Tag: awakeness

Dream: Invited to a private meeting with a guru

moe Leave a comment

I am in a colder climate, with a group of people, and a guru. It seems to be in the UK. The people are well off and welcoming and inviting, although I feel like an outsider. The guru is a respected high teacher from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition or Advaita Vedanta, likely both. I am invited to have personal meeting with the guru. Apparently, the guru specifically invited me.

I am traveling and slightly disorganized, and feel I don’t have the right clothes. When I arrive, I have light clothes on, and additional clothes to put on since I expect it to be cold. While I am off for a minute, the host put the clothes away and it all gets a little confusing.

As I get to the area of the house (mansion) where the guru is, I see that everyone else now are painted and dressed up as deities, mostly in green and gold. I will be painted and dressed up too. I thought I was in a rush, but it turns out there is plenty of time.

I am told each interview is for 80 minutes, and it will be filmed and released to the public later. I feel that in my health condition, and with my brain fog, the interview with me may not be very good compared to the others. It’s still important to meet with the guru.

WAKING LIFE

This dream reflects my daily life. I am at Amritapuri (Amma’s ashram), and I often feel like this.

Why is it in the UK? Maybe because I recently was in the UK, and most of the people I spend time with here are from the UK.

I have been invited by the guru. In waking life, she came to me (the Amma experience in November 2023) and has stayed with me.

The guru seems both male and female, and combines Tibetan Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta.

Parts of me feel that the others here know more about how things work than I do. In a sense, they seem affluent in whatever is required to be here.

Parts of me feel that I am an outsider. My background is from Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, etc. I am not familiar with ashrams.

I feel a bit disorganized and disheveled. I have been sick just about the whole time since I came, apart from a few days in the beginning.

In the dream, I am focused on putting on decent clothes that are also warm. In waking life, I didn’t bring many clothes with me that I am comfortable with, mainly because I was told I could buy them here. That turned out to be a truth with modifications (limited selection and supply).

In the dream, I am not sure if I am ready for the conditions, the cold. That’s the same in waking life – the ashram life, the hot and humid weather, the food, the schedule, etc.

In the dream, the others are painted and dressed as deities. They know their nature, or are about to find it.

In the dream, they are all in green. This seems like a connection with nature, with the web of life.

The meetings will be filmed and released to the public. Parts of me try to avoid public attention at all cost. I don’t want to be too visible, especially if I have to perform in a certain way. This has roots in school experiences. (I was always a good student, and almost always knew the answer to the teacher’s question, but I learned that answering the whole time made me strongly disliked by some of the other students. I trained myself to be invisible, to hide.)

80 minutes. It’s a good amount of time, enough to go in some depth. Eight is also the infinity symbol, which I associate with our nature, wholeness, and the fullness of being.

ALL AS ME

Some parts of me have resources and are well adjusted to life and the guru/spiritual life.

Other parts of me feel like an outsider. They are embraced by the well adjusted, but they don’t feel included. They don’t quite trust it.

I don’t feel I am fully equipped for the conditions, for what comes up in me. I am concerned about it, even if it turns out to be fine.

The guru invites me personally to a private meeting. My nature invites the rest of me to join, to discover its nature. The parts of me that are confused, wounded, and operate from separation consciousness are invited by my – and their – nature to discover and live from and as their nature. (That’s what I wish for too.)

As above, the others in the dream are all painted and dressed up as deities. They are discovering their nature. They are painted and dressed in green and gold. This feels like a connection to the web of life, to nature.

There is a concern about the meeting being made public. There is a concern about my whole inner community knowing about this, about the meeting and the wish for all parts to find their nature. This seems important to notice, since I haven’t put attention on this before.

I wonder if the camera is the part of me that records, reflects, and self-reflects (reflects on whatever is here).

TO BRING WITH ME

I see a few things to bring with me.

How is it to actively include all parts of me, my whole inner community, in the quest for all parts to notice their nature and live from and as that? How is it to actively invite them all? (I have worked on including all parts, but I may not have actively invited them.)

How is it to invite the wounded parts of me to notice their nature? (I am already doing this, but I wish to deepen into it.)

