Zombies Among Us: Are you Sleepwalking Through Life?

In this episode, Christopher Shaw and Aeon Archer explore Zombies Among Us: The Sacred End of Sleepwalking through the lenses of spirituality, meditation, mindfulness, contemplative Christianity, the teachings of Jesus, the Bhagavad Gita, Kashmir Shaivism, Buddhism, non-duality, trauma healing, conscious living, awakening, and personal transformation. 

Together they examine how unconscious living quietly shapes our relationships, work, and identity, why the nervous system learns to "go to sleep" in order to survive, and how every great wisdom tradition points toward the same invitation: awaken to the Presence that has never left you. 

Discover why awareness—not achievement—is the path to freedom, and why the greatest tragedy is not that we die, but that we never fully live before we do. This episode concludes with a guided meditation designed to help you remember the awareness that has been present beneath every thought, every fear, and every story.

✨ Reflection Questions

• Where in my life have I been moving through the motions instead of truly being present?

• What emotional armor am I still carrying long after the battle has ended?

• Which stories about myself have I mistaken for who I truly am?

• When was the last time I experienced simple presence without trying to improve the moment?

• What would change if awakening were less about becoming someone new and more about remembering who I have always been?

🔥 Practice of the Week

The Wake Up Practice

1️⃣ Arrive

Several times throughout your day...

Pause.

Take one slow, conscious breath.

Feel your feet on the ground.

Allow yourself to arrive completely.

2️⃣ Notice

Observe your experience.

Are you fully here?

Or has your mind wandered into yesterday...

Tomorrow...

Or the endless story of "me"?

Simply notice.

No judgment.

3️⃣ Remember

Silently repeat:

"I am here."

Then...

"Awareness is already here."

Nothing to force.

Nothing to create.

Only recognize.

4️⃣ Open

Look around you.

Notice one beautiful thing you would normally overlook.

The movement of light.

The sound of birds.

Someone's smile.

The feeling of breathing.

Allow ordinary life to become sacred again.

5️⃣ Rest

For one full minute...

Stop trying to become more spiritual.

Simply rest as awareness itself.

Let this moment be enough.

🔗 Links & Resources

Apply for Private Mentorship
https://www.archershaw.guru

Upcoming Events & Webinars
https://www.archershaw.guru/events

Private Earth Medicine Immersions & Retreats
https://www.merkabaretreats.com

Join Merkaba Temple Every Sunday
https://www.merkabatemple.com/sundayservice

🎙 Listen to More Teachings
https://www.archershaw.guru/listen

📖 Read Essays & Spiritual Reflections
https://www.merkabatemple.com/read

❤️‍🔥 Support Merkaba Temple

Venmo: @MerkabaTemple

https://www.merkabatemple.com/donate

🔱 ArcherShaw Temple — Teachings for Sovereign Awakening

If this episode served you, share it with someone standing at a threshold of becoming.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to the Archer Staw Temple Podcast, teachings for sovereign awakening, sacred union, and embodied devotion. I'm Christopher Staw here with Aeon Archer. May this transmission meet you exactly where you are and open the next doorway on your path. Let us begin.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

