One of the things spiritual teachers will talk about is the shift from the head to the heart. A shift from identification with our mind into the soul, into the heart of our being. This a natural shift that happens when we begin to disengage from the ego’s need to control and settle into our deeper core.
Adyashanti talks about how, after the initial waking into Being, there is often a kind of honeymoon followed by the minds attempt to come back and regain control. It does not succeed, but there can be a time of back and forth, of less full experience of silent being.
This often comes up in relation to change or transition. If we’re living from the heart/soul, we can find ourselves making apparently illogical choices or taking what seem like undue risks. Or maybe even doing nothing when it seems something SHOULD be done. (laughs)
The mind likes to be able to understand, to follow what’s going on. If the steps we’re intuiting to take don’t make logical sense, the mind can start throwing up objections and doubt. This is where we can get back into a bit of struggle. Keep in mind we have many, many years of habitual thinking about “the way it’s supposed to be“, who we are (ie: what we do), and all the shoulds and musts that go with that. (this can be stronger in men)
When they arise as we become more conscious, it can be easier to see them as they are and let them diffuse. Sometimes, they can even by amusing. “I used to think that!?!” But some of the deeper messages can bring with them big stories from the past, like “remember what happened last time!!“, along with the unresolved emotional baggage. This can be pretty distracting if we’re feeling uncertainty about next steps.
It’s also good to be able to recognize when things are going fine but they’re arising in a form we’re not comfortable with in some way. Back to the shoulds above, this again can bring up the old noise. Also, intuition to not pursue something can be felt as resistance, even fear or anger if we’re pushing against it. We don’t want to claim those feelings as personal. We might then interpret ourselves as weak and unable to act when it was just a signal to not go there. This reflects the process of being able to feel clearly and accept it as it is, then recognize objections as they are too. We don’t want to ignore our mind, we just want to give it less weight. And not take is so personally.
One of the tricks in this process is to recognize that some of the old models about life are no longer true. If we try to apply them in a post-waking scenario, we may be completely misunderstanding what is taking place. And that of course gives the mind all kinds of reasons to dump all over what’s arisen.
A good example that comes to mind – purification. If we have some history with an effortless meditation and/or clearing, we become familiar with the difference between what’s arising and what’s leaving. Both our dramas and purification can bring up similar feelings, but one is being reinforced while the other is released. If we don’t understand the difference, we can start to fight even with what is being resolved. Or we can give weight to a brief wave that was departing, thus inviting it back in some way.
This is the importance of knowledge on the journey. Understand what is taking place so we don’t get in the way of it. So much. We’ll always find ourselves caught up in things here and there. Then grokking things in whole new ways.
And that’s the other part of learning – learning to be easy on yourself. We’re all learning here. Learning to be with what is. Learning who we really are, in progressively deeper ways. And learning to be in the world as who we are and the apparent nature of the world changes.
And of course, learning to follow the bliss. 😉
Davidya
Great post, thank you. The balancing between getting out of the way and having a light attention on what is coming up as you recommend is interesting. I´m reading The End of Your World by Adyashanti now, fantastic book, for everyone. And the subtle quiet bliss is there all the time, especially noticeable when staying well rested.
Thanks, Kjetil
Yes, that light attention is talked about in the Yoga Sutra. Often, it’s taken to mean control and force. There’s an art to learning to use power without force, to allow without becoming passive, to flow with life not against it.
Great book, I quite enjoyed too. Though it’s helpful if you have some tastes of what he’s talking about.
And very nice. The bliss gradually becomes more established and deeper, until it can be quietly present, even when things are more challenging. Yoga calls it “steady pleasantness”.