The Veil Momentarily Drops Again

Category Enlightenment, Surrender

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!

Questioning

Looking out at various people and objects around the room, the question arose: “What is this?” The answer was: “It’s all the same thing.”

Another question then came about: “Who am I?” Turning within, there was the stunning realization that there was no me at all! No identity with anything. The only thing that there was that could be at all thought of to be “me” in any way was a sense of awareness. The body felt just as much me or not me as everything else in the room. Just an object of awareness. This awareness was seemingly floating. It had no location, no boundaries, no sense of self. It’s just this awareness, being. There is this existence, but no me who exists. What a strange, yet liberating realization!

Yet with this sort of identification with awareness, the experience began to come to a close. The inner movement to create a sense of identity was still there.

Bye Bye Birdie

After a few eternal seconds… and I have no idea how long this whole experience lasted, maybe 5 seconds, 15 seconds, 30 seconds at most… the veil started condensing again and the illusion of separation started to return though the mind couldn’t take it seriously anymore. It’s like this illusion is resting just on the surface of Reality. The Oneness feels like it’s a breath away, closer than you think. Enlightenment didn’t go anywhere. The clouds simply came in and covered it up.

Looking at this illusion of separation that’s not taken seriously, let’s look at an analogy. You know how if you were to put on a pair of rose-colored sunglasses and your whole world became rose-colored, you wouldn’t actually believe that everything was rose-colored despite the fact that that’s what the eyes are telling you? It’s like that. You KNOW what’s actually true beyond what the eyes can see. You wouldn’t take your eyes seriously anymore.

Everything suddenly gained a very distinct sense of heaviness, of density. Everything felt really murky and muddy. It’s like clear water turning into thick mud. It’s the loss of transparency and seeing the heaviness of physical form.

It takes a lot of energy to schlep around this physical form. It’s energetically burdensome to feel like the body is me, almost like wearing a sort of weightvest. If you’ve ever done that, you’ve noticed that when you take off the weightvest, you feel light as a bird. It’s a lot like that.

Main Lessons

I didn’t do anything to induce this experience. It was uncaused, unforced. It simply arose spontaneously of its own.

The main thing is surrender. Truly surrendering to this moment and allowing what is to be without question, without resistance, without effort.

Trying to make yourself awaken or convince God to make you enlightened doesn’t do it. It’s not like you agree to surrender under the condition that enlightenment happens. You just surrender. Period. Maybe you’ll awaken. Maybe not. But it’s not a conditional surrender, like you’re making a deal where if you surrender, then enlightenment must keep its end of the bargain and happen as well. It’s an unconditional surrender. No matter what. No expectations.

Also, identification with anything both prevents and pulls you out of your true nature. When I identified with the awareness that exists, as in this example, that was the beginning of the end. A very valuable lesson indeed.

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15 Responses to “The Veil Momentarily Drops Again”

Logan said:

Amazing!

Logans last blog post..Sexual Attraction and Comfort
Scarface said:

Nice to hear about this happening.
I remember my first experience of Oneness. It was not as out there like you had experienced, but I did saw there was just One (aka God/the source) functioning through all of us (aka the bodies).
I remember it was temporary, and after did there came a few more, and gradually it became almost permanent that I saw just One function through us. At this point I am most of the time living in Oneness (Or as I would call it “seeing through whole mind”).
I remember that after one of those experiences, I threw out all concepts there were based on “me vs the other” or “separate soulness”, and didn’t support “Oneness”. I think that helped as well in the process of being more into Oneness.
To add, I have always been all over the place with concepts. And it has lead to lots of discussions with others. They were like you believe something (concept) and then you stick with it. And I was always like, concepts for me are just tools. And I have always been changing them, like a girl changes clothes. For me, treating concepts this way was the way to go. Nowadays I don’t need much concepts anymore, since I have now in general have peace of mind. Which was my primary reason I needed concepts, because to have more peace of mind on certain matters.
If I may be so bold, to give unsolicited advice. I see that what I am going to say is merely based on what I experienced my self, and possible distortion in perception of what you actually are (or try to say). But I get the feeling that your concepts based on separation, are a obstacle for you to experience Oneness more continuously. Concepts like: separate souls (or even existence of souls), you create your own reality (instead of your own reality gets created), etc.. I am actually not sure if those are concepts of yours, but in my mind that is what I had concluded from the previous posts.
And I got the feeling that what is keeping you form living more in Oneness (with whole mind). Is labelling happenings/actions/what is said, as good or bad, instead of doing none of that and to just say “it is”. I got this idea because I (aka my mind labelled it that way) that I read here merely about “kind” experiences, and people go on about how such a great/pure/loving soul that one is. Well what about the actions of people that were not “kind’? The collection of my memory has labelled that here is a most of the time, a positive labelling/judging is going on. Which as I experienced, is not seeing/living through/with whole mind.
Hope it helps some.
Cheerio, Scarface

