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Post by skyblue on Feb 9, 2010 13:33:31 GMT -5
Many spiritual seekers have had glimpses of the absolute unity of all existence, but few are capable of or willing to live up to the many challenging implications inherent in that revelation. The revelation of perfect unity, that there is no other, is a realization of the ultimate impersonality of all that seems to be so very personal.
Applying this realization to the arena of personal relationships is something that most seekers find extremely challenging, and is the number one reason why so many seekers never come completely to rest in the freedom of the Self Absolute. Inherent in the revelation of perfect unity is the realization that there is no personal me, no personal other, and therefore no personal relationships. Coming to terms with the challenging implications of this stunning realization is something that few people are willing to do, because realizing the true impersonality of all that seems so personal challenges every aspect of the illusion of a separate, personal self. It challenges the entire structure of personal relationships which are born of needs, wants, and expectations.
[...]
This is the challenge, to let your view get this vast, to let your view get so vast that your identity disappears. Then you realize that there is no other, and there is nothing personal going on. Contrary to the way the ego will view such a realization, it is in reality the birth of true love, a love which is free of all boundaries and fear. To the ego such uncontaminated love is unbearable in its intimacy. When there are no clear separating boundaries and nothing to gain the ego becomes disinterested, angry, or frightened. In a love where there is no other, there is nowhere to hide, no one to control, and nothing to gain. It is the coming together of appearances in the beautiful dance of the Self called love.
To the seeker who is sincere, an experiential glimpse of this possibility is not enough. If you are sincere, you will find it within yourself to go far beyond any glimpse. You will find within your Self the courage to let go of the known and dive deeply into the Unknown heart of a mystery that calls you only to itself.
--Adyashanti, from his essay, "The Heart of Relationship"
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Post by vacant on Feb 11, 2010 11:14:37 GMT -5
Wow Sky, this one definitely rattles me. Thank you.
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Post by skyblue on Feb 11, 2010 12:16:37 GMT -5
Wow Sky, this one definitely rattles me. Thank you. Vacant, Adyashanti has a very clear delivery. He has rocked my little world many times. |
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Post by karen on Feb 11, 2010 12:19:17 GMT -5
I'm going to see him in June.
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Post by zendancer on Feb 11, 2010 13:25:22 GMT -5
Many spiritual seekers have had glimpses of the absolute unity of all existence, but few are capable of or willing to live up to the many challenging implications inherent in that revelation. The revelation of perfect unity, that there is no other, is a realization of the ultimate impersonality of all that seems to be so very personal. Applying this realization to the arena of personal relationships is something that most seekers find extremely challenging, and is the number one reason why so many seekers never come completely to rest in the freedom of the Self Absolute. Inherent in the revelation of perfect unity is the realization that there is no personal me, no personal other, and therefore no personal relationships. Coming to terms with the challenging implications of this stunning realization is something that few people are willing to do, because realizing the true impersonality of all that seems so personal challenges every aspect of the illusion of a separate, personal self. It challenges the entire structure of personal relationships which are born of needs, wants, and expectations. [...] This is the challenge, to let your view get this vast, to let your view get so vast that your identity disappears. Then you realize that there is no other, and there is nothing personal going on. Contrary to the way the ego will view such a realization, it is in reality the birth of true love, a love which is free of all boundaries and fear. To the ego such uncontaminated love is unbearable in its intimacy. When there are no clear separating boundaries and nothing to gain the ego becomes disinterested, angry, or frightened. In a love where there is no other, there is nowhere to hide, no one to control, and nothing to gain. It is the coming together of appearances in the beautiful dance of the Self called love. To the seeker who is sincere, an experiential glimpse of this possibility is not enough. If you are sincere, you will find it within yourself to go far beyond any glimpse. You will find within your Self the courage to let go of the known and dive deeply into the Unknown heart of a mystery that calls you only to itself. --Adyashanti, from his essay, "The Heart of Relationship" I suspect that this quote will be misunderstood by many people. Keep in mind that the opposite of everything in this quote is equally true. I don't have the time nor inclination to deconstruct it exhaustively, but consider the first line as an example. "Few are willing to live up to the challenging implications....." Who would that be? Who has a choice in the matter? And what challenging implications do we want to imagine that need to be dealt with? "Personal" and "impersonal" are both concepts. The truth is beyond both. This entire quote makes it sound as if an awakened life is some kind of alien impersonalized state. Take a moment and look around. The truth is always here and now. It is not esoteric. Our ordinary everyday life is sufficiently amazing. It is a mistake to add legs on a snake. |
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Post by vacant on Feb 12, 2010 7:09:30 GMT -5
