Mark Krusen’s last blog post..Justa studying up on my Bi-Polar disorder.

Davidya’s last blog post..What Awakes

Thats said, this is not a hindrance to awakening. Awakening is beyond all that. Mental fogginess, fatigue, and other noise will affect our clarity but will not stop being. We remain that, whatever the expression. Rather than space, it may simply seem blank.

Thats been one of the surprises to me. I always had the idea that enlightenment required perfection, stress free and pure. But I’ve seen a compulsive liar wake up, a woman with huge dramas, and a grannie who didn’t want it nor any understanding. Of course, its a little easier if we’re clear and have moved past the pain body. But nothing is a barrier to being.

Waking is just changing who we perceive ourselves to be. However muddy the perception.

Mark Krusen’s last blog post..Justa studying up on my Bi-Polar disorder.

We are used to doing or finding, but the key here, even at the start, is being. Being what what is. Adya is a wonderful resource but if even that is too deep, you may enjoy the conversation Eckhart is having with Oprah. They have started with the very basics and are stepping forward through the process. Pretty amazing millions are hearing it. Once you “get” that, Adya will take you through waking and beyond.

No, you are not way off. The goal is not somewhere else, its just being here now. Perhaps in your practice you have had occasional moments of silence, of a gap, of space. Or perhaps a wave of happiness after a kind of blank space. Thats it. You have arrived. The trick is to ‘learn’ to stay. To refine and clear and allow enough to be there and here at the same time.

Where are you when you have arrived? The path is a metaphor. You don’t go anywhere. You simply open your awareness more and discover more of where and what you already are, and that is everything. This is about consciousness, not ideas. The mind catches up later.

Davidya’s last blog post..Growing the Group

Getting past the practice doesn’t necessarily mean you are close. I like the way Adyashanti describes it: the practice is meant to take you to the limit of your mind, to the boundary of what you know. If you hang-out there, you will begin to experience a movement from “the other side” as it were. Spirit or consciousness will come to you. Over time, or maybe very quickly, the attention you are paying to what is beyond the mind will bear fruit. So keep practicing. Practice all the time.

As to where we are when we have arrived, well, “we” aren’t anywhere. That’s the whole point. Awakening is awakening from the dream called “me” or as Ramana called it, the I-thought. You think you are Mark, a separate self, isolated from the world. When in reality you are God, awareness, presence, the Now, consciousness, spirit, whatever you want to call it, experiencing itself as Mark and not aware of the truth. And I can tell you, mentally understanding what I just wrote isn’t “it” in terms of awakening. You gotta know it. Down in your gut.

As Davidya has nicely put it in his blog, we awaken to a knowingness that we aren’t what we thought we are. We are nothingness, the Void, emptiness, spirit. And either simultaneously or at some point after (and for some people, even before!), we come to a realization that this emptiness, this spirit is everything, even our thoughts, our mind, you name it. Everything. Nothing is left out.

That’s the best I can do for right now, Mark. Go to adyashanti.org and listen to Adya talk about this stuff. He has hundreds of hours of recordings you can listen to, some for free, that will give you a very clear and concise understanding of what all this stuff is about.

How can you expect to go deeper yet. I’m still practicing my awakening if I can get past the practice aren’t I then pretty close to the center of it all. I’m justa asking Tom?

Am I way off still? I feel like I still have a lot of practicing to do, before I can every feel like I have “arrived”. And then a final question. Where are we when we have arrived?

Mark Krusen’s last blog post..Justa studying up on my Bi-Polar disorder.

Davidya’s last blog post..The Practice

Tola

rx4life.info’s last blog post..Power Quote – Dale Carnegie

Really, they are the same thing. Self coming to know itself, through ItSelf, and through the individual. Or if you like, 2 sides of the coin, the inward and the outward strokes.

But your point is still valid. What is spirituality if it is just an idea? As a friend is so fond of saying, a word is just a symbol of a symbol (idea).

The key is stepping past ideas and moving into being it, as you are. Ultimately, thats what any practice is about. If you consider it from the perspective of human evolution, there is a time for practice. Practice brings us to the doorway. But to step through the door, we have to transcend the practice. Step to the next level. Its not that the practice is an illusion per se, its that at some point it becomes that. You are obviously there.

Its quite common for peoples practice to be thrown when they make a major step up in awareness. If you are no longer that, what use is a practice in that? I know some who quit. Others who struggle for a short time as meditation may no longer seem to “work”. The mind is no longer “where” it used to be. Perhaps its more like the chair in the corner now.

Its valid to consider, but always remember the perspective you bring to the table. As your perspective changes, so too will your truth.

Davidya’s last blog post..Egos and Cults

So spiritual seekers will probably always want/need to do something, to have a practice, to get instruction, to sit in satsang, to sit in meditation, to struggle to achieve that which they already have. And the spiritual teacher can help them to struggle so well that they ultimately fail. Ramana told people that the ultimate practice was to “be still.” If you can’t do that? Then do inquiry. Can’t handle that? Then he would often tell them to do some type of Hindu/yogic practice: mantras, devotions, you name it. I love it! Something for everyone.

And in the end, Davidya’s is right: ultimately, you end up just allowing what is to be what it is.

Davidya’s last blog post..Spirit

When all is said and done, we are faced with the following: there is no such thing as spirituality. It is just, as you said, a division, a label, a category into which we put certain aspects of the world. But does it really exist? Of course not. Words, words, words, that is all we are playing with. Does spirituality represent something real? No. I like how Adya describes all words: they are teaching strategies. The ultimate aim of any word is to extinguish another word and leave in its place silence. Pure and simple.

So let’s keep playing with words, having fun with the discussions, letting the mind play around with all the wondrous aspects that we can call spirituality. Confession: I love spirituality and spiritual seekers and churches and chanting and all this crazy stuff. It beats doing algebra and integral calculus (I was a math teacher years ago). I just love the whole world of spirituality.

I added a bit to the discussion on my newest blog post. Hope you don’t mind.

People still seem to think that spirituality is something that you do; If you do certain actions, you are spiritual, If you don’t, you’re not. But the division, the duality, or whatever you want to call it, is still there. (How can one do being?)

Here is a nice question to ask:

Is there a spirituality that is without division?

(This assumes that it is already divided, which is fine. Just look at the world and you’ll get all the division you can stand.)

It is tricky. If your answer is based on an idea and built from a conclusion, then it is already divisive. But this is the crux of all duality. It is too strange or difficult for most, because they can’t get away from what they know to fully see the question.

One can say spirituality is this or that, or certain people have it and certain people don’t, but the wholeness, the timelessness, the being, is not there.

Is there a timeless spirituality?

Takuin Minamoto’s last blog post..What is Spirituality?

Whoever is choosing, when individual is open to wholeness, then wholeness can move through into the world unimpeded. (fully after 2nd switch) And then the fun really begins

must run…

Davidya’s last blog post..Eckhart on Oprah continues

The other side of the river? Not yet, I think. Well, in a certain sense, we are already on the other side. I’m learning to no longer paddle my boat, that’s all. The other side looks very close, very nice. Just don’t paddle any more, and all will be fine.

Glad to have you hear, Tola. Hope to see more of you.