A beautiful, clear and accessible teaching by Adyashanti on seeing the world as it is, removing the thought filters of the past so we can be fully present to what is and to what we are.
Awakening Experiences
It’s interesting to see what the experiences of others is. And perhaps you can see what is common to all of them. Please understand that you will have your own experience. Everyone’s conditioning has this same commonality and is also completely unique. So your experience of awakening will also be unique. What is common to all these experiences as well as what you will experience is the end of ego, self-identification. But it will happen to you in your own completely unique and beautiful way, like the blooming of a flower in Springtime.
The Body
What is the body made of? If we look carefully, we can see it is made of only four elements: earth, air, fire and water.
Earth is the body’s bones, skin, teeth. Fire is the heat generated in all living bodies. Water is in our flowing blood and in every cell. The body is mostly water. And air is not only the exchange of oxygen necessary for the life of our cells, but also the vast space between molecules that is true of all physical matter. Earth, air, fire and water.
When you sit silently in nature, these four elements of the body become very clear. This body is not separate from the earth it sits on. Without this earth element, it could not exist. This body is not separate from the sun that shines on it. Without the sun, this body could not exist. This body cannot be separate from water or air. Without these the body also could not exist. If you removed even one of these elements, the body could not be here.
What Is This Thing Called A Body?
If you too can see this clearly, then answer me this. What is this thing you call “my body”? Is it a separate, independent thing, separate from the rest of life? How can it be? Without the earth, the sun, water and air, it cannot exist for even a single moment. So it is not separate and independent from these things. How about parents? Could this body exist if your parents had never met? And, you know, this chain of ancestors goes back a very long ways, even before the human species existed. Could this body exist without even a single one of those ancient ancestors meeting? So this body cannot really be separate and independent from any of them.
If you look carefully you cannot find any evidence at all that this body is separate and independent from anything else. Don’t take my word for it. Try it and see for yourself. Let me know if you find any evidence of this body’s separate and independent self-nature. I’m very interested in hearing what you discover.
This is all very clear, is it not? It’s quite obvious. Perhaps you have not looked at your body in this way before. You may perceive the body as separate, independent and unique. You may call it “my body” as if it really were separate from all the other bodies, from all your ancestors, from earth, air, heat and water. This experience of a separate, independent body is part of our conditioning. It is also why we feel that we are a separate, independent self separated from the rest of life. But, if we look carefully, we can see that there is no evidence for this. The evidence is, in fact, just the opposite. There is no separate, independent body, just as there is no separate, independent self.
The Fifth Element
There is a fifth element we haven’t mentioned yet. This element may not yet be so obvious. It is what animates the body, giving it what we call life. And it is also the substance of all life, including earth, air, fire and water. We have many names for this fifth element, which is not really an element at all. Some call it Spirit, Consciousness, God, the Formless, the Un-manifest, Emptiness, etc. But no name can really describe what this is. It cannot be seen and yet it is very much here. In deep silence, when you are really paying attention, when you are really listening, perhaps you can feel it. Nothing that exists is ever separate from this.
Oneness
Oneness or non-duality are not really concepts at all. They are, instead, the end of concepts. They are simply freedom from the conditioned concepts of separation and independence. If you look carefully and pay attention, it is clear that separation and independence cannot exist – not in a body and not in a self. That we experience life as separate and independent is only the result of our conditioned thoughts. It is much like a sleeping dream. When we wake up, we realize this has never been true.
Oneness
You can’t attain Oneness.
You simply surrender twoness.
And that is Oneness.
Ants and the Sangha Body
You can learn a lot by watching ants. Like bees, they are the ultimate team players. Everything they do they do for the ant colony and the queen. No ant ever said, “This job is boring. I’m out of here. I’m going to start my own ant colony.” Instead of separate, independent, individual minds, they seem to have one mind. Everything they do, they do for the benefit of the whole colony. Everything they do is for the whole. Bees have a hive mind. Ants have a colony mind. Ants practice the Sangha Body perfectly.
