My awakening came out of the blue. Turned everything on its head. Lasted about 2 months, then started to fade, and then I experienced an influx of some of the most intensely painful feelings I've ever had. I say this as someone who had clinical depression and years of suicidal ideation. But the reversal was permanent and there was just no access to the fantasy of suicide anymore because it had already happened. I was flipped over. And I was on my own. I studied philosophy in college and all of that came back to rescue me. I didn't even hear the word "non-dual" until 2 years into shadow work. David Hume saved me. I'm not kidding. And later Plato, Wittgenstein, Spinoza, Kierkegaard. I learned to trust the (often over the top) synchronicities that come along with this. It's not you that wakes up. The world wakes up to you. I'm nearly 5 years into all of this. Things are smoothing out now, but I've experienced some of the craziest and rockiest road I've ever travelled. I've relied solely on direct experience. Talks I hear others give sound like old terrain to me. I enjoy the waystations with others, but honestly this is the most natural thing in the world. I have written volumes. I've created so many mental models to explain this and every single one I discard in about a day. Map-making has it's place, but I cannot stop wanting to be (in) the landscape. I've welcomed home fear disguised as just about everything, but nothing short of peaceful unity will do. I have given up the war to win the peace on levels I couldn't fathom before. Thanks for this video and the others I have watched. I think a lot about how it would be to teach this. How stable you must be!
@@SimplyAlwaysAwakeHi! Thanks! I have very much appreciated your videos. You're very easy on the ears. There's an unmistakable, peaceful openness that you convey so naturally. Thank you for sharing your gifts.
When I read the question in your book, "What is true for you right now?" it made a major impact on me. I had never considered that question (despite having 70,000 thoughts a day, that wasn't one of them). I can't describe how it affected me, but it is a very important question. Thank you for asking it.
Good point! I want to have an awakening and I will know it now if I awaken. Because every moment is now. I’ll just keep questioning and searching and figuring out who I am.
As a little girl I always thought things weren’t right in the world, but didn’t know what that meant at the time. I have had a few experiences ,all many years ago, and I feel it’s enough to just simply always enquire and questioning the things I might be fixated on. Krishnamurti has been my go to speaker since the 1980s, you are the only other person that comes close to discussing the ending of time and fear like he does.
First time l had an awakening it happened at my job, a sense of universe captured my body maybe in seconds it felt like a beautiful free feeling from that day l m very different in every way !
I recently had 3 or 4 days of spontaneous REALLY intense shadow work. I couldn’t take it anymore, so for some reason I decided to forcefully bring back my attention to right here and now, like in a meditation. Then something clicked in my brain. I actually thought I had broken my brain. After that, I felt what could be described as a taste of liberation. I’ve been feeling the equanimity that you talk about, the quiet in my mind, I don’t take anything personally anymore. That’s beautiful, I’m grateful for it, but I still can’t feel the joy, the life in it’s totally, nor I can’t see the world as it is. I know it’s happening right now, but I just can’t see it.
Wonderful. Important point here: whatever the mind imagines would be an experience of totality, definitely won’t happen, because that is a doubt which is a thought. One doubt thought in this space of equanimity. What happens if you let go of all expectation?
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake Thank you for your answer. That’s right , I’m having too much expectation. there is a doubt, there’s probably some thought, some belief in me that I’m missing, that is keeping me from just being here, now. (I guess)… And thank you so much for your book and videos. I hope you know how meaningful and beautiful your work is. :)
@@75accamargo yes, and I’m not trying to split hairs, somethings the veil between suffering and infinite clarity is one single doubt… you never know when that last veil is going to fall.
You’ll love the first part (awakening), you will intermittently love and hate the second part (shadow work), and there will be no one left to love the last part. But when it is a lived reality that the substance of everything is emptiness and love, you won’t care that you can’t find anyone to care. It’s a funny thing 🐇
I was in retreat with Adyashanti last year and he said that during retreat. I feel after a week of turiya that last year I may understand better, at least in part, why he said that. The fact that nothing is hidden, try as I might with substances, money, food, shopping or whatever, nothing is hidden. Ie shadow work. Yikes 😬
Glimpses of a more expanded awareness is not yet an awakening, a true awakening changes something underlying and you would know what it was. Thank you.