Wow Sky, this one definitely rattles me. Thank you. Vacant, Adyashanti has a very clear delivery. He has rocked my little world many times. I know what you mean. I regularly get a fix of his short videos. |
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Post by vacant on Feb 12, 2010 7:10:51 GMT -5
I'm going to see him in June. Good on you. I probably would go and see him too if I was in your part of town, but being 5 and a half thousand miles away from California it gets more complicated. I have toyed with the idea of making the trip, but then I remember all them spiritual stories: why go look for it far away from home when it’s closer to me than anything could be. |
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Post by vacant on Feb 12, 2010 7:13:49 GMT -5
ZD,
That comes as a very interesting take. I don’t know what to do with it (good sign). Best I just go quiet right now…
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Post by skyblue on Feb 12, 2010 8:14:19 GMT -5
I'm going to see him in June. Karen, lucky you! I hope you post here about your experience. |
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Post by zendancer on Feb 12, 2010 10:51:27 GMT -5
Vacant: Adyashanti is very clear and he is usually very down to earth in his teaching. I took my wife and daughter to see him when he visited Nashville a few years ago and I had no problem with anything he said. He was very patient and gentle with questioners. During his visit one of my friends drove him around town and got to know him quite well. Later, my friend went to California, stayed in his home with he and his wife for a few days, and a year later was sanctioned by him to teach in his tradition. I discussed Adyashanti at length with my friend to get his impressions of how his teachings translated into daily life. As I suspected, his life is quite ordinary, and he emphasized this ordinary quality to my friend. The only thing he said to my friend that I found interesting was his way of explaining how understanding gradually descends from the head to the gut. I thought that was an accurate way to describe the process of attaining freedom, and it is another way of saying that enlightenment comes from the neck down. IOW we start at the level of the head, and as our understanding deepens, our connection to reality gradually becomes more and more embodied. At some point all of our reflectivity dissipates and we are left with a life that is "just like this." It is very simple, very obvious, very empty, and very grounded. There is nothing to get and nothing that needs to be resolved. We see that who we are is what is. The artificial and imaginary boundaries that in the past psychologically separated us from the living truth have disappeared. Now we "chop wood or carry water" in a state of active emptiness.
We go to see teachers like Adyashanti for one or two main reasons--(1) because we think that they have something that we lack that we need to get or (2) because we enjoy being in the presence of someone who is unpredictable and whose words are alive. The first reason is based on a totally erroneous assumption. Adyashanti, like other good teachers, does not have something that we lack; he lacks something that we have. We have ideas about who we are whereas he lacks ideas about who he is. We think we know who we are whereas he knows who he is. He knows, through his body, that who he is is beyond ideas. We are seeking something, but he is not. He lives in a timeless emptiness, but we live with the idea that we are separate entities existing in time and space.
This quote by Adyashanti is interesting because it shows that even someone who is extremely clear can sometimes say incredibly dumb or misleading things. Let's look at the words:
"Many spiritual seekers have had glimpses of the absolute unity of all existence" this is true.
"but few are capable of or willing to live up to the many challenging implications inherent in that revelation." Do what? This makes it sound as if there is an entity who is unwilling or incapable of doing something as a result of glimpsing unity. This is absurd. "Challenging implications?" What challenging implications? There are no implications unless we want to waste more time imagining. It would have been far more meaninful and less confusing if he had said something like this:
Many spiritual seekers have had glimpses of the absolute unity of all existence, but these kinds of experiences, except in rare instances, do not change old existing habits of mind. Seekers will remain attached to the idea that they are separate entities until their focus shifts to direct sensory perception or they become sufficiently silent. Ironically, this shift to direct perception or silence is not under their control because there are no separate entities who can choose to do anything. It only appears that way. The only thing a teacher can do is point to the truth and whether that pointing helps anyone is up to God.
The second paragraph begins:
"Applying this realization to the arena of personal relationships is something that most seekers find extremely challenging, and is the number one reason why so many seekers never come completely to rest in the freedom of the Self Absolute."
This is a bizarre statement, to say the least, and if this were typical of Adyashanti's teachings, I would advise people to run away from him. The number one reason why so many seekers never find freedom is that they spend 99% of their time thinking and talking to themselves. It doesn't have a d...m thing to do with their interpersonal relationships. If we stop thinking and talking all the time, we finally get enough mental space to see the truth and interpersonal relationships will take care of themselves. There are no implications here. The whole thing is a blooming mystery. Whether we fall in love or fall out of love is neither personal nor impersonal; it is simply how "what is" manifests.
