We Are It

"We touch and are touched by many people as we move through the years of our lives, and never consciously know the impact we have upon one another. We are all One Being teaching ourselves through each other.  Some are destined for a bigger stage than others, but every life is part of the mosaic of sacred expression.  From a non-dual perspective, it may seem we are illusion and not to be taken very seriously, but paradoxically this life is what we have -- each life is an expression, like a fraction in the mathematical perfection of the universe.   Nothing can be removed from the Whole.  All expressions have their rightful place in an expanding and unlimited universe. We are it!  We are all the forms expressing spontaneously in the service of something greater than ourselves that lies forever within mystery...

Meditation is not the only way that spirit opens itself up. In the non-dual eastern traditions this awakening is reported to happen to those who are ready through simply hearing the truth, or by sitting for a while in the presence of a master teacher.  It is understood that awakening may also happen spontaneously, especially in those who are devoted to and longing for Truth.  It sometimes happens during trauma and near-death experiences, as well as in reaction to deep emotional overwhelm. Awakening happens when our ego-driven safeguards and protections become disarmed, opening us so that our senses and consciousness can be penetrated by Truth. It happens when for a moment thought stops!

It is interesting that many spiritual seekers travel to the other side of the world to find a teacher who will startle them into awakening, and then find themselves contracting against the experience once they have arrived.  It is like banging on an entry door, and then refusing to enter when it is opened. The calling of our spirit and the anxiety of our minds can come into great contradiction!  In our hearts we know what we want, but our thoughts produce obstacles and objections, throwing up smoke screens to distract us.  It can take many years for some-one who wants awakening to give up fear and distractions, because the separate self wants to endure as the dominating controller of our lives. Its position sometimes has to be worn down bit-by-bit before we are completely receptive to the awakened heart and mind..."

Because many varieties of mystical or spiritual experiences have come to be described as spiritual awakening, spiritual aspirants who have experienced a significant event can become confused, knowing something has shifted or awakened, but realizing they do not feel finished or enlightened.  They tend to think the solution must lie in a frequent repetition of their experience, which they have no conscious capacity to repeat.  They believe that some big overwhelming experience just beyond their grasp will be the final awakening, or perhaps, that at some point in time the great spiritual intensity they have felt will become a permanent condition. While all of these other forms of experience are definitely great movements that might be given this label, there would be more clarity in the understanding of spiritual process if we could limit the term to its classical meaning, and define other events more precisely..."

-- Bonnie Greenwell, The Awakening Guide