How is it to find more comfort in the public aspect of this? How is it to find comfort with the idea of sharing some of this publicly?

Note: I used a painting of Milarepa for this article. Somehow, the guru felt a bit like Milarepa.

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The awakeness in awakening is not special

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When the consciousness we are recognizes itself, and that it forms itself into its whole world, we can label it awakening. It’s the first step in exploring how to live from and as it, and inviting our psyche and human self and life to reorganize within it.

The awakeness that’s here in awakening is the awakeness that’s here before awakening. It’s here whether it recognizes itself or not. Our nature is the same no matter what.

It’s the awakeness we are all familiar with. It’s the awakeness that’s inherent in our nature. It’s the awakeness reading and writing this. It’s the awakeness forming itself into the sound of an airplane, the sounds of the fingers tapping the keys on the keyboard, the sight of this screen, the sound and smell of the rain.

It’s the awakeness that’s here, I assume, for any consciousness, whether it’s connected to this human self, or any other human self, or any kind of “conscious” being – any being that, to themselves, are fundamentally consciousness and whose consciousness forms itself into its world.

It’s not a special awakeness, it’s the awakeness inherent in consciousness, in what we are, in our fundamental nature. It’s the awakeness that’s more familiar to us than anything else. We have never not know or experienced this awakeness. In reality, we have never known anything else than this awakeness.

We don’t need to look anywhere else to find it. We don’t need to seek something behind anything. We don’t need to wait to the future or remember something from the past. Even those mental representations – of somewhere else, of something behind something else, of the future or past – are made up of the awakeness that’s here and which is part of our fundamental nature.

The experience of center, movement, distance, time, physicality, and so on

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If there is identification with and as this human self, or any object, there is – I imagine – a sense of a center and being that center, a sense of moving through the landscape, a sense of real distance, a sense of real time, and so on.

NO CENTER

For me, there is not really a center. I find myself as this field. As the field of consciousness taking the form of any appearances, of the world as it appears to me. At the same time, if there is a focus on a task, there is a sense of a center around this human self. The focus and attention create a sense of center. Also, when I get caught in wounds, hangups, and unquestioned thoughts, there is also a temporary sense of center in or around this human self.

THE LANDSCAPE MOVES THROUGH ME

When this human self moves through a room or landscape, the room or landscape and everything else moves through me. I am space for it all moving through me.

THERE IS NO DISTANCE

There is no distance. Whatever is here is happening within and as awake space, within and as this field of experience, the awake space that takes all of these forms. At the same time, there is distance in a conventional sense, although it takes a bit of conversion for that to happen and to work with it. Fortunately, that conversion happens mostly on its own!

NO TIME

There is no time. What’s here happens within and as this awake space, including any images and words related to past, future, and present. I can only find the past and future, and any ideas about the present, here and now. At the same time, I can work with ideas about the past, future, and present, and that’s a good thing for this human self.

THE DREAMLIKE NATURE OF REALITY

This physicality is like a dream I can put my dreamlike hand through. It’s all happening within and as awake space. This body consists of sensations, visuals, taste, smell, a sense of movement, and so on that happens within this awake space. When I touch something, it’s sensations – and sometimes visuals, sounds, smell, taste, and so on – happening within and as awake space.

INFINITY

To me, the world happens within and as awake space that has no end and no boundaries. It happens within and as what seems infinite. It’s made up of mental images, sensations, visuals, smells, tastes, and movements that happens within and as awake space with no end.

CAPACITY

More fundamentally than any of this, I find that my nature is capacity for all of this – the consciousness I am and all it forms itself into.

THE LIKELY UNIVERSALITY OF THIS

This is how it is, I imagine, for everyone, whether we notice or not. The question is exactly that: if we notice or not.

I am likely no different from anyone else. They too are awake space to themselves, and the world to them happens within and as that awake space. They too are consciousness to themselves, and their world – anything within the content of experience – happens within and as the consciousness they are.

They too are their field of experience, without any inherent center. They too are what their world moves through when their human self moves through the world. Their world is at zero distance from what they are. They too are what their ideas of time – past, future, present – happen within and as. To them too, the world appears as a dream, within and as the consciousness they are. They are the infinite that the finite happens within and as. They are capacity for all of it.

