Saturday, June 27, 2009

CONVERSATIONS WITH EGO: You're Awakened, Dammit!


ego: Well Mike, I think it’s time we announce to the world that we're finally “awakened”!


Mike: Why would “we” do that, when obviously I'm NOT awakened?


ego: How do you know you’re NOT? If I say you are, shouldn’t that be enough? Just look at all the bloggers who say they are "awakened." Besides, I think we’ve had some really great ‘insights’ in the past several years. Doesn’t that count?


Mike: Yea, but that’s not “awakening.”


ego: Who says?



Mike: Uh…well…the “awakened masters,” I suppose.


ego: How do you know they’re "awakened"? Because they said so and everybody agrees with them? Or maybe their ego simply told them so.


Mike: Well…they were wise and they taught important insights. They also taught that to awaken we must transcend the ego.


ego: And what difference did all that make? Are we really any better off because of what they’ve said? I think it’s time you just admit to the world that you're “awakened” and that you are now an “enlightened” dude, like all the others.


Mike: But that would be a lie!


ego: Why? Why isn’t it true? Because you haven’t joined the Bodhisattva Breakfast club? Because you don’t call yourself a “non-dualist”? Because you have no practices? Because you don’t meditate for days on end or go to retreats or read the “Great Book”? Is that what “awakening” requires?


Mike: Yes…I mean no! Obviously, that stuff 's NOT at all necessary to be awakened. But you just can’t announce to the world that you’re awakened, without having followed the prescribed methods of awakening. Nobody would believe you!


ego: Oh, I get it! To be awakened, means your awakening must be “certified.” Why can’t you just accept that you’re awakened?


Mike: The fact is that I don’t feel awakened!


ego: Mike, if I say you’re hungry, you feel hungry and you eat and if I say you’re horny you certainly feel that, too and we don’t argue about that either. So if I say you’re “awakened” then, dammit, you’re awakened! So why aren’t you feeling what I tell you to feel? Because they’ve talked you out of it? Because you haven’t followed the prescribed plan? Because nobody else believes you? What exactly is “awakening” supposed to feel like, anyway?


Mike: It’s supposed to be like…divine bliss.


ego: What the hell is “divine bliss”?


Mike: Uh...I’m not sure…but that’s because I have gotten it yet. I suppose it’s kinda like, really, really happy.


ego: Well, aren’t you “really, really happy”?


Mike: Uh…no, I don’t think so.


ego: But if I say you are, then shouldn’t you be? You have followed my advice your whole life and now you decide that I’m not good enough, even though I’m the one arguing FOR your being “awakened” and being “really, really happy”!


Mike: But you’re not supposed to be involved in my awakening! You are what I’m awakening FROM, simply because you are the reason I'm NOT awakened..


ego: So let me get this straight. You’re trying to awaken to a “divine bliss” that does not include me, but when I tell you that you have it, you refuse to accept my judgment, even though it’s the goal you want to achieve? How’re you gonna know that you’re awakened if you refuse to accept what I tell you? “Who” will inform you of this, if not me?


Mike : I don’t know. All I know is that it can’t be you.


ego: But Mike, who do you think informs you that the awakened master IS “awakened”? Who advised you to study the non-dualists? Who is it that drops your butt on the cushion to meditate? You accepted my advice then, but when I tell you that you ARE an “awakened master” you refuse to accept it.


Mike: Because I’m not an awakened master!!


ego: (sigh) Okay, suit yourself. If you want to be an ordinary, ignorant nobody like all those other seekers, you go right ahead. But just look at all the fun we could be having as an “awakened master.” As far as I’m concerned we're awakened!


Mike: You’ve got to do it right or it just won’t count.


ego: Oh great! Now I’ve got years of self-denying sacrifice to look forward to before we die. Gee thanks!


Mike: It’s for your own good.


Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Crypt-Keepers of "Ancient Wisdom"


The paradigm of individual enlightenment clearly supersedes all other paradigms of discovery. In fact, most spiritual ideologies prescribe solitary spiritual pursuits as superior to collectively engaging to discover truth.

But then, how else would the 'proprietors' of truth maintain their ownership? The "Crypt-Keepers of Ancient Wisdom" hold the key to your salvation and only they can unlock the door.

Yet, why would truth be available to certain specific individuals and not others? (that's called 'relativity'). The Crypt-Keepers of Ancient Wisdom tend to advocate that you must first be 'awakened' to truth "within" and then somehow this is miraculously transferred, or superimposed, to others and the world.

Of course, "you" have to get enlightened first, before you can spread that "enlightenment" around to all the ignorant, and only the Crypt-Keepers can teach you how.

Until then, well, everything just has to suck for awhile longer because you're still a miserable, ignorant, sinner waiting for your big break. In the meantime, just keep doing your practices and studying your egoically preferred ideology (as taught by the Crypt-Keepers) and before ya know it -POOF- your enlightened!

Try to go against this current and resistance is fierce. You'll go up against the modern day "Crypt-Keepers" of the ancient axial-age teachings that, sadly, have had little influence on a postmodern world careening toward mutual destruction.

The Crypt-Keepers peddle postmodern egoic truth-potions that they claim are direct from the "Crypt of Ancient Wisdom" and will lead to your salvation or "awakening."

Psychotherapy and psychopharmacology have demonstrated effectiveness in negotiating a difficult world. Ingeniously, the Crypt-Keepers dress up this modern psychology in the disguise of "ancient wisdom," thereby making everyday psychobabble, 'sacred.'

However, my chief issue is with the spiritual enlightenment or "awakening" programs that imply, or flat out claim, that you must completely transcend your ego-self and only then, can you suffer no more. Yet, you must endure austere sacrifices and struggle your entire life in order to receive this reward. This is false advertising and, in fact, is not what the world needs (as illustrated by the current state of affairs) and therefore, most likely it's NOT what you need (although they may have successfully convinced you otherwise).

What we need to experience is the love that comes with the extension of Being and is the only way Being is realized. However, you will need to join with 'others' in order to facilitate that experience, so look to the one standing next to you. Yet, for the Crypt-Keepers, others are not as significant as the "ancient wisdom," which actually promotes disengagement from your "illusionary" world and those that inhabit it. Therefore, you must join only with the Crypt-Keepers if you wish to be saved.

Unfortunately, many egos do not discover the truth of Being until their final moments when "a hand to hold seems more important to most than any other comfort or wisdom" (great quote from an anonymous commenter)

Relationship 101

The micro is the macro and everything that happens in your little corner of the universe mirrors the same happenings in the global, macro-world. The same cruelty and neglect, in your tiny relationship enclaves of "love," is also available for witness in the interactions between whole populations and nation-states, just as the same random acts of kindness in your relationships can be seen in the larger world (when you look real hard).

