In this clip of an Adyashanti talk, he speaks of the changed perspective of awakened consciousness and how that shift impacts the whole. The latter is a very important point because this is how the many awakened are changing the world. They are raising the degree of consciousness expressed in the world. The tide lifts all boats. This is also causing a lot of unresolved junk to come to the surface to be seen and resolved, creating extra drama on the world stage. I’ll be posting more on this topic soon.
There is one point I disagree with. That God is asleep and waking up through awakening people. This can be the experience but a more complete perspective is that the Divine is fully awake and consciousness is awake globally but not through every point.
When each point (Jiva) wakes up and then develops further, a greater clarity of consciousness can express into the world. That allows Divinity to flow into the details. It’s the world that’s waking up rather than God. And that’s a very major upgrade.
Davidya
Agreed. . .Divine always already awake
🙂
Enlivening or awaking the laws of nature is an interesting discussion. Some believe that the laws of nature in Kali Yuga are are weak or asleep and can be chased around creation by demons. Then when people meditate, listen to Vedic recitation, or, enlightened by just being themselves, they begin to enliven or strengthen these deities. This, in turn, influences the whole environment. My experience is by just putting my attention on the dieties, I enliven them.
Of course these laws are always functioning and doing their part to uphold creation. This is the beauty of functioning at subtle levels, as opposites can both be true.
Hi Jeff
I’ve talked about this in a few articles. With a prominence of tamas guna, things are sluggish and the “dark side” becomes more prominent. Higher laws have more trouble being productive.
.
When we do things to increase sattva (as you listed), our attention brings light to the point of our attention, something Adya points to.
.
This helps support laws that support us. (Add in the soma mechanism to accelerate this.)
.
However, a large number of higher laws have also been asleep for awhile. As the purity increases and consciousness rises, some of them have woken and begun to function. Then they integrate with existing laws, bringing new synergies.
https://davidya.ca/2014/06/26/the-second-stage/
https://davidya.ca/2018/08/30/the-bull-of-dharma/
.
And last year, we began to see people embodying pure Divinity spiritually awakening some devas. That affects everyone.
https://davidya.ca/2018/11/12/waking-the-body/
.
In other words, theres a lot happening on many levels. 🙂
In my mind, the highest calling one can have at this time is to enliven silence. This is a special time, and to fulfill this role, will pay dividends for years to come.
Yes, for the majority, stepping into the silence and embodying it in the world is the highest calling. But once silence is established, then bringing Divinity forward into the world becomes the next step. Especially for those Unity+. There are groups gathering regularly to do this now. And then, embodying Divinity is the next step.
.
It’s quite remarkable this is happening now. And it will indeed pay untold dividends.
Great response. Your comment helps to lay out my evolution. When I go to Fairfield to meditate in the dome, for years, I have been sharing with the group my experiences of enlivening the laws of nature. Last time I was there, I shared that there was a shift in my experiences. Instead of witnessing the process, I was the silence. More specifically, I relate to Rudra. Doug Birx responded with a quote from Maharishi , which was; “it is better to be the silence, then witness to it.”
One more thought. When I experience the laws of nature, they are not separate from me. The dieties manifest from my own silence. They are myself, moving within myself.
Right. As the silence, all arises from mySelf and within mySelf.
Yes, becoming is Realization.
I love that point of disagreement, made with much clarity.
I wonder sometimes what people mean by the word “God” when they say God needs “us” as much as we need God.
Simply as a matter of pure logic, without any yogic insight whatsoever, how can something Absolute be in “Need” of anything? (Sorry, I don’t know how to write that nondualistically: “something” Absolute….”
As a concession to our limited minds, the ancient sages spoke of Allah “yearning” for our awakening, or even the Divine “needing” to play. But in the Timeless Time of the spontaneous emergence of manifestation, without even a scintilla of lack, it seems (at least, seems to this limited mind) to simply be, what is.
Hi Don
Yes, God can mean many different things. Belief, presence, an embodied form, being, and values of Divinity.
.
I would say that the Divine has compassion and doesn’t wish to see suffering. She encourages us to “come home” and remember who we are. She doesn’t “need” us but like a mother, would like to support us.
.
There is a prior level where we’re merged with expressions of the Divine and thus can feel this drive as a need to return. But that is consciousness seeking to know itself rather than the Divine. They may be seen as one for a time. But when we go beyond consciousness, the distinction becomes clear.
.
