Question 3: How must I related to this world?

The Story of Enlightenment Chapter 1

Our Misaligned Worlds

Life is lived at the intersection of two worlds. There is the outer world around you and the inner world inside of you. Life intends for these two worlds to be aligned. But our culture has taught us that the outer world is real and the inner world is illusory. As a result, your two worlds are misaligned. And the consequences of this are catastrophic.

The Seat of the Soul lies at the intersection of our inner and our outer worlds

Joseph Campbell

The Story of Enlightenment is a true tale of adventure.

It has a Hero, an ordinary person, who is summoned into action to retrieve a treasure beyond value. The Hero will face challenging tests that will reveal his or her true character. And as in all great myths, the Hero must be willing to surrender everything, including life itself. If the Hero prevails, redemption is achieved.

But before we get into this adventure, we need to look at what ordinary life is like in the present moment. We need to understand why the adventure is necessary.

Our Cultural Imprint Shapes Our Reality

You have been imprinted by our culture. We all have. It is the nature of life that each person is shaped by his or her culture. The imprinting process begins the moment you are aware that you are in a separate body.

Everything about your life is shaped by your cultural imprint. This imprint effects your tastes, your preferences, your mores. There is no part of your life that is not rooted in your cultural imprint.

In fact, the cultural imprint shapes your picture of reality.

The overall cultural imprint is a almagam of many individual imprints. Let’s look a three of these imprints to give you an idea of how they shape your experience of reality.

Imprint #1: You have been told that reality is the physical world around you.

Our culture tellls us that reality is the outside world of form and matter. All of our formal education has been focused on how to live life effectively in this outside world.

But there is also an inside world. This is the world that we experience inside the body. What did our culture teach you about this world?… (long pause) that’s right, nothing, nothing at all.

If all reality is outside the body, and if what is inside the body is regarded as nothing more than illusion and imagination, then of course we are going to stay focused on the outer world. This cultural imprint throws our two worlds out of alignment.

Imprint #2: Your are a separate self. You were taught to think of yourself as a distinct person who inhabits your body and directs the course of your life. Education is teaches you how to understand and navigate the outer world around you. It teaches you how to survive, how to fit in, how to succeed and make a name for yourself.

Imprint #3: Science tells you that your consciousness is created by your brain.

There is no consciousness before the body is born. There is no consciousness after the body is dead. We have only one experience of all life and it is limited to the period of time that the body is alive.

What is the impact of these three cultural imprints when we look at them together?

“Me”-Centered Consciousness.

Although we never state it this way, our culture is saying that you are alone inside your body. I am here in my body with my consciousness and you are over there alone in your body with your consciousness. Bodies cannot occupy the same space. They cannot co-mingle. Your consciousness and my consciousness are separate.

With this imprint, I am left to feel separate, isolated and alone here inside my body. My experience of life is that I am inside this body looking out at everything around me. And everything else is relating back to me. In effect, I am the center of my own private universe.

We can think of this as “me”-centered consciousness.

This leaves me with the existential question: What is my place in all of life? How do I relate to you? How should you relate to me? Can I trust you? Do you want something from me? I have to sort all of this out.

I develop life strategies for making me feel safe in the world. These strategies usually focus on gaining the respect and friendship of people around me If they like and respect me then I feel safe. If I feel safe I can get on with my life. Hopefully I can make something of myself.

My Beliefs About “Reality” Create My Own Personalized World.

As I look out around me at the world, I believe I see objective reality. But I do not. I filter what I take in. I see an outer reality that conforms to what I already believe about the world. I see what I expect to see.

In effect, I create my own private reality. I then project this reality back out onto the world around me. I expect the world to interact with me as if my private reality were real.

From my own private reality I develop my own personal wants and wishes. I formulate goals and agendas and then set about to make them happen. In effect, I try to impose my personal reality onto you. You do the same to me. We all do this.

Human interactions are a process of sorting out our private realities and how these mesh—or do not mesh—with one another. When they do not mesh, we have conflict. If we are unable to resolve our conflict, we have problems. This is the human dilemma that we face as a race of people today.

Mis-Aligned Worlds

We experience two different worlds at the same time. There is the outer world which lies outside of us. This is the physical world around us. There is also a world that is inside of us. We live in both worlds simultaneously. We experience both simultaneously.

Life is lived at the intersection of these two worlds.

“Me”-centered consciousness separates these two worlds. It creates a public outer life and a private inner life.

Our public life and our private life are likely to be at odds with each other. When this occurs, we usually say and do things in the outer world that are different than what we are thinking and feeling in our inner world.

