Posts Tagged ‘Awakening’
Babies are born without a solid sense of self. The ego gradually develops in them.
For example, you can watch them when they’re still very young and they’ll be lying down watching these hands mysteriously wave around in the air.
Slowly a realization will happen within them. There’s an internal shift that takes place. Gradually they’ll begin to realize, “Oh wait, these hands are actually MY hands. They’re part of ME!” 
It’s not like they heard some adult explain to them that they and their hands are one and now they believe it or that they read some scripture that’s been around for thousands of years. The baby made a revolutionary discovery, an natural and unforced discovery.
Enlightenment is kinda similar. There’s this spontaneous realization that happens when all the people and things and even the empty space around you that you used to look at floating around and think was separate from you, something shifts inside and you realize, “My goodness, that’s all ME!”
Some people call this “grace.”
It may be something difficult for the mind to accept before the realization happens. It can sound as ridiculous as trying to convince yourself the sun is blue. It’s clearly not! Looking around, Oneness makes no sense. Even if we start looking at things from a quantum physics perspective and realize it’s all one single connected energy, it still looks like there’s many separate things in this world from our limited physical perspective.
It isn’t until this internal shift of awakening happens that it becomes stunningly apparent that everything is One and that you are that.
It can certainly help to know this ahead of time because even believing in Oneness has its benefits. The true realization happens on its own anyways when the time is right. Indeed, the fact that you’re hear reading these words shows that you’re well on your way. 
God how I love this ego dissolution.
Tonight I’m going to share yet another personal experience. This isn’t meant to be seen as a goal to shoot for, something to desire, something to achieve, or something to duplicate. The experiences I have will be similar yet different to yours. What you are about to read is simply the natural consequence of spiritual work.
Tonight I was driving my brother and his girlfriend down to the airport. They’re going up to visit her family for the holidays.
Perfect Peace
While driving, it was noticed that there was a deep sense of inner peace present. Cars would quickly change lanes at the last minute and cut me off, yet there was no reaction in this body whatsoever. No thoughts arose, the heart didn’t skip a beat, breathing didn’t change. The body simply kept driving naturally, peacefully, effortlessly.
Curious, the mind inquired as to why this peace was so unshakable.
There was the realization that no beliefs were being believed in. Nothing was better than anything else. With this cessation of internal conflict, a deep sense of inner peace revealed itself and began expressing itself as outer peace.
Nothing in the world has any control over this peace. In fact, that idea is simply absurd, because the peace arises due to not believing any thought in the first place.
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This morning I was at Unity when about halfway through the service, it was suddenly realized that the veil of separation dropped again. Awakening happened again. Since it has happened before in this lifetime, there was less clinging to it, wanting to sustain it, or trying to do anything to change anything. Instead it was something to sit back and enjoy for what it is.
The Experience of Awakening
The first thing that I noticed was that there was no longer any separation between anything. The idea of separation became ludicrous because everything was realized to literally all be the one same thing. How could anything be separate from itself if there is only the One thing?
The second thing I noticed was that no matter what direction I looked in, every direction was the same. All sense of space had dropped away because there no longer was any space. There is only here. Everything is here because it’s all the same thing. There is nowhere else.
The third thing I noticed was this sense of transparency. That’s the best way I can describe it. It’s not like you could literally see through things as if you had x-ray vision, but that suddenly there was the radiant glow of essence. The beauty of Divine beingness. I can’t describe it other than to say it seemed transparent, as if everything emanated this translucent colorless golden glow.
The fourth thing I noticed was that everything seemed so much lighter. Suddenly everything seemed to be almost weightless. Everything felt airy and almost like it could levitate as if it was lighter than air.
The fifth thing I noticed was that nothing in this world was taken seriously. It was all like a big joke. It had no more reality than smoke and mirrors. It’s like taking a movie seriously. It’s all just a play of energy. Life is a game of make-believe. There is literally nothing to it, nothing to take seriously. What a place of ease and relief!
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Continuing on to Part 2 of this series of Ariel’s conversation with Abraham, we’re going to look at the idea of self-inquiry and realizing your true nature.
