Another Q & A

Sometimes, good points come up in responding to questions in various forums. Occasionally, I share them here with readers of this blog. Rather than trying to rewrite them into a typical format, I save them as is, edited a little for context. This gives you the flavour of it too.

From comparing notes with many dozens, there seems one common process but many distinctions in how it is experienced here. Just the distinction between how consciousness is unfolding relative to how Shakti is unfolding makes a massive difference. The dryness mentioned below is one expression.

And yes, the cultural, teaching, and terminology differences. A common current example is those from a Ramana linage don’t talk about stages even if it’s been their experience – simply to avoid the creating of concepts. (mind creates concepts anyway -thats what it does) Adyashanti does talk about stages but formalizes them less. And then there’s people like myself on the spectrum, formalizing models so the process can be better understood and supported by science and thus the mainstream.

Myself, i don’t think head, heart, gut from Adyashanti is over-stated. I would consider it understated. If you watch the DVD Journey After Awakening, where Adya and Loch Kelly discuss the Self Realization to Unity process, you’ll see what I mean. Adya describes his 2 week “BBQ” at the gut. The stages each come with their own unique realities. The truth of Self Realization is not the truth of Oneness, for example. These shifts can be very soft or very distinct.

A teacher with a softer experience may be less inclined to talk about distinct stages as well. In Adya’s case, he had a big unity-style initial awakening, then settled back into Self Realization. Established Unity came post-BBQ years later. A distinct transition but one already more familiar.

The “dryness” is due to awakening to consciousness with little refinement (Shakti). It is emptiness rather than fullness. A key flag is seeing the world as illusion. This indicates rajas is dominant, not sattva. However, fully established Self Realization, without yet the heart opening, is called Nirvana or Sat Chit Ananda for good reason. If the bliss has not come online yet, it is not yet fully established.

The Upanishads describe the bliss coming on in 10 stages, each 100x the prior. These can come on with a rapturous bang. As I’ve heard 2 people describe, you hope that doesn’t happen in public. (laughs)

And yes, different personalities and bodies will emphasize different things, leading to unique flavours of the process. An emphasis on understanding will flower more of that. Of devotion, more of the heart, etc.

As that gets increasingly embodied, the specific flavour of that being gets increasingly amplified. So every great sage has their own unique flavour. The joy is then in finding a flavour we resonate with. 😉

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The Yog Vasishtha is from the epic Ramayana. It is the teaching of the sage Vasishtha to prince Rama in the royal court. It is attended by the court, many other sages, the community and angels. He is one of history’s most illustrious sages and the discourse leads to Rama’s full enlightenment and that of many others present. He’s also in the Rig Veda. His impact on your own journey is greater than you may recognize. It is seers like this that awaken the laws of nature that allow awakening to unfold at all. It is in the very mechanics of That coming to know Itself, and you coming to be. The principles have to be made conscious to be activated and that takes a profoundly deep and clear consciousness.

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There is no good word in the English language for what I refer to by “law of nature”. This was called gods by the Greeks and devas in India. This is not a reference to physical laws but what might be called principles or processes.

Creation develops in vast swaths of cyclic time. When a universe arises, many principles/laws start out dormant or “asleep” and are enlivened over time by being made conscious. It is not a person that does this – it is consciousness itself. However, it is the point value of consciousness that is able to do this, expressed through an apparent form.

Thus, some traditions honour those beings who were clear enough to do this. The more of creation that is awake, the more beings within it awaken.

We happen to live in a time where an accelerated number of “laws” are being awakened, which is accelerating the number of beings awakening. This is not reserved to humans.

Consciousness is knowing itself through an astonishing variety -even just on this planet, an infinitesimal part of this one universe of many.

I can also note that the majority of the avatars of Vishnu did not come in human form. Nor will the next one, contrary to a number of poor assumptions.

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What is “point value of consciousness”?

Consciousness is aware of itself both globally and at every point within itself. You are one of those points. We could describe the process of awakening as the point becoming aware of its global nature, then the global becoming aware of itself through the point.

Another perspective – the cosmic body (the one body that is all bodies) expresses itself into form through the devata body which is composed entirely of those point values. In other words, a devata is a point value of consciousness. Another term for devata is “law of nature” or “process of experience”.

From this we might imply you are a law of nature in the process of awakening to itself but there really isn’t a separate you. The above process is only ever global or “of the one”.

Last Updated on December 25, 2016 by Davidya