Awakening to the truth of your “being nature”, and understanding the dynamics of your “human nature”, is all part of phase 2, where you are deepening in the true understanding of all your aspects. However, unless you realize that in the end all the “understanding” is essentially so you can let go of trying to control your life, through mind’s limited intelligence, and trust the force of your life stream to take charge, you may end up becoming a “pundit” (a scholar) who knows a lot about the swimming pool but has never really dived into it.
The difference between awakening to the truth of life (phase 2) and letting go into your life stream (phase 3) is like understanding the make-up of an ice-cream and actually eating it. No matter how intelligently you understand how an ice-cream tastes like, you cannot know what it really tastes like until you eat it – so awakening to the truth of your wholeness is the starting point, but if it’s not followed up by actually letting go into your wholeness, you remain a prisoner to concepts, without ever “realizing”, in experience, the freedom that you so deeply “understand”.
What exactly does letting go really mean?
In your heart, you know exactly what “letting go” means, and yet the mind wants to keep asking questions about it mostly because it doesn’t really trust this place of surrender. The pointer to “let go” is for that part of your awareness that’s stuck in the mind, clinging to it, in a false assumption that the human mind has the answers to your problems. No wonder your mind is so full of fear, because you’ve bestowed upon it a responsibility which it does not have the “capacity”, or resources, to fulfill – you asking your mind to take charge of your life, with its limited external conditioning, using its limited intelligence and vision, is like asking a 10 year old kid to take charge of a multinational corporation.
The mind can never know the future, it can only make “projections” based on its past. The mind does not have the bigger picture, it can only make assumptions based on its limited vision. The mind has no clue what’s the right decision, it can only make guesses and shoot in the dark. The mind’s intelligence is purely “mechanical” and its job is to take care of “mechanical” chores – like operating a computer, learning a language, keeping events in memory, regulating the body’s processes, recording nerve impulses and sensory inputs etc. It’s basically a “computer” with a certain natural programming in it and with a capacity to be “programmed” through external feedback. As long the mind is used as a “tool” for certain practical purposes its fine, but when you depend on your mind to figure out your life it’s a scary place to be.
When your human consciousness understands that it’s safe to let go of the mind and rest in its wholeness by connecting with the larger consciousness (the space of awareness in which all thoughts arise), it finally relives the mind of this huge burden of “running your life”. A lot of your mind’s CPU (processing) gets freed up as your awareness stop feeding it so much attention, and starts resting in the space of letting go. This allows your mind to come back to its natural movement and this automatically allows the attraction of a reality that feels “congruent” with the natural make-up of your human form (this is basically when you enter phase 4), the beginning of your effortless natural expression.
Letting go happens in layers
It’s extremely rare, or even impossible, for a human to let go of their mind dependence overnight. As awakening, or the understanding, becomes more stable, and deep, in a being there is less and less resistance to letting go as one begins to trust the movement, and intelligence, of their life stream. As you start letting go, you will notice old realities, that are no longer congruent with your aligned vibration, start to crumble. Adyashanti, a renowed spiritual teacher, put it very aptly – “everything that’s not in integrity, will come crumbling down”, and what begins to take root is a new reality that’s congruent with your true nature as this human being. So be willing to allow the deconstruction of your old reality, as phase 3 continues, rest assured that the only realities that will be brought down are realities that have been the cause of your suffering and struggle.
As this process of letting go continues, internally and externally, you notice a congruent reality emerging quite effortlessly. You seem to align with a life that feels most natural to you, which suits your aptitude and inclination as this human mind. You also see yourself becoming a more “authentic” person, where you are no longer pretending to be someone you are not – all your fake personas start dissolving leaving you completely transparent. You start aligning with the natural make-up of your mind, whether it’s dark-natured or light-natured, its expression unfolds in a harmony and wisdom. You will also notice towards the final stages of phase 3 that your movements are free of “resistance” because the momentum of negativity in your mind has faded away in power.