I just listened through my whole conversation with Abraham and am feeling ecstatic as a result. SO much was cleared up, so many of my misunderstandings were taken care of. It was mainly due to definitions, of using the same words to mean two different things, such as yesterday when I spoke about our differing definitions of Truth. I’m finding that BOTH of us are correct. The misunderstanding stemmed from the fact that we were simply using the same words to mean two different things. I will go into this more deeply over the next few days with examples so stay tuned!
What Am I?
I began our conversation by explaining to Abraham that as I was going within and inquiring as to whether I was this separate self of if I was truly One, REALLY looking within, Abraham responded that I was some of ALL of it, but in control of where the emphasis is.
THAT is the key point. That is money right there. 
It would be like a television asking, “What channel am I? Sports? News? Porn?”
We all laughed. 
I then continued and explained that when looking within, I’m finding that this idea of a separate self isn’t real and that what exists is Love and Peace and Joy and when Abraham says “follow your bliss,” that’s literally YOU that you’re following. I said that I’m finding that I AM Creation itself.
Abraham confirmed all of this to be true.
I continued to say that it doesn’t feel so much that there’s a separate self who’s creating, wanting to get into the topic of “me” being the Creator of “my” reality, but that I AM the flow of Creation.
Again Abraham agreed and then jumped in to point out that I said something was very close to one of the flawed premises as discussed earlier.
The thing is, “when you’re not being who you really are, there’s something ‘screwy’ in it” and, “there are a lot of human justifications for being this, but they’re all bogus.” The bogus justifications we make for feeling bad are all flawed premises. Being anything other than full of ecstasy and joy is the physical part of you being out of alignment with the non-physical part of you Abraham refers to as Source energy. The idea that this is necessary or just how life is is a flawed premise.
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People talk about having a “spiritual awakening” and being a “conscious being,” but what does this really mean?
Awakening and consciousness are words that attempt to define the undefinable, so it’s only natural that there will be numerous definitions and descriptions of awakening and consciousness. Not only this, but the word means different things at different points along the spiritual path so not everyone is always talking about the same thing.
Some people use the term “awakening” to mean that I am awake and not being currently controlled by the ego. If I’m Present in the Now, I am awake, but this is only one stage in the process of awakening.
I actually use the word “awakening” to mean something very different. In my vocabulary, it is synonymous with “enlightenment.” It means to realize your true nature, not just intellectually, but to actually BE it. It is a radical shift of identity that involves the direct realization of the nonexistence of the “me” that I think I am. It is the direct experience of Oneness and Infinity/Nothingness as One’s actual Reality.
Let’s take a look at several different stages of awakening.
The following is not by any means an all-inclusive list, but it does highlight some of the common stages along the path to enlightenment.
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I recently sent out a newsletter (you can subscribe at the upper-left of the page) discussing how everything you need for Enlightenment is found in the Silence. It’s all within.
There were some wonderful responses to the newsletter, as well as one unsubscribe email that was particularly fantastic. It read:
Your advice, actually: “You see, if you’re looking for Enlightenment, it’s in the Silence that everything you seek is found.” I understand that to mean I don’t need your newsletters. Thanks, though!
Of course you don’t need my newsletters!
It means you don’t need ANYTHING!
You already have and are EVERYTHING you could possibly want!
How wonderful!
What a gift!
(Actually, wouldn’t that suck if what you wanted could only come from someone else outside yourself? What if you couldn’t find them or they refused to give it to you? Then you’d be totally screwed! Fortunately, everything you seek is found within.)
The Love that you seek arises from the Silence that you are within.
The Peace that you seek arises from the Silence that you are within.
The Enlightenment that you seek arises from the Silence that you are within.
ALL that you seek is already available within, INCLUDING what you think is outside of you.
Just like other spiritual teachers, I’m not here to give you anything you don’t already have, but rather to point you towards where you’re not yet looking (within) and thus discover who you already are.
You truly need nothing else to awaken.
Just be yourself, your True Self.