EXPLORING IT FOR OURSELVES

How can we explore this? How can we notice? How can we deepen into this noticing?

What seems to work the best for me is a combination of basic meditation and inquiry.

Basic meditation is to notice and allow what’s here, and that it’s already noticed and allowed, and rest in and as that noticing and allowing.

As for inquiry, I love the headless experiments and the Big Mind process.

Training a more stable attention can help with this, as it helps with just about anything in life.

Heart-centered practices can also be a good support. I especially like tonglen, ho’oponopono, and similar practices. (Heart-centered practices are equally or more a support for our life in general. If I had to do just one practice, it would likely be a heart-centered practice like tonglen.)

The image is created by me and Midjourney

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Awake without knowing it

moe Leave a comment

I was at a Buddhist center1 in Oslo yesterday for meditation. A couple of times, I looked at the energy field of some of the people there2.

The teacher’s system was somewhere between awake and not awake. There was a lot of awakeness around and near the body, and it faded out further away from the body3.

I also looked at the field of a young woman who happened to sit in front of me. Her energy field was much more mellow and the whole field, going far out from the body, was awake. It seemed to be awake without being consciously aware it was awake. She was new to meditation, as she said and as the mellowness showed. At the same time, there seemed to be a natural low-grade awakeness going infinitely far out.

I assume she may not be consciously aware of it as that or have a label for it. It may just be the water she swims in, and it’s likely also why she is drawn to meditation and Buddhism. It may be familiar to her since it’s about what she is already – to some extent – living4.

There is a caveat here and that is that it can be tricky to isolate the energy field of different people when there are several in the room (it is possible to focus on the energy field at particular locations in space, as we do with physical objects), and there is an enhancement of the energies from meditation.

NOTES

(1) It’s a new place for me and I love being a complete beginner there.

(2) Since my teens, I have – for whatever reason – been able to see and sense energies. What’s most easy for me to see is the degree of awakeness in a system.

I remember one time at the center in Oregon (CSS) where a student was promoted to teacher because he had an awakening shift. (That change in role is, in itself, questionable. It takes a lot more to be a good and responsible teacher.) I could see in his system that, yes, there had been an awakening glimpse or shift, but it was unstable and not very thorough. A few weeks later, the main teacher announced that this student would step back from a teaching role since the awakening wasn’t as stable as they had thought.

(3) The lack of awareness through her whole system doesn’t prevent her from being a good and capable teacher. She seemed to be doing a very good job.

(4) It’s the first time I have noticed this so it was new and also seemed very familiar to me. I wonder if more young people are like that today? Maybe not. In the past, she would likely “just” be seen as a kind-hearted person in the community. Today, with meditation being more available, she can more easily find a kind of fellowship. She may even develop it further if there is a drive to it, although if she doesn’t that’s fine too.

The notes are longer than the actual article today. It’s because I wanted to keep the main story simple, and also realized I wanted to add a few more details.

Image by me and Midjourney

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The word awakening in a spiritual context

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I use the term awakening in a spiritual context, but am not completely comfortable with it.

WHAT IT REFERS TO

It refers to noticing what we are, and perhaps keeping noticing it and living from it.

We find ourselves as capacity for the world, and what our field of experience happens within and as.

And we may keep noticing it, and explore how it is to live from it.

METAPHOR

Used in a spiritual context, the word awakening is a metaphor.

We use it in the sense of waking up to something. We wake out of a metaphorical sleep or dream.

We wake up out of taking ourselves as most fundamentally this human self, and find that we more fundamentally are capacity for our field of experience – which includes this human self and the wider world.

THE UPSIDE OF THE WORD

The main upside of the term awakening is that it’s widely used and many have, at least, a rough understanding of what it refers to. As a metaphor, there is also some poetry to it.

THE DOWNSIDE OF THE WORD

The main downside of the word awakening is that it can be misleading. If we don’t have a reference from our own noticing for what it refers to, it’s easy to imagine something into it that’s not there.

Specifically, we may imagine it refers to a different awakeness than what’s already here.

In reality…

-> The awakeness that’s inherent in consciousness is the same whether we notice what we are or not.

