It seems like one can reach a point where this Love no longer really disappears. Instead of fear replacing Love, it merely attempts to cloud over it at best with things such as painbody attacks or whatever else, yet this fear can never fully override love, despite the fact that it may look like it on the surface. Just like on a cloudy day, you can still notice the way the sun makes the clouds glow from behind. The sun doesn’t fully disappear anymore.
Have you ever noticed how the ego really likes to juice negative situations? It’s like it derives a certain sense of satisfaction out of stewing in anger about a situation, regretting the past, worrying about the future, wallowing in sadness or self-pity, exacting revenge on another, and so on. You know.. typical ego “stuff.” It’s almost like a “guilty pleasure,” in a sense. If we’re honest with ourselves, even though we know it’s bad, on another level it can still feel oh so good…
Yet even though this “bad” stuff is happening, Unconditional Love is always here. This Presence, whatever it is, is undeniable.
Because it becomes so obvious and everpresent, it may begin to feel like a burden to the ego, like a thorn that just won’t go away. No longer can you sit in your own self-created pile of poo, ignoring Love. Logically we wouldn’t want to do that of course, but it can feel comforting to rest in our ego. There’s a sense of familiarity in it if it’s what we’re used to.
With sincere devotion to Truth/God/Love, it’s like its presence can no longer be suppressed and will continue to power its way through your crap, as if it is here burn through your junk. No longer do you have the luxury of ignoring it and pretending it doesn’t exist. And this is so fortunate, as uncomfortable as it may be to surrender away yet another layer of crud.
This Unconditional Love that arises is not really a choice. It’s not a decision. It’s neither logical nor illogical. It simply Loves because that’s what Unconditional Love does. It is its nature. There is no other option. This Love just powers its way through what you think you are, transmuting everything into itself. In shines from within, transforming everything it touches as it radiates both through your body and out into the world. This Love is not always soft and quiet. No no. It can also be quite intense and powerful as well.
Unconditional Love itself, its very presence, is very upending to one’s ego. It’s like it’s shaking the ego from its comfortable position on its throne. Who’s gonna get to sit in the throne? Love or fear?
If you surrender and let this game of fear vs. love happen, well, let’s just say that love is a big girl and she can take care of herself.
Yet another experiential thingy that can be experienced in this singular timeless moment.
For some reason there is the belief in the human mind that physical reality is what’s real, but it is nothing more than just a belief. It’s the illusion.
When awareness gets amped up and it’s realized there is nothing but awareness, the content that awareness focuses on feels so… empty and light.
Everything is nothing.
What’s the difference between physical reality, imagination, the dream world we visit at night, wherever we go after we die, locations experienced when astrally projecting, experiences that arise in deep states of meditation, and everything else?
The rules are different. Certain laws, like the laws of physics, may apply in one place and not another. Certain colors and forms and shapes appear in one and not another, but that’s about it. They’re all just different illusions appearing within awareness. They’re all like different movies that awareness can watch.
Awareness is.
and awareness is SO much more real than any observable reality.
Now as you guys probably know, my awakening is occurring with many glimpses and whatnot. There’s a whole bunch of non-abiding awakenings. For a while my mind said it was b/c I kept doing something wrong.. yet I’m starting to see what a tremendous gift this is.
For example, in an post that forum member Lee started on Transparency, I shared how my sense of transparency was temporary. Lee has shared her abiding experience as well, and I invite you to check out her explanation too.
The cool thing about these repeated non-abiding awakenings is that without a sense of false self, I get to watch it try to be created again and again and see exactly how the “me” gets hooked right back into existence.
It’s literally getting watch creation happen right before my eyes.
It’s like watching a sports play on instant replay again and again and seeing what I missed the first couple of times.
The separate self is nothing more than thought. It’s no more real than that. Realizing that a thought you used to believe in is not true and, in fact, never was, there’s a profound sense of liberation in remembering directly who you really are.
On the You Are Truly Loved: Enlightenment Forums, one of the topics of discussion is the idea of how there is no controller. Another level of understanding recently came to me and so I’m going to share what I wrote in the forum post here as a blog post as well.
From the typical enlightenment perspective, the separate self / conscious mind / ego / “me” surrenders control and allows existence / God to guide the physical expression of what is. The “me” is not in control and doesn’t make the decisions. Heck, there isn’t even a “me” who is in control of thoughts! Ideas simply pop into awareness.
From the Law of Attraction perspective, EVERY idea arises from the Higher Self. Not one idea you can have originated in the limited conscious mind. It originates in the Higher Self. (More information here.) The physical you is not in control and doesn’t figure out how anything works. That’s not its role, at ALL!
So the physical mind relaxes and lets go of needing to figure everything out, lets go of figuring out the “how” for the future.
When the mind tries to figure out “how” and plays a role it’s not designed to, suffering arises as the physical self feels overburdened with lugging the baggage of all the stuff it’s not designed to carry. The body begins to feel stressed out and exhausted.
Surrender is basically a way to let the various aspects of yourself play their proper roles and so you’re being your WHOLE Self. All parts of the Self work together performing their intended tasks.
So when we say surrender to God, that’s simply another way of saying let go of figuring out how things work with your mind and allow the superconscious non-physical “mystical” knowingness that may come in the form of the Higher Self or spirit guides or guardian angels or what-have-you… all of whom communicate via synchronicity and intuition, let all of those higher dimensional aspects of God play their role in guiding the physical aspects of us.
Yet we understand that at a deeper level, it’s all us anyways for it’s all One. You are that. It’s all you.
