I have one piece of “advice” for you and everyone else on the spiritual road. And that is this: be willing to learn anything from anyone, no matter how crazy they may seem or how “off” they may be. BUT, and this is key, remember one inescapable fact of the spiritual journey: YOU are the ultimate authority. Not the guru.

Think about it: when you are sitting on the cushion, who has to “see” through the mental crap? You. When you are faced when a choice, who must appear to make it? You. Always, always, always, the buck stops right where you are sitting. No where else.

As long as you remember that, you cannot surrender yourself to a guru. You can listen to some pretty wacko stuff, learn a bit, and then say, “adios, nut job!” Seriously. But for the most part, stick to the ultra-clean ones like Adyashanti, or the already deceased ones like Nisargadatta. Find like minded, strong people that over time you can trust. Read blogs like my friend Takuin’s (and mine) and you will read some stuff that might resonate with you.

Just keep on the path, keep focused on the real path (knowing who you truly are), and let Life show you the way. I hope that helps. Namaste.

A few years ago I became involved with a spiritual master, a profoundly beneficial and life transformative experience. However, along the way, I seemed to lose the intense desire for freedom that had propelled me along. I became uncomfortable with some of the “cultish” aspects of his organization and eventually decided to leave. At the time I realized, “Not only is this not it, there IS no ‘it.’ Whew! Thank goodness; now I can stop looking for it”. That was a relief, for a while.

Later I came to believe the master was involved in sexual misconduct (not toward me) and felt betrayed. I had already seen other unsavory aspects of his behavior that I couldn’t reconcile with what I can only describe as my energetic experience of him. It has been hard to hold these two aspects, that this master seems to be enlightened and gave me a great gift, and also seems corrupt.

Now, a few years later, underneath the hubbub of my life, I know the awakened state is all there really is, yet I don’t have the wisdom to realize it and don’t want to end up idolizing another master. So I pursue my career, enjoy my significant other, watch TV, take the dog running, but I’m kind of in limbo. Any thoughts?

And as Adya is fond of saying, “the only inevitable thing is that everyone will awaken.”

That said, there is a lot of what might be called group change taking place. “The quickening” some call it. What once typically took long periods of time in retreats and introspection is now happening more commonly in day to day life. It’s a really good time to put active attention on your spirituality. Those that don’t may find themselves pushed by the group, somewhat unwillingly. That’s not the smoothest route to take. (laughs)

Tom, when did your “spiritual journey” begin?

Of course, it’s also worth noting how they describe the true Guru as Self Itself. The person of the teacher is just the stand-in or vehicle until one can transcend Maya and be the guru within. There are certainly advantages to darshan, being with the teacher in person. But keep in mind that a fully awake person is One. They are present everywhere, in everything. Place and time are no barriers to presence.

It’s also really worth noting that awakening is entirely natural. So it will happen for all of us at some point. But there are things we can do to facilitate it as above. Cooperate with the process, if you will.

One of the surprises of both awakenings is that they feel very normal, once you settle in. We may have all these grandiose ideas about what “enlightenment” will be like. But after the fact, it’s just ordinary.

Of course, ordinary is what we’re used to. Unending bliss is normal. More normal than suffering.

As Tom observes, even after the fact it can take a while to sort out for the person involved. But that gets much easier if they can talk to others about it, get some context, and not have to do it solo. That’s not something some of those who forged ahead had. But as there’s more and more stepping through the gate, the network grows.

Really, awakening is a process of Self opening to Itself. How each person perceives that process varies widely. (Really that’s the whole point – to experience it all in as many ways as possible) We can categorize people as having a more heart oriented or head oriented awakening, as having more or less flash and so forth. But that doesn’t really matter. What really matters is what comes out the other end. What settles in after the dust has cleared and it’s well established.

That’s the part that makes it all worthwhile.

You said in a comment above that “We all get sent just the right teacher for our stage of the journey. Or something like that”. I hope your tongue wasn’t too firmly embedded in your cheek. I’d like to think I’m not here by mere coincidence. What’s your take on coincidences?

