N-lightenment

Something in you already knows.

Can An Awakened Person Suffer?

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buddha-sunglassesThe answer to that question is no. In an awakened person there is no person to suffer. Awakening is freedom from the person, freedom from this idea and experience of separation. And that means freedom from suffering.

How is it that sometimes, although very rarely, awakened people do seem to suffer? This can happen and what it simply means is that sometimes awakened people are not awake. The repressed and hidden sense of separation can re-emerge when it has not been completely purified. At that point, the awakened person is no longer awake. They have fallen back asleep and re-entered the dream of separation.

Usually this is very temporary and may only last a few seconds. During those few seconds suffering will be experienced. The nature of the ego is suffering. Fortunately the awakened person has many resources to avoid being stuck in what most people experience as their normal life.

Principal among these resources is complete acceptance and love of whatever arises, including a sense of separation and suffering. Both suffering and the ego (They are interchangeable terms.) are built entirely from resistance. This total lack of resistance is what returns our attention and experience to the freedom of our True Awakened Self.

This experience of ego and suffering is a necessary part of the purification process. Whatever has been repressed and hidden must re-emerge to be re-experienced and set free. We do this through total acceptance, allowing and love. Whatever is not True will always dissolve when seen clearly and openly. Whatever is True will deepen. So this practice is always beneficial.

From the awakened perspective it is very clear that everything is happening perfectly and entirely for our benefit. This includes those moments when we are not awake. For without those moments this necessary purification process would not be possible.

The awakened person cannot suffer for there is no suffering in the True Self. Nor is there a separate person to suffer. And yet most awakened people do experience suffering occasionally, although extremely rarely compared to the human population as a whole. During these moments, they are no longer awake. As long as there is some repressed remnant of separation left to be purified, this will naturally re-emerge to be seen clearly and set free. It is all part of a beautiful and perfect process.

The Ego and Conversation

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The ego loves conversation. Here it can share its ideas and opinions. It can reinforce itself by gaining attention and hopefully approval. In conversation, the ego feels very real. This is its normal environment. It very much wants to get its ideas and opinions across to others. It very much wants to be seen and acknowledged as “right”. If it does not receive approval and acknowledgment, it feels lessened and it suffers. If it does, it feels bigger, more important and good.

Conversation is the playground of the ego. Here is where it builds and reinforces itself. Here is where it “proves” it is real and not simply an illusion created out of conditioned thoughts.

The True Self has none of these needs that the ego has. It is already real so it has no need to prove itself or gain acknowledgment for what is already true. It does not need any approval or acknowledgment. It always knows itself and that is all the acknowledgment it ever needs. It is always at peace, always happy and always one with all that exists.

In the Enlightenment Experience Groups, we want to stay in this experience of the True Self. We have spent most of our lives living as an ego and being controlled by this sense of a separate, independent, individual self. We have experienced the suffering that inevitably follows the ego like its shadow. The ego can never be apart from suffering no matter how it tries. The ego is the sole cause of all suffering and is suffering itself. There is no suffering without this sense of a separate self. This ego has a functional purpose for basic functioning in the world, but when it is identified as what we are, when it runs the show, we will always experience suffering. For this reason, during the Enlightenment Experience Groups, we do not encourage the ego. We do not cater to it, acknowledge it or flatter it. We see it for what it is and simply let it go.

That is also why we avoid conversation in the Groups. If there is a break, we remain in silence. We have specific practices that allow very limited speaking. But these practices do not allow the ego to assert itself. Instead they bring us into this expanded state of our True Self. From here we see the ego very clearly and it no longer bothers us.

I’m not suggesting you never have a conversation again. Conversations are fine. But please notice the tendency of the ego to arise in any conversation you have. If you experience a desire for attention, acknowledgment, approval or being right, ask yourself what is doing this? Where is this desire coming from? And what is aware of all of this? This can be a wonderful teaching for you. Take a moment of silence to really feel this. Yes, right in the middle of your conversation. Don’t worry; if the person you are with is speaking from their ego, they won’t even notice it. And you will be very happy.

Like A Baby Chick

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Brown-EggLike a baby chick we get used to the hard shell of our ego. This is our world. It is all we know. But for some of us this hard shell becomes too confining. We begin to grow and press up against its walls.
 
As this happens, cracks appear in this shell that we once thought was the whole world. There is a sense that there is something more. We don’t know what yet. The world outside the shell is all new to us. It is a mystery. Since it is completely unknown, it can be very frightening. But we can’t deny that this shell is much too small and limited. So we continue pushing against it, pecking at it with our questions. The more we question this ego shell, the more it crumbles.
 
At some point it collapses completely. We emerge to see that there really is much more to the world than this tiny shell we once thought was all there is. So much more.