Awakening (What Paves the Way)

In this video we discuss the initial shift called "awakening" or sometimes "kensho."
We go into detail about what it is that leads up to this shift, and how things change as one goes through this gateless gate.
Photo by NEOSiAM 2021

[@jed88]

‘I use to live in a room full of mirrors. All I could see was me. I took my spirit and I smashed my mirrors. Now, the whole world is here for me to see’. Jimi Hendrix.

[@radicalhonesty3628]

as I watch this video, I pray. I pray for: health, wealth, and love. perfect health. abundant wealth. sacred love. I pray to be radically honest, with everyone, about everything. I pray to be flooded: with bliss and with joy. I pray to attract and receive miracles... I pray for continual healing, on every level, in every way: for myself, and for the entire planet...

[@eftixismeni2010]

It was spontaneous for me after much extreme suffering and then the loss of a loved one compounded by a plastic surgeon that was abusive to me. That was the last straw. I had no previous spiritual training. I was brought up Orthodox Christian although I did not practice my religion. I was in crisis mode when this happened to me.

[@Mevlinous]

48:37 “you are already beyond the boundary of every thought that could ever arise here” There is something so strangely paradoxical here but I know it to be true. Although I know that ultimately, there is no separation between the space, and whatever arises in it, somehow to the space it’s just not a problem. So, even though when a thought arises, the space is that thought, so if there is frustration, the space IS frustration, but at the same time, if I let the space become that frustration, it’s somehow okay. And, it’s not even like I am letting the space become frustration, just that any obstacles are removed. Whereas before, frustration was seen as something happening to me, the separate self, and thus there was resistance, now with the space being responsive and allowing, anything can move through here without issue.

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

Exactly! Beautiful insight :)

[@kenjones7719]

I'm so glad and grateful that the awakening I had was before I knew what awakening is and have since been able to put it in some context, only after years of examining various teachings and paths. Yes, it happened during what I now know to be "inquiry" after a few years of meditating with a mantra technique that only brought me so far. What I'm getting is confirmation of the experience and what I perceived in the process and that helps me to better appreciate the value of awakening. Recently, I read a description of the awakening of the man they called Buddha and it wasn't any different from what I experienced, despite not having followed any Buddhist paths or read much in the way Buddhist texts. Go figure. That said, I did read The Book by Alan Watts. If I had to describe the awakening, however, I would put it in the realm of Hindu scriptures, notable those on Vijnana Advaita as found in Ramakrishna's teachings, although I only stumbled upon it in the last month. Even more remarkable, I managed forget the awakening for over 40 years!

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

That's wild! Just goes to show, this process does WTF it wants to. I've seen so many variations :)

[@kenjones7719]

@@SimplyAlwaysAwake There's a lot more that I have recently come to find reported by others, including Ramana Maharshi's description of his initial awakening, right down to the bright orange ball. I compared notes with another who had peculiar experiences that I had, but which I have not found among others, at least so far. I've come to call it a beyond death experience (BDE) as during awakening one realizes they have always been and are not the body. In that sense and others, it was an out-of-body experience preceded by a full kundalini awakening. It was also an eyes-closed, during-meditation experience in which I checked the body for breathing. Finding it was still alive, I returned to the subtler realms to learn as much as I could, a process that lasted several hours. I look forward to reading your book and the one you have planned on Post-Awakening, which would naturally be a great name for a breakfast cereal ; ).

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

@@kenjones7719 😂😂… yummmm post awakening! Now with ecstasy

[@amazias9213]

Thank you so much.

[@TomDavidMcCauley]

Great talk, great music!

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

Thank you

[@rubyslippers9140]

"It know what to do" I have had this phrase surface quite alot during meditation.

[@nicoleyoung3927]

That was such a great video with so much information… I have to say part of me was feeling distracted from the one box that kept adjusting the camera, and then playing with the dog and not letting the dog go free… I have trouble focusing, I had to cover that box… extremely helpful information though! Explained so well.. I almost feel transmission through the video, but that distraction kept popping up for me.

[@annarichardson8222]

Same, lol

[@GumbyTheGreen1]

If I’m understanding, you seem to be saying that enlightenment can happen while one has resistance (at 1:09:02). But doesn’t resistance cause suffering?

[@marianoelerosa4604]

Hi from Uruguay, why does it look that the ego has volition?

[@eftixismeni2010]

Please stop saying it’s nothing special. It’s extremely special and phenomenal.

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

If you're holding a relationship with "it," that will continue to appear in your experience as a dualistic construct. This is the hypnosis of experience and projecting the specialness we secretly want as an individual onto spirituality. The problem is that special = separate. It's a double edged sword.

[@KK-qd6ro]

It may be individually Unique, but uniqueness is not unique . Everything is a Paradox like the double edged sword. 😉

[@thomadams7621]

@@KK-qd6ro It is all and nothing at all.

[@MrChesterification]

Fucking ego 😂😂❤❤ Love this video so far. I’m only 24 minutes in. Oddly enough, though some of the things you talk about happening after the initial shift have happened to me in some degree, at least, and I haven’t had the initial shift yet

[@Nina-rz5ow]

You say when you wake up and are in the honeymoon phase you realize that you never had to worry. That there is nothing ever to worry about. What about a loved one with a life threatening disease? How can you not worry or feel that your worry is not natural or necessary in a situation like this?

[@snakedogman]

What does the worrying change about this loved one's situation? How is it "necessary"?