-> The content of our experience is the same whether we notice it or not.

-> Our true nature is the same whether we notice it or not.

The only thing that’s different is whether we consciously notice what we are or not.

We may metaphorically wake up to what we are. But the awakeness that’s inherent in consciousness doesn’t change, nor do the other things mentioned above.

THE (LACK OF) ALTERNATIVES

What’s a good alternative?

I am not sure. I usually use the word noticing since that seems more accurate, although it obviously needs an explanation for what we notice.

In the Headless world, they talk about seeing which I like. It’s simple, unassuming, and direct, although it makes the most sense in the Headless context.

THE GIFT IN THE SHORTOCMINGS OF WORDS

The essence is that there is no single word that is accurate and does it justice.

It will always have to be explained, to some extent.

And there is a gift here. Words are inevitably misleading when we try to talk about what we are.

Our only option is to find it for ourselves.

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Is my true nature the same as the true nature of existence?

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I rarely use the term “true nature” since it suggests certain knowledge, although I also understand why they call it that in Buddhism.

My own apparent true nature

When I explore it for myself, I find I am capacity for the world as it appears to me. What I am is what my experience – of myself and the wider world – happen within and as.

One aspect of this is being capacity for the world as it appears to me. I can also say it’s no-thing full of everything. Or void allowing any experience. Or awakeness and all happening within and as awakeness. Or oneness since all is happening within and as what I am. Or love and all happening within and as love. (This is the love of the left hand removing a splinter of the right, not the type of love that is a feeling or dependent on a feeling.)

It can also be called Big Mind, Brahman, Spirit, the Divine, or any of the labels that points to roughly the same.

So I understand why they call it “true nature”. It’s difficult to imagine anything more fundamental than finding ourselves as capacity for all content of our experience, including awakeness, love, and whatever else it may be.

The true nature of existence

If my true nature is capacity, or capacity and awakeness, what about the true nature of the rest of existence?

The honest answer is that I don’t know.

Another answer is that, yes, it appears – to me – to be the true nature of all of existence. To me, the world happens within and as capacity and awakeness, so it naturally appears that way to me.

It makes logical sense that it’s the true nature of existence. After all, what’s more basic than capacity for anything and all? I am not so sure about the other qualities like awakeness. Is the universe and existence awake in itself? Perhaps. Perhaps not. Perhaps in part. I don’t know.

And yet another answer is that there are signs that suggests it’s the true nature of existence, for instance synchronicities, ESP, distance healing, and more. At the very least, this hints at the oneness of existence.

Exploring this for ourselves

As I often write about, there are ways to explore this for ourselves. Any words are pointers and questions, at most, and this only comes alive and has meaning as we discover it for ourselves.

Headless experiments is an excellent way to explore this, as is the Big Mind process and the Living Inquiries, and many other approaches out there.

Summary

I can say something about what appears to be my own true nature. I can say that existence itself appears to me to have the same true nature. It makes logical sense. There are some hints. And that’s about what I can say.

This is something we all can explore for ourselves. What do I find when I investigate for myself? Is it similar? Different? Would I talk about it differently?

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Waking up issues and more

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I’ll write more about this in other posts, but wanted to make a quick note of it here.

When there is some degree of awakening here, this awakeness can be used to wake up other things, including emotional issues.

In my case, I connect with the awakeness (bring it to awareness), I connect with the lack of awakeness in the emotional issue, and I intend for the emotional issue to wake up. To wake up from its painful dream (the reason it’s an emotional issue is that it still lives in separation consciousness) and to reality (all as the divine and One).

When we wake up emotional issues in this way, it’s deeply healing, and it also helps us to live our awakeness in more areas and situations in life (embodiment). Instead of certain situations triggering the emotional issue, there is now more space to live from awakeness.

We can also wake up parts of the physical body or objects in the same way. The divine becomes more awake to itself as and through these objects.

This is the direct way to wake up issues and other things. And there are also other ways, including through a whole range of healing modalities such as Vortex Healing (after Core Veil is gone), the Big Mind process (shifting into Big Mind/Heart, holding a part of us still not awake, and invite it to wake up and align with reality), and different other forms of inquiry (Living Inquiry, The Work, headless experiments etc.)

