One of the harder things to explain is why this understanding takes so long for it to be established. Established might be described as a total shift in identify from being a person to Universal Consciousness.
Let's assume that the truth seeker has had a glimpse.
A glimpse might be described as seeing the substance of experience. Seeing that perceptions are thought-like. That all experience is mind. A glimpse is seeing that the reality of experience is Consciousness and I am that.
But then the glimpse fades and "I" reassembles itself into believing that it is the body. Once Awareness believes that it exists somewhere inside the body, then the world appears in accordance with this belief...separate and independent of Self.
I asked Rupert Spira this question last year after a mind-blowing guided meditation that he did. During the meditation it felt like I went directly to source and was somehow able to see clearly that it was source of everything. I saw with absolute clarity that everything is made out it. I asked him why I've now reverted back to my familiar way of viewing of the world?
He said, "Maybe you didn't see it clearly enough"
He had a good point. The only way to give up a deeply held belief is to see clearly that it is not true. It is the same process in which I stopped believing in Santa Claus. The fact that my mom used the same wrapping paper over and over was perhaps my first big clue that the Santa Claus story might not be as I imagined. But I still might need more evidence before I was ready to let go of the lie. More investigation was needed, but it was just a matter of time before the truth was eventually revealed. Seeking the truth is a lot like the Santa example.
Perhaps the problem wasn't that my glimpse wasn't clear enough, since it was very clear. Perhaps the problem was that I didn't trust it. We need to trust our glimpses. A glimpse is when reality reveals itself. As Francis said during a meditation, "what appears in presence doesn't matter. Its only function is to reveal the presence in which it appears"
So when reality reveals itself, we need to trust it.
Ramana Maharshi said, "The world is an illusion. Only Consciousness is real" What he should have said is "The world is an unbelievably powerful illusion, but only Consciousness is real". Yes, it is an illusion, but it is a really good one, and we've been deeply conditioned to view it a certain way for millennium, so it might take some time.
As Jac O'Keeffe said last summer on retreat, slow is fast. It might take many glimpses for all of the beliefs to completely dissolve until our every day experience of the world is consistent with our deepest understanding. For a long time I believed that awakening happened all at once. While this has undoubtedly happened to some, I believe that it is more common for the truth to just get clearer and clearer over time. Like a jar of muddy water that has been shaken, it will take some time for all of the mud to fall to the bottom, before the reality of the water is completely clear.
Whatever the explanation, more work needs to be done. This 'work' comes in the form of loving contemplations of the truth. I often like to think of it as re-wiring my brain. As an example, I know that I exist. But what is the source of this unique experience? We believe that it comes from the body, but after careful examination of our experience, we can clearly see that the source of this experience is Consciousness. This is a powerful pathway towards dissolving the deeply held belief that I am this body. This is a loving contemplation that I did this afternoon while walking in the woods. It was beautiful.
I do it because I love it. Its fun and its mind-blowing. It makes me love Consciousness more and more everyday. I do it because this is where my enthusiasm lies.
The truth takes time but its never a problem (unless I am suffering). Sometimes Consciousness freely chooses to believe that it is this person Scott. That's fine. It's fun pretending to be Scott. In the meantime, I will continue to do what I enjoy most...contemplating the reality of my experience.
And when I'm in wisdom, I know that Consciousness is not limited or separate. I'm not in a hurry and I trust Jac when she says 'slow is fast'. It feels true. Meanwhile, the deep down feeling/understanding that everything is always ok, continues to deepen. This is "the peace that surpasses all understanding"
"It makes me love consciousness more and more every day" — I love the "childlike" (Francis) enthusiasm of this. Thank you for radiating it!
Hey Scotty... awesome reflections brother. I really enjoyed that. I really appreciate the distinction of examining our identification with the 'I' when there is suffering vs not. It's very much in alignment with the teaching found at my most recent retreat... a couples workshop. The Master Teacher took us on a journey of reconnecting to Source/Consciousness when the identification of the moment was taking us into separation/suffering. In that particular workshop, the suffering generally took the form of projecting onto our partners a belief of how they 'should be'.
But of course, it is so much more than some kind of 'therapeutic technique' when the going gets tough... it's a journey into the exploration of the reality of being.
I…