credit: Indy Kethdy

By using the term “Half-Awake” I’ve probably given a somewhat false impression to many people. Saying half-awake almost implies that there are 3 states that a person can exist in:

Asleep
Half-Awake (or Half-Asleep)
Awake

However, as a few of you can attest, a schema such as this one would be grossly over-simplified and possibly inaccurate. Let me try to clarify a bit what I mean by half-awake and how it fits into what is experienced along the spiritual journey:

1. ASLEEP

The vast majority of humanity is sound asleep. When I say the vast majority, I mean to say 99.99% (and I may have left out a few 9’s). I don’t think I need speak too much about this part, because, well, everyone reading this article knows exactly what asleep is like. *grin* I also recognize that more than a few spiritual people will take offense at me characterizing the vast majority as asleep. I never said there was anything wrong with being asleep, because there isn’t. It’s just a phase consciousness appears to pass through. In fact, there really is no such thing as asleep, it is merely the appearance of asleep. More on that another day. However, asleep is what many, many people experience.

2. An AWAKENING occurs

For no apparent reason (really, that’s how it works out), a moment of “Ah-ha!” happens, a realization, a seeing through the veil of illusion, a moment of pure knowingness. “Ah, so THIS is what I am!” The delusion of separate identity is uncovered to be a lie. An awakening is like no other spiritual experience. It is not an experience, in fact. It is beyond all experiences.

In this moment of utter clarity, one knows beyond question that the “me” that defined them, the psychological sense of self, is empty, void, nothing. Instead, what you are is everything. And beyond.

Very often, an awakening is accompanied by the expression, “Well, I’ll be damned!”

That said, for the most part, an awakening is not permanent. It does not last. Some teachers like to use the expression “non-abiding” to describe this experience. The old psychological sense of self resurrects itself, and once again you find yourself being trapped by the very thoughts and beliefs that you had seen through. You know it isn’t what you are, and yet, there it is.

3. HALF-AWAKE

The experience I’m calling half-awake can take many forms, varieties and “percentages” of awakeness (although measuring one’s awake percentage would be silly and quite futile to say the least). But this half-awake state is what follows from above. A real, genuine awakening occurs, and yet the psychological self is still operating. You are able at times (quite often, in fact) to get lost again in the seemingly important thoughts and beliefs of the mind. You seem to be a someone who has many somethings “he” needs to do.

What I’ve noticed in my own experience, however, is that this experience of being half-awake has changed over time. I would speculate that what I’m calling half-awake is quite evolutionary, fluctuates and is not a single, unvarying state. It changes as one dives deeper and deeper into the mental structure and uncovers more and more of the belief system that held the asleep condition in place. It also changes because there is a natural movement inward toward greater and greater clarity.

After the first awakening, it seemed that I fell back asleep. I couldn’t forget what I realized, and yet, I felt somewhat lost again. And yet, much of my life was different. I couldn’t stay asleep for long without the memory of that awakened state touching awareness. It really was more a contrast between the awake state and my new half-awakeness. But after a month or two, it became apparent that “half-awake” was very different from asleep. There was a sense, however, of going “in and out” of awakeness, but never that full experience of awakening that I had.

In the past 6 months, something new has become apparent, something different from what I had been experiencing. Now, I can’t really say that I’m ever really asleep. There is no more sense of “in and out.” Presence, consciousness, whatever word you care to use for the reality of what we are, is always “just inside my perception,” if that makes sense to you. It is like I can see it just out of the corner of my eye. Not really, but that’s the sense of it. “It” is here, now, present, and doesn’t leave, even in the midst of being occupied by a thought, belief or problem. I’m never asleep, even though I’m not fully awake.

It feels as if I’m moving along a continuum, a line of increasing awakeness. On the far left of the line was asleep. Then came “awakening” followed by what I’m now calling half-awake, but in reality is still a continuum of awakeness. Maybe a diagram will help make this explanation a touch clearer:

4. ABIDING AWAKENING

Ah, here is the Holy Grail of the spiritual journey. I know there is inevitable disagreement about the meaning of every term in spirituality, but abiding awakening is what is most often meant by the “E” word, Enlightenment.

At some point along the way, no one can say when, no one ever knows when or how, something within simply ceases. The psychological sense of self, the “ego” as it is often called, simply goes from the foreground of awareness to the background. It becomes irrelevant. It ceases to be of importance. The Buddha knew what he was talking about when he spoke of Nirvana, for that word simply means “cessation.”

What you are no longer is caught in the mind. It knows itself to be what it truly is. There is no “you” anymore in any real sense. There is just experience. What you are simply is.

I’ll be honest: I can sense this cessation. It is present in my very awareness, a sense that something will drop away, something will completely give way.

In the past 6 months I’ve had further glimpses of this shift. I guess we could say they’ve been “little awakenings,” although I have no idea what that really means. They’ve simply been deeper experiences of truth, further realizations of the Oneness of all things, the emptiness of what I used to see as myself. As so many before me have explained, there is emptiness and Oneness, simultaneously existing, no contradiction.

In the end, that’s all there is: deeper seeing. Even once you have ceased, once there is the experience of abiding awakening, this is still not the end. The spiritual seeking and spiritual journey may have ended, but there is further clear seeing to occur. Consciousness, if it has a purpose, wants to continually see things more clearly.

That’s why in the little diagram above, I put an arrow on the right end of the line. There is simply a continual movement of seeing all things more and more deeply, clearly, fully. Consciousness growing more conscious of Itself through the body called Tom or David or Sarah or Ellen. If enlightenment is anything, this further clear seeing is what it is.

And as long as there is a body that you, Consciousness (for that is what you truly are), seem to inhabit, there will never really be an end to looking and seeing. As my friend Davidya pointed-out in an email to me, there is quite likely always some arising of the psychological self, even in one who is what we might call enlightened. But it becomes a non-issue, arising and in the same instant falling away. Nisargadatta and Adyashanti both spoke of this occurrence, too.

I hope the above clarifies a bit more this experience I am calling half-awake. I’m sure there is still more to be said, and I’ll be happy to share it with you. Thanks for reading. Namaste.

Related posts:

1. To Be Half-Awake (and Half-Asleep)
2. The Half-Awake (Half-Asleep) Club
3. A Reader’s Questions on Being Half-Awake

I strongly urge all of you to read Who Hears This Sound? Adyashanti On Waking Up From The Dream Of “Me” published a few years ago in The Sun magazine. Someone sent me a link to the article, and I found it to be one of the best and clearest presentations of Adyashanti’s teachings I’ve ever read. It is often hard to find succinct versions of a teacher’s ideas and thoughts, but the interviewer did a nice job of bringing greater clarity to an already fairly clear teaching. That’s one of the reasons I like Adya so much: he is extraordinarily clear for an awake guy.

Here are a few excerpts to read now to whet your appetite for the rather long and extensive interview:

Awakening is when you realize that what you thought you were was nothing more than a dream, and you perceive the reality outside the dream, what’s dreaming the dream of you. It’s not just a mystical experience. It is actually realizing the underlying unity of all things.

Simply because you’ve had an awakening, however, does not mean you stay awake. Enlightenment, in simple terms, is when you stay awake. If the awakening is abiding, that’s enlightenment. And most awakenings are not abiding — at least, not initially.

Enlightenment has nothing to do with the head or the heart. Certainly, the head and the heart tend to open up, but that’s a byproduct. Enlightenment is actually waking up from the head and from the heart. It’s waking up from the dream of “me” and seeing the oneness of all things. That’s what I mean by “reality”: that oneness. The truth is that you are that unity. You are not simply a particular person in a particular body with a particular personality; you are that one reality, which manifests itself as all these seemingly separate things.

