Buddha taught that there was suffering and liberation from suffering. This video shows you exactly what that liberation is. All of our lives it has been staring us in the face. Life has never hidden this from us. May this video bring you the clarity you need to finally be free from suffering.
Take Off the Thought Filters
A beautiful, short (only 3 minutes) video showing how our thoughts and beliefs filter and distort the world as it really is. When we believe our thoughts are real, we see a thought world, not the real world. But there is something we can do about that.
Map of Consciousness – Introduction
Introduction to the Map
If we are to set out on a journey, it’s a good idea to have a map of where we want to go. If it is a new journey, there are places on the map we have not yet discovered. These places are completely unknown to us. Friends may have described some of these places, but all we really know is that they sound interesting and seem worth directly experiencing. Other places on the map we know pretty well. We’ve spent some time there. And still other places we have only briefly glimpsed through the car window as we passed by.
This map of consciousness is like this. Some places you are very familiar with. It is where you live or where you have lived before you moved on to this new place. Some places you have just had short glimpses of. And other places you have not yet experienced at all.
On our spiritual journey it is important to know where we are and where we used to be. Where we used to be is the state of consciousness we transcended to get to the state of consciousness we live in now. Where we are is the state of consciousness we live in now. There are also states of consciousness we have had brief glimpses of in meditation, on retreats, while reading a spiritual book or just in daily life. These are brief glimpses of a higher state of consciousness but they have not yet become the state of consciousness we live in. And then there are still higher states of consciousness we have not yet experienced at all.
This map is useful to show us where we are, where we have been and where we are going. States of consciousness are more dynamic than physical places on a map. But even so, a map can be useful.
It should be obvious that we can only describe where we are and where we have been. Where we have yet to be we cannot describe, just as on a physical map. We can describe the brief glimpses we had through the car windows in passing, but these will be limited and superficial. We’re actually pretty good at describing and understanding where we used to be from the higher vantage point of where we are now. We’re actually not that good at describing and understanding where we are now when it comes to consciousness. And we’re much less capable of understanding those brief glimpses. Limited as it is, this makes a map, created by one who has been down this same path a little further than you have, quite useful.
Don’t think of these as hierarchies or any form of judgments. Higher and lower are just words. To the awakened mind, they have no meaning. I use the words higher or lower because it makes it easier to understand. At some point in consciousness, the meaning of language falls away. Certainly in Oneness, all hierarchies must dissolve.
Wherever you are on this Map of Consciousness, think of it simply as where you are without any judgment about it. If you wanted to travel to a location one hundred miles from where you currently are, you would not condemn yourself for being one hundred miles away. After you traveled fifty miles, you would not condemn yourself for being fifty miles away nor feel special because you were fifty miles closer. You would simply be wherever you are at that particular point in time. And so it is with this map. You have a destination and right now you are at a certain location moving toward it. That is all.
You Are Already at the Final Destination
And here’s something very important to realize. You are already at the highest state of consciousness. In fact, you are this highest state of consciousness. This is what you truly are, your True Self, although you may not be aware of it yet. And that’s what the map is for, to show you what you already are but simply are not consciously aware of yet. The truth is you are already at the final destination. The map is just one of several tools to help you realize this. Even this map cannot show you what the final destination actually is if there even is one. Like all journeys, the spiritual journey is an ongoing process that has no end.
You can view this map in two ways. You can see it from Stage One, Pure Instinct, to Stage Seven, Pure Consciousness / Oneness, as the progression you are taking to realize what you truly are. Or you can view it from Stage Seven to Stage One to begin with what you truly are and see the various stages that obscure this but are always included in it. Look for where you currently are on this map and where you have already been. It will be easy to see where you are because where you have been will be very clear. Where you are may be a little less clear. We always see the previous stage in our evolution with more clarity than the stage we are on. Also notice the stages you have had brief glimpses of from time to time but do not live at yet. Everything comes from pure consciousness, so it is natural to have glimpses of higher stages of consciousness even though that is not your normal day-to-day experience. These brief glimpses show you where you are heading.