I can only recommend that people not waste any time trying to understand this quote and turn their attention to what they can see or hear. Stop, be still, put it all down, don't know, give up, etc. The truth is always here and now. It is very ordinary. It is always "just like this." A tree outside the window is preaching the truth. It will be cheaper and easier to sit down in a chair and stare at a tree in silence, than traveling somewhere and getting more confused by words that trigger more thoughts. Adyashanti is clear, but these words do not reflect that clarity. Cheers.
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Post by vacant on Feb 12, 2010 13:22:05 GMT -5
I hear you ZD, thanks for throwing all this in. It says a lot. I have confidence in what it is that's calling and grabbing me, and you know what? There is a tree outside my window, I got a chair, and given a touch of Grace I might listen to a bit of silence.
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Post by maggie on Feb 13, 2010 16:18:24 GMT -5
Great thread....powerful reply ZD....
Having been to several Adya satsangs, weekend retreats and 3 week long silent retreats, I feel able to respond here. Spending LOTS of money to find out what ZD says is the absolutely simple truth. The main experience I took away from all those events was transmission, silent sitting and silent walking /looking, that was the value and I can do that at anywhere for FREE.....
Please forgive my verbiage, its been really difficult to put things in words lately, the words feel disjointed....please bear with.
I have found this thing unfolding as I sit and shut up....look and hear....what is and always has been here! It is so dang SIMPLE, I over looked it so consistently by chattering and distracting in a myriad ways....
This is the best post for me, ZD the gratitude is immense....and I have nothing against Adya in fact there are no regrets, this experience has helped I am sure to get me to the moment where it can be seen for what it is....no one would be happier than Adya for me to see this for myself....he often says you do not need to come to satsang to "get this".
I see the ball in my court in the sense of willingness to simply be still.....
A quote from "I am That",
Silence is the main factor. In peace and silence you grow. Trust the teacher. Take my own case. My Guru ordered me to attend the sense "I am" and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation or study of scriptures. Whatever happened I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense "I am", it may look too simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked! Obedience is a powerful solvent of all desires and fears. Just turn away from all that occupies the mind; do whatever work you have to complete, but avoid new obligations; keep empty, keep available, resist not what comes uninvited. In the end you reach a state of non-grasping, joyful non- attachment, of inner ease and freedom indescribable, yet wonderfully real.
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alpha
New Member
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Post by alpha on Feb 13, 2010 18:49:59 GMT -5
Great thread....powerful reply ZD.... A quote from "I am That", Silence is the main factor. In peace and silence you grow. Trust the teacher. Take my own case. My Guru ordered me to attend the sense "I am" and to give attention to nothing else. I just obeyed. I did not follow any particular course of breathing, or meditation or study of scriptures. Whatever happened I would turn away my attention from it and remain with the sense "I am", it may look too simple, even crude. My only reason for doing it was that my Guru told me so. Yet it worked! Obedience is a powerful solvent of all desires and fears. Just turn away from all that occupies the mind; do whatever work you have to complete, but avoid new obligations; keep empty, keep available, resist not what comes uninvited. In the end you reach a state of non-grasping, joyful non- attachment, of inner ease and freedom indescribable, yet wonderfully real. I feel this is one of the most powerfull lessons in Nisargadatta's teachings, I wonder is there any account recorded of his actual awakening, I've read all his books,(that I know of) but none give details of this... |
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Post by zendancer on Feb 14, 2010 11:56:41 GMT -5
"Silence is the main factor."
"Just turn away from all that occupies the mind; do whatever work you have to complete, but avoid new obligations; keep empty, keep available, resist not what comes uninvited."
Perfect! Adyashanti is pointing to exactly the same thing, but these words are more direct and less likely to suck us into more mindstuff.
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Post by drunkenlady on Feb 19, 2010 4:50:13 GMT -5
It must be amazing to understand and to have an experience of so-called enlightenment. It's amusing, how thought likes to use and disguise itself in words and ideas yet not call them so-truly amazing! It's also interesting how thought enjoys referencing books read, time spent with supposed teachers and also disclose the years of practice to reach something only to then claim there was nothing to attain! And all in the name of humility. Very tricky this mind of man-no?
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