I’m Awake, Now What?

The other day I had a wonderful conversation with a guy who’d contacted me through my blog. It’ s so funny how frequently this sort of dialog arises so I’d like to share it with you guys here. Our conversation in a nutshell was like this:

Reader Question:

Dear Ariel, I have no idea what is happening to me, but all I can say is that now it feels like I’m awake. It literally feels like my whole life has been a dream and all along I had no idea that it was a dream. Now I am awake.

I used to be very materialistic and now none of that seems to matter. Now I want to know the Truth about life. I used to be really into religion but there was so much that felt off about it that it lead to a lot of struggle for me and internal conflict. Now I can look back at the scriptures and see that they’re simply about love. Anyways, there has been this big shift inside me and I’m really confused. What do I do now?

My Response:

Nothing! There’s nothing that you need to do. Really.

This initial awakening that you experienced happened on its own with your personal involvement, did it not? The rest of the process is like this too. The more you get in the way and try to make it happen, speed it up, get it right, or whatever else, the more you simply just impede the progress. This is about surrendering and allowing, not making something happen. Surrender is the name of the game here.

You see, there is something much deeper at work here than the limited mind/body individual we see on the surface. There’s much more happening behind the scenes. IT is what does the work, not the individual who apparently does stuff in this physical reality. In the same way that the first awakening simply happened without you having to deliberately make it happen, the rest of the process will unfold for you just the same. Your job, if there is one, is simply to sit back and allow it to happen.

You’ve studied religion in the past and been told what to believe. People say things like “I believe in God” or “I believe in a higher power.” This is a statement that would arise from someone who has not yet had the internal realization of what God IS, or more accurately who THEY are. It’s what they think or what they believe, not what they clearly and unequivocally KNOW. This isn’t bad or wrong. Just recognize that it is yet another stage in the path, a valid and often necessary path. Yet what we’re talking about here is not adopting another belief system, or even about being told of another belief system that should or shouldn’t be adopted. What’s being suggested is to continue to allow the inner being that is already at work here to shift the totality of YOU on its own. We all have this capacity for wisdom and knowing within, without having to be told the answers by religions, gurus, or teachers. This inner wisdom is what the world’s great teachers have all come to access. As you have found, when you’re simply told some answers (regardless of whether or not they’re correct), they’re simply not satisfying. Not in the end. Not really.

What you are looking for is within and it is up to you to turn within and find it here. There’s nothing here you have to do. It’s already in progress and all is unfolding beautifully. Simply just relax and allow the process to unfold. Go about your life, do your things, and notice what is arising. Just be in the moment. Everything that needs to happen is happening at just the right time, without you having to do anything at all. Just relax and all the continued awakenings, realizations, understandings, dissolvings, shifts, and so on will happen at their own rate.

Validating All That Is

Validating All That Is

It’s All One…

It’s all One, It’s all One, It’s all One…

I’ve spent the past few hours laughing and laughing and laughing… I’m in New Orleans now and the absolute thrill of seeing the One in EVERYTHING is utterly incredible… Religious nutcases telling people they’re going to hell are the One. People arguing with them are the One. Understanding God is the One. Misunderstanding God is the One. The rain is the One. Getting lost in a random town is the One. Synchronistically finding your friends on a street corner as I did tonight is the One. The taxi is the One. The rain falling on my head is the One. Laughing as you dance through the streets in the rain is the One. Enlightenment is the One. Unelightenment is the One. The Law of Attraction is the One. Living a thrilling life is the One. Living a normal life is the One. Whatever you can possibly point to is the One. The ego is the One. Identification with the separate self is the One. Realization is the One. Duality is the One. Non-duality is the One. When it’s seen that everything everything everything and NOTHING is the One, what else is there but to laugh and laugh and laugh at this seeing? IT’S ALL ONE!!!

Everywhere you go, everything you see, and that which witnesses it all, it’s all the One… and what a thrill it is to see this, to realize this, and to be this. That which you are, whatever this is for no words can describe this, THIS IS IT. As it arises in this presence, there’s this lighthearted joy and the eruption of laughter and joy, of freedom and playfulness. In this seeing and in this letting go of trying to micromanage life, there’s this utter thrill of this life experience. In “other” beings it may arise differently, sure. All I can say is that in this seeing, this body that is arising here keeps laughing and laughing and laughing. That which Jesus saw and Buddha saw and Mohammad saw… this is it.

One of the biggest realizations in this is that there’s nothing to oppose. There’s nothing else out there and thus there’s nothing to resist. There’s just this pure seeing and thus suffering, which is based upon the resistance of something, is seen to be completely and utterly, well… not existent within this, even this that too is the One. When it’s seen that there’s nothing else because it’s all One and therefore even that which we call suffering is seen to be the One, there’s nothing to suffer about and suffering simply doesn’t exist. It’s pretty wild…

I talk to people about this and it seems like most people just don’t get it. They just brush it off as if I’m crazy, and yet that too is the One. When it seen so clearly that everything everything everything is the One, there’s nothing to resist, denounce, fear, or run away from. This is it, and everything is it.