This is very clear and helpful. It doesn’t so much answer these questions as it simply makes them kind of irrelevant. 😎🦋 And done with your typically light touch…
I don't know if I had a shift and I was hoping the beginning where you said that it likely didn't happen if I'm questioning it means I didn't would answer my confusion. But the end where you talked about it lasting for a while makes me doubt myself again. A year ago I had someone in a professional setting ask me if I was into this stuff and proceeded to tell me it seemed I was on a spiritual honeymoon. I'd never heard that term before, but I've been practicing nonchalantly for over a decade on my own primary to help with some debilitating anxiety. And it was the week before I spoke to him where I kinda just felt blissed out for a couple of months. I barely had a thought unless it was for something practical. I also cried a lot out of the blue and it felt really friggin' good. I don't want to believe I had a shift as I have started experiencing immense suffering every now and again as of around 4 months ago. It does fluctuate several times throughout a given day where I will feel either a sense of intimacy or just a deep pain that I don't know where it comes from. Like, I felt this deep sense of peace with no pointing the finger of blame after almost having a crash on the freeway yesterday. The most obvious thing since January is even little white lies I will feel my body contract and I will feel pain for lying. Even thoughts I don't express but attach to that are obviously not true effect my body in contracting ways. On the plus, anxiety doesn't stop me from doing something if it feels important internally, meditation is actually enjoyable for the first time since I started over a decade ago, and I guess I belly laugh for no good reason sometimes. Anywho, thanks for being very precise with your wording.
In my truly short youth, i was able to fly, of course i have no solid proof, but i remember, oh, so well ! For no reason at all, i stoped trying ever since. In my life I suffered many wounds, but reality is always dancing on those specific scars. Not then, not now, but always. So time it self remain a poor RONIN. However, a spot of reality awekening : A small provincial hospital, 60 beds for 8 specialyties filed suddenly with 26 ambulances in less than one hour. They all made it. The poor RONIN wasn't there. I truly hope that my self i'm not RONIN but I decided to not try to fly again. Thank for your precios time. Again congratulations ! Daniel, Romania. P.S. I hope my english is good eunough, because I know, a lot of subtle nuances are lost .
When you dream at night, how much do you weigh? How do you move from one place to another? How do you decide how to react? Are 'you' in a dream at night? If so, then what is laying in bed? Some Chinese guy 1000s of years ago asked himself: am I a man that had a dream of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly having a dream that I am a man?
Interesting how your videos seem to drop right when the subject is very relevant, or needed for me. Perhaps these are questions that arise as a result of people watching previous videos, commenting and that is how you get a feel for what your audience is struggling with. When your channel grows even bigger(and I'm sure it will because it has some of the clearest teaching on RUclips) and will be flooded with comments this will be more difficult to do. But for now I am very grateful for this!
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake Oh that's so beautifully said! I love it! - There have been so many synchronicities lately. Feels like a fairy tale. But also just finally understanding "the language" is what I thought today, and now reading this, so beautifully put, is exactly what I felt.
Thank you for another great video! Is it as simple as seeing reality for yourself? What's right here, the totality of perception... What's been seen is what's seeing? Been listening to "The Power of Now" (so good) and there is no such thing as past, present, or future. All are mental constructs so there is only this. Silence is its true language. Stillness is its true nature. Life is its true being...
The practice, which isn't really a practice, most beneficial for me is just simple "be here now"... Don't wanderlust (something thoughts love to do) but don't hold on, just let it wash. Rest in what is here right now. Everywhere else is unreal (mindscape illusion fantasy). What's here is presence-awareness or light of consciousness or many other such names for the formless nameless. This is it. It's always been here....its the ocean, womb, space, wellspring from which all things come into being ✨
The final piece fell into pace after a crisis/trauma event in my life. I had to let go. Finding the branches of thought and realizing that they dont even exist is powerful. My thoughts are not real, they are just fodder, unnecessary. Being is reality
When you explained that thoughts do not exist because they're constructs based on a perception fallacy - time, was the piece i needed. Why would i allow something that prectically does not exist rule my reality? Preposterous! Had to let it go...