Seek to engage your corner of the world in the deep level of mutual understanding that inevitably annihilates your fear of strangers. The sad case of postmodern man is that even those who profess abiding love for one another are essentially abject strangers in denial of this pervasive epidemic of alienation. The ego fears engaged intimacy because, in its own self-absorption, it must deny that the "master teacher" has been there all along. Yet, if that's true, then it must realize it has wasted a great deal of time (a couple of centuries) and realizing that would really suck, big time.

The ego demands truth be sought, and not created, and the Crypt-Keepers are here to cater to that desire. But the unspoken rule, that they will not utter, is that you must forever seek, but never find and such is the state of our shared world.

But who wants to realize that? Good grief, they don't even teach relationship 101 in grade school. How do we expect children to become caring adults with the capacity to nurture the planet and each other, when all they're taught is the same self-absorption and selfishness we received? "Study hard, so you can get a good job, kids. Just in case the world still exists when you graduate."

We can't even save our own personal "love-relationships," how do we expect to love the world enough to save it?

We fear the depths of deep understanding that intimacy naturally engages. We cannot lovingly engage the world until we do so with each other, simply because there is no separation.

Thus, we remain surface strangers forever giving 'lip-service' to "oneness," while essentially ignoring and neglecting one another to go off on our separate "hero's journey" in solitary seeking of spiritual enlightenment ("hey, I got mine, how 'bout you?!"). We fear the depth that intimate engagement would demand and so we become victim to small-talk and egoic social norms which perpetuates our apathy and boredom as surface strangers. To escape our mundane existence we desperately dive head first into austere spiritual ideologies and practices, seeking freedom from our self-created, shallow hell.

This only serves to further remove us from the awakening that is shared.

If this continues, then I fear the planet may be doomed because we are forever doomed to repeat the past. Our house is burning simply because you can't possibly feel comfortable in your home, if you fear the ones you live with because they're all strangers. Self-preservation is top priority.

Best to just let it burn and keep seeking for the guru who will save your 'self.'

The general consensus holds that such intimacy, or engaging in deep mutual understanding, is simply too exhausting. Yet, what exhausts us is our lack of intimacy and the mind-numbing despair of our surface existence. Why do we fail to recognize that such depth between two or more is the ground of awakening which can liberate us from our self-imposed strangeness and mutual alienation?

It is not a deeper seeking within the 'self' that need occur, but deeper seeking with each other.
That was both the Christ and Buddha message, which has been completely co-opted by the individual egoic ideological, "ancient" agenda and the Crypt-Keepers who insist we conform.

"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are altogether." (Beatles)

Truth is not granted to individuals based on meeting the expectations of the wise, old, "Crypt-Keepers of Ancient Wisdom" so that they may transmit it to you. Truth is created and thus, discovered, by the many in realizing their need to unify in that creative discovery. In that sense, truth does not yet exist until we create it together by deeply engaging to do so.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Awakening with the "Dream Police"




The intellectually elite ego adores the concepts of “non-duality” and "enlightenment." That’s because these concepts allow the ego to make compromises with its own personal constructs of 'reality.'

The ego compromises with truth by allowing itself to ‘realize’ only parts of the truth, while still embracing parts of the illusion. Now you need not awaken from the “dream” all at once and truth can be served up in convenient bite size slices; just take what you want and save the rest for later. It's all up to you.

The problem is that this denies the fact that it’s either all true or all not true. You can’t pick and choose what you want to be true since that merely makes it all not true. No one can make compromises with truth.

Except for the Dream Police who know how to compromise with truth and will teach you the skills needed to make anything "true."


So, when you awoke from the dream was your ‘self’ still affixed to a body that has needs? Well then, most likely you had a fantastic neurochemical whizbang - natural, no drugs - but no “awakening.”

But don’t fret, because the “Dream Police” are here to help. Here’s an email I received from Integral Life:
Dear friend,

I am excited to reach out to you since you listened last year to Ken Wilber and Bill Harris discuss Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now. The Power of Now is a truly sensational book and in 2003 was the catalyst for my own spiritual awakening to what Ken spoke of as a "non-dual" state of consciousness. I walked around San Francisco for 3 days in a state of pure bliss and mystical union (which gradually diminished over the following 4 months) [funny how it always seems to “diminish”]. It was a profound and life-altering experience (and as a deeply rational entrepreneur, a bit of a surprise, to say the least).

Now, millions of others have heard the story of how Eckhart Tolle awakened to this same super-conscious state – a timeless, transcendental state that mystics maintain is the doorway to liberation. Although it is trite, accessing this state of presence is indeed about waking up. (Waking up to what? To what is real, to who you really are. A reality which you swim in every moment, now, and now, and now...)

But here's what's interesting: the mystics were only half-right.

Because even after my awakening, I still faced the challenge of tapping into my deepest passion. I kept wondering, how can I simultaneously be at peace and be fully engaged in my life with passion? The peace of being versus the passion of becoming. This paradox didn't make sense to me until I found Integral...

What I learned from Ken's integral map is that while a state of presence is a key spiritual teaching of major religious traditions and is a true doorway to liberation, there are actually two forms of enlightenment and only one has to do with my "state" of consciousness. The other has to do with my "stage" of consciousness, and how I interpret this liberating state of presence will be dictated by my stage of consciousness development.

You see, my state of consciousness has to do with my being, but my stage of consciousness has to do with becoming. And my life is a calling to do both simultaneously!
According to this 'awakened guy,' your reward for finally awakening to “truth,” is to learn how to become more "passionate" about the illusion, but only because you're "awakening" is a "non-dual state of consciousness." Now you can blissfully have your cake and eat it too, because there are two forms of "enlightenment" and "the mystics were only half right."

Stupid mystics!

Being is boring, but “becoming” is where it's at, yo!

Good grief, “Two forms of enlightenment”? Really!? I always thought enlightenment was about “awakening” from the illusion to realize truth - one and done!

But not for the “Dream Police.” In fact, for the Dream Police ('awakened guys') there are hundreds of enlightenment "forms." In fact, there are levels and degrees, stages, tiers, quadrants, states, etc, etc, etc, on and on, ad infinitum.

The Dream Police recognize that we live in a postmodern technological 'world' that thrives on conspicuous consumption and, as discriminating consumers, we should have as many “enlightenment” products that the 'dream' can offer...

...in order to awaken from the dream.

Yet, more importantly, the Dream Police know that egos don’t want to awaken to a 'truth' completely devoid of all illusion. Because, if the body is part of the illusion, when truth finally dawns on you, ‘poof’… the body’s gone. I mean, if it’s part of the illusion, how could it stay around when truth comes to town? But then, without the body, how will you enjoy great sex or decent glass of aged Bordeaux?

