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Awakening,
Karma and Renunciation
by
Colin Drake
I recently wrote an
article entitled ‘Why Do Anything?’ in reply to a
reader of Beyond the Separate Self who was asking:
If I identify as awareness. I don't understand how anything can
be done.....why would I want to brush my teeth through wanting to
have a career. Why would I not want to just sit around all
day doing nothing?
The gist of my
reply is that when one is awake, that is identified with
awareness, one sees that physical embodiment is a way for
Awareness (Consciousness at rest) to experience, interact with
and enjoy its own manifestation (Consciousness in motion,
Cosmic Energy). Therefore anything that reduces this enjoyment is
counter-productive to this purpose. So that we need to keep our
bodies in good shape, fed and sheltered.
This reply in turn
prompted the following comment, in which I have inserted my own
comments in italics:
I disagree with this reply.
The logic is internally inconsistent.
Some people have karma that prevents them from keeping the
exteriors under control. If
we follow your logic, then they can never achieve any peace,
which I believe is true though
more in line with sociology than nondualism.
My reply was dealing with the awakened
state. Once one is awake one is beyond the power of karma, or to
put it in Vedantic terms it is only the Jiva that is bound by
karma, the Atman is ever-free. I am sure that it is quite
possible for anyone to awaken and thus achieve peace, as
awakening occurs in an instant of seeing, which can be
facilitated by investigating the nature of one’s day-to-day
momentary experience. See chapter two of ‘Beyond the
Separate Self’ entitled ‘Investigation of Experience’.
To quote a former teacher of mine, when it comes to the ego, it's
all or nothing.
I agree that it’s all or nothing,
that is why after one’s first awakening one has to stay
alert to avoid letting the ego resume control. As this will
undoubtedly occur one needs to continually re-investigate and
discover that at the deepest level one is pure awareness and
ever-free.
Unless we have karma that easily takes care of worldly
concerns (and some people do), then
we have to decide if we choose the world of form, or the world of
peace.
Not many people can truly accomplish this. Eckhart Tolle did: He
was homeless and in a
state of grace.
This is in keeping
with the old paradigm that only very few people can awaken, and
those that do have to overcome their ego by renouncing the world
of form and concentrate their efforts on the inner life. However,
in the last fifty years this paradigm has been completely
overturned by the vast numbers of people that have awakened to
the truth of nonduality, mainly due to the method of self-inquiry
that was developed by Sri Ramana Maharshi and spread by his
direct disciples and their followers. The direct result of this
has been that many have discovered the ease of awakening and that
this can be achieved whilst living a ‘normal’ worldly
life.
This can only be
sustained if one cultivates this awakening by regularly
investigating the nature of reality by repeated inquiry, as one
readily nods off again by re-identifying with the body/mind. Sri
Ramana Maharshi said that self-realization is easy, but only the
beginning, after that the practice begins! For when one nods off
then one’s old thought patterns, which could be called karma
or samskaras, reassert control and this needs to be countered by
establishing oneself in awareness of, and identification with,
awareness.
Awareness itself is
totally unaffected by anything occurring in it and thus when
complete identification with awareness takes place karma is
powerless! That is to say that although these old thought
patterns continue to come up one will no longer be compelled, or
constrained, by them. They will just appear as ‘clouds’
scudding across the ‘sky’ of awareness leaving it
totally untroubled, for in this case one does not identify with
them or take them as indicators of who, or what, one is. In the
same way experiences which could be attributed to one’s
karma, good or bad, lose their power to affect one’s
underlying equanimity.
This cultivation
does not require that one renounces the world and its enjoyments
just that one returns to ‘awareness of awareness’
regularly throughout the day. Mental suffering is the main
symptom of re-identification with the body/mind, so this then
should be used as a ‘wake up call’ to the fact that we
have nodded off again. All that is needed is to see that one is
effortlessly aware of this suffering, thus awareness is a
constant presence in which this suffering comes and goes.
I agree with the
comment that one needs to decide, but not necessarily between the
world of form and that of peace. Rather, if one decides to value
the world of peace more, then this actually enhances our
appreciation of the world of form. Here is my comment on this
from Chapter 15 of Beyond the Separate Self, which is
actually entitled All or Nothing:
At this stage one needs to come to a decision about which one
values more: the objective level of
thoughts/sensations or the deeper subjective peaceful level of
pure awareness. If one chooses
the former then life will just continue with its highs and lows,
suffering and anxiety, and obsession with
the ‘separate self’. One will also continue to see
everything through the distorting filter of the mind,
its opinions, judgements and self-interest, which lessens one’s
perceptions as if seeing through a darkened window. However, if
one chooses the latter then all perceptions are heightened by
seeing things clearly, ‘as they are’, for when nature
is seen ‘as it is’
it is much brighter, more vivid, more stunning than when seen
through the mind’s
filter. So by identifying with pure awareness the objective level
of sensations is enhanced, and
thus becomes more valuable in its own right. This gives the lie
to the idea that sinking into the deeper level of
being means that one enjoys the world less; in fact the reverse
is true!
It may be true that one can continue to value the surface level
of thoughts/sensations more, and occasionally sink into the
deeper level of pure awareness for a brief respite from the
troubles of daily life. However this does not tap the full
potential of identifying with, and as, this deeper level
completely beyond the ‘separate self’, and experiencing
things ‘as they are’ in their absolute immediacy and
totality. In this mode there is no concern for the future, and
the past completely loses its hold, thus all worrying comes to an
end. For this to occur one has to completely let go of ‘my
story’ and see everything in the past for what it is,
totally gone and in the past.[1][1]
This
is truly a case of ‘all or nothing’ for once any
exception is made then this is the ‘thin end of the wedge’
as it sets a precedent for other past experiences to be held on
to. It has to be completely realised that nothing that has
happened in the past, or will happen in the future, can possibly
affect the deeper level of pure awareness.
I
have heard many people who have glimpsed this ‘deeper level’
continue to argue for the value of ‘working through past
experiences’, and in this they are totally dishonouring that
which they have glimpsed. For the only way that you can
completely ‘work through past experiences’ is to
totally let them go, and not ‘buy into them’ when they
reoccur in the mind or body. They will continue to come up but
any attention that is lavished on them only feeds and strengthens
them; when ignored they are starved of attention and their
reoccurrences will slowly peter out. By ignored I do not mean
suppressed, for this will also strengthen them, but just allowed
to ‘come and go’ with no weight being given to
them. As soon as you start telling yourself a story about what
they mean, or how they have affected you, you are back at the
surface level of the ego. If the physical feelings are too strong
to ignore they can be defused by going completely into them,
without any ‘story’, and noticing that they are just
sensations which have arisen and will subside quite naturally. It
is the telling of the story that prolongs, feeds them, and
invites them to reoccur.
This is not a
matter of renunciation of the world of form, just of our personal
story of who we are.
Summing up:
Awakening is easy, instantaneous, readily available to all, but
is quickly countered by nodding off again when old thought
patterns reassert themselves. So we need to continually reawaken
by investigation, resulting in becoming aware of awareness and
re-identifying with this deeper level of our being. This requires
that we value awakening more than the world of form and, when
awake, our appreciation of this world is enhanced by seeing
everything ‘as it is’ rather than through the filter of
the ego and all of its judgements, self interest etc.
[1][1] C. Drake, Beyond the Separate Self,
2009,