Thus, I would not call expressions of Allah yearning or the Divine needing wrong. They’re more a reflection of a stage of development in our relationship with the Divine, perhaps reflecting an early union.
.
But it does underestimate the Divine. 🙂
Hi, you bring up a good point – Why would God care if we paid any attention to God at all?
*
Everyone and everything in creation is evolving, even the Gods, Goddesses, Saints and angels. The most powerful means of evolution is human interaction, as it is modeled after the interactions of the Divine Beings.
*
Just as we are so fulfilled through interacting with each other, all of the Divine Beings rejoice at any relationship with us, as it makes a connection, for mutual satisfaction and learning, and the spreading of harmony. Even the fullness of God rejoices when we reach for God, made up of the unerring servants of Mother Divine.
*
Not because they have to, not out of need, but out of compassionate desire for connection. That is why God is always overjoyed to have a relationship with us. 🙂
🙂 Reminds me of an old article
https://davidya.ca/2019/10/28/its-all-about-relationship/
But this does assume that human interaction is sattvic. As I commented to Jeff above, the higher beings are less interested in your attention if it’s not. (laughs) That attracts a different sort of being…
Ah yes, a good article. Thank you – Yes, right, we have to do our part. Divinity is ONLY interested in that which reflects Divinity.
*
Otherwise we fight for crumbs. So generous is Divinity that even those who wholly turn their backs will still be granted a meager and unsatisfying human life (appearances can be deceiving), in and of itself a huge bounty and blessing; free will (not to be confused with true freedom, Totality).
*
Certainly there is a tutoring program of sorts down here to rid ourselves of that which is not Divine, but that is our work to do solely, our choice and our intention. Our learning and our joy. 🙂
Hi,
Great you brought up this topic.
I posted a comment yesterday on Adyashanti’s clip, which I had known before.
It somehow disappeared. Never mind. I think Adyashanti speaks more poetically than like a theologian. I love that.
Therefore I replace my comment by a poem with bets wishes for the new year. “God bless!” the Irish would say.
But this is a translation from German (rather good as far translation can go)
Friedrich Hölderlin, Patmos
Near and
Hard to grasp is the God.
But where danger is,
Deliverance also beckons.
Eagles dwell in darkness
And across chasms go
The fearless sons of the Alps,
On bridges lightly built.
Wherefore, since the peaks of time
Cluster high all around
And loved ones dwell near,
Languishing on most distant
Mountains, give us pure water,
O give us wings and a true mind,
That we may venture out and return.
Thus I spoke
And a spirit fast beyond all measure
Carried me far from my own house
To where I never thought to go.
http://www.likestarlings.com/on-translating-holderlin/
God Blesses, Herwig.
And thanks for sharing. Later, we become that spirit.
Hey David. 🙂
What is recognized here these days is that the “sleep” or “slumber” of Divinity is what appears as Supreme Nothingness/Void/Brahman. This is what allows for the projective play of Creation (or creations) to unfold within the Self. The seeming forgetfulness of the Supreme Qualities of Divinity in the Qualityless presentation of Source correlates with the infinite variety of experiential qualities that appear to unfold in the innumerable expansions of multiverses(creations).
A comparison can be drawn from our human experience. In order to enter the infinite possibility of the dream state we must first fall asleep to what we take to be “reality” or the waking state. Then, spontaneously, the dream comes upon us. This could be seen as a microcosmic reflection of the Playfulness of Divinity, although not exactly the same. 🙂
This Presence/Absence contrast is what appears perceptually stratified as all beings, from the highest to the lowest. The Supreme Qualities appear to be concealed and revealed in this play. In this way Divinity draws itSelf to itSelf through its own Grace and Mercy. Calling its Light into the recognition of itSelf and then its Source, Reality, and Infinite Love.
When Pure Divinity shines forth at depth then the whole presentation, including the appearance of Supreme Nothingness is recontextualized. Even the Qualityless is apparent.
Creation is Divinized.
Divinity is displaying Her Divinity to herself as the appearance of Creation within Her own Radiance .
Brilliantly glistening and shimmering as All, yet ever deepening, resolving, and integrating in the flow of human life.
It is all for the playful Glorification of Divinity.
Slumber isn’t an option. 🙂
Just a perspective.
Thank you Davidya
Thanks, Andrew
Here, it is not Divinity who forgets but consciousness, which is trying to mirror and express Divinity. But consciousness has the weight of expression to carry and has to go through a progression to be able to embody Divinity and bring that though all it’s layers, bring lightness into solidity.