Spiritual awakening doesn’t happen because you master some spiritual technique. There are lots of skillful meditators who are not awake. Awakening happens when you stop bullshitting yourself into continual nonawakening. It’s very easy to use disciplines to avoid reality rather than to encounter it. A true spirituality will have you continually facing your illusions and all the ways you avoid reality. Spiritual practice may be an important means of confronting yourself, or it may be a means of avoiding yourself; it all depends on your attitude and intention.

So life became my practice, and mistakes became my teacher. And once again I experienced failure after failure. It was humbling, even humiliating. I put myself in situations where my self-image would get crushed. Looking back I could easily say, “Boy, I made a lot of dumb mistakes.” But I needed to do it that way. I wasn’t going to let go of those identities on the meditation cushion. It would have been nice if it could have been contained in this safe environment — bowing and meditating and meeting with the teacher — but it often doesn’t work that way. Spirituality is much more of a bloody mess than we like to admit.

Excellent interview. It is Adyashanti at his best. Again, the link is:

Who Hears This Sound? Adyashanti On Waking Up From The Dream Of “Me”

Enjoy. Namaste.

Related posts:

1. Interview with Larry Melton, Spiritual Teacher
2. Adyashanti Retreat Report
3. Adyashanti: Wisdom of Do Nothing

1. You wrote: “It is almost the same experience as awakening from a dream at night. Almost.”

What are the differences you observe?

Good question. Well, the big difference is that when you awaken from a dream at night, the dream world disappears and is replaced by the seemingly real world. As you awaken from the dream state as it is called, as you spiritually awaken, you find that you are still in the dream! But what a dream it is! It is still populated by the same people, the same things going on, but for some reason, it all seems good, even when it isn’t. Very unlike a nighttime dream.

2. Your wrote: “…no tendency to re-enter the dream state of separateness.”

How and why did this One consciousness enter into the dream state in the first place?

For at least 5000 years (our entire written history), mankind has been intrigued by this question. Many have tried to answer it. Gurus for centuries have given answers. And they all contradict each other in some form or fashion. They contradict each other for one simple reason: there is no answer to this question.

Let me be 100% clear: there is no answer to this question. Every answer given, no matter how high and angelic the giver of the answer has been, is in the realm of fantasy. And the reason is simple: the question, being asked from within the world of form, is being asked about something outside the world of form. You can’t know with the mind that which is beyond the mind.

Okay, that said, here’s a couple of things to consider: First, did this One consciousness even enter into the dream state? If the dream state is unreal, and the One is real, then how could something unreal even be created? Good question, huh? No answer to that one, either.

Second, my personal favorite description of the why question is that it is a game. Consciousness having fun. Of course, this description is not the truth, but it is a fun idea. I have a half-written article on the subject that I’ll finish and post some day.

3. I remember Jed McKenna says something like this in his books: I and Universe are the One… I don’t know what will happen in the next moment…

Since he = the One, why doesn’t he know what will happen in the next moment?

Because it’s a fun game to play! The One created a Universe governed by probabilities, ie, quantum mechanics and all that fun stuff. Everything in the Universe has a probability associated with it, every path, every seeming choice, everything. There is even a probability that my body will wink out of existence and appear in China. It’s all probability. So, there is no way to know what will happen next.

Again, none of the above paragraph is the “true” answer, because there is no “true” answer. However, it is what we observe about the world of form.

That said, there is also no need to know. If fear and death are eliminated from one’s psyche, then one doesn’t have a care in the world for the future. The next moment is the next moment. As a matter of fact, there is no next moment, just this moment experiencing change. Since Jed is experiencing this change with no investment in how it all turns out, why care? Why bother to know even if he could? He absolutely doesn’t care at all.

I have to tell you, it is very, very nice when concern for the future starts to drop away. Even though I can still get hooked into future thinking at times, quite often I’m just here, right now, and experiencing no thought for what comes next, no care or concern. And surprisingly, what comes next seems to be pretty nice most of the time.

I hope the above helps. Namaste.

credit:
madmiked

Related posts:

1. To Be Half-Awake (and Half-Asleep)
2. The Half-Awake (Half-Asleep) Club
3. More on Being Half-Awake

“I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member.” — Groucho Marx

As I mentioned in a previous post, To Be Half-Awake (and Half-Asleep), my experience of spiritual awakening has been to be in a state that I am referring to as Half-Awake. Moreover, as I discussed, there are others who are experiencing this strange state, including some of you reading these articles (and I heard from quite a few of you after the last one). It is a far more common state than we might imagine, while at the same time, not the experience of the majority of humanity.

Moreover, it has been my experience that the majority of spiritual teachers and even “enlightened gurus” are fellow members of the Half-Awake Club. Unfortunately, many of these gurus and teachers have either flat out told their followers that they are fully awake, enlightened, or have simply left a profound state of ambiguity around the matter such that their followers have made bold claims as to the “enlightenment” of their guru.

Lest you get the wrong idea, there is nothing wrong with being a member of the Half-Awake Club. For the majority who awaken, being half-awake is just part of the process. It is simply part of the path. No big deal, no shame, no problem. Condemning people for being half-awake would be like condemning teenagers for being “half-adults.” Ridiculous to say the least.

The very nature of awakening is such that no one can be blamed or criticized for where they are on the journey. As a matter of fact, you have no control over awakening, over going back asleep, over fully awakening, etc. It is a gift, the supreme act of grace from the divine. I am very clear that I did nothing to experience an awakening (or any subsequent awakenings). They just happened. Really, I kid you not. I’ll address this point more in future writings. But as Ken Wilbur likes to say: awakening is an accident; all we can do is make ourselves more accident prone.

On the one-hand, I have to say that I don’t really care what other teachers are up to. It’s their karma, not mine. But on the whole, the mass of spiritual seekers have acquired some wrong-headed ideas about enlightenment and awakening, and I think we need look no further than the field of half-awake spiritual teachers for a lot of misinformation. Their own self-deception has led to some crazy ideas about reality and awakening to it.

To be honest, we have to admit it is a sad state of affairs out there in the spiritual world. There are websites like Sarlo’s Guru Ratings where you can read reviews of your favorite guru. There are other sites like Jody’s Guruphiliac whose mission is to reveal the “self-aggrandizement and superstition in self-realization.” Would we need or even have these sites if the spiritual world had its act together? I think not. (Warning: if you follow these links, prepare to read some harsh critiques of some of the best known gurus and spiritual teachers in the world. These sites are not for the faint of heart. Your favorite guru may get slammed.)

A little dose of self-honesty would go a long way in the spiritual world. And believe me, the gurus discussed on both these sites aren’t just obvious frauds and hucksters. There are some truly spiritual dudes out there who simply are unwilling to look in the mirror, be honest with themselves and with their followers.

There is even an interesting book, Halfway Up the Mountain, that seeks to address this very issue of Half-Awake spiritual teachers. The irony of the book is two-fold:

1. Most of the experts interviewed are in the Half-Awake Club.

2. They more or less condemn the state of being half-awake.

Again, to repeat in clear terms: there is nothing wrong with being half-awake. One can be a very effective teacher, helper, counselor, etc, from this state. A Course in Miracles makes this point quite well:

Do not despair, then, because of limitations. It is your function to escape from them, but not to be without them. If you would be heard by those who suffer, you must speak their language. If you would be a savior, you must understand what needs to be escaped.

