1. The Direct Path has all the elements needed in order for one to come to “the yoga of relationships.” These elements include direct experience, higher reason (or inquiry), and witnessing awareness. I’ll implicitly draw on all three in what follows.

2. Suppose, as many of us do, that you feel a sense of separation from other human beings. Take someone in particular, and ask yourself, “What is it that seems to divide or separate me from you?”

3. The answer you’ll likely come to will be a thought or a feeling. Specifically, you’ll feel a strong dislike.

4. Investigate this thought (belief) or feeling. Perhaps the thought is: “You don’t understand me.” Or: “I feel alone.” Go deeper:

• Do you find a referent–that is, an other-entity–to which this thought refers? (No, but see for yourself.)
• Do you find an ego-entity–an “I”–dwelling inside of the thought? (No.)
• Does the thought or feeling–“I feel alone”–refer to “your” body or to “your” mind? (No: look closely.)
• What does this thought or feeling merge into? (It merges into awareness, which is to say: into peace.)

5. When this sense of separation is understood, it dissolves in aware presence. It was, in fact, never there to begin with–except in appearance but never in reality.

6. When you abide gently, naturally, and knowingly as aware presence, how can separation arise in the first place? Feel, deeply, what this is like.