Phase 4 is what I call “effortless existence”, it’s when you have moved to the other side burning through all the layers of resistance. Phase 3 is of course the most challenging phase in this whole journey because of tremendous fear that arises in your human consciousness at the prospect of leaving the “familiar territory” of mind identification and moving into the “unknown” domain of letting go into your life stream. It can also be quite terrifying to venture into this journey without any “assurances”, and all these pointers are so you can feel assured, and trusting, in letting go. Everything I write is from my own personal experience, and hence I can relate to the questions, doubts & fears people have about letting go. I understand it’s a very challenging journey to be on, but I also know that this journey needs to be made to get to the other side of living a life free of inner resistance – and when you are in a state of surrender this whole journey happens quite swiftly.
Some people have a very smooth transition, moving through these phases with ease – they are naturally trusting of life and have a low momentum of past negativity which allows a swift transition to take place. However, a good majority find it very challenging to make it through phase 3, though, when one is “midway” in this phase the rest of the journey is just inevitable because the pull of life becomes too strong to oppose anymore, if you resist from here you just get dragged into freedom.
thanks
Beautiful
Sen, thank you for your inspiring words. I am having some struggle with “letting go” of negativity. I have negative thoughts all the time and I would love to feel care-free and put all this energy into good use instead. How does one “let go”?? How do you escape the negative thoughts? I’ve tried “detaching” myself from my thoughts, and acted as though they are a radio in the background however I do not seem to be improving as I eventually find myself listening and reacting very anxiously to them causing sadness. I feel “trapped” in phases 2- 3 (?) Your insight is much appreciated. thankyou.
I am assuming that you’ve become conscious enough to see that your mind/brain has a movement of its own and you as awareness don’t need to “control” it, rather you just need to allow it while staying in a relaxed state. You need to notice more deeply that the mind’s thoughts are not a problem if you don’t “cling” to them – the mind can produce its thoughts and get its solutions without your interference with it. The body gets moved into action from the intelligence/inspiration of life to get the required things done, with the right timing, on daily basis, don’t worry about becoming a “slacker” when you stop controlling your mind/body. Your mind/body is directly connected to the wholeness of life (or the intelligence of universal consciousness) and thus it’s in good hands, you need to stop worrying about your mind/body and allow it to function in its natural way – your job is just stay as the awareness that you are and allow/enjoy the experience of life as it unfolds. Just imagine that the body is a vehicle, a car, and it’s being driven by life’s intelligence and you can just sit back and enjoy the journey. The more you try to control the mind’s thoughts or to control its expression, the more you stand in resistance to its natural movement. To “let go” is not a technique that you need to practice, but rather it’s a pointer to a “wholistic” way of living where you allow your mind to stay connected with the wholeness of life, and thus be guided by it, instead of trying to “control” its thoughts or movements. All the negativity in the mind will automatically come to rest, if you just allow it the freedom to move without jumping in to “control” it every time it has a anxious thought.
The mind will has some thoughts of contrast (what I call negative thoughts) because it’s naturally analyzing problems in your physical reality and looking for solutions – and its solutions will be effortlessly manifested from the wholeness of life that it’s connected to, the only reason the solutions are delayed is because you are constantly jumping into the mind trying to “figure it out”, thus creating resistance, instead of allowing life’s wholeness to operate in the mind. Just let the mind be, and it will automatically come to a harmony – rest assured it will. Depending on how much negativity is loaded in your brain, owing to several years of unconscious fueling of it through your identification, it will take time for it to ebb away – give yourself at-least a couple of months before you start seeing visible reduction in the intensity of negativity and thus start an inflow of positive shifts in your reality. Don’t try to “perfect” the practice of letting go, or try to detach effortfully from the mind, the pointer is just to “allow” the mind without resisting its movements and to not “cling” to the its thoughts, just stay as an allowing space. Don’t try to shy away from the mind or ignore the mind or push away from it – all these are “fear tactics” which shows you are afraid of the mind, to stay allowing of the mind’s movements is not a place of fear but a place of love.