A sort of related but unrelated question came up when I was watching, what do you think about awakening leading to 'laziness'. Or at least to a general feeling of not needing to do anything? I've felt uncompelled, and maybe unmotivated to go out and do stuff for the past year or so. Previous to awakening I was extremely career driven and goal oriented, but ever since I've been way more chill to the point where I could sit on the couch all day happily and guilt free. But I also know relatively this isn't healthy, and there's this faint storyline that I am using awakening as an avoidance mechanism. It would be awesome if you could speak on this, or speak in more detail about that 'phase' between awakening and liberation! Thanks :)
Yeah as Adyashanti has said, it’s perfectly ok to stay there until it’s not. Meaning something inside will prompt us at sone point. Sitting with that presence is ok of course. But what’s usually coming to the surface is an instinct to address deeper identity structures. This is where equanimity work comes in. Looking into reactions, triggers etc.
I feel like you need to add a really simple answer to this where, if it feels like you are somehow "doing things", like you are "thinking" thoughts, or moving your hand, then you haven't awakened. Like a subtle sense that I am the one thinking this thought. That feels like a really simple way to understand if it hasn't happened. It's not really made clear in this video, but a teacher just helped me click this for me. (Is this correct in your understanding?) It's super confusing because I do feel like I've had a shift in my own daily experience, that is irreversible - my perception is super amplified and open, to everything. But there's definitely a feeling that "I" am somehow thinking thoughts when I think "mu". Quite confusing, because I'm like "should I still ask who I am, when I feel at peace almost all the time?" Thoughts?
Agree. 99% of the awakening stories sound like crazy, psychedelic, absolute oneness with zero doubt, etc. Even for initial awakening, these are the stories you read and hear about. Rupert Spira talks about the ordinariness aspect for most people of their first awakening, but never goes into describing it. Maybe there’s a good reason for that. I think there are ranges. I know that in Zen, most people I knew with Kensho needed it confirmed bc they didn’t know they’d had one. One new teacher upon meeting practitioners for the first time informed a woman she’d had a kensho some time ago 🤷. I recognized mine because of the communication I’d had with friends who’d ‘broken through’ before me. That was a major life changing glimpse but didn’t precede awakening per se. For the last 2 1/2 months I’ve been gradually losing any sense that it’s me chewing, me talking, me moving, etc., so I was interested to read your comment. It’s not one of these meditation phenomenal that leaves in a day or two. When I walk, it’s not me moving through an environment, it’s an environment morphing around me. Yet there’s no way I could say I’m attuned to timelessness or absolute oneness. Just a gradual disassembly of what I think I am. Certainly something in me has cracked. It has definitely altered my emotion and thought patterns. I’m relatively unconcerned about defining it though. Having said that, I did look up this video.
Only as a reference to waking up. "Mountain to move by Nick Mulvey". I understand exactly what he's saying yet I don't seem to be able to stop begging for misery... Yeah, oh Caught up in specialness I wish you could see that we are kings of bliss Begging for misery We get lost in comparison Looking outside of me I see this world is unraveling I wonder, who could we be Oh, I don't want to see us lose any more time This moment is a mountain to move So move it inside Wake up now, wake up now Wake up now, wake up now 'Cause Marianne is a healer She had pain on the mind She said, "Your money is your medicine" But she's sick all the time 'Cause you got lost in comparison Always pretending you knew When everything you were looking for Was already looking at you Oh, I don't want to see us lose any more time This moment is a mountain to move So move it inside Wake up now, wake up now Wake up now, wake up now Give it to me, realness Give it to me, stillness Give me some forgiveness Give it to me, wholeness 'Cause I was lost in comparison Always pretending I knew But everything I was looking for Was already looking through Wake up now, wake up now Wake up now, wake up now Wake up now, wake up now Wake up now, wake up now
@@AlexVerbruggen I’m laughing at the way thoughts function. I know Diego and I assume he gets it as well. Thoughts feel so personal like they are about “me” and yet the self referential thoughts are quite stereotyped and shared among all humans. At sone point you learn to just pat the mind on its head and say “thank you dear for your concern.”
