You can’t attain Oneness.
You simply surrender twoness.
And that is Oneness.
Living Awake
What happens after this great enlightenment? We’ve realized clearly that everything is one. There is no separate self anywhere. We are this great freedom, bliss, peace and love we have been searching for. All suffering has come to an end.
Now we bring this great benefit to the world in the most ordinary of ways. As we say in Zen, “We chop wood and carry water.” We serve life spontaneously in every moment and yet we don’t feel as if there is a me doing anything. It is simply life happening naturally. We no longer take credit for what we do. There is nothing separate from life itself. It is simply life acting.
From the perspective of the dream, this must feel extremely mundane. After this long path to awakening, this is the end, chopping wood and carrying water, living an ordinary life? But don’t be fooled. Any action done through this enlightened consciousness brings enormous benefit to everyone it touches. It doesn’t matter what the action is, it is the enlightened consciousness itself that makes the difference.
We come to see that everything we once perceived as an obstacle to our awake consciousness is actually none other than a momentary appearance of this same awake consciousness. Everything that arises in each moment is seen as the miraculous gift it truly is. Since everything we think, feel and perceive is this same one awake consciousness momentarily appearing in different forms, we no longer have problems with anyone or anything. It is all awake consciousness and all entirely for our benefit and the benefit of all. In this recognition, how can a problem arise?
Mountains are Mountains. Rivers are Rivers.
When we began our spiritual search, we perceived mountains as mountains and rivers as rivers. We believed that name and form were what we perceived. We believed our thoughts about people and things were true. And we believed that those thoughts were who we were. In spiritual terms, we call this the Dream, Maya or the Great Illusion.
Mountains are Rivers. Rivers are Mountains.
As we deepened in our spiritual realization, we began to see that our thoughts were not true. They were simply an abstract distortion of reality. As our belief in our thoughts faded, we came to realize something much greater than what our perceptions were showing. Eventually we realized that reality cannot be contained in any thought. We experienced a great openness free of all limitations. Everything is connected and interdependent on everything else. Nothing is separate from anything else. Nothing has a separate, independent, self nature. In Zen terms, you might say that now mountains are rivers and rivers are mountains.
Mountains are Mountains. Rivers are Rivers.
Now, after this great awakening, we return from the mountaintop and this great realization does what it does best. It effortlessly and spontaneously provides great benefit for all. We realize the truth of the world. Knowing full well that everything is one and there is no separation anywhere in the universe, we serve the world in exactly the way it needs to be served. We use words freely to the greatest benefit of those being served. Although we said “Mountains are mountains.” in the dream stage of consciousness and we are saying exactly the same thing here, their meaning is entirely different. Here we are completely free of language and of names and forms. Everything arises spontaneously in this infinite freedom.
In the Ten Ox Herding Pictures, this last stage is called “Returning to the marketplace with bliss bestowing hands.” It is wonderful to be enlightened, but how does this enlightenment function in the day-to-day world? Enlightenment is not for ourself alone. There is no separate self to be enlightened. From now on, our life is of benefit to all. No longer do we act in the world in self-centered ways, as if the universe revolved around us. Now we effortlessly and spontaneously bring the greatest benefit to all. “We return to the marketplace with bliss bestowing hands.” Before awakening, we may have done our best to be of benefit to all. But this was still self-centered. There was me serving and I was a separate being from those I was serving. Now there is no such discrimination and differentiation. It is all simply the effortless and spontaneous flow of life. It is reality. I cannot be separate from those I am serving. There is no separation anywhere.
A Life Of Complete Freedom
In this way, I walk through the world in complete freedom. Wherever I go and whatever I do brings great benefit to all. Gone are the former preferences and ideas of good and bad, I see everything that arises in each moment as the complete perfection that it is. In this way I am always completely present. I neither resist nor attach to anything. I let everything come and go in its perfect expression of the continuous flow of life.