Dear Sen
I have a few questions regarding the nature of enlightenment:
1. Regarding Phase 2, couldn’t it so happen that people can get this understanding only intellectually
and consider themselves enlightened? I have heard some Masters say that intellectual understanding is
also part of the overall understanding. But how does one know that one truly knows? I read somewhere in
one of your posts that one will know their true being when they realize it. So if this the case then
enlightenment must be something beyond the doubts thrown up by the mind eventhough the mind might not
fully get it. Also, people who are enlightened seem to have had some very profound experiences like
realizing Unitary consciousness (the kind of feeling that there is no seperation between oneself and
others). Also, some realized Masters say that enlightenment is outside the experiencing structure, which
is nothing but a framework of thought.
2. Another point that I have heard some enlightened Masters make is that once one is enlightened, he
will not have any questions regarding the nature of existence, the reason for their existence or the
reason for creation in general, their relationship to God (questions like Who am I, Who is God, What is
my relationship to God, etc). Presence of these questions in the mind seems to indicate that
enlightenment has not yet happened or in other words ignorance is still present. The only questions that
remain for an enlightened one are functional questions like how to acquire the right skills to earn a
livelihood, how to drive a car, etc.
3. Finally, some other talk about the experience of an energy arising from the base of the spine and
travelling along the spine and finally passing through a crown in the head. This is referred to as
Kundalini in Hindu Yogic scriputres. I think the view point is that the ascendancy of the Kundalini from
the base of the spine can happen gradually in steps or all of a sudden in one step. Is this a necessary
experience to have to reach enlightenment?
Thanks!
Sanjay
Enlightenment, as the word describes it, is basically to get enlightened about the truths of existence, which include knowing who you essential are (knowing your formless nature & knowing your physical nature), knowing your potential as a creator and understanding the purpose of life as a movement. Once you’ve truly gained clarity on these three aspects your being (the awareness focused in this body) will not have any “doubts” about its nature and about this play of existence. Different people comes to clarity in different ways, through their own modes of understanding depending on their mental make-up, it doesn’t matter what your mode of understanding is, what matters is that your being (which includes your curious mind) comes to a rest with respect to having doubts about life. Some people want a scientific understanding of life, while some people prefer a spiritual/poetic understanding of life – it depends on your mind make-up altogether, the bottom-line is if your “seeking” has come to an end. It’s a completely “personal” experience. As long as there is an energy of “seeking” within you, this energy will take you in the direction of getting your doubts resolved and it will not come to a rest unless these doubts are resolved.
All of us are on the path of reaching a maturity in the mind, where we feel at peace with ourselves and with life. Each human being is on this path in some way or the other, in different levels of understanding. This seeking often takes the form of “pursuit of happiness”, where we define happiness as a state to be reached or we basically focus on gaining happiness in some way from the outside – so there is a movement of seeking achievements and possessions as a means to attain peace/happiness. Slowly it’s understood that the temporary realm of physicality cannot bring any lasting sense of wholeness – this is usually the starting point for the drive to understand life at a greater depth, the beginning of awakening or the movement towards enlightenment. Once this movement starts, it will come to an end automatically when you have your specific doubts cleared and find rest in your being. Like I said, different people come to a “rest” in their being in their own personal way. Once you start on this journey, it’s totally a personal deal and your unique interrogation of life will bring you to end of this seeking.
Understanding is always “intellectual” because it involves thoughts. Enlightenment is basically “understanding” life, the truth of who you are – so it is an intellectual pursuit where the being seeks to “understand”. However, once you do understand there is a movement to let go into the truth that you understood, this is what allows for “alignment” with who you are. An intellectual understanding is only the first step (what I call phase 2), the second step is to merge with what you understood in a way of an actual “letting go” into it, or an alignment with it (what I call phase 3). When you let go into your wholeness you slowly disperse the negative momentum in the mind, and once its intensity has cleared out, you can function freely in this physical body allowing the manifestation of your desired realities (the movement of phase 4). If you truly have an aligned understanding of the movement of life, you will automatically let go into it. If you have pseudo understanding of life, you only become a “pundit” who expounds spiritual knowledge without ever tasting the wholeness of being. That’s why I always use the term “be authentic with yourself”, because when you are authentic within you will not rest until you taste your wholeness and only then do you know that you have a true understanding of life.