As for accepting Divine order: I’m not so sure I believe in “Divine order” the way it is usually meant. I love to think of it this way: You don’t have control over your life because there is no YOU to control it. But what you are IS the divine. What you truly are. So, in a certain silly sense everything is in divine order because everything is the divine.

@Mike Well, Ramana “did” something: he lied down and imagined he was dying, then dead. He went completely into the experience of dying. And then the ego in him “died” so to speak.

You are right. There is NOTHING you can do to awaken. But it certainly seems like most of us will plow the field so that the seed can grow. If you get sense inside the meditation would be good to do, do it. If you get a urge to go to retreats, do it. Follow those intuitions, because they are Self pointing you in the direction you need to go. There is nothing you can do, because the “you” that thinks it can do things doesn’t exist!!! But there is a lot you most likely WILL DO. You gotta love it!!

I don’t think the practices help us to mimic the end game because nothing can mimic that. Remember, enlightenment has nothing to do with being peaceful and loving. Those are often the end results. But they are enlightenment.

@Shadowduck I would be happy to do some “back to basics” posts. You know why? Because it is all the basics. The advanced stuff is not the good stuff. The good stuff is kindergarten. Really, I mean that sincerely. Only the basics will help you. The other stuff is just minds yacking.

@Al I have to agree. How can you ever know that you are at the end? Maybe you can. I doubt it. I think you can know that where you WERE is over, but where you will be? And yet, awakening is nothing more than realizing what you really are. Really, really are. That’s it. So, in a sense, you can get to the end of that road if you always, every minute, know what you are. And that is a VERY profound realization when it penetrates to every fiber of your being.

Great post.

As we raise our level of awareness we have moments of awakening, which I believe both the raising and the having constitues the awakening process.

As far as BEing fully awakened that would be an ongoing process to attain that level, but then I’m sure there would be an even higher or fuller level waiting around the corner.

Ilumine Ao,
Al Diaz
http://www.thetitusconcept.com
http://ilumine-ao.blogspot.com

Tom brings out an important point, there is nothing whatsoever you can do to awaken. You can’t “make it happen”(even though ego will insist you can).

So why do all those ‘practices’ if they are ineffective in awakening? Well, my take on it is that awakening is guaranteed. It is certain and you can’t NOT awaken. I mean, like, why else be ‘born’?!

Therefore, all our practices are simply to attain a sense of peace in this ‘life,’while we wait for what is certain. But then the question is, can those ‘practices’ result in such a peaceful and loving ‘existence’ that our living tends to mimic or imitate the “enlightened state”?

Great discussion!

Thanks,
mike S

mike S’s last blog post..Know Yourself as God Knows

Thanks for the thought, addressing those of us in the unsure category. Rather than my hair hurting my reaction often is one of cessation.

I think my desire includes that of having to stop reading, stop doing, stop looking for the answer, an answer, someone else’s answer and just know already. I never had any real desire that I knew of to join Eckhart in his homelessness and his park bench, but I’m so close to that I can taste it.

The consolation/realization/acceptance of Divine order is a hard one to swallow when I look at the life I have lived so far, continue to live, with seemingly no choice some days and realize it has all been consolation.

I think my struggle sometimes includes too much of the big picture, very real glimpses of the big picture, increasing my desire, surpassing all other desire I’ve ever had in day-to-day. The very opposite end of the unsure. Yeah, I know, the polarity necessary, the paradox necessary, couldn’t possibly be the other without it.

Just my take on hurting hair, and maybe it is hurting hair that holds my answers too. I’ll let you know should that occur. What I think it is however, is to learn to hold the tension of the hurting hair. Or in my case the consolation.

Both of you have given me an idea. I’m going to start writing some articles that assume nothing is known about this whole crazy subject. I’m not going to say I will give THE ANSWER about spiritual awakening or how it works (no one can, to be honest), but I can share some thoughts, ideas, and my own experiences. Hopefully I can get one written by the end of the week.