A few additional notes:

How, more specifically, do I go about waking up issues? In my case, I notice the awakeness of all of existence – as it appears to me and as it stretches out indefinitely. (Some connect to the awakening in their spiritual heart, a little above the physical heart.) I then bring attention to the emotional issue – where I notice a physical contraction (there is a bodily contraction with every emotional issue), and I get a sense of the (stressful, separation-consciousness created) stories connected with it. Then, I intend for the issue to wake up – for the awakeness that’s already here to infuse the issue so it can wake up to itself as the divine. (And also, so “I” can recognize it more clearly as the divine, temporarily confused, temporarily pretending to believe in stressful stories, temporarily creating a “hook” for identification and so on.) And I stay with it until I notice the shift, and a bit longer so it can deepen and settle.

There can be a “general” and “global” awakening, and yet when we have emotional issues, as we all (?) do, these parts of us still remain in separation consciousness. They were formed from separation consciousness and still operate from separation consciousness. And life “wants” these to awaken, so it’s common that at some point after the general awakening, these confused and unawake parts surface so they can join in the awakening. To the extent we struggle with it and don’t know how to deal with it in a constructive way, it can be distressing and painful, and yet it’s an essential part of awakening and embodiment. And most of us learn, over time, how to better and more consciously dance this dance.

As I sometimes do, I have written this in a more ordinary language. It’s more accurate to say that it’s the divine waking itself up. The divine is (somewhat) awake to itself here, and uses that awakeness to wake up other parts of itself (emotional issues, parts of the body, objects in the world).

I should also add that the dynamic behind waking up issues is also why it can help to be in the presence of someone awake. That local awakeness helps the divine nearby (in the form of other people) to ripen and eventually wake up to itself.

And I want to add a few words about why I am writing about this now. I have naturally done this since the initial awakening in my teens, but it has sometimes taken a back seat since many people recommend and speak about other approaches to healing and embodiment. I have re-found courage to use this more direct approach since it’s used (in a slightly different form) in Vortex Healing, and since new people in my life have spoken about it and use it themselves. Another reason is that I overcooked myself a few months ago from giving myself and receiving a lot of energy healing, and I am unable to do much conventional energy healing right now (Vortex Healing). So what’s left is this more direct approach of awakening the issues. It doesn’t tax or strain my system nearly as much.

Awakening the issues can be very helpful and can create a big transformation. It doesn’t necessarily remove the issue, but it becomes lighter and has less charge, and since it’s more awake to itself as the divine it’s easier to relate to it more intentionally and in a healthier way. And any other healing or inquiry approach can be very helpful in conjunction with waking up the issue.

I assume when we wake up issues in this way, they wake up to the extent the “global” consciousness is awake. At the very least, we can wake up issues to the truth that the person is currently aware of and experiencing.

Awake

moe 1 Comment

The word awake can be used in many different ways.

It can mean awake as opposed to asleep, in an everyday sense.

It can mean reality awake to itself, to it’s own nature, at least to some extent.

And it can mean awake to what’s here, again in a very ordinary sense. What’s here – the content of experience – may appear clear and expanded or dull and contracted. Content doesn’t matter. There is still awakeness to what’s here. And that’s a very real awakeness.

I know for myself it’s easy to mistake a particular content for “awake”, especially content that’s clear, expanded, and perhaps even filled with love and bliss. When this content changes, as it will, for instance into dullness and contraction, a thought may say “awakeness went away” and if it’s taken as true it may lead to turmoil and a sense of loss.

And yet, all of that is content. It’s content within awakeness.

Capacity, awakness, form

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About 30 minutes into this video, Bentinho Massaro talks about three facets of reality or what we are, and it’s quite simple and basic, and fits my experience and noticing.

There is awakeness and the field of awakeness which every experience (sight, sound, sensation, taste, smell, mental) happens within and as.

There is content of awakeness (experience) – as sights, sounds, sensations, tastes, smells and mental activities (images, thoughts).

And there is the capacity for all of this.

