You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world,and a compulsion to do something about it.
Edgar Mitchell, Apolla 14 Astronaut
As I reread the untethered soul by Michael Singer (highly recommended btw) I am thinking about awakening to the realization of who we really are. I guess, I have a narcissitic focus and am really thinking of how this waking up is happening in this little clump of flesh I call "me".
Instantaneous Awakening? Samadhi
Some people wake up instantaneously. A Course in Miracles refers to is a Holy Instant and teaches that this profound transcendence in our understanding of things can happen in a moment.
This Course is not beyond immediate learning, unless you believe that what God Wills takes time. And this means only that you would rather delay the recognition that His will is so. The holy instant is this instant and every instant...Delay it not.
ACIM-T-Chapter 15:IV:1
Through Suffering and Awe
It happened in a moment for Eckhart Tolle and for astronaut, Edgar Mitchell on his way back from the moon. For one (Tolle) it was in a moment that emerged through a field of intense suffering and for the other ( Mitchell) it was a moment that emerged from a field of immense awe.
Through Meditation, Prayer and Sacred Rituals
It can also happen through an intense meditaton practice. It happened for Buddha in an instant...but only after years of walking in the woods alone, starving himself, meditating for hours in search of it. Then one day when he was meditating under a tree, doing what he was doing for years...the inner scenario changed...and in came Mara and a bunch of temptations he was able to put aside for the peace he longed for. And boom...he woke up from that meditation a Buddha.
It happens to Yogis too. Patanjali wrote about that "Samadhi" that can be attained through meditation and yoga practice. It happened for many Christian saints when they prayed, as well. Shamans also report experiencing it during their rituals
Through Death and NDE's
It also happens, it seems, the moment people die. Some people come back from that experience to talk about it...like Dr. Eben Alexander III or Anita Moorjani. The message they tend to bring back is that "You do not have to wait until you die to see clearly what Life is really all about".
A Certain Death Required
But I am starting to believe it takes a certain death to acheive this realizaton. Maybe not necessarily our own physical death but it requires the loss that comes from the death of some type of form, be it physical or psychological. Maybe we will lose someone or something we love that we identified with and find with the absence of that form an emptiness that we cannot make sense of. Maybe it will come with the loss of our health (physical or mental), the loss of our freedom ( Nelson Mandella) or the loss of some belief system we once trusted heavily in. It definitely comes with the loss of old limited ways of seeing. These are all cracks or openings for a Great Truth...a Great Mystery to shine through.
Hmm! In his video, Beyond Form: Allowing Loss, Eckhart Tolle puts it this way,
Every form obscures God and every death of form allows God to shine through.
Shining Through
When Edgar Mitchell was rotating in his craft, suspended in space looking down at the earth ...a form died. That form was the very limited perspective he had about the universe, a perspective he lived with while on earth. With that form gone...and in a state of complete awe...God, higher consciousness, Complete awareness, shone through. His old ideology was nolonger obscuring it and he seen and experienced the interconnectedness of all things. He had a "samadhi", a "Holy instant", a sudden awakening, a divine epiphany. Instead of seeing the Universe through an egoic mind...he saw it while settled in the "Seat of Consciousness". He saw it clearly.
I am Slow Waker-Upper. What about you?
My awakening is not really coming in an instantaneous way lol but it is coming. Thanks to a certain amount of suffering and a lot of questioning of that suffering, I sought spiritual knowledge. I studied at a deeper level than I ever had before, a level that went beyond science, psychology and what I was conditioned to believe.
From there I reached a mini-realization...the starting point for samadhi, that allowed me to see that the mind was the problem, not Life. From there I had a willingness to go inside and work with the mind.
So that is what I have been doing...trying to observe, and befriend, and release my Self from the prison of a very untamed mind. I am heading toward Samadi which will be attained when I am firmly seated on the Seat of Consciousness ( Singer, 2007) and am able to see through the form that comes and goes around me, be it my thoughts, feelings, or circumstances etc.
Will I attain it in this life time?
I don't know. Maybe not...but I am getting glimpses of peace and understanding that is definitely changing this life experience I, as "little me", am experiencing and which, I believe, has the potential of changing the life experiences of others should I share what I am learning.
I have more of a global consciousness than I ever had, seeing the need for unity rather than division. What about you?
I have more of a people orientation being that I recognize and have more compassion for the suffering of others than I ever had. I am sure you do too?
I am deeply dissatisfied with the state of this world...how we treat each other, other beings and the planet. You?
So I continue to learn, to grow, to change as I continue to share and teach from my limited understanding about the possibility of samadhi or at least living in a higher state of consciousness.
Why?
I don't know. I just feel compelled to do so. So I do.
All is well.
ACIM Text, Chapter 15
Kasia Bosne ( December, 2014) An Interview with Dr. Eben Alexander . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCRwuJoQAZg
Michael Singer (2007) the untethered soul. Oakland: New Harbinger Publications/Noetic Books
Eckhart Tolle (March 2021) Beyond Form: Allowing Loss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ojq1AAMvZvg
CBC Quirks.Going into Space is a Life Changing Experience. https://www.facebook.com/CBCQuirks/videos/1272457726177844
TEDxTalks (November, 2013) Dying to Be Me: Anita Moorjani at TEDx Bay Area https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhcJNJbRJ6U
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