dwai

After “waking”, realize that no one was asleep!

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People are mystified with or annoyed at people who have woken up making statements like “all you need is to be silent/still” or “nothing needs to be done”. 

 

For those who have spent years trying to “get something” - energy, grace, etc, is an assumption that they are somehow incomplete and will be fulfilled when they “get some thing”. Years of toiling, practice, austerities, thinking pile on. But mostly there are moments of experiences of “bliss”, a glimpse here, a taste there, and the elusive “awakeness” keeps playing hide and seek! 

 

But there really is nothing to “get”. There is a lot to give up though. 

 

The reason is simply because there is nothing one gets from the “outside” that wakes you up. In a sense no one really was asleep, so no one wakes up. What goes away is the mistaken identification and sense of bondage. 

 

All that is needed is simply that — give up the mistaken notions of bondage and simply trace the culprit back to its source. The culprit is the mind, and the 10,000 things it creates. 

 

It seems so hard because it calls for a type of undoing that is counterintuitive. The mind likes to do this and that. It’s job is to solve problems and subdivide one into many. So simply letting it be seems like the hardest thing to do. But all is needed is, to not get swayed by its fluctuations. Just keep watching it and trace it back to its root.

 

Feel free to discuss the points raised here. Happy awakening :)

Edited by dwai
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But we are trained from birth to want more.  "Double-size me".

 

I agree though, the external has nothing to do with our "waking up".

 

I suppose it's more about setting priorities.  And then, after priorities have been set - well, what now to do with that list of priorities?

 

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8 hours ago, dwai said:

 

 

Feel free to discuss the points raised here. Happy awakening :)

Same back at ya. :) 

 

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1 hour ago, Marblehead said:

But we are trained from birth to want more.  "Double-size me".

 

I agree though, the external has nothing to do with our "waking up".

 

I suppose it's more about setting priorities.  And then, after priorities have been set - well, what now to do with that list of priorities?

 

After priorities have been set, toss them aside and start letting go of concepts and beliefs :) 

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I had glimpses of waking throughout my decades of seeking.  Briefly opened windows onto the raw potent, simple beauty of it.  That which is... then gone... back to searching... where did that come from?  Who has it?  Can they give it to me?

 

Every time the bellows shifted, the glimpse would pass and I'd be back to 'seeking it'... seeking everywhere but here... seeking with desperation... with all my power, all my strength, all my mind.  Seeking in others, from teachers, from books, from places in nature, seeking it from the right dietary restrictions, from the right soaps.  But always somehow sure that I needed something outside of me to show me, to unlock in me the truth. 

 

Seeking always to achieve something external, to grasp something that I always assumed was 'out there'.

 

I perceive so clearly now how that very seeking was what impeded the simple realization. 

Rather than seek elsewhere for that which already abides... within.  Release.  Be.  

 

Strip away, release and let go of every notion, intention, thought and seeking impulse.  What remains is... it.

The very act, impulse and desire of seeking occludes the realization of what is...

 

When utter spiritual and physical exhaustion led me to completely surrender and give up, in suicidal despair. 

While lying in complete quiet and solitude, in the midst of one of the greatest cities of the modern world.

When I had released all notions I previously held... all desires, all concepts of should and shouldn't...

When I had release everything... one thing remained.

 

I am aware.  This is it!

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34 minutes ago, silent thunder said:

I had glimpses of waking throughout my decades of seeking.  Briefly opened windows onto the raw potent, simple beauty of it.  That which is... then gone... back to searching... where did that come from?  Who has it?  Can they give it to me?

 

Every time the bellows shifted, the glimpse would pass and I'd be back to 'seeking it'... seeking everywhere but here... seeking with desperation... with all my power, all my strength, all my mind.  Seeking in others, from teachers, from books, from places in nature, seeking it from the right dietary restrictions, from the right soaps.  But always somehow sure that I needed something outside of me to show me, to unlock in me the truth. 

 

Seeking always to achieve something external, to grasp something that I always assumed was 'out there'.

 

I perceive so clearly now how that very seeking was what impeded the simple realization. 

Rather than seek elsewhere for that which already abides... within.  Release.  Be.  

 

Strip away, release and let go of every notion, intention, thought and seeking impulse.  What remains is... it.

