Spiritual awakening
It is a constant and age-old invitation – at every moment of your life – to embrace yourself exactly as you are, in all your glorious imperfections. It’s about being present, coming out of the epic story of past and future (“the story of my life”) and standing up for this precious moment, knowing that even your feelings of non-acceptance are accepted here.
It’s about radically opening up to this extraordinary gift of a life, embracing both its pain and its joy, its bliss and its sadness, its ecstasy and its overwhelm. Knowing that you are life itself – great, awake, alive, free – you never separate from the Whole.
“Awakening is not a destiny – it is your birthright, your nature.”
10 non-dual principles
1. THERE IS NO DESTINATION; THERE IS ONLY NOW
There is only THIS; the current scene of the movie of your life. Come out of the epic story of time and space, past and future, regret and expectation, and the search for different states and experiences, even the search for spiritual enlightenment. Relax your usual focus on ‘what is no longer there’, ‘what is not yet there’ – things that are impossible for you to control from where you are. Discover the story of ‘My Life’ and be fascinated by what is going on, here and now. Be curious about this very lively dance of thoughts, sensations, feelings and impulses that takes place where you are. Remember that the Now is the only place where real answers can ultimately emerge. The present moment is your true home, prior to time and space. It’s all there is; the calm in the middle of the storm.
2. THINKING AND CREATING RESISTANCE SUFFERING
Pain is not the real problem; the real problem is our thinking about pain, our resistance to discomfort, our attempt to escape everything and reach an imagined future. The real problem begins when we start ruminating on our pain, our sadness, our fears, our anger; brooding over our discomforts, rewinding and fast-forwarding the movie of our lives! We chew on the sorrows of yesterday and tomorrow, instead of exploring and experiencing today’s experiences as they arise. We add an unnecessary layer of rumination and resistance to life, and this creates suffering. The invitation? Come out of the past and the future, seeking and striving, and encounter life in the raw, now, without judgment and without the expectation that ‘peace’, ‘relaxation’, ‘enlightenment’ or any change will be the result. Meet the moment on its own terms; see it all as a gift. Show up, for the pleasant and the unpleasant, the pleasurable and the painful, without an agenda.
3. THOUGHTS AND SENSATIONS ARE NOT PERSONAL, AND NOT THE TRUTH
View thoughts and sensations as neutral and impersonal events in consciousness. Just like sounds we hear, thoughts and physical sensations arise and disappear spontaneously, like waves in the ocean of You. They cannot be controlled, deleted or escaped. Develop the same kind attitude toward thoughts and sensations that you already have toward sounds. Meet all thoughts and sensations with an attitude of kindness and curiosity. See them as welcome guests in your presence.
4. YOU ARE THE SPACE FOR THOUGHTS, NOT THE THINKER OF THEM
Thoughts are not you, and they are not reality; they are just suggestions, possibilities, rumors, propaganda, judgments, votes, images, rewinds and fast-forwards that come and go – clouds in the vast sky of yours. Do not attempt to immobilize, freeze, stop, drop, remove, or control them. Be the space for them, even if they are very active right now! Remember: if you notice thoughts and are aware of them, you are not trapped in them. They don’t define you. You are the silent container, not the contained one. Be what you are – the unchanging embrace of thoughts, the vastness in which thoughts can come and go as they please.
5. BREATHE INTO YOUR DISCOMFORT AND PAIN; HONOR IT
Breathe in uncomfortable sensations; give them dignity. Honor them instead of closing yourself off from them and starving them of warmth. As you inhale, imagine or feel your breath moving into the neglected and tender area, infusing it with life and love. Fill the uncomfortable area in your body with oxygen, warmth and dignity. Don’t try to “cure” or even “let go” of the sensations. They want to be met, honored, included in the current scene. Assume that even discomfort contains intelligence; that it is not ‘against’ you. Know that true joy is not the absence or opposite of sadness or pain, but the willingness to embrace it all.
Acceptance does not mean that an unpleasant thought or feeling will go away; it may stay for a while. Don’t try to accept it (as this is often resistance in disguise), but recognize that it is ALREADY accepted, already here, already part of the scene. Treat it as if it might always be there! This takes away the time pressure (trying to make it go away, wondering why it’s “still there”). It IS here, now. Bow to THIS reality. Be curious. And let every urge, every feeling of frustration, boredom, disappointment or even despair, also come forward and be included. They are all part of the current scene, not blocks. Even a sense of blockage is part of the scene!
7. THERE IS NO ‘ALWAYS’ AND NO ‘NEVER’
In reality, there is no ‘always’ and no ‘never’. Bear these words in mind; they are lies and can create a sense of urgency and powerlessness; they feed the story of search and lack. There is no ‘rest of my life’, no ‘for years’, no ‘all day’. There is only Now, your only place of power. Sometimes even thinking about tomorrow is just too much work. Be here.
8. YOU CAN ONLY GET ‘THERE’ BY BEING ‘HERE’
Often we focus so much on the goal or destination that we forget the journey, disconnect from each precious step and stress arises, the feeling that we are ‘not there yet’. Yet joy can only be found in the here and now, and has nothing to do with goals, destinations, or getting what you want. Take the focus away from the 10,000 steps yet to come, the 10,000 steps you haven’t taken yet, the 10,000 things missing now, and think of the current step, this ancient living ground, your own intimate presence. To breathe. Feel the life in your body. Often we don’t know where we’re going, and that’s okay. Make friends with any insecurity, doubt, and anxiety you feel; Learn to love this sacred place without answers. It is alive, creative and full of potential.
9. EMBRACE YOUR STUPPS; IT’S PERFECT TOO
When you realize you’re lost in a story, that you’re disconnected, that you’ve forgotten the moment, celebrate it. You just woke up from a dream. There is a great intelligence within you, a power to realize and connect. You have stepped out of millions of years of conditioning. Don’t punish yourself for forgetting, celebrate your ability to remember! The moment doesn’t matter if you forgot! Forgotten is a perfect scene in the movie. Allow yourself to forget sometimes! Instead of trying to be “perfect,” be humble along the journey. Doubt, disappointment and disillusionment will be constant friends on this pathless path. There is no destination present, no image of ‘success’ to live up to. You can’t go wrong if there is no image of ‘good’.
10. STOP COMPARING; YOU ARE LIFE ITSELF!
You are unique; your journey is completely original. We may all be expressions of the same ocean of consciousness, but at the same time we are all unique expressions of that same ocean, totally unique in our waveness! Don’t compare yourself to anyone else! When you begin to compare, you devalue your own unique, irreplaceable gifts, talents, and truths and disconnect from your unique current experience. Don’t compare this moment to any image of what could have, should or could have been. Healing is possible when you say YES to where you are now, even if it is not where you dreamed you would be ‘now’. Trust, and sometimes trust that you can’t trust. Perhaps here you can even rely on your inability to trust, and even the feeling of not being able to hold the moment is itself held.