I call this the age of awakening because it’s very evident that a lot people are ready to wake up from unconscious living, to move into a new way of living which can be called conscious living or aligned living or enlightened living (the labels don’t matter, as long as they help as pointers). The term enlightenment gets thrown around so much that it’s easy to lose an understanding of what it really means. It’s possible that “seeking enlightenment” can itself become an identity in you that you get identified with, and hence keep yourself anchored in it, thus defeating the very purpose of the seeking, which was to take you to a place of freedom.
Most people who are seeking enlightenment have an idea that the culmination of this process would result in them reaching a place of wholeness – but this wholeness can only be truly known when one gets there, till then your mind can have umpteen amounts of imaginations, and fantasies, about what this “wholeness” is all about. The truth is that this “wholeness” is nothing like what you imagine it to be, its way more ordinary than your mind can ever imagine – it’s a place where you are in balance, where you are clear-minded, in a stability, when you are no longer in resistance, neither are you in an “obsessive identification”, with any dimensions in your mind (discussed in the post – 6 dimensions of the mind). Finally, it’s just a state of truly allowing your natural way of being as this human form that you are, this how you start living out your natural expression, living in tune with who you are, and this is what makes you feel whole. This is what enlightened living is all about.
Any extra-ordinary state of bliss that you experience is basically just that “an extra-ordinary state of bliss”, it’s just an experience, it’s not what “wholeness” is about. Wholeness, as defined by the very term, means that it “encompasses” everything without rejecting anything, this what true wholeness is – but when you start seeking “bliss”, you are already rejecting the “sadness”, so there is very little hope that you will enter get to wholeness through such a seeking. Seeking mystical experiences, trance inducing meditations, faith systems, spiritual intoxication can all be great experiences, but none of this has anything to do with being enlightened about your natural expression, and hence they just become “thrill” inducing mechanisms, no different from drugs, that basically just keep you in a place of seeking experiences rather than getting to a place of alignment with yourself. Until you are aligned with your physical self you are not going to feel whole, and the only way you can get aligned with your physical nature is by understanding it first, and then moving into alignment with it in a conscious way.
Be clear about what enlightenment really means
Enlightenment simply means to have the right “understanding” that’s required for you to finally let go of all the incongruent movements in you and come into an alignment with your natural expression in your physical life, thus aligning with your life-stream. Conscious living or enlightened living just means to be living in alignment with “your” life-stream. Your life-stream is unique to you, so you need to align with your own uniqueness in order to align with your life-stream. So you cannot try to copy someone else and hope to reach a place of alignment, or enlightened living.
To have an understanding of your “non-physical” nature, as this life energy, is only so that you can bring an unconditional awareness to your mind as it is, instead of forcing it to be otherwise – this is the beginning of conscious living because now you are finally willing to align with all the dimensions in your mind, and thus move towards living out your “natural” expression as this human being that you are presently. In a simple sense, your mind needs to align with itself, with all its “dimensions”, so that it can allow its natural expression to unfold.
The only organ in you that needs “understanding” is your brain/mind, nothing else needs any understanding. Your heart does not want to understand anything, your liver and your lungs are not asking any questions, your eyes or ears don’t want any understanding – the only organ, in you, that wants understanding is your “brain”. So basically it’s the brain that starts seeking enlightenment in its quest to understand this realm of physical existence, mostly because it feels fearful, confused and almost terrified by the very prospect of handling life. It just wants to know what’s the way to be free of suffering, how to live a good life, how to be free of this stagnation, how to be free of all this emotional pain, how to be clear minded – these are the questions which drive the brain to start seeking enlightenment or the quest for knowing the truth of life.
Since it’s the brain that started the seeking, it’s only the brain that can come to an end of this seeking, and the only way it can ever come to an end of this seeking is when it gets the right answers, the right understanding. However, it’s very easy for the brain to be mislead, especially due to “misunderstanding” pointers, but mostly because of it’s own unwillingness to really keep an open mind, and try to understand life scientifically instead of just getting into a “cult” or a religion, or a belief system, or guru worship, or some meditation technique, or some mystical pursuits – all these can just become distractions, and sleep overs, and keep you from really living your natural expression.
