Already Free (Quote of the Week)
Scientists tell us that when time began, fourteen billion years ago, something came from nothing. When you awaken to the ground of all Being, in a deep meditative state, you realize that when something came from nothing, the nothing didn’t disappear. That unmanifest, unborn dimension is the ever-present ground out of which everything is still arising in every moment. It is what the Buddha called “the deathless,” and what others call “eternity consciousness.” When you awaken to this dimension in your own awareness, you will find yourself always already resting in the eternal moment before time began. This is the recognition that liberates: Prior to everything, I already am. The experience of this recognition is not one of becoming liberated. It is of being already liberated. What you realize when you awaken to that ground is that there is a part of each and every one of us that is already free—from everything. That part of yourself, which is the ground of Being, has never been bound, trapped, or limited in any way. That’s the part of yourself that I want you to discover. It’s not the part of yourself that needs to become free. It is already free, right now.
Filed Under: Cosmology • EnlightenNext Editors’ Blog • Evolutionary Enlightenment • Evolutionary Spirituality • Freedom • Liberation • Quote of the Week • Religion
Just now I was lying in the paddock in the sun with the horses grazing around me… something was moving and I just needed a quiet place to shed a tear or two… as I lay back in the sun, I became aware of the absolute silence behind and around all the little noises, even the wind could not disturb it. There was a profound peace in that, and somehow it reminded me that I am whole, and that nothing can ever change that.
What the great mystery re enlightenment and awakening to the ground of being and becoming free is that some come to attain that realization and then there are those without or with scant awareness of it, almost disdaining any thought or acknowlegement of it.
We simply have to accept that there’s a time and purpose for everything and that like all organisms, growth happens at its own pace and timing.
Healthful practices should and are conducive to that “blossoming”, of awakening occurring. This way of living should, must be nurtured throught life.
Hi Frank, I wanted to thank you for your honesty and openness with sharing your Awakening, and thought I’d pick up the thread of our dialog here.
Would you agree, since you mentioned “emotional events,” that you had emerge a kind of “breakthrough,” where perhaps you felt clarity concerning your own self-imposed and habitual thought processes?
Generally speaking, genuine awakening comes in many stages, the first of these can indeed be felt emotionally, but the later and especially the higher stages emerge without emotional content. At the later stages in development,the emotional center has already been transformed,and one has been operating on Witnessing detachment,and speaking from experience,emotional response to most situations is rare.
Taking the Bodhisattva Vow must have been very powerful for you. Can we say that you have an Aspirational and Practical type of Enlightenment? As you said, you desire to “better” yourself, others,etc…That is your aspiration?
LOL(;}
Hi Nada,
I’ve learned to be cautious to generalize anything about
the wonder of experiencing Awakening but what I think can be commonly agreed is that many will speak of an overwhelming expanded comprehension, of Getting It unlike intellectual understanding, and a pretty radical change in the way of perceiving reality and life as it was. Would you agree or not?
By now these heightened events don’t occur for me and I miss those highs them but accept that those initial “understanding” events were enough to impress me for a lifetime.
Taking the Bodhisattva Vow was unexpectedly very effective in that by imagining how Bodhisattvas would think and live, I became one as much as I’m able to envision being so. It gives me a kind of strength and satisfaction of “doing the right thing” as much as I can.
I now live in a rather peaceful way on even keel with slight swings of emotion but mostly quietly painting, taking care of myself as best I can, grateful for the health I appreciate.
Hope this finds you well.
Aloha, namaste.
Hello again, Frank! As a person who is in process of writing a “cartography of consciousness”,(based in my own experience aligned with the research/writing of numerous knowledgeable others),I can both agree and disagree with your statement about generalizing “the wonder of experiencing Awakening.”
When I say “generally speaking”, I’m leaving the door open to the inevitably various translations and personal expressions that come after the fact of any truly “spiritual” experience. And while we can say that those experiences are exclusive and unique to the surface individual, it has been shown that there are presiding invariants in the deep structures, and the appropriate words here are “universal experience.” Here’s a quote from “Transformations of Consciousness”;Daniel P. Brown:
In his “in-depth cartography of meditative stages…the results strongly suggest that the stages of meditation are in fact of cross-cultural and universal applicability(at a deep,not surface,analysis).”
“Not only does this cartography tend to support the more literary claims of a ‘transcendent unity of religions’,it goes a long way towards helping to resolve some of the central conflicts between ‘theistic’ and ‘nontheistic’ approaches to contemplation(e.g.,Hindu versus Buddhist). By cutting his analysis at a sufficiently deep level(Brown)is able to demonstrate ‘how a Hindu and Buddhist meditator(cross-checked with Christian and Chinese texts)progress through the same eighteen stages of meditation and yet have different experiences along the stages because of the different perspectives which are taken.Since perspectivism is unavoidable in meditation,as in any other mode of inquiry,each of the descriptions..in the respective traditions is valid,though different.’ The perspective,however,(cont.)
Prt2…”has an influence on the outcome of the progression of experiences:while the path of meditation stages is similar across cultures,the experience of the outcome,enlightenment,is not.In this sense(Brown’s) conclusion is the opposite of stereotypical notions of mystical experience that perennial philosophers have usually meant by the ‘transcendent unity of religions’:there are many paths to the same end. (Brown’s)in-depth analysis of meditation experience suggests the opposite:there is one path which leads to different ends,different enlightenment experiences.”