Ariel Bravy Reply:
December 8th, 2008 at 6:06 am
Yeah Scarface, it’s cool to hear about the experiences you’ve had as well, waking up to your own innate Oneness.

What you point out about concepts is pretty bang on. It’s all about throwing away all concepts, giving the mind nothing to latch onto.

Concepts create more illusion and only exist within mind. They do not have anything to do with Truth, including all concepts about Truth. Fun, huh?

Scarface Reply:
December 9th, 2008 at 3:07 am
I also remembered from the first experience I was surprissed it didn’t last. I always thought one gets into Oneness and that it would be a continuous experience.
Then after a few experiences I realized that was not the case. And even though the experiences for the time being were nice, and I was thinking “this is the biggest revelation I ever had”. I figured it was more important to me, of how much of the distortions (in perception) had cleared up by this experience. Which i could “enjoy” in my every day life, instead of just that momentairely experience, however nice.
Ismaelia said:

you guys are way ahead of me in all this which I know is a judgment and not important but I experienced something this morning that was new to me and kind of goes along with the part of this dialog about labeling experiences. I was working in my garden practicing feeling joyful awareness. I found an infestation of scale on the vines covering the whole front of the house. With total joy and without judgment i began cutting it all down and throwing it into a pile. I didn’t feel bad for the vine or angry with the infestation or worried about doing the wrong or right thing. I worked in joy and truly enjoyed every second of it. Nothing else mattered. Only the joyful feeling and being the witness to that feeling.

Ariel Bravy Reply:
December 8th, 2008 at 1:22 pm
Awesome, Ismaelia. Sounds like you definitely got in touch with your true nature. Felt wonderful, didn’t it?
Adrianne said:

Hi Ariel,

I enjoyed reading about your experience of oneness above. It reminded me of a beautiful experience I had a couple years ago while at a kundalini yoga retreat. We were doing tantric yoga – yoga with a partner. In the middle of a meditation where my partner and I were to look in each other’s eyes continuously for about an hour while doing some coordinated arm movements and chanting back and forth to each other, I reached a point of awareness of oneness with my partner which felt so light, playful and actually really funny. I started laughing joyfully with the realization of it. It was like I was really appreciating the act of our separateness- the individual roles that we were playing in all of their intricate uniqueness – and it was like I was appreciating it from the perspective of both of us at the same time. So I knew we were the same energy – different expressions. It led me to feel then like you described in the fifth thing you noticed above – like there was absolutely no reason to take anything very seriously at all – anything except the enjoyment of the experience.

In love and light,
Adrianne

Adriannes last blog post..First, Love Where You are Right Now, Part Three

Ariel Bravy Reply:
December 8th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
That’s beautiful Adrianne.

It’s not really anything mystical or woowoo, this whole Oneness thing.

It’s the natural state when you really dive into the moment without all the mind stuff getting in the way.