There really is too much to say about this subject for one article. I will get into this topic much more deeply in later articles as it gets to the very heart of spiritual awakening, what it is, how it flows, how it manifests in one’s life, how one’s life can change or not as a result of awakening, etc. And I’m also certain there will be the inevitable question: how do I know who is fully awake and who is not? I’ll just leave you in suspense on that one, with just this one comment: I don’t know for certain, but there are often telltale signs that one can look for, and even better, sense. A true light shines clearly for all to see.

Look for more in the coming weeks and months. Namaste.

Related posts:

1. To Be Half-Awake (and Half-Asleep)
2. More on Being Half-Awake
3. A Reader’s Questions on Being Half-Awake

I am half-awake. Or half-asleep. Or even better, I am awake and asleep at the same time. It is a strange place to be, and I’m sure there are others who know what I mean. And I’m also sure there are spiritual teachers and writers who would say that such a state does not exist. But still, it is my experience.

What does it mean to be half-awake? The best way to explain it would be first to start with what being awake means. Being spiritually awake means the same thing as enlightened. I prefer the phrase “spiritual awakening” over enlightenment simply because it has less baggage associated with it. There is too much talk in the spiritual world about “enlightenment” and “enlightened gurus” for my tastes. And, as a bonus, awake is a nice description of what it feels like to awaken(although, to be fair, enlightenment really is quite accurate, too). It is almost the same experience as awakening from a dream at night. Almost.

Spiritual awakening, in its fullest sense, is the complete removal of delusion from consciousness. The Truth of your being, your reality as absolute consciousness, as the One consciousness that exists everywhere and is everything, is your natural state. For some inexplicable reason, the majority of humanity finds itself in what we could call a dream state, a state of consciousness characterized by a pervasive sense of individuality, a sense of “me” as a separate self, not connected to others, existing apart and alone from all other living beings and non-living things. Spiritual awakening is the reversal of this dream of separateness, a full, complete total reversal. Once one is truly awake, or as Jed McKenna would call “done,” there is no longer any doubt as to what you are and no tendency to re-enter the dream state of separateness. Even more, there is no “one” who is even awake, for the sense of individuality is gone. Consciousness has returned to a clarity, a clearness that is no longer deluded or confused.

Many people, although not that many when compared against the backdrop of 6.5 billion human beings, have experienced something rather profound, a spiritual awakening. They have experienced a realization of the truth of their being. They find themselves, for a moment, a minute, an hour, day, week or even year, as no longer this supposed separate self. They know at the depth of their core, all the way to the bottom, that the “me” they thought they were was merely a phantom, a psychological sense of self, no more real than any other thought, a figment of their imagination. And for that moment or hour or day, they are awake, utterly awake, as if they were never asleep in the dream state of delusion.

For most that have this experience, however, it doesn’t last. While much of the old psychological self, which many refer to as the ego, may have been blown out of the system by the experience of awakening, much may still remain. This psychological sense of self, the beliefs, thoughts, feelings, ideas, etc, that give it a sense of reality, has a certain weightiness, a certain momentum or inertia, that will continue to function after the experience has passed. And it may take many years for the inertia of this false self to wind down and eventually cease, like a pendulum that, once swinging, will swing and swing and swing until it finally comes to rest in perfect stillness. Cessation (the actual meaning of the term “nirvana”) is the eventual fate of the egoic self, but it almost always takes many years for that fate to come into full bloom.

This is the state I find myself in. Something happened to me that can only be described as miraculous, a gift from the divine. At some point, I will have to share that experience with you, because I think it might prove helpful to others. But as happens to the vast majority of people who experience a true spiritual awakening, the egoic self resurrected itself and came back in. I, too, experienced a pretty incredible “blowing out” of a lot of psychological baggage, but the material that was left came back with a vengeance! For over a year and a half, while there have been many amazing changes in my experience, there have been some old, buried items that have been raging in me at times, things I thought were over and done with 10 or 20 years ago.

There have been swings from fear to courage, from bliss to suffering. The dominant psychological pattern for most of my life, anxiety, has ebbed and flowed. While I became permanently free of panic attacks prior to this awakening, other forms of anxiety still plague me, and at the oddest times and places. All in all, I have to say it is simultaneously amazing and bizarre.

One of the hallmarks of the awakening process is the increasing inability to deny anything. You simply become incapable of hiding from any psychological issues that you repressed, denied or buried deep in your subconscious. You can no longer lie to yourself, and when you try, well, have you ever thrown a boomerang? The few times I’ve thrown one I’ve always ended up jumping out of the way of a rapidly spinning piece of wood itching to whack me upside the head. A whack upside the head is exactly what happens every time I attempt to lie to myself these days. What worked wonders 5 years ago is pointless, futile and outright foolish these days.

So, while I know the truth of what I am, while I can feel it, experience it, often see it in others, know it beyond question, I still am not fully aware of it yet. The description of enlightenment as “abiding non-dual awakening” is not my experience. Some days it is as if my awareness is on a roller coaster, going up then down, over then under and around. Moments of utter clarity then moments of delusion. And as I have come to realize, it is a perfect way to be, just as perfect as any other way of existence, lacking nothing. Like I said, it is strange.

Maybe a few of you are members of what I’m going to call the “Half-Awake (Half-Asleep) Club.” Most probably are not, and that is okay. It is a club that some of you will join soon, some will join at some point in this lifetime, and all of you are destined to join during some non-existent future life. Even a few of you may have “graduated” beyond the club. I’ll write more about the other members of this club in a few days, as there are quite a few of us. A sneak preview: most of the “enlightened gurus” and “spiritual teachers” floating around the world are fellow members. There is much to discuss about the strange existence I’m calling Half-Awake, and I’ll be saying more about it. Until then, I would suggest you read (or re-read) the article on Adyashanti’s View of Awakening…. Namaste.

Related posts:

1. The Half-Awake (Half-Asleep) Club
2. More on Being Half-Awake
3. A Reader’s Questions on Being Half-Awake

credit: JapanDave

My good friend Takuin Minamoto has asked a question over at Takuin.com that I felt deserved an answer. First, let me re-print Takuin’s question, and below I will give the answer I left in his comments. I encourage you to read the other fabulous comments at his site. I think he has started a theme that I will be coming back to increasingly over the next few weeks. First, Takuin’s question:

This is a question for fellow writers of spiritual matters, but anyone is free to comment below.

I have noticed a trend – and it is nothing earth shattering – in this world of spiritual teaching:

A man or woman may come to a realization, perhaps only a realization on a superficial level, or perhaps something deeper, then they begin to ‘teach’ it. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with this. But it makes me wonder if enlightenment, the way that term is used by the masses, is nothing more than conformity to one’s ideals of enlightenment.

I am not against anything they are doing, and I cannot sit here and say I ‘know them’ in any intimate way. But is this all we have to look forward to? We go to listen to someone speak on a podium, we may have or may not have a realization, then we go and speak on a podium.

My big question is, In what way is this helpful to humanity?

Don’t take it as, “I am expecting there to be something or nothing there,” because that is not it. I really want to know.

How do you see this?

My responses in no particular order:

1. In response to your main question: “In what way is this helpful to humanity?” I think I’ll start with the most obvious response: I don’t know. None of us do. Part of the beauty of this Life we are is that so much is a mystery. As long as we are open to what is coming through us, and we are even remotely honest with ourselves about where we are, then Life will just have its way, and then we get to watch it unfold.