So, the physical you is not in control. There is no controller here in 3D physical reality. There is no doer. There is simply action being done.
Check out these quotes and see if they make a little more sense now.
One great point that he brought up was that since people are in different stages in their evolution, they will perceive things differently. It’s totally natural.
For example, a guru may tell you that you can never be hurt or damaged and that no matter what happens, you will always be okay.
The thing is that this statement is based in the understanding that who you truly are is the consciousness/awareness/love/beingness/spaciousness that is your true nature.
Can You Be Hurt?
If you are still identified with the physical body and mind, this won’t make much sense.
For the last 2 years of his life Ramana Maharshi suffered from cancer and experienced great physical pain, but even towards the end he maintained the same tranquil poise and self same radiant smile. When he was suffering from cancer in the arm a disciple ran away crying because he could not bear to see his master in pain. Ramana only smiled and spoke to a disciple nearby.
“Duraswami is crying because he thinks I am suffering agonies! My body is suffering but I am not suffering. When will he realize that I am not this body?”
The disciple in this story is still identified with their mind and body and thus it seems like someone actually can be hurt. Heck, just taking a quick look at our world today, it would seem pretty obvious that people are already hurting. Look at all the pain and suffering around the world.
Yet even though there is pain in the world, there is no “me” in pain. This is the odd part that the mind can’t fully grasp.
Blindly Accepting Teachings
A danger, however, is that it may not necessarily be wise to blindly accept the belief “you can never be hurt” right off the bat just because someone says so. Imagine what would happen if a psychopath accepted this idea and ran around the world killing others under the premise that they could never hurt anyone in the first place and so whatever they did wouldn’t matter.
See what happens when the ego subverts spiritual truth for its own personal gain?
The human ego is a master at doing this. Sometimes its tricks are overt. Sometimes its tricks are sneaky. As long as there is an ego there in control, it will distort everything it hears. Every single time. This is the problem of dealing with things on a mental and conceptual level. This is why it’s so important to begin dropping all beliefs and concepts and find the truth that remains.
Yes it is true that you can never be hurt, but it’s just as critical that you understand what the word “you” in that statement is referring to. It’s referring to your true nature which is beyond the effects of this world. There is no separate you and thus there is no one who can be hurt.
Again, for this to truly sink in, it must be realized on a level beyond the mind.
It can also be helpful to recognize that every belief you have is a distortion of Truth. It’s not good or bad. It’s just the way it is.
Awakening is a radical shift in identity, not the literal killing off of an ego. It is a letting go of any mental self-concept. It is a letting go of any place where ‘I’ am centered, revealing one’s true nature as actually being simultaneously everywhere at once and omni-present, and thus nowhere in particular.
As Davidya so wonderfully put it, there’s the experience of the separate self popping out of existence upon awakening.
Upon awakening, there is still the ability to think. Thoughts may arise. Thoughts are just recognized on the spot to be illusory and not actually true.
Any thought that could arise such as, “Whoops, I shouldn’t have done that” or whatever else, if it’s actually believed in, it actually pulls a “me” back out of the awakened state. As the enlightened state matures, one progressively loses the ability to truly buy into any belief, thought, or opinion as if they were real because they all become more and more obviously illusion. One doesn’t lose the capacity to think altogether, however.
See, the mind is a tool that can be used to solve math problems, plan building layouts, etc. It’s a tool that can serve us, but it’s not a place to go and find truth or a true sense of identity.
Thoughts may arise in the same way that the sun rises or cars drive by. They just happen. They’re just not identified to be part of a separate self. There is no separate self. There’s no identity wrapped up around ‘this’ versus ‘that.’
The ability to discern between chair and building and potato chip and edge of cliff still exists. They are recontextualized and intuitively realized to simultaneously all be the same One thing.
Opinions still exist, but they are recognized to simply be the opinion of a personality raised in a specific environment, during a particular time, with a certain set of experiences… they’re just opinions that are in no way more right or wrong than any other opinions. Opinions are in no way literally true.
There is no real separate self who owns or takes credits for these opinions as if they’re “my opinions.” Opinions simply are.
The ego, along with its thought patterns and ability to “suck awareness in” the way a movie can “suck you in,” all still exist.
In fact, as long as the body is alive, an ego is NECESSARY. The ego will not and can not die until the body dies. Period.
Someone once asked the famous enlightened sage Nisargadatta Maharaj if the ego still arose in him and he very casually responded that of course it does, but that he sees it at once as illusion and discards it.
At any point even after enlightenment, there still exists the possibility for identification with the ego to happen and for “unenlightenment” to occur. This is a very painful experience but it still is, nevertheless, possible.
Even if the mind totally disappeared, there is still the ability to create something from nothingness, including the mind. So there is still the possibility, however remote or improbable it may be, that a “me” could arise again from Allness.
“Enlightened people” have not literally killed off the ego, but rather realized their true nature and no longer identify with the ego, its thoughts, or any of its false concepts of a separate self. That’s all.
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.
You Are Truly Loved features content designed to guide people towards spiritual enlightenment, unconditional love, and inner peace through Self-realization. We Are All One.
It seems like one can reach a point where this Love no longer really disappears. Instead of fear replacing Love, it merely attempts to cloud over it at best with things such as painbody attacks or whatever else, yet this fear can never fully override love, despite the fact that it may look like it on the surface. Just like on a cloudy day, you can still notice the way the sun makes the clouds glow from behind. The sun doesn’t fully disappear anymore.
