YATL posts and videos can be viewed freely here on this site. If you feel grateful for all that has been given and all you have received here, you are invited to give back.

Free Will vs. God’s Will

Question:

Hi Ariel,

I was just wondering about this. I was fine with my understanding of non-attachment until this particular idea came and I’ve now confused myself… 

I assume that the whole idea of incarnating is to grow and evolve and express your true essence.

And if we are not challenged, we have no impetus to grow.

So if we are truly operating from the Higher Self, making the perfect choices, and being detached from the outcomes, how does growth happen???

Maybe from a non-dual perspective it probably doesn’t matter, but it’s not clear why…

Your ideas on this would be appreciated. 

Blessings

B.

My Response:

Great question. So if our intuition is constantly guiding us, how does growth happen?

Effortlessly. At its own perfect pace.

You see, there comes to point whereby people find that using their own free will will never actually bring them happiness and lasting fulfillment, no matter how hard they try.

With the surrender of the personal will, the body moving, consciousness evolving, choices being made… all of that stuff happens seemingly on its own. In fact, it is only by truly letting go of the illusion of free will that you can be guided by spiritual (God’s) will.

A river has no trouble deciding if it should flow to the left or to the right of a boulder. It flows effortlessly, without thought.

We all have an inner voice, a silent still voice, that always knows what’s best to do. When we come totally from that voice without needing the mind’s second opinion, life seems to operate from a state of flow at its own perfect time. You “just know” the right choices to make.

The voice is NOT separate from you. That voice literally IS another aspect of you, just like the mind or the body. The voice IS you. It’s not some God “out there” somewhere.

Awakening into this experience and letting go of the illusion of free will does not mean that you become a bump on a log, a useless sack of meat and bones.

Quite the opposite in fact. Read More …

Realizations from Awakening, Part 3

Let’s round off this variety pack of topics, concluding Part 1 and Part 2 of this series.

Fears

“So do you have any fear? Are you totally free?”

Fear, yes. Is it believed or taken seriously? No.

The mind and the ego still exists, but it’s not taken seriously, just the same.

Enlightenment Fixing Life’s Problems

The funny thing is that it was always thought that this would always be the end-all-be-all solution to all problems. Life would be perfect. Everything would magically fix itself. All “problems” would fix themselves..

You know… “Yeah, I’ll just go get enlightened and my problems will all magically be solved.”

NOT TRUE

What happens is that One realizes the true silliness of all that was thought to be a problem, and it’s no longer a problem anymore because it’s not actually real.

Nothing changes on the outside, no one magically appears, including any angels descending from the heavens. Only the Self says “Hello, here I am. I’ve always been here. It’s good to see myself again. I’ve been pretending I’ve been someone else. It took a lot of energy to do it. It’s good to be home.”

Nothing changes externally.

It is an internal shift from illusion to Reality. That’s ALL.

Life is funny… Read More …

Realizations from Awakening, Part 2

Let’s continue the previous post, sharing more of what was suddenly recognized to be Reality.

—————————-

Levels of Consciousness

The Hawkins scale of Consciousness is totally bogus.

There is no spectrum, no scale, only the appearance of such.

There is ONLY the One.

The idea of variation is a result of looking at different expressions of the One, but all expressions of the One are illusion and thus not real, despite the fact that they are the One.

Nevertheless, he did people a huge favor by breaking down the unbreakable.

There is only Consciousness, the very source of Consciousness. There is no 200, 500, 600, 1000. There is only 1. Read More …

Realizations from Awakening, Part 1

After the latest dark night of the soul that I experienced, a few days later came another temporary awakening to my true nature.

It was the total dissolution of any reality of a separate self, not only the separate “me” existing as an individual person, but the total disappearance of anything as a separate reality in and of itself. There was the realization of existence as only the One.

This actually happened an evening just before I headed out to a party with some friends. The experience that was had was absolutely incredible.

In the awakened state, there is only the reality of the infinite welcoming openness of Love itself. There is only the One, no others. In social situations, there is no social anxiety, fear, worry about judgment or approval, or the desire to do anything other than give and love, to be who “you” truly are..

See, fear only exists as a reality when there is another to fear. If there’s no one else in the universe, there’s nothing to fear. Literally. Fear only exists within a divided state of consciousness.