.
Yes, it is Divinity calling us though this process, drawing us home as consciousness gets lost in it’s own expression.
.
There is no separation but within the parts, it’s easy to lose sight of that.
Hey David,
Yes, here I’m referring to the Field of Nothingness as the apparent sleep or forgetfulness of Divinity. The key word is apparent as it is realized to be only a presentation.
The concealment or forgetfulness in the flow of experiencing appearing within Conscious Awareness is a little different but is directly linked to the above stated appearance of Nothingness as Totality.
Always nice to chat about these “things”.
🙂
Ah yes. I experience it as a kind of afterglow of Divinity. But that has evolved and its always fascinating how others “experience” it.
.
I can see how you’d relate that way. 🙂
Divine (universal) consciousness is eternal. People share in it to various extents.
In this video, Adyashanti rambles. Not the sign of a good teacher.
Hi Ron
Eternal is relative to time, which is an effect of self-aware consciousness. The presence of consciousness goes deeper than that, arising from pure Divinity.
.
Keep in mind this is a clip from a longer talk. I would suggest he talks around an abstract topic rather than rambles.
Hi – re: Adya’s style – when I first heard him some years ago – I though he was just talking using good sounding words and there wasn’t a point to what he was saying. However, as time went by, the same talks (on youtube) made sense. At one time, I had a specific very practical question about purification pain and I happened on a talk of his and was surprised how to the point and helpful it was. I realized that his talks (for me) are more meaningful when I have a question and the talk addresses it. I found this talk useful BTW.
Hi K
I’d suggest it’s more about what is speaking and what is listening.
.
When you go see a talk on chemistry, for example, you have a mind speaking to minds. We expect certain meanings and a logical presentation.
.
However, the game changes with spiritual teachers. Some do speak to the mind as usual. But some speak from a deeper place to a deeper place in you. If that isn’t alert or only the mind is listening, it can be hard to follow. Then the talk can seem meaningless, vague, or nonsense.
.
However, if you listen from a deeper place then that speaking is heard and it lands more deeply. I’ve seen many people wake up this way – listening to someone awake from outside the mind.
.
That can require a little surrendering of ego control. A little letting go.
.
Lorn Hoff would be an example of the latter.
.
The core Vedas are congnized from the structure of creation itself. As a result a lot of it makes little sense to the mind. But when heard from a deeper level (ritam), there are layers of truth unfolding…
I find that when I speak about my experiences from the level of silence, that it enlivens silence in the listener. Certainly this is, or can be an advanced technique for unity consciousness for both the speaker and the listener.
As an extension, I experience what other are experiencing in group meditation. I feel both the individuals and the groups quality of experiences. I find that siddhas generate a more lively silence than most meditators. I also feel the impact of the group process, as the silence can get deeper and silence starts to flow with the group. Like people doing the wave in a stadium of people.
Hi Jeff
Yes – the effect depends on the depth of integration and how well we resonate with the listener/ speaker.
.
I wouldn’t say its specifically about Unity stage but certainly enlivens the process of experience taking place between 2.
.
What you describe could be in consciousness or a gift of being a spiritual empath. They’re somewhat different things.
.
And yes, those with a practice to enliven the silence will have more of that, depending on where they start from. Those enlivening Divine Shaktis even more so.
.
And yes, we can become more aware of group consciousness and flows in large groups.
These experiences started to develop after years of witnessing silence and by years of habituating experiences of enlivening silence with Vedic recitation. After some time, I began to experience lively silence in people and the environment.
Hi Jeff
Do you mean witnessing activity? Silence is the witness.
.
Yes, it sounds like in consciousness. The empath gift tends to become more prominent with development of consciousness though.
.
As consciousness is common or shared, as it becomes lively here, we recognize it in others. Hence greetings like Namaste!
.
It’s kind of on the border between refined perception and consciousness itself. Each enhances the other.
from Sat Shree (this seems to resonate with Adya’s comment):
“The Sat is the transcendent unchanging, timeless condition of consciousness. This is the condition prior to consciousness that is more accurate, from which all existence emerged. The Asat is the same principle, but totally embedded in matter and its consciousness. The condition of consciousness in the Asat is at the other side of the spectrum of the condition of consciousness in the Sat.