Are you willing to align with yourself as you really are?
In the end, the real questions is – do you want to keep running away from yourself, or have you reached a point where you are willing to face upto to who you really are – irrespective of what the consequences may be. Rest assured, that when you align with yourself the consequences are truly positive and aligned with well-being, but it can be a challenge initially to let go of incongruent realities, of incongruent identities, and beliefs, which stand in your way to total alignment. You can use “escapist” techniques (and a lot of spirituality can help keep your engrossed in several escapist techniques, no different from being addicted to a drug) to keep from facing this challenge, but sooner or later you will know that there is no getting away from yourself. The sooner you realize the better.
When I talk to someone, who is seeking a solution to their life, it’s easy to see that basically the only reason they reached a place of suffering is because they are either overly obsessed with one dimension in their mind, or they are suppressing a certain dimension(s) in the mind. It’s always that simple. And once this person is made to realize the ways in which they are suppressing certain dimensions in their mind, or the ways in which they are obsessing with a certain dimensions (being unconsciously lost in it), they get “enlightened” about what’s really going wrong. This enlightenment is enough to start the journey back to a balance. It will still take some time before attaining this balance, but to know the problem clearly ensures that you will no longer be “beating around the bush”, or living in denial, which ensures a swifter, quicker, movement towards this balanced state of being which allows for your natural expression to unfold smoothly, allows for well-being and an inner wholeness.
thanks 🙂
“In the end, the real questions is – do you want to keep running away from yourself, or have you reached a point where you are willing to face up to to who you really are ”
I’m still trying to grasp what it is meant by FACE UP TO WHO you really are.
I do appreciate this article and all others. This is a new process for me, and I’m excited to discover
Thanks you Sen
Carpe Diem..
The true value of awareness is to use it to understand our mind and align with it. Most of the our suffering arises when we are disconnected with ourselves, not knowing our mind clearly know to align with it, and hence we end up creating/attracting realities that are not congruent with the natural make-up of our mind. One reason why we don’t understand our mind is because we fear it, and another reason is because we “judge” it, hence we don’t really have the openness to see our mind as it is – constantly imposing some force or discipline on it, rather than allowing its natural expression to unfold. Understanding your mind and aligning with its nature (through aligning with all its dimensions) is what it means to face upto to who you really are as this human form – that’s when you stop running away from yourself, and start attracting realities that are congruent with who you are.
Sen..
you are doing such a great service to put together such valuable information and take the time to respond. Your spirit of generosity is amazing, and I certainly will recommend to all I know to visit this very informative website and read your essays. I’m blessed and thankful to have found my way here. I’m excited to explore and grasp your concepts and ides…. Until next time. I will also be showing my support through a monetary donation as soon as I can.
Cheers
Gary B
Sen,
Don’t you feel that meditation has its benefits as a way to help you reach a place of awareness? For example, zazen meditation is very good practice to become free of the mind’s influence, and should be practiced regularly.
A lot of people use meditation as a suppression technique (to silence their mind) rather than using its as means to bring an awareness into their mind. That’s why I mentioned that “trance inducing meditations” have very little value in bringing awareness to the dimensions in your mind. The meditations that I find most effective is the “sitting meditation” where you just sit comfortably, close your eyes, and don’t “try” to do anything, just allowing what arises to arise, allowing the mind its free movement and allowing all the emotions/feelings to arise in the space of openness – I was just naturally inclined to do this – this form of “letting go” meditation allows one to let go of patterns of resistance/suppression. Any meditation that causes you to “control” or force your mind/body in any way, is eventually a suppression mechanism and is only useful as a temporary relief technique, it does not really take you towards aligning with your mind. It’s fine to do anything that feels like an inspiration to do, as long as you are authentic within yourself that you are not using it as a suppression technique.
I see where you’re coming from. Of course, there are many meditations that have the intention of escaping reality, and this is really no different than running away from the pull of the mind’s influence. I will practice the art of “letting go”. Thank you for your insights
Sen,
I understand when you say that we need to bring awareness into the mind however, I can’t seem to understand the expression “the mind needs to align with itself, with all its “dimensions”, so that it can allow its natural expression to unfold.” How awareness and alingment relate/differ from each other?
