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
There’s a new documentary out titled Who’s Driving The Dream Bus featuring some of my favorite spiritual teachers including Gangaji, Jeff Foster, and Tony Parsons. In the film they discuss the age-old question, “Who Am I?”
Now I haven’t seen the movie and it’s very rare that I post HERE about something before checking it out myself, but knowing the people in the film and seeing the trailer, it looks to be a fantastic piece of work and it’s my joy to share it with you guys. The trailer is posted below and the film is available for purchase directly from their website, www.whosdrivingthedreambus.com.
Conscious.TV did an interview with Catherine Noyce about what it’s like when the identity of the separate self is lost.
I absolutely LOVE this ~40 min. interview because Catherine is such an ordinary person describing the ordinary experience of the awakened state of being everything and nothing, the state that so many people desire to experience. What Catherine has to share is so authentic and so on the mark, again pointing out that it’s not about the fireworks and the spiritual experiences. It’s about THIS aliveness that’s right here right now. She’s not a spiritual teacher. She’s just another regular person who’s woken up and realized who she is.
A few of the topics discussed in this interview include:
If this interview resonates with you, the book mentioned at the end is Everyday Enlightenment: Seven Stories of Awakening, of which Catherine’s story is one of the the seven shared, I presume. Also included in the book is Jeff Foster, an awakened author and spiritual teacher who has also been featured here before.
There’s a tremendous freedom in letting go of our expectations.
With expectations, we have this inner need for something or someone to be a certain way so that we feel happy, loved, safe, or whatever else, and so we make our way through life requiring it to show up in a certain way or else we will subtly or overtly reject it.
Without expectations we go into events and experiences with tremendous freedom and openness. How will things turn out? We literally have no idea, and that’s totally okay! and the ironic thing is that when we give the world its freedom, we find ours. By giving the world its freedom to be as it is, we allow people to blossom in their own way and it’s so much easier for the world to manifest itself in a way that is in alignment with love, freedom, truth, and joy, in a way that is an expression of the highest good for all concerned, yourself included!
I’ve been spending some time with someone recently who I really enjoy being with. One of the cool things is that she is able to pick up on the expectations I’ve been bringing to the table (and not been wanting to admit to), can point them out while accepting me fully as I am anyways (so healing, my goodness…), and helps me let go of so many unconscious patterns of thought that I’ve been living out for years.
Many of you guys have probably experienced this as well, but I’m finding that when I go into things with a mental story I’m trying to live into and super-impose a made-up story of “us” onto what is, it actually inhibits the natural flow of life. On the other hand, when I let go of my need for things to show up a certain way and just be authentic and get REAL, our experience of each other can be pretty incredible…
With some people you’re compatible and with others you aren’t. Totally normal. How wonderful it is when both people drop their masks and find that who they are within already clicks with who another is within and they don’t have to do any of that nonsense as far as trying to impress the other, make them happy, or any of that. You just enjoy yourself for who you are and the other for who they are while simultaneously shedding every false thought you’ve ever had about yourself or the world, as discussed in Conversations with God.
Conscious relationships are such a wonderful opportunity for expansion and growth…
When we seek to define ourselves, we actually limit ourselves. “I am THIS and not THAT.” Instant limitation. Why don’t we just be ourselves without needing to define ourselves at all? Just be yourself, however you happen to show up. Who cares what words define you?
In this context, defining yourself includes such definitions as “spiritual” or “loving,” as well as the attempts to strive to live up to some mental ideal such as perfect, masculine, strong, or whatever else. Just be YOU. Maybe you’ll find out that who you naturally are is already enough. 
Now, by doing this, you can no longer control the outcome (or at least give yourself the illusion of control). Yes you can try to control the outcome by pretending to be this or that, but when you drop all the games, you find you have zero control over situations or other people. Here you are and here they are and that’s that. You expose yourself for who you really are, pure and naked. Is this vulnerable and scary? Sure… but so liberating!!
There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
-Anais Nin
When we drop all our expectations about one another, what would that look like? Let’s allow Jeff Foster to share his experience of this with us:
Note: This has been previously shared here before, but I feel it’s worth bringing up again. 
One topic that I find of particular interest is in how all this enlightenment stuff makes a real and appreciable difference on our personal relationships. I recently came across a beautiful description by Jeff Foster. Check this out:
I look across the table at my girlfriend, Amy. And yet, of course, she’s not ‘mine’ at all. There is nothing here that could possibly possess anything, let alone another person. There’s nobody over there to possess anyway. She is my story, and I am hers. She is a character in my dream, and I’m a character in hers. I look across the table and what I see is a girl drinking a cup of tea. ‘My girlfriend’ is just a story. What is actually there? A girl drinking a cup of tea, right now. Yes, right now, this is all there is. Where is this thing called ‘our relationship’? All I can find is what is happening presently. A boy and a girl drinking tea together.
And not even that. Even ‘boy and girl drinking tea together’ is a story. There is only this: breathing, heart beating, sounds, colours, tea cups chinking, warm tea, voices, light, heat. This is all there is. And in this, there is never anything to separate us. So often in life something called ‘relationship’ comes between us, clouding the intimacy that has nothing to do with two separate people. It’s like a third entity hovering there between the two of us. Me, you, and ‘our relationship’. Our needs, our wants, our expectations of each other.
What happens when all of that falls away? What happens when all that carry-over from the past is rendered irrelevant? Then there is just this – a girl sitting there, drinking a cup of tea and talking, and her talking is aimed somewhere over here. It’s so incredibly simple. It’s the most uncomplicated thing in the world. Because she isn’t mine, there is no ‘relationship’ to defend here. Nothing to worry about, nothing to hold onto. No sense of possession at all.
Because she isn’t mine, I can see her in absolute clarity for what she really is. Because there’s nothing there getting in the way, there is the space to really listen, to really see, to just be here, drinking this tea, enjoying this moment together, which is all there is anyway.
Because she isn’t my girlfriend, there is only unconditional love. How unbelievably precious. How unbelievably simple.
And what freedom in that! There is simply nothing here keeping us together. We both have the absolute freedom to walk away. And yet, we haven’t yet. I’m always amazed by that: she has the absolute freedom to walk away, but she hasn’t yet. Maybe one day she will. Maybe one day I will. Maybe it will be tomorrow. Who knows what the future may bring? But for now, there is a girl sitting over there, sipping her tea, and what is left is a simple gratitude for her being here. I know she doesn’t have to be (because she is free) but she is. I know I don’t have to be (because I am free) but I am.
It’s all so very innocent: she’s just a girl, sitting there drinking tea, telling me about her day. There’s no desire to possess any of it. It is what it is, and it’s enough. Who needs a ‘relationship’ when this grace is already here?
And yet, if you ask, I’ll tell you that she’s ‘my girlfriend’. It’s my shorthand way of saying all of the above!
That was an excerpt from one of Jeff’s upcoming books. If you’d like to check out more from Jeff, check out his books or the videos of him speaking on youtube.