It’s true that once you are free of the influence of the negative momentum of the mind (after you are enlightened and let go of identification with the negative momentum in the mind), you move towards freely enjoying your physical expression (in your job, in your hobbies, in your relationships, in your creative expression per se) because there is no longer a constant resistance to your movement coming from your identification with negativity. You no longer associate anything as “extra ordinary”, no longer associate a “bigness” with anything, rather you sense the ordinariness in all aspects of life, it’s a very grounded and stable experience of life. You can freely be a millionaire (if you desire) without associating anything big with it, or you can live in simpler surroundings if you so desire, nothing seems like a big deal anymore and you are just expressing your natural movement as this physical body, and you sense the simple ordinariness of life in everything.
You can get an understanding (an enlightenment) about the wholeness of your being under the influence of some experience, like the experience of merging that happens sometimes during meditation, or under the influence of a drug (when it diffuses the resistances in you by depressing your nervous system). These experiences can give you a personal realization of your wholeness and once you’ve tasted it you don’t “doubt” its presence. You are bound to have some experiences of this sort (of merging) along this journey of seeking wholeness, because there are moments when your being just goes silent and opens you up to a realization within (as you bring your awareness within). You don’t have to become an “addict” to the experience as some people do, because having these experiences is not what enlightenment is – enlightenment comes from the “understanding” you gain from such an experience, nothing more nothing less. It’s possible to not have any such “spontaneous” experiences, and come to a rest in your being gradually through letting go of momentum of negativity in the mind in a gradual way. The bottom line is to reach a place of wholeness in your being, it’s not about becoming a seeker of mystical experiences (which just keeps you in a cycle of craving).
As you let go of the negative momentum in your energy space, your body automatically comes to a deeper harmony. Sometimes this movement is felt intensely as an energy movement in the body or some part of the body (like the kundalini) or sometimes it’s hardly felt at all (it all depends on how much resistance you had in your being to start with). So different people have different physical experience of this movement of release of resistance or the movement of harmony in the body. Don’t try to “re-create” someone else’s experience, rather just allow your own experience to happen the way it wants to happen.
Hi Sen.
How does one know they are midway through Stage 3? I have been in it for months now and just recently have started to experience a kind of inner peace in me. I have seen through the illusion of my former self. Basically it’s like I am not who I thought I am, but I keep slipping back into the old identity from time to time. This may sound odd, but I have been experiencing a lot of synchronicity in my life as well as very meaningful dreams. There is also this little voice inside of me that knows the answers to all my questions about this. I am sometimes still experiencing some fear and resistance doing my best to allow it to be and not fight like I used to. I think Adyashanti says something about people always worrying it will be stopped, but the life is on an evolving mission so it cannot be. And life doesn’t care what it has to do to wake someone up. I think he calls it fierce grace which i definitely have gone through! Not pretty but necessary I guess.
Thanks
Michelle
Michelle, the state of allowing is all about developing the openness in your being – this openness leads to a true inner freedom to exist as a natural state of being. The attitude required for this openness is to be fearless and unconditional in your allowing of the emotional/mental momentum without any suppression until the momentum runs out. When you sense more spaces/periods of calm and peace in your being, you know you are midway in the process of release – basically you will sense that the mind/emotional momentum is losing its tight grip on you, and is now easier to allow.
Hi Michelle
I take some comfort in your comment here. My partner and I have been going through this process for almost three months now and I can’t yet say that either one of us feel a sense of peace creeping in although the intensity that accompanied the initial month or two seems to be subsiding. I guess both of us have quite an accumulation and resistance in us, and in my case I have had chronic pain on and off for ten years so there’s a lot of physical stuff that’s been happening. You posted this comment about four months ago, how are you feeling these days? I know that my timing and yours will be unique but it is a comfort to know how others are doing.
Thanks
M