You will notice that when you start letting go of the resistance patterns (or suppression patterns), your brain/mind starts coming into harmony with its natural makeup – it’s like the mind realigning with itself, back to its natural state of being. This process of re-alignment of the mind is what allows for the beginning of our natural expression, we become aligned with our true self as we are as this human form.
Sen, how can we find out which dimension in our mind is in a wrong way? and how can we make it balanced?
Since there are just 6 dimensions in the mind, it’s easy to identify the dimensions we are suppressing or over-identified with, once our awareness becomes stable. The way you allow your awareness to be stable is by staying aware of your mind, in an open way (what I call relaxed awareness). Also, the call for you is to be “honest”, and authentic, with yourself, to know if you are suppressing, or over-identified with, any of the dimensions. I will be writing some posts detailing each of these dimensions in the coming days, which may give you better insight into each dimension of the mind.
Dear Sen
I have a really strong desire to get to phase 4 and I believe I am already at phase 3. If I were to practice “relax awareness” mentioned in your previous post as often as I can, I should be able to speed up the process of getting to phase 4? Thanks for all those great articles. I really appreciate it. Kenshin
Also, you mentioned the 6 dimensions of human mind. When I get to phase 4, I should be able to automatically come in balance with all 6 dimensions of the human mind. Or is it some additional knowledge I need to comprehend. Kenshin
The very purpose of staying as relaxed awareness of the mind is to help you identify the various suppression/resistance mechanisms that are active in you and to understand the natural makeup of your mind, getting to know all the 6 dimensions in you and thus allowing for an alignment with them. It’s true that the more time you spend in this relaxed awareness that faster you come to this understanding, as you start identifying the various ways in which you may be suppressing, or over-identifying with, the dimensions in your mind, allowing for a balanced expression. Staying as relaxed awareness also allows you to stay resistance-free, allowing your brain/mind to start re-aligning with its natural makeup more quickly, which basically allows for the wholeness in your physical being starting you off on phase 4.
Sen, when you feel as though you are enlightened or comfortable in your own skin. What do you do when you come upon people who have values or ways of thinking that you disagree with? I know you shouldn’t condemn them obviously, so what’s the thought process behind being comfortable with everyone else just as they are?
Ryan, When you are totally comfortable with yourself, you don’t feel the need to force your perspective on anyone, if someone disagrees you don’t take it as a personal insult, neither do you believe that it’s your “responsibility” to change people, you don’t act like some evangelist with an agenda to convert people to your knowing – you understand that everyone, including yourself, is at a certain level of consciousness, maturity, and mental capacity, which determines our outlook and reasoning abilities. The truth is that the people that you attract into your personal reality are reflective of your own maturity and mind-state, hence if you are constantly attracting incompatible people around you, it’s an indication of your own inner-disconnect. The way I define enlightened living is simply a state of movement where you are consciously aligned with who you are in this human form (through an understanding of the universal nature of your consciousness, life energy), following your inner guidance and thus not moving from a place of imbalance/lack.
“The truth is that the people that you attract into your personal reality are reflective of your own maturity and mind-state”
Is is always the case that the people in your present reality reflect your current state of mind?
Or could it be that some people reflect a state of mind that you used to be in and because you have been through the same/similar experience and have come through it, you are in a position to guide/help/watch out for them?
So it doesn’t necessarily mean you are still in that state of mind? A bit like a teacher and student relationship?
Your personal reality is created by your personal experience of the outside reality. When you are aligned with your mind, and connected with the wholeness of your being, your external reality will reflect this alignment. You may be around the same people, but their attitude towards you will be different, for example, if they were constantly putting you down when you were being “self critical”, when you become aligned with yourself (and let go of self criticism) you will notice that people are not putting you down either (people may be the same but their response towards you would be different, in other words, you seem to attract the aligned part of them). It also happens that people who are totally incompatible with who you are, are not attracted into your reality. You just need to keep gauging your “personal experience” of your reality to get a clear idea of vibrations that are dominant in your reality – is it aligned with joy/ease or is it aligned with lack/hatred/fear, that’s the authentic inquiry you will need to make. Of course, alignment is a journey, and just being on the path ensures that well-being will be dominant in your life.
