What Is “Awakening”?

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Worth Reading Off the Web – The author, Scott Kiloby is an international speaker on the subject of freedom through non-dual realization, a Certified Addiction Treatment Counselor/Registered Addiction Specialist.

EveningofLight

EveningofLight

Awakening is a living, breathing, constantly unfolding moment-by-moment adventure.

The Head-Awakening

What gets passed off as awakening is a certain shifting that happens, where one sees that they are not the concepts in their heads. In awareness-styled awakenings (there are different awakenings that look and feel differently in different traditions – awareness-styled is just one), the shift usually involves some sort of non-conceptual realization of awareness, being, presence or no self that seems to be an end point at first. It can be a sudden or gradual shifting, but people generally report this kind of change in perception. Things are seen to come and go within awareness inseparably or things seem to come and go but there is no self to be found.

Because this opening reveals a profound seeing that separate things, including a separate self, are not really there, it is easy to see why the proclamation of “I’m done”. In many ways, one is done – done with seeking as a self in time and in thought. But this is only a head-awakening. Even in a head-awakening, it can feel as if the body is open and transparent at first. But given time, areas of the body that are dense with the feeling of separation start to become conscious.

There are at least two other big areas to be navigated after a head-awakening.

1. The baggage of mental concepts around awakening itself.

2. The body.

Let’s start with the mental concepts. In my experience, there is a desire in many people to grasp mentally what has been realized. There are elaborate conceptual frameworks devised to “make sense” of awakening, just as this writing is a conceptual framework. There’s nothing wrong with having a conceptual framework, until it becomes the new mental prison. Just as there is a rush to a head-awakening, there is often a rush to neatly place the realization into certain conceptual boxes. There are many boxes. All the buzzwords you hear in awakening circles can be imprisoning boxes, including:

• “we create our own reality”
• “everything is just a concept”
• “nothing is true”
• “life is a divine mystery”
• “oneness is the ultimate truth”
• “no self”
• “awareness”
• “I AM”
• “all there is, is THIS”
• “The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao”
• “The Middle Way”

People can spend years after a head awakening endlessly identifying with all sorts of mental stuff around the awakening. This is the time when people desire to be teachers. I went through it. It’s really very innocent and comes from good intentions. But what gets passed off is only what a teacher has realized, nothing more. And many times what gets passed off are ideas about static, fixed things that are taken to be objectively true and real. Spiritual experiences and realizations get concretized into doctrine or dogma or “this is the only way” type thinking.

Eventually, what becomes important is the living of the realization itself, rather than the conceptualizing and understanding of it.

Conceptualizing goes on, but things are held a lot more lightly and non-seriously. The Living Inquiries were born out of my experience of being first immersed in certain boxes and then turning attention towards the moment-by-moment living and seeing.

The Body

The body has its own say in the matter. There are other chakras – not just the crown and mind’s eye. The heart can feel heavy, dense and closed for years after a head awakening. So can the root chakra, the sacral, the stomach and the throat. The result is often an arising of addictions, anxieties, self-limiting thoughts, grasping after understanding, issues with money, depression, big ego trips, issues with control and jealousy. I found this out by proclaiming that I was done too early. My issue was the continuation of certain addictions long after the head awakening. In my conversations with other teachers, they reported similar things. It takes a while, sometimes years, after a head awakening to fully see the darker, denser aspects of the body that remain closed. This is why becoming a teacher right after a head awakening is not a great idea. It’s like the blind leading the blind.

Adyashanti speaks eloquently about the post-awakening dilemma. Somewhere between 3 to 7 years after an awakening, the other shoe drops. Everything that was held in the mind and body and that was not seen through in that awakening will come up and bite you. It’s like it all wants to be seen and released. And it can be painful. You can even wonder why you started the awakening process to begin with. The body awakening doesn’t happen through seeking. It happens just from remaining open and working with those energies in skillful ways.

Try working with a therapist on this “Shadow” self. It is the doorway to greater and greater levels of evolution and freedom.

Article Source: http://kiloby.com/premature-claims-to-awakening/

Recognizing the Sacred in Our World – Part Two

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A great read from off the web …. Please take the time.