Our two worlds are intended to be aligned. When they are, we live as we were intended to live. The Flow of Life comes into us, moves through our inner world and is then expressed by us in words and actions in the outer world.

If our two worlds are misaligned, the Flow of Life is blocked. Our outer actions in the world are based on something other than the Flow of Life.

The Ancient View of Consciousness

There is a second theory about the nature of consciousness. This view of consciousness is not a recent development. Mankind has over 3000 years of personal testimony to the experience of Universal Consciousness. It comes to us primarily from the yogic traditions of the Far East. There are similar accounts from other spiritual traditions as well.

Where do you find this Universal Consciousness? Look around you. It is anywhere and everywhere. It is outside of you. It is inside of you.

Universal Consciousness is the experience of life as one seamless and undivided reality. When you live from this consciousness there is no separation. There is no private reality. You have private experiences but these are rooted in your Universal Oneness. There is no conflict to overcome.

The ancient wisdom tell us that this consciousness is who we really are. If this is true, then we face a major challenge.

But we face a major dilemma. We cannot experience this universal consciousness with the cultural imprinted which has been drilled into us in every aspect of our education. The concept of universal consciousness lies beyond the far reaches of “me”-centered consciousness. Metaphorically speaking, it can only be found in a land far, far away.

If you are serious about tasting it, then you have no choice. You will have to embark on your own Hero’s Journey.

The Story of Enlightenment: Chapter 3

Awakening

This is the pivotal event in the story. The arc of the story shifts and a new trajectory begins. This shift is nothing short of a structural overhaul of your consciousness. You awaken with both a new identity and a new experience of reality.

On a warm spring afternoon in 1982, a young American woman stood on a curb in Paris, France. Her name was Suzanne Segal and she was waiting for a bus. There was no way that Suzanne could have known, but in this ordinary setting, her life was about to change forever.

As the bus arrived Suzanne stepped forward to enter. And then, as she describes in her own words

“…I collided head-first with an invisible force that had entered my awareness, blowing open my usual consciousness and splitting me in two. What I previously had called “me” was forcefully pushed out into a new location about a foot behind my head. “I” was now behind my body looking out at the world without using the body’s eyes.” Suzanne had no way of understanding what had just happened to her. She felt different. The world looked different. She was afraid. What had just happened to her?

She consulted medical professionals. They believed she had undergone some kind of psychotic break and would need treatment , but they had no r idea of what that should be. She consulted spiritual teachers. Most were confounded by her condition. Finally, after a ten year search, she met a psychotherapist who had formerly been a Zen monk. After a thorough examination, he gave his diagnosis. She had awakened.

Awakening is the pivotal event in the Story of Enlightenment. Unlike the other parts of the story, which takes years to unfold, awakening is a single, brief and decisive event. It is the turning point in the narrative of our story.

Awakening is the end of the Hero’s Journey.

When the Hero removes his self-image from the story, then there is an openness, even a readiness, to begin something new.

The Hero works within the established structure of consciousness. This “me”-centered consciousness, and the resulting mis-aligned worlds, is a closed system. It does not offer any opportunity for a true new beginning.

The only way to break out is for the Hero to “die,” to let the self-made image drop away. As long as the Hero keeps trying, the old structure of consciousness remains. This is why the Fork in the Road is the critical decision point for the journey. Only one fork will bring you to awakening. This awakening—some might call it a resurrection— can only take place when the Hero “dies.” With this death, the old framework of consciousness shatters into pieces.

Awakening alters the trajectory of your story.

Awakening is that moment when everything changes. This is the pivotal change which never happens on the Self-Fulfillment Journey.

The Self-Improvement Journey strengthens the feeling of being in control because the Hero has succeeded in making your life more fulfilling. You feel more in control now than ever before.

Awakening, on the other hand, is preceded by the experience of powerlessness. You have relinquished control and you feel powerless to do anything meaningful with your life.

When the “me” has been drained of its power, there is nothing left to replace it. Remember, the “me” is the sum total of all that you have come to regard as your identity. It is the thing that makes you truly unique. It is what makes you who you truly are, or so you think.

When that is gone, it is devasting. Where do you begin? How do you start? And for that matter, who are you, really?

For the time being, there are no answers to these questions. They will emerge in time. For now, you left feeling a huge void in your existence. You simply feel depleted.

Let us return to the story of Suzanne Segal. Her Hero’s Journey had ended, or so she thought. For years during and after college she was a participant in the Transcendental Meditation Program. She spent long hours each day in meditation. She was deeply committed to her path.