The very act, impulse and desire of seeking occludes the realization of what is...

 

When utter spiritual and physical exhaustion led me to completely surrender and give up, in suicidal despair. 

While lying in complete quiet and solitude, in the midst of one of the greatest cities of the modern world.

When I had released all notions I previously held... all desires, all concepts of should and shouldn't...

When I had release everything... one thing remained.

 

I am aware.  This is it!

:wub:

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51 minutes ago, silent thunder said:

I had glimpses of waking throughout my decades of seeking.  Briefly opened windows onto the raw potent, simple beauty of it.  That which is... then gone... back to searching... where did that come from?  Who has it?  Can they give it to me?

 

Every time the bellows shifted, the glimpse would pass and I'd be back to 'seeking it'... seeking everywhere but here... seeking with desperation... with all my power, all my strength, all my mind.  Seeking in others, from teachers, from books, from places in nature, seeking it from the right dietary restrictions, from the right soaps.  But always somehow sure that I needed something outside of me to show me, to unlock in me the truth. 

 

Seeking always to achieve something external, to grasp something that I always assumed was 'out there'.

 

I perceive so clearly now how that very seeking was what impeded the simple realization. 

Rather than seek elsewhere for that which already abides... within.  Release.  Be.  

 

Strip away, release and let go of every notion, intention, thought and seeking impulse.  What remains is... it.

The very act, impulse and desire of seeking occludes the realization of what is...

 

When utter spiritual and physical exhaustion led me to completely surrender and give up, in suicidal despair. 

While lying in complete quiet and solitude, in the midst of one of the greatest cities of the modern world.

When I had released all notions I previously held... all desires, all concepts of should and shouldn't...

When I had release everything... one thing remained.

 

I am aware.  This is it!

 

This is the 'awakened' paradigm. There always seems to be this element of utter despair and giving up. Quite opposite to someone like the Buddha though, who determined to sit without moving until he was enlightened. Determination seemed to work well enough for him, I believe his last words were "Strive on with diligence." 

 

Which then begs the question what is the difference between 'enlightenment' and 'awakening'. 

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35 minutes ago, Bindi said:

 

This is the 'awakened' paradigm. There always seems to be this element of utter despair and giving up. Quite opposite to someone like the Buddha though, who determined to sit without moving until he was enlightened. Determination seemed to work well enough for him, I believe his last words were "Strive on with diligence." 

 

Which then begs the question what is the difference between 'enlightenment' and 'awakening'. 

IMHO, there's not much of a difference. Enlightenment is just abiding in Awareness without attachments to this or that, or simply put...just staying awake.

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peacefulness yes... 

utterly bouyant, effortless simplicity.

it's the most ordinary thing...  which is why it's so densely hidden... so hard to encounter.

why the masters call us to quiet down, stillness, silence, clarity is born of these

 

so utterly natural and ordinary, it lay beneath notice.  are fish aware of the water in which they swim?

 

Where sensory information is available, it tends to dominate awareness.

This is why I suspect waking lay for me, not in diligent striving but in... stillness, simplest presence... breathingness.  release.

 

only in the clarity and silence of stillness, when all else had fallen away, either through release, or fatigue of no longer being able to maintain was i able to realize it, that i am this... this is it. 

 

the simplest, most effervescent and gossamer of truths, only perceptible, when my mind ceased conjuring processes, stopped imagining some secret off 'out there' to be acquired and added to me.  such simple madness!  the very creation of the treadmill of non realizing was the desire and effort spent trying to realize what is utterly apparent when all is accepted, released and drops away revealing... only awareness.

 

when i finally lapsed into such fatigue that i could no longer maintain the stories and all the teachings and learnings i had acquired...

 

the knowledgable acquire something every day... strive to 'get better'

the wise drop these... release all things into pure beingness. 

drop all of it and what remains

for me

 

presence.  awareness.

 

while seeking, I embody seeking and this is a layer upon raw beingness

this is why for me, while engaged in diligence, in effort, in striving, the motion outward, to seek and acquire some aspect of me that I as of yet did not possess... was the very thing hiding from me, the realization of the truth of being

 

awareness is... i am this... this is it.