Using Bentinho’s analogy, there are clouds (form, content of awakeness/experience), there is the sky (awakeness which clouds happen within and as), and capacity for it all (space). Where this analogy breaks down, where it doesn’t fit, is in the word space. The appearance and experience of space (and time) happens within and as awakeness, and capacity is capacity for all of it.

There is also a difference between noticing and finding ourselves as form, awakeness, and capacity. I may generally take myself to be form, content of experience, as this human self (me), this soul (presence), or the I (doer, observer), and I may still – at times – notice awakeness and even capacity. I may find myself as awakeness, and form (experience) happening within and as me, and I may intuit or notice capacity. Where I am right now, I have noticed capacity, and perhaps to some extent found myself as it, and yet it remains mostly a noticing for now. And that’s fine.

My me – my human self and soul (subtle body, presence) – will continue to change and evolve within all of this. As long as this human self is around, it will continue to reorganize and align with what’s noticed, and what I take myself to be. Noticing awakeness invites the human self to reorganize and realign with this, and finding myself as awakeness even more so, and I assume the same is the case for noticing and (at some point?) finding myself as capacity. It’s ongoing, and I don’t assume there is any end to this as long as there is a human body around, and a more subtle body.

So there are three facets of reality – capacity, awakeness, and awakeness in its play as form and experience. There is the difference between noticing and finding myself as either of these three. And there is the continuing reorganizing, aligning and evolving or the me – my human self and soul – within all of this, guided and influenced by what’s noticed and what I find myself as.

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Awake in two ways

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Here is what is so obvious when it is realized, so utterly simple, and so almost completely impossible to get when it is not directly noticed:

Reality – what we are and everything is – is already awake. Inescapably. Already awake independent of whether it shows up as clarity or confusion, experiencer or experienced, awake to itself as what it really is or not. It is simply the everyday run-of-the mill awakeness we are all so intimately familiar with that we often don’t even notice it.

And when we do notice, it may appear as “other” if we are identified as something within content of this awakeness such as this human self, a doer, an observer. It may even appear to come and go if we tell ourselves stories that confusion = less awakeness (not true if we look), or that sleep/being unconscious means the awakeness goes away (not really true either).

The second form of being awake is already mentioned. Reality – what we really are – can be awake to itself as what it really is, or not.

So reality is already awake. Awake no thing appearing as something. Vast. Timeless. That which all content of experience – including extent, duration, a doer, an observer – happens within and as.

And also, it can be awake to itself as what it really is, or not. This shift is a blip and pales in comparison with the vast timelessness of the other, although it is usually experienced as quite significant, and does have a significant impact on the life of this human self. When reality is awake to itself, this human self is liberated from being identified with and is allowed to realign within this new context of reality awake to itself.

One is what is already here, inescapably. The other is noticing it, or not.

How can I notice and explore this, in a simple and practical way?

I can use headless experiments. The Big Mind process. Investigating sense fields. And many other forms of gently guided inquiry into what is already here now. Inquiries that sets aside our habitual assumptions (stories) for a while, and allows attention to go to what is already here.

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Awake to itself as form and ground

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Two ways of using the phrase awake to itself…..

These are very simple when recognized, and very difficult to talk about.

First, anything happening in experience is already awake to itself as form. Something happens, and it is awake to itself as form where it is.

(Only a trick of the mind makes it appear otherwise. There is a mental image of an observer, usually located in the head area. Another image or story that makes it appear that awareness only belongs to this image of an observer. And yet another image or story of this observer being aware of what is happening in experience. 

Since the observer gestalt is identified with, it is not recognized as form, as content of experience as any other content of experience. The doer and observer gestalts become the eyeball that cannot see itself. And form is not recognized as awareness since awareness is interpreted as belonging only to the observer.)

The other meaning of awake to itself is that what we are can be awake to itself as ground. Identification is released out of the doer and observer gestalts since all is recognized as already awake to itself where it is, since doing and observing is recognized as happening on their own without any doer or observer, and the doer and observer gestalts are recognized as content of experience as any other content of experience. 

When form is not recognized as already awake to itself, what we are is not awake to itself either. Awareness is interpreted to belong to the observer image, and the observer image is not recognized as simply another content of experience. 

And when what we are is awake to itself, form is recognized as already awake to itself. 

