Q: We’ve talked about oneness at different times. How is it possible to see through the illusion of the separate self when the illusion is so persistent and so convincing?
As long as you are looking outward, you cannot find the true self. You can only watch the movie of life playing on the screen. So, the focus needs to shift from “it is happening out there” to this present moment of being. Only in this present moment of being is there a chance to experience oneness.
There are steps that can be taken to help achieve this. First, the loosening of attachment to the societal construct of reality is needed. Spend time in contemplation, meditation, paying attention to nature, and learning to see energy, which is the forerunner to seeing the interconnectedness between all.
This can happen as a spontaneous experience, but typically, spontaneous experiences are not reproducible because you do not know what the catalyst was that brought about the spontaneous experience. It only lets you know that such an experience is possible, which establishes the craving for re-experience.
But through these steps noted above, we can trigger a reproducible oneness experience. By reproducing it enough times, we can grow in consciousness and eventually become the greater consciousness and awareness. And that can push us through and into oneness.
Q: In going inward, in addition to spending more time in meditation, is there any kind of self-analysis that helps in getting to the heart of who we are and our beingness?
This self-analysis you’re talking about can make living in the play more comfortable, but it has no connection to oneness or spiritual awakening. It can help to remove layers of illusion, if done properly, but it is a separate thing altogether. You could be a raving lunatic and still have an awakening experience. One does not exclude the other. But it is easier when the conscious self is not getting in the way and screaming for attention.
Q: What is a spiritual awakening?
It is when the closing credits have rolled, the movie shuts off, and the screen returns. And within that screen is complete peace and calm, clarity and understanding.
Depending on which religious or philosophical tradition, the answer gets modified. But it is simply when the movie stops and you see what it all is. That is a simplification. But it is a way of helping people grasp onto a concept that is inherently impossible for most people to grasp.
Q: When the movie ends or turns off, what are we seeing at that point?
There is nothing to see. There is nothing to do. There is only beingness and pure awareness and peace. This is an experience of pure love and joy. Bliss and peace. Compassion and awareness. And it is none of these because words can’t touch it.
This is why there is often instruction within certain types of meditation to focus on the gaps between the thoughts as a way of slipping through. The thoughts are of this world. The gaps are of the All-That-Is. Focusing on the gaps can help push you into awakening. If it is not set up correctly, the gaps just become blanks in between the thoughts. They are not experienced as portals through.
All that’s been said through millennia is true. All of the knowledge we need for awakening and enlightenment is available. But most minds will not be able to grasp it because it is not set up in a way that can trip them into awakening. It just becomes a different kind of struggle and frustration. “I understand the concepts but I cannot make the breakthrough.” And that is because understanding the concepts is still part of the movie playing on the screen. That cannot bring a breakthrough. Only when we let go of all of it is it possible.
But again, most don’t even know what that means. “Letting go.” It is seen as a negative, as giving up, doing without, and so on, instead of flying to freedom.
Q: Is the movie our thoughts?
The movie is your life; life events coming and going, as well as thoughts. It is the life playing out: “This is who I am. This is what I do. This is where I live. This is what I like and don’t like.” And so on. Fears, hopes, dreams, and so on. And that is the movie.
This is why living an ascetic life is helpful. Because it helps you begin to move away from self-identification with the movie.
Q: And is part of the challenge that turning off the movie seems like dying?
True. There is a deep unconscious fear in all spiritual seekers. For some, it is even conscious. There is a fear that becoming enlightened is a kind of death, where we will not be aware of ourselves anymore as our selves. And there is some truth to that. But it’s more than that.
That is a hindrance for some consciously. And for many, unconsciously. “I like my life. I like my body. I am me. And if I am no longer me, do I exist?” That is the fear.
Q: So how do we find the courage to overcome that fear?
For some, there is no choice but to pursue the spiritual path to its natural conclusion. For those individuals, in spite of fear, they will persist. For others, it becomes approach-avoidance. “I am interested. I want to have experiences.” They begin having experiences and get afraid and pull back. And then they decide they want to have more experiences. And the cycle repeats. For a very few who have a direct experience, all fear is removed. And if they drop back out of that direct awakening, they will continue forward without fear.
It is the same with nearly all near-death experiences. When someone has a death experience, 99 times out of 100, they no longer fear death. They look forward to it. It is all about having the direct experience to know.
Q: I feel like I need a pep talk, because on this journey, I feel stuck a lot of the time. Are there words of wisdom or advice or encouragement to move past the feeling of I really can’t do this?
Giving up is the body’s way of saying, “I am tired. This is too hard. I don’t know why I’m doing this.” To shift the focus, the perspective is to say, “It is time to rest. It is time to declutter the mind. “
The challenge is you can do that for a while, but then you start feeling restless because the inherent nature of a dual life is that you don’t really exist unless you are “doing.”
In the quiet, in the resting, time moves less painfully until you arrive at the appointed time when the idea comes, the opportunity comes.
When you are experiencing restlessness, there is a feeling that something is wrong or something is amiss. When the answer is you have not yet fully learned how to be. Many times, you have tried to learn how to meditate. Many times, you have given up. Until you are able to learn how to be in a meditative state, frustration and restlessness will always be present to a lesser or greater degree.
As is common with most people, you experience doing as meaning. So, if you are not doing, does that make your life meaningless? Does that mean you have no purpose or value? Spend some time contemplating that.
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