Nope. Not your “enlightenment”! But that's okay because, for the Dream Police, “special orders don’t upset us, all we ask is that you let us serve it your way.”

The problem is that you think you know, but you don't have a clue and neither do the Dream Police. There is NO awakening to truth that "you" could even come close to comprehending. You can’t blissfully enjoy non-dualism, since there can be no “you” for which to experience “bliss" since you cannot experience anything that has an opposite.

If you're still ‘here,’ then you ain’t ‘there’ yet (and don’t give me that “I must stay and teach the ignorant masses” BS). But not to worry, because there is nowhere to 'get' and you’re right where you need to be.

The “Dream Police” feed your ego because it always needs 'something' and they aim to provide what it wants. They love to fill your head with ideas and they plan to teach your ego all they 'know.' They use words like “non-duality” “enlightenment” and “oneness,” as if such distinctions were necessary. But then they disclaim what they teach, by claiming they only "point" to truth but, as everybody knows, it's impolite to point.

The Dream Police want to teach you how to awaken from the 'dream.'

Unfortunately, they are part of it.

Beware the Dream Police!


The dream police, they live inside of my head.
The dream police, they come to me in my bed.

The dream police, they’re coming to arrest me, oh no.


You know that talk is cheap, and those rumors ain’t nice.

And when I fall asleep I don’t think Ill survive the night, the night.


Cause they’re waiting for me.
They’re looking for me.
Every single night, they’re driving me insane.
Those men inside my brain.

Friday, June 19, 2009

All Hail The Wise Master Wannabe!


The Wise Master Wannabe forgets that it’s all a game and so he takes his koans and “pointers” seriously. He misunderstands that his credibility is not in his words but the relationships that his words help facilitate.

He reads out of the “Great Book” and, intellectually, he’s got the rules down pat. Unfortunately, he fails to understand that transcendence is an infinite game with no outcome. One can be transcendent, but never transcend. One can be non-dual and never leave duality.

This makes no sense to the Wise Master Wannabe who is what he says he is, rather than what he is.

The Wise Master Wannabe is alienated from his world, but relates deeply to his words and is profoundly intimate with his concepts. For the Wise Master Wannabe, it all comes down to his understanding that you don’t understand. You must be ignorant for the Wise Master Wannabe to be wise.

This contrast is never lost on the Wise Master Wannabe and he will make certain it is not lost on you.

The Wise Master Wannabe is undisclosed and unrevealed and you will only know him by the rules he teaches, which have been passed down for centuries. He rides the great wave of theory, but crashes upon the rocks of authentic experience, and eventually it shows. Therefore, he must always keep his distance for fear of exposure.

He does this by exposing you.

The Wise Master Wannabe fails to recognize that a true "wise master" is not pithy quotes or snappy non-dual "pointers," but rather, an understanding of the student in the hope that the student will understand him…

..so that they both may learn.
However, the Wise Master Wannabe can never be wrong, since even his errors are nothing more than a mirror of you. The Wise Master Wannabe righteously denies he has a "tale" to tell, but will quickly judge you for telling one of your own. The Wise Master Wannabe is invulnerable to your pain, but seethes from your impudence. Nevertheless, he is detached, dissociated, derealized, disengaged...but very determined.

He is really no one at all and, for the Wise Master Wannabe, so are "you."

Yet, the Wise Master Wannabe is necessary. Essentially, all Wise Master Wannabes want the world to experience perfection and love and who could blame them for that. They ache to be free and although they often fail to find a conduit for which to extend, they cannot ignore the desire to share (although they will deny that it makes any difference to the "illusion").

Nevertheless, they keep the fires burning, while our embers may have long since died.

Although they incessantly repeat their tediously dull mantras of oneness and perfection, paradoxically, it is their lack of understanding that may inadvertently provoke us all to finally understand.

All hail the Wise Master Wannabe!

Ego Goals vs Deep Spirit

Why would you think that you can know your ‘self,’ or even parts of the self, simply by self-observation or the use of introspective or meditative techniques? The observer is biased and will tend to completely miss, or even deny, aspects that cause discomfort.

However, others see what you cannot because it is through others that you have defined your ‘self.’ You do not define and give meaning to your 'self' alone or in isolation, but through engagement with a world of others and 'they' are your world.

In fact, the deeper our engagement with that 'world,' the more 'defined' we become.

The ego-self is entirely other-referencing and is always in the process of defining itself, or 'becoming,' through others and the world. This is particularly true of the relationships that we choose for which to deeply engage with another, because it is through these 'intimate partnerships' that we define our deepest layers of the 'self.' We engage with others to intimately share our 'self' so that the 'self' can evolve.

Yet, why is it that we so frequently fail to create and maintain intimacy in our most significant relationships? Why is it that so many relationships fail to engage the depth between them and either remain hopelessly stuck on the surface or disengage entirely?

Individualized ego goals often impede Deep Spirit intimacy, since they reinforce separation and division resulting in chronic conflict from frequent interpersonal competition. The ego idealizes the love of another, not for how it can reinforce the others self-development (your partner's), but for what it expects others will do to reinforce its own self-construct (you). The ego is a self-absorbed belief 'package' whose sole function is self-preservation through pressing itself into and against a world of conflicting opposites. It perceives others as naturally opposing its projects and goals. Nevertheless, the ego believes that completion of its goals and projects will eventually provide fulfillment by firmly asserting it into its experience of a 'world.' Therefore, it picks and chooses significant 'others’ to join with in carrying out its plans of self-actualization. These are the 'loving' relationships we attribute the most significance and expect will add to our individual self-fulfillment.

Yet, these significant relationships may be stifled and paralyzed by chronic conflict, simply because the embodied egos we choose to join with (in 'love') have self-actualizing goals of their own to give meaning and define their own individual self-defining. They expect you will comply with their plans, while you expect compliance with your own.

Chronic conflict with 'loved ones' is often the most severe, because your ego-self expects to negotiate a world of other egos it has NOT chosen to "love", all perceived as strangers, yet each applying meaning to their lives and often in opposition to you. However, in contrast, you expect that those you have chosen to join with 'in-love' will support your individual egoic self-actualization and when that is not forthcoming the ego experiences betrayal.

Although the ego expects opposition from the world, it will not easily tolerate opposition from those it chooses to collude with in building and actualizing itself.

The ego-self wants to experience the fullness of its existence based on what the world teaches you must have in order to be "happy." Conforming to the world is how the ego-self realizes its existence as significant and not merely a made up fantasy of the mind's imagination. It must build and develop itself for fear of being swallowed up and nullified by the world it experiences as outside and separate from it. Therefore, the ego adopts projects and goals that the world teaches will result in an actualized 'self' and, as the world teaches, an actualized self is a "happy" self.