Alright, alright, alright. Hello, everyone, and welcome. I'd like to say a special welcome to all of you who are here live on Zoom with us, those who are viewing us live on YouTube, and those who are listening later on our podcast or on our YouTube channel. We welcome all of you here today. Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you. Ephesians 5.14. And what is night to all beings is the time of awakening for the disciplined one. Bhagavad Gita 2.69. Have you ever driven somewhere, pulled into the driveway, turned off the car, and realized you don't remember the drive? Right? All of us have done that, right? Where were we? Your body arrived, but your awareness never did. Or maybe you've been halfway through a conversation when you suddenly realize you haven't even heard the last five minutes of the person sharing with you. Someone you love is sharing something big and you're already planning tomorrow, replaying yesterday, or arguing with someone who isn't even in the room. Your body is here, but your awareness is somewhere else. How many of you here in this room know what that's like? And I wonder, what if this isn't something that only happens while we're driving? What if much of life is lived this way? We wake up, we check our phones, we answer emails, we rush to work, we eat lunch while looking at another screen, we worry about tomorrow, we replay yesterday, we finally crawl into bed only to discover we were never fully present for the day that we just lived. For months I've been carrying around one sentence, and it has become the heartbeat of an entire series of essays that I've been writing. It is this. The unconscious living do. Now, before anyone becomes offended, let me tell you what I mean. I'm not talking about morality, and I'm not talking about intelligence, and I'm not talking about whether someone believes the right theology, meditates every morning, chants in Sanskrit, or attends church or temple every Sunday. I'm talking about consciousness. I'm talking about what happens when we forget that we were alive while we're still living. Because I don't think the greatest tragedy is that we die. I think the greatest tragedy is that we never fully lived before we did. So none of us decide to become unconscious, right? Like no child wakes up one morning and says, I think I'd like to spend the rest of my life emotionally unavailable. Like nobody does that. Come on. Children arrive astonishly awake. Children and dogs, right? They notice everything. They stop to watch ants crossing the sidewalk. They laugh without apologizing. They cry without shame until they are shamed. And they dance in grocery stores. Children are present. So great. And then life happens. Someone tells them that they're too much or not enough. A heart gets broken, a parent leaves, someone dies, they get bullied, they get rejected, they get abused, they get ashamed, they're traumatized, they're disappointed. And then something beautiful happens. Our nervous system protects us. This is one of the greatest miracles of being human. Your nervous system loves you and it will do whatever it can to help you survive. If feeling becomes dangerous, it learns to not feel so much. If vulnerability becomes dangerous, it learns to hide. If love becomes dangerous, it builds walls. Not because something is wrong with you, but because something inside of you is trying to keep you alive. And please hear this. The armor is not your enemy. It was once your salvation. And the tragedy isn't that you built armor. The tragedy is that many of us are still wearing it decades after the battle has ended. Your body survived, but your awareness went to sleep. One of the beautiful things about Merkaba Temple is that we don't gather around agreement. We gather around awakening. We honor Jesus, Krishna, Buddha, Shiva. We honor the great mystics of every tradition because truth is too vast to be contained by one language. The traditions are not identical, and many of them tell different stories and use different symbols. But sometimes, if you listen carefully, you begin to hear the same music. Paul in the Christian tradition says, awake, O sleeper. Buddha speaks of awakening from ignorance. The Bhagavad Gita from Hinduism says that what the world calls waking is often another kind of sleep. In Kashmir Shaivism, which is what Anne and I practice, Kashmir Shaivism speaks of Anavamala. And we've talked about this before. Anavamala is the contraction into believing that we are merely this separate little self. Not because it's ultimately true, but because we have forgotten our nature, our true nature. The problem, according to Shaivism, isn't that God left us, it's that we forgot who we are. And we haven't forgotten it intellectually or forgotten it in other ways, we've forgotten it existentially. We become hypnotized by our thoughts, hypnotized by fear, hypnotized by identity, hypnotized by the endless story of me. And then one day we mistake that story for the capital Self. Now people spend a lot of time complaining about the world. Just go on Facebook. Politics, violence, division, social media, the economy, and religion. The world is falling apart, many people think and say. And maybe they're right. But here's the question. Who built the world we're complaining about? We did. Human consciousness did. Every family is consciousness organized. Every business is consciousness organized. Every government is consciousness organized. Every church is consciousness organized. Systems don't suddenly become compassionate because someone writes a better policy. They become compassionate because awakened people inhabit them. Fear creates fearful systems. Greed creates greedy systems. Love creates loving systems. Presence reorganizes everything it touches. Which means this. Your awakening or your sleepwalking is not private. Your awakening or your sleepwalking is not private. It changes your marriage, your children, your friendships, and your workplace. Every room you enter. The question isn't whether you're influencing the room, because you are. So a lot of people think that awakening is like some extraordinary mystical experience. And maybe it is sometimes, but I really think that most awakening is wonderfully ordinary. You've tasted it, standing beside the ocean, watching the rainfall, holding someone you love, looking into the eyes of your dog, listening to music that somehow knew exactly where your heart hurt, watching sunlight move across the floor. For just one moment, you stopped trying to improve the moment. And there was only this. So that wasn't an accident. It wasn't your imagination. It was reality peeking through the noise. You didn't become whole, but you remembered in that instant your wholeness. And here's what it's like to live awake. Eventually, awakening becomes less dramatic and far more beautiful. You stop chasing spiritual experiences. You stop trying to become enlightened. You stop measuring yourself against everyone else's journey because you begin discovering something astonishing. God, higher power, spirit, is hiding inside ordinary Tuesday mornings. Coffee becomes sacred. Conversation becomes prayer. And silence becomes enough. You no longer need life to be extraordinary in order to feel alive. Relationships stop becoming places where you demand someone else complete you, and they become places where fullness meets fullness. Success no longer determines your worth. Failure no longer defines your identity. Grief, it hurts. Loss, it still hurts. But suffering no longer owns you. Life keeps happening. And now someone is finally home to experience it. So here is the invitation. This morning, I don't want any of you to become someone else. I love you all just as you are. I don't want you to try harder, and I don't want you to become more spiritual. I just want you to notice. Notice your breathing. Notice your heartbeat. Notice the person or the pet sitting beside you. Notice the sound of the birds, the feeling of your body resting in the chair. Notice awareness itself. Do you see awareness is already here? None of us have to manufacture it, and we don't have to earn it, and we are not having to become worthy of it. It has quietly been waiting beneath every thought you have ever had. In Kashmir Shaivism, we speak of Paratibijajina, which I probably say wrong every time, but it means recognition in English. It's a beautiful word, recognition. We're not learning something new, we're just recognizing what has already been true. So perhaps awakening isn't becoming something greater. Perhaps awakening is simply recognizing the presence that has never once left. Perhaps the kingdom of God, the capital S self, Shiva consciousness, the divine, or whatever language your heart uses has been here breathing you, loving you, and holding you every moment of your entire life, waiting patiently for you to notice. Let's take a deep breath in. Divine light, in us through us and as us, thank you for the gift of this moment. Thank you that beneath every thought, every fear, every wound, and every story, your presence has never left us. Awaken us not into becoming someone else, but into remembering who we truly are. Where we have been asleep, gently wake us up. Where we have been afraid, gently soften us. Where we have been armored, gently open us. Give us the courage to lay down what once protected us but no longer serves us, and the wisdom to trust that it's safe to live with open hearts. May our awareness become our offering, our presence become our ministry, and our homes, our relationships, our work in every room we enter. Transformed. Not because we try to control the world, because we choose to inhabit it with love, compassion, and conscious presence. Help us remember that every ordinary moment is holy, every breath is a gift, and every person we encounter bears the spark of the divine. As we leave this gathering today, may we walk more slowly, listen more deeply, and love more freely and awaken more fully to the life that is already living through us. Om na Mashivaya, Om Guru Omed. Aho Ashe. And so it is. And now Aeon will lead us in today's meditation to help all of us embody the teaching.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