To the human ego, this may sound horrible. “That sounds like slavery. Where is my individual freedom to discover and be who I really am.” By who I really am, the ego simply means a better version of the ego.
Rocks In A Can
Living in a monastery as a Buddhist monk or nun is like putting a bunch of rocks into a can and shaking it vigorously. Most rocks begin with a number of sharp edges. You may know people who have sharp edges. These sharp edges protect the ego from the world and other people. The more sharp edges, the harder it is to get along with such people. The sharp edges are their resistance to life. Novice monks and nuns often enter the monastery with their own sharp edges. Living in a monastic environment is like shaking the can. Eventually those sharp edges are worn away by rubbing up against other rocks. Zen monastic traditions have thousands of years of practical experience removing those sharp edges. And this explains why Zen monasteries have lasted for thousands of years.
Hippie Communes of the 60s
Back in the late 1960s and early 70s, there were thousands of communes all over the US. I was in one and had friends in dozens of other communes. Today only three that I know of from that time still exist. Despite our good intentions, the failure rate speaks for itself. And yet thousands of years later, many of the original monasteries still exist. What’s their secret?
It’s the rocks in the can. It’s removing those sharp edges. Monasteries have a central purpose that trumps the individual purpose. Back in the late 60s, we had some wonderful goals: peace, love, to change the world. But somehow the ego was still too strong. Those sharp edges may not have been visible, but they were still there under the long hair, peace signs and beads. We may not have been on “ego trips”, but the ego was still there undercover and still running the show.
Michael Jordan and the Team
We love to watch star athletes like Michael Jordan. He and others like him are an amazing testimony to what the physical body is capable of doing. But no star athlete can succeed without the team. Even in individual sports like tennis, competitive swimming or martial arts, the athlete cannot succeed without a great coach. The coach and the athlete are the team. When star athletes exhibit astounding abilities, we may not notice the team that makes this all possible. Our focus is riveted on the star player. And in individual sports, we never get to see the coach and all the behind the scenes work that makes this athlete so outstanding.
The ego would like to believe that it is all the effort and work of one person that makes this possible. The ego looks for separation everywhere and so it finds it, even if it’s not here. And the truth is, it never is. But that doesn’t stop the ego from finding it. The simple realization that no separate, independent self can exist is the greatest threat the ego faces, because that means that the ego doesn’t exist.
Questions and Answers
I answer many questions each day. I love doing this. But without the question, where is the answer? An answer needs a question to exist. And I learn just as much from these questions and answers as the one who asked the question. There is no separation anywhere. A teacher cannot exist without a student. A student cannot exist without a teacher. The teacher and the student are completely dependent on each other. The teacher and student “inter-are”, as Thich Nhat Hanh would say. If I think of myself as a separate, independent role of a teacher, then I have a big problem. The teacher is the student. The student is the teacher. No answers can appear without a question. The question and answer are one. The student and the teacher are one. To realize this fully is to live an effortless life, like flowing downstream in a river, there is no separation and no resistance anywhere.
Rubbing off those sharp edges simply makes the ego less dominant and makes it easier to get along with others. But it puts us solidly on the path of the realization that the ego never existed and that we have never been separate from the life we created those sharp edges to protect us from.
Everything in life is teaching us this. You only have to spend a little time watching ants to see.
Three Circles of Enlightenment
Kensho or Satori are the Japanese terms for the initial awakening, the first taste of enlightenment. Imagine a large circle with a small dot in the center. The large circle is the universe or all that is. The small dot in the center is you.
The Dot at the Center of the Circle
Before this experience of awakening, you experience yourself as the dot in the center of all that is. When you look up at the stars at night, it is you looking at stars. You and stars are not the same. You are the one looking. The stars are what are being seen by you. You are here. The stars are there. The stars are outside of and separate from you. You might think something like, “I am seeing the stars.” But you never question deeply what this “I” is.
