Non-duality is the recognition that awareness — the knowing in which all experience arises — is not separate from what it knows. There is no observer standing apart from the observed; no isolated self behind your eyes looking out at a world. What appears as 'me' and 'the world' are seamless modulations of one undivided awareness. Non-duality is not a belief to adopt but a direct seeing of what is already the case.

Maitreya is an awakening & liberation teacher based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She offers direct pointing to the recognition of awareness through 1:1 sessions, group satsangs, online programs, and written and video teachings. Her work draws on Advaita Vedanta, Dzogchen, Zen, and the direct-path lineages, but is delivered free of doctrine — pointing students to what is already, immediately true in their own experience.

What does a non-dual spiritual teacher do?

A non-dual teacher points students directly to the nature of awareness rather than offering a step-by-step path of self-improvement. The work is less about acquiring states or experiences and more about recognizing what is already present and unchanging beneath every experience. Teachers do this through dialogue (satsang), guided inquiry, silent presence, and ongoing 1:1 conversations that meet each student where they are.

Is awakening something I attain, or something already true?

From the non-dual view, awakening is not a future achievement but the recognition of what is already the case. Awareness is already aware — it is not produced by any technique or accumulated through any path. What changes in awakening is not awareness itself but the apparent identification with being a separate self. The practices and inquiries used in non-dual teaching are pointers to this recognition, not means of producing it.

How can I work with Maitreya?

Maitreya offers several formats: 1:1 private sessions (online or in-person in Vancouver), group satsangs and live online gatherings, structured online programs, and occasional retreats. Visit https://maitreyabuddha.com/work-with-me for current offerings and how to apply or book a session.

What is the difference between Advaita, Dzogchen, and Zen?

All three traditions point to the non-dual nature of reality but use different language and methods. Advaita Vedanta, rooted in the Upanishads, emphasizes self-inquiry into the question 'Who am I?' to reveal awareness as one's true nature. Dzogchen, from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, points directly to rigpa — the open, knowing, luminous quality of mind — as already perfect. Zen, from the Mahayana Buddhist lineage, uses silent sitting, koans, and direct transmission to cut through conceptual mind to the immediacy of this very moment. Maitreya's teaching draws on all three while remaining anchored in direct, lived recognition rather than tradition-specific doctrine.

Awakening & Liberation Teacher

Awakening was
never reserved
for monks.

Liberation isn't a finish line for the lucky few who get there after thirty years of seeking. It's available right now, to you, in this exact body, in the middle of your actual life. Maitreya teaches what every wisdom tradition has been quietly saying for three thousand years: the freedom you're chasing has been here the whole time.

✦ Begin Here Free Teachings

New here? Start with the free series · Download now →

✦ Featured Event

Uncommon Wisdom
An Introductory Evening

One evening. Two hours. A direct taste of the path this work points to. Maitreya distills two decades of teaching into a single gathering — what awakening actually is, why seeking keeps it at arm’s length, and what becomes possible when the search quietly ends. No prior experience needed. Come exactly as you are.

When

August 2026 · [date TBC]

Time

7:00 – 9:00 PM · 2 Hours

Where

Vancouver, BC

Investment

$50

Reserve Your Place · $50 →

Limited seats · In-person gathering in Vancouver

Core Teachings

Awakening is not withdrawal from life — it is the flowering of a new way of being. Relationships, work, creativity all become expressions of the sacred when met from presence.

Explore →

★ How Maitreya Helps

How Maitreya Helps

Whatever you've been carrying, you don't have to figure it out alone. Maitreya works with people on the things that actually keep them up at night — the patterns, the pain, the questions you're tired of asking. Real change, in plain language.

◯

Emotional Patterns

Anxiety · depression · anger · fear · grief · stress. Learn how to stop fighting these feelings and find a calmer ground beneath them — without forcing yourself to be anyone other than who you are.

✦

Behavioural Patterns

Addiction recovery · attachment · working with desire. The patterns that have run your life don't have to keep running it. Honest work that actually shifts something — not just understanding, but freedom.

◊

Relational Patterns

Relationship healing · bullying recovery · communication. Repair what's been broken. Set boundaries that finally hold. Speak up without losing yourself in the conversation.

⚭

Life Direction

Confidence · personal excellence · manifestation · abundance. Build a life from a place of trust rather than fear — and watch what becomes possible when you stop trying to convince yourself you're enough.

○

Inner Work

Forgiveness · gratitude · dream work · mindfulness · body acceptance. Small daily shifts that, over time, change the entire texture of your life. The quiet work that actually changes things.

✧

Spiritual Work

Awakening · liberation · self-inquiry · presence. The deeper questions — who am I really, what's underneath this life — explored honestly with someone who's walked the path and can guide you home.

Begin a 1:1 Conversation

“

I came to Maitreya after fifteen years of spiritual seeking. In three months of working with her teaching, the seeking stopped. Not because I found what I was looking for — but because I realised there was never anything missing.

Sarah M.

London, UK · The Still Point Graduate

“

The Healing course changed the way I inhabit my body. I stopped fighting my experience and started meeting it. That one shift dissolved years of anxiety more effectively than anything I had tried before.

James T.

Melbourne, AU · Healing Course Graduate

“

I trained with the Uncommon Wisdom Coaching Institute after years of conventional coaching training. What I received here was not a methodology — it was a transmission. My clients feel the difference in the first session.

Dr. Priya K.

Toronto, CA · UWCI Certified Coach

A Life Transformed,
a Teaching Revealed

Maitreya did not choose the spiritual path — the spiritual path chose her. Following a profound and irreversible shift in consciousness, the sense of a separate self simply fell away, leaving in its place an open, luminous awareness that has not wavered since.

For over two decades, Maitreya has guided seekers — from silent retreats to live transmissions reaching students around the world — pointing always to the same timeless recognition: you are already free.

Her teaching is non-dogmatic and draws from the living heart of Advaita, Buddhist wisdom, and direct phenomenological inquiry. There is no tradition to join, no belief required — only the willingness to look clearly at what is always already here.

Read the Full Story

✦

The freedom you are looking for
is already here.

Not after more seeking. Not when the mind quietens enough. Right now, in this breath, in this moment — the awareness that is reading these words has never not been free.

✦ Enter the Teaching Explore Courses

Already a student? Return to your courses →