The Awakening Guide: A Companion for the Inward Journey (Companions for the Inward Journey Book 2)

by Bonnie Greenwell

  Whatever arises in you or anyone else is like steam boiling out of a hot springs, simply happening; so there is nothing to resist. This is the way to keep in touch with your awakeness, to rest here and give up all struggle.

  The awakeness in us can relate and respond to these descriptions, because it recognizes Itself whenever it hears Itself speak. That is why many people are so drawn to awakened teachings, even when they do not understand what they are saying. But the thoughts that form our identities cannot understand how life can function without their direction and monitoring.

  Do you ever have dreams of criminals or Nazis running loose and invading your home, stealing your possessions or attacking your loved ones? This is how the mind looks at the world without its controls – it thinks you might commit random acts of great stupidity, even violence, if your judgments and values did not hold you in check. When you hear that some non-dual teachers claim there is nothing wrong, there is no evil, you shudder at the false ideas that might cause someone to break out of his or her civilized conditioning.

  The mind’s goal is to control and to protect your unique separateness from the random or harmful acts of others, even of God, if you believe in God. Entire creeds have been based on appeasing a wrathful God. Minds tend to misunderstand the perceptive qualities and expressions of true nature: if one is actually free of personal drives and ambition and defensiveness there is no impulse to harm another.

  The Role of Spiritual Practice

  Because of the stubbornness of the mind’s tendency to want control, spiritual practices have been invented by enlightened teachers of the past. These practices have great benefit in giving the mind a positive role in awakening, and creating a foundational belief in compassion, kindness, self-discipline, and non-acquiring so that when a person awakens they are already habituated to a positive life. If students do not awaken, they may still become a more positive force in society than they were before developing these perspectives. Unfortunately in the greater society none of these values are truly lived, or there could be no war, no greed and no harsh judgments of others. The admonitions of most spiritual traditions not to kill or steal or to be violent, and the message to love yourself as well as your neighbor, have been entirely ignored by organized religions and governments of every faith, in the great delusion that only their personal faith or system was valid.

  Spiritual practices usually help individuals, one-by-one, break out of the collective mind-sets of their culture and live more closely in line with naturally humane values. That is because these values actually come from the source, are the true nature of the source or the natural inclination of life – to be non-harming and inter-dependent and feel wonder and appreciation for all that is. Dissolution occurs, but it is not wrong or evil, only a natural way in which life renews and regenerates itself. Anyone who is fully awakened is naturally inclined towards these values, although free of any compulsive need to apply them.

  But spiritual practices alone have no guarantee of awakening anyone. That is why most spiritual programs emphasize the role of grace. Awakening is seen as a spontaneous and unpredictable movement that breaks through without warning when the subject is ripe. Since it is obvious that many who have awakened were not those who actually did spiritual practices, it is clear there is no obvious cause and effect, but that awakening is a random event. So how does someone become grace-prone?

  Return again to the stillness, the One that is before the thoughts, the habits, the beliefs, and the practices. Your practices may have made you a better person, even more happy, peaceful, honest and loving. But if they have formed you into a new identity, a spiritual identity, one that prevents you from doing all the bad or impulsive things you might be inclined to do, they are holding you captive as surely as the identity you held before you began your practices. Self-constraint is useful, but it is not self-realization.

  In many ways it takes more courage to abandon the spiritual identity than the less functional and more painful identity you lived before you discovered your mystical potential. People will not do this unless they truly and wholly long for freedom in this lifetime, now. If they are content they will not let go of that which works in their life, and no one can say they ought to. A sudden breech in their faith, even the betrayal of a teacher, can shift them out of the system and down into the fathoms of no-self that can bring them freedom. But often it is the recognition that something is still not finished, there must be something more, and the realization that the next mystical experience is not going to be it!

  The opportunity here is to consider that which is prior to experience, that which is awake before, during and after experience, and explore living silently in the not-knowing of what will happen next. What will you find here? Presence has no conditions and no requirements. It is so available, and so simple, that most people move through it rapidly even when it is obviously felt, as in a moment of great awe, surprise or intimacy, when everything but that moment drops away. Until we learn to hold steady, right here, the mind will continually spin us in new directions. The mind is like a machine, forever grinding out options, divisions, distractions, judgments, and points of view. It believes you will not be able to function if you truly allow yourself to drop into the unknown.

  Once a person has touched this presence, fallen into its depths and known the spontaneous love and wisdom that can emerge, a great unraveling of old patterns and habits will occur. This may happen as reactivity to another person, memories, even horrific visions and impulses. Compensatory attitudes may arise (compensating for prior feelings of inferiority or superiority) in the form of arrogance and inflation, or dejection and worthlessness. Many people are sucked back in and feel they have failed at a golden opportunity, because here they are in negativity again. They begin struggling against themselves, filled with self-doubt, judgments, disappointment and fear. Why would such things arise in the mind or heart of an awakened spirit?