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Split a piece of wood

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It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the All. From Me did the All come forth, and unto Me did the All extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find Me there.
– Gospel of Thomas, verse 77.

What we are and everything is, is that which all happens within and as. When I explore anything through the sense fields, I find that the way it appears in each sense field is as ephemeral and insubstantial, as no thing appearing as something, as awakeness itself. A stone = sight, sensations, an overlay of images, and each of these are no thing appearing as something, awakeness itself.

What is Buddha?

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Buddhist teachers like to give surprising answers to the question what is Buddha?

Three pounds of flax seed. A shit covered stick.

And sometimes, just twirling a flower.

It may sound clever. Or cute. Or confusing. Or even deep.

But it can be very simple.

Each of these – flax seed, shit, twirling a flower – is awakeness itself.

The question is, what is Buddha? And the answer is literal, pointing directly to the Buddha. To a form that is awakeness itself.

It is the simplest, most direct answer possible.

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Buddhist four phase map of awakening

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[…] After a while, and it can vary for different people, one will have gone through many cycles—with what will appear to be an underlying cycle beneath these surface cycles. When the underlying cycle comes to completion, the surface cycles and deeper cycle converge with a fruition, and there is a dramatic shift in perception where one begins to see what is meant by emptiness, now in real-time. This shift, which is the 3rd stage of enlightenment, has to do with seeing the empty, selfless nature of reality upon mere reflection. Where once emptiness was contained in the discontinuity experience at the end of an insight cycle, it now permeates all of experience. It comes obvious, for those of 3rd path, what is meant by the lines from the Heart Sutra, “form is emptiness.”

The time between 3rd path and 4th path tends to be the longest yet. Ingram breaks 3rd path into early and mature phases. In the early phase one is still looking for the cycles to bring further progress, whereas in the mature phase emptiness is so ordinary and integrated into one’s experience that the inquiry turns away from the cycles and toward the last subtle hints of duality, which remain.

Finally, there is another radical shift in perspective, in which the sense of a separate center-point, observer, or doer is completely undone. Apparently this realization can occur and then fade for some time, until finally the shift is permanent (i.e. nothing can interrupt this centerless perspective). This is the opening of the “wisdom eye”, the attainment of arhantship, and as Ingram says is the end of insight path: “For the arahat who has kept the thing open, there is nothing more to be gained on the ultimate front from insight practices, as ‘done is what is to be done’.” It’s also interesting to note that it’s difficult to predict how long it will take from 3rd to 4th path. It tends to be the longest path, though I have so little data (even anecdotal) that it’s really hard to say. […]

A great overview from Vince of a four-phase model of awakening, drawn from Daniel Ingram’s book Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha, in turn drawn from traditional Buddhist teachings.

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Shift in flavor

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I keep noticing how the flavor of experience is always fresh.

It is fresh because its content is always different. (Even when a thought – comparing an image of what is here now and what was in the past – tells me the two are, for all practical purposes, the same.)

And it is fresh because it is awakeness itself.

I noticed this when I just looked through a series of photos from last winter. Many are very similar to each other, but even small changes in cropping makes a big difference in experience. I quite literally experience myself and the world differently. (Which I do whenever anything in any field changes, even slightly.) And it is also fresh since it is awareness itself.

The photo is from the woods down the street from where I grew up. I spent a lot of time there with friends, family and on my own.

Dream: Antartica

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I am in Antarctica with my wife and a group of other people in their twenties and thirties. We ice skate, kayak, row in inflatable boats, swim in dry suits, and overall have a great deal of fun. There is a sense of being completely at home in this clear, brilliant, stark and immensely beautiful place on earth.

We are here together for a few weeks before heading home, and I realize that I would like to stop over and experience the deserts in Australia on my way home to Norway.

I help one guy with his skates, and I notice he is buoyant somehow. It turns out that there is an anti-gravity effect around him, which helps him in his professional ice skating.

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Human self as the finger pointing to the moon II

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st-john.jpg

Buddhism and Christianity both use a “pointing beyond itself” analogy.