2. Another immediate response I get to your question is: “Who cares?” I mean that literally and in its more “advaita” sense. Why does the question even arise for you? Do our actions need to benefit humanity? I don’t really know if they do. Although, I have to add, that the more we “open” to Life, the more our actions DO seem to benefit humanity, or at least they tend to move in that direction. But that is an observation, not a statement of necessity. We don’t NEED to benefit humanity. But it sure seems that we do.

3. I suspect that as many have remarked, most people do not enter the role of teacher as they awaken to the truth. That is my experience at least. There may be an inclination to share, but not to truly teach as a “profession.” Look at the people Adyashanti has asked to teach. Most of them only do it part time. They have other functions in life, like therapists and, as in the case of my friend Larry Melton, scientists. Funky, huh?

4. I have to say that way too many people go into the spiritual teaching gig than seems warranted. That’s at least is how it SEEMS. Maybe it is just the right number. Actually, I guess that is true… the number is just right else…. there would be fewer. That said, some of these teachers are such ego maniacs as to not even be funny. What a delicious contradiction, eh? A teacher of “enlightenment” who is so obviously stuck in the muck of his own ego! Life is TOO FUNNY!!!!! Maybe that’s the point, to make us laugh uproariously? Or to cry profusely?

5. As has been observed by others, some of us just can’t help but teach. My experience mirrors theirs: I can’t avoid teaching. It just happens. People are always asking me questions as if I KNOW something they don’t. Maybe I do. Doubt it. But nonetheless, I answer, and they go away satisfied. LOL See, life is funny. But yes, some of us were just born this way, like a genetic condition. Or more likely childhood conditioning. So we just do what we are meant to do, and we do our utmost to clean out our own crapola so that we are hopefully as clear an instrument as possible. But teach we must.

6. Interesting to me that you would ask this question now, as I’ve felt very much led in recent months to “get busy” as it were and move forward in a big way with the whole spiritual teaching gig. So, I guess the question just became more “personal” in a sense: In what way will Tom Stine be helpful to humanity? No idea how to answer that one. I guess I’ll find out!

7. It has become clearer to me that quite likely the most practical thing a person can do is pursue enlightenment. It sure seems to be of great benefit to an individual human organism to have some level of realization occur. While that is not always the case, it seems to beat the hell out of every other “self-improvement” process out there. I know, “self” improvement is the last thing that one can say about awakening, but there you go: the apparent individual often as not has a corresponding improvement in “his” life as he realizes more and more that there is no self. LOL My God, Life has one hell of a sense of humor, huh? But I’ll stick by my basic assertion: the pursuit of enlightenment is the most practical thing you can do. (Contradictions in that assertion conceded.)

8. As someone wiser than me once observed: there is a teacher for everyone at every stage of the journey. Even the most seemingly screwed-up individual can serve as a great teacher for someone. I’m reminded of someone that I met at a Sedona Method retreat who, when I met him, seemed like a “train wreck” of a person. After seeing this person at a few retreats, I remarked upon him to one of my friends. My friend’s response: “you think he is a train wreck now, you should have seen him a few years ago!” Whoa. But lo and behold, as I let go of my judgments about this person, and got to know him a bit, I discovered that he was a very successful coach who helps a lot of people, all the while still having the outer appearance of “train wreck.” His clients love him and swear by him. Who’d a thunk it? So… while I can’t say with certainty, it appears that humanity benefits from even the worst of the lot in the teaching/coaching/self-help movement. I’m gonna get myself in trouble with this next comment, but did you ever notice what a great impact Osho had on people? Drug addiction and Rolls Royces not withstanding.

9. My last point: I am very clear that there is no answer to the question “What’s the point of all this?” Nor do I see any purpose when I look for one to anything that goes on, including all this spiritual teaching stuff. And yet, there is an appearance of a purpose, and that appearance, in my eyes, seems to be: to see more clearly. If there is any benefit, then, to humanity, it is the gradual opening of its collective and individual eyes. That would be the appearance of a purpose for all this teaching that goes on. People become clearer and clearer on what is real, what is true.

Related posts:

1. Encountering the Absolute – Not Yet Enlightenment
2. A Few Musings on Enlightenment
3. Before Enlightenment: Embodiment

credit:
bortescristian

The further along I go with this awakening that has happened and continues to unfold, the more it becomes apparent that the real key to waking up is wanting to wake up. I know it is a radical idea, but it just so happens to be the truth of the matter. Technique is almost always given top billing in the world of spirituality, but the “how” will always come whenever you are truly willing. But willingness, that’s the crux of the issue.

You may already think you are willing. That’s why you meditate, read books by the spiritual giants, read this blog, talk to your friends about spirituality and awakening and enlightenment, go to retreats, all that good stuff. You have a very convincing case to prove how willing you are. But the truth is, if your willingness were electricity, you wouldn’t have enough to power a night light. A firefly could outshine you. Sorry, but it is true.

Look inside for a moment. Feel into this subject of willingness. Can you feel the resistance? Can you feel how much “you” don’t want to really wake up? Something inside of you knows this awakening thing is going to be different, really, really different, and it is frightened about that. Something inside wants to feel better about life, but it doesn’t really want what awakening entails.

Why not? Because the “something” resisting all of this, the “something” that is not willing to awaken, is the very thing from which one awakens! The resistance you are feeling, the UN-willingness, is simple the energy of thought, the “mind” as it were, resisting what is its eventual undoing. Well, maybe undoing is too harsh. Let’s just say that the mind gets to go from being the dominant player in your awareness to being second fiddle.

So there is a massive resistance to awakening. The natural question to ask at this point is “what do I do about it?” Ah, good question. But the question itself is just more resistance. Notice that the question is about doing and about “I”. The “I” is the very thing doing the resisting! The doing is how it resists.

Going beyond this resistance, becoming more willing, is the simplest of things: let it happen. What you are wants this awakening to happen. It is what is waking-up to itself. It IS awake, and is looking for this awakeness to transform everything. So, simply pause and let it happen. It will anyway.

As far as “you” are concerned, I think cooperation would almost be a better focus for the mind. Cooperate. Don’t fight what is happening. Give in. Allow. I think you’ll find this mindset to be a better one. It is far more in alignment with what is really happening anyway. Remember that whole “not in control” issue I’ve discussed many times? You aren’t in control, so why not just let that realization sink a little deeper. Cooperate with the inevitable, and you will find your willingness going up, up, up.

Be well. Namaste.

Related posts:

1. Is Spirituality More Than Just Awakening?
2. Spiritual Awakening – Adyashanti’s View
3. If You Dig Awakening….

So, how would you know if “I” am enlightened? How would you know if anyone is enlightened? What’s great about these questions is that (1) they are questions that most spiritual people ask about various teachers and gurus and (2) they are so misguided as to be a bit comical.

First of all, you have absolutely no way of knowing if someone is enlightened or not. Period. No way. Zero. Zip. Nada. How can I be so utterly certain? Because you can’t know anything about another. All you can do is have an experience of them. You may have an experience of where their consciousness is at (ego or One, let’s say). You may see their behaviors. But to know if they are awake? Nope. I feel I have a pretty strong sense of where someone’s consciousness is at, where their “focus” is. But I could be seriously wrong. And beyond that? No clue. And moreover, I don’t really care.

Secondly, questions like this inevitably come back to some pretty fundamental things about enlightenment. For instance, who is it that is enlightened? Is Tom Stine ever going to be enlightened? No, he isn’t. Tom Stine is just a body and mind playing around in the dream state. But is Tom that which will ever awaken to the truth? No.

