In The Endless Path, I came back to the theme that there is more than just the awakening discussed in Moment of Grace & Virgin Birth. Adyashanti also comes back to this theme in Ch.10 of Falling into Grace, discussing another important angle on this. I’ve talked of how the ignorance of more can be a barrier to it. Here, he speaks of how an unwillingness can also be.
“In many forms of spirituality, the kingdom of Heaven, or freedom, or nirvana, is an escape from the world of duality…from the turmoil of human existence.”
“To realize that dimension of what we actually are [Self Realization], this deeper sense of ourselves, is extraordinarily liberating and incredibly freeing. And yet, that’s not the end of our spiritual awakening. In the end, we’ll have to let go even of that – not push it away, though, any more than we’d push away the human experience. Both the world of form and the formless nothingness are on the wheel of duality, but what lies beyond? Do we have the courage to let go of both Heaven and Hell, to let go of our attachment to not only this life on earth and our humanness, but also to let go of our attachment to the spiritual? Can we actually let go of the spiritual goodies, the great peace and freedom of nothingness, the great stillness of being pure spirit? Can we find a way to not grasp onto these, also?”
This process has profound effects on many areas of life. We may have to relearn how to be in the world.
“Many people discover that they want to stay in the formless dimension, but they keep being pulled back here, to earth, by their jobs and their families and their children and the necessities of acting and being here. Then they seek and they seek for ways to be here without really being here. I meet a lot of people who’ve heard this saying of Jesus, ‘I’m in the world, but not of it,’ and they’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s what I want! I want to be in the world but not of it!’ But really what they mean is ‘I want to be barely in the world, but what I really want to be is to be lost in that formless dimension of pure consciousness.’ That becomes very problematic. For one, it’s actually impossible. In the world of duality, there’s always coming and going, there’s always life and death, there’s always this moment and that moment, so we can’t actually hold onto anything in the end.”
“…ultimately, the whole of spirituality is a process of surrender, of letting go, to such an extent that, even when you get the greatest spiritual revelation, eventually you’ll have to let that go too.”
“…very few people know how not to get attached to heaven.”
The lesson of this process is “The world is illusion. Brahman alone is real. The world is Brahman.” It’s the last phrase we’re discussing here. Not just finding reality but living it. Until we’re living it, we’ve not actually found it.
“This is really a mature spiritual vision, not a vision that enables us to escape from the world, but one that liberates us enough to participate in it, to exist day to day from a fierce and open heart, from a willingness to fully meet and experience each and every moment. When our consciousness is rooted in this ultimate mystery, in this dazzling dark, in the ultimate Godhead, then we’re no longer confined to Heaven or Hell. We’re no longer limited to being spirit or matter. In fact, finally we don’t see any difference between the two.”
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