 

 

Edited by silent thunder
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awareness is not breakable, cannot be marred or scratched.

it cannot be held, manufactured, lost or found

 

where does it live?  who is its mother?

it is spotless.  untaintable.  effervescent.  gossamer. 

saturating all... form and formless alike

yet never can it be held... never a thing, lost or gained... yet imbued in all things

 

ever present, yet never touchable

truly giving rise to all and in and of itself not a thing, but a presence?  beingness?

 

birthed of itself unto itself and returning without any motion, without going anywhere in any amount of time

the center holds, out of which and to which all returns being and non being

the center is in no location, and is all pervading

all within all

one

 

 

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I challenge the title of this thread in the following sense. While there is the experience from the perspective of waking that no one was asleep, the experience prior to waking is very real and every bit as valid. Furthermore, this sort of comment invalidates life experience and can lead to negative feelings towards self and others.

 

A good analogy is lucid dreaming. The non-lucid dream experience is every bit as “real” as the experience of lucid dreaming although upon awakening we may look at the non-lucid experience as not being valid.

 

Just some food food for thought.

Not to give the wrong message, I am enjoying this discussion.

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1 hour ago, steve said:

I challenge the title of this thread in the following sense. While there is the experience from the perspective of waking that no one was asleep, the experience prior to waking is very real and every bit as valid. Furthermore, this sort of comment invalidates life experience and can lead to negative feelings towards self and others.

I don't think it invalidates life experience. It is all part of the process. Because we say "nothing is needed to be done", doesn't mean nothing happens...this is why it is so frustrating too, until we "see" it. Then it makes sense.  

Until then, It CAN raise hackles though :) 

 

1 hour ago, steve said:

 

A good analogy is lucid dreaming. The non-lucid dream experience is every bit as “real” as the experience of lucid dreaming although upon awakening we may look at the non-lucid experience as not being valid.

I think the analogy would make better sense to me, if we considered that upon becoming lucid in the dream, one realizes that he/she was always lucid. I find that more and more so, the lucidity that I strived to attain in my dream practices, automatically happen now after waking up. The realization that there was never a moment when I was not awake permeates all experience. 

 

That doesn't make dreams any more or less real than lucid dreams, or lucid dreams any more or less real than waking state, or waking states any more or less awake then "awake" state. There never is a time when one is not already awake. Maybe if people think more about what that means, a sudden shift in perspective will make things clear, and perhaps even "awaken" them :)

1 hour ago, steve said:

 

Just some food food for thought.

Not to give the wrong message, I am enjoying this discussion.

I appreciate the thoughts. And more discussion in these lines might help attain greater clarity. 

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2 hours ago, dwai said:

I don't think it invalidates life experience. It is all part of the process. Because we say "nothing is needed to be done", doesn't mean nothing happens...this is why it is so frustrating too, until we "see" it. Then it makes sense.  

Until then, It CAN raise hackles though :) 

We will have to disagree on this point.

I think that the reaction we see from some folks, the raised hackles, is evidence that they feel as if their experience is being invalidated. For people who have known only duality, to hear that there is no need to do anything, there is no one to wake up, all is just as it should be... all of that makes no rational sense and negates their direct experience. They feel a powerful drive to do something, to change something, and yet they are not seeing the progress. It can be terribly frustrating, especially when others seem to be dangling this very special carrot in front of them and it stays just out of their grasp.

Even doing nothing isn't working for them, they try for an hour, for a month, and nothing...

I was first alerted to this by the fellow I quoted in the other thread, Peter Fenner, who cautioned against sharing these ideas without some degree of caution and sensitivity. They can create more problems than opportunity for some.

I wonder if this is, at least in part, why these teachings were very secretive in some cultures?

 

 

2 hours ago, dwai said:

I think the analogy would make better sense to me, if we considered that upon becoming lucid in the dream, one realizes that he/she was always lucid. I find that more and more so, the lucidity that I strived to attain in my dream practices, automatically happen now after waking up. The realization that there was never a moment when I was not awake permeates all experience. 

Do you really recall no time when you were living the dream and it was tangible, frustrating, and completely real?

When you were searching intensely for something that was lacking?

A time when the experience of non-duality was just an elusive idea that made no sense?

While there may have never been a moment when you were not fully awake, there was a time when you did not realize that you were awake. 

You said as much in the other thread.