Then what does awaken? That which is already awake. Oh, isn’t this stuff just crazy to actually see in print? That’s why you gotta take all spiritual literature with a grain of salt. None of it is true. At best, it is an attempt at expressing some form of truth to encourage the reader to find out for himself or herself what all the fuss is about. Never take any of it as a statement of the truth. Find out for yourself what is true!

I think it was Yogananda who said, “Anyone who claims to be enlightened isn’t.” I don’t think he got it quite right. Better to say, “Anyone who believes he is enlightened isn’t!” For enlightenment is beyond any belief as it is beyond the mind.

Just some late night thoughts for you. Namaste.

Related posts:

1. What Do Enlightened Guys Look Like?
2. Realization Is the Best Ego Dissolver
3. A Few Thoughts on Jed McKenna

credit:
Abi Skipp

Funny the thoughts that will rattle through one’s head, completely unbidden. I awoke this morning and kept hearing the Cheers theme song playing in my mind. I could see Norm sitting on his bar stool quipping one-liners that never failed to make me laugh. One of my favorites:

Woody: How’s life treating you Mr. Peterson?

Norm: Like I just ran over its dog.

If you are asking, “what does this silliness have to do with spirituality and awakening?” then I’m afraid I haven’t got a good answer. In a certain sense I’m not trying to make a pithy comment on spiritual awakening. But I will say one thing: all moments of genuine awakening are in fact the only break you will ever get from all your worries. Awakening is the only answer.

If awakening is the only answer, then what does this mean for all the programs, courses, techniques, etc., that are supposed to help free us from all our worries? What about things like the Sedona Method that I have promoted right here on this website? Don’t they work, too?

Well, in truth, they really are only a step in the right direction. All these programs, courses, techniques, etc., get us to start questioning all of our assumptions about life, so they have a place and often can prove helpful. But in the end, like everything else in this world, they prove to be unsatisfactory.

In the end, to find true relief for what ails us, we might find ourselves, if we are lucky, stuck. The old ways don’t seem to work any more. The old techniques have us feeling lost. We have no idea what to do. And so, out of desperation, we do the only thing we can do: we sit, we reflect, we look within, and we begin to question.

We do what Nisargadatta Maharaj did. We do what Adyashanti did. We do what Ramana Maharshi did. We question. We investigate. We wonder if all of our old assumptions are true. Ramana questioned one assumption: death. Nisargadatta was told by his guru, “You are the supreme ultimate reality. Now go discover that for yourself.” So he sat and sat and sat until he saw through everything that said otherwise.

So simple. So utterly simple. Sit. Question. Let the truth be revealed to you as you question that which is false. And here’s a little hint: no thought, no belief is true! Now go find that out for yourself. And when you do, you will take a permanent break from all your worries.

Namaste.

Related posts:

1. What am I?
2. Willingness Is the Key to Spiritual Awakening
3. Discipline and Freedom

credit: nicolasnova

I’ve recently written quite a bit about the topic of control. Over and over, as I look at my life, as I watch others experience their lives, I keep coming to the same simple realization: we don’t have control over our lives. We are lived by something, a force that operates through our bodies and conditioned minds. We are lived by LIFE itself. And whatever “we” are goes along for the ride.

Interestingly, as I was in the midst of writing my recent posts on control, I got to travel to San Francisco to hear Adyashanti give a weekend workshop. And guess how he started his first talk? Yes, of course, he started discussing control. I smiled when he mentioned control that morning. It was a wonderful talk, and as so often happens, I remembered almost nothing from it, even though it had a profound impact upon me. A good spiritual talk is memorable for its effects, not for its words.

Fortunately for me, I ordered a recording of the weekend, and after it arrived the other day, I began to listen again to the talk on control. It was even better the second time! Let me share a bit with you:

You’re not in control, but your desperate efforts to keep control actually does alter the way existence moves for you. It doesn’t move in the way your controller wants to, but it does have an effect on existence, your effort to control it. It doesn’t have the effect you want it to have, but it does have an effect. And you only know that when that control is totally let go of. Because when it is totally let go of, and you are no longer putting that energy out to existence or to consciousness, then existence starts to change.

Yes, of course, our efforts to control do effect the events of our lives, but not how we want them to. That explains so much. But as we let go of attempting to control, life then begins to flow. Ah, yes, perfect. It makes complete sense to me. Nothing to be but let go of one simple false belief: that we have control over our lives. So easy to say. So difficult fun interesting to do.

Related posts:

1. No Control, No Control, No Control
2. Willingness Is the Key to Spiritual Awakening
3. Love What Is

I suppose it depends upon what we mean by spirituality. If you look at it as an observer, you would think that spirituality was about everything but awakening. At least, if you listen to the voices in the world of spirituality speak, you will rarely if ever hear anything about awakening. So, yes, spirituality deals with far more than awakening. In it, we find everything from angels to zen and so much in between.

Let me hear from you. Is it more than “concerned with spirit,” ie, the non-material? Is it more than enlightenment? Is it about talking with spirits, channeling, manifesting money, relationships? And why?

I wrote about this topic before in What Is Spirituality? Really. Take a look.

Related posts:

1. If You Dig Awakening….
2. Willingness Is the Key to Spiritual Awakening
3. Spirituality and Money

credit: bookminx

I have a good friend with whom I often disagree on spiritual issues. I think on some level we enjoy our disagreement, even though on another level we often react to each other as if to say, “Are you nuts?” Recently we exchanged a few emails, and I sent him a message today that I’m quite certain he won’t like. Afterwards, I thought, “Hey, if my friend won’t like it, I’m sure it will irritate others, too.” Of course, that means I need to publish it here.

Truth is a not a state of being or consciousness or anything. The truth is what is. When you awaken, you simply drop into being able to know that which is, without any interference from your mind. No state. Just pure awareness. Awareness aware of itself. Because what it perceives is that everything it perceives is itself. Total unity.

Some of the quantum physics people who have gotten all new-agey like to speak of the fundamental field of reality, or the ground or field out of which all things arise. This field is the Buddhist “nothingness”. Same thing with spirit, consciousness, awareness, etc. All are empty in the sense of no-thing-ness, ie, they aren’t objects to be perceived.

And so, when awakening occurs, when enlightenment happens, one becomes fully aware of the truth, i.e., that all is merely an appearance of this fundamental ground of being, all is this complete totality, all one essence, all one intelligence, all one awareness, conscious, awake, alive, aware.

No states of anything. Just pure beingness. In essence, that’s really all there is to enlightenment.

Namaste.

Related posts:

1. Takuin’s Answer to: What Is Enlightenment?
2. How do I manage both being aware and interacting with others without compromising the stillness/awareness?
3. How Do You Know If Someone Is Enlightened?

credit: brett.wagner

It seems to me that blogging tends to come in 2 basic flavors. One flavor is where the blogger writes big, long, complete essays on a topic. For the most part, my articles have been of this type. The other flavor has the blogger firing off short, to the point items. These posts never try to be complete, but they nonetheless often communicate something vital to the reader. I’m going to start experimenting with these types of posts. And here is the first one for you.

When you get right down to the nitty gritty of spirituality, you find a very stark realization staring you in the face. And that realization is: you are not in control of your life. “What?” you ask. “How can that be?” Well, just pay attention to one very simple “fact” of your existence thus far: how often do things go your way? From the big to the little, from the important to the trivial, how often does life cooperate with your thoughts, ideas, plans, goals and beliefs? Not looking so good, is it?

