After someone awakens, they begin to notice the difference between speaking from the mind and speaking from deeper within. Sometimes we notice silence speaking through us, perhaps saying things we didn’t know personally.
Of course, I’m not talking about channeling. I’m talking about our universal higher Self moving through us.
I’ve written about the 4 levels of speech. We’ve all met people who just talk reactively and mindlessly. And many people speak from the mind. In that case, everything is about concepts and polarities of right and wrong, good and bad, and so forth. But if we can step back a little, we can speak from first impulses or the Self itself.
Of course, this isn’t something manipulated. It arises from where the attention is when we speak and an openness to what arises. It comes from ourselves, not another being.
This relates to why I started my BATGAP interview the way I did. (see also Value of a Story)
A better example of this is listening to Lorne Hoff during the “callls.” If we listen from the intellect, we hear words and try to make sense of them, judge them, agree or disagree, and so forth. It gets no further than the mind and becomes just another talk. If we settle more deeply and listen from silence or presence, we listen to the movement or flow behind the words.
Then, Self can speak with itSelf. As it is Self that wakes up to itself in Self Realization, this style of listening can increase awakeness and can trigger a shift, as it did here.
Framed another way, the intelligence in the movement becomes more apparent and remembrance of who we are can happen.
Davidya
Ah David ji,
A perfect description of the flow of Awareness speaking to itself.
Beautiful.
Thanks, Scomoji – and that coming from a living embodiment of that.
🙂
Hi David,
Is there a difference between listening to the silence and feeling the shakti? The latter seems to be easier for me.
A huge difference. The first is about Shiva, the second Shakti, the male and female sides of the process.
For example, Lorne has now structured 2 kinds of retreats. Stillness retreats to culture silence and help people wake up. And Flow retreats for those post-awakening to help them culture refinement.
Feeling the Shakti is easier because it’s experiencing. Listening to the silence is noticing what is noticing, so is more abstract. It helps to culture presence and be with others awake. Then the silence becomes “louder” and it’s easier.
Personally, I’ve never cultured listening to the silence. I simply used an effortless meditation to have the direct experience of it and in time it “moved in”. Then it was obvious whenever i looked. Nothing to practice.
But in your interview with Rich you begin by suggesting listening from the silence to the silence, which for seems to indicate a culturing of being while listening?
A point for clarification: “Feeling the Shakti is easier because it’s experiencing.” But many who are self-realized don’t really recognise the shakti. Their experience of it seems so vague, that they don’t really understand whether it is an emotional experience or something deeper. Therefore, it doesn’t seem that one thing is easier, but that is depends on the person’s inclination and development. Would you agree with that?
Hi N
That arose spontaneously. I was not suggesting a practice. But if there is presence there, listen from presence rather than mind. Even people awake may not have learned to do this where appropriate.
It does culture the awakeness if there is enough already there.
A few people have reported profound experiences listening to that interview because of this.
On Shakti, right. In our western culture, we learn to suppress emotions and thus flow. Flow requires an open heart. (although everything we experience is flow, knowing this is deeper)
You can equate Shakti with energy on that level, but it goes MUCH deeper than that. In fact, it goes deeper than consciousness. It is grace, it is what brings the world into being. It is the power of consciousness.
It’s very apparent when flow is going on because the body moves and purifies to adjust to it. Spontaneous mudras an asana can arise. Kriyas can be there from purification but the flow is much deeper. Deeper even than life force. (prana, chi) The movement of consciousness itself is the flow of Shakti.
If there isn’t a God Consciousness phase unfolding after established Self Realization, then the heart could use some attention.
Yes, there are a number of layers between awake consciousness and the physical world. Many westerners, especially men, are oblivious to their emotional states and deeper feeling values. Refinement makes those qualities conscious, including the mechanics of the world we live in.
It depends on someones development. Inclination will lead them to an impersonal or a personal approach but is not a barrier to it. Do they see devas or laws of nature?
To me, the ideal is both. (2 ways of seeing one thing)
But so if it arise spontanously (feeling the shakti) is that just as good as experiencing the silence? I guess that is my real question.
Hi N
They’re different things so it’s not about which is “as good”.
Silence helps with waking. Shakti helps with healing, purifying and clarity.
If it arises spontaneously, then thats what is needed then.
Keep in mind that the awakening process isn’t something you control. It’s more a process of getting out of the way. Allowing it to unfold. If more energy events are happening, thats fine.
But as I wrote about on Balanced Enlightenment, you want to be doing things that culture both. Then let the process unfold as it does.