Dear Ariel,
Ultimately, are we all “one” or are we separated individual consciousnesses? Will we still be feeling the difference and separation between “me” and “you” ?
Thanks,
TSS
Any time you are with anyone or think of anyone you must say to yourself: I am dying and this person too is dying, attempting the while to experience the truth of the words you are saying. If every one of you agrees to practise this, bitterness will die out, harmony will arise.
-Anthony de Mello
Have you ever gotten used to a person or place to the point where it loses its magic and spark and you begin taking it for granted? It often isn’t until we stop and recognize that this could all be gone tomorrow,really, ’till we let this sink in and allow ourselves to live from this space, that we truly begin to appreciate what we have right now.
Many people fear death, and yet it’s the recognition that everything in the world is disappearing and dying literally as we speak that helps us be that much more alive! Interesting… Death, it inspires us to really be alive!
(Embedding is disabled in the official Adyashanti version, so if you prefer you can click here to watch this same video on youtube w/o hebrew subtitles.)
The other day a spectacular opportunity has literally just fallen into my lap, a culmination of many of my biggest passions and a crystal clear manifestation that makes me feel grateful for all the things that happened and all the things that didn’t. It’s like I can see WHY certain things I thought I wanted to happen didn’t (and thank goodness they didn’t!), and I am incredibly grateful for being able to see how perfectly everything has unfolded for me in my time here in Colorado. It makes me so grateful for everything that is happening now and even what is yet to come, seeing how well it’s all being so utterly mind-boggling perfectly orchestrated…
So now I am tying up loose ends here in Boulder (ie. closing down my PO box, cancelling my gym membership which allowed me to shower, picking up boxes of stuff I’d temporarily dropped off at a friend’s place, saying goodbye to friends I’ve made here, etc.) and getting ready to head west yet again, this time to California. While I don’t want to go into the details of it quite yet as there’s lots of cool stuff that’s still in the beginning stages, let’s just say that this could be huuuuuge… 
Let’s talk about some of the main differences between the awake state and the asleep state as well as address two traps that keep one falling back into (the experience of) separation.
Asleep, awareness seems to be no big deal. You can be aware of awareness, but it seems like just another thing to look at like the floor or your thoughts. Nothing special really.
Awake, awareness is seen to be what you are, not as an identity like a parent or child, but as pure presence. Some say Presence prior to name and form, but this exists outside of time entirely, yet not separate from it. This aware presence is expansive, spacious, boundless, unchanging, and free. That which is seen by awareness is intuitively recognized to be not other than awareness and not separate from it.
Awakening is simply a movement of Consciousness. It is a moving away from the identification of being a separate one to the recognition that all of life is a flowering in Consciousness being revealed.
It’s possible to have the experience of vacillating between awake and asleep, something which Adyashanti refers to as a non-abiding awakening. Through simple trial and error and life experience, I’ve found there to be a number of ways to send yourself back into a state of egoic delusion. Here are two such examples:
For the first time since starting this blog, I feel a sense of completion in terms of writing about spirituality, consciousness, nonduality, and the nature of the egoic mind. The recent post Want to Wake Up? Focus Upon the “I Am” sealed the deal. There are so many fun things to explore in the spiritual arena including chakras, past lives, the law of attraction, and all that jazz, but when it comes to waking up from the dream of separation, that post goes right to the heart of enlightenment. It is what I had heard many times while passionately seeking and yet continually overlooked and what what shines clearly today as the seeking energy is seen through. The sheer simplicity of the I AM, the I AM that’s ALWAYS here.
Something that Adyashanti once said has really left an impression upon me. He said that the first and primary question of the spiritual journey is Who Am I? Once that is discovered, the next question is How then shall I live? It is this second question that takes an internal realization and expresses it as an external manifestation. It is this second question which helps our internal transformation permeate all aspects of our being. It is this second question that allows you to come back and be in this world, but not of it. It is this second question that shifts us from simply knowing and being the Truth to LIVING the Truth, from realizing to experiencing, and to letting go of all that is not in harmony with the infinite being that we have realized ourselves to be. This is what this physical experience, from my perspective, is all about: experiencing more and more of who you really are. Since you are All That Is, what else is there to experience?
Today I’ve got two special treats in store for you.
The first is an excellent interview with Adyashanti entitled Who Hears This Sound? on the topic of Waking Up From The Dream of “Me”. In this article you’ll hear Adya share about his actual awakenings (something he doesn’t often talk about), about sustaining an awakening into full-fledged enlightenment, how life is lived from a place of undivided wholeness, about if he still experiences emotions such as anger now that he’s enlightened, the abuse of power that is possible as a spiritual teacher, differentiating between awakening itself and the by-products of awakening such as a sense of well-being, and more.
It’s an fantastic interview and I highly recommend checking it out. Thank you to Tom Stine for recently featuring this article on his blog and bringing it to my attention. =)
Next is Lester Levenson’s Spiritual Journey (originally found here) from intense suffering to a full awakening and how he did it. This story details Lester’s personal journey from being in the verge of practically being a vegetable after a heart attack to the search for true happiness, how to create it, how to let go of all of his suffering, and the eventual realization into the Oneness of Beingness.