As someone who came through the stages without “outer” teacher or teaching, I must agree. And there also is no disputing that “perspectivism”, grounded in cultural contexts, has an influence on the outcome and translation in every degree to any of the stages once wholly integrated. I understand the “dilemma of language”(attempting to describe spiritual experiences) but if you have contemplated your experiences and wholly integrated them, your discernment of subtle nuances and levels of ego transcendence should find some verbal precision. If we are to convey ourselves for the benefit of others, verbal development helps to bring greater understanding…wouldn’t you agree? If you haven’t yet come to fully understanding your own level of transformation, terms like “Getting It” and “Understanding” might just be the sign that you need to look deeper and longer and not just take for granted that “something happened.”If you are too shy or guarded to reveal yourself in more detail, that is fine.I understand the self-protectionism necessary on the internet,but “living your spirituality in public” means fearlessness in this intersubjective space,too..IMO. Are you capable of any more detail?
Looking forward to it!(;}
More precisely, Frank; What precluded your “expansion of consciousness?” What “emotional events” occurred? Can you identify specifically the choices you were making which were contributing to transcending your own limitations? What were you doing to loosen the contraction of ego-separation? If you have a stable level of “awakening”, it is because you have integrated that expansion into the totality of yourself, and that “integration” means your “intellect”, too, has been transformed. “Awakening” or an expansion of your awareness doesn’t just hang out on the outskirts of your being. I’d be happy to give you some of my personal examples but feel I’ve taken up enough space for now. Again, if you can give me more detail to what precluded your Awakening, perhaps it would be of great benefit for many.
LOL
Nada, TY for the task and challenge of trying to pinpoint what led to my Awakening. I have to give thought which may take time.
Hello Nada: This is my attempt to relate my Awakening for you:
There was a Phase 1 Awakening which was a culmination of a period where I became attracted and fascinated with the exotic and the then mysterious concept of being, of succeeding in becoming one of those becoming purified to become enlightened and a Buddha. I lived like a monk though living in frenetic Manhattan, meditating, living and eating frugally, going to a Zen temple to meditate with the sangha weekly, attending many various meetings with Sufi and Indian teachers. I recall harboring a constant and strong yearning and intention of becoming enlightened, doing breathing and yoga exercises and also smoking grass quite a lot. What was also influential at this time was hearing a series of lectures on the radio by Baba Ram Dass and reading his “Be Here Now”.
In the back of Ram Dass’ book, there is a practice with a promise that if you purified your heart enough, you will envision the Buddha, surrounded by an aureole of blue flames. Seated in front of a candle on my puja one evening, to my astonished and excited eyes, there indeed appeared to me that vision, which I ecstatically took to mean I had indeed purified my heart and was progressing toward if not had attained Buddhahood.
I lay Phase 2 of my Awakening to having taken the Bodhisattva vow administered by the Dalai Lama along with a full audience of others. I hesitated to do so, not sure I would be able to take on that heavy a responsibiliy but began trying to understand how a bodhisattva would behave and think. As time has passed, I have gradually indeed become a bodhisattva to the best of my understanding and ability, trying to better self, my relationships to my fellow humans, to the animate and inanimate environment, to our surrounding space environment and cosmos. I believe Phase 2 of my development is more sober, matter-of-fact and not as naive as I once was, more involved in work and action, with conviction rather than attempting.
I realize I have further work to do, more understanding to attain but I feel grateful and blessed to have attained this understanding and feel assured I am doing right and progressing toward future Buddhahood, if not in this lifetime, then eventually, no turning back now.
This is the best I can do to relate my Awakening and spiritual understanding. Thankyou for the opportunity to express these thoughts. Feel free to ask for any info.
Aloha, Frank Luke
Nada, here’s some afterthoughts about Awakening:
I would say that in my naivete before I was awakened, I was attracted to the ascetism and estheticism of Zen, admirous of Zen art and culture. I was also very attracted to a land of promised peace and enlightened beings and yearned being one of them.
My Awakening dispelled all those sweet notions and I live accepting life as I live it, all of it.
As I think and dig deeper, more occurs to me to share, Nada, re Awakening:
Living in NYC, I was totally wired to pursue making it, really ambitious and bent on becoming successful in the way materialism and our culture influences us. I can say I lusted for success though not being very successful at it. I left a job in a publishing house and decided to freelance on my own and did that for a decade or so, sometimes doing well and sometimes not. What transpired is that with the freedom to philosophize, read and cast about with that gnawing within to find a way to live that would quell that gnawing, I gradually and fortuitously found spirituality, an unexpected turn in my trajectory, and became Awwakened as I’ve already related.
What’s interesting about my story,IMO,is the way I turned from that unsatisfying pursuit of “success” to that of becoming spiritually inclined and becoming Awakened.
Frank, Thank you for taking the time and effort to respond thoughtfully and honestly. All you’ve said is quite interesting and a genuine look into your personal life. I’m sincerely touched by your expression.
I’m guessing then, that your “expansion” and “different way of seeing life” happened after your vision of the Buddha?
What did this expansion “feel” like?
If you don’t mind…
What’s wonderful about communicating and connecting with others to talk about spirituality is that it enables us to commune with others on that level of consciousness.
What’s also great is that it acts to allow us (me) to communicate and commune with my Self as I aspire to become, to BE!
Thank you Andrew for this beautiful piece and you for always fearless presentation of the deepest spiritual truths. You are a true spiritual hero in a world of compromise and fear. Thank you, fearless brother X
Thank you for this beautiful insight!
Blessings!
The Rigveda describes it as Hiranyagarbha or the Golden Womb.The Hiranyagarbha finds expression through the senses.The sense which is called Akash is the Hiranyagarbha.