I think I too would like to hear Tom’s answer to this, probably sharing your boat.

But to you I say, how open and brave you are. An indication I think the me you wish to walk may already be doing just that. Hope I’m not mistaken. Maybe Tom can tell us that, too.

To answer your questions: In a certain sense, you could say the awakening process is a constant, never ending process for every sentient being in the Universe. We are all IN IT right now. However, for the most part, the process we are talking about is one that occurs AS A RESULT OF a “moment” in which you see, truly, really see, through the illusion of being a separate self. It is an experience distinctly different from all other spiritual experiences. If you’ve experienced it, you absolutely know you have. You’ve seen THE TRUTH. And then, the process begins. For most people.

For some, like Ramana Maharshi, the one moment is the only moment. He simply “blew out” the ME. Of course, he had to basically sit in a cave for 10 years while everything got re-integrated. Eckhart Tolle had a similar experience, and sat on park benches for a few years until everything got straightened out. This whole awakening thing is as much a re-integration as anything else.

A suggestion: don’t wait for “the moment.” There is almost nothing you or anyone else can do to make it happen. When reality wants to awaken to itself in a particular person, it will. Period. Now, that doesn’t mean we don’t meditate, pray, whatever. Those things “seem” to be helpful, and seem to help prepare the way. But awakening is an act of grace. The divine works on its agenda, its time table. And we just go along for the ride. Anything you “need” to do to have your moment, you will be “guided” to do. You literally can’t screw it up. I mean that. You can’t screw it up. It will happen exactly as it is supposed to happen.

It’s taken me a few days to comment because I had to read the post, ponder and reread it. And ponder some more. Frankly, it makes my hair hurt. Since I may be the only commenter who is not schooled in all things enlightenment, I must ask: Do you have to enter the awakening STATE before you start the awakening PROCESS (is it linear?) and must we all have some sort of “moment” that goes along with the former?

I read about awakening, I get the concept, and frankly would like nothing more than for the ME in me to take a hike.

But I am still waiting for my “moment”.

Annie

Annie Binns’s last blog post..High-Five Fridays | July 18, 2008

@Davidya While on the whole I agree with the general outlines of the model you use and Adya outlines, I can’t say that it is really that clear and linear. If ever there was a subject that is unclear it is AWAKENING. It seems that most people have an “awakening” and then some time to clear stuff out. Some don’t. It seems that people will then fully “flower” after a period of time. Some don’t. Some stay stuck as a rock. Some do the whole thing without any steps. The divine plays by its own rules, that’s for certain.

Guys, my pseudo bottom line: there are no stages or steps. There APPEAR to be, but there aren’t. We APPEAR to go through them, but we don’t. There are no FULLY AWAKE beings. Just God playing with himself (pun intended). Have a great weekend.

What can take time afterward is the integration. Clearing the leftovers, getting out of old mind habits, and so forth. How long that takes depends on a whole swack of factors – understanding whats going on, investment in dramas, support available, your routine and how well you take care of yourself, and so forth.

One could compare it to getting married. There is a big event, then all the work afterward to settle into the relationship.

When it is fully integrated, then you can reflect the full value of silence, bliss, and unboundedness, whatever the circumstances of life.

On Ken Wilbur, I would take his stuff with a big grain of salt. He is an integrator, blending information from a wide range of sources. Sometimes he does a great job. Sometimes he’s way off in left field. It is not the ego that develops enough to maintain the “experience”, at least not in the way almost everyone else uses the term. Actually, that speaks volumes about what his “enlightenment” is. Almost everyone else talks about ego death or submersion or other such thing. Wilbur’s stuff is very much mind and that has NOTHING to do with awakening. Mental illumination is as far as it goes.

There is a time of integration to stabilize the experience so it can be sustained, but its not the ego that does this. Indeed it is the “ego shrapnel” left over that hinders the process. It is our nervous system adapting, our awareness, and the value of consciousness we can ‘reflect’ that determines the experience we can maintain.

