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Nonduality Highlights: Issue #3535, Sunday, May 17, 2009, Editor: Mark
There's a phenomenon happening in the world today. More and more
people are waking up - having real, authentic glimpses of
reality. By this I mean that people seem to be having moments
where they awaken out of their familiar senses of self, and out
of their familiar senses of what the world is, into a much
greater reality - into something far beyond anything they knew
existed.
These experiences of awakening differ from person to person. For
some, the awakening is sustained over time, while for others the
glimpse is momentary - it may last just a split second. But in
that instant, the whole sense of "self" disappears. The
way they perceive the world suddenly changes, and they find
themselves without any sense of separation between themselves and
the rest of the world. It can be likened to the experience of
waking up from a dream - a dream you didn't even know you were in
until you were jolted out of it.
- Adyashanti, from End of Your World, posted to The_Now2
In my case the "bliss" was for about six months. This
was as result of a deep transformation of the heart. But *bliss
is not liberation.* Real liberation for me came some months
later, with a loss of sense of self. It was really wierd because
it was like something was suddenly gone, as if surgically
removed. The old self-oriented ways of looking at things became
literally impossible.
In one sense I am absolutely not a human being. In another sense
I am absolutely fully and completely a human being.
But in both senses, there is absolutely nothing that can be done
about it!
And that is the flavor of true freedom.
- Bill Rishell, posted to The_Now2
Full awakening comes when you sincerely look at yourself, deeper
than you've imagined, and question everything.
- Adyashanti
The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some super-human
accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is
simply your natural state of "felt" oneness with Being
- It is finding your true nature beyond name and form.
- Adyashanti, from The Power of Now
Many spiritual seekers get "stuck" in emptiness, in the
absolute, in transcendence. They cling to bliss, or peace, or
indifference. When the self-centered motivation for living
disappears, many seekers become indifferent. They see the
perfection of all existence and find no reason for doing
anything, including caring for themselves or others. I call this
"taking a false refuge." It is a very subtle egoic
trap; it's a fixation in the absolute and all unconscious form of
attachment that masquerades as liberation. It can be very
difficult to wake someone up from this deceptive fixation because
they literally have no motivation to let go of it. Stuck in a
form of divine indifference, such people believe they have
reached the top of the mountain when actually they are hiding out
halfway up its slope.
Enlightenment does not mean one should disappear into the realm
of transcendence. To be fixated in the absolute is simply the
polar opposite of being fixated in the relative. With the dawning
of true enlightenment, there is a tremendous birthing of
impersonal Love and wisdom that never fixates in any realm of
experience. To awaken to the absolute view is profound and
transformative, but to awaken from all fixed points of view is
the birth of true nonduality. If emptiness cannot dance, it is
not true Emptiness. If moonlight does not flood the empty night
sky and reflect in every drop of water, on every blade of grass,
then you are only looking at your own empty dream. I say, Wake
up! Then, your heart will be flooded with a Love that you cannot
contain.
- Adyashanti