All right. Thank you. I invite you to close your eyes, soften your gaze, and become aware of your body. Noticing the sensation as the air moves in and out of your nose. Take a deep breath in and release with a sigh. Again, deep breath in. And release. And on your final breath in, gathering all of your thoughts. And as you release with a sigh, let them go. Becoming aware of your body once more. Feeling the weight of gravity supporting you. Becoming aware of the sensation of your body against the surface beneath you. No one is asking anything of you in this moment. There's nothing to do. Nowhere else to be. Simply here. Fully. Alive in this moment. Now gently bring your attention back to your breath. And notice how effortless your breath supports you. Even in the moments you may be sleepwalking, your breath has never left you. It has always been supporting you. It waits gently for your attention. Now become aware of the quiet power of your attention. And notice the peace available to you through the awareness of this moment. Presence waits. Awareness waits. Attention waits. Taking another deep breath in through the nose. And as you exhale, drop your attention deeper into the awareness of this moment. Now bring your attention to the bottom of your feet. If your feet are on the ground, feel the ground. If they are not, just feel your feet existing. Held by gravity. Held by the earth that has never once dropped you. Now let your attention rise slowly into the ankles. Into your calves. Into your knees. You are not analyzing your body. You are visiting it. Like a friend you have not seen in a while. Shifting now to the hips. Lower back. Belly. Allow your belly to soften. It has probably been held tight for longer than you've realized. You do not need to protect this moment. This moment is safe. Shifting now to the chest, shoulders, allowing the shoulders to drop even a centimeter. Into your arms. Elbows. And down into the palms of your hand. Feeling your hands resting. Not gripping anything. Not fixing anything. Just simply resting. Now shifting your attention to the neck. To your jaw. Allowing the jaw to unclench. The mouth to open just slightly. To the forehead, to all the muscles around the eyes, feeling the cheeks grow heavy, becoming fully immersed and relaxed into this moment. Notice this is not relaxation as escape. This is your nervous system remembering it is allowed to feel safe. Now somewhere in your body, there may be a place holding tension. Maybe your shoulder, your jaw, possibly your chest. Just simply notice this place of tension. You do not need to fix it. You do not need to understand it. Just place your attention there. The way you would place a hand on someone you love. Now silently offer it these words. You kept me safe. You can rest now. I am not in danger anymore. Allow whatever softens to soften. And whatever stays held to stay held. Both are welcome. Now bring your attention to the space just behind your eyes. The quiet witness that has been here the entire meditation. Noticing everything. And judging nothing. That witness is not new. It did not arrive when you closed your eyes. It has been here your whole life. Underneath every thought, every fear, every story you had told about who you are. You are not becoming present right now. You are recognizing that you already are. Recognition. Feel your breath one more time as it comes in. And now this breath is the only place life has ever actually happened. Not yesterday. Not tomorrow. Here. In a moment, I will invite you to open your eyes. Before you do, make one quiet commitment just to yourself. Not a commitment to be more spiritual. Just a commitment to notice. One ordinary moment today. Coffee, conversation, a red light in traffic, maybe your hands on the steering wheel. And let it be sacred simply because you were awake for it. Taking one more full breath. And when you are ready, gently open your eyes. Welcome back. And now Christopher will lead us in today's offering.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Welcome back, everyone. That was beautiful. Before we move into today's announcements, I'd love to invite you into a moment of generosity. So every week, people from around the world gather here for almost a year now. Some are joining us for the very first time today. Others have been walking with us for months. What brings us together isn't a building, and it's not a denomination, and it's not an institution. It's a shared longing to awaken. Everything that we offer through Merkaba Temple, these Sunday services, our podcasts, the essays, meditation, videos, and the countless conversations that happen throughout the week are freely given, because we believe the deepest spiritual wisdom should never be hidden behind a paywall. But while the teachings are freely given, the ministry is not free to create. It is sustained entirely by people like you, people who believe that places like this matter. So if today's service has nourished you, if these gatherings have become part of your spiritual practice, or if Merkaba Temple has helped you remember something true about yourself, please help us continue this work. Your generosity allows these teachings to reach someone who may be searching, someone who feels alone, someone who needs hope, perhaps someone who is just beginning to awaken. If you feel called, please do not wait until later. Take your phone out now. Make your offering while your heart is open. Let your giving become part of today's spiritual practice. You can give through Vinmo. Our Venmo is at Merkaba Temple, all one word, or by visiting Mercabatemple.com forward slash donate. You can even set it up to do regularly so you don't have to worry about it each week. Whether your gift is $20, $50, $100,000, $1,000, or whatever feels joyful and generous to you, know that every offering becomes part of something much larger than itself. Together, we are creating a spiritual home where people from every tradition can gather, practice, heal, and awaken. So thank you for your generosity, for your trust, and for helping us carry this temple out into the world.

