This whole enlightenment thing may seem like some impossible achievement, this magical thing that just a few sages have experienced throughout all time. Maybe if we meditate all day every day our whole lives for several lifetimes, maybe we’ll become enlightened. Hopefully. If we’re lucky. If we do everything right.
I used to think this, that enlightenment was some special thing that most of us could never realistically hope to achieve.
What I’ve started seeing in this world, however, is that MANY people have had direct glimpses into their true nature. Perhaps the awakened state is more common than we realize, both the temporary glimpses as well as the more mature abiding states of awakening.
Experiencing the natural state, as it is often called, feels so familiar! It really is the natural state. It’s being who you truly are. It’s who you’ve been this whole time and who you’ll always be. There’s no escaping it because it’s always right here.
This is a magnificent time to be alive, a time of great spiritual awakening in human history.
In the comments to yesterday’s post on the experience of awakening, a number of you have shared your spiritual experiences and glimpses into your true nature.
Even though enlightenment itself is a solo sport, we’re all in this together, helping each other awaken, for we really and truly are all One.
Share with us your experiences of realizing Oneness, any glimpses into your true nature, various spiritual or kundalini experiences, and anything else that has shown you that you are not just a limited physical human being, but truly much more than meets the eye.
Share With Us Your Experiences In The Comments Section Below
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!
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.
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.
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.
Surrender. It is easily one of the most important aspects of spirituality. It is synonymous with letting go and allowing. The hallmark of surrender is the giving up of resistance. It’s a being transparent to energy that is passing through you.
If surrender is so important, what is it, really?
Let’s look at a variety of definitions from a number of spiritual teachers to make sure we’re very clear on what surrender is all about.
The traditional sense of surrender includes a sense of loss and defeat, a place of weakness and inability, a choice to end the experience and exit the journey. In a spiritual context, surrender means something very different. It’s something applied while fully engaged with the experience rather than an end to it.
Surrender
sur⋅ren⋅der – verb – to yield (something) to the possession or power of another; deliver up possession of on demand or under duress
-Dictionary.com
Let’s examine some spiritual perspectives of surrender. True surrender is not just an action, but a way of being in the world.
“What is the secret of your serenity?” asked a student.
“Wholehearted cooperation with the inevitable.” said the Master.
-Anthony DeMello
Our buddy Deepak would like to chime in here.
With surrender, passion is directed toward life itself–in spiritual terms, passion is the same as letting yourself be swept away on the river of life, which is eternal and neverending in its flow. The final fruit of surrender is ecstasy: when you can let go of all selfish attachments, when you trust that love really is at the core of your nature, you feel complete peace. In this peace there is a seed of sweetness perceived in the very center of the heart, and from this seed, with patience and devotion, you nurture the supreme state of joy known as ecstasy. This, then, is the path to love, although it isn’t the only path.
-Deepak Chopra
Our good friend Eckhart Tolle is here as well.
Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life. Whereas before you dwelt in time and paid brief visits to the Now, have your dwelling place in the Now and pay brief visits to past and future when required to deal with the practical aspects of your life situation. Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to something that already is? What could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.
-Eckhart Tolle
David Hawkins has some words to say too.
The pathway to Enlightenment via radical truth is demanding and requires the surrendering of all belief systems. Only then does the Ultimate Reality reveal itself as the sought-after ‘I’ of the Supreme.
To let go of the known for the unknown requires great commitment, willingness, and devotion to surrendering one’s faith to God.
The experience of the presence of God is available and within at all times, but awaits choice. That choice is made only by surrendering everything other than peace and love to God. In return, the divinity of the Self reveals Itself as ever present but not experienced because it has been ignored or forgotten, or one has chosen otherwise.
The spiritual aspirant, therefore, is wise to detach from all positionalities and opinions and be willing to surrender the ego’s temporary satisfactions for a higher goal.
-David Hawkins
Ramana Maharshi puts it like this:
There are two ways of achieving surrender. One is looking into the source of the ‘I’ and merging into that source. The other is feeling ‘I am helpless myself, God alone is all powerful, and except by throwing myself completely on Him, there is no other means of safety for me’, and thus gradually developing the conviction that God alone exists and the ego does not count. Both methods lead to the same goal. Complete surrender is another name for jnana or liberation.
-Ramana Maharshi
Bashar just came up and asked for the mic.
Knowingness comes from surrender, letting go. Now, we understand that many of you, according to the definitions you have, many of you will label this as a loss of some sort of a lack of control of some sort and this is not the case.
Surrender, if we may provide our definition, is the letting go of the concept of who you think you’re supposed to be and actually being who you are, because who you are is unlimited possibilities, and when you allow yourself to surrender to the idea and the experience that you were created in the image of the Infinite, which means that you are Infinite possibilities too, then the physical reality, which is only a mirror, can then reflect those unlimited possibilities back to you in the synchronicities as they naturally unfold in your physical day-to-day life.
So surrender is actually acceptance of your total self, not the forsaking of your total self, as many of you have been led to believe through the definitions that your world has provided you with that only serve to limit you, and this is what we want to share with you and what we suggest you learn to give up, are those limitations.
-Bashar
As Adyashanti would put it, surrender or suffer.
