This site is maintained by the Waking Down Community Network. It is offered as a support for those involved in the work of Waking Down in Mutuality (WDM), but because the bulk of the material here is not written or reviewed by WDM teachers, the content should not be assumed to represent WDM dharma.
What's left when the small sense of self disintegrates? While we may think "The true Self becomes evident when the small self disintegrates", this past week I visited my parents and observed how much my mother's dementia has advanced since I visited them last April. Watching her grasp desperately to hold onto her sense of self as it slips away from her control, I found myself wondering what is left when the self one has defined over a lifetime begins to crack apart . . . and one has no realization of the greater Self to fall into.
Once you can begin to discriminate between your authentic sense of yourself and your conditioned being, gradually over time changes can take place.
Now is the time to bring in the deep masculine. There is a potential to become a life-long learner, manifesting vision. You may have to work for it, through learning and acculturation, but you are no longer doing so in service to ideals that are superimposed, but rather in service to your own deep impulses of Being.
Discriminative awareness brings a greater sense of the qualities that you need to develop (and are coming forth in you), and a growing sense of being clear about what is an impulse of Being, rather than a conditioned reflex.
In the more mature phases of the second life you may find that you become sick of yourself (and sick of others) merely vomiting out reactions (while you are internally just dwelling on those reactions , sinking in deeper and deeper). Meanwhile everyone else is just holding, holding, loving, loving. It becomes very wearing on the group process and (more importantly) wearing on you. Learning to hold this as you move beyond it is not always easy. We begin taking back our power and uncoupling the dominance of the angry wounded child.
This is the rest of the conversation that was in the past post "What About Consciousness?"
The context for this conversation was that a friend basically said "I'm sick of being me. I know that Waking Down is not much about Consciousness, but that's what I want."
Advaita alert: Be warned, I actually go as far to say you don't exist (!)
"Embracing change is never easy, but the reward for doing so can be greater than anything you could imagine."—Anna, charismatic leader of the murderous space lizards
The remake of the '80s alien invasion TV series V premiered Tuesday, November 3, 2009 on ABC. On the surface, like the original, it set up a conflict between the people of Earth and the Visitors, advanced aliens pretending friendship while planning world domination. But it was difficult to ignore the way in which that conflict was framed: those who value tradition and self-reliance (humanity) versus those who value empathy and holism (murderous space lizards).
Please note: This post started as part of the thread "What about Consciousness?". It seemed to morph into another issue so I'm posting it separately here. I do this with some hesitation, knowing that I will be teaching at the AMS course starting next friday for eight days and will likely not be able to reply during that period, but here it goes…
Thank you Bapa,
I love that, "You like it, it likes you".
I enjoyed both your responses. And they opened up something like a side issue in all this about the way that I hold the whole Waking Down in Mutuality process in relation to such things.
This a not quite a reply to what you (Bapa) have written, as much as something else that was brought up by what you wrote. I'm using it like a springboard to speak to something else really…
"The Surgeon General's warning on attending Satsangs as the sole form of Spiritual approach. There were good reasons that traditional approaches tended to be gradual. Sooner or later purification happens, if not before awakening then after awakening, being sober about this truth is important."
That's the You Tube description of this Satsang.
This is a different angle on the process. Wearing two hats my language can be radically different whether I'm holding a Satsang or doing a Waking Down sitting.
I kind of chuckle now about how I describe "the rest of your being" as a distraction and a nuisance unless we become embodied. For one who wants only to be formless Consciousness this is true enough, and it is a good reason to "deal with" the fact of our limited human nature. And while the language itself is not the most embodied and not the kind I would likely use at a WDM sitting it makes the case for WDM being a messy non-hypermasculine 21st century version of a traditional tantric perspective.
The context for this conversation was that a friend basically said "I'm sick of being me. I know that Waking Down is not much about Consciousness, but that's what I want."
Twenty four participants have gathered with twelve teachers and mentors including Saniel and Linda for the Fourth Annual Fairfield Transformation Retreat. As each person spoke last night, it became clear that real transformation is not for the faint of heart. Decades of quiet yearning met the trepidation of realizing that in this awakening business, the stakes couldn't be any higher. The life that many people have created may be hanging in the balance as something new is taking its place. Tender, honest, poignant, hopeful expressions filled the room and launched what will, no doubt, be another signature event in the sacred history of this work.
Some of the recent discussion about "negativity" and suffering has prompted me to write further about this and, hopefully, to engage some of you in this exploration.
I believe we are all at various stages in a huge, ongoing spiral of evolvement and personal/ spiritual growth in which we first learn to accept and embrace everything in our own lives as neither negative or positive but simply "what is". If we are fortunate enough to evolve to that point, we discover that our personal sufferings, now accepted and embraced, become augmented and overwhelmed and replaced by the suffering of "other beings".
And the more we drop our small identification of self as inside our own skin, the less we can separate the sufferings of "others" as being truly separate from us. From an awakened or second birth perspective of oneness or onlyness, the suffering of "others" is "my" suffering as well - because "I" am those "others".
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Eduardo's colorful and informative magazine Mutuality Matters can be downloaded below. These are print-ready PDF's—enjoy.