Intimate relationships are considered important, but subsidiary and subordinate to individual egoic actualization.

The problem is that most of the projects we engage in to achieve this ever allusive "happiness" are projects that promote egoic self-absorption and reduce the importance of relationships as primary means to self-actualization. Intimate relationships are downsized and minimized as the means of self-realization.

We can collude with another in achieving ego goals, however, they too seek egoic self-actualization in agreement with the world's definition of a self-actualized 'individual.' These egoic pursuits, although not detrimental from an individual standpoint, are the antithesis of Deep Spirit intimacy in the creation and discovery of the love that joins individuals. When ego goals of self actualization dominate the mind, relationships must suffer and often may expire simply for lack of attention.

Egoic self-actualization that supersedes or takes priority over Deep Spirit intimacy, creates tension and conflict between loved ones who feel betrayed by one another. The 'chosen one' was not supposed to become a stranger in opposition but, instead, an ally in your self actualization and egoic search for "happiness." But the allegiance was lost and now, instead of sharing your 'self' in the desire to self-actualize through love, you withhold your 'self' and gradually begin to hold your partner in contempt as they also withhold from you.

Eventually the ego will experience increased anxiety in relation to the chronic stress of this constant withholding, or blunted extension, since our deepest inclination is to naturally extend to others. Anxiety will rise, particularly if the ego's demand for control in asserting itself against the other is consistently thwarted by the significant others own self-assertion. No matter how hard you try to control external circumstances, another ego is thwarting your efforts in their attempt at control. These are the daily "control dramas" that are played out in millions of "loving" relationships, so much so, that it is often 'normalized' as typical of all intimate relationships.

When separation-anxiety increases to a boiling point, the ego then avoids conflict altogether by slowly disengaging from the relationship. Now there are only bodies in proximity, providing only surface communication in the performance of routine, superficial domestic tasks, while the self is locked away in avoidance of depth. Adverse alienation sets in and we find we can no longer collaborate on even the smallest things. Eventually, the pattern becomes rigidly predictable, with no 'surprise' in the interactions, as engagement gradually becomes monotonous and mundane. Yet, we will not disengage from our individual self-actualizing pursuits and in fact, the ego intensifies its efforts in the direction of individualized self-actualization, since the relationship no longer holds out the promise of "happiness."

Eventually, the ego may cut itself off completely from what it sees as the source of its betrayal, resulting in physical separation and eventually the severing of all ties.The ego then seeks out another for which to collude in its individual plans of self-actualization. It has no desire to realize its role in the circular nature of the conflict and denies the fact that it's as guilty as the one it blames. Therefore, it will reconstruct the same patterns of conflict in every 'love' relationship it engages with in the future.

Yet, if it can come to realize its role in the pattern of betrayal, it can then gradually begin to alter its perspective enough to engage the other toward resolution. Resolution is always assured through increased understanding, because seeking to deeply understand another is to automatically correspond with Deep Spirit. When you correspond with Deep Spirit, the ego recedes in silence, thereby ending its incessant chatter originating from its need to control reality (others). Now both can listen deeply to one another, easily redirecting patterns to allow an intimate center through which communication can naturally occur.

It only takes one to extend from this Deep Spirit, because such extension has the miraculous tendency to evoke the same extension from others and this is because it is as natural as breathing. Yet, we have lost touch with this deep inner nature, because we have become hypnotized by what society teaches will lead to fulfillment and self-actualization, rather than the intimacy with another we know will energize and bring joy into our lives. Joy is only available when shared.

To extend from Deep Spirit is the path to dissolving alienation. This is because you are no longer strangers to one another and embark in the infinite process of intimate awakening together.

To remain strangers is to give up all hope of understanding and thus, all hope of love. To correspond from Deep Spirit 'within' is to find yourself through engaging to deeply understand another. It is the spiritual ground of all relationships and, although few ever reach that level, the path is available to everyone.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Awakening From The Dream of Dreaming You're Awakening




Can you really awaken from the "dream"? What will you find? Who will you be? Nirvana, pure bliss, absolute truth, heaven, universal consciousness, pure awareness, yourself, God?

Or will you merely awaken to another dream? Much like the last dream, but still, a different dream in which you again dream of "awakening" from the dream? Only to "awaken" to another dream of "awakening" and then another and another?

If truth is infinite is there a point at which the dreaming stops and finally becomes "real"?


Why seek to transcend the illusion, when there is nothing "real"? Note that your term "illusion" is entirely dependent on its contrasting opposite, the "real." Maybe “real” is a concept your ego conjured up so that you wouldn’t have to take responsibility for the "illusion"? Gee, isn't that convenient.

You seek to transcend the illusion, rather than change it, simply because it's not "real" and is an "illusion." Whew! Lucky for you. Just imagine if all that death and destruction were real! Then who would you be? Obviously, you would then have no choice but to seek to change the "hell" you made and if you experience "hell," then no doubt you made it. If it's all illusion, then make no mistake, it's your "illusion."

What about your loved ones? What about your children, are they illusion? Why would you love what is NOT "real"? Or maybe your "love," too, is illusion?

If it all just "arises," do you ever wonder why it arises specifically as YOU seem to experience it? Why do some seem to experience great wealth, abundance and happiness? Obviously, to be conscious OF something is to make it "real," isn’t that what quantum physics now tells us?

Maybe parts of the illusion are real, since how would your ego-self finally come to the conclusion that the world is illusory, if there was not something real IN the "illusion" that informs it of this fact? What part of the illusion informs you that it's all illusion? What are you using to illuminate the contrast between your illusion and the something else you call "real"? If it weren't for the "illusion" you would not be chasing the "real." Therefore, are you not grateful to your "illusion"? But would your gratitude make it "real"?

“Real” and “illusion” is one experience that you split in two. Illusion is as much a part of truth as anything else, otherwise why would you be 'aware' of it. Stop throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Illusion is real and real is illusion. Wrap your mind around that and stop trying to judge between the two. You can’t split truth in two. The whole is not available to the parts, but all the parts are included in the whole. Attach to one part, in contrast to another, and miss the whole entirely.

What’s the matter, don’t you like it 'here'? Then stop your spiritual whining and fix it. But then, why engage an "illusion," right? The perfect copout!


"The world is an illusion" teaches an invalid conclusion based on a faulty premise. The premise being that there is something other than “illusion” that is not "illusion." So rather than remain fixated on your spiritual brainwashing, by continuing to repeat the tired old slogan, "the world is an illusion," try closely examining your concept of ‘real.’

The ancient teachings that point to the "real" come directly from your experience of being IN a world and are part of that whole. However, the teachings seek to negate part of your experience as illusion.