You’ll hear step-by-step exactly what he does (and man is it powerful!) as well as hear some of his examples of how he intuitively mastered the Law of Attraction, seeing that the ability to have what you desire (such as a million dollars) doesn’t have to conflict with experiencing lasting happiness. It’s the attachment to our desires that is the problem, not the actual desires or having of our desires themselves.
Lester’s understandings were later developed into more formal processes called The Sedona Method as well as The Release Technique, both of which I’ve found to be excellent transformational tools and are among my absolute favorites when it comes to releasing myself from suffering, allowing in more abundance and joy, and just relaxing into a state of peace and joy.
Enjoy! 
Today Ariel hiked up a mountain, but nobody came back down.
As I was hiking up the mountain this evening, I noticed how the egoic mind was doing the egoic mind thing. You may be familiar with the following notion: “I need to figure out or achieve or get something and once I get there, I know I’ll finally be happy, be at peace, and be able to relax and enjoy life.” Something to that effect.
Yet when we take a good hard look at this idea and be genuinely honest with ourselves, we may open up to the recognition that really, not just in theory but deep in your gut, that will NEVER actually happen. You’ll never get there. No one will.
Have you noticed that in the past, shortly after you got what you wanted you started feeling lack again? Well whatever it is that you desire from life now, you’re going to have the same experience once you get there. That’s how this thing works.
That thing within us, whatever it is, that thing that feels lack and subsequently strives to fill the void will never feel that it finally has enough… It’s built to feel lack. It’s built to tell you that you can fulfill this sense of lack with the very next thing. It’s built to tell you that when you finally get this one last thing that you’ll finally be happy. It’s also built to return back to that initial state of lack once you do achieve your goal. Rinse and repeat. If you follow this pattern thinking that your pot of gold is at the end of the next rainbow, you’ll be playing this game forever. It’s not until you finally see the absolute and utter futility of trying to reach fulfillment in this way that you let go of the idea entirely. That whole thing just drops away. You don’t have to try and stop doing anything. You just see the reality of what’s happening without buying into this particular delusion of mind any longer.
Being. It’s one of those spiritual words that’s tossed around like presence, meditation, nirvana, and so on. Not exactly one of the words that’s commonly used in day-to-day life, but is still vitally important in the whole spiritual game that can be played.
So, being. What is it anyways?
Let’s start this post off with Adyashanti going up to bat first. Batter up!
(Can’t embed this video, so you gotta clicka the linka.)
He describes being as the You you’ve always been. The You that you really really are, regardless of how old you are, if you’re enlightened or not, if even you’re doing the whole spiritual shebang or not.
One critical thing he points out is that “being” is “form without a particular attribute.”
This is so key.
Typically when we think of being, we think of a being. For example, a person is a type of being. Cats are beings. Dogs are beings. There are lots of living beings and maybe even some non-physical beings running around this place like ghosts or guardian angels and whatnot.
So the word “being” is thought of as a pointer to a particular creature of some sort. An individual.
But this is not what the word “being” is pointing to when we talk about what you really are. It’s not about this being or that being. In fact, it’s not about any particular being at all!
It’s just about being. Not individualized or part of any particular living thing.
It’s not so much a thing, like a human being, but more a presence. It’s existence. It’s just here, whatever the heck it is. It’s just here.
Look to your own experience. This is easily confirmed and verified if you look within and see for yourself instead of trying to wrap your mind around some words and theory.
Look within.
Being is here within.
Does it have any attributes that make it human? Do you own a human being as opposed to a cat being? Where does being end? Does it have any boundaries that you can locate? Does it have an age? Does it have a size? A color? A shape?
The living beingness that is here is formless. It is nameless. It’s just a presence that is here. and it’s always here.
It’s so obviously here that it’s totally overlooked as we make our way through life.
It is what is seen when you gaze into the eyes of any other living being. Again, being not as in an object with any particular attributes, history, personality, or any of that superficial stuff… but just living beingness. Aliveness. It is Life itself peering through the eyes of another.
Looking into the eyes of another, when you do this without labeling, categorizing, or in any way adding additional mental processing, you’re seeing Life itself. It is Life connecting with Life. Awareness seeing Awareness. Being being with Being.
No identity is necessary. No person. No man. No woman. No story superimposed upon what arises. None of that. Just Being.
There is no separation when Being connects with Being.
There’s no “me” in the way of being. There is nothing to cloud the unification.
There is simply Being with Being.
This unity we call Love.
It is One without a second.
Adyashanti, one of my favorite spiritual teachers, has an online radio show where he speaks on a chosen topic and then opens the line up for callers to call in and ask questions. It’s like an online Satsang.
Tonight’s topic was on student/teacher relationships and he addressed a lot of fantastic issues.
I wanted to call in tonight and talk to him, and so tonight’s chosen topic fit perfectly. I called and asked about when you know you’re ready to be a spiritual teacher.
His responses in our dialogue were wonderful.