I understand I can analyze my thoughts and let go of them. Still hate it I dont seem to be able to control which thoughts arise. So you are saying if you pat the mind on the head enough it will become more silent or will it return more beneficial thoughts?
There is often a build up that appears to play out slowly over time (a few months to a few years). Then usually this is punctuated by a very distinct transformation in identity. Kinda turns things inside out... then the real fun starts ;)
First awakening, no it’s just the beginning of the process. :) I usually use the term liberation rather than enlightenment. Even those teens are not always used in the same way among people who talk about this process.
Any further seeking whether it be "Shadow work or Fetters, etc." is actually continuing self-seeking. Any attempt to be a more "spiritual" person or to practice "non-attachment" continues the idea that an individual is needed. This is the trap of seeking and it is seen that there is no "me" to have any of these intentions. In reality, "you" are already the infinite source of all being, awareness, life, love and freedom. Self-seeking ends with this recognition.
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake if the ‘self’ was seen to be nothing but illusion... Why seek through ‘one’s own conditioning? Why the obsession over a fantasy, another story created to fix this fabrication that is ‘you’? What’s left to fix? Really? How can an illusion create suffering when seen as such, if not because of a thought/belief that it's an option?
@@johannahebert1715 Because if you don’t see through the conditioning, emotional repression, identity structure, they will totally be running the show. You’ll think there’s no self so there’s nothing to do but you will continue to suffer, be half way unconscious to that fact, and perpetuate suffering in others around you. Why does this all happen? Well bc the human mind is complex enough to allow it. There are a lot of people out there who believe “there is no self so nothing to do, no one to do it” and yet have had not even had the initial shift. Or have had that shift but nothing beyond it. Realization is a very real process, but just getting a glimpse and convincing yourself that there’s nothing more to do is not realization.
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake : “Because if you don’t see through the conditioning... they will totally be running the show.” Johanna : What control do you have over them? Don’t they run the show anyway? Any expectations emerging here? Of course, nothing is wrong with seeking, it serves its own purpose before Gate, (mainly to realize after a lifetime ...it doesn’t work!) but I fail to see how it’s even possible pass Gate? The usual toys were tested extensively here but nothing was found to attach them to. There was an unsettling feeling about it first: “what to do if I get stuck?” but after looking it was realized it would be fine 😊 No efforts in seeking has ever changed a ‘self’ or ever will. When seeking (the desire to change one ‘self’) finally disintegrates, it becomes clear that these fruitless efforts are a denial of life’s experience... of what IS. The manic pursuit to eradicate what is considered ‘at fault’ emotionally is a constant rebuff of the inherent mechanism we are born with to feel. A numbing of the senses, playing dead by rejecting our most intimate connection to life. Simply Always Awake : “You’ll think there’s no self so there’s nothing to do but you will continue to suffer, be half way unconscious to that fact, and perpetuate suffering in others around you.” Johanna : What needs to be done will be, regardless of any denial one might have, and suffering will play. Conditioning is not the reason why suffering happens. Only a belief in a thought ‘about’ it brings suffering. Thoughts don't go away, or need to stop, or be modified as they have their little chats ABOUT life. Once seen to not BE life, they are useful or entertaining, you don't need to infuse them with belief and go along for the story, that is all that changes. PS Not to worry, no others suffering around here... 😊 Simply Always Awake : “There are a lot of people out there who believe “there is no self so nothing to do... just getting a glimpse and convincing yourself that there’s nothing more to do is not realization.“ Johanna : Some claim to have ‘Conceptually’ passed the Gate, being tricked even further by the illusion . Totally agree! . .
@@johannahebert1715 sorry I don’t have time for a point by point discussion. Your points are well taken, just like to caution people that it’s quite easy to realize no self to one degree then believe that means there’s nothing left to do bc there’s no one who can do it but for instance there’s still a lot of reactivity left. “Oh getting angry it people is just what’s happening, there’s no one who can decide to do that or not do that.” This is common and neo Advaita teaching style has made it easy to convince oneself of it. Just because there’s no self doesn’t mean no work can be done.
