Awakening

The scripture, legend, and prophecy of many different religious and spiritual traditions foretell of a global shift in consciousness.  Whether you call it the end times or the rapture there is something happening throughout the world that is the beginning of the prophesized great awakening.  Many of you who still read this blog are drawn here for one simple reason—either consciously or unconsciously you are feeling this global shift and want to know the deepest truth.  If you have been here before or you just happened to land on this page, you are curious about what Jesus really taught and perhaps more importantly you are seeking the kind of peace that seems absent from the swirl of circumstances that are in your life and the world.  It might seem that the world is spinning out of control or that there is more darkness than light.  If you listen to any news station around the world you will hear all the horrific stories that support this perspective.  News is filled with doom and gloom and this preoccupation with the dark is the source of off great suffering throughout the world.

Jesus says, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.” (Mark 4:24)  What are you listening to?  We all know the news is filled with heartbreak and still we listen to its incessant drone. But is Jesus just talking about listening to the news or what you are hearing in the circumstances of your life or is he talking about something much deeper?  What are you telling yourself about yourself? Last week I was in one of the most beautiful healing places of the world—The Esalen Institute in Big Sur California.  I was there helping Gangaji and her husband Eli with a retreat for people in long-term committed relationships.  Anyone who has ever been in a long-term relationship knows that it can be very challenging.  In every relationship there is a tendency of mind to fix or change the other person and very little, if any, attention is put on the relationship you have with yourself.  It is this constant movement to fix or change the other that is the fundamental source of suffering and the primary cause of the end of most relationships.  What do personal relationships have to do with the global awakening? And can looking at your relationship with friends, family, and more importantly the relationship you have with yourself, help you understand the teaching of Jesus on an even deeper level?

What is happening in the world and the circumstances of your life is a deep reflection of what is happening in your own mind, what is happening in your relationship with yourself as well as the people closest to you.  It is in the stopping to notice the war that is going on inside you and the endless movement to fix or change everyone else that the source of all conflict can be discovered.  And in that discovery, in this deep truth telling, you can set yourself free from suffering, set yourself free from conflict and awaken to the truth of who you are at the core.

All wars are a direct result of a deep human attachment to being right, which lives in the idea ‘I am right and you are wrong.’  But what is it that is deeper than the surface level circumstances or this idea of ‘I am right and you are wrong?’ Giving up your attachment to being right, even when you know, even when you are quite sure your are right, immediately takes the charge out of any conflict.  It sets you free from your attachment to rightness, which immediately stops both the internal and external war.

The end of this attachment to rightness opens your heart to simply being present free from an idea or perceived result. It takes the fight out of the situation, as Jesus explains, “If someone strikes you on the cheek turn the other also.” (Luke 6:29) Does he mean that if someone slaps your face you should punch him in his stomach?  Or is he asking you to check your innate impulse to fight back and your impulse to run away? Is turning the other cheek a release of your attachment to being right? What happens when you do not move to strike back or runaway?

Jesus asks, “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5)  It is so easy to see what’s wrong with someone else and so hard, and at times seemingly impossible, to turn your attention to yourself.  After all you are the perfect one, its your children or spouse or lover that needs fixing—right?!  Ha! Ha!

It is the little things in a relationship that really get under our skin.  The toothpaste cap that never seems to get put back on, or the empty toilet paper roll, or those men who just can seem to remember to put the toilet seat back down—ugh!   How many times have you told your kids to shut the door when they run out to play, and still you find the door is left wide open? How many times have asked them not to leave their toys in the driveway and over and over again you come home to toys strewn everywhere? Or how many times have you asked your spouse or lover to hang up their coat instead of throwing it on the couch, and still over and over again you find their crumpled coat annoyingly, carelessly, thrown in a heap on the couch? Of course the list goes on and on.

Over time little things can become hidden resentments and escalate into larger more heartbreaking behavior—you can end up going to war with your spouse and children.  It is the hidden resentments that can cause a relationship to come to a sudden end. Are you hiding what you really think?  Are you being honest with yourself? You might try to hide your true feelings it will show up in other ways, maybe even in very destructive ways. The truth is the things you think you are hiding will eventually come to light. As Jesus reveals, “For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light.” (Mark 4:22)

Eli and Gangaji are no strangers to the conflict that emerges in all relationships.  Three years ago Eli’s highly publicized affair effectively put an end to their twenty-seven year marriage, but it was in that moment of profound heartbreak that both Gangaji and Eli stopped everything to discover what was at the core of this personal and public betrayal.  In that moment of intense pain they made a decision to tell the truth—whatever the stakes, whatever the consequences, whatever the results, whatever the pain.