At each higher level of consciousness you will experience greater freedom, spaciousness, inner silence and stillness, peace, love leading to unconditional love and happiness leading eventually to bliss. Each higher level of consciousness comes from surrendering the limitations and restrictions of the current level of consciousness. The path of awakening is a continuous letting go. Beginning in Stage Two, Consciousness as Ego, specific meditation practices help us move to the next stage. By Stage Four, Consciousness as Love / Something More, meditation becomes a natural part of living rather than something we do. It becomes more of our natural state.
The Gap – An Advanced Meditation Practice
At the later stages of awakening, when you have become freer of attachment to thoughts and stories, there is another practice that will become available to you.
When you awaken from deep sleep in the morning, there is a gap between the experience of no stories in deep sleep and the recurring stories you create in the waking dream. In earlier stages of Consciousness, you probably didn’t notice this gap. It just appeared that you woke up to who you are and what the world is, same as always.
But, as you become freer of your attachment and belief in these stories, you may begin to notice this gap. The practice is simply to stay here. Just don’t let the recurring stories of the waking dream in yet. In this way, you continue the thought-less, story-less, free experience of deep sleep into your waking experience.
Keep your eyes closed at first. The eyes often trigger the stories of the world and self more than the other senses. Notice the experience of freedom and bliss here in this gap, no thoughts, no stories, just great freedom and bliss.
As you sink deeper into this story-less bliss and stabilize here, open your eyes. What do you see? Everything is completely new. It is the same ceiling, the same room, the same walls, windows and pictures. And yet you have never seen them before. They are completely new. Without a story, everything is always completely new in each moment. It’s beautiful, isn’t it? You are seeing this world without a story about it.
If you like, practice this gap meditation every morning. Begin with brief five or ten minutes. You may like to increase this to an hour or more if you have the time. Or simply get up an hour earlier if that’s convenient. I usually begin my day with two hours of this gap meditation if I don’t have a particularly early appointment. It’s just too beautiful not to. Deep sleep has already started it. Why not continue it for a while when you are fully conscious? It’s a wonderful way to start your day.
At first it will be a little challenging to function in this way more than simply continuing to lie in bed. You won’t really feel any motivation to do anything else without a story other than just lie here in this great bliss. It is very much like Samadhi. The only difference is you’re lying down instead of sitting. But eventually you realize you can get out of bed, walk around, even make breakfast and begin your day. You will realize how many things trigger a story. You’ve lived your entire life as a story so this shouldn’t be a surprise. But at this stage of your awakening and freedom from stories, you now know what to do about this. You simply let the story go and return to this story-less state of presence, freedom and bliss.
Not knowing is a helpful part of this practice. It is natural. Without a story you know nothing. You have nothing to know. Knowing anything was always just another story. You only knew a story. So recognizing that you don’t know anything cancels out any stories that might arise.
Welcome to a life free of stories. Enjoy this great presence, freedom and bliss.
To see the entire Map of Consciousness – the Journey to Awakening click here.
Return to Truth
We have many reasons for embarking on a spiritual path. To feel happier and more peaceful. To fit in with a group of like-minded people. To escape from suffering. But eventually we discover a deeper search, the search for Truth. At this point our spiritual search becomes real.
To begin our search for Truth we can and should begin with what we can simply say is undeniable. We quickly notice that most of our thoughts and beliefs are only relatively true. In different circumstances and perspectives the opposite can be seen to be just as true. This is why we call them relative truths. Byron Katie’s The Work is a good way to discover this.
Right now you are reading these words. We don’t need to examine the very nature and truthfulness of language quite yet. There are words on a screen and you are reading them. You are translating these symbols into meaning. Good so far?
In order for this to happen there must be the words, the screen and the one who is reading them, you. This you has eyes to see the words, a brain to translate the images into words and meaning, past experience of learning the language (how to translate these symbols into meaning). This you also has past experiences that brought you to this page and this post. With me so far?