But at some point she became disenchanted with the organization. She saw some inconsistencies which troubled her and she decided to leave the movement. She looked into similar organizations and movements, but none of them felt right. She gave up her search. Her journey, it would appear, was over.

Sometime later she went abroad, married a doctor and settled into what she expected to be a normal life in Paris. She became pregnant with her first child and on a bright sunny morning in April, she decided to take a bus to her doctor’s appointment.

And on that day, her life changed forever.

Suzanne Segal thought she had ended her journey. The Flow of Life knew differently.

That morning, it reconnected with her in a powerful way.

There is an important lesson here. In the Journey of Self-Fulfilment you retain control.

In the Journey to Enlightenment you relinquish control.

Who or what then is in control?

You start to feel your life move along on its own. Where once you pushed, you are are now being pulled.

You find that the things you need suddenly start to show up in your life as if by magic.

Frequently they show up before you even realize that you need them. But when they enter your life, you quickly recognize them as something that is important for you.

The moment of awakening is the point at which your trajectory changes. But long before this, life has sensed your readiness, your hunger, to find out what is missing. When life knows that you are sincerely committed, it moves in to gently guide your way.

The structural shift that Suzanne experienced that morning in Paris was the disintegration of her “me”-centered consciousness. When that fell away, she found herself emerging into Universal Consciousness.. She awakened into a whole new perspective on who she was and the nature or her reality.

It would take years for her to piece together fully her new life.

The Story of Enlightenment: Chapter 5

Life Lives You

At some point you realize that this new life now feels normal. Having completed your transition you are able to fully experience your new life. You start to feel that there is a single, unifying presence behind the world of form. Everything is a manifestation of the one thing. This presence has a movement to it. You feel this movement and then you follow the movement. It becomes the flow of your own life.

There is no specific moment when you enter into enlightenment. Rather, there is a gradual winding down of the period of transition and the feeling that what you now experience is becoming normal. It is still new and different, but it is now starting to feel like you.

You start to notice what is different about the nature of your experience. You recognize that your mood is very stable and even. Nothing upsets you. There may be moments when something frustrates you, but that feeling quickly passes. You do not take personally what other people do or say. You realize that it is not about you.

You no longer dwell in the past. You no longer fixate on the future. You become increasingly aware that life is only lived in the now. The now is all that you deal with. So you stay focused on what is before you in the moment.

You still have your preferences. You still have your favorite flavor of ice cream and your favorite shirt. You still enjoy your work, your hobbies and your avocations. You no longer feel competitive or compare yourself with others. You enjoy what your do for the intrinsic pleasure that it offers. You enjoy being in the moment.

There is a growing awareness that everything is a manifestation of the one thing.

You start to feel that there is a presence behind the world of form. This presence has an energy to it. You become aware of very subtle movement within this energy. You feel it without knowing how it is that you are able to feel it.

You stay open to this feeling. There is much that you have yet to understand. So you simply stay open and feel what life is like around you. And you learn to trust when you need to act in response to a certain feeling.

There are no maps. There is no GPS system. But there are a few guidelines.

Live Closely To The Movement Of The Moment

There is now a different vector to living life. Before awakening, you tried to figure everything out with your mind and then you acted to create what you wanted for yourself. Before awakening you thought that you had to be in control and you tried to create the life you wanted for yourself. Now you understand life has its own movement. Your part is to figure out how you can be part of that movement.

As you live closely to the movement of the moment, you become more sensitive to that movement. You learn to let it guide your awareness and you let your awareness guide your actions.

You stay open to the possibility that at any point in time you might feel the movement. Movement is simply a change, subtle or dramatic, in the conditions which now exist. Usually they are subtle at first, and if you follow the subtle movement, momentum can build and the change can become more dramatic.

You understand that this movement is a natural part of life. It is how change can occur. When you feel the movement and then follow the direction of the movement something happens. This something is a change in your life.

When you follow the movement, you do not have to try and impose your will on the world around you. You do not have to analyze everything in order to make sure that you got it right. Life understands itself. When you trust life, you are in tune with reality.

Allow Everything To Be As It Is In This Moment

You no longer have to assess everything and determine what is right and what is wrong, or what is good and what is bad. There is no “right”. There is no “wrong”. There is only life in this present moment. From our vantage point of being consciousness in a body, we cannot understand everything that is going on in every single moment. We no longer have to determine how we are going to navigate through the circumstances of our living. We accept that life itself understands all aspects of what is going on because life is present in all aspects of what is going on.

