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Awakening is Simple - Free book exceptskarmarider said May 19, 7:12 PM: |
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from http://www.beyond-karma.com And, two, because awakening is simple. And what is awakening? Awakening is awakening out of the world offear and sadness. Leonard Jacobson says, “To awaken simply means toawaken out of the world of the thinking mind into the world of thepresent moment.” Buddha said very simply: it is the end of suffering. Some people take exception to using the word “simple” to describethe awakening process. For most people who are trying to awaken, theprocess has not been easy. I recognize this. The reason I use “simple”to characterize awakening is not to insult the many who have and arestruggling with it. But just because it has been difficult for manydoes not mean it has to continue to be difficult. I say simple because if you look around at the resources availablefor awakening, you might get the idea that awakening is very difficult,or you have to meditate for decades, or you need specialized spiritualknowledge, or you need to understand theories of existence, and blissand oneness, or you have to sign up with a tradition and ‘advance’ yourway through the hierarchy or you need to understand the various“stages” of consciousness or solve zen koans, and so forth. You don’thave to do any of this, and from what I have seen, these can actuallybe the obstacles to awakening for many. Awakening is simple. It’s not simple for some only because of the effort they put into complicating it. The Two Step Dance of Awakening - Awareness and ReleaseHere’s how you awaken: First: Find a release technique that resonates with you. (Release may be referred to as Heart techniques or Healing). Try the Release technique I describe, or the Sedona Method, and EFT. Releasinghelps free us of depression, anxiety, the past, and it’s an effectivesalve for awakening symptoms. (Some call these Kundalini symptoms). Second:Find an awareness technique that resonates. Awakening is relaxing intoawareness. You already have awareness. In fact, the only things you canbe absolutely certain of are: that there is Awareness; and allexperience is always in the Now. Awareness techniques help us moveattention from the thinking mind to awareness. Play around with thetechniques, pick the ones that are the easiest first. All awareness techniques lead to Awareness Now. This is referred to with many different words: effortless meditation,being, natural being, being present, just as is, passive watchfulness,zazen, dyana, ch’an, zen, and many other Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese,Kaballah, Sufi, and Gnostic terms. Why complicate it? It is a passivewatchfulness which is not of the mind but which can watch the mind andeverything else. It is utterly simple, here and now. When mind says, “is this allthere is”, that is it. In the utter ordinariness, the extraordinarywill unfold. Obstacles to Awakening “The simplest cure is to feel free to block, so that onedoes not block at blocking. When one feels free to lock, the blocking[holding on] automatically eliminates itself….The principle here is, ofcourse, the same as getting out of the contradiction of ‘trying to bespontaneous’ through accepting the ‘trying’ as spontaneous’ …” The Wayof Zen, Allan WattsThe biggest obstacle is our own ideas. Awakening is waking up fromthe story of “me”; but it immediately merges into another story aboutadvancing the “me” and then we are concerned about how successful weare at awakening. This resistance can show up in many ways. It shows upas the need to understand before you can start, dismissal,‘spiritualized’ ego, intellectual analysis and beliefs, or the clingingto particular concepts or techniques or traditions or disciplines like meditationor yoga or visualization or philosophizing or some new-age thing orenchantment with particular teachers or with the idea of awakeningitself. It can be the ego’s fear of awakening, which can show up as “MyGod, who will I be without emotions and desires?” or “How can I evergive up thinking?” or “I need to understand this fully” or “I am notready for this” and so forth. It can show up as a clinging to every newage fad, such as the Law of Attraction, or “masterminding” orvisualizing…this is just stuff that we seek out desperately to changewho we are and fulfill mind-desires. All you have to do is to suss out obstacles is to notice them. Don’t analyze them; don’t block, just know that all this is just morethinking. Perhaps this is why the Buddha warned not to believe anythinganyone says, until it is experience. The test for whether you are caught in an obstacle is very simple.Ask yourself how you feel compared to say three months ago. Do you feelmore open, lighter, and joyful? This of course takes radical honesty toanswer, and if you don’t think you can be radically honest withyourself, you’re in a good place. From this place, radical honesty willdevelop. Your goal is not to experience some sort of big-bang transformation.Don’t worry about when enlightenment happens in linear time, or even ifthere really is such a thing. The goal is to get into the flow ofawakening, so that it deepens on its own, effortlessly. The Journey “You have to see it for yourself. This is your lastchance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pilland the story ends. You wake in your bed and believe whatever you wantto believe. You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I showyou how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” –Morpheus to Neo in the movie TheMatrixIf you start this you will discover many things on your own. Youwill see the nature of effort for what it is. You will put in someeffort in the beginning, but once you get into the flow of awakening,it will work on its own. You will see that it is about the releasing of effort. You may go through some emotional turmoil; don’t worry, the releasingwill help you and heal you. You will understand why it’s important torely only on direct experience, and not on what you read or hear, evenif it is from your favorite “spiritual” guide. You will see and laughat frivolities of your own revelations and beliefs, and you willrecognize the voice in the head as just a voice in the head. You willsee why spirituality itself is an obstacle. You will see that all youthat you believe is irrational, and you will see why haven’t perceivedreality as it is. And, with great relief, you will find that when youare able to get out of the way, Awareness does the job of awakening allby itself, much better than you can. My experience with depression and anxiety was not easy. But releasingthe anxiety and depression, once I found a natural method, was as easyas opening a fisted hand. It was difficult for me but it doesn’t haveto be difficult for you. My awakening experiences in the beginning were also difficult. But I found that releasing helps with letting goof concepts I had built around awakening, and then it was easy to getinto the effortless flow of awakening. “I” do absolutely nothing exceptget out of the way. This is the two-step dance of Awareness and Release. |
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Re: Awakening is Simple - Free book exceptsNicole said May 20, 7:12 AM: |
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Wonderful. I need to come back to this and spend more time with it. Thank you, |
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Re: Awakening is Simple - Free book exceptsMeenakshi said May 22, 8:43 PM: |
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Good points. Simple doesn't imply easy- as you've shown; but it does imply un-complicated and I'm glad that you've shared this here! |
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Re: Awakening is Simple - Free book exceptskarmarider said May 22, 9:20 PM: |
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Once we get into the flow of awakening, it is easy….there are always awakening symptoms to deal with but releasing helps with that. Most people would disagree because their experiences have not been easy or simple, but I believe if we go about without pre-conceived ideas, it can be simple and easy… |
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