I understand this completely, thank you
Sen, over the past while I’ve found all this soul searching a very difficult thing to do and I’m not surprised that people use the unconscious method of happiness. I envy them because I used to be like that and I was generally happy and comfortable with myself. Being aware of everything and conscious makes me feel kind of lost. I feel as though I’m digging deeper and deeper into my soul and all that comes is more questions. These questions make me feel depressed. I’m questioning things that used to be concrete in thinking, things like being a good person. After digging down so far it makes me feel like I have no idea who I am and that’s the worst feeling of all. There were many qualities that I had in the past that I would love to get back but it seems impossible when I’m thinking and questioning all the time. Any advice on this?
Ryan, the way awareness works, once you wake-up you can’t go back to sleep, so basically you can’t go back to being what you were during the “unconscious” state of being. Once awareness starts taking root, the only way forward is into “full wakefullness”, to become fully awake. I’ve mentioned these phase in the post – Awakening, transcendence and return of focus. What’s required now is to let go into awareness, rather than thinking about the past or how you lived unconsciously. Letting go into awareness entails becoming aware of “life”, it’s natural for doubts, questions and fears to arise, a sense of meaninglessness can also arise. All this is part of the waking up process, and it’s totally normal. Just let go into this process of waking up, and you will come to the other side of it where you can start enjoying life again (the return of focus), but this time from a place of full “consciousness”, alignment and wisdom. Basically the difference between unconscious state and “fully awake state” of experiencing life is like the difference between dreaming while in deep sleep and “day-dreaming” – in the former you are asleep and a dream just happens, in the later you are awake and you dream consciously – the latter experience allows for a conscious enjoyment, which is absent in the former.
Presently, you are in phase 2 where you are trying to understand life and getting to grips with your newly awakened state of being. Soon you will be able to move into letting go into your life-stream (phase 3) and coming to an alignment with life, with yourself, and living in a clearminded, fearless manner (phase 4).
hey sen, me again, just wondering what your thoughts are on alcohol and marijuana. Is it a help or a hindrance to letting go of the mind? Since reading the power of now i’ve got even more questions than I did before which is good i suppose. just wondering though if identifying with our mind/ego is the enemy here is any substance that hinders the mind good for the purpose of breaking free of our identification of it? or am I just trying to justify my habits?
Kenny, I’ve addressed your query about the use of drugs in this post – connection with your inner being. The bottom line of course is to be free of “crutches”, anything you are dependent on becomes a crutch and it enslaves. It’s about becoming “free”, not about being dependent. Everything can be enjoyed in a balance, be it alcohol or drugs, but when one is unconscious (with low awareness) it’s very easy to become addicted/dependent on the substance of enjoyment and thus become a enslaved to a habit. A person who comes to an inner stability through awareness, has a balanced and thus has the capacity to enjoy the physicality without becoming enslaved to any source of enjoyment.
one more thing i’m curious about sen,. I often play music in my head when i’m bored , trying to take my mind off something or just whenever. kind of like a internal ipod. is this more mental noise that could hinder my enlightenment or is it better than mind stuff/thinking to hear music rather than your mind’s “voice”. hope i’m making sense here. I just wonder if this is a bad habit or a way for my mind to maintain it’s grip on my essence.
Kenny, the bottom-line is to first be free of the mind’s negativity consciously, instead of depending on any external distraction. Once you are truly free of the mind’s negativity, you can just enjoy the entertainment knowing that you are not using it as a form of escape from the mind. It’s not about ignoring or suppressing the mind noise, but about bringing awareness to it. Only your fearless awareness has the capacity to dissolve the mind’s negativity.
thanks brother, i feel like you can never have to much info when it comes to being dis-identified with your mind. i plan on reading fall from grace and mooji’s collections to go along with what mr. tolle has given me thus far. any other recommendations?
Kenny, during my own journey of growing in awareness, I found some guidance in the teachings from a teacher called Adyashanti. You can visit his website for info on his books and audio recordings, it’s adyashanti.org
im going to read adyashanti’s book falling into grace as well as breath of the absolute by mooji.
i figure it cant hurt right
Sen, you made an instance with ‘day-dreaming’ and it was quite positive. I wana ask, is anything wrong with one day-dreaming? I do that alot when am listening to a good music, does it have any effect on the mind, when it comes to gaining awarness? Thanks for all your articles, it halped me alot. i and my family are grateful to you..