SPEAKER_00 27:28

All right. Before we close today, we'd love to share a few things happening in our community. First, Christopher's teaching today was inspired by this five-part essay series called The Sleepwalkers, now available on the archershawl.guru. Actually, archershall.net, right now? I haven't changed it over yet, but it will be soon. All right. Well, soon to be archershawl.net blog page. These essays explore one of the central questions at the spiritual life. What does it really mean to wake up? Drawing from psychology, contemplative Christianity, Buddhism, Kashmir Shaivism, neuroscience, and the great wisdom traditions, the series invites us to recognize the unconscious patterns that shape our lives and discover the freedom that comes because becomes possible when awareness returns. So if today's teaching resonated with you, we think you'll love this series. You can find all five essays at archershaw.guru forward slash blog.

SPEAKER_02 28:24

And the the links are in the chat, you guys. And if you didn't know about the chat, at the end of the service today, you can click the little hamburger icon or the three dots, and you can actually save the chat and it will save everything that was in the chat today. And we always put every week into the chat uh guru's transmission and like all the good stuff. So I'm giving you uh it looks like a little blurry picture we have here. I'm sharing with you guys the beautiful river temple property here. And I'd like to tell you about Mercuber Retreats. We're accepting applications for private individual and couples immersions here in beautiful Puerto Vallarta, right here at the Archer Shaw River Temple. Um, as you can see, this is where we do ceremonies, it's our beautiful yard. If you look past the yard where the trees are, that's the wall to the right, that's the river, which surrounds the entire property. So you literally hear the river rumbling all day. It's just beautiful. These immersive experiences, they're intentionally small, deeply personalized, and designed for anyone. So whether you're seeking healing, greater clarity, spiritual deepening, or you just need to get away from the noise and you want to come spend a week with us, we would love to have you here. So please visit Merkabaretreats.com for details.

SPEAKER_00 29:32

And finally, if these weekly teachings have become part of your spiritual practice, we'd love to invite you to continue the journey throughout the week. The Archer Shaw Temple Podcast explores many of the same themes we discussed here at Merkkaba Temple, including meditation, recovery, spiritual awakening, relationships, contemplative Christianity, yoga, psychedelic integration, and conscious living. You'll find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms. Simply visit archershawl.guru forward slash listen. Thank you for being here with us at Archershaw Temple. If something in this teaching helped your body soften or brought you back into yourself, let it keep moving. Share it with someone who's ready. This temple is sustained through conscious participation, through those who feel the resonance and choose to support the work from clarity, not pressure. If you feel called into write exchange, you're welcome to support the mission on Venmo at Merkova Temple all one word. And if you'd like to go deeper, you can schedule a complimentary soul alignment session at archershahl.guru. Until next time, take care of your nervous system, walk gently, and stay close to what's true.