But the illusion is what is teaching you it’s an illusion.

Non-dualism seeks to separate off parts based on the dualistic premise that there are some experiences that are NOT 'part' of the illusion. If it’s not illusory then, of course, this means there is a part of your experience that is "real" (or more "real") than what you now experience. Unfortunately, you just haven’t had the "real" experience yet. Too bad for you.

So what part is "real"? Well, the rules state that the ultimate reality cannot be talked about, since words only relate to the "illusion" and are symbols of symbols. Therefore, you must follow the path of austerity and realize "the real” and this realization is referred to as “awakening” or “enlightenment.” Yet, this premise has resulted in your negating one experience, while seeking out another and the villain in that negation is not the real “you,” but your ego-self.

Thus, the illusion seeks a way out of the illusion.

The claim is that, without the ego-self creating all these illusory experiences, you would be free to experience the real "you" instead. Note how the illusory “you” must now search for the "real" you, which you have not yet been acquainted with (experienced). But don’t worry, says the illusory “you,” we will find the real "you" someday, if "you" sacrifice and struggle hard and long enough in your spiritual practices. HA, what a maroon!

The ego informs you that your “Being” will finally become the ‘experiencer’ of reality, while the ego will essentially cease to exist. Yet, does an ego-self not have Being? Maybe "Being” is nothing more than experience, experiencing itself as ego? Without an ego-self, who or what will experience anything?

Ally yourself exclusively with any part and you deny the whole and this includes "real" vs "illusion." There is no separation to experience and if you choose a part of your experience of ‘world,’ as teaching you that there is no world, then you have divided experience. Experience is what you ARE. It's ALL in your experience. It comes from “you” as a whole and “you” split it in two by negating a part as unworthy of your "awareness." To "Be of one voice" is to be of one experience. The only awakening you need to experience is understanding your ego-dynamics and, not for the purpose of rejection or exclusion of the ego-self, but simply to "know thyself" (Socrates).

Know your experience of ‘self’ and experience surprise in what “you” really are, which does not exclude anything, but includes all of it. The game is infinite because truth is infinite, which means "awakening" never ends. Therefore, this means that there is NO "awakening" and dreaming never ends.

It's all a dream and the dream is real.

Sweet dreams. Hahaa!
mikeS

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Infinite vs. Finite Playing of Spiritual Games


I want to review the concept of the finite vs infinite game, since some folks get really pissed off when I question their accepted rules.

So let's consider one of the numerous spiritual rules available in the conventional world, such as "you must transcend the ego to directly experience the bliss of pure being" or "The world is an illusion" (cut and pasted from a "spiritual" website).

Okay. great stuff, huh? I know...you've read this stuff a million times, right?

But here's the rub. The infinite player will accept that rule, but only to continue play. The best way to continue play is to play with the rules. Yet, the finite player will insist that you play by the rules.

The problem, as I see it, is that finite players attach to the rules (sometimes unconsciously) as an end to play and, therefore, they will get downright ornery when someone wants the game to continue through questioning the rules. This is because they (or some "master" before them) have ordained the rules as sacrosanct and beyond question and crucial to an outcome, such as "experiencing the bliss of pure being" or "awakening" to an illusory world. However, often the outcome is that the finite player simply be seen and accepted as "spiritually pure" (but this is always rigorously denied) and by restating the ancient axioms and proverbs they believe their purity is evident.

If you play the game by the rules, your "purity" must be true. So it is written, so must it be.

The finite player will covertly insist that there is something you must 'get' that you now lack. Fortunately for you, they 'have' what you lack and thus, the teacher-student hierarchy is constructed for which you must play by their rules to 'get' what they have convinced you that you must have, but lack.

The generally accepted assertion that you must be egoless to experience pure being, is fine by me. In fact, it might even be true! (although I sincerely doubt it, but that's just me playing with rules). And certainly the world is an "illusion" (but define "real"?)

Yet, the infinite player will engage with others to build on the rules and add to them, construct and deconstruct, twist and bend, turn them inside-out and outside-in, etc, etc, etc.

Whatever! It doesn't matter (except to the finite player) because the only goal for the infinite player is to enlist and engage with more players who want to play with the rules and even create more rules to play with, requiring more players, etc, etc, on and on, ad infinitum.

Of course, I too, create rules and expect that everyone will play with any rules that I impose as well. I look forward to it! This game has gone on for centuries and most likely will go one for centuries more (unless we finally put out the lights thereby starting a new game).

And the more players in the game, the more exciting and engaging the game becomes. However, you can play by yourself. But what fun is there in that.

The spiritual games, like any other games, require players. Unfortunately, for most of the games of the world, there can only be so many "world champions" or MVP's. Or, for that matter, yogis or gurus or "master teachers."

However, if you look closely at the world, you will see millions who aspire to be awarded those coveted trophies and this aspiration drives them to participate in the competition.

So, in conclusion, I just wanna say that I truly enjoy playing with you guys and I apologize in advance to those of you who I most likely will piss off when I question your rules. Because I will question
all of your rules (and no doubt you will subtly retaliate by questioning mine).

Let the games begin!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

In The Game Of "Spirituality," Play By The Rules, Fools!





All games have rules. "Spirituality" is a game that also has rules. Even choosing not to call it a “game,” makes that a rule. We all follow rules and we believe that there are some rules that we must never deviate from.

What are the rules of your spiritual game? 


Can we play “with” your rules or must we play "by" your rules? Do you insist that your rules are “the truth” and, therefore, not to be questioned? Can your rules be changed or must we rigidly adhere to the letter at all times?

Do your rules make other rules “wrong”? If my rules are different from yours, do you feel it incumbent upon you to “correct" my mistakes?

Beliefs are rules and rules shape your perception. Do your rules help you to see or do they blind you to what is there? Do your rules make you happy or is your happiness based on following the rules? If you refuse to follow the rules, will you still be happy?

Are you the teacher of “the rules”? Do you feel compelled to teach your rules? If I resist learning your rules, what will you think of me? Are you then compelled to contrast my "ignorance" against your "wisdom"? Is that wise or is that ‘righteous’? When I question your rules, will this diminish me in your mind? Will you look down upon me, demanding I replace my rules with yours? If my rules are different from yours, can we still love each other?

Or do the rules make all the difference between love and hate?


Can I bend your rules or will that change your “truth” and make it false? Will you fight to insist that your rules be followed against all others? Will you say “no, not that, but this”? Do you insist that the rules are not yours but "god’s" rules? Or, do you insist that they are the rules of “Oneness”? Do your rules insist that there is no “self”?