  The Release of Conditioning

  This reviewing and releasing is a universal process, a collective process, an act of the deeper wisdom essential for clearing out conditions that will arise again and again as future lives, if they are not seen through as illusionary mental states (thoughts).

  Someone who has awakened is living partially in the collective mind, doing work for the whole. We begin by seeing through all the thoughts carried in our personal systems and genetic lineage that are now irrelevant, unnecessary and even at times destructive to our self and others. If they arise and we do not identify with them, they can disintegrate and return to the ethers from which they emerged as thought forms. They have no function if we are unwilling to claim them. We do not act on them or reject them, we simply see through them as part of the invisible world of thought.

  You are right here, right now, and nothing is wrong, but a thought may come by that you are worthless, or did something foolish or unforgivable at an earlier stage of life. (Thoughts that are common are similar to: “I was a bad parent”; “I stole money”; “I beat up someone”; “I treated a lover with contempt”; “No one loves me”; “I am worthless”, “I contributed in some way to my parent’s divorce or even their death.”) In this moment you are doing nothing wrong, simply sitting, and the thought is churning great angst, misery and despair. These thoughts are your backpack full of history, much of which is built on your innocence, ignorance and error.

  What would be the point of awakening someone who was already perfect? It is not the angels who deserve awakening; it is those who are ready to see the truth and end the painful patterns in their history. The value of awakening, beyond the personal opportunity of feeling happy, is that it clears out the darkness in one being, or one lineage, so that it doesn’t have to return again to the planet or the mind-space we all share. That is why the Buddha said that when he awakened, the world awakened.

  Once I sat for a few hours in Vasisthagupta in India, a deep and dark cave in the Himalayas near where the Ganges flowed by peacefully. I was deeply lost in inner
space. This is said to be the place where the great Rishi, Vasistha, lived thousands of years ago. A voice came to me, playing at the back of my head like a tape-recorder. It said, “This earth is the water-purifying element of the universe. Darkness comes here to be cleared out so that it does not have to function in other places. We have all chosen to be part of this purifying process for the good of the whole. Each person who suffers pain does so for the rest of us, clearing that piece of samscara (conditioning) or karma for all time.” This was a startling thought, one I never would have conceived on my own. But I now often see this dynamic in those who are awakening: when that which arises can be met and accepted with equanimity, and made irrelevant with dispassion, it loses its power to impact the individual and the future.

  Doing it NOW

  One of the most useful things my teacher Adyashanti has said to me, is that what is done in this moment, now, is the only thing that can have any impact on the next moment. Thinking, planning, and maneuvering – all these activities of mind often cloud our capacity to move with intuitive wisdom and freedom. Presence includes the ability to see past and future worries, regrets and thoughts, as insubstantial and not part of our true nature. To identify with them would be like the entire sky identifying with one dark cloud. Yes, there may have been a mistake made out of the ignorance about your true nature, a miss-step because you did not know what you truly are.

  When you wake up you no longer tend to wallow in the quicksand of the mind, but are propelled into the spaciousness that simply observes it is there. You do not have to object to it, you only have to avoid stepping into it. Buddhists call this spaciousness of mind the clear mind. It is the stillness, clarity and eternal vastness that contain all activity. This is our true nature.

  In practical terms, you probably will step in the quicksand of your conditioning a few, or a few thousand times, before you notice the gap can be closed, and you can simply rest in presence. At first you notice you fell in after you are out of it, and you wonder what happened. Then you notice when you are in it, and grab the nearest branch waving in the space about you and pull yourself out. Then finally, you just notice it is there, but don’t step in. And someday, it stops appearing because it is so irrelevant it has become obsolete. Evolution has occurred.

  It may seem that if you stop falling into the problems of your personal life, and have nothing to think about, you will have nothing to do. But what actually happens is that enormous psychic energy is freed.

  When the unknown is nothing to fear and simply the status of being alive, each day can be an adventure, and the restraints that keep you from following the heart are torn away. Quietness and natural beauty are to be enjoyed, and each according to his or her measure is moved to engage, to create, to enjoy or to deeply experience whatever is happening in the moment.

  There is no set pattern in an awakened life, so it is useless to place an expectation that you will live like anyone else. There is only a flow, and a deep relaxation into it. When the flow and relaxation dim, it is easy to see the mind is pulling you into past or future, filling up the backpack one more time. All we can do is accept, accept, accept! ”Oh there is that part of the little me again. What does it want me to see now?”

  But we do not need to activate a self-improvement course to rid ourselves of every little part of us. We may be inclined to make some adjustments, or we may play out the harmless uniqueness of our lives. I know spiritually enlightened people who enjoy playing poker, going to the theater, running organizations, pursuing science, creating art or inspired music, and living out many aspects of their personal humanness. This awakeness is the Source living through us – it is good to let it enjoy the experiences that seem natural to it. An awakened life is not an empty life, it is the emptiness (vastness) itself enjoying life as it unfolds.