If we trust life, then we are tune with the reality of the moment.

This is uncomfortable in the beginning. We are used to living from our minds and trying to understand from our minds. In the beginning we simply have to trust that if we following the movement of the moment things will work out. In time, experience will show that this is what tends to be true. Our confidence in our ability to experience and interpret this movement strengthens as we have more experience with it.

Be Aware Of How Life Is Coming Through Others

Life is present in all of us. When you are in the presence of people who live from “me” centered consciousness—and this is just about everybody—you experience in them a life that gets filtered through a set of private beliefs. When they interact with you, there is likely to be a considerable amount of distortion that occurs. In these interactions, you look for those moments when the pure essence of life shines through their “me” personality. These are your opportunities to make genuine contact.

When life shines through the “me”-centered personality is the moment when a true connectioin is possible. What you are looking for is an opportunity to allow the life which is within you to touch the life that is within another.

Most people are very well defended. They feel vulnerable when they allow life to seep out around their public façade. The moment when life in one person touches the life in another person is what we refer to as “intimacy”. It is the feeling of authentic connection because it is really life connecting with itself within two or more different human beings.

We have all experienced these moments and we know them to be special. But with “me”-centered consciousness they are fleeting. They will occur for precious moments with a few select individuals but it rarely lasts for long. The structure of “me”-centered consciousness and the nature of our public/private worlds prevents this connection from becoming permanent.

When this structure of consciousness falls away and our inner and outer worlds become aligned, it now becomes possible to have authentic relationships with people all the time.

But this rarely happens because very few people have reached this alignment of their two worlds.

Wait For The Situation To Present Itself

Since the opportunity for authentic contact is rare, you simply remain open to the possible and look for it where you can. This requires that you allow each situation to come into focus and to show you what is possible in the moment.

What, if anything, is the problem here? Who is feeling this problem? How are they holding it?. What—if anything—is needed from you?

Be patient and take whatever time is required. If the situation is urgent, then act decisively. If other people are uncertain, give them time to find out what they need. Universal Consciousness can always trust when it encounters the presence of itself in another person.

Amplify The Oneness

What you bring to any situation is the experience of being One with the world. Others cannot see anything. They cannot hear anything. But they can feel something.

It feels a bit like the warmth of the sun on a cool spring day. This feeling starts to move inside them. Their inner reality starts to respond to the warmth as it seeps in deeper. You can strengthen this feeling for them by radiating oneness out from your core. Your inner being touches and soothes those who are around you.

Allow The Moment To Come Into Balance

In every situation there is—or at least can be—a sense of balance. This is the moment when there is an energetic equilibrium among the people present. No one is dominating. No one is left out. When people speak, others fully take them in.

If this balance is not present, then you move towards creating it. Mostly you remain silent and take in. You sense when you need to speak or act. If you are not clear on what is happening, you remain present to the moment until the situation is revealed.

There is no way to know in advance what the situation is going to need. You can only determine in the moment what is needed by feeling what is going on.

Find The Place That Fits For All

Your focus is to find the place that seems to represent common ground for all who are present. This may be a consensus view on what the problem seems to be. It may be a suggestion for action which seems to meet all the concerns which have been expressed. It may be a strong advocacy for the need to become focused and act. Only in the moment can you determine what is needed.

The Journey is Always Unfolding

You began by answering the call. You embarked on a Hero’s Journey.

Then you began another journey with no idea where it would take you. It began with the the realization that you were starting all over again. Initially, you were overwhelmed by the sensation that life was now very different than it had been before. Your perceptions of the outer world was altered. Your inner world became more intense.

In time you come to realize that what you are experiencing is a state of constant unfolding. There is no set state that defines enlightenment. There is only a sense of opening up.

It is as if the Flow of Life increases as your understanding of your new situation increases. You continue to see more. You continue to feel more. Your sense that there is an underlying oneness to all of life grows within you.

This is not a concept. It is not a value. It is not an ideal. It is a felt experience that emanates from your moment-to-moment consciousness. The more you feel it, the more there is for you to feel. It is the experience of life unfolding and there is no end point.

It is like looking down at an artesian spring bubbling up from under the ground. In the beginning, it is a trickle of water. As you continue to observe it, you notice more water emergeing from the earth. Now it is a creek. The more you watch, the more you see. In time, you see an entire river flowing forth from the earth.

This is life unfolding before you.

At some point you come to realize that you are experiencing the evoltuion of life itself. There is an evolution of biological form. There is also the evolution of consciousness.

You are an integral part of the evolutionary process when you allow life to live you.