Do you follow the rules of Christianity or the rules of Islam? Do you follow the rules of Hinduism or Buddhism? Do you follow the rules of Non-Duality? Maybe you follow the rules of science?

Does your “god” have rules through which your playing the game is judged?

The ego-self will cleverly use everything at its disposal, even denial of itself, to impose its rules. But there must always be rules and “you” cannot exist without the “rules of play” and many call the rules “truth.” Even to assert that you follow NO RULES, is to assert a rule to follow. 

Maybe it’s not the games that you suffer through, but the rules you feel compelled to follow?

Are your rules “sacred”? Do you follow special rules passed down for centuries? Do you revere the teachers of those rules? Must you follow the rules because someone ‘smarter’ than you determined the rules? Does this make your ignorance a rule? Or, because you follow their rules, you now no longer claim ignorance? Have they told you that if you follow the rules they teach, you too, can be 'smart' like them?

What are your rules? Do you even know the rules you play by? Can you list the rules you play by or do you blindly conduct your life with no awareness of the rules you follow?

Or… do you just “know,” without a doubt, that your rules are the "truth"?

Just asking...
mikeS

Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Infinite Depth of Awakening Together


As Deep Spirit you are infinite in depth and there are times when you can feel the truth of this, in the sense that there is always something more or deeper that your just not getting at.

Residing at the surface denies this depth, but this is only because depth is fearful to a ‘self’ that has become quite accommodated to surface engagements. You have experiences of others coming into your life for one reason and that is to engage your depth. This is because you can’t go "within" alone.


If you wish to experience a non-dual "awakening," seek it with and through another.

The ego-self has very little need for depth, since it primarily relies on surface ‘perceptions’ in order to judge differences in its experience of reality. This aids it in anticipating and predicting bodily actions and purposes. Perception is exclusive to physical sensation (senses) and is quite often erroneous due to its shallow nature. This is why seeing is not always believing and our bodies can easily hide the truth. If you wish to realize a non-dual "oneness" you will need to experience it with and through another by plunging below the disorganized complexity of surface engagements.

This is evident even in our dualistic reality, as individuals relating with one another from depth are often surprisingly less egoically inclined in that engagement, since depth of interaction engenders intimacy or a deeper level of mutual understanding. However, even this is limited, since there has been no conscious choice to perceive each other differently and soon the ego resumes it shallow apprehensions. You will not attack what you engage with to understand, because what you come to deeply understand is always a reflection of "you." It is through others that the 'self' constructs and knows itself.

In this sense, intimacy is defined as a deeper understanding and it is a emergent relating with another mind, and thus the world. We cannot understand strangers (ego-self fears what it does not understand) and as long as strangers continue to engage in transferences of conceptualized "love," the world will exhibit that lack of depth and clearly it does.

The belief that a non-dual experience of unified oneness can be accessed through ideologies which advocate solitary practices is absurd, but clearly such ideology conforms to the world's conditions of truth, which are equally absurd. This alone should make them null and void, but not to an ego-self seeking to control its world through ideologies of "oneness" in an attempt to reconcile itself with an experience of a world it fears.


You cannot engage in self-intimacy alone, because you did not construct the 'self' alone. However, you can “find your 'self' through another, in fact, this is the only way “you” can be found and understood. The 'form' that such a relationship takes is insignificant and need not require any physical contact. However, the content of full engagement fuels correspondence with the infinite depth of Deep Spirit.

The intimacy of Deep Spirit is fearful to an ego and such depth of engagement is virtually unknown to the ego simply because the ego-self will always fear what it does not understand. This is because it cannot construct expectations for which to anticipate and predict behaviors and actions. Many individuals spend their lives avoiding any authentic depth of relating with others and the world. From fear, they choose to remain at the surface relying primarily on perception and its inaccurate tools of sensation. In this way, as long as appearances are perceived as satisfactory, as in conforming to egoic expectation, depth can be ignored and understanding never achieved.

The world reflects the magnitude of this ignorance and surface duality is the expected norm. This alone is why we fail to understand the world that we mutually create and lack of understanding can only lead to continued chaos, absurdity and self-destruction.

This is often evident with individuals whose lives are in severe disarray due to a life-long failure to access depth through others, thereby, impeding any depth of understanding for the individual 'self.' Always dwelling at the surface, they spend a great deal of time in self-development, productivity exercises, task management and organizing daily empirical objectives and society adamantly supports and advocates these endeavors as fruitful and worthwhile above any authentic interpersonal engagement. The more intellectual seek out austere and esoteric ideologies for which to accentuate the ego-self.

So many walking-wounded who have contracted into themselves for fear of engagement, failing to understand that healing is extension and, through extension, Being is realized.

Perform a cursory examination of all the "self-development" blogs and websites and it becomes clear that the ego's prime objective is to become expert at surface activities and engagements. We are expert practitioners of conforming to the world's value system. A value system that we created simply from fear of engaging with one another.

Issues of depth are frequently avoided through all manner of egoic defense mechanisms, not the least of which is anger and rage. The ego constructs experience based on expectation and expectations are restricted to surface beliefs to minimize the chance of encountering fear. Most surface beliefs involve self-defensive actions to protect the 'self' from psychological attack, but ego can only be attacked by those it does not know and if it remains on the surface it must sculpt its life through an abject ignorance of others. Thus, we have the modern world as we know it, completely immersed in fear and the resultant self-absorbed defense measures that can only obstruct engagement and, hence, understanding.

Your "awakening" or "enlightenment" involves a deep engagement with others and the world. Your “true nature" will not be realized through separate, solitary meditative exercises and this is an erroneous judgment egoically derived from poorly translated teachings of the ancient masters. However, the inner calm that these practices afford may further your seeking depth, but only because you have essentially sedated the ego’s fear by calming your mind.

Such a deep understanding of one another naturally dissolves our usual sense of self-protection and suspicion, since this depth significantly minimizes alienation and distrust. From such a depth of intimacy with another, you would then naturally transfer that to your own personal experience of the world (without any active ‘doing.’ In fact, the more you do the less depth possible, since the conditions of the world's need for 'action' impedes intimacy). The only way to “awaken” to an intimate engagement with your experience of 'world' is to intimately engage with your experience of others. That is your purpose, and theirs, because the world is made manifest through the relationship of the parts.

You have only one primary function in your experience of world and that is to seek depth in relating with that experience and the primary component of that experience, or that which causes you most fear and joy, is your engagement with others.You experience a world that is composed of others experiencing the same 'world'. This mutuality of experience is the substratum and foundation of your personal experience and intimate relating is where your “awakening” awaits you. The deeper you go, the more you “awaken.” Remain on the surface and your experience is dulled, barren and based on historical egoic expectation and prediction (the past).