  Chapter 5

  Portals to Awakening

  The problem most of us have is that we know too much! Our minds are like computers that are flooded with data, concepts, points of view, memories, and even huge amounts of images and dialogues that are personally useless, gathered from the numerous courses we take, television shows or films we watch, and books we read. It is astonishing how well the brain can organize and store the data without any direct intervention on our part.

  Having so much information allows us to dredge up an opinion on practically anything if it is called for, even on topics we have very little interest in. It colors how we perceive and interpret the events of our lives. Those who have followed spiritual studies or paths for a long time have also acquired many spiritual theories, positions and conclusions along the way. So it is natural we would believe we could educate ourselves into a spiritual awakening. But unfortunately, it doesn’t really happen through what we know, but more often through the willingness to discover the part of us that knows nothing.

  Some scientists have pursued the source of spiritual experiences by studying the brain or the body chemistry during altered states. A few have described correlations, although they are never able to offer a true definition of the territory. It is like saying, “When your body/mind gets to China, this is what it will be doing to adapt there.” This might tell you something about the body, but offers very little about China.

  Some researchers have used biofeedback equipment to entrain the mind into brain-wave states that are receptive to transpersonal experiences. Occasionally a vision, or an inner sound, or a state of stillness may erupt during such sessions, suggesting there is an interruption or shifting of thought patterns, just as in sleep, that promotes non-ordinary experiences. These explorations may suggest how the brain can be receptive to spiritual experience, but again, they do not tell us why any particular experience would arise. They take us to the edge of mystical experience or cosmic consciousness, but cannot interpret the views. Knowledge can only go so far.

  It is not surprising that there are chemical or brain patterns that change prior to or during a spiritual process because this would be a logical explanation for the effectiveness of meditation and energy practices in changing personalities, and creating a readiness for spiritual realization. While the subtle body is doing its work on the invisible level, its impact clearly marks the physical form. People who have meditated for a long time usually note a more stable sense of center and a feeling of interior calm, and most would say these practices greatly improved their functioning in life and their health. This is a common response to meditation, and is the reason it is often used with people who have had stress-related illnesses, such as heart problems, or high blood pressure.

  The majority of people who meditate may feel much better, but do not go on to have a direct experience of self-realization. They may find themselves doing some spontaneous psychological or emotional unloading, and releasing some negative behavior patterns. This does not necessarily lead to a deep awakening, but rather a positive reorganization of how they live.

  Since it seems to be the case in all spiritual traditions that even when thousands of people follow them, only a few ripen into enlightenment, we might wonder if there is any better way to support a longing for awakening that increases the chances of falling into it. Is it preordained by prior lives, as some traditions say? Or could it be a spontaneous gift of grace? Do we have to give up our lives and live in the woods as some ancient sages have done? Do we have to be brilliant, or more simple, or free of all desires? Spiritual seekers have fallen at the feet of many varieties of teachers in hopes they had the answer to how to do it.

  This is a mystery. It is the greatest mystery of a human life. It is ironic. We are only seeking that which we already are. Not a few seekers have laughed hysterically when they came to the end of the road, and realized what they had sought was present in them all along. Others have wept with joy and relief. If the answer is so close to us, why is it so hard to find? Generally speaking, it is because we are looking in the wrong place.

  No one can offer you a guarantee of enlightenment, no matter what they teach. This is a journey th
at may be inspired or supported by a teacher, but ultimately, just like death, to complete it we must make it on our own. Here are a few of the guidelines that may take you to the portal that will open you to Truth, but you will need to make them yours in your own personal way.

  Preparation

  If you have a deep longing to know God, or Truth, or the source of life, and this is the most important thing in your life, or you know it is one thing you would grieve if you did not find it in this life, then you are prepared.

  Most spiritual traditions spend many years training people to discipline their lives, open their hearts, let go of their rigidity, surrender their wills, or understand spiritual concepts. Some of these efforts are good preparations for coping with the deconstruction that accompanies a spiritual awakening, but they are not in themselves enough to bring most people to the threshold of Truth. The greatest preparation is in the strength of intention, or heartfelt longing, which is really consciousness, and not mind, longing to remember its source. Ask yourself where that longing comes from? Follow the sensation to its Source.

  Some people believe they must deny their life, give up their families, and withdraw from society in order to have a true spiritual life. While it is true that all the distractions of civilization can keep the mind too preoccupied for useful spiritual practice, it is much more helpful for spiritual seekers to clarify their personal priorities and acknowledge them, than it is to reject life. They will then find a way to bring quiet time into the day, and create authentic relationships, seeking spiritual friends, companions and teachers who are supportive of their longing for Truth. The best preparation is a healthy life, free of over-indulgence and self-negation, open to what is unfolding, and balanced in such a way that there is time for inner work.