Being with the Awake

The most important thing you can do on a spiritual journey is to transcend, to step into samadhi. The most effective way I’ve found for this is an effortless mantra meditation.

In previous articles, I’ve spoken of the importance of Community but I’ve come to see this as more important than I once placed it. Being around others on our spiritual journey helps support us and can help get us out of some of the materialist mindset.

But we also want that Community to include the awake. People who are awake give us a living example to resonate with. I don’t mean their behavior or attitudes but rather their Being. If they are connected deeply enough, they will radiate that. This will enliven our own awakening and help the Self to recognize Itself through us. There is also the “popcorn” effect. If we’re around others who are awakening, it can help us switch too.

Note here that the person does not become enlightened. We simply help support the process. And the best ways we can are direct experience within ourselves and direct experience of living embodiments. Meditation and Darshan.

Being with the awake can include their books, videos, conference calls, satsangs, and retreats. The more live, the more potent the benefit. I don’t know anyone who’s woken through a book or video but they can be helpful. I do know some who’ve woken listening to the awake on conference calls. And many more in person.

It’s notable that the awake tend to congregate because being around others awake amplifies the awakeness. So around the awake, you’ll now often find others awake. This of course makes the effect more potent.

At one time, being with the awake was a difficult thing to accomplish. As little as a decade ago, you’d probably have to go somewhere like an ashram in India. A generation before, you’d probably spend years walking around there, trying to find a suitable example. But now, the awake are showing up all over. And surprisingly large communities are coming together.

The process gets easier and easier. But don’t wait for your train to arrive. This train will come only when we begin the journey ourselves.
Davidya

(had a few days off so managed a couple of articles)

God Realization Plus

I’ve spoken here occasionally about God Realization. I wanted to add some further notes on the subject.

Firstly, it’s good to know that evolution happens both ways – from the outside in and from the inside out. We have a spiritual practice to awaken and Self has a process to wake through us. Put in this context, we go to meet God and God comes out to meet us.

Also, before God Realization, we have to know who we are. Self Realization has to come first. Self awakens to the Self through you. Then God Realization can really begin.

From the inside out, the fullness of Self within begins to overflow, it moves forward and absorbs fine feeling (hence the heart expansion). Then it absorbs mind and thinking, then out into all of our experiences. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi describes the “fullness of Being overflows” into the mind and thinking, then out into the senses. Adyashanti talks of this as absorbing head, heart, and gut.

From the outside in, we experience growing perception of subtler values (energy and light), then the mechanics of creation. At some point, we come to primary principles of nature & the 5 forms of God*. Finally, we come to the finest of the relative. Here we find the interplay of the 3 gunas, the intellect, and, just beyond the intellect, the field of eternal bliss. We have come to the edge of the absolute, what physics calls the event horizon.

This is where God Realization takes place – where the absolute and creation meet. This is where we meet God in earnest, whatever our prior experiences may have been. It doesn’t matter what we believe or don’t believe or what concept we have about any of this. Now it is our direct experience. We can say God becomes self-evident then directly experienced.

A deeply intimate relationship develops, one much closer than anything we’ve ever experienced. God and Self are now as close as the absolute and relative.

Here’s a few quotes from Maharishi from his translation and commentary on the Bhagavad Gita (p 443-7)
“Where perception of everything whatever is perception of Being made manifest”
God Realized, one “moves on earth and lives in the land of God.”
“They share their life with God”
We see God “abiding in all beings”
(his commentary is well worth the read)

Unity
Gradually we surrender more and more to God until we’re so close, there is a unification. Even if we’ve already had the Unity shift (ending the separation of inside and outside), it is not until this stage that the unity can reach any kind of completeness. Everything must join together, including with God, for Totality to be realized.

As we join God, the absolute and relative aspects of life are also joined. Together we contain all.

Its notable here that there is a choice in unification.**
1) Personal
We may take a Personal route and retain a small gap, a Leisha Avidya or remains of ignorance. A small separation to keep the flow of love and devotion to God. We continue to play with God.
or
2) Impersonal
We may choose the Impersonal route, the route of complete Oneness with God. We surrender even our relationship with God. God becomes a part of us and we a part of God.

This choice is between you and God. There is no point in considering advantages of one or another. You’ll know what is best when the choice arrives.

This final step is more than God Realization. Maharishi once called it Unity in God Consciousness. It is the ground of what he later came to call Brahman Consciousness. Back on the Mahavakya page, this article is about Tat Tvam Asi, Thou art That.

This all may seem far out or far off, but it’s really closer to you than the end of your nose. 
Davidya

* The 6 forms of God per Shankara are Nirakar or formless and Pancha Devata or 5 primary forms. How each person experiences them is somewhat unique and dependent on both the person and deva.

**[Update: Note that Personal and Impersonal also apply to our approach to the personal qualities of reality. Broadly, Personal is the more feeling devotional path, Impersonal the intellectual path. Devas vs laws of nature, for example.  In other words, both our approach to reality and our choice of relationship with God can fit in one or other camps. As well, an Impersonal approach does not necessarily mean an Impersonal choice. One may approach intellectually, then melt in the light of God. Or one may approach devotionally and desire a complete merger.