Practices
Meditation
Meditation continues, but there is no separate self who is meditating. There is no doer. It is simply the effortless flow of life. The forms that meditation takes are the spontaneous deepening into this infinite presence. There are no longer plans or structured practices. There is simply the continuous arising of each moment. This is appreciated on its deepest level in silence and stillness. And this same silence and stillness permeates our life even in moments of action or speaking. Everything arises from this deep silence and stillness.
If we are teaching meditation at this point, we do the same practices we are teaching. As the continuous flow of life, we never stop learning. Everything is for the benefit of all.
Teachers, Teachings, Books, Etc.
Without the experience of a separate self, we remains always humble. There is nothing to lose and nothing to gain. Every moment is always complete just as it is. And at the same time, everyone and everything is our beloved teacher. We are continuously learning from every momentary expression of this infinite Oneness, which we are not separate from. Seeing every moment as a great gift, we are enormously grateful for whatever arises in this precious moment.
I will not recommend teachers, teachings or books at this point. Everything you need will arise spontaneously and perfectly exactly as you need it. You are not separate from the eternal and infinite flow of life. In every moment you have complete access to whatever is needed in that moment. Teachers, teachings, books and other resources arise spontaneously as part of this great perfection. There is no longer anything to worry about or try to accomplish or attain. You are the infinite and eternal flow of life expressing itself temporarily in a human body. To others it may seem like you are doing an enormous amount of work and accomplishing a great deal. It may seem like you have attained something very special in this great awakening. But everything happens completely effortlessly for you. Does the river need to make an effort to flow downstream? You are this river of life flowing effortlessly to the infinite ocean. And you are the infinite ocean that is the source of this river flowing effortlessly back to itself. Only your belief in and attachment to the experience of being an independent separate self prevented you from realizing this.
Map of Consciousness – Journey to Awakening
Three Circles of Enlightenment
The World’s Greatest Magic Trick
If you love magic tricks the way I do, you may also be fascinated with figuring them out. How did they do that? Magic tricks are illusions and, if they are done skillfully, they appear absolutely real. I think it is natural to be intrigued with magic tricks because the clever magic tricks professional magicians perform actually point to a much deeper and more fundamental magic trick that is a big part of our every-day life. When we watch stage magicians, even though the illusion appears very real, we know it’s not. That’s the fun of it. If you actually believe the magician pulled a card out of your ear, it wouldn’t be fun at all. You’d probably seek medical attention. But this other illusion I’m thinking of we do believe is real. And that’s where the trouble comes in.
Most magic tricks use distraction as a fundamental tool. While we’re watching the right hand, the left hand is setting up the illusion. And the magic trick that is continually going on in your daily life also uses distraction. You might say both the illusion and the magician is the internal thought of the separate self, what you commonly call I, myself. While your attention is riveted to this thought of me, you’re distracted from seeing what life and reality are constantly showing you – there is no me. There is no separate self.
In this way, you are actually living in this magic trick, this state of perpetual illusion, without even knowing it is a trick of the mind. It feels exactly like reality to you. That’s why I say this is the greatest magic trick there is.
Just as the stage magician has a number of assistants, both seen on stage and behind the scenes, your mind magician also has many assistants. Those assistants – friends, family members, colleagues, teachers, society, language – all reinforce this illusion, which they also believe completely. Without these tireless assistants, the trick would fall apart. The mental distraction alone would not be enough without this constant reinforcement.
Because this particular illusion is nowhere near as much fun as the ones you see in a magic show, and, unlike the magic show, actually create suffering in your life, at some point you develop a strong desire to peek behind the curtain. You begin your spiritual search. You begin doing spiritual practices, like meditation and self-inquiry. And, eventually, if you are diligent and focused, you do get to peek behind the curtain. And you discover that there is no separate self there. There is no separation at all. That was just the smoke and mirrors of distracting and heavily reinforced thoughts.
You may never be able to create a mental concept of what you do find behind that curtain, other than the same analogies and metaphors other finders have used. But these are just pointers. What you discover cannot be described in a language or thought that is incapable of describing it. But it doesn’t matter. You are free. You have discovered the greatest magic trick of all time. You’ve broken through the wall of illusion and the sun of reality is shinning brightly.