 

 

2 hours ago, dwai said:

That doesn't make dreams any more or less real than lucid dreams, or lucid dreams any more or less real than waking state, or waking states any more or less awake then "awake" state. There never is a time when one is not already awake. Maybe if people think more about what that means, a sudden shift in perspective will make things clear, and perhaps even "awaken" them :)

It's not a matter of what is real, it's more a matter of what one can connect with and relate to.

It's a matter of whether one has a basis for such an understanding, the proper perspective.

Thinking about the meaning of being always, already awake is of little use, IMO, one either has the frame of reference to understand or not  It is either there or it isn't. It either happens or it doesn't. And I can see how hearing that can be frustrating.

All the work and study on Earth may have no effect.

And yet it can dawn for no reason in an instant.

For that reason, I consider it a Blessing, perhaps a matter of Karma.

And for me at least, there was definitely a before and after.

The after didn't negate the before, rather it informed the before from a new perspective that didn't previously exist in me.

 

2 hours ago, dwai said:

I appreciate the thoughts. And more discussion in these lines might help attain greater clarity. 

I also appreciate the conversation.

Warm regards

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46 minutes ago, steve said:

We will have to disagree on this point.

I think that the reaction we see from some folks, the raised hackles, is evidence that they feel as if their experience is being invalidated. For people who have known only duality, to hear that there is no need to do anything, there is no one to wake up, all is just as it should be... all of that makes no rational sense and negates their direct experience. They feel a powerful drive to do something, to change something, and yet they are not seeing the progress. It can be terribly frustrating, especially when others seem to be dangling this very special carrot in front of them and it stays just out of their grasp.

Even doing nothing isn't working for them, they try for an hour, for a month, and nothing...

I was first alerted to this by the fellow I quoted in the other thread, Peter Fenner, who cautioned against sharing these ideas without some degree of caution and sensitivity. They can create more problems than opportunity for some.

I wonder if this is, at least in part, why these teachings were very secretive in some cultures?

Agreed 100%.

And so it was in the old days. By that I mean before the internet. The internet changed things drastically! 

 

When I read this kind of stuff before (in the seeking phase), I had to make a decision. Do I believe these folks who make it sound so easy or do I continue to struggle?

 

 I first opted to stick with what I knew and could verify. And continued my practices because I didn’t understand. 

 

And then, with time, there was more clarity. And more...and more. And one day it all made sense. This was before any “waking up” even. And I was grateful for the material I found (books, forums - daobums etc). 

 

And then I took the words more seriously. Until one day they blazed brightly in my consciousness. 

46 minutes ago, steve said:

 

 

Do you really recall no time when you were living the dream and it was tangible, frustrating, and completely real?

When you were searching intensely for something that was lacking?

A time when the experience of non-duality was just an elusive idea that made no sense?

While there may have never been a moment when you were not fully awake, there was a time when you did not realize that you were awake. 

You said as much in the other thread.

Yes I recall. But everything that happens does for a reason. So as much as my hackles were raised then, in a manner similar to what we are seeing as reactions,. I know that hearing/reading those words helped me (and were there to help me).

46 minutes ago, steve said:

 

 

It's not a matter of what is real, it's more a matter of what one can connect with and relate to.

It's a matter of whether one has a basis for such an understanding, the proper perspective.

Thinking about the meaning of being always, already awake is of little use, IMO, one either has the frame of reference to understand or not  It is either there or it isn't. It either happens or it doesn't. And I can see how hearing that can be frustrating.

All the work and study on Earth may have no effect.

And yet it can dawn for no reason in an instant.

For that reason, I consider it a Blessing, perhaps a matter of Karma.

And for me at least, there was definitely a before and after.

The after didn't negate the before, rather it informed the before from a new perspective that didn't previously exist in me.

 

I also appreciate the conversation.

Warm regards

My friend (who is also on the path) and I often discuss this. I don’t sugar coat the truth. He believes there are levels and there should be a control mechanism so we don’t overwhelm people (premature revelation).

 

But in my experience, the even something as bitter as Neem, leaves a sweet after taste and is good for health. So we have to eat bitter. Because whether we like it or not, the mind will revolt against the truth at some point. 

