabev. In loving memory and gratitude for the music he shared. Support the show Websites http://ilonaciunaite.com http://liberationunleashed.com

  7. Jul 25

    What Are You Really Looking For When You're Seeking Awakening?

    Send me your thoughts in a Text Message Something in you is looking for relief right now, whether you call it awakening, peace, or simply wanting to feel okay again. If that's where you are, you're welcome to join Deep Looking Immersion: [LINK] What are you really looking for underneath the hope for awakening? This episode comes from a live meeting, opening with a short talk on where seeking actually begins, not curiosity, but suffering, and the quiet hope that once the self is seen through, everything difficult will finally stop. From there, four real conversations unfold. Ben, George, Swen, and Tammy each bring something different to look at, an old assumption about awakening, a fear of feeling good, a belief that something is wrong with them, and each one is met directly, as it happens rather than talked about from a distance. Music by Valdi Sabev. In loving memory and gratitude for the music he shared. Support the show Websites http://ilonaciunaite.com http://liberationunleashed.com

  8. Jul 11

    You Already Know There is No Separate Self. Why Doesn't it Feel That Way?

    Send me your thoughts in a Text Message Here's the Buzzsprout description for episode 133, in your voice, mentioning the live Zoom recording and the open invitation to join next time. You can already understand that there is no separate self, clearly and without doubt, and still feel that nothing has changed. The understanding sits in the mind like a fact you have memorised, while life keeps arriving with the same fears, the same upsets, the same quiet sense that something still isn't right. This episode is a recording of a live Zoom meeting, and it moves through three parts. It opens with a talk for the seeker who looked for the self, found nothing, and quietly decided that meant they had failed. We look at the expectation waiting underneath the search, and at what happens when you turn back toward the very nothing you keep dismissing. From there I sit with a few people, and two of those exchanges stay with me. George is eighty-five and has understood for over ten years that there is no separate self, yet still wants to know how to get there. Together we look at how an upset is really an energy moving in the body, and how the me is a story that borrows its weight from the feeling underneath it. Then I speak with Sebastian, and we follow a lifelong guilt down into the body, into the shame beneath it, and into the young child who first learned it. This is where the looking becomes a kind of healing. If you understand all of this clearly in the mind and still feel it hasn't quite landed in the body, this conversation may speak to where you actually are. These meetings happen live, and you are warmly welcome to join the next one. You can find the details and stay in touch here: https://zcmp.eu/1XWa Music by Valdi Sabev. In loving memory and gratitude for the music he shared. Support the show Websites http://ilonaciunaite.com http://liberationunleashed.com

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About

Join Ilona Ciunaite for honest conversations and guided explorations into the nature of self, consciousness, and awakening. This podcast is for those who are looking not just to understand awakening, but to see it — directly, in their own experience. Each episode invites you to slow down, inquire, and notice awareness itself. Through guided Deep Looking sessions and dialogues with teachers, authors, and fellow explorers, Ilona opens the door to what many call spiritual awakening — seeing through the illusion of self, and discovering peace that doesn’t come and go. You’ll explore: – Self-inquiry and direct experience – Deep Looking and seeing beyond the mind – The process of awakening and integration – Presence, awareness, and the end of seeking Ilona Ciunaite is a guide, author, and co-creator of the Liberation Unleashed community. For over 14 years, she has been helping seekers all over the world discover freedom through direct experience. If you are ready to look within, this podcast offers clear guidance and grounded conversation — simple, sincere, and free of spiritual jargon

Information

  • Creator
    Ilona Ciunaite
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    140
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Awakening Now
  • Show Website
    Awakening Now

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