Is it surprising you want to tell others about it?
Effortless Meditation
In previous stages of awakening consciousness, we spent a lot of time and effort in our spiritual practices. We developed discipline. We began to meditate regularly and incorporated meditation into our life. We learned to focus our attention and witness our thoughts. We abandoned interests detrimental to our spiritual growth and picked up new interests and friends that encouraged it.
All this effort paid off. We experienced moments of great freedom, peace, love and bliss. They may not have lasted long, but we definitely experienced them. It was proof that we were making progress.
Now that we are in the fourth stage of awakening, it is time to draw your attention to something very important. Think very carefully about these questions. What was the cause of these transcendent experiences? How did they come about? Yes, all that effort and time spent meditating and doing self-inquiry and other practices helped. They were like plowing a field before planting your crops. But what was the actual cause? This is very important.
If you look carefully, you will see that the actual cause was nothing. It took no effort at all for these deep experiences to happen. In fact, it was the opposite of effort. It was the relaxation of all effort, of all doing, of all your thoughts and beliefs that allowed these experiences to naturally arise by themselves. Freedom, peace, love and bliss are all experiences of your natural True Nature. There is nothing you can do to attain them. They are already always here. It is the relaxation of your efforting and of your conditioned resistance to your Natural Self that allows your Natural Self to shine through. And this is wonderful.
First Make Effort to Realize No Effort
Because of all our conditioning, great effort may indeed be necessary in the beginning to reach this stage of no-effort. But now is the time when this can become clear. All the efforts you have done in the beginning are a subtle mind-set that is telling you you are not already here. You are not already your True Self. There is still something to gain, something to attain. That was necessary in the beginning to create the discipline, the focus, the concentration to realize what has always been here. If you heard this too early, you would simply lie on the couch, crack open a beer and watch television. You would completely waste your precious life. Now the fruits of all that effort have ripened. Now is the time to taste this precious fruit.
Do Not Struggle
Do not try to make these short moments of Awakened Mind longer than they are. Do not wish a previous moment of Open Awareness will return. These are just thoughts telling you that your True Self is not here right now no matter what you are experiencing. Whenever possible simply fall effortlessly into the great space of Awakened Mind. This happens as soon you relax your thoughts and let go of resistance. It is always here, so simply by relaxing your thoughts, which are the only things keeping you from experiencing what you are, brings you home. At first these short moments may only last for a few seconds. This is perfect. Don’t worry if thoughts immediately return and distract you. This is normal. Just relax again and repeat. The more you taste the unlimited expanse and freedom of your True Self, the more you will gladly return to it by simply relaxing your thoughts in these short moments.
Don’t make a big deal out of it. It’s not a big deal. Yes, it feels wonderful, but it’s simply what you are. The more you relax your thoughts and fall into this infinite spaciousness, the more you will realize this.
Short moments of Awakened Mind lead you to longer moments. And these longer moments lead you to continuous realization. It all happens naturally and effortlessly. Don’t push it. Don’t wish for longer moments. Simply accept what is in each moment. Welcome to effortless meditation. Isn’t it wonderful. It probably wouldn’t have happened, or at least not with this continuity or reliability, if you hadn’t put in all that effort to create a foundation for it. But you have. So now enjoy the fruits.
The Map of Awakening Consciousness
Stage 4 – True Love and Something More
The Self That Seeks Awakening
A recent post in praise of the ego was a wonderful reminder of something more subtle on the spiritual path. Although far more subtle, even our search for enlightenment and awakening can, and often does, have a self-serving mind state. “I want to awaken because I will be happier.” “I will have less suffering.” “I will be more special than those who are not awake.” “I can become a spiritual teacher.” There are many variations of this self serving approach. It is as if we expect the ego itself to awaken and become a better, more enlightened ego.
And there is much spiritual teaching that caters to and encourages this. We might call it “the enlightened self” or the “divine self”. And this is not bad or good. It may be a useful transition. When we realize that even the very best, most enlightened and most divine self cannot give us the peace, happiness and love we are searching for, we can begin to see through the dream completely.