 

Best regards too :) 

 

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I experienced this peace once, some years back, it swept through me at the end of a Qigong session. There were bodily sensations that accompanied it, I felt pulses of energy shooting upwards through my face, and my face was twitching in response, though that subsided. I was outside and suddenly I saw the trees in my yard as if for the first time, they were so alive, and looked so beautiful, their branches dancing in the wind. All my concerns suddenly seemed absurd and of no consequence, and I had a huge smile on my face.

 

I sat for a few hours in that blissful peace. It was after midnight so I wasn';t in contact with anybody, but I had this urge to tell the people in my life that all their were troubles were just illusory, that everything was fine.It was the first time I'd even so much as glimpsed the peace I'd read about in spiritual texts for years. When I awoke the next day, my mind was back to it's old ways, in fact I felt awful, and very tired. I even had a headache, which I almost never get. Though I can intellectually acknowledge the truth I felt during those five or six hours, it's as distant as if I was reading about it in a book. 

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I experienced this sudden 'silence of the mind' for a couple of days many years ago, I had been quite distressed and it was a relief from that. No more distressed emotions and hammering thoughts. I could get on with my day, and everything was peaceful, and I was grateful to not be in mind-inflicted pain. It faded aftr the two days, I witnessed thoughts floating in and getting stuck, starting to fill up my mind space again. For a couple of days they had just flowed through it would seem, and for those couple of days there was seemingly no decades old or lifetimes old backlog either.

 

But I never sought that exact experience again, it was pleasant, but not earth shattering. If it had stayed and I had started talking like Eckhart Tolle, all awakened and thinking myself the returned Christ as he apparently does, yet not wise, more shame on me. For myself I can only say thank God it didn't stay, as there was a hell of a lot more I needed to learn and understand - I know this now.  

 

Energy work doesn't require that space, it is a process of revealing fundamental patterns, first of the ten thousand things, then of the 3, then of the 2, then of the one. Duality is the arena (until the one I guess). If I'm not fully perceiving and understanding ten thousand, and then three, and then two, I doubt I could comprehensively perceive one. There is no desperation to leave duality behind, if this happens then so be it. It is not my goal. My goal is following an interesting and natural energetic unfolding, one step at a time, and hopefully coming out in some real place, not the non-dual marketplace. 

 

The energy path has its own rewards. Along the way gifts are revealed and unwrapped, gifts that would never be freed by leaping to the end game and thinking I have arrived. Gifts of healing, of seeing internal energy directly ie. x-ray or inward vision.

 

A non-dualist accepts the perfection of pain and death, an alchemist sees and heals the disease. Non-dualists will call both outcomes perfect I suspect. Non-attachment at any cost. And there are more gifts than these, I just don't know of them personally yet. I'll take the 'oh so base and dual' gifts any day, over the one dimensional carrot of awakening.

 

 

 

Edited by Bindi
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I think awakening is gaining awareness.. or changing awareness

 

While enlightenment is some type electromagnetic connection with the spirit world and how it is interlaced with matter.. a material paradigm rests on nothing.. but there is nothing we can't do with matter and spirit..

 

A solid like gold.. is reminiscent of my former enlightenment.. 

 

And my speech was protected and made holy..

 

I spill my blood for you..(hence crucifixion)..

 

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The modern 'awakened' state doesn't seem to affect the deep karmic level, on which change doesn't occur. Samskaras remain. Rebirth is still necessary. 

 

 

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19 hours ago, dwai said:

IMHO, there's not much of a difference. Enlightenment is just abiding in Awareness without attachments to this or that, or simply put...just staying awake.

 

There seems to be something about brightness and natural radiance in enlightenment:

 

Quote

 

If someone points to the moon – don’t just look at the finger – because:

  1. You’ll miss the moon
  2. You think the finger is the moon
  3. You don’t know what is naturally bright (has enlightenment) vs what is naturally dark (lacks enlightenment)

Similarly, the Buddha’s Teachings (Dharma) point directly to your True Mind – don’t just look at the teachings – in your mind training/meditation – reflect upon your mind and USE the teachings to see where the teachings are pointing to – so that you can see your own real Mind for yourself(which is naturally radiant because it is naturally endowed with its own enlightenment).  This is THE fundamental point of Chan/Zen training.