[@GumbyTheGreen1]

You mentioned going beyond consciousness (at 1:26:07). What does that mean? Is there something even more fundamental than consciousness? I’ve thought that it’s basically synonymous with experience but are you saying that you can experience something outside of it?

[@nicbarth3838]

there is nothing beyond it, without consciousnesses you are not aware of anything, so going beyond it would essentially be like a dreamless sleep thats all

[@GumbyTheGreen1]

@@nicbarth3838 After listening to this portion of the talk again, I think what he’s talking about is going beyond the experience of unbound consciousness to nonduality, a deeper level of realization.

[@nicbarth3838]

@@GumbyTheGreen1 ah gotcha, from what it sounds like it seems that this awakening stuff is at first transient or state defendant and then becomes a trait, and when you move deeper I wonder to what extend those can move from state to traits as well, not sure but it seems like based on what they say when talking about initial awakening, that something changes perceptually at a baseline level instead of it just being transient. I honestly dont know what unbound consciousness even is so I in no way to have a shot at knowing what non-dual states are, only from memory but thats not to trust-able. Unbound consciousness I suppose I couldn't understand unless I experience it, I have heard many describe it but its just too vague with words that arent defined, but Im sure that if I had a similar experience then their explanations would already be enough. I cant help but want awakening even tho its paradoxical and all that but there is no way someones going to tell me that nothing changes, it seems obvious that something happens to a persons baseline mood and attention, and of course something about how meaning is formed seems more flexible, enlightenment to me doesn't necessarily entail knowledge or insight into some fundamental truth I think only in relation to your subjectivity maybe, I think more so that enlightenment is movement towards modifying the neural systems or mind whatever you believe, that underlie the process of instantiating meaning on stimuli and its broader contexts that ultimately lead to a more utilitarian representation of the world and your relationship to it rather than some Truth, but the things that constitute its formation. Thats what awakening seems like to me not exclusively but yea I dont know I haven't gone through it so who knows. Have you tho?

[@Nina-rz5ow]

How do you find that space where you don’t have thoughts? I get no inkling of a place without thoughts. You indicate that we should stay in that space when it happens, but for me I never notice that it does.

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

orient toward the next thought right now, just wait for it. Then do it again and again like you can't wait to see the next one :)

[@jaime7203]

You can use the question,"what is the next thought going to be", and just keep noticing the space between and how you didn't know what that thought was going to be until it appears.

[@snakedogman]

​@@jaime7203but "I wonder what my next thought is going to be" is itself a thought. Isn't even "focusing our awareness" preceded by some thought? "Now I'm going to focus my awareness on the space between thought" is again a thought. Who is focusing awareness? Who is deciding where to focus awareness?

[@RamSamudrala]

@@snakedogman Focusing awareness (or just awareness) is spontaneous. If you sit still, you will see that awareness drifts without thoughts or with thoughts that come after. Awareness (attention) is ALWAYS first/primary. Then the thought appears that colours that awareness. This happens so much that you may ask as the OP but there is a space between thoughts, and there is awareness of thoughts. But it's possible to confuse this attention with another thought. Think about deep sleep, you are aware of it, but there is nothing, no thoughts (unless there are dreams).

[@ninaharlankohl9569]

When you say beyond "consciousness," does that mean beyond "perception?"

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

No, perception is experienced as non-dual at baseline when attention is no longer in the thought/consciousness gate on a constant basis. More like total immersion than loss of perception ☺️

[@georgecruz2977]

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

books.simplyalwaysawake.com

[@Nina-rz5ow]

When you say it’s radically intimate are you saying that it’s in our own personal world?

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

more intimate than personal. By Far. When there's a sense of separate person, there is still quite a lot of dualistic energy in the mind. It's like remembering (experientially) that you are already everything in the cosmos, and thus what meaning does "you" have anymore?

[@thomadams7621]

@@SimplyAlwaysAwake And yet... it must come from inside. It is not something one can seek outside of themselves... it grows from inside out.

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

@@thomadams7621 Initially yes I think the guidance to look inside is valuable and relevant. In deeper stages of realization when one really confronts the illusions of identity and distinction, inside and and outside will lose meaning. Indeed the sense of a body will drop out

[@thomadams7621]

@@SimplyAlwaysAwake Agreed. But no need to look for it, it is inside.

[@noonespecial24]

"Beyond consciousness". WTF? What does that even mean? I know that every word is a man-made concept, including consciousness. And I get the idea of moving beyond concepts. But considering that if consciousness (or whatever you choose to call that which makes experience possible) is removed or transcended, full stop. I get the idea of no experiencer only experiencing but without awareness ...... Full stop. What am I not getting?

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

Crazy right? All I can tell you is that realization goes beyond consciousness at some point and when that happens it's an order of magnitude beyond what you thought realization was before (even through experience)... This rabbit hole goes deep my friend

[@noonespecial24]

Is there ever concern that you might get lost in the rabbit hole? I'll just have to trust you until I (bahahahah) get there. It's really hard to talk about since we live in a man made conceptual framework. No language for reality. Just understanding that nothing spoken represents reality goes a long way toward logically proving that what we experience as an individual being cannot ultimately be actually real as perceived. Believing that because we have a word for something, we know what it is, creates most of the trouble in this mind generated illusion. Thanks again Angelo! 🙏

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

@@noonespecial24 🙏🏼