A Map To Here

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Hand-drawn art by Rupali Bhuva
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Many people tend to see spiritual awakening as a challenge, goal or spiritual destination  -- something to be achieved or accomplished. One advantage of seeing awakening this way is how it creates a sense of purpose  -- the sense of a goal or mission, a defined focus for your life. It is a map  --  a map along which your progress can be charted thereby giving a sense of progression.

There is nothing wrong with creating a meaningful stepping stone on the spiritual path. It is a mindset that can create a motion — a flow — that creates a powerful journey through the release of fear, to become more present, and to connect with your spirit. It is, however, only a stepping stone. And once your fears are released and you are consciously connecting with your spirit, it is a mindset that then needs to be released if you wish to step into the level of freedom that is not constrained by ideas of needing to get somewhere other than where you already are. 

To go further into your freedom is to release this idea of becoming something more. It is to realize that whatever you have conceived of as “being awake” is what you already are. You just need to open your heart and mind to see yourself clearly (which is to say — without fear).

Awakening is not about changing what you are nor is it about "not changing". It is about falling into a never-ending change of perspective, where everything is available to you in the timeless, eternal Now moment. The distance between you and “being awake” is a mirage. There is no distance except in our minds.

Seed Questions for Reflection

How do you relate to the exhortation to release the mindset of needing to get somewhere other than where you already are? Can you share a personal story of a time you were able to go further into your freedom by releasing all ideas of becoming something more? What helps you remember that the distance between you and 'being awake' is a mirage?