Same energy, different expressions. That’s a perfect way of putting it.
Fadi Zeitoune said:

Peace to all aspects of ONE, I recently had another kundalini while at a visit to a family friends house, I could feel it coming, and I didnt want it to be public, so I rushed out to the car, and sat in the car, and then the energy rose very quickly, the crying the laughing, the ‘knowing’ but then I got out of the car, and I was saying very loudly “i am”, “i am”, then i gave some other parts of me a hug, and told everyone i loved them, inturn totally freaking them out, but I didnt care, I absolutely knew they were/are ME… all in all for me a positive experience, but very negative to the other ‘aspects’ of ME (now they joke around ‘your not gonna have another kundalini are you?)

My experience…

NAMASTE
Ismaelia said:

“…you’re not gonna have another kundalini are you?” That is hysterical!!! :-))Love it!
TJones said:

One day about a year ago I was sitting in my room very still and quiet, and all of a sudden I realized I was in eternity, and I went up to the kitchen and heard my dad pouring a bowl of cereal, which sounded enormously rich and beautiful, like the cereal was Niagara Falls. All of my senses were exaggerated.

This also happened a month ago, believe it or not, while I was shopping at Walmart. There was no time at all, and I walked around, so fully present, and a smile of joy automatically came upon my face. As I was walking around, I was amazed at how much the other people resembled zombies or sleepwalkers, somehow not even present at all. I accidentally locked eyes with another customer once, and I could tell she recognized how present I was, and I think that automatically invited her more into the present moment, too.
Ella Moss said:

Dear Ariel, I am honored to include your post into Walking with God carnival, and I am also listing your blog on my blog roll.
Keep these posts coming!

Ella Mosss last blog post..THE GREAT VARIABLE OF FREE WILL

Ariel Bravy Reply:
December 23rd, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Thank you very much, Ella!
BINNOY said:

Dear Ariel

I just had a doubt about something.
It is said that enlightment is all about seeing the world as it is.But isnt this an effect that one experiences only after enlightment(i.e once one gets enlightened, automatically he/she surrenders to the now moment) or is it that surrendering and accepting the now moment without resistance is also one of the fastest way to enlightment(or may be a meditative state that leads to growth of conciousness).

I had been following a bit different approach for so long. In every given moment, i used to track back any belief i had about anything or any subject, stay with the sensation corresponding to that belief and then sit with it until and unless it was released.Do you feel that in this approach i am taking my awareness to a past issue and thus resisting the now moment.I would have to say that though i take my awareness to a belief formed due to an unresolved past issue,i dont get entangled in the thinking process.I just remain with the feeling of it.

How different is witnessing the now moment as it is different from emotional healing since even emotional healing can take place only in the now moment.

Now would witnessing the now moment as it is give me the same results as emotional healing.Wont the trapped in emotions inside come out to the surface since now when the mind is atlast silent(which happened as an effect of witnessing the now moment as it is)there is nothing to stop these emotions from releasing out.
Isnt it true that many of the people who attain enlightment hardly know anything about emotional healing.They do this through meditation which is nothing else than witnessing the moment without resistance.

I often get confused on how to apprach the current moment after knowing about these two wonderful ways.
Would be waiting patiently for your answer.
With Love ALWAYS
BINNOY
Ariel Bravy said:

Does surrendering lead to enlightenment or does enlightenment imply surrender? Ack, they’re not separate. This question is based in time and really doesn’t make much sense to me right now, though I do get what you’re asking. There’s just being. It’s simple. Don’t worry about figuring it out or trying so hard.

Enlightenment is always here. It doesn’t come and go. Surrender is being that.

Being in the now is another way of saying being more of who you really are. Healing yourself emotionally is another way of saying being more of who you really are. It’s not either/or. Just be yourself in whatever way feels most appropriate for you in the moment.

Emotional healing can help you replace one belief system with another more healthy belief system. Wonderful.

Awakening shows you that you are beyond all belief systems and that no belief system is actually true in the first place.

You can have any emotional experience, and all are acceptable because none of that is who you really are anyways and who you are is untouched by any belief system.