Awakening doesn’t require you be perfect, totally free of stress, etc. It just requires enough, so that sufficient clarity is there for the recognition to take place, then for grace to step in for the final step.
I’ve seen teachers give students a nudge so the shift takes place but if the clarity isn’t established, the physiology is not able to sustain it and it becomes more like a passing experience than a sustained shift in being. Non-abiding as Adyashanti would say. Worse if this is more forced as that can cause energetic problems from overloading.
Awakening is not something we do. It’s more subjectively something that happens through us. As the awakening process deepens, we discover we are what is managing the process. But we’ve not yet grown into that at this point.
After the shift, there is often a lot of unpacking or clearing. Adyashanti has observed the mind may try to come back up again, try to regain control. With a clearer awakening though, it is somewhat like meditating all the time, 24/7, so progress can be much faster. It depends on just how much remains, which is not typically obvious. We all have a lot of history.
General energetic debris tends to cause a bit of a fog or reduced clarity. Especially if its kicked up by the purification process. It may also bring associated emotions up, or old memories. Key though is not to engage the drama but just let it come up and resolve. Then it is quick and clean.
It may be more general or specific, even tend to show up in certain areas of our life, like around work, relationships, money, and so forth. By this I mean in our response to them and/or events expressing in that part of life.
Keep in mind this description is relative to someone newly awake where clarity has become more important. This is much more clear than earlier on where many of us were thick as a post, lost in the fog. Some people who are getting close will be experiencing a similar process but less smoothly because they’re still in it, not just observing it. I am NOT describing a big drama. Simply a process we’re observing and learning to be with.
The result of this process is greater clarity. As the noise gradually abates, we may find holidays from the process. And then a larger “nut” breaks up, more dust and clearing, and more adaptation.
And of course, there is also growth taking place through this that also requires adjustment and integration.
Over time, the process gets more subtle and less noisy and gradually moves more into the background, with an occasional fuss. The volume gradually goes down. There can still be old contractions that can be triggered long after awakening.
There’s a very big difference in our process here. Before, the old junk would come up in our life, be reinforced and then recycled back for another round later – often with more added to the pot. This is the wheel of karma.
Now, we’re roasting those seeds of impulse (vasanas) and resolving much of what arises. Less attached, we’re also not adding to the pile. In other words, we’re finally winding it all down. This is a finishing up, a completing of our long past.
This makes our life much simpler and cleaner over time. It may not get less busy but it will be more straightforward. And we’ll carry a much lighter load, have more energy, and simply feel better.
This does not mean all problems end. The “sprouted seeds” continue to unfold in our lives. We’ll still have preferences and bad habits. And we’ll still have the occasional whopping big blind spot, a place of low awareness where we still put our foot in it.
But we now come to it quite differently. There is much less of an attachment to a certain outcome, we come to trust life will be fine, we don’t take things so personally, and so forth. This leads to the end of suffering. We’ll still get angry, sad, etc – in fact we’ll come to experience emotions more richly than ever. But they will roll over us and resolve rather than create or amplify problems for us. We’ll still experience pain, but as a natural process.
Our body, ego, personality – these are not bad things. They give us what we need to unfold enlightenment within. Our job is to prepare the vessel as best we can.
And one of the yummy side effects of greater clarity? Happiness beyond imagining. When the bliss body comes on-line, you may be knocked silly. Or not.
Existing gifts become much more accessible and new ones may well show up, depending on the need of the time.
Clarity also leads to the refinement of perception and discovery of the divine, both within and surrounding us. We discover we’re actually immersed in a sea of divinity that touches every pore of our being.
There are many, many benefits of this process.
Davidya
Last Updated on December 13, 2019 by Davidya
How about physical aliments? Once you have reached that state of “happiness beyond imaging”, is your body naturally at its peak efficiency and lacking malignant cells?
Hi Morgan
It’s not quite as black and white as that.
When there has been sufficient clearing of the noise in the mind and emotions, what is under that becomes apparent to us. This includes who we are in a deeper sense and that sustained happiness for no reason.
Being peaceful and happy can do wonders for our physical health. However, we still have to take care of the body – good food and sufficient activity. And we may still have karmic things to be resolved, not to mention genetic predispositions. Even the very enlightened can become ill.
Once we become energy-aware, we also gain the skill of being able to heal more directly and to resolve some karmic dynamics internally, rather than acting them out in the world.
Our body produces malignant cells on an ongoing basis. Key is insuring the immune system is healthy and balanced. Then it can take care of them optimally. But if there is still some old agreement we made to go through an illness, all of the above will make a big difference in how the experience is for us. With more awareness, we can make more conscious choices about how to respond – do we go into the drama of it or find ways to enhance the healing process that’s necessary.
Of course, all of this is broad generalizations. Each person’s experience and needs will be different. But we are here to have a human life – that should not be avoided. Rather we need tools for getting the best out of it we can.