The experience wound up being a total connectedness, an infinite openness, and a joyful welcoming to be or do anything. Sense of humor is automatic and awesome for it is a natural characteristic of the One’s true nature.

After coming home from the party, “Ariel” sat down and started writing about the experience. Let’s share this experience with “you” now. Read More …

The Formlessness Behind All Form

I’m sitting outside in the garden now looking around at all the “form” that surrounds me… plants, flowers, trees… cars, homes, bees… statues, stones, leaves…

After a relatively brief meditation session, I opened my eyes and began looking at my surroundings, simply observing without allowing the mind to hop in and insert its commentary and labels. Just looking and allowing all color, form, shape, and movement to flow into my eyes as one seamless flow of light.

Suddenly I realized what I was seeing and burst out laughing.

Underneath all form is a dance of formless energy. Nothing is solid, real, or permanent. What we call physical and tangible is simply a dance of impermanence.

The building blocks of all form is the formlessness of pure non-physical energy.

It’s like this…

Look at this picture. What do you see coming from the light? Smoke. A dance of wispy smoke. Frozen in time in this image, we could look at this smoke and say it has a distinct, definable form. It has a structure, shape, color, and size. In fact, we can keep looking at it and it doesn’t move. It must be permanent!

As we know, however, the shape of smoke is constantly subject to air currents and the flow of all of life itself. It’s constantly moving and evolving. Despite any appearances of form or structure, we know that smoke is truly formless. It has simply takes on the appearance of a particular form in every changing moment.

Every thing you see in life is just like this smoke. It is the appearance of form created by the formless.

Nothing is truly concrete or solid, despite outer appearances.

Look at a growing plant without mentalization and what you see is the dance of formlessness. It is a formless flow of energy temporarily taking the shape of a plant.

Everything in life is like smoke, just moving a little more slowly or more quickly. Some things are physically more dense so they move more slowly. The smoke from a flame is not very dense so it moves relatively quickly. A human body walks around somewhat more slowly. A stone cathedral, which is very dense, changes even more slowly.

Yet given enough time, they will all equally be reduced to dust.

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

There is an inherent vulnerability in all form. When we see someone or something putting up a protective shield, be they the thorns of a plant, the anger of a person, or the walls around a castle, we recognize that these defenses are simply the result of “something” being fearful of its own dissolution and subsequently doing whatever it can to solidify its sense of permanence.

Yet what we often recognize as most beautiful in life is that which is vulnerable… the petals of a flower, the breeze over the ocean, the gracefulness of a ballerina, the body of a young woman, the fluidity of a symphony, a sleeping baby, the chirping of a bird, a siren’s song, curves.

Vulnerability is the true strength, for it is in alignment with the permanent impermanence. That which is vulnerable can never be destroyed. It can certainly change forms and evolve, expand and contract. It always will, and recognizing this fact, one may let go of trying to maintain their current state and allow their own light to shine forth from within.

This awareness comes from beyond the mind. The true strength of formless vulnerability can not be seen by trying to look for it. It’s the timelessness of all that is. It’s the gentle touch and the powerful crash. It is that which can not be named, for it is simply just something that is. It exists. You can talk about it, but you can not say what it is.

Its presence arises naturally as the mind goes quiet and stops noisily covering up that infinite vastness.

It is a peace, yet beyond the most infinite peace you can imagine. It is truly beyond all imagination, beyond your wildest dreams.

You can tap into it whenever you wish. It is always there, lovingly awaiting your conscious return.

My Recent Experiences in a Dark Night of the Soul

Today I’d like to share with you some of my recent personal experiences and insights.

A few weeks ago, I’ve went down to the depths of egoic death as well as up to awakening into a state of true Oneness. While in both states, the experiences were written down and now I’d like to share them with you, starting first with the dark night of the soul.

A little background as to where “I” was before this experience:

I’d been into spirituality for many years, had read tons of books, did the meditations, various visualization and breathing exercises, chakra balancing, explored different paths, investigated various religious traditions, and so on. I’ve also picked up a relatively well-developed understanding of the nature of the human ego and how it seems to pop in the life that I live, particularly with respect to how it works in resisting reality and creating illusion and separation.

Along the path I’ve experienced a few dark nights of the soul, as well as a state of total awakening, the latter only lasting for maybe a few minutes. Regardless of the limited duration of that experience, to actually EXPERIENCE a temporary state of awakening/enlightenment and to actually see for yourself how absurdly ridiculous this dualistic world of physicality actually is radically changes who you are on a deep, deep level. It is a monumentally transformative experience.