We like to think we have control, or we like to think that we have at least some control, but in point of fact, we’ve got none. Hell, we can’t even control the thoughts that flow through our minds, let alone the turning of the wheels of life. And, to get right down to it, there isn’t even a you who is or isn’t in control! How’s that grab you?! No you, no control.

So, who or what is in control? What if I said no one? Or what about everything, the totality of Life? Same thing, really.

I know that this may sound scary to some of you, and downright crazy to others, but the simple truth is this: life has only gotten more delicious and fun the more I’ve come to accept the truth that we have no control. Much like a surfer riding a wave: you have no control over the wave. Your only job is to enjoy the ride! Namaste.

Related posts:

1. You’re Not in Control
2. Changes Around the Farm
3. Realization Is the Best Ego Dissolver

credit: L. Marie

A while back, my friend Jonathan Mead over at Illuminated Mind wrote an article on enlightenment in which he said:

“Your realization that everything is non-dual will not break all of the previous self-limiting and fear-based beliefs you have with yourself. Breaking those agreements will require hard work and perspiration to change.”

I’ve intended for a while to write a brief article on this comment of Jonathan’s to offer a different perspective. So, here goes:

To be honest, his statement runs counter to my experience and that of others. When the realization of no-self dawns, not merely an intellectual understand, but a true realization, beliefs disappear. As Ramana Maharshi pointed out, the belief in a separate “me,” what he called the I-thought, is the root of all other beliefs. When it drops away, all beliefs are suspended. Thoughts might still arise, but they cannot be believed again. If they arise again, then the I-thought has returned.

To be awake, one would need to be free from the identification with belief. So, in a sense, the definition of enlightened would be “free from believing any thought.” So, I would have to disagree with Jonathan’s statement. Realization does, in fact, break the entire ego system.

I think the key word here is realization. What he describes in his post is, for me, more of an intellectual understanding which isn’t a realization. That’s how it appears to me.

That said, I have to agree with much of what Jonathan says elsewhere in the post. Enlightenment is, truly, no big deal and quite ordinary in a certain sense. But it does have incredible power to transform. But on its terms and by its agenda.

Personally, I’ve found realization of no-self to be an incredible “ego-cleaner.” It is as if someone has taken a roto-rooter to my mind. Nothing is allowed to remain hidden. The Truth is an amazing solvent, a powerful dissolver of the thoughts, feelings and beliefs we call “ego.” Everything must be seen through. I have no choice in this matter (because there is no I, to be sure!). It is a process that takes on a life of its own.

I’m beginning to think that if there is a purpose to life, it is this: to see everything more and more clearly. To penetrate to the truth of everything and know it fully, deeply. And that’s it, nothing else. It gives life a new flavor and savor to realize that.

Personal Note I’ve been a bit slow of late to post articles. I plan to get back to my regular posting frequency in a few weeks. My grandmother became sick a few weeks ago and then passed away. She was 93. While I can’t say that her illness and passing has caused me to post less frequently, it has resulted in a greater degree of introspection and all around distraction. Namaste.

Related posts:

1. How Do You Know If Someone Is Enlightened?
2. What Do Enlightened Guys Look Like?
3. The Practical Side of All This Thought Stuff

I have commented before upon this one line from the Sandokai, but today I want to take a different look at it. As the years have gone by, and my experience with teachings and teachers and the whole world of spirituality has increased, I’m beginning to see this one simple line as probably the greatest bit of wisdom that every spiritual teacher should know by heart. For so many doing the spiritual gig have encountered the absolute but not yet seen that fully flower into enlightenment.

What does it mean “to encounter the absolute?”

The Absolute. How to explain what is beyond explanation? Many people have had spiritual experiences. You meditate and experience bliss. You walk in the woods and are overwhelmed by the presence of nature and life in the trees and plants, earth and sky. You recall a past life. You have an “ah-ha!” moment about some aspect of your existence, a great insight into how things work. All of these are the joys of spirituality. But none of them are what we mean by encountering the absolute.

credit: bernardoh

To encounter the absolute is to suddenly see, to know, to experience the truth. It is wordless, soundless Silence. It is often described as a parting of the veil, the veil of believing you are a separate self. For one shining moment (or hours or days or years) you know what you are. There is nothing that is not what you are. You are the formless, empty, spirit, and yet you are everything.

“Have I experienced an encounter with the absolute?” you ask yourself. The answer is almost surely no. If you’ve encountered it, you know. You have no doubt. No spiritual experience can compare. And none will ever mean anything to you again.

Why is this not enlightenment?

While the absolute is the formless truth, it is being experienced here in the world of form. As such, the world of form and its priorities may arise again to dominate the experience of someone who has encountered the absolute. In other words, the veil may part, which has the tendency to tear holes in the veil, but the pieces remaining will often fall back to obscure our sight. These pieces we could call remnants of the ego, our belief in a separate self.

Once you’ve seen, you’ve seen. You can’t un-know what you now know. But you can get lost in the mind and the world again. You know it isn’t you, but the momentum of what was your human life is still carrying you forward. And thus you can still be operating in the world from a not awake, not enlightened place.

Many (most?) spiritual teachers whom we encounter in the world are in this exact position. They have tasted the absolute, but they have not reached a place that we would call enlightened. They are still operating from some sense of a personal identity. They are not fully awake.

credit: beggs

And that is perfectly fine. A teacher is not lesser because he hasn’t fully awakened. There are still many, many people who need what he or she has to offer. The grave fallacy that so many run into, which probably leads to a certain amount of difficulties, is the notion that a teacher needs to be “done” to be a teacher. But it isn’t so. All that is required is honesty with yourself and those you teach and interact with. Much can be learned, much can be shared.

My story of encountering the absolute

Please keep in mind throughout what follows that it is just a story. All experiences are just experiences, and they really don’t carry any deeper meaning. Whether it is the Buddha under the Bodhi tree, or Tom Stine in his favorite chair, the only purpose for stories like this one are to help others.

That said, after many years of spiritual experiences, meditation, retreats, you name it, here is what I experienced one evening. These are the words I wrote down the following day:

I had spent a good part of the day Friday experiencing a strange on and off anxiety which mostly went away when I sat down and was still. I worked with a client in the late afternoon, and we had a really good session. However, I felt a compelling need by the evening to spend a long time sitting and meditating. I got a bit distracted, though, and wasted time on the Internet. By nine o’clock, the compulsion to sit had grown stronger, and so I sat.

As I sat, many thoughts and beliefs came up, and I started doing some inquiry on them. I saw through a number of the beliefs, and felt the whole thing releasing easily. But as I kept going further with it, I kept coming back to asking “who is the one who believes that?” And after using that question a number of times, I found myself asking, “what am I?”

Then the strangest thought came to me. The thought was, “Everyone puts the emphasis on ‘I’ when the emphasis should be on AM.” And then I saw it, I mean I actually saw it, I saw behind the word “I.” Or as Ramana would say, I saw behind the I-thought. It was like it was suddenly transparent. And there was nothing there. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was as if “I” is just a little hazy thing, and behind it is absolutely nothing, no substance, no essence, no fullness. I is completely empty of meaning, of ANYTHING. But as I’ve heard Adya say many times, “it is the fullest nothing you’ve ever seen.” I could feel this nothing throughout my whole “being.”