In Buddhism, it is the finger pointing to the moon. The teacher, teachings and practices point beyond themselves to what we really are, this awakeness with a content which is awakeness itself. Don’t mistake the finger for the moon.

In Christianity, it is the realization that it is all from God. Nothing happens here which is not from God.

This also shows where the traditional teachings sometimes don’t go quite as far as they can.

In Buddhism, it is not only the teacher/teachings that are the finger pointing to the moon. It is also this human self. When it points to itself as the final truth, it is deluded. When it notices that it is already and always pointing to awakeness as reality, it is awakened.

In Christianity, it is not only that I as a human being give all credit to God. It is also that God is all there is. It may appear that there is a human being here, with a separate I, but there is nothing but God. There is no separate I here, only God.

In both cases, this human self becomes a finger pointing beyond itself.

And this shift has to be thorough for it to be real. For this human self to really notice what is already and always is.

(Leonardo’s beautiful painting of St. John the Baptist shows him pointing up. He has to point somewhere, so it may as well be up. But it is really in all and no directions.)

Not juicy enough

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When there is still a sense of a separate I, and the content of experience gets very quiet, for instance in sitting practice, it can seem pretty boring. Not much is happening. It feels sort of dry. It is not very juicy.

So the tendency then, coming from pure innocence, is to go to a thought for juice. If it is not there in what is happening, I can at least find it in the inside of a thought.

And the shift is to just stay with it. Allow it. Be curious about the dryness. Invite in peace with it.

After a while, we may notice that we are this awakeness that not much is happening within, and that is actually quite juicy. There is an aliveness there. Presence. It is enough in itself, without a lot of excitement happening in the content.

Our identification shifts from taking ourselves as a part of content of awareness, which can be pretty boring when the content is quiet, to that which this content happens within, to and as, and the quitet joy and bliss in just noticing what we already are.

Awakeness noticing itself or not

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Sorry for this slightly dizzying stream…

It is not important for awakeness whether it notices itself or not. That too happens as content of awakeness, and is no other than awakeness itself.

Getting caught up in the content of awakeness, being identified with it, or noticing all of it as awakeness itself, it is all happening within, to and as awakeness.

But it is, sometimes, important for who we take ourselves to be. When there is identification with content of awakeness, it can, in some situations, seem important. There is a feeling, a thought, of wanting awakeness to notice itself, or at least a curiosity about it, and this too happens within, to and as awakeness.

It is awakeness as confusion, desire, discomfort, blind to itself, noticing itself, releasing identification out of its own content, recognizing its own content as itself. It is all awakeness, and is never anything else than awakeness.

So what is the big deal? There isn’t really.

Only the draw for awakeness to notice itself, sometimes, when it is temporarily identified with its own content.

And the compassion that naturally arises when it is noticing itself, and also sees itself suffer over there, through identification with other living beings.

When awakeness is awake to itself and functions through this human self, and sees itself over there identified with its own content, with another living being, and experiencing discomfort because of it, there is naturally compassion and actions out of kindness and whatever wisdom is available.

There is naturally actions to help alleviate the suffering, in whatever ways the other asks for and is receptive to. In conventional and temporary ways, and sometimes also in helping awakeness notice itself also over there, through the other human self.

She is me, I am them

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In what ways is it true that she is me, and I am them…?

It is true at the level of our human self. Whatever I see in others is what I know from myself. Any quality, characteristic, dynamic, behavior that I see in someone else, is something I recognize from myself. And not just from the past, but right here now. It is something that is shared human. And beyond that, I wouldn’t recognize it in them if I didn’t know it from myself.

We are in the same boat.

And it is true at the level of what we are, as awakeness. When awakeness notices itself, it also recognizes everything arising as itself. Those people over there, and this human self right here, and everything else, is awakeness itself. Awakeness recognizes itself showing up as those humans and this human and whatever else is happening.

Both of these are at play simultaneously.

Whatever I see in others is something I can find, if I look, in this human self. And if I take the time to become familiar with it here, it can become a part of the active repertoire of this human self. It can live more actively from the fullness and richness of who it already is, and is becoming.

And if I find myself as awakeness, then everything arising – including those human selves over there and this one right here – is awakeness itself. Already, inherently, absent of an I with an Other.