There is a certain banality to awakening.
WE ARE CONSCIOUSNESS
To ourselves, we are consciousness.
We can find this in our immediate experience. When I explore my first-person experience, I find my nature is capacity for the world as it appears to me, capacity for any content of experience. And I find I am what the world, to me, happens within and as. I am the oneness the world, to me, happens within and as.
And logically, I find the same. No matter what I more fundamentally am in a conventional sense, to myself I have to be consciousness.
It may well be that I most fundamentally am this physical body and this body somehow produces consciousness.
Any experience happens in consciousness, including the experience of this human self and anything associated with it – thoughts, feelings, emotions, sights, and so on. Any experience happens within and as consciousness, including of anything thoughts may tell me I am.
So to myself, I inevitably and most fundamentally am consciousness.
To me, the world happens within and as what I am. To me, the world happens within and as the consciousness I am. To me, the world happens within and as the oneness I am.
AWAKENING
We are typically trained to take ourselves most fundamentally as something within the field of our experiences, as this human self, as an object in the world, as an I with the rest of the world as Other.
This is not wrong, but it’s not what we more fundamentally are in our own first-person experience.
So this assumption, and living from it, inevitably creates a sense of something being off. We metaphorically throw ourselves out of paradise, the kind of paradise that comes from finding ourselves as the oneness we are.
And in some cases, the oneness we are wakes up out of this separation fantasy and into finding itself as oneness. It finds itself as the oneness the world, in its own experience, happens within and as.
Why? It can happen spontaneously and without any obvious preparation or even conscious surface interest. (As was the case with me.)
It can also happen after some conscious and intentional exploration, especially when its sincere, dedicated, under skillful guidance, and done with receptivity, curiosity, and over some time.
WHO AND WHAT I AM
As who I am, I am this human self in the world. That’s how most others see me, it’s what my passport tells me, and it’s what my thoughts may tell me. It’s an assumption that works reasonably well.
As what I am, I am the oneness the world to me happens within and as. This is what I more fundamentally am in my own first-person experience, whether I notice it or not. Here, I am not most fundamentally a human being.
The first happens within and as the second. And the story of the second also happens within the second.
THE BANALITY OF AWAKENING
Awakening is often presented as something special.
And yet, it’s also very banal.
What we find is, in a certain sense, inevitable. It’s inevitable if we look with some guidance and sincerity. And it’s inevitable logically.
It’s what we already are most familiar with, whether we notice it or not. It’s what we always have been and always are.
And it’s all we have ever known. Any experience happens within and as what we are. It’s most fundamentally, and completely, what we are.
EXTRAORDINARY AND BANAL
Noticing what we really are is extraordinary in that it’s not all that common in the world today. And it certainly may seem extraordinary when the oneness we are shifts from operating from separation consciousness to recognizing itself.
It’s also banal. And to me, sinking into that noticing is a relief. It’s an antidote to stories saying it’s special.
And, of course, those are both labels with very limited validity. As anything else, the reality is more than and different from any labels or stories about it.
INITIAL NOTES
- The banality of awakening
- When explore it for a while, see it’s inevitable and even banal
- To ourselves, have to be consciousness
- In the world, this human self, to ourselves, oneness
- A relief to recognize the banality of it, the ordinariness, since many individuals / traditions present it as something very special
DRAFT FRAGMENTS
To ourselves, we inevitably are consciousness. No matter what we more fundamentally are in a conventional sense, to ourselves we inevitably are consciousness.
We can find this logically.
To us, the world happens within and as what we are. To us, the world happens within and as the oneness we are.
….
And logically, I find the same. No matter what we more fundamentally are in a conventional sense, to ourselves we have to be consciousness. It may well be that I most fundamentally am this physical body and this body somehow produces consciousness. Any experience happens in consciousness, and that goes for this human self. So to myself, I inevitably am consciousness.
….
At one level, I am this human self in the world. That’s how most others see me, it’s what my passport tells me, and it’s what my thoughts may tell me.
At another level, I am what the world to me happens within and as.
They are two different things and easily coexist.
….
It’s also, in a beautiful way, banal. And recognizing that side of it can be a relief.
….
As who I am, I am this human self in the world. That’s how most others see me, it’s what my passport tells me, and it’s what my thoughts may tell me. It’s a story that works reasonably well.
….
It’s also banal. And to me, sinking into that noticing is a relief. It’s an antidote to any conditioning I have saying it’s special.
…..