In the Sat, the consciousness is like the energy that comes out of the event horizon on the edge of the black hole. But the Asat is the energy embedded in all matter. In its most dense aspects of matter, its job is to emerge out of the unconscious, emerge out of the inconscient, the thing prior to the unconsciousness. It doesn’t know anything at all.
So it’s inherently truth. It emerges, it pushes, it’s what pushes matter to evolve. In the physical dimension of things, it is energy. It’s the E in Einstein’s E = mc2. It is that energy which is the impetus, and which this entire physical creation was cast in the cauldron of diversification and expansion.
And, of course, the beginning of evolution.
So, inherent in all matter is the same reality that exists in the most supreme transcendent superconscious states. So matter, and that means our matter, the matter of our body and our system, our biology, matters.
Matter matters.
Without the contrast of these two realities, this supreme reality and this embedded reality, consciousness cannot become fully complete or fully mature.”
Hi Uli
Just to remind, I have a site policy not to post quote-only comments. I invite your own feedback.
.
The quote itself is a little odd as he’s taking a dualistic approach (Sat-Asat) and applying it to a higher stage. In a higher stage there isn’t this distinction. It’s merged. Perhaps this is taken out of a larger context.
.
For myself, I wouldn’t say not-absolute is the equivalent to energy in matter. It’s equivalent to all of the relative. And the impetus to act and return home doesn’t come from it.
.
But yes, the point of the expression of the world is to bring out all the detail so consciousness can come to know itself more completely and come closer to the Divine.
Hi David, sorry for keeping transgressing your site policy.
What I hear in Sat Shree is the same shift out of the patriarchal renunciate accretion that began with Sri Aurobindo and continued with Mirra Alfassa, his yogic partner. In the “Mother’s Agenda”, a transcript of her yogic research, she speaks of meeting the Absolute at the bottom of matter, so to speak. The shift deepened with the plunge into matter – without any previous liberation/awakening – of her student Satprem, who had to face an ocean of trauma , lodged in his body, for many years (he was a Nazi camp survivor), before he broke through. Here, from a blog:
‘ In 2006 Satprem had sent a note to Kireet Joshi in which he wrote: “I have reached the goal.” What was the goal that he referred to? Was it the completion of the process of physical transformation or fixation of the supramental consciousness into his physical consciousness?
That I don’t know. Previously also he wrote to me that he had achieved the goal. What I know is that the supramental Light had come into his body. In his entire body there was a peculiar radiance. That I’ve observed.
– Nirmal Singh Nahar (elder brother of Sujata Nahar), “On Satprem and Sujata. (An Interview By Anurag Banerjee )
***
The last quote – I promise 🙂 – by Sat Shree, clarifying this:
“Chapter fifteen, Purushottama Yoga, The Yoga of the Supreme Being The Blessed Lord said:
551. This eternal tree is said to be imperishable with its roots above and branches below, whose leaves are the hymns of the Vedas. One who knows the truth of this tree is a true knower.
552. Nurtured by the three gunas, the branches of this tree spread both below and above. Sense objects are its foliage; the roots, which also spread in both directions, bind the being with actions in this world of matter.
Sat Shree: “These two verses are allegorical. They are pointing to the idea of an upside down tree. There are so many parts of the human system that have this branching visualization. It is a good way to understand that the source of this creation came from above. What is this tree? This tree is speaking of the nature of existence, what we call prakriti. There is something other than creation beyond that. From above the trunk of the tree is the intention of the original Sat to come into existence. That is the manifesting principle of existence, the source of all that nurtures and sustains existence.
(6:40) Once it comes into existence it starts branching out, manifesting in infinite ways. The leaves are all the experiences and knowing that are possible in all dimensions of all creations. It is like a banyan tree that comes up from the roots, the branches go out and then they start rooting. It creates more roots up above and down below. This entire creation is sustained in multiple ways, so complex and interwoven that it is not possible to know it. It is not possible to grasp it. As above, so below, each of our bodies carry the same principle. There is the root of our existence that comes out of matter, the very foundation of the organization of our physical body. And the root above brings us intelligence and self-awareness. Initially it was that, but once the Sat descended into creation, it involved itself in creation and lost itself in creation and created the dark Sat or the inconscient truth that is embedded in matter.
These two polarities are the source of this existence, above and below, and they exist outside of existence. That which is above and that which is below are expressions of the same thing but that which is below loses itself until it is completely lost in some very primitive unconscious condition. In that most unconscious condition it strives to wake up and come out of its involvement by evolving. In this process all of physical life has come into existence and ultimately all of us. There are two forces that have made us up, one from below and one from above. The one from below is the essential quality of what is true in matter and it is this reality that is involved with matter and evolving that makes this world seem so real because it is drawing from the same reality from above. That is why any attainment that only goes above misses half of the truth of existence.”