This is your experience of everything and everyone. There is you and there is the rest of the world or universe. As you can see you when you look at this circle, the universe is very large and you are very small. This is a precarious situation to live in, tiny you vs huge universe. A subtle or not so subtle experience of fear or anxiety is normal in this situation. There is also frustration and disappointment when the universe doesn’t cooperate with your wishes, needs and demands.
Is it any wonder that life seems challenging? And when it gets challenging enough, is it any wonder that some people want to wake up, to discover a different way to live? Often the spiritual search begins in just this way.
The Dot is Gone. Only the Circle Remains.
The first taste of awakening occurs when the dot in the center of the circle is erased. In Zen, we call this “dropping body and mind”. Suddenly there is no dot. There is no you. There is just the circle, just the universe, just all that is. This is such an enormous relief that we are filled with great freedom, joy, peace and love. Tears of gratitude rush forth. Bursts of spontaneous laughter erupt. Sometimes the entire body shakes with this great release, as if we had been holding it tensely our entire life up until this moment. All conditioned thoughts have been burnt up in the brilliant sun of this powerful realization of truth.
The dot of you can dissolve gradually into the vast universe over many years of spiritual practice or it can occur spontaneously in a sudden and unexpected burst as it did for me when I was just twenty-two-years-old. If we are young, immature and don’t have a strong spiritual foundation (practice, meditation, learning, teacher), this sudden and spontaneous realization usually does not last long. This was true for me as it only lasted for ten days, although it did completely alter my life. Desperate to regain this amazing experience, I set my feet firmly on the spiritual path, eventually discovering the practices and teachers necessary for a foundation that could support this realization in daily life. A spiritual foundation is not like the hard, inflexible concrete that makes up the base of a building. It must be flexible enough to continue growing, as the depth of this realization never stops growing. Even after awakening, we never stop learning.
In this first moment of realization, we realize and directly experience that there is no separate self here, nor is there a separate self anywhere else. We are not separate from anything or anyone in all existence. The love experienced from this realization is unlike anything we have ever experienced before. We are absolutely in love with all that is. We and everything else are nothing but love. It radiates from us like the sun.
If our foundation is strong, this will be more than a wonderful moment in our lives, an interesting story to tell our friends, a new way to feel special, now still separate but better. It will be the beginning of continuous growing and deepening. But what do we do with this realization? How does it serve the benefit of all? There is only the all. We fully realize that now. So how does this realization, through this unique body and mind, serve to benefit all?
The Dot Returns
Now the little dot returns. But it is entirely different. No longer feeling separate from the universe, from all that is, the dot now lives only to serve all that is. It knows its true function. And its true function is to be of benefit to all that is in every moment. There is no longer even a hint of self-serving, of I, me, mine. These things only exist as words. They no longer have any meaning. The dot is here as a vehicle, but it no longer experiences any of the separation it felt in the first circle. It is the universe. The universe is it. There is not an inch of separation anywhere.
Its actions no longer arise from the mind, from conditioned thoughts, plans, beliefs and ideas of what the right thing to do is. Now its actions arise completely spontaneously in each moment. The universe always knows what is of the greatest benefit for all in each moment. This body and mind are the perfect vehicle to carry this function out.
The mind is in a permanent and perfect state of Not Knowing or Unknowing so that it is the perfect empty vehicle for the Universe to act through.
This is what we mean by the word Emptiness. It is clear and clean, a perfect channel with no obstructions to block life from expressing itself without interference. In the first circle, the little dot believed it was separate from the rest of the universe. It had thoughts, knowledge, ideas and beliefs it had accumulated that it believed were real and important. It believed these thoughts, knowledge and beliefs were protecting it from the rest of the universe which it perceived as threatening to it. In this way, it was like a clogged pipe that water could not move through. The universe could not move freely through this separate self. It was too clogged with its own thoughts, knowledge and beliefs to realize that it never had been separate from the universe.
After erasing all the thoughts, knowledge and beliefs that created this dot as something separate from the Universe, the dot is now used as the perfect vehicle for the Universe to express itself for the benefit of all that is. It does this automatically and spontaneously. In the first circle, the dot relied entirely on the mind to make decisions and carry out actions, often for the benefit of only itself or a small circle of beings. Now the dot doesn’t rely on the mind at all and effortlessly acts for the benefit of all through the vast wisdom of the Universe Itself.
