So What? Spectator Spirituality Update
I haven’t addressed the apathy virus that’s so rampant in our community in quite a while, so I’m going to take a few minutes to do so again now. Sadly enough, all too often the nondual path often seems to be a movement from innocent enthusiasm to jaded skepticism or even bitterness. If that’s your experience, you’re doing it wrong. Heads up.
The idea that we can sit on the sidelines in our bathrobes and just watch others play the “spiritual game” and expect to have clarity delivered to us via room service is both foolish and flawed. I have met a broad swath of people in the nondual spiritual community, and the people I notice most often (by a mile) who are waking up and clearing up are the people that do something.
Please don’t talk to me about “no doer.” Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. It didn’t work for me, and the odds are really, really high that it’s not going to work for you either. Praying for a bolt of lightning is not nearly so effective as walking through the storm with a long metal pole on your shoulder. Do something.
It’s completely paradoxical. I’m the first to agree that on the surface it makes no sense whatsoever, but from what I have seen in the hundreds of awakenings that I’ve played a part in we absolutely, positively can either markedly encourage or discourage Conscious Awakeness to begin to flow through a given unit.
From what I’ve seen, if we’re not deeply, actively involved in making every effort to wake up, then it’s probably not going to happen for us. It’s time to grow up and regardless of paradox and rumor, take a little responsibility for our own awakenings. Forget all the philosophical hoodoo about “who it would be that could do that, because I know I don’t really exist.” If you are not consciously awake to your True Nature right this minute, then the odds are stacked to the sky that you do think you exist as a unit and that you think you are that unit–the one who’s reading these words.
So instead of living in nondual denial as a result of what you have read and think and want to believe, take advantage of that situation and use the unit to help you. Don’t try to understand it, do it. So long as it feels like there’s someone there who can take action and make decisions, then I strongly advise you to do so.
The people who, in the main, are waking up and clearing up are those who have been honest and humble enough to see through the very limited and limiting, “there’s nothing to do, and no one to do it” and have made an active commitment to their own spiritual well being and so-called advancement. Have you? Have you really?
Nisargadatta called this quality earnestness; I call it willingness. He and I are talking about the same thing, and percentage-wise he did not, and I do not see all that much of it. It forever amazed him, and it amazes me. There is such a sense of entitlement out there now. We have been so overwhelmed by the amount of previously-precious-now-yawner material presented to us daily via the Internet that in many cases we no longer bother to vet it, respect it, or support it. We have some notion that “everyone should be supporting me and my awakening” even though I’m not doing anything myself.
I don’t mind sharing with a straight face that in my seeking days I was consumed by awakening. I read and listened to everything I could get my hands on. I wrote bloggers and authors. I worked in the background for years writing book reviews to support writers, publishers, and other seekers. Finally I started the original Awakening Clarity blog where again I actively promoted that same crowd. I hung links for blogs and teachers, directing traffic to their websites. I got involved.
And you know what? I woke up and cleared up. The spiritual path is essentially the movement from “What can I get?” to “How can I help?” I had been a taker all of my life, but I finally learned the way the world really works, and I began to play by those rules. The rest of the story is self-evident.
I am leveling with you friend-to friend, person-to-person, not as some lofty spiritual teacher who lives on a cloud. I am one of you guys, an average-Joe spiritual seeker who rode the roller coaster of disappointment, depression, and desperation, and finally had the amazing experience of having Conscious Awakeness begin to flow through this husk; nothing more, nothing less. Do as you will, but don’t say I didn’t point you in the right direction.
Fredness 4.6.15
April 7, 2015 @ 6:38 pm
Fred, I feel the passion in your words . Thank you for the firm nudge and urging to all to ” lean in “
April 7, 2015 @ 7:21 pm
Thank you, Tommy. You are so very welcome.
April 7, 2015 @ 7:38 pm
Thanks, Fred. A good reminder that it does take work (at least for me). I’ve envisioned this past year as traveling through a dark forest; I’ve been oppressed by waves of fear and often despair. But I knew that the only way through was to seek the truth. I was guided by a few principals – face the feelings, seek guidance from sage friends and teachers, pray (a lot), meditate, and study non-duality. I sometimes felt I was getting nowhere, or even spiraling downward. But now I’m experiencing more and more clarity. The light, the bliss and love are all right here!
But until you see it, you have to search. Perhaps a better way to phrase it, to avoid the paradox of the seeker seeking itself, is to say that it takes work, or willingness as you say. When you do in fact awaken, it will be in the here and now, so we don’t need to worry that we’re setting it off to the future, as long as we are doing the work now. And when we do awaken, we realize that we always were awake, and all that work was actually kind of fun!
And after awakening, the work continues. In fact, I’ve heard that initial awakening experiences are really only just the beginning of the adventure.
April 7, 2015 @ 8:28 pm
This is fantastic! I’m thinking about writing a short post about our meeting this morning. It was truly fabulous! This note tells me you’re still clear as a bell. I wrote Betsy immediately after our meeting, still aglow from your glow. She’s also very happy for you, for both of you.
Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, we are free at last!!” Welcome home, Kathleen.
All love,
Fred
April 8, 2015 @ 7:53 am
Thanks, Fred! I’m still so happy! It feels so good to know that there is never a moment presented to me (or to anyone) where I can’t be fully awake. And fully aware that I’m fully awake.
Thank you so much for guiding me to freedom. And thank Betsy for me, too. Our partners (and all the people, animals, objects, etc. in our lives) are essential to who we are, our inspiration, and what we give to the universe.
Love and peace and clarity to you, Betsy, your animals, family, friends, objects, all beings sentient and insentient, and to beautiful Oneness,
Kathleen
April 10, 2015 @ 7:38 pm
Thank you so much, Kathleen. It’s such a joy to welcome you Home.
All love,
Fred
April 10, 2015 @ 4:34 pm
Finding a way to use the paradox has been helpful to me. And the main phrasing I use currently is from ACIM: lack of consistent effort comes from the belief that one (and others) are not worthy of it. So the “work” I now do I can realize is to undo the work that actually kept me worhtless (ie not doing anything is actually resistance to my Good and therefore work). Also, faith in the moment is essential (and “no choice” because I don’t have the energy any more to be seeking anywhere – or when- else anymore!). That faith also ties in with the paradoxical “I need do nothing”. Because I need do nothing that is actually worry (future tripping) or depression (past tripping). I can turn Nowhere into Now Here!.
Gladly joining Fredness’es ranks until I experience my One without ranks! Mike
April 10, 2015 @ 7:41 pm
April 14, 2015 @ 11:26 pm
Dunno if you’ll see this, Mike, but ACIM was/is/has been helpful to me in the ‘doing/undoing’ of the Journey.