Two Traps that Will Send You Back into Separation

Let’s talk about some of the main differences between the awake state and the asleep state as well as address two traps that keep one falling back into (the experience of) separation.

Awareness: Awake vs. Asleep

Asleep, awareness seems to be no big deal. You can be aware of awareness, but it seems like just another thing to look at like the floor or your thoughts. Nothing special really.

Awake, awareness is seen to be what you are, not as an identity like a parent or child, but as pure presence. Some say Presence prior to name and form, but this exists outside of time entirely, yet not separate from it. This aware presence is expansive, spacious, boundless, unchanging, and free. That which is seen by awareness is intuitively recognized to be not other than awareness and not separate from it.

Awakening is simply a movement of Consciousness. It is a moving away from the identification of being a separate one to the recognition that all of life is a flowering in Consciousness being revealed.

-Cathy Rosewell Jonas

It’s possible to have the experience of vacillating between awake and asleep, something which Adyashanti refers to as a non-abiding awakening. Through simple trial and error and life experience, I’ve found there to be a number of ways to send yourself back into a state of egoic delusion. Here are two such examples:

Owning and Personalizing an Awakening Experience

“I had a spiritual awakening experience.”

While this sounds totally logical to the mind, by trying to take ownership of an awakening or claiming to be the one who experienced it, a personal self gets recreated and that very energy of dividing life into an experience and an experiencer sends one back into the world of separation. It’s like you can allow water to rest in the palm of your hand, but as soon as you try and grasp onto it, it all flows out. It seems that spiritual experiences are something that we must learn to allow to be here as they are and not hold on to or claim as “mine.” This is something that comes naturally with the maturation of awakening, not something necessarily that needs to be forced.

In Reality, all experiences simply arise in the moment. Without a separate experiencer, experiences are experienced with incredible intimacy, for there literally is no separation from or avoidance of the experience. Just pure experiencing within consciousness.

From the perspective of a separate self, things are taken personally and there is a sense of distance from the experience. When we are in love, we try and close that gap. When we go into fear, we try and widen this gap. This is why lovers come together and people may try to run away from their problems. There is a perceived sense of separation between “me” and “what I’m experiencing.”

WHO is experiencing is a very valuable question…

Clinging to an Experience

“I want to maintain this experience.”

Back to good ‘ole attachment and clinging.

The experience of awakening (which can come and go) is actually not the same thing as awakeness itself (which is eternal and literally here right now no matter how awake or asleep you are.)

The mind has a tendency of seeking the first while overlooking the second which is putting the cart before the horse. When the ego arises to create and/or maintain something that can be lost, it’s focusing upon that which is bound in time and thus not resting in the eternal and the permanent. It’s seeking to make the impermanent permanent rather than recognizing that which is already permanent and thus can’t be lost and doesn’t need to be maintained.

While logically it would make sense that one would want to maintain a pleasurable experience, the way that experience is maintained is ironically by allowing the Self (and the experience as well) to fully be as it IS. In the same way as you let the air all around you to be as it is, the One must also be allowed to be as it is. Don’t try and grasp the air. Don’t try and grasp the Self. Don’t try and grasp the experience. No grasping. Allow it all to be as it is.

Adyashanti Elaborates

Adyashanti has a program titled The End of Your World which focuses upon non-abiding awakenings and some of the traps I’ve listed above. It’s one of my absolute favorites. Below is a pair of youtube clips, excerpts from the aforementioned program where he discusses these two traps and goes into more detail.