
In many articles, I’ve talked about “head, heart, gut“, the way Adyashanti described the three core identifications. I ended up talking about them as the 3 am-egos.
Head is the self-concept and mental identification with the me that releases with Self Realization (Cosmic Consciousness).
Heart is the energy (emotional) drivers of that self-concept that can keep triggering old stories until the energy is resolved. Vasana is the Sanskrit term.
Because of the harshness of our world, most of us develop a hard crust around the heart to protect our fine feelings. This isn’t very effective, but when young, we learn to model others energetically who have the same. That crust also blocks the expression of fine feelings, especially love.
When enough of our energy drivers are resolved, we can clear the crust protecting the heart and liberate that too.
Ideally, the heart opening leads to the God Consciousness shift. However, some people are largely skipping this stage prior to Unity. For some, the heart opening happens later in Unity or Brahman stages. Which means they still have triggers in play.
Finally, when enough is cleared, the core or existential identity in the gut becomes conscious and is released.
In a prescribed path, this arises with the Unity shift, but I’ve seen examples where it happened with the Brahman shift or later. If the heart hasn’t opened, it’s unlikely the core identity will become conscious.
Just as the head release can lead to an extended process of clearing self-concept “shrapnel“, so too the other releases are not the end. Just the end of the core. It’s very common for us to carry a lot of material around the gut as it’s been the energy of our controller.
Commonly, life experiences bring what is unresolved to the surface to be seen. Then we can clear it. This is often happening on multiple levels.
Sometimes, you see people out there teaching who have had a valid, clear awakening but have not cleared these energetic arenas, leading to unconscious baggage migrating into their teaching. This has created a lot of messes.
Yet, as others have pointed out, it takes two to tango. The teacher has the greater responsibility, but students need to discriminate. A teacher that engages unmet needs is not a spiritual path, even though it may be enticing. And charisma is not darshan.
I wondered why just these three points when there are 7 chakras. Certainly, we can have many other major contractions to clear in various places. For example, the gut can be a protector for the child identity. But these three are key in the liberation process.
Turns out the three relate to the mahamarmas, a bit more subtle than the chakras.
The three are also three different ways of knowing: head, heart, and gut.
In a recent conversation, I clued in that all three are a point value. Their release is a process of the point recognizing it’s wholeness and losing identification with its point value. Not just a wave, but a wave on the ocean. The point remains but loses the binding.
The gut chakra powers the mind so the head and gut points are related. The head is an identification with self ideas, from the content of the mind. The gut is an identification with a deeper, controlling self-sense. That leans towards the intellect as that’s what first distinguishes self from other in childhood. The leads to the core identity and our identification with our given name.
With the intellect we find a path back to the heart, as it’s the chakra that powers the intellect. The heart is where the jiva or soul resides while we live in this body.
In the end, it’s just that one point of jiva or soul. That gets discriminated as the I-sense (Ahamkara), then further identified as the possessive my-sense (Asmita). And then identifying with the content of the three points of mind, emotions, and identity. We get lost in the content of experiences and become identified in these three key places.
Liberation is unravelling all this. The asmita dissolves, the ahamkara looses identification, and the jiva recognizes itself as Atman. Then Atman recognizes itself through the jiva and awakening happens.
Of course, you don’t have to know this stuff to awaken. This is just a reflection on the mechanics of the process, noticed in retrospect. But sometimes, a small reframing is all it takes for the seeing to happen.
Grace,
Davidya
Namaste. how can we work with mahamarmas? can it be done consciously?
Hi Guru
When they become conscious, you can work with them. Generally, we become conscious of more surface contractions first. As noted, they have some association with the stage shifts and tend to become conscious around that time. As mentioned, it’s not important to understand this. It was learned much later, well after the direct experience. This just gives language and context to it for those who have had this unfolding.
I can also note, this isn’t a doing. It’s not something for the person to plan. It’s something that unfolds naturally when the time comes.
Davidya, your last paragraph is perfect ! Encouragement to trust and allow the ‘Awakening’ to just happen in due course. Do not try to learn, to know and to fully understand it all right now. Trust clarity to come in retrospect, in the process of reflection. Ponder the ‘reframings’, follow the links to previous articles to refresh and enhance understanding. Trust, trust, trust; let the seeing just happen. I am now disabled in my 8th decade reflecting back at least 40 years to when first surprised by joy on the path to liberation. Discover the joy, awe and wonder along the way. Trust in amazing Grace. ❤ Thank you, Davidya !
Hi Judith Ann
(laughs) Yep – we can’t know what’s not yet conscious. Don’t try to learn but don’t try not to learn either. Just allow the processes to unfold as they do.
Beautiful. No steps on the path are wasted. Most progress is behind the scenes so even if progress isn’t clear, we can be confident more is happening than is apparent. Even fallow periods are part of the process.
Thank you Davidya, very very helpful. I love reading your articles and I love your conversations with Andrew Hewson. Thank you for sharing the mechanics of the process, the nuts and bolts of life. Yvonne.
Thanks for the feedback, Yvonne
Can we leverage the ‘fake it till we make it’s concept? For example: I deliberately force myself to avoid the ego entanglement when I am working. I know it is a novice question and honestly that is all I can do at my present level of maturity. Can I use the same logic for devotion? Use my mind for devotion till it comes from the heart. My parents pray from the heart without any expectations or desires except devotion while I will have to force myself. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Hi Sandesh
“fake it til you make it” can be a useful way of training the mind and habits but is not as useful when the goal isn’t mental. Mind is not the heart, nor is it spirituality so using the mind there tends to just create new delusions.
This is not to say belief and faith have no role. But this is supported by the heart. Driven by mind alone is a hollow gesture. That’s part of what Buddha was about – cutting out all the ritual and bringing it back to source.
Mind has it’s role but we all need to learn how to be other ways in the world. It’s useless for love, awakening, and devotion. It’s like trying to use a hammer to put in a screw.
Force is just ego’s way of controlling. What does that serve? More ego? Can ego really control itself? Of course, we may be getting into semantics here. But generally i would use “favour with our attention”. If we notice ego entanglements, bring the attention elsewhere. Force just becomes another form of resistance. I do understand if that’s all you know. But learning new ways of being brings richness to life.
Key with all of this is transcendence. If we’re not going beyond the mind on a regular basis, we’ll just have the mind to work with and mind will be looking for ways to manage everything. If we are going beyond the mind, we’ll be opening up the heart and consciousness and purifying the path.
Hello David, this is a piece of gold in an elegant wrapping, thank you. And what an illustration, elegant!
Thanks, Kjetil