Enlightenment is not self-detached or self-propelled, but deeply engaged with others in experiencing a Deep Spirit correspondence not available to individual minds alone. You have already chosen others through which to engage and awaken. They are your teachers, as you are theirs, and many more will come to you as needed. Trust in the need to deeply engage with those who surround you. Your choosing them was no coincidence. You must heal to be healed and teach to learn. This lends credence to the concept of “universal oneness.” However, a theory without a practice is useless to an ego-self that demands action. Therefore, to experience this “oneness” you must engage intimately with others and together you will reach those depths, for alone you merely remain hopelessly at the surface and your 'world' remains there with you.

This is the simple truth egoic minds continue to resist, opting instead for the path of the solitary seeker, which must leave others behind, simply because engagement is so utterly frightening. Yet this theme is the foundation of every religion and spirituality prior to the ego's need to demand they conform to individual egoic goals. However, keep in mind that the infinite depth of Deep Spirit intimacy has no end-point and no destination and is infinite by nature. But then, neither does spiritual "awakening" have an end point, although many modern so-called masters teach it as a destination or outcome.

There is no end to how far two or more can go when they join in that purpose.

"There Must Be Some Way Out Of Here"


It’s interesting that many have chosen to escape from their experience of the world by seeking to dissolve that experience through neo-Advaitsist concepts.

I'm sure we can all agree that the experience of living is often very painful, so the ego-self has devised a complicated, but ingenious, method of escape through concepts that point to non-conceptuality and non-identity. The non-dualistic platitudes of "oneness" are poetically expressed in a herculean effort to resolve the paradox of the one and the many and this is performed simply by fallaciously denying the many.

You cannot transcend the 'transcender' and even if you do, the interpretation of transcendence proves the interpreter still believes it 'self' as “real.” In the game of non-duality the outcome, or goal, is a self which conceptualizes itself as null and void.

Forget the world, forget others, forget you and only through identifying with your newly discovered narrative of non-identification will you escape the hell of living. If the 'self' is a made up concept, so is the concept of 'no-self' that the 'self' makes. Even Ken Wilber, the "integralist" protege of Adi Da Samraj, advocates exapnding the self before erasing.

Ahh…but if such concepts give you comfort, who am I to protest.

Now you can detach from suffering and pain because, well... “you” don’t exist. Such is the sad dissociation of non-dualism. But there is a lightness in their step because this theoretical foundation, that their ego-self has adopted, gives them hope (although "hope" is obviously denied and merely 'arises'). Now the ego-self can claim joy in no longer being an ego-self, but of course, as 'no-self,' joy must be denied as well.

Yet, the ego is not a very good liar, especially when developing itself through deconstruction.

Non-dualism is a method of spiritual bypassing resulting in disengagement, dissociation and denial. The emotions are blunted by concepts that define dissociation. Nevertheless, upon close inspection we find that they are NOT dissociated by any means and their rigid attachment to a dogmatic ideology is clearly apparent for all to see.

However, many contend that detaching from identity results in a greater identity in your engagement with the world. But, make no mistake there is always an 'engager,' whether that be "real" or an imaginary construct, is beside the point, since how do we define "real."

To be real or not to be real, that is the question.

But "who" is it that speaks of non-identity? Have you no self, no history, no story to represent the speaker? Then how are we to engage? Obviously we cannot, since the dissociated can only engage in their non-associations, which is no engagement at all.

In the manifest world such dissociation and derealization is deemed "sociopathic," but for the teacher of the non-dual it is taught to be truth.

Of course, the moment words are used, the ego sneaks out, regardless of the effort to non-identify with the “arising” self and oh, how they must teach and the pride in that role is apparent. But "who" is it that teaches and "who" learns "what"? What credibility reinforces "your" message? So it is, after all, a paradox that their “pointers” only confuse. But they rigidly stick to the script, passed down for centuries, that “points” to the moon, but is not the moon and, of course, although they point, there is no one pointing.

Employing concepts to ingenuously dissolve concepts, they are an elite group of intellectuals!

But how do you know you’re not an ego-self? Who or what makes such an interpretation? It "arises," is all they can say and because the revered and austere ancient "masters" have said it, how can it not be true. Their austere philosophy is legitimized by the past and, make no mistake, once words describe 'experience' you are philosophizing. This is how egos revere the past in the realization that ego-self can never detach itself from a past, even if the past they adopt claims that there is no past and that they have transcended time.

Concepts piled atop concepts, the non-dual attached 'self' is often the most conceptual in its rigid formulaic philosophical perspective. Why seek to identify as non-dual if not from a fear of experiencing the dual? But they believe they have found the exit door to truth. In non-duality we can make a pretty pink picture of hell by no longer calling it "hell" simply because it all merely "arises" and can have no effect.

But a rose by any other name still "arises" a rose.

Non-dual is nothing. It does not engage, nor does it disengage. It is not the "arising" of experiences that engages you, but your relationship to what arises and this they attempt to dissolve. Between the doing and the doer, the thinker and the thought, the experience and the experiencer, is the ground of being and there you ARE in the relating, down in the existential trenches...and this is good.

The ego-self is an intellectual dynamo and, because it has never been at home in its experience of “being-in-the-world,” it constructs magnificently complex theoretical prognostications in an attempt to increase its comfort. These serious theories (and they take their theories very seriously) serve to increase its comfort by attempting to remove it entirely from its experience of a world, while claiming that such dissociation intensifies experience. But for "who"? Everyone? Nope, just the practitioner of the non-dual. Silly human!

The problem with this conceptual dissection is that in order to remove the ‘self’ from it’s experience of a world, the ‘self’ must be equally eradicated, because the ‘self’ cannot perform in the infinite drama without a supporting cast (which includes the body, world and others).

But what is an ego-self but a process of continuously changing performances interpreted in ways to insure it “exists.” This structural constructivism is infinite and has no finite outcome while, clearly, "non-duality" is an outcome. Have you achieved your non-duality today!

The non-dualist is extremely goal oriented.

Therefore, if the ego-self wishes to escape its nasty, uncomfortable world, it must escape itself as well. It does this by attempting to collapse itself as a concept of the mind. In fact, to do this it must conceptually annihilate the mind entirely (bad mind, bad! Sit, stay!)

With no mind there can be no ego-self to make interpretations of its own experiences. Now experiences simply “arise” in awareness, but the ego-self must deny ownership of these experiences, simply because now it doesn’t exist to itself, since "who is it that experiences." However, prior to this theoretical incorporation, the ego-self ‘allowed’ itself to experience itself as existing, it just doesn’t 'allow' it anymore.

Yet, notice how “to allow” is a verb signifying action. But "who" is acting? Such is the active dis-action of the non-dualist on a quest for the coveted title of guru in denial that this is the goal. But it must be, since the only practical value the non-dualist can provide a weary world is being a non-dual teacher. I'm sure the suffering masses are thankful for that!