At this point, it feels like “I” am no longer seeking enlightenment. A more accurate description would be that the true “I” is guiding itself back unto itself. Instead of “me” seeking enlightenment, it feels as if I’m being guided back home, like being sucked in by a tractor beam. The main thing for “me” to do now is actually to let go of resisting. The more I can surrender, the more quickly the realization of the Self occurs.

You see, the ego is not so much a noun as it is a verb. The ego is the process of pulling desirable objects and experiences towards it and pushing away undesirable objects and experiences from it. The ego, using thoughts, is basically a push/pull mechanism. It is undone, not by trying to pull in enlightenment or push away the ego, but actually by ceasing the inner push/pull struggle entirely. The ego itself is an illusion. The ego is not a real thing. It is the core illusion that creates more illusion. It is like a shadow. It can not be destroyed with more darkness. It is only by bringing in the light of non-resistance that the emptiness of the shadow is automatically realized to be totally and completely nothing.

So, now that we’ve set the stage as to where I was, let’s move onto what happens next. Read More …

Why Are My Chakras Not Opening As Much As Others’?

Question:

Dear Ariel,

I’ve been reading the descriptions of people’s experiences with their energy or their chakras and it’s more intense than anything I have experienced.

Is it that some people are more sensitive than others?
Or do my chakras need more work?

I meditate 2-3 times a day and go to a meditation class once a week, I copied the affirmations of the lower 4 chakras on some flash cards and keep them in my wallet, I wear a pendant with some crystals in it all the time, and ive been reading lots of Eckhart Tolle.

I’ve been putting in more work than thought.

Thanks,

T.

My response:

Hey T, it sounds like you’re turning spirituality into a goal, a path, a quest. Enlightenment is not a goal.

If you’re looking for enlightenment, ALL it comes down to is Self-realization. Realizing your true nature. That’s IT.

All the “stuff” we try to do is ultimately a distraction in the end.

Working with energy is very similar. You can place your attention there, but it’s not something to grunt and struggle with. Energy flows better when one lets go.

In the physical world, the harder we push, the more work we do, traditionally speaking.

In the energetic domain, it’s the exact opposite. It’s about surrender, letting go, and releasing all resistances. It’s about allowing not pushing, almost like being a straw through which life energy can flow. It’s YANG by intention but actually YIN in operation.

Basically don’t try so hard and just allow it. Surrender to it totally. Live the lifestyle of balanced chakras.

Open chakras, knowing who you are, balanced energy… all that stuff is your NATURAL state. It’s not something we have to do. We only have to STOP doing all the hub-bub that is covering up and blocking our natural state.

You’ve been studying chakras so look at the affirmations associated with the chakras. They’re about letting go of resistance, trusting the universe, allowing yourself to Love. It’s not about trying to do stuff or forcing your chakras to open. You can’t force your way into heaven/enlightenment/balanced chakras.

Things like crystals may certainly interact with your energy body and have a positive influence in many areas of your life, but they’re just one part of the equation.

In my experience, the best “tool” for opening chakras is simply the power of intention.

Mentally and energetically intend to open your chakras, to live from the frames that are associated with each chakra such as abundance, compassion, or inner strength, and then go out and live that life.

As the Law of Attraction teaches us, our energetic experience of life is greatly in tune with our mental thoughts and intentions.

Sure some people are naturally more in tune with their body, but developing these abilities is something that any of us can do. All it takes is some knowledge, practice, and willingness to let go.

Thanks for your question.

The Enlightened Shoe

It’s funny how many of us turn enlightenment into some accomplishment to achieve, like earning a million dollars. “Just tell me what to do, what formula I need to apply in life, and then I’ll get to experience myself being enlightened!”

Yet it turns out that the very search for enlightenment is precisely what keeps us from realizing that we are already exactly what we are looking for.

The “task,” if you will, is not to go search for some goal “out there,” but to simply look within and realize our True Nature, of who you actually are.

The mind will never give us the right answer. It’s designed to literally “make up” answers through the power of our wonderful imaginations. It will make up a story that says we’re NOT enlightened and thus we must do something or go somewhere to find enlightenment.

What we are looking for is located somewhere beyond the imaginative mind, in the most obvious place possible: YOU ARE WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR!