Down to earth enlightenment

[Guest guest]

A delightful enlightened lady shows you how down to earth, how 'everyday'

enlightenment is. Unlike some people who make it into a mysterious, unattainable

thing.

 

Go quickly to this address and read the interview:

 

http://www.angelfire.com/realm/bodhisattva/vener.html

 

An extract:

 

VALERIE: ....... People want these glimpses of freedom, these " bliss moments " to

be their constant state of consciousness. And you imagine that freedom would be

void of the senses of self that you're trying to fix, trying to get out of. Now

the allowing in my body is such, that even that idiot you're trying to get rid

of, is free to be here as it is. And when I allow that idiot, when Valerie just

is herself completely--even the parts that are frustrated, or don't want to be

here, or are jealous, or say stupid things, whatever the hell it is--when I

allow it all freely, then I see how universal and how perfect it truly is. When

you're a jerk, be a jerk. It's trying not to be the jerk that makes you an

asshole! [Laughter]

 

From the point of view that " Valerie is in charge " , there is

self-consciousness. Nobody really likes feeling self-consciousness. But, the

chemicals of self-consciousness don't go away by avoidance. If I'm sitting in a

room and somebody says, " Answer a question about Enlightenment. " My body goes,

" Oh fuck, now I'm going to have to say something great. What the hell is

Enlightenment from Valerie's point of view? " If I'm trying not to be a jerk

while that's occurring, then I'm not going to allow Valerie to actually express

what Enlightenment is. There is an assumption that I would sit here and not feel

self-consciousness. And I'm saying that self-consciousness exists and I exist,

and I house self-consciousness. I don't avoid self-consciousness. That's the

only difference. In your question, you're saying that you've glimpsed this sense

of Self, and then you seem to go back to the self you dislike, and so you try to

get back to Self again. I'm saying, that no matter what comes up, I'm fine. I'm

not going anywhere, or trying to get back to anything.

 

We are born through a system of contraction and release. When giving birth, we

are sacrificed to a system of contraction and release. We know intuitively, that

relaxing into the process as much as possible and participating as fully as

possible, makes the whole thing easier. When you're giving birth, your capacity

is being stretched and stretched and believe-you-me stretched beyond it's

seeming capacity. This process of contraction and release (and the demand for

increased capacity) is always occurring, at all times whether giving birth or

not. How perfect that our way of coming into this world is a dramatic and tacit

experience of what it is to be lived in this world. That same contraction,

release, inhale, exhale, expansion, sacrifice--that is what you are.

 

So, if you are resisting this process, or see it as distasteful, you might seek

Enlightenment with the hope that you wouldn't have to experience this sacrifice

anymore. Your question is " How can I maintain this sense of Self that I find

more pleasurable than the " me " I usually identify with? " And I say to you, I am

doing what I do in every occasion at all times--naturally surrendering. I'm not

saying that waves of self-consciousness, or waves of whatever, no longer come

and go through my being. Enlightened or not, waves come and go. The relationship

to the waves is what changes. I'm fully allowing them. I am a conscious

sacrifice to the Self. And that sacrifice is my pleasure.

 

In my Near Death Experience, it became evident that the more blissful states of

Self, those less identified with the human body, were much more pleasurable, and

therefore, harder to let go of. But it's always the same, whether I'm

experiencing seeming pain or seeming blissfulness. It's the same practice. This

is why I get all grounded and earthy and talk about taking a shit. Because

whether you're taking a shit or sitting on a high mountain in the most blissful,

contented state, you're still the same receptor/releaser. And you're an integral

part of a larger, much larger process of reception/release. When you believe you

are supposed to be different, in any given moment--different than you are

perfectly being lived--you have just made your small " s " self the center of the

universe.

 

JLW: Everything would be different. I understand...

 

LML: Here's another question...Most people in the West don't relate to Awakening

as something that's possible for them to experience. Do you see it as something

that is available to everyone and not just a rare few?

 

VALERIE: I love this question, I really do, because when " I " was trying to

become Enlightened, it was impossible...

 

LML: That's what I'm finding out!

 

VALERIE: Yes. And then I realized that I already was Enlightened, but I wasn't

particularly fond of what that meant as a sacrifice. We are one functioning

being, so of course, every single being has the capacity. And every single being

is required to feel very specific energies moving through it. So, if I am one

point in a geometric circle and I decide that from my little point of view I'm

not happy with the way things seem and I would like it to be different from what

it is. I'm being silly because I'm just a point in a much larger circle. The

unenlightened asana believes that point over there is a better point of view.

But from the point of view of literally being the circle then all points are

obviously perfect, and thus, perfectly allowed. All of us are Enlightened

simultaneously. Not all of us are experiencing the pleasure point of that. Some

of us are holding up different ends of ourselves.

 

JLW: What about those that carry evil for the world? Some people seem to embody

it archetypally.

 

VALERIE: They certainly do. And it's a great sacrifice.

 

JLW: In a way they sacrifice their whole life to show it to everybody.

 

VALERIE: That's correct. We're holding ourselves full. These ends that are

extremes have to be held. And I swear, when you're at either end, you're at the

same place. So, the most truly evil and the most truly good are doing the same

practice. They may have their attention in different places, but they're doing

the same practice.

The point for me is not, do people have the capacity for Enlightenment, it's are

we willing to be that vulnerable? We may get hit over the head with a bat at any

given moment; we are not in control of any of it!

 

LML: We don't have any control over stopping pain from happening.

 

VALERIE: That's correct. And how many people are even capable of relaxing past

the want to stop the pain from happening? Everybody thinks that Enlightenment

means that they wouldn't feel the things that they don't like feeling. However,

fully human manifestation--as the body--allows extreme energies to move through

without interference, even those that are distasteful. Self-consciousness is

most distasteful! But if I didn't allow it, then I wouldn't be able to help you

allow it.

 

So, how many people are capable of my ridiculous, seemingly heroic,

vulnerability? I think literally every single human being has that capacity and

is doing that perfectly, already, in a larger system in which we exist. So

whether you're Enlightened or not, you are absolutely perfectly living as the

vibration that you are.

 

JLW: In the Buddhist teaching of Prajnaparamita, it speaks about the

Bodhisattva, the one who is dedicated to the Awakening of others, praying that

all beings experience conscious Enlightenment. It's recognizing that everyone is

already that, but it's not conscious. And because it's not conscious, there is a

lot of suffering.

 

VALERIE: Yes, but even here, it's about getting to Enlightenment and getting out

of " suffering " --it's still the same asana. Saving the world is very noble, very

heart felt. But praying for everyone's Enlightenment is still an avoidance,

still seeking. When you die, really die, completely die, capital " D " die, the

whole conversation changes.

 

LML: Are you noticing that more people are receptive to what you are saying than

earlier in your life, like at the time of the fire?

 

VALERIE: I don't know, either people are more receptive or I'm meeting more

people who are receptive. I know that my ability to speak it has changed. I've

been honed by the people who didn't understand me. Let me tell you honey, I have

been honed! It comes down to the Truth we have heard for centuries, yet hardly

anyone seems to understand, because it's a secret until you tacitly understand

it. I am that very One that lives me. I am That that's living you. I am in That

that's living you and me.

 

JLW: What do you see as the main obstacle to Awakening for Westerners?

 

VALERIE: The belief that they are unawakened.