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14 Past Reflections
TO
Tony
Jan 31, 2022
This is timeless wisdom. The miracle is that it is expressed simply.
At home in the Oneness. There is nowhere else to go - nothing to acheive.
"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
—T.S. Eliot, from “Little Gidding,” Four Quartets
EL
Jan 8, 2022
Being awake feels like flotation: levitation and weightlessness in the present , fully consumed with all senses alert and engaged . This is a very healthy and peaceful lifestyle.
BR
Dec 22, 2021
This exhortation is easy to say and in fact easy to get our mind around. We can see it cognitively, that is we can grasp the notion that there is no distance except in our mind. However, I do not think we can let go of mind by appealing to it. The mind will never let go of itself. For me anyway I need to get into a different center of existence. The center of which I speak is a way being with or in the cloud of unknowing. It is in the cloud of unknowing i feel uprooted from the familiarity of who I have been with no apparent comfort in who I am becoming. I am in a space of betwixt and between. In this space, which is not a physical space but an emotional space, the past is experienced as lost and the future as unimaginable and without hope. So, where does this leave me? In the space of unknowing which leaves me only with my will, my will to choose. Freedom is not a “freedom from”, say fear for example, but a “freedom to” exercise my response-ableness, for only... View full comment
DD
David Doane Dec 23, 2021
One can have and use one's mind without being captured and controlled by it. I think being in the cloud of unknowing of which you speak is being in the present. One can be in the present with freedom to choose and with response-ability and with acceptance of not knowing what will happen and be comfortable.
BR
bradmccaul Dec 23, 2021
Thanks David, that's the point of it for me, when we come home to our self with the only thing we have which is our response-ableness we are "in the present with freedom to choose and with acceptance of not knowing what will happen" we find the comfort and the peace that passes understanding of being who we are in the moment of choice. This comfort is, as I would call it, the experience of being an integrated and coherent self. We can "use" the mind as a part of being an integrated self. The crux of the mater as far as mind is concerned, for me, is keeping it in its place as an essential but no less just a part of our whole self.
AM
Dec 21, 2021
For me, constant failures of my plans or not even able to predict the next moment, is always like a reminder, that I ain't the one doing. The more I am connected to reality, the more I am in that State. Whenever I am upset about something, or when I am thinking a lot, I take it as a sign, that I have left being present in the moment. Life really becomes very beautiful when we begin seeing it as something we know nothing about. It has been my favorite experience.
ME
me Dec 24, 2021
ME
me Dec 24, 2021
God released me from “the mindset of needing to get somewhere other than where I am. Having an “I should” and “I’m not enough” personality, got me to a decade of mental illness. I learned, overtime, that my “ill thinking”was robbing me of life. I cannot be what I am not. I cannot do more than I am already doing. I can only do/be as He created me in this moment. If any thing or anyone pressures me to do/becoming something more, a red flag jump up boldly in my mind. Who helps me remember that the distance between me and 'being awake' is a mirage, you ask? God/Truth/Knowledge that I cannot win favor.
PS
Dec 21, 2021
In 1974, when I was a budding Sales Engineer, I was jealous of my colleague who was six year senior to me and had an impressive sales records and was a favorite of our boss! One night, this negative emotions of self-doubts, competition and animosity was so overwhelming that I could not sleep that night! In the desperation of finding 'peace', it dawned on me that 'Why don't I admire his success and make friends with him and asked him to train me to be a great salesman just like him!!!'. It was a 'Wow' moment! It was as though the mirage had lifted and found my true divine self, who was loving, fearless! The lesson from that night was (1) Be aware of your mind and its negative thoughts, and (2) convert them into very positive loving thoughts and actions! Always choose 'Love' over 'Fear'! The 'Mirage' will be lifted, the EGO will be dissolved and the True Self will be revealed!
As mystics throughout the ages have experienced, it is the path of emptying, becoming nothing, centering the mind down into the “heart” that leads to awakening and discovery. I choose to call it surrender to Divine LOVE. There is much more I could say/write regarding that, but may this suffice. }:- a.m.
FC
Dec 20, 2021
Most of my life (and in most every aspect of it) I've been seduced by the mirage; believing in it, wanting it and headed toward it. It was an endless affair with possibility, imagination and creativity. Then I was blindsided by the reality of my husband being diagnosed with both Alzheimer's and cancer, within a year of each other. For a few years, everything collapsed into fear and grief, even as I faced the immensity of my new assignment. It sure was the end of "the affair" and my infatuation with the mirage. I am his full time caregiver and he is my teacher; still a remarkable man with an open heart who doesn't remember he has cancer. He knows he is dying and isn't concerned about it. Within the paradigm of surrender that the pandemic has ushered in, the truth of uncertainty is a resting place.... a "timeless, eternal Now moment."
DD
David Doane Dec 21, 2021
What you're going through sounds like a very difficult and profound awakening.
Thank you for sharing what you are going through. I wish you well with it.
DD
Dec 18, 2021
I agree that we don't need to get somewhere other than where we already are; I believe it's important to be me exactly here where I am. I don't believe I need to become something more; I'm enough -- it is important for me to use what I have and be what I am. I don't believe I have always been "already awake"; I believe I awoke and am becoming more awake. I agree that awakening isn't about changing or about not changing what I am; it is about awakening to and being what I am. It was a major eye opening awakening for me that I don't need to change me and have a goal of being different in the future; it is for me to be more and be all that I am here and now. There is a 'distance' between me asleep and me awake. I'm not a different me in being however awake I am; I am more me in being more awake to who and what I am, and that's no mirage.
JP
Dec 17, 2021
As I was reading this writing by The Gnostic Writer my mind was fully present with what I was reading. My awareness of being fully present with what I was reading is an example of being here and now. Being here and now is the existential reality. My mind is not split by going to the past or thinking about the future. I am in the awakened mindset. My mind is not hijacked either by the past or the future. My father compared such a here-and-now mindset with clear sky with no clouds. As I am reading this passage my mind is fully present with what I am reading. My mind is not wandering. It is focused. It feels like I am in the flow without any pull or push coming from the past or the future. I am in the fully awakened state of my mind and heart. Not sleeping mentally or dreaming about the future keeps me anchored in the flow of awareness-awareness of here and now. Do I remain in this state all the time? I wish I could. The monkey mind wanders. Mindfulness of the monkey mind brings me b... View full comment