And I started laughing. I was laughing so hard. I kept saying over and over again, “well I’ll be damned.” My mind couldn’t believe it, but “I” knew that it was real. And then it got even funnier. I realized that every time I’ve ever thought or said the word “I,” it was a joke. There is no I. Never was. And every time I thought “I” this or “I” that, I started laughing even harder. I couldn’t stop laughing. And I could barely say “I”. The word still seems like a joke today. At least I can say it and type it without laughing. But whenever I say “I”, I’m not talking about anyone.

So today everything is a little weird. My mind keeps asking when this is going to stop. It wants to know if this is permanent, or abiding, or is it going to fade away and leave me. And yet when I look behind the thought “I”, I see this, this, no-thing. It permeates everything. And yet my mind is still doing its thing, telling its stories, doing its silly routine. But it does seem quieter. And it seems so ridiculous.

And so the non-existent journey continues. The ego resurrects itself from the ashes of its undoing, but it is fundamentally changed. I can never look at it or life the same again. I’ve seen it for what it is, an empty thought. But yet, there it is, often beguiling, often giving me opportunities to get lost in thought and feelings for a few hours or a few days. But always then the opportunity to see fresh and to “know again” what I have always known.

But “to encounter the absolute is not yet enlightenment.” I get it. The absolute has not flowered into what we would call enlightenment. Not yet. It is very strange, but I can feel an undercurrent, something carrying me forward, in ways that I cannot imagine or toward a destination that I cannot foresee. But onward it goes. And that is the way of it for all of us. Always moving onward toward the fullest expression of the Absolute.

I’m grateful that I was introduced to this powerful reminder of humility in the face of whatever I may experience. I only wish that many, many others on the spiritual path would know these words, too. There are more than a few teachers out there who could use a dose of humility. Wouldn’t you agree?

Thanks for reading. Let me hear from you below. Namaste.

Related posts:

1. What Do Enlightened Guys Look Like?
2. Is Teaching about Enlightenment Helpful to Humanity?
3. Takuin’s Answer to: What Is Enlightenment?

Something I have never quite understood is that after we come to this realization of the one self that we are not our [the] body or the mind or the thoughts, then we see the body die what then? And what is the difference in the death of a realized one and a unrealized person?

What happens when the body dies? That is a question that has plagued mortal man from the earliest days. So much of religion is basically an attempt to answer that question, with enough theories of heavens and hells to keep us debating for the rest of our lives.

credit: zoer

So let me start by saying what seems obvious to me: I don’t know what happens after the body dies. And neither does anyone else. If you say, “well, we go to _________ after death,” or tell me about other dimensions, etc., I’m going to ask you a very simple question: How do you know? Have you died and then experienced these things? No, of course you haven’t. So death is as yet a mystery to you. (As for past lives, let me write a follow-up article to deal with them.)

Even if you’ve had a near death experience, all you can do is tell me about that particular experience, but not the full experience of death (notice they are called near death experiences). There is absolutely no way to know what happens after the body dies until it actually dies and you find out.

Observations about death and consciousness

That said, we can make a few interesting observations, though, about what might happen after death if you have realized the truth about what you are, namely the One.

1. When you realize that you are not the mind, the body, thoughts, the ego, etc., you realize that the awareness (or consciousness) that you are, the “you” that is looking out of your body’s eyes, is the same awareness looking out of everyone else’s eyes. And the same fundamental beingness that is the house you live in, the Earth you are standing on, the sky, the stars, your thoughts, others’ thoughts, the very fabric of reality. All One, all the same, all conscious, all aware.

2. When the body dies, and the thoughts in it die, and when the energy contained in it dissipates, and everything ceases, what happens to the awareness contained within it? Ah, trick question, for the awareness/consciousness is not contained within it! We are so used to feeling “trapped” in the body that we think we are actually trapped in a body. But we are not. What I am is the beingness that is Everything. And this beingness, this conscious awareness contains the body.

credit: Vox Efx

Look-up from your computer right now and look around the room. Is not your body contained in the room you are in? Isn’t it a part of the room? And the room, isn’t it a part of the building? And the city or town in which the building exists? And planet Earth? And so on until we get that this body is contained in the Universe as a whole? And you are the Universe. The awake, aware, conscious, alive Wholeness of existence, the totality of the Universe (and so much more), that is what you are. So, the body is actually contained in you. You realize this fact, too, upon awakening.

3. So, when the body dies, the conscious awareness that appeared to be within it doesn’t go anywhere, for nothing at all has been lost to the Universe. It has merely started to change form. But the consciousness itself is still right where it was before: everywhere! Nothing leaves, dissipates, disappears, or goes anywhere. The One is still ever present Oneness.

4. As for what awareness/consciousness that formerly identified as Tom experiences at death, I have no idea, and as mentioned before, neither does anyone else. This is still true whether you are “realized” or not.

What’s the difference between the death of the realized and unrealized?

And finally, let me answer the last question: “And what is the difference in the death of a realized one and a unrealized person?” I believe it was Sailor Bob Adamson who said, “The only difference between someone who has realized the truth and someone who hasn’t is that the realized one knows that there is no difference.” Once you realize the truth, you don’t know any differences.

credit: shaymus022

While other people will still look different to you, have different color hair, wear different clothes, etc., you will have no awareness that any of that matters. They will still be what you are. So at death, how can there be any difference? To the realized one, whatever is experienced at death is experienced by every aspect of consciousness. He knows himself to be that consciousness, so nothing to him has changed. The form has changed, but nothing else. Everything is still everything. Oneness is still One.

And for the unrealized one? Again, it is impossible to say. You will simply have to die to find out what happens. I know this answer won’t make a lot of people happy, and it would ruin sales of lots of books if it were widely accepted as the truth that it is. But it is still the truth. We can argue until the cows come home, but it won’t matter. You can’t know death of the body until it dies. And then you will discover what happens next.

Namaste….. Tom

Related posts:

1. Past Lives Ain’t What They Used To Be
2. Rebirth, Past Lives and Desires
3. A Reader’s Questions on Being Half-Awake

credit: Jorge Bassy

In my last article, I shared some ideas about the proverbial “enlightened guy.” As I mentioned, I prefer the term awakening as it has a little less historical baggage associated with it, but no matter, I think we all know at least something about the subject, no matter what we call it. As spiritual awakening is one of the primary topics of this site, I thought it would be good to have some more discussion about it. And interestingly, Adyashanti provided just what I needed.

Here is an excerpt from a satsang Adyashanti did at the April 2008 silent retreat of his that I attended. I’ll let him do the talking, then I will offer a few comments:

There’s awakening and then there’s awakening, isn’t there? There’s a moment that we can call an awakening moment… An awakening moment isn’t any old spiritual experience. As a matter of fact, it’s almost none of the spiritual experiences that we’re told that it is. But there can be a moment of awakening.

So there’s a moment of awakening, and then there’s actually being awake. And very often the moment of awakening, actually, it’s significant in the sense that something has fundamentally shifted, that you can’t go back on, even though you might re-delude yourself and lose sight of it and start a whole long process of struggling and then trying to maintain it. And all that stuff.

But ultimately something at the seat of consciousness has fundamentally shifted. Then there is the other awakening. It’s the other awakening that sort of is the process of awakening, which is that thing where it starts to dissolve the spiritual ego, dissolve the “me,” dissolve all those things that you immediately apprehend in the moment of awakening but doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to be living it a year later.

Then there is this dissolving away of all that which divides. And that for most people takes quite a bit of time. That’s the honest truth. Very few people are going to have, “Ah ha! Alleluia!” The lights turned on. And the lights are just going to stay turned on. Every now and then it happens, but usually it’s like, “Okay, now the other thing’s going to happen, and it’s going to be called the dissolving of you.”

