In my own experience, I find two ways reality can recognize itself.
First, it can recognize itself through the support of certain states. All as awakeness, love and presence may be in the foreground, while beliefs that would cover up this recognition stay untriggered and in the background. This is a honeymoon phase. It’s reality revealing itself to itself in an early phase, and assisted by certain states and circumstances. It’s a free gift, in many ways. It doesn’t cost much.
Then, there is the invitation for reality to recognize itself independent of specific states and circumstances, unassisted by what was described above. Reality is invited to recognize itself even when the content of experience is quite different from in the honeymoon phase. Can awakeness recognize itself as a wound, as pain, as a contraction, as identification, when these fill experience? Can it recognize itself as that too? Can love recognize itself as contraction, pain, wound, identification, when these fill experience? Can love recognize itself as that too? Can presence recognize itself as a wound, pain, contraction, identification, when these fill experience?
Is it true that what’s here is not awakeness? Is it true that what’s here is not love? Is it true that something went wrong? Is it true that something is lost? Is it true that what’s longed for (love, acceptance, trust, home) is not already here?
This costs us our dearest beliefs and identifications. It costs us everything we saw ourselves and the world as.
If the first is the initial initiation, the second is an early graduate level. And that too is, of course, not an “end”.
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– reality recognizing itself supported by a state (all as God, love, in the foreground, little/nothing to trigger thoughts that cover it up), novice level, honeymoon
– independent of content of experience, graduate level
Awakeness appears as a wound, as pain, as a contraction, as identification. Can it recognize itself as that too? Love appears as contraction, pain, wound, identification. Can love recognize itself as that too? Can presence recognize itself as a wound, pain, contraction, identification, when these fill experience?