SPIRITUAL WISDOM: Recognizing the Sacred in Our World

by Christopher Chase

Every religion, at its core, is based on the idea that our world is a sacred and mystical place, and that each of us is on a spiritual journey, that all life is sacred, and that our entire Universe is a mystical creation.

Below is some of the wisdom common to most of the world’s mystical schools and spiritual traditions. Mystical teachings are at the core of all the great religions. They provide an alternative to hate and fear, to our illusions of separateness, reminding us instead of the beauty, interdependence and sacredness of all life.

21 Core Ideas of the World’s Spiritual Traditions – 6 – 12

  1. RECOGNIZING THE PURPOSE OF SACRIFICE AND PAIN~ The journey of souls in this world is not easy.As long as we are motivated by anger, desire, pride or fear we will be challenged by life, and find ourselves experiencing struggles, anger, loss and pain. This is part of growth, a necessary condition for our spiritual development and learning. Fortunately, all pain and sacrifice are temporary.

“God turns you from one feeling to another and teaches by means of opposites, so that you will have two wings to fly, not one.” ~Rumi

  1. ETERNAL SAFETY~  Since we are divine eternal beings there is nothing for us to fear, not even death.Everything that happens to us is a learning experience and even the most terrible things can be transformed into expressions of divine grace. Death is a natural part of this experience, and should not be feared.

“Know the Spirit, Unborn, Undying, Never ceasing, Never beginning, Deathless, Birthless, Unchanging forever, How can it die the death of the body?” ~The Bhagavad Gita

  1. ALL LIFE IS SACRED~  While we may be eternal beings, to harm or kill another from malice, anger or indifference is to ignore their sacred nature and intrinsic value as sentient living creatures. Even when animals are killed we have the responsibility to do so compassionately and consciously, with respect for their lives and gratitude for their sacrifice. For the spirit that gave birth to us all lives in each and every one of us, each and every creation. All of us, no matter how foolish, insignificant or evil we may seem, are cosmic works of art, molded and inhabited by the divine light of God.

“You have heard that it was said, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also… Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”       ~Jesus

  1. THE FUTILITY OF HATE~  Since we are all brothers and sisters to one another, all our hate, anger and fear are futile. Hate is based on the feeling that someone is trying to hurt you. But we are divine beings, who can never really be hurt in the end. Therefore, those we struggle with are actually teachers for us. They are challenging us to let go of our fears and illusions and open to love.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”              ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Hatred ever kills, love never dies. Such is the vast difference between the two… The duty of a human being is to diminish hatred and to promote love.”    ~Mahatma Gandhi

  1. MeditationMasters.comTHE REALITY OF LOVE~  Love is the way Spirit touches us, as souls here in this world. Love is the underlying reality and essence of the Universe. It is the force that holds all things together. Love is always there, although we may not always feel it or see it. Love takes care of everyone, forsakes no one. This is the great teaching common to all saints, prophets and spiritual traditions. We are all children of God, children of Love. No one should be ignored or pushed away.

“Love courses through everything. How can you say there is no love, when nothing but love exists? All that you see has appeared because of love. All shines from love, All pulses from love, All flows from love– All is love!”        ~Fakhruddin ‘Iraqi, Sufi poet

  1. SHARING AND SERVICE~  Out of our understanding of the reality of love comes the motivation to commit ourselves to be of service to others. Selfishness arises out of a belief in the scarcity of resources, so that each is compelled to grab whatever one can to ensure one’s survival. Cooperation, compassion and service are the actions that arise when we feel no lack, for they have the potential to fill our hearts with peace, gratitude and love.

“What actions are most excellent? To gladden the heart of a human being, to feed the hungry, to help the afflicted, to lighten the sorrow of the sorrowful, and to remove the wrongs of the injured.”   ~Mohammed

  1. THE RECONCILIATION OF GOOD AND EVIL~  The idea that some people are all good and others are all bad is one of the illusions spun by fear-based human reasoning. It is the central idea that gives birth to all wars and violence between people. From the perspective of higher consciousness everything and everybody in the Universe is a part of God. All good things have some “bad” within them, and all bad things have some “good.” To recognize the negative qualities of ourselves and the goodness within our enemies allows us to understand how we are all similar to one another.

“In this world, hate never dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate.
This is the law, ancient and inexhaustible.”  ~The Buddha

 

*Watch for Part Three, coming soon!