The First Challenge
The first challenge is awakening, erasing the dot completely. Even after the first realization, it can take time to completely erase the dot, the experience of a separate self. This is why practice is important not only to awaken but for the continuous deepening into awakening and the functioning of awakening in the world.
The Second Challenge
The second challenge is embodying awakening. How does awakening function in the world to benefit all beings? The experience of a separate self disappears, but the body and mind do not disappear. They are still here. And that’s a good thing. Without a body and mind, how could we benefit all beings? It is now clear that both body and mind are also empty of a separate self. They are not self-existing entities. Just like you, they are not separate from the entire Universe. This is also true of all thought, emotions, sensations and perceptions. They are all transient, impermanent, coming and going, changing in every moment. This is the true nature of all life. And yet there is a unique body and mind, and a multitude of other bodies and minds. There are trees, rivers, rocks and mountains. All of this is here. All of this exists. It’s just that none of them have a permanent self-nature. None of them are separate from anything else. This is the great realization we discovered when the dot in the center of the circle disappeared. How this realization functions in the world of name and form is the realization in the third circle when the dot returns.
Your Heart Is Not Separate From the Rest of You
Look at your own heart. Can it be separate from your lungs that supply the heart cells and all other cells with the oxygen they need? Can it be separate from your parents or grandparents? If they never met, where would your heart be now? Is the food you eat separate from your heart? Is whether you exercise or not separate from the condition of your heart right now? Are your thoughts, beliefs and emotions separate from your heart? If you are able to see your heart clearly, you will realize that nothing in all existence has ever been separate from your heart. The same is true of your brain, your kidneys, your liver, your stomach and intestines. In western medicine we like to think of the heart as an organ separate from the lungs, brain, kidneys and liver. But can this really be true? Everything in your body is connected and depends on every other part for its health and its very existence. If western medicine were more aware of this, there would be far less malpractice suits and a far healthier population.
This body is not separate from you. And you are not separate from this body. Nor are you separate from any other body. Without trees, you would not have the oxygen for your lungs to breath clean air. Without the sun, you would have no trees or food. We are completely dependent on all other things for our existence. There is no separation anywhere. Thich Nhat Hanh has created the word inter-being to describe this. We inter-are with all of existence.
When the dot at the center of the circle dissolves, at first we feel we are infinite space. Everything that exists arises in and returns to this infinite space that we are. Then we notice that this space also has no separate, independent self-nature. The space depends on all the things that appear in it. And all the things that appear depend on this space.
The western language is built on duality. Everything has its own name and all these names and the things they describe are separate from each other. Each name has a separate, independent self-nature. But after we awaken, we realize that this is not true. Using western language to describe this realization is not easy. To the unawakened mind, it often sounds like zen poetry or a metaphor.
I am a glint of sunlight reflected off the windshield of a passing car.
I am the cicadas heralding the coming autumn.
I am the sound of raindrops on a tin roof.
This may sound like poetry, a metaphor or a cryptic Zen koan.
But I assure you it is simply a statement of basic truth. All things are one with everything else.
We might also say, “I am you. But I am not me.” Again, this can sound confusing if we still believe that things have a separate, independent self-nature.
When we believe everything has a separate self-nature, we say that mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. When we first realize this is not true, we might say that mountains are rivers and rivers are mountains. They inter-are. To apply this understanding in the world for the benefit of all, another step is needed. I may see that mountains are indeed rivers and could not exist without rivers and all existence. But when I climb a mountain, I do not swim up it. So the functional application of mountains are rivers is that mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers. I climb the mountain and I swim in the river. Awakening does not mean we have gone insane or that we can no longer function in the world. In fact, we function far better than we did before.
Here are some links to help you delve deeper into the awakening process and the discovery of your infinite True Self.
Map of Consciousness – Journey to Awakening