Thus, in one fell swoop the ego-self annihilates its own conceptual history, because without a past to identify with, the ego-self must vanish. Yippee! There is no "I" and "I" am finally free! But "who" interprets freedom?

Now it will respond to experiences simply through the emancipation proclamation “WHO is it that experiences.” This simple claim, repeated ad nauseam, works to convince itself that it is not “real,” even against any and all experiences to the contrary. Yet, make no mistake, what you attempt to deny is automatically reinforced and magnified exponentially and this is an undeniable law of being. Being is experienced through your relationship in extension, whether what you extend is 'self' or 'no-self.'

The non-dual self, or no-self, becomes a mighty self-contained world unto itself.

Yet, the ego-self realizes that this could be construed (by others, because the non-identified "self" still somehow seems to 'identify' others who must be taught the truth) as an attempt to escape the world, so it ingeniously decides that rather than escape the world, which would only reinforce separation, it becomes ‘one’ with the world.

"Oneness" is the idol of this dogma, but this does not negate it as "dogma.'

The problem they deny is that ego boundaries cannot be turned on and off at will and, make no mistake, in order for us to have a relationship there must be boundaries between your ‘self’ and mine for us to realize that boundaries can be infinitely payed with and thereby ignored. But the non-dualist needs boundaries too, for if there were no boundaries to differentiate between us, who would be student and who teacher? Note how, for non-dualism, the roles of teacher-student seem never to dissolve.

Hmmm....it seems that be non-dualist there must be dualism for which to apply oneself against in contrasting opposition and the non-dualist lives through that contrast.

Therefore, the only real relationship the non-dual ideology insures will continue, is that there must be a teacher and a student. That relationship must endure, while all others are subsumed into nothingness.

I’ve met many non-dualists who have become completely disengaged from the world in an attempt to extract some sense of egoic comfort out of their experience of a world. They live in a self-imposed solitary confinement that borders on solipsistic self-absorption. Obviously, their relationships are strained since who wants to hear “who is it that is angry?” all the time, even when, undeniably their whole persona is physically quivering in rage. Yet, in the “arising” of emotion, it is dissociated from as part of a ‘self’ that simply does not exist.

However, clearly for the non-dualist the ‘self’ does exist, no matter their claims to the contrary, because I’ve never met folks more rigidly committed to a dogma.

Well... maybe the Christians are a bit more dogmatic. But at least they don't deny they are the innocent ones entrusted with the task of judging and persecuting the guilty.


"There must be some way out of here," said the joker to the thief,
There's too much confusion, I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth,
None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.

"No reason to get excited," the thief, he kindly spoke,
There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke.

But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,

So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.
(Dylan & Hendrix)

mikeS

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Deep Spirit (part 2)



Continued from Deep Spirit (part 1)

Deep Spirit is an awakened intimacy experienced by two or more.

Bodies are not necessary to experience Deep Spirit, although upon encounter, bodies do tend to engage in close proximity, since a desire to be together becomes irresistable.

Sex does not result in, or lead to, the experience, but can be used in expressing Deep Spirit (as can most anything else). Unfortunately, sex that masquerades as "loving" impedes what can be experienced. In fact, Deep Spirit does not require bodies be joined together in any particular 'form.' Nevertheless, bodies that have already come together, conforming to the world’s definition of 'joined,' may have an advantage in experiencing Deep Spirit, simply because they are already engaged on some level. Of course, there are many ‘bodies’ that live together as alienated strangers (and many even claim to be deeply "spiritual"). Therefore, a Deep Spirit experience may not be available until there is the conscious choice to discover it together by identifying and dissolving delusions.

What is discovered will be from what is mutually created. There is no proprietary truth available through linear transmission. Only the truth that waits to be created through a circular engagement loop.

If you think you’ve experienced Deep Spirit, but no one else is joined in that experience with you, then most likely you are mistaken and merely conform to the world's conditions of "love."

Relationship is the conduit for all experience and you will experience what you expect and “expect what you invite.”

There are many ‘forms’ available for relating to one another in the world. Yet, Deep Spirit is NOT concerned with objectified or manifest 'forms,' as dictated through the world’s rituals and expectations. It is not a socially channeled intimacy and comes from a well much deeper than anything an external world has ever considered as available. There is no need for the forms of marriage, friendship, lovers, familial or any other relationship parameters, as dictated by the world. Nevertheless, since most of us conform to varying relationship types, these would certainly be an obvious starting point.

We cannot conceptually define Deep Spirit, however, communication can aid in removing the obstacles that impede the experience. In fact, mutual identification of obstacles is a necessary first step in the process. Until words are no longer necessary, healing is actualized through words.

There is no finite outcome from engaging in Deep Spirit together, only recognition of the process. This is simply because Deep Spirit is infinite and has no boundaries but those created to obstruct it. When it becomes miraculously available, there is no telling how far, or how deep, two or more can go “within” together. But you can only engage in the process with another and, to use an old cliché, “the more, the merrier.”

Fully engaging to correspond with Deep Spirit is our collective enlightenment.

Consciously joining with another to dissolve barriers for the purpose of encountering Deep Spirit, is highly useful. However, you cannot define what that experience will be or predict when it will be attained and doing so merely constructs more barriers and conditions. Your role is merely to stay in the process and give up all ideas and concepts you have determined as defining Deep Spirit. Once you attempt to define the experience, you inadvertently obstruct it.

Initially, there will be a general resistance to engaging with Deep Spirit since it cannot be encountered in solitude or from solitary actions or psychological practices. However, actions and practices enlisted to aid in corresponding with Deep Spirit can be employed, but only with the aim of more deeply engaging "others."

The "I" is eventually annulled for the "we."

We have become very selfish and arrogant in our sharing with others. This has resulted in the discarding of relationships, when the ego self-construct judges that they no longer meet our conceptualized needs. This makes extension, or the sharing of intimacy, utterly impossible due to the conditions we impose. Make no mistake Deep Spirit is intimacy, but deeper than any form of relating defined by the world. In that sense, it can be experienced in the world, but not of it.

Relationship is the ground of awakening, but also cause of the world.

A world in turmoil is a world caused by shallow, surface engagements and thus, loses the ground of awakening entirely. You will only know your ‘self’ through ‘others,’ as both have been mutually constructed, resulting in a subsequent “world” construct which is experienced collectively as separate.

A Deep Spirit experience is not disengaged but wholly and completely immersed in the experience of self and other and, through that experience, the quantum nature of the world changes. Through that immersion, the experience collapses the paradox of the one and the many in realization of the one with, and through, the many.