These all may seem true and obvious but they are still flickering around the superficial edges of truth. Now we’re going to go a little deeper.
What we neglected to consider in the above paragraphs is consciousness. In order for us to perceive these words there must be a consciousness to be aware of them. Without this awareness, we could not be aware of these words. Let this sink in for a bit.
Without consciousness you could not be aware of these words you are reading right now. You might say that without consciousness these words could not exist. Certainly you could not be aware of them without this awareness itself.
In fact, without consciousness you could not be aware of the screen you are reading these words on. Isn’t this so? Let’s go a step further. Without consciousness you would not be aware of the you that is reading these words. Yes, without consciousness, you would not even be aware of you. Let this sink in for a bit.
Without consciousness this entire process of reading could not exist. Without consciousness you, the reader, could not exist. So consciousness is pretty essential to this whole thing, wouldn’t you agree? Yet it’s something we don’t usually consider at all. Our focus is fixed on what consciousness is aware of, not consciousness itself.
Perhaps this is changing for you right now. Perhaps your attention is moving to the consciousness that is aware of all of this. Aware of these words and aware of what is reading these words.
What you are doing is dropping your attention back to a more fundamental truth than you are usually focused on. You are returning to something that is always here but usually unnoticed and unconsidered.
Without consciousness none of this could exist. Not even you.
Lets just imagine that I wrote these words you’re reading right now in a private diary that I refused to share with anyone. They are not on your screen. Your eyes cannot see them. Your brain cannot translate them. But since they exist in my private diary that only my eyes can see, consciousness is aware of them. And consciousness itself is not personal. It is universal, unlimited, infinite and eternal. You may think of this consciousness that is aware of these words and the one reading them as your personal consciousness. And this is partially true or relatively true. Consciousness can appear as a more limited personal consciousness, just as it can appear as an even more limited personal self, body/mind. But in actual Truth it is not personal. So consciousness is aware of these words even if they were only written in a private diary and only seen by me. And without your personal self or even personal consciousness being aware of it, you are also aware of these words written in a private diary and only seen by my particular eyes.
That might be a bit much for the mind to take in right now. You may have to surrender even deeper beyond the mind, beyond even personal consciousness to experience this.
We may be fortunate to know some people who call themselves psychics. We are amazed at their ability to know intimate details in the lives of complete strangers, including names, dates, events, etc. With professional psychics appearing on stage we may think this is some kind of trick. And often it is. But with people we know, we realize a trick cannot explain what is happening. So what is really happening here?
Consciousness is not personal. It is universal. If you can tap into or simply return to this impersonal, universal consciousness, things are known or accessed beyond what the personal self or personal consciousness knows. As you can imagine, the personal self, body/mind, is not capable of absorbing the totality of universal consciousness all at one time. It just can’t work that way. You can’t squeeze the unlimited into the limited. The box is much too small. In dropping back into this state of universal consciousness it is all here but it is untranslatable by the body/mind. In the case of psychics and healers, what is needed, some tiny limited bit of the unlimited, is accessed.
What is necessary to be aware of anything in our life is consciousness. And this consciousness is more than simply personal consciousness. This consciousness is aware of both the personal consciousness and the personal body/mind self. Neither of these could exist without consciousness itself. If we want to truly discover what we are, which is the greatest Truth we can discover in this human life, here is a good place to explore.
Even now, simply be aware that none of this could exist, these words, your reading of them and you, without consciousness. For a moment focus on the consciousness itself that is aware of these word, the reading of them and the one who is reading them. Drop back to this fundamental Truth and spend some time here. It’s very enjoyable isn’t it? You may want to close your eyes and be aware of the eyes and the one who is closing the eyes, and any thoughts that arise and then return your attention to what is aware of all this. Rest here. Rest in this awareness. This is a return to Truth.
The Deepest Realization
The deepest spiritual realization cannot be transmitted or communicated through words alone. It takes direct experience. May this video help give you this direct experience. This is probably the most profound video that has come through me so far. May you experience this direct experience of Oneness.
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