It is natural for this self-serving to appear on the beginning of our journey. But, at some point, we realize this self-centered approach cannot get us very far. It is like a dog chasing its own tail. No matter how much effort we expend, we just end up going in circles.
Awakening is not for the ego; it is from the ego. It is a complete relaxation of all identification with this thought-based sense of a separate self. Because we have been so conditioned to believe this experience of a separate self is real, the undoing of this belief is not always so simple. This is what spiritual practice is for. We are not adding anything. We are simply removing conditioned illusions we have believed our entire life. We have been programmed. Spiritual practice is de-programming. It is not substituting a new and better belief. It is shedding all beliefs, so truth can be realized as itself in each moment.
There is nothing wrong with the ego or any illusionary thought. They are simply thoughts. It is only our belief in them as reality, our identification and our attachment that creates so much mischief and suffering in our lives.
To experience truth, simply relax all thoughts, all beliefs. Relax into what is always here. No thought, no belief, no ego, no separate self, no matter how “enlightened” or “divine”, can ever give you This. And when you do this, you won’t worry about the ego or the “enlightened” or “divine” self any longer. You will find something much more. And you will find that you and everything that exists have never, ever been separate from This. It is not your ego that has awakened. It it not your separate self that has come Home. It is you. And this you cannot even be imagined.
Awakened Mind
In Zen, we use the words Big Mind or Buddha Mind. In non-dual teaching we may call this Pure Consciousness or Pure Awareness. Both refer to the same Awakened Mind.Big Mind or Awakened Mind is different from small mind. Small mind is simply the mind involved in thoughts, attached to thoughts, addicted to thoughts and living in thoughts. We could also call this thought-mind.
If you want to experience Awakened Mind, simply stop thinking for a moment. Stop focusing on your thinking. Stop giving thinking any attention. Because of our strong thinking habits, we will only be capable of doing this for a very short time at first. But here it is. In the space between thoughts, we discover this Big Mind, this Awakened Mind.
We may call this Big Mind, because it is infinitely large. It has no limits and no beginning nor end. We may not realize this in our first brief experience of freedom from indulgence in thinking mind. That’s okay. It’s perfect. Awakened Mind is infinite so there is no end to our experience of it. Simply continue these brief moments of focusing on the space between thoughts and Awakened Mind will become clear.
Over time, over these brief moments of freedom from the world of thinking, the realization of Awakened Mind will unfold. We will come to realize that Awakened Mind is always here. It is here in this space between thoughts. And it is here during thoughts. It is here when we are happy and when we are sad. There is no time, nor has there ever been any time, when Awakened Mind has not been here.
As we sink deeper into this experience, this realization of Awakened Mind, we realize that this is truly what we are and have always been. Previously we may have been convinced we were a series of thoughts, feelings, experiences or sensations we called me. But now we know these were just thoughts, feelings, experiences and sensations. Now we realize that we are the infinite space that all of this appears in. We realize that all things also must be this same Awakened Mind, all thoughts, all feelings, all senses, all perceptions. all people, all things. Nothing can ever be outside of this Awakened Mind. It is that Big.
Although no thought can be separate from Awakened Mind, Awakened Mind is never affected by any thought. It neither rejects nor attaches to any thought. Awakened Mind is like space. Everything appears in space, but space is never affected nor changed by anything that appears in it.
Realizing this Awakened Mind is very simple. Do not try to understand it or anything written here with the thought-mind. Simply relax the thought-mind for a moment. In this space between thoughts, no matter how brief this may be, here shines Awakened Mind. As you continue these short moments of directly experiencing Awakened Mind, you will naturally spend longer periods of time in this realization. It is too wonderful not to. As you do this, you will come to realize that Awakened Mind is always here. No matter how busy the mind of thoughts may be, Awakened Mind is always here. No thoughts nor anything else can be separate from Awakened Mind. It is the Source of everything we think, feel, sense or perceive. As these short moments grow, you will realize yourself as this same Awakened Mind.