It’s also worth noting that human worldviews do not evolve in a linear pattern but rather in cycles. Wilbur confuses some higher experiences with ancient worldviews, simply from the time in which it was written. Because he does not clearly differentiate ‘worldviews’ and states of consciousness, some of that material is off. Also, he tacks his own stuff onto others ideas to make it all “fit”, distorting the original work. That is not good integration.

Davidya’s last blog post..Silence

Nevertheless, I resonate with much that Adyashanti teaches. And Sailor Bob and Nirmala, etc, etc, etc. Eric P. puts out some great stuff and I like that “In 2 deep” site too. And Tom, you certainly seem to have a handle on things. So many insightful minds, so much wisdom, so little time. LOL!

I tend to also resonate with parts of Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory as well. He believes that this “awakened” (or “Glimpsing the Divine”) has occurred frequently throughout the ages. Problem is the ego must interpret the “state” and this is dependent on one’s “worldview” (archaic, mythic, rational, yada yada, yada) and worldviews evolve, thereby creating not only enlightened glimpses, but consistent “stages” in which one tends to remain enlightened because the ego has evolved enough to adequately interpret the experience and MAINTAIN it. So with this it seems the question is NOT are you enlightened, but are you EVOLVED.

Seems logical. However, I’m not so sure the “Divine” subscribes to Ken’s logic (or even his wild & crazy guru, Adi Da)

You’ve got a primo site here Tom,love reading the articles and comments. Keep up the good work!

Thanks,
mike S

Mike S’s last blog post..Consciousness and Objects

This is a little different from the stopping but can be related if the identity is held. If one does not know there is something more, the subconscious identity reinvests in this new experience. Particularly as the identity is the core fear. Some are freaked to face that, although when the time comes it’s often very easy. But as long as we have not released the identity, we are not fully awake and have not fully left the individuality. Awakening is a process that takes a little time for most of us. Knowing whats ahead can make the process much easier. Hence the harping (laughs)

@Davidya Thanks for the comments and ideas. One thing you said that really caught my eye: “some experience that first awakening and then stop.” I’m not certain it is stop as much as get stuck in their minds again. For some reason, when it is a public figure, it seems as if the person gets very arrogant. “I’m enlightened, you aren’t!” There have been some interesting characters in the spiritual world who fit that description.

From what I’ve heard in his talks, Adyashanti had a very big first awakening. He then fell back a bit and integrated the experience. I know someone else that was similar, only they fell further back into their emotional dramas for a time. As such, Adya speaks to his experience. In some places, he more clearly breaks down the process, such is Journey after Awakening and in Emptiness Dancing. That difference is key and what matches the traditions of Advaita, Zen and similar.

I mention this as some teachings only take the first step and stop. But if we know there is more, we will allow for the deeper values to emerge. Compared to what is possible, the silence, freedom and bliss of first awakening is dry and plain.

If we look closely, we can see the process has 2 aspects after first awakening. Adya talks to it above.
1)There is overcoming the ego shrapnel/ deliverance and integrating the deep silence and bliss so they are unshakable in the vagaries of life.

2) there is the moving forward of being, clearing and integrating the heart, then lower ‘me’ and identity values.

So we can say there is the integration aspect and the deepening aspect.

That prepares the ground for the second waking, from the illusion of creation. This is full Oneness. And this process repeats the above, with the integration aspect and the deepening.

This is a minor clarification but I think important in understanding the process. There is a very big difference between First awakening, Realization, and full Unity. Each is a step closer to the fullness of who we are. How they play out varies widely. But you can’t get to London without crossing an ocean. If you don’t know you can go to London, you may never begin.

It is not my intention to harp, but people are awakening more and more and some are now making the second. It has taken a long time until now. But many things point to it taking less time. The fastest I’d heard of before was 3 months and that was someone with a long and deep history. This week, I saw 3 days. Certainly an exception, but it points to the same thing. For most of us, a little integration time and a little deepening time is a very good thing.

In any case, do your housework. Post-awakening is much easier if you are not still carrying all the trash around.

Davidya’s last blog post..Appearance