Surrender basically boils down to a complete acceptance to life as it is in the moment, creating a space for the presence of Love. It’s more than just an intellectual acceptance, but a true acceptance that permeates your entire being.
Surrender is total internal non-resistance. It is letting go of ALL beliefs and judgments. In its place is an emptiness wherein resides the mystery, the unknown. Silence. It is the fullest emptiness you’ll ever find. It is where you find God.
Surrender does NOT imply doing nothing like a passive bump on a log. Imagine yourself being connected to chains pulling you in many different directions simultaneously. The chains represent your subconscious beliefs, your thoughts, your habits, your desires, and your attachments and aversions. Through non-resistance and allowing, the chains fall away on their own. By resisting the chains, you hold them in place. With the surrender of all chains, there is the freedom to move in any direction, or to sit perfectly still. All possibilities open up. What results is freedom. The ability to do anything.
What is the deepest result of complete and total surrender?
Enlightenment. Awakening. Remembering who you truly are. Self-realization. Peace. Love. Serenity. Ecstacy. Joy.
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.
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.
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.
About a month ago, a reader of this blog named Konstantin sent me an email about the awakening he was experiencing. With his permission, I’d like to share with you what he wrote:
Hi Ariel,
there has been a hunch to write you some fanmail and although I’m not really sure yet what to write, I’ll just send you a few lines.
First of all, thank you very much for the work you are doing. I read your posts nearly daily now and I just love the way you put truth.
After a lot of contemplation some very profound realizations came to “me” lately that really resonate with everything you write about so wonderfully on this blog. Just yesterday, without any particular cause, consciousness awakened for the first time in this form and saw itself as oneness.
It was the direct experience of what I only read about on your blog before. I saw around and realized me to be everything and consciousness and my vision started to go peripheral. Humans didn’t seem in anyway different than the chairs they sat on, there was a sense of belonging flowing through everything attention went on and it all seemed to be based in … Love
Now today after more contemplation on this truth there was even a letting go of the “me”, the self in all of consciousness so that only the feeling of a vastness remained, a vastness that everything physical and nonphysical belongs to.
Now, I was at work today and that required the usage of the mind during most of the day, but that knowingness remained in the background. And it remains now as I use the mind to write you these words. That is something previously totally unknown to me.
Now the reason why I even bother writing you all of this is because I’d like to ask for your input on some things.
First of all there was a belief in reincarnation before but now looking at it it seems completely bogus. Of course nobody really dies… as suddenly death seems completely bogus too. Where should anything ever go? Outside of allness? And of course as everything is one as (let’s call it) “consciousness”, the one gets born over and over again as form as long as ONE chooses to. But the idea of separate souls that reincarnate into a set of bodies, that belong to the history of that separate soul, being bound to soulfamilies and whatnot … seems like a nice children’s fairytale right now. What’s your (mind’s) pick on this? Man, it’s actually funny seeing myself going back into mentalization.
Also now the outlook on life seems completely different. It doesn’t leave one with a whole lot to do. Spiritual research and consciousness raising also seems needless right now, as what is there to raise to begin with?
There is a phenomena that happens upon awakening, something often called “God shock.”
See, we’ve all heard the spiritual truths like we’re all one, there is no separation, God is infinite, and so on, but the direct experience of it is infinitely more profound than a simple conceptual understanding. In fact, I’ve never heard a person who awakened say, “This is exactly what I expected it’d be like.”
The direct experience of the infinite bliss can be so overpowering that the desire to speak ceases for words can not convey what’s being experienced, nor is there really a desire to do so. The idea of speaking seems almost absurd and fruitless.
For example, Ramana Maharshi, after a sudden and unexpected Enlightenment, was mute for two years until encouraged to speak. He took no care of the body at all.
His student, Nisargadatta Maharaj, wandered off on foot to the Himalayas upon awakening in search of eternal life, but eventually came back home to Bombay upon the realization of the futility of his quest and the realization that his life was already eternal.
Dr. Jill Taylor, a scientist who studied brain malfunctions and then had a stroke herself, was featured on Oprah just the other day. Her story of her experience of losing her sense of separate self is incredible. While this isn’t exactly the same process as enlightenment as I’ll point out below, the experience is strikingly similar.
Note that in Jill’s experience, she literally loses the capacity to separate and language, while in the spiritual pathway, there is still the capacity to discern and differentiate while simultaneously experiencing the Oneness. Enlightenment isn’t about brain damage the way a stroke is. Pick your favorite enlightened person such as Jesus Christ, the Buddha, Krishna, Adyashanti, Eckhart Tolle, or anyone else and notice that they can experience the Oneness and still differentiate on some level between the body they have and the outside world, even if it ultimately is recognized to not actually be a genuine separateness. Read More …
You Are Truly Loved features content designed to guide people towards enlightenment, unconditional love, and living a life of joy through Self-realization and proper application of the Law of Attraction.
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?
) is how we typically perceive the world.
Surrender. It is easily one of the most important aspects of spirituality. It is synonymous with letting go and allowing. The hallmark of surrender is the giving up of resistance. It’s a being transparent to energy that is passing through you.
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.