It’s OK – I had to set a policy as people try to post random quotes trying to promote their site, their teacher or whatever, often with no relevance to the article.
.
Broadly, I’d say group consciousness is rising out of the patriarchal polarity but its taking time. Some embody that better, some are more stuck in the past.
.
I don’t frame the process quite like that as the experience has been different. There is certainly an embodiment of light that happens at each of the refined stages.
.
The upside-down tree is not allegorical. It is the appearance of creation, beyond the universe. The universes are like leaves on branches. I’ve also described them as like beads on a very large necklace.
.
The polarities arise in the dynamics of consciousness. I agree that just attaining awakening is not the full picture. You want to live it in life.
.
But the point of the video was the importance of that first step. The rest is just theory until the first shift happens.
Is it possible that seeing God as separate is the reason for wanting God to be inherently self-cognized? But would that not mean that God exists independent of relative reality? I am beginning to believe that God is not a self separate from existence. Is not the lumen both the light and its container or that which expresses the light(?) – if expressed clearly, it is divine, the expression manifest. With no container, there is no individual expression of the light and God remains formless. With form is self-realization. If I am the one that realizes then I remain separate from the light. If the light is already realized without me, it remains separate from the container. Perhaps there is more to realize about the unity of ultimate and relative reality. Is it possible that life, expressing itself as both ultimate and relative reality, wants to experience itself? And in that experience is enlightenment?
Hi Karen
Big questions! A few points first.
Knowing the Divine isn’t something we get through the mind. It’s through direct realization. So the mind isn’t going to figure it out prior. We can get an idea of it but just remember ideas are not reality.
Realization of consciousness (atman) is distinct but intertwined with realizing God.
https://davidya.ca/2014/01/25/stages-of-development-in-consciousness/
Generally, the first step is becoming aware of the “hand of God”, that the world isn’t a random sea of chaos but a designed and structured unfolding. This tends to develop over time with healing and refined perception. Lots of ways this is described; natures support, synchronicity, recognitions of the doers of nature, etc.
After Self Realization, we have the platform for God Consciousness to unfold where we can come to experience God more directly, potentially in form. Here we have the personal and impersonal modes I discuss elsewhere. Also the awakening heart, soma and more.
https://davidya.ca/2012/09/08/the-experience-of-god/
After the Unity stage shift, the opportunity is there for God Realization, when Self merges with the Divine. And then still later, there is the opportunity for pure Divinity.
In that context, there isn’t one answer to your questions but it’s progressive unfolding.
So yes, the Divine is distinct from the relative. And yet simultaneously, there is nothing separate from Her. The Divine infuses everything. God can be experienced, as above, as a distinct entity. That will vary by person, as history shows. We can also experience forms that embody qualities of the Divine, like Shiva as observer consciousness.
The effulgence of consciousness and bliss originates with the Divine, yes.
Form is a way to interact with and express devotion to the Divine. We can say the Divine is both form and formless.
As noted above, Self Realization is a recognition in consciousness. Grace can be said to be the trigger but this is distinct from realizations of the Divine itself.
Self Realization is the Self waking up to itself through this form. It is not the person waking up. So yes, not a separate entity waking. The wave waking to its nature as ocean.
Yes, life is here to experience itself. I write about that in various articles.
https://davidya.ca/2021/05/20/individuals-in-wholeness/
As this is the nature of life itself, it is not enlightenment. It is living. Enlightenment is when we step out of the content of experience and recognize who is experiencing and how this came to be.
Then, if not a separate entity waking, it is as if divinity wakes up through form as Adya was trying to describe.
Hi Karen
As I mentioned in the article, this is one way this is experienced and a perfectly valid description. My point was that this suggests the Divine isn’t complete and needs to wake aspects up. This implies not omniscient, etc.
However, if we explore the experience in more detail, we find the Divine itself is fully awake but consciousness is not. In order for consciousness to bring out all the details of the Divine, it has experiencers like you and I, each with different flavours and perspectives. The wholeness of that is the highest mirror consciousness can be of Divinity.
In the awakening process, first the wave recognizes it is an expression of the ocean. It remains a wave., but no longer separate.
This is real big-picture stuff. 🙂