They told the truth, and the deeper truth, and the still deeper truth.  And it was in that truth telling that they discovered the hidden resentments that had built up over many years of marriage and in fully exposing these resentments, telling the truth about these resentments, they discovered the deepest most profound capacity to forgive, they discovered that at the core of their relationship was the most profound commitment to truth and a deep endless love—the truth set them free from the past and strengthened their marriage. As Jesus explains, “Know the Truth and the Truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32)

Truth telling is essential to healthy happy relationships.  And truth telling can be very uncomfortable and excruciatingly painful.  Freedom lives in telling the truth with the willingness for the relationship to end.  It lives in the willingness to be uncomfortable and experience the pain of your heart breaking again and again.  At the core of all lying or hidden resentments is your attachment to the other person and a deep avoidance of the fear that if you tell the truth that person will no longer love you and quite possibly could leave you. It is this basic attachment to, and fear of, losing the other that keeps people trapped in destructive relationships.

Jesus says, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.” (Matthew 7:1-2)  Often this is thought of as you ‘should’ not judge, but the nature of mind is to move outward toward the world to discern any potential threat. The judging nature of mind is based in survival and is a natural function of your mind, but left unchecked it can be a source of profound suffering. Is Jesus telling you what you should or shouldn’t do, or he is pointing out is that if you judge someone else you are actually judging yourself?

Jesus continues by asking, “Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but don’t see the log that is in your own eye?”  Again and again he turns your attention back to yourself. When you stop for a moment and deeply contemplate the ongoing conversation with yourself (the log in your eye) you have an opportunity to slow things down and see the process that you go through that leads to suffering: What is the internal conversation you are having with yourself?  How did it start? Was it an event or a feeling or thoughts about an event or feeling?

During the retreat at Esalen it was amazing to see that when couples stop the movement to fix or change each other and openly express the truth to themselves and their partner, there is a profound shift in consciousness that occurs.  So profound, that you could actually see the light pouring out of their eyes and out of their heart.  And as the retreat progressed a deep and profound love flowed outward from everyone permeating the entire room!!!! Whoa!

In meeting the uncomfortableness of truth, the heart break of truth, your heart opens to deep forgiveness, not as the idea ‘I should forgive’ or movement to forgive, but a deep stopping of all movement, a letting go of all thoughts and ideas, a profound letting go of the past so that your heart can open to naturally deep heart felt forgiveness.  Forgiveness only lives in the infinite realm of your Heart. It is a deep letting go of the past—a deep realization that the past no longer exists; it is simply not real.

Forgiveness is an essential aspect of any relationship. As a human being you are prone to making mistakes, in fact the one thing that we all have in common is that we all make mistakes.  If you cannot forgive someone it is a signal that you are unable to forgive yourself, which means you are fundamentally unable to fully love yourself, simply, very simply because of what you are telling yourself.  Most people do not stop even for a second to inquire into these thoughts.  Where do your thoughts come from? Are they true, really are they true? When you turn your attention to the source of thought there is an opportunity for you to directly experience a profound and lasting peace.

The common experience is you are talking to yourself inside your head all the time and believing whatever you might tell yourself.  For example, you might tell yourself you are ‘unlovable’ and believe it, but is that true, really is that true? When you stop the endless tirade of thoughts that are constantly moving against yourself or someone else, when you are willing to forgive yourself by letting go of the past, there is a tremendous release—tremendous peace and freedom—and the truth of who your are, a vast love without end, reveals itself!  Wow!

At the end of the retreat Gangaji said, “Pain very different from suffering. Pain is integral to life. It is part have having sensations, there is pain. But the suffering is what is added to that, it is the relationship with pain—emotional pain, physical pain, circumstantial, and planetary pain.”  The myth of all spiritual seeking is that enlightenment or truth will somehow end your pain, but pain is the nature of living in this world. Suffering is what you are telling yourself about the pain or the circumstances of your life.  The way out of suffering is to stop telling yourself the story of you and your pain or you and your circumstances or the story of you and someone else.

The truth of who you are, this vast infinite love, has an infinite capacity to bear the pain of living, the pain of heartbreak.  As Paul reveals, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” (1 Corinthians 13:7) Life is painful, there is no escaping the pain of life, or the inevitability of your own death, but when you stop believing everything you think for just a moment, you will realize you have an infinite capacity to bear this pain—not as suffering—but as the profound love that you are, the infinite light that is forever free from suffering. Whoa!

Jesus illuminates, “You are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14) This is what is happening right on the planet, people are awakening to the great light that is within themselves and everyone.  They are awakening to Love!

Love is your true nature.  When you “think” you are something else you suffer.  Love is Freedom. Love is Light—you are That infinite Light.

How will you share your Light today?