It’s all One. It’s all One. It’s all One. There’s this utter perfection of being here and this is it. It’s already it. That which we all seek, we already are. This rocks. There is a thrill in this seeing. Totally. This may change and it probably will for it is just an experience, sure. But that which is witnessing doesn’t change. It is eternal, permanent, and everpresent. That which I am can’t be lost and is just being as it is. What joy this is… Beyond anything that can be named. Ahhh yes…

Moving to Colorado

Heaven’s Gates by Marc Adamus

When you realize it’s a dream, you can afford to play. The same thing happens when you realize that ordinary life is just a dream, just a movie, just a play. You don’t become more cautious, more timid, more reserved. You start jumping up and down and doing flips, precisely because it’s all a dream, it’s all pure Emptiness. You don’t feel less, you feel more—because you can afford to. You are no longer afraid of dying, and therefore you are not afraid of living. You become radical and wild, intense and vivid, shocking and silly. You let it all come pouring through, because it’s all your dream. Life then assumes its true intensity, its vivid luminosity, its radical effervescence. Pain is more painful and happiness is happier; joy is more joyous and sorrow is even sadder. It all comes radiantly alive to the mirror-mind, the mind that doesn’t grasp or avoid, but simply witnesses the play, and therefore can afford to play, even as it watches.

-Ken Wilber

When I graduated from college, I deliberated decided not to get a job and do the whole career thing and instead devote myself fully to my spirituality, to really getting this whole enlightenment thing down.

Now, 3 years later, I have come to several conclusions.

Read More …

Progressing Towards Greater Honesty and Transparency

As I look out into this world, I see a number of things happening:

• People are awakening to recognize the underlying interconnectedness and unity of life.
• People are becoming more energetically sensitive to the emotions of others and intuitively aware of one another. Thus it’s becoming easier to “read people.” Our thoughts and energies are not as private as we may think.
• People often find themselves experiencing similar sorts of experiences as others, as if we’re all on the same page and going through many of the same experiences.
• With the advent of sites like facebook and twitter, not to mention the internet itself, information is becoming much more public and available.
• There is a call for greater transparency in our governments and corporations so that any shady stuff has to come to light.
• The more we awaken, quite literally the harder it is to lie. It’s as if we experience a physical contraction of energy, like we have to make our energy more dense in order to lie, and this is very unpleasant. It just feels off… way off.

As we become lighter and lighter, we begin experiencing our bodies as less physical and more as pure light. Quite literally. It’s really cool… It’s as if we actually have light bodies, as if the physical becomes more and more clearly just light appearing as clumps of physicalized matter.

In this light, you find some energies happen to be compatible while others are not. Energies that vibrate in harmony with light include those that are open and pure, honest and real. The energy of lies and deception simply has no place in the light.

Truth, Joy, Love and Light. That’s it.

Read More …

Parroting Spiritual Pointers

Awareness. Consciousness. Silence. Stillness. Presence. Being. Isness. This. Aliveness. Existence. Spaciousness.

So many words and they are all useful. In fact it can sometimes be helpful to change them around a bit lest people get stuck on one conceptual word as if it literally is IT.

I’ve seen so many people (myself included here) who’ll go around saying “It’s all an illusion. None of this is real. You’re already it. Just wake up and realize we’re all one.” Great, cool. The thing is that as @oshum said, these words become like a dull sword, unable to cut through the darkness. You can keep saying these words ’till you’re blue in the face, but life will show you that this is a path of diminishing returns and eventually it runs dry on you.

These pointers may be true and useful to a certain point, but eventually you realize that simply saying these words and telling them to others doesn’t actually wake people up and end suffering. It may help crack the mind to a certain extent, but that’s about it. It won’t “do it for you.”

It’s Okay to Feel Good and Enjoy the World!

Suggestions and pointers can be very useful, but we may eventually outgrow them. Teachings are helpful up to a certain point, but we must eventually let them go or else they will become limitations. It’s almost like sitting in a big slingshot. The slingshot will sling you forward, but if you continue holding on for too long, what once propelled you forward will eventually hold you back.

Read More …

Movie Review: Avatar

Alright so first off, if you haven’t seen Avatar yet, you gotta go watch it!! Whether you choose to watch the movie in 2D or 3D, both offer an amazing experience.

For those of you unfamiliar with the plot, the movie takes place on a distant planet named Pandora that is home to these blue humanoid aliens called the Na’vi. They are very much like the Native Americans with bows and arrows and a deep appreciation and respect for life and an understanding of the interconnectedness of all life. The US military comes in to basically drive them out so they can mine for this mineral called unobtainium, killing off many of the natives in the process.

There are some beautiful spiritual messages in the movie and the way it’s all illustrated is absolutely amazing. Just… wow…

The forest and plantlife on the planet is phosphorescent and iridescent in a very heavenly way and even glows for a moment every time you step on the grass. The sky is full of gorgeous planets and moons. Standing on that planet and looking up into the heavens strangely feels like home…

Their diety is a benevolent goddess named Eywa who is basically the living energy that runs through all things. One particularly great passage from the movie took place when one of characters prays to Eywa to take their side and help during the invasion of the military. Another character responded that Eywa doesn’t take sides. She only helps preserve the balance of life.

Heck, even the credits of the movie were amazing. Make sure you stay past the end and watch them to see how many people were involved in the creation of this film. My jaw literally hung open watching them scroll by. It was so nice to see that many (thousands of) people join together in the name of creating such a conscious movie, helping reinforce the understanding that all this “oneness stuff” isn’t so alternative and out there, but is rapidly becoming integrated as a part of mainstream life.

So yeah, if you haven’t seen this movie, I highly highly recommend checking it out!

For those of you who have seen the movie, what was your experience? What did you like about it? How did the movie impact you?