When we are stuck in the absolute, in the idea of all as the field of awake void and form, and all as inherently perfect as it is, we – ironically enough – don’t fully appreciate the perfection of it all.
We tend to be unable to fully appreciate and meet people where they are, with all that is real to them.
This attachment to the idea of the absolute can be there whether the field of awake void and form is noticed and alive in immediate awareness or not. As Byron Katie says, we are awake or not to a thought, and in this case, we are not fully awake to the limited truth in that idea, the truths in the reversals of it, and all those ideas as just ideas.
When the attachment to that thought falls away, there is a more wholehearted appreciation of what is, including an ability to meet people where they are with all that is real for them, and their desires and longings.
Read on for the initial draft which started as something else, and has more details…
Two ways to be stuck in the absolute…
When the absolute awakens to itself, it recognizes all as itself, as awakeness, awake void, a field of awake void and form inherently absent of an I with an Other. It is all a perfection beyond perfect and imperfect. Nothing needs to change. Everything is perfect as it is.
For a while, there is a marinading in this. Our human self soak in it and reorganize and realign in it. All as a field of awake void and form, and the perfection of it all, is in the foreground. This is just natural, a common part of the process of awakening, and it typically and naturally moves on in its own time, to include the relative, a wide embrace and appreciation of all views including the conventional ones, and a guidance from the heart, from recognition opening for empathy at a human level.
The possibility for stuckness here only comes in if there is an attachment to an idea of perfection which excludes the relative… the different views including the conventional ones, and the guidance from the heart and empathy. Awakeness awakens to itself and all as itself, yet also attaches to an idea of all as itself and all as perfect, and this idea does not include its reversals of all as also imperfect with room for improvement. This is how there can be a stuckness in the absolute, following the absolute awakening to itself, either in a glimpse, or in a more stable way (although obviously not complete way). As Byron Katie says, we can be enlightened to a thought or not, and in this case, we are not enlightened to the reversals of the thought that all is awake void and all is perfect as it is.
The other way to be stuck in the absolute is really not very different. Here, the idea of all as awake void and perfect is in the foreground, and the immediate alive noticing of it is far in the background or not present at all. This is a coarser form of being stuck in the absolute, but it is still just being attached to an idea of the absolute and the perfection of it all.
As usual, when there is an attachment to an idea, it gets a little weird. In this case, there can be a tendency to dismiss how others experience the world, which is very real to them. There can be a lack of empathy, a lack of warmth, an inability or lack of willingness to meet people where they are, in the midst of what is very real to them. There can be a lack of willingness or ability to meet people where they are also in terms of their desires and wishes of where they want to go, and helping them in that process. It can appear cold, distant, judgmental, arrogant, and much more.
There can also be a disregard for the consequences of our own actions, since they are clearly seen as part of the field of awake void and form and inherently perfect however they show up… until their consequences comes back and bite us in the butt, which wake us up in a different way even as they too as recognized as awake void and form.
The irony here is that with an attachment to the idea of perfection, we don’t fully recognize the perfection of what is. We tend to dismiss the reality of how people experience the world, and simple causality within the world of form.
Without attachment to this idea, there is the freedom to see more clearly the perfection of what is, to sincerely appreciate how people experience the world, and to meet them where they are, including in their desires and wishes for themselves and others. There is a wider embrace of it all, as it is, and a more full hearted engagement in the world as well.