 

Master Hsuan Hua explains this section of the Shurangama Sutra:

  • The moon represents the true mind.
  • The Dharma which is spoken is the finger,

since the Buddha speaks about the Dharma in order to point to the true mind….

The person in the example:

  • Doesn’t recognize either the finger or the moon for what they are, and so they seem lost, although they are still there.
  • He doesn’t understand light and darkness; in other words, he doesn’t know what is meant by “enlightenment” or what is meant by the “lack of enlightenment”; he doesn’t know what is meant by “ignorance” and what is meant by “true understanding.”…

https://essenceofbuddhism.wordpress.com/2016/04/19/what-the-finger-pointing-to-the-moon-analogy-really-means-from-zen-buddhism-the-buddha-in-the-shurangama-sutra/

 

How should light and darkness be understood?

 

Could there ever really be lack of enlightenment if there is never really lack of awakened?

 

What is meant by ignorance and true understanding?

 

 

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3 hours ago, Bindi said:

 

There seems to be something about brightness and natural radiance in enlightenment:

That is pure awareness. It is the light in which everything else is known. 

3 hours ago, Bindi said:

 

How should light and darkness be understood?

Light is awareness, darkness is misidentification with things. 

3 hours ago, Bindi said:

 

Could there ever really be lack of enlightenment if there is never really lack of awakened?

No. That’s the point of the OP. 

3 hours ago, Bindi said:

What is meant by ignorance and true understanding?

 

 

  •  

Ignorance is misidentification of self as this or that. Understanding is knowing what one is not and therefore remaining abiding in one’s Self. 

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11 hours ago, dwai said:

My friend (who is also on the path) and I often discuss this.

 

My friend and long time training partner, who is also on the path, moved about 1700 miles away...

We chat on the phone sometimes but it's not the same.

I miss him.

There aren't very many people around who can relate to these things.

I guess that's why we're here!

:)

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1 minute ago, steve said:

My friend and long time training partner, who is also on the path, moved about 1700 miles away...

We chat on the phone sometimes but it's not the same.

I miss him.

There aren't very many people around who can relate to these things.

I guess that's why we're here!

:)

My best friend got me into the internal arts over 20 years ago. We became friends by being work colleagues. Every day at work we would have conversations that no one else had a clue about. Deep, meaningful talks on cultivation techniques, spirituality, meditation, religion etc.

We also trained at lunch break much to the amusement of our fellow workers.

We no longer work together and very rarely get the chance to meet, but our phone conversations last hours.

 

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How would you know conclusively whether your realisation is the whole thing or just the beginning steps into the 'Intermediate Zone'? Traditionally a teacher is likely to say neti neti, go deeper, come back in a years time, go back to your cell and pray, or just give you a good whack with a stick. 

 

Sri Aurobindo on the Intermediate Zone

 

...These things, when they pour down or come in, present themselves with a great force, a vivid sense of inspiration or illumination, much sensation of light and joy, an impression of widening and power. The sadhak feels himself freed from the normal limits, projected into a wonderful new world of experience, filled and enlarged and exalted;what comes associates itself, besides, with his aspirations, ambitions, notions of spiritual fulfillment and yogic siddhi; it is represented even as itself that realisation and fulfillment. Very easily he is carried away by the splendour and the rush, and thinks that he has realised more than he has truly done, something final or at least something sovereignly true. At this stage the necessary knowledge and experience are usually lacking which would tell him that this is only a very uncertain and mixed beginning; he may not realise at once that he is still in the cosmic Ignorance, not in the cosmic Truth, much less in the Transcendental Truth, and that whatever formative or dynamic idea-truths may have come down into him are partial only and yet further diminished by their presentation to him by a still mixed consciousness. He may fail to realise also that if he rushes to apply what he is realising or receiving as if it were something definitive, he may either fall into confusion and error or else get shut up in some partial formation in which there may be an element of spiritual Truth but it is likely to be outweighed by more dubious mental and vital accretions that deform it altogether.

 

...This is in fact an intermediary state, a zone of transition between the ordinary consciousness in mind and the true Yoga knowledge... One may take up their abode in this intermediate zone, care to go no further and build there some half-truth which one takes for the whole truth or become the instrument of the powers of these transitional planes – this is what happens to many sadhaks and yogis.
 

–Sri Aurobindo

 

 

 

Edited by Bindi
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