After this 'awakening' to 'enlightenment' that happened (losing the sense of self), I did tons of research in order to find familiar patterns that seem to arise from this (hence such few posts lately). I found it odd that it happened shortly after I was introduced to it.
I was reading this post called The Stripping Away of self at Ariel Bravy website: http://www.youaretrulyloved.com. I watched the video in this post and Adyashanti was talking about time seeming different before 'awakening' (I will talk more about this later in this article). It was an interesting post and video even though I didn't really know what either one was talking about (although my mind thought it did *laughs out loud*). Before this 'awakening' I thought enlightenment was a profound spiritual insight (not the last insight, so-to-speak), I never saw it as the 'purpose of life'. Obviously I didn't know much about it, so was not searching for enlightenment itself or at least not consciously.
About an hour after watching the video and forgetting that I had done so, I got up from the computer. Walking to the kitchen I noticed the lighting looked different. Not brighter or duller, just different. Then slowly everything I was experiencing seemed off.
Every footstep seemed to jolt through the body. Walking by now is something automatic, but this experience was some-how showing me that this body doesn't even need the noticing of the footsteps in order to walk, this body walks completely on its own... even without ME.
I was observing everything around me in a very curious way. This is when my experience of time started changing (even though it was nothing like on the video, I can still relate to what he was saying). Just standing there observing everything, my thoughts became heavy, as if every thought I was having in that moment, shaped all my past and future events simultaneously. Then, with less focus the thoughts became light, as if they had no affect on life, as if I can observe them and not be attached to them or create anything with them.
The moment started becoming much more alive and suddenly without notice, I was in this 'infinite conscious observer' state (more of this 'state' explained here: The Sense of Self), I had no doubt that I was observing my true nature. The was no sense of self (self meaning giving energy to thoughts) in the body. Yet, I was connected to the body through the five sense (plus thoughts, emotions, etc...). It was part of oneness just like everything else (take away the label from space/air/formless, etc and you can see how it's all connected), but I didn't identify with it as being a me of thoughts. It was as if this human creature was meant to live and I was meant to observe it by experiencing what it does.
I have had this experience of time shifting before, but I assumed it had to do with letting this series of articles getting to my head and I quickly stopped and built a story of how things should be experienced. In fact, I have a feeling that reading this series of articles until you can quote it word for word, it can very well possibly lead to 'enlightenment' since it was the exact same experience of time (if I didn't shake it off our of fear, I am very sure it would have lead to 'awakening').
Common Ways Awakening Happens
►The most common way is that the 'awakening' just happens, usually to people who don't even have an interest in the spiritual path. In my research, they suppose this happens because they didn't have any prior conditioning to the spiritual concepts that cloud the mind to thinking that the idea of being spiritual is thought of being a certain way.
►The second most common way, is people (spiritual or not) listening to an audio program (or attending a presentation) of a human in the 'awakened' state trying to point to what 'awakening' is about (this is called non-duality pointing, it's called pointing because it can not be described into words that the mind can grasp, one can only hint to it and talk around it). The more people that become awake of a state beyond self and the more people realize that this 'awaking' state is available to anyone, the more it happens (in fact, if you read: The Purpose/Plan of Consciousness. The Reason for Existence/Blue Print of Reality. Where We Been & Where We Are Going. Conscious Evolution then you can see that the only way to evolve into the Co-Creation cycle, is going to take most everyone on this planet into this no-self state).
This also seems to happen around 'awakened' humans that hint to this 'awaken' state through three qualities:
1. They don't charge money for the program or presentation. This seems helps people to realize that there must be something to do this if the 'awakened' human is not charging for their time.
2. The personality of the 'awakened' human was developed to be vibrant, loving, and caring before the self left the body. This seems to help people connect with the human more fully and develop trust.
3. Sticking to one method of pointing, instead of many ideas around it.
One of those three qualities have 'awakening' affects on others, but having all three qualities together seem to make the biggest difference. Tony Parsons, is one 'awakened' human who possess all three qualities and therefore he seems to have one of the biggest impacts in non-duality pointing and successfully 'awakening' others. Here is a collection of youtube videos of his presentation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeZrQIqxJ3M
In Tony Parsons case, he says the 'awakening' usually happens more to people who get done listening to the program or leave the presentation and return home (when they stop trying to understand it). However, he reports that it does happen during the listening or while attending a presentation too. His whole pointing method is around the idea of no-self. He doesn't really point-to anything else.
►The third most common way this 'awakening' happens, is through someone who is living in the moment in such a way that they lose a sense of self and as that moment fades away into the next, they realize the self was never there at all.
►The forth most common way, is people giving up the search/seeking completely. In fact, they give up on everything in life and see no point in continuing. They feel this tremendous release at the thought of ending it all and suddenly they realize that the seeking is the one thing that stopped them from finding what they were looking for in the first place.
No matter what you are seeking, you are seeking it in order to fulfill a void. That void (conscious or not) is feeling separate, not complete, feeling like things can be better, intense knowing that something is not right, etc... This 'awakening' thing, is the goal of every human being (conscious or not) because it ends the search, you feel whole/oneness, you feel like everything you ever need is in this moment (because it's all this eternal moment), you have complete gratitude, there is this contentment/freedom/bliss that can never be fathomed by words alone, etc... The problem is that as long as the illusion of self (thinking thoughts hold value) is there, people will always be seekers in one form or another.
Common Element Before/After 'Awakening'
Before 'awaking' a common element is that you get a sense of time being transferred differently. You can begin to sense this in many different ways (or one of the many):
►A sense that the present moment is the only moment and has the biggest impact of any other moment.
►The only moment in which anything is being observed is sensed in the present. Your sense of time seems to only be significant in the present.
►Feeling of the future rushing into the present as it's being observed.
►Feeling that the past is dieing as the present moment emerges.
►A sense that everything you are doing right now, is creating the past and future through the thoughts you have in the now.
►A sense that time is not linear in someway.
After 'awakening' it's common that it seems to not last (but that is only you attaching to thoughts as something of value again) or feeling as if you're not feeling the same. The whole point is to be realized and after that 'realized-state' happens and settles, everything will seem the same, the only difference now is that you have an understanding of what this is. It's just life without labeling through thoughts. The mind feels it has lost something because it feels that it can grasp this or hold it for itself. That is the mind trying to put this unlabeling into a label again.
The whole idea is that there is no self here and never has been (just an illusion of perspective based on giving energy to thoughts), as a result if you think of yourself as a self that can hold this, then it's likely you will not be-able to ascend to it again until you realize that the mind of thoughts is not this, consequently no self-mind can ascend to this.
For more awakened presentations of different people pointing to this, check out my youtube channel which is dedicated to such people: http://www.youtube.com/user/nicholaspowiull
Beyond Failure
3 days ago
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