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What practices and techniques have you found most useful for waking up? in the Enlightenment Experience groups we find Noting, Aware of Awareness practices and Guided Self Inquiry to be very effective.
It is very hard to know what practices or techniques have been helping. I have certainly tried plenty of them.
It feels like the only thing which is different now is my focus. I really want to wake up above all else. Even if it means that in trusting this higher power rather than my ego self, this Hazel becomes homeless, insane, dead, hated. Maybe it’s focus, maybe it’s desire. I know that in Buddhism most desires are thought of as cravings. But the desire to wake up comes under a different category, I seem to have read. A heart wish.
All I know is that it is now my number one priority. Recently I cut back on distractions, like unnecessary notifications on my iPad and phone. Facebook is still attractive, as it’s how I commune with all my friends. But perhaps I don’t have to read my whole newsfeed! I find I don’t want to watch TV any more, unless it’s a movie I have chosen to watch. Fortunately I have a very supportive husband.
It seems the less I try to do anything, get anything, change anything, the more I practice just being still and quiet and accepting whatever arises in my experience, including my resistance to what is arising, the more I have been graced with something wonderful and impossible to describe.
I give thanks. I trust. At the minute I don’t really worry about anything, which given my past, is a miracle. I have had 1 hour’s sleep. Maybe that’s enough for now.
Life unfolds, in the flow of doing the next thing with focus, the next thing with focus, no real deciding, just happening, leaning into what feels right. Maybe this is what the Tao is?
Thank you Peter, for being here as this epitome of Love. ❤️
That is awesome, Hazel. When the search for Truth becomes as strong as the drowning man’s search for air, awakening is inevitable. As you are seeing. What you are searching for is already here and always has been. It is actually what is motivating this search. The return Home to what you are. This is the greatest and most precious gift any human can experience. All the wealth, fame and power in the world can not even come close to this. And yet it has always been here. More intimate than our breath or heartbeat. We could nor can ever be apart from this. How wonderful is that?
Hmm, let’s see.
Before I knew anything about spirituality I intellectually questioned things. “Why am I angry? This is a waste of time. I’ll endeavor to not be angry next time”. This was the start of freedom from circumstances. Now I can be choose either way most of the time without either side of the coin being a burden.
Now the main practice is just dwelling in the Unborn mind as Bankei termed it. Things just fall away naturally. The other practice is “throwing myself in the fire” where I just do things where I normally feel resistance. There are also certain practices like reading spiritual things where the manner in which I read it allows for the text to become a trigger into a more awake presence. This one is good because I don’t really do anything. Paradoxes and koans are good for that as the confusion destroys thought and creates an opening.
Mostly things just happen by themselves and I don’t particular have any idea why, nor do I care.
Wonderful practices, Cameron. Thank you for sharing.
Personally, one of my most horrifying experiences with Psychedelic Mushrooms caused a partial ego dissolution for me, good chunk of my reality including everything i thought i knew and believed in just dissolved. All of the psychological tools i’ve unconsciously used for 22 years of my life like lying, ignorance, denial, lying to myself to justify my deeds, social bonding based on talking smack about others, and every other non-true concept have ceased to exist. It allowed me to discover my spirituality, and rebuild my own self, my perception of the universe and humanity, in a better more conscious and aware state. Since then, I don’t see life as a series of events, I rather see it as cause and effect because there is no magic in the world, and the main reason some people think there is is because of either low level of awareness (which was a foreign term to me prior my psychedelic experiences), and lack of scientific explanation (well, give it some time, magic is just science we don’t know yet). Now, I use logic and rational when it’s required to keep myself safe and sound in the physical way, but I mostly live my life listening to intuition, love, compassion, and humility for the fellow human being. To me, the biggest discovery of my awakening was realizing that I can always choose how to react to things past the instinctual “ego-reaction”. I do meditate regularly, but i find unconditional love and giving to the ones in need a better tool for deepening my spirituality. I absolutely love doing good things for people when they don’t expect it. I don’t expect anything in return, I just believe that one day, someone i’ve helped will not be able to logically or rationally explain my acts, and will start questioning: “Maybe there is more to life than logic, rationale and physical appearances
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This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by
Maksim Yorsh.
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This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by
Wonderful, Maksim. Following the spiritual heart is always the best direction. The heart has a depth of wisdom and knowing that the mind cannot come close to.
This morning I found my self ‘waking up’ from sleep in the most unawakened way
My self was depressed!!!
darkly deeply depressed
Why is my self so depressed my mind asked
My hand reached above my head and brought toward me my keys to freedom
The words of enlightenment of authors we all know – speaking always the same message of truthMy self realised instantly my mind was in control and it had lost body connection
My self had lost awareness of my energy field and its connectedness to everything elseI read about Chi
I read about and meditated my way back to what is real- connected – and complete
Actually I just felt it in – as my mind quietened
My mind processed the words which understood that chi is the bridge between the unmanifested and the world – my body felt its truth
I could feel it come in – the energy awareness through all my cells of being – and my mind fell in to the background of the power of the flow of energy – as just one part of a much bigger truth than its own squirrely anticsI smiled
My self was out of its bad dream
It was no longer depressedtruth re emerged
and my self reawakened
I woke up – got up – and now I am writing this
To share how easy it is
and the day is full of promise
especially knowing that you are all thereWonderful, Chris. And thank you for posting this.
My answer to this question would be meditation, of the type that brings about introversion of the senses. But perhaps it can also be argued that cultivation of the desire (devotion) to awaken comes first. I would summarize as follows:
First comes desire,
then one needs effective techniques (meditation, breathing techniques & others)
Consistent practice (daily, over many years)
Self-pacing (don’t go overboard so that you are unable to function)Sey
I think meditation can open the spiritual awakening
Help me men, I can’t do meditation. When never I try to do I go to sleep mode
Meditation practice is the process of systematically bringing your mind to Stillness for specific periods of time each day. Meditation itself is abiding in your true nature.
There are so many means of meditation out there. The most effective ones are those where you easily place your attention on an object (I use a mantra) and gently return your attention to it whenever you realize you are off it. This will lead the mind to be still. Eventually the object will be also be absorbed by the still mind and you will become aware of Awareness.Falling asleep during meditation in the beginning is common and nothing to be frustrated about. Don’t get discouraged.
Sey
For me the basic stuff worked best. Just staying empty and present as much as possible all the time. And remembering to do that as much as possible until it became habit. As I did that a space opened up and deepened.
I did this as much as possible through my daily life and didn’t schedule periods for meditation.
The scheduled period for meditation is useful for beginners who are only starting out to “tame” their unruly minds. It is useful for those who have no sense of the expanded, unbounded Self beyond their ego-self. It is useful for those who have no point of reference as to what staying “empty and present” means. It is a starting point. Once unbounded Self (Awareness) has become abiding and evident, then staying empty (clear) and present is natural and not at all forced.
Sey
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This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by
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