a reminder for the "time ahead"

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Photos Ring in the New Year with Photo Calendars. Add photos, events, holidays, whatever.

[Guest guest]

,

michael bindel <michael_bindel> wrote:

 

>The formless reality is our true Self

Body, Mind and World are simply thoughts

To abide in the formless reality is the purpose of life

Please forget all else

and abide in that alone

Only then will you have done

what needs to be done

and be a beacon light upon the World

 

 

 

Happy New Year, Michael!

 

 

A good way to understand the world of humans is to understand

oneself, not in an intellectual way, or even in an emotional or so-

called spiritual way, but just drilling down into the heart of the

prime motivation, the "core story", which is expressed most commonly

in the predicament of felt suffering we call "our life". It may be

discovered here that there is, at the root, something like an

innocent misunderstanding, a simple case of mistaken identity.

 

What we are speaking about here is the actual evolution of

consciousness itself. This human drama is not a mistake. Most of the

cherished "spiritual" teachings infer that this human life is some

kind of error or unfortunate occurrence - something to transcend,

some sin or even something of the nature of a stain - tainted. But if

we really inquire into this, we can see that consciousness has taken

form for a reason. It has come into form so that it can be conscious

as form. That's the beauty of this amazing human birth. Consciousness

can become self-aware through this human form. It can not only become

self-aware, but can finally manifest liberation through form, through

human-ness, in the way that we act in the field of space and time.

 

To be "liberated" from being a human being is not enough. The

consciousness itself has an impulse to manifest itself in the world

of space and time. This where some confusion enters in. To be able to

have this realization function in the world seems to be the true call

of evolution. Ultimately, the manifestation is a creation. It's a

birthing from an act of indescribable Love. It's certainly not some

terrible mistake that we need to escape from into some transcendental

realm. That's the goof of dualism. So many teachers confuse people

here, but if it's all One, it is truly ALL ONE! There is no reason

why that Oneness can't express Itself in the world of space and time

just as much as in the Infinite. Such distinctions can be seen as

mere notional indulgence, when all this "messiness" of our humanity

is allowed to be liberated from such judgments of belief and

conceptual filtration by the Power of Awakeness.

 

Nevertheless, there is some real confusion when consciousness takes

form and tries to become self-aware. It seems to be a risk that

consciousness takes in its maturation process, or its evolving into

becoming truly self-aware through form. It is simply a matter of

getting confused about its ultimate identity --

 

It comes into form, and then it thinks that it is that form,

separate and divided from all that is perceived to arise in the

sphere of consciousness itself. From this, a lot of suffering can and

does arise, the birth pangs of Itself to discover its True Nature,

and then to manifest it as Full Incarnation, the moment to moment

demand that all excuses be abandoned for acting anything less than

from complete awakeness in this very moment, whatever the moment may

contain.

 

If this inquiry takes one into the head it will feel very dry, very

intellectual. If it stays grounded in one's native heart openess, it

won't feel in the least bit abstract. In fact, it is actually quite

marvelously, joyously drenched in the juiciness of life, in whatever

way life may be expressing itself this moment, this moment in which

all is contained, the entire history of itself, at this pinpoint of

attention, called now.

 

In the place where consciousness is really unified, where it sees the

true nature of both formlessness and form, such phrases as "I am

That" are actually true. It becomes perceivable. One's sense of self

expands to include everything. Here nothing is really outside of

oneself. This view of unity consciousness is much vaster than the

view of formless consciousness (see Tozan's Five Ranks). One needs to

go beyond mind into one's own direct experience to really hear this,

or else it just becomes more stale spices added to the conceptual

stew of faux-nondualism.

 

It would initially appear that this experience of unity consciousness

is complete, once there is the realization that "I am That", "I am

everything". It may seem that there is nothing more to see.

 

And yet if inquiry proceeds further, there is something very simple

to recognize. Even in this unity consciousness there is an awareness

of this unity consciousness. There is a very simple wakefulness of

it, in which this unity consciousness is arising. This awakeness has

no qualities whatsoever. No bliss, no peace, no presence - not even

consciousness. Sometimes this "Original Face" is called Emptiness.

Yet it is even empty of any qualities of emptiness. Here there is no

self or Self. It is not a state of consciousness, and yet it does not

cancel what it transcends.

 

Separate self-consciousness, Formless consciousness, Unity

consciousness are all arising within this, are all birthed within It.

They are actually illuminated, or seen through, and thus become

Liberated from any identification within this, from any fixation at

any level of consciousness.

 

Since everything arises from this wakefulness, there is nothing that

needs to be eliminated. The only "problem" that ever arose was the

fixation on any level. From this wakeful Awareness, all states are

gathered in one vast embrace of Love, and are seen to co-exist

simultaneously, non-exclusively. When this is truly and deeply Seen,

and all fixation has been undermined by the acceptance of Embrace,

then one comes to realize that this wakefulness, which one IS, is in

Love with all states of consciousness.

 

It does not need to hide in egoic consciousness, in formless

consciousness, in unity consciousness, in peace or bliss - it loves

them all. It functions through them all. Then they all can begin to

dance!

 

This dancing of all states of consciousness together is really the

end, and the beginning, of incarnation, or conscious embodiment. To

take in the whole of experience in one embrace - to swallow the Ocean

in one gulp -- This is the Mystery!

 

What becomes realized is this simple awake Awareness that every human

being has, at every moment of their lives. One may have many

mystical, transcendental experiences, and perhaps, through Grace,

come eventually to the mystical experience of being truly human.

Stabilizing in such "experience", one will eventually become

ordinary, natural. Could this actually be the "ultimate ground", the

full flowering of the transcendent Mystery - that the most liberating

turns out to be the most ordinary? And yet, how could it be

otherwise? It's only natural! :-)

 

 

LoveAlways