Even though you’ve seen in that moment that there is no you, nonetheless the dissolving of you has now begun in earnest and you can expect it to continue in ways and to a depth that you never imagined. And that’s basically what it’s about.

And once that process has started, it doesn’t really need your help. It just can use you not hindering it. The “me” can’t help it along, but the “me” sure can kind of slow the whole thing down.

So, if we follow Adyashanti’s discussion, there is a moment of awakening, when what you are sees, truly sees itself for what it is. The illusion of a separate self disappears for a time, and you know yourself as One. Sometimes, this can be referred to as a “parting of the veil” of illusion.

credit: aloshbennett

But then, for most people, the process of awakening begins. Whatever parts of the “me” that are still hanging around, getting in the way of seeing Oneness in all places and in all moments, these parts will, seemingly over time, be dissolved. And, contrary to popular belief, this dissolving can be a process that takes years. Adyashanti has commented in other places that he has seen in take typically 3-15 years for most people.

Should we be surprised by the fact that there is awakening and then a process of awakening? Not really. For most people, that’s just the way it is. In the Zen tradition, the Sandokai says, “To encounter the Absolute is not yet Enlightenment.” Same basic idea. The veil parts, but then more is seen through over time. To be certain, this process has been my experience.

And yet. And yet, is that even true? While it may appear that a process is occurring, it also seems, to those who reach the endpoint of this process, as if the process never occurred. That which is awake is awake, now, forever, always. How can it ever be asleep, for it is the fount from which springs everything of form? I’m sorry to say it, because it can sound to the mind like I’m hedging, but awakening is filled with paradoxes. No way around it.

Of course, I will have more to say on the subject of spiritual awakening in future articles. I look forward to your comments! Namaste.

Related posts:

1. A Must Read: An Interview with Adyashanti in The Sun Magazine
2. Willingness Is the Key to Spiritual Awakening
3. If You Dig Awakening….

credit: particlem

The other day I wrote a little article commenting on Eckhart Tolle and Oprah. A reader left some comments concerning Eckhart and the general issue of enlightenment, and rather than reply in the comments, I thought I would do a short article in response.

I think it is safe to say that my reader and I may not see eye to eye on the subject of enlightenment. I won’t try to summarize his point of view, but I encourage you to read the comments on that post.

Let me being by saying that I’m not really into the term enlightenment, so I will use the word awake or awakening. Just a matter of preference. Less baggage for me associated with the term awakening.

The only “criteria” I have for awakening is seeing, truly seeing, beyond the self, the “I”, the “me” that everyone thinks they are. When that is seen through, completely through, it is as if one has awakened from a dream, a dream of self. One then knows oneself as the Unborn as the Buddha would have said. Or we can say Emptiness, Spirit, the Formless.

However, as one great Zen master pointed out, “to encounter the Absolute is not yet enlightenment.” This awakening has to penetrate the entire being. When it does, the person knows through and through the truth: there is only One. Wherever they look, they see One. And this One has the appearance of form but is in fact Formless, Empty. When they look inside themselves, they see Nothing, Emptiness, the Absolute. All is Emptiness, all is One.

This whole awakening, then, is about identity. In my experience, it has nothing to do with experiences. One can have profound experiences of bliss, and even experiences of awakening, but that in and of itself is not it. When the sense of self has gone, that is it. No Self. Over and over, that message comes at us in spiritual literature (well, at least in “the good stuff”).

As for those who have awakened, in my experience, there are plenty. Eckhart for certain. They come in all shapes and sizes. I personally know a few that don’t look anything like the popular image of “an enlightened one.” The outer form means nothing. Absolutely nothing. Life expresses itself in all manner of forms. And in awakening, too. Here are a few examples of some well known and not so well known folks:

Ramana Maharshi (pictured left), who by anyone’s definition would meet the tests of “enlightened” sat around in a loincloth and asked for nothing (except a newspaper and food). And yet he had a strange obsession with a mountain. Go figure. He “looked the part” of the great enlightened one, partly because of his particular experiences and partly because he was living in India.

Nisargadatta Maharaj (pictured right), again someone who passes almost anyone’s “tests”, smoked cigarettes like a chimney and owned a little store (where he sold cigarettes amongst other things). He was a common man, uneducated, but as awake as could be. He certainly didn’t look enlightened. He even would shout at his visitors in his passion to bring the truth to them.

Okay, one more: my favorite is a man who currently plays banjo at the Grand Ole Opry and tells silly hillbilly jokes on stage. He is billed as a “banjer funnyman” yet when he has done satsang, the beauty of the truth in him echos from his voice. He is vibrant, alive, amazing. And yes, he was on Hee Haw 20 years ago (I’m not making this up, I promise!). His name is Mike Snider, and you can find out more about him here.

All awake. All aware of the Truth.

These are some examples. I know of others. As a matter of fact, I’m going to be posting an interview I did recently with someone who has realized the truth of who he is. He is a delight to speak with, but again, he won’t look like the common conceptions of “enlightened guy.” Which to me means those conceptions are probably quite mistaken.

To be honest, it is probably best to throw away these beliefs about enlightenment, and we should probably begin with the term enlightenment. Too much baggage as I said before. In point of fact, probably the best way to express it all is to simply say, “one who has realized the truth of who she is.” Much better. Because it isn’t any more complicated or exciting than that.

Again, as I mentioned above, that realization can’t simply be “oh, yeah, I get it.” It must penetrate deep, it must be thorough, it must be through the entire being. But don’t worry. You’ll know. Believe me, when the truth dawns, you won’t have any doubts. You probably won’t be able to stop laughing for a while.

As an addendum, I would like to thank Vern over at aimforawesome.com for getting this discussion rolling. He has a terrific blog with great articles and killer images. He writes from his experience, which is rare in the world of spirituality. Again, thanks Vern.

Related posts:

1. How Do You Know If Someone Is Enlightened?
2. Spiritual Awakening – Adyashanti’s View
3. More on Being Half-Awake

credit: Sofia Brightsea

I dig spiritual awakening. Do you? Honestly, I know of no other topic that lights me up and gets my attention. Therefore, I’d like to share some cool blogs that are very awakening focused. I’ve discovered these great sites and people over the past few months, and they put out some great stuff.

Takuin Minamoto writes passionately from his experience. His posts are moving and almost a meditation in and of themselves.

Davidya has a lot of great commentary on the subject of awakening. I found him recently because of a post he did on Adyashanti. He has been leaving some fantastic comments on my post Adyashanti Retreat Report, where he, J Stone and I have been having quite the exchange of ideas and thoughts.

Kenton Whitman writes a Zen inspired blog that has a number of excellent posts that deal with the whole topic of awakening.

There are other sites to check-out, too, on this subject, my favorite being Adyashanti’s web site. You can watch videos and download free audio recordings of Adya speaking about awakening.

And last, but not least, I’d like to give a big thumbs up to two spirituality blogs that I really like. While his blog isn’t about awakening, my friend Albert at UrbanMonk.net writes a spiritually inspired blog on personal development. Albert has been writing some excellent posts lately, and I suggest you check him out.

The second is Divine Purpose Unleashed written by CK and Michelle, two very in tune women who write about how to find your divine purpose. Michelle interviewed me on her Internet radio show last month.

Enjoy these blogs. I do. Talk to you soon when the retreat is over.

Related posts:

1. Spiritual Awakening – Adyashanti’s View
2. Is Spirituality More Than Just Awakening?
3. Willingness Is the Key to Spiritual Awakening