Willy, imagination is the language that connects your physical mind with the non-physical intelligence. When the mind is relaxed it is privy to a lot of imagination that’s instigated from your non-physical space/intelligence, especially images of realities that are being manifested, and the mind can dwell upon it in the form of day-dreaming – so it’s a good thing, since it programs your mind towards the desired reality as well as reduces resistance in your being.
Hi Sen,
Im just flowing on from the comments regarding people with other values/ways of thinking. I am currently having some resistance in my mind that I am having a very hard time letting go of. I had my first child 8 months ago and since then I have changed a great deal in regards to my views on parenting. I differ in opinion with all of my friends with children but I dont try to impose my ideas as I can obviously see that we are all at different stages of maturity and hence awareness of our selves and our actions. But lately a lot of the things that all of these parents do I just find disturbing, what in my home now would even be considered child abuse a lot of the time (controlled crying, smacking etc – just plain being inconsiderate and seeing children as possessions rather than whole feeling beings already). I really adored all of my friends before this and now find that I cant accept them fully for who they are any more. Am I just being judgemental? I guess this is an example of my external reality mirroring my internal reality as i realise now that my biggest issue is how critical I am of myself (especially now at being a good parent). But even in saying this I dont see how I can ever not be bothered by the things that they do. Does this mean I will need to let go of all of my friends? Or will it no longer bother me once I can advance to further phases? (now I am still at phase two i think) I feel that I probably already know the answer to my question but I guess I just wanted to hear your input to help my clarify my feelings. Thank you in advance for your opinions.. I would also just like to express my heartfelt gratitude for this blog. Your words are exactly what I have needed to hear at this stage of change and growth in my life! Im feel so joyful that my energy vibrated towards finding this blog 🙂
Sharon, it’s fine to feel revulsion towards certain force-based actions taken, by the people in your surroundings, from a place of low awareness. You can obviously give your perspective and guidance to them, and even express your anger towards what they are doing if that’s what naturally comes through. Also, they are sure to see, from your own example, a more wholistic way of bringing up children/babies. An aware individual can always bring more awareness into his/her surroundings. From a place of inner connection we are sometimes inspired to oppose certain misaligned behaviors that we see around us and thus bring about a change for the better, and this opposition comes from a place of inner inspiration balanced with the deeper perspective that it’s not their fault because they are only doing what their understanding/awareness limits them towards.
Hi Sen, I wrote to you earlier about my anxiety and melt down after a break up before Christmas. The last few days I’ve been able to seperate thoughts and see them as that, thoughts.
It happens in between, but I’m getting better at just letting the thoughts be there, and then they disappear quicker. I’m meditating, and I find that to help me in the daily life, to let go. To breathe and not panic. I’m not doing anything special, just sitting there, letting my thoughts come up. I feel that I’m being “pulled” towards something, I can’t explain it in any other way, and I feel that my ego, my identity is fighting against it, and I become scared of letting go. But, I’ve realised and I know now that happiness is within me, I can’t look to external things to fulfill me. But what if the external world surprises us? Unexpected things happens all the time, to be at ease with the fear and pain might be difficult? I also wonder about dreams, as I, like today had quite vivid dreams.
I don’t know where I am in my process now but – “have you reached a point where you are willing to face up to to who you really are ” seems to fit like a glove. I’m calmer in my mind, not free of worries and anxiety, but it is getting better. And, I’m searching for something within me.
Thank you for this site Sen.
jia
Dears,
i left my husband and i am raising my baby alone (1,5 year old), i am uncounciess and i act many times so,
i get angry when my baby does not want to fall asleep and i cannot control my anger that comes up in a minute, so i start to yell at him, of course i know this is not a good approach, but in a moment i am not able to react differently. I am angry as i see he is tired, but he is not willing to sleep, on the other hand i have to do my work, cooking, learning, so i count on this 2 hours of free time, or only to have it for myself.
Help me to understand my behaviour and how to handle these feelings.