We tend to think that there’s an objective world out there and that we can affect and are affected by this outside world. There is a world “out there” that we are born into and interact with.
If we like the interaction between us and the outside world, we call this “good.” If we don’t like it, we call it “bad.”
The above drawing (awesome, I know, thank you 
) is how we typically perceive the world.
Notice that there is a “me” independent of the outside world who is perceiving what’s happening in the outside world. There is a sense of separation.
What’s actually going on is quite different. Let’s take a look.
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Let’s get into the heart of Non-duality itself.
What does Non-duality mean in the first place? It means that there are “not two” different things. Really it is all One, even two seemingly separate and different things. In essence they are truly One. Completely. Totally.
In the Buddhist tradition, Nirvana is basically the state of enlightenment, heaven, oneness with God. It is karmic completion to where you no longer need to embody here on earth.
Samsara is the unenlightened state of consciousness whereby you continue to reincarnate and play here on earth to realize who you truly are.
Nirvana and Samsara are the same, but only identically the same.
-Zen Koan
Of course they’re the same. There IS nothing else!
Becoming One
We start by living in a world of separation in this lifetime and seek, through various religious or spiritual practices, to attain a true sense of Oneness with God.
There are numerous ways of doing this. The path I personally advocate is through withdrawing attention from the illusion (thought and the external world) and surrendering it all away to God, as discussed previously. Negate the validity of the mind and focus on the Self, for what you focus on expands.
Realize the Self with a capital S. This is called Self-realization.
The world is then recognized to be totally an illusion and unreal. This physical world feels limited and finite due to the limitations of the mind, yet beyond the illusory dream of physical reality lies the Infinite, the boundless and unlimited Reality which is the Truth of your being. In Hinduism, this infinite reality is called Brahman.
There is a perfect saying which I’m going to paraphrase, which really gets to the heart of non-duality.
The world is illusion.
Brahman alone is real.
The world is Brahman.
It sounds paradoxical, and it is, yet this is how existence is structured.
What Is The Illusion?
The world we see is totally an illusion and there is an infinite reality completely beyond space and time, yet it is this infinite reality which expresses itself in this world of the relative. Thus the illusion of this world is actually Absolute reality in physical expression. The world of the relative is a playground where we get to be who we truly are and reintegrate the reality of the Absolute within the illusion of the Relative.
The world functions as a mirror that reflects back to us who we’re being and shows us where our beliefs are in or out of alignment with our true nature.
So appreciate everything in the Universe for every one and every thing you see actually IS God. Not just an aspect of Divinity or a part of Divinity, but literally the same infinite Love of Creation itself. Everything you see is God, appearing to express itself as this or that.
This physical world, just like the human ego that we all have, is not something to be escaped from, nor something to be destroyed, but something to simply disidentify with.
The Process
We first learn to disassociate from everything that is not us including thoughts, ideas, our body, our history, and so on, only to ultimately loop back around and realize that it is all “you”. It’s not that you are either this OR that, but rather this AND that. There is nothing ‘else’ in existence but you for it is all One. There can not be anything other than you. This is the essence of non-duality.
Even separateness and oneness themselves are “composed” of the same one thing.
So do not seek to become One with God or to become enlightened, for you already are. You can’t become enlightened.
Stop seeking and just be.
To be honest, this whole site is starting to seem like a humorous joke, just like everything else in duality, as well as all other beliefs.
The content of this post is not anything to be believed in or not believed in. It’s just a hint of what’s to come if you choose to drop all beliefs entirely. ALL beliefs.
Rest in the mystery of the unknown, the silence, the infinite nothingness beyond name and form.
A Personal Note
I don’t expect anyone to believe this, nor do I actually want anyone to. I’m sitting here laughing at the absurdity of duality.
Without giving attention or thought to the outside world, it feels like everything is starting to fade once again from physicality to oneness. Everything that’s looked at is the One. Separateness is Oneness. It’s true non-duality. This is starting to come up BECAUSE the beliefs are all being let go of, as well as all attachment and clinging. It’s pretty wild…
Words feel like they’re of no use, no value. It’s more like resting back in a silent bliss.