Would you say its an awakening if I have no clue who I am anymore and I'm desperately seeking for things like integrity? Who am I and what do I really want? Or is that just a midlife crisis? Ps: I do not like you using the word irreversible. Seeds like that carry a lot of gravity. To me it feels like you are saying choice is no longer a part of life.
The reaction to irreversible is interesting. I would say that the awakening process is pretty accurately described if a series of irreversible dispelling of a nested series of distortions. As each dissolves there is a clearer sense of peace, freedom and intimacy. So it’s not something you’d ever give back even if you could .
I have a lot of fears and lack of trust. Because the languague of awakening is always so generic it feels like you are hiding knowledge instead of sharing it. Because it's not clear to me it stops me from looking closer.
@@AlexVerbruggen I understand. If you only knew how much I’ve challenged myself daily with people over and over to try to find ways to relate this… the weird and paradoxical thing is that it’s so hard to relate because it’s already in your experience AND YET, the exact thing that makes it so hard to see for most (myself included until the shift), is the belief that it’s something only special others get, have, or understand. Something about the way humans interact with one another brings about a strange sense that I’m not quite enough and those people out there somehow have it together. But what I’ve found is everyone is hiding from themselves and simultaneously hiding their suffering from others. I’ve been surprised again and again how people who really seem confidant, put together, when they start shedding identity layers feel exactly that way, like there is something they don’t get or deserve. The sad part is this is some sort of mass hypnosis among humans. The way you wake up is say fuck all that and let it go and look deeply into your own immediate nature. That happened for me when I started recognizing each thought as a thought one by one and did this ruthlessly until everything became quiet. The world and “people” out there essentially disappeared. Then I saw how it actually was/is and that changed everything. I can’t say what I saw bc it’s impossible but I know for sure any individual can see it, they just really have to let go of the hypnotic suffering mass and see that that world out there including the people in it that have shaped their view of themself is not what it appears to be. In short it’s a matter of letting go. ☺️
This is kind of funny because "I"👁️ am always awake. (But as long as someone looks out of their two eyes, instead of "the one", it seems to be an external spiritual concept or state to be worked towards to.)
It's strange to me you could even be interested in this stuff without an awakening. I only found all of this after I had a profound awakening otherwise I'm pretty sure all of this would have sounded like gibberish. Perhaps they contracted very hard after a glimpse and are not sure what happened? Not sure really.
I had an an awakening 2 years it was wonderful. One question? Is there a higher level than spiritual awakening? I ask because I think I my have had another experience after this.
It continues to deepen. Investigating the sense fields and working with equanimity are helpful. The playlists on non duality and equanimity are helpful. Also the no self playlist
Most people who have had initial awakening are quite aware of it but may not call it that. Liberation is whole different story. When the realization of no-self is clear it is quite obvious that there is no one to wake up, no one to whom awakening refers etc, yet even in that case there is no need to negate the conventional. For instance you might have learned that Santa never existed, but once you saw through that illusion and it's implications, did you feel a need to walk around telling everyone you don't believe in Santa anymore?
A Libertarian ... who's "Spiritual"?? What does that mean? It's just for people who believe that there should be no laws against what YOU believe? Or maybe, there should be no fire departments to put out other people's houses ... THEY should be so self reliant that it doesn't impose on your taxes?? Or maybe if the fire started in your home, and the homes of others catch on fire, it's their fault that their homes burn down?? Libertarians are confusing.
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake I understand, maybe for you or some rare others you had an awakening but when i saw all those vidéos on youtube and all those people commenting "i 'm awaken" or " my kundalini was activated", allow me to have a doubt. They maybe think they are "awaken" but it's surely another egoistic thought.
![Existential Terror and Loss of Self [Trigger Warning!!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OD_bBy0nxLI/mqdefault.jpg)
My awakening came out of the blue. Turned everything on its head. Lasted about 2 months, then started to fade, and then I experienced an influx of some of the most intensely painful feelings I've ever had. I say this as someone who had clinical depression and years of suicidal ideation. But the reversal was permanent and there was just no access to the fantasy of suicide anymore because it had already happened. I was flipped over. And I was on my own. I studied philosophy in college and all of that came back to rescue me. I didn't even hear the word "non-dual" until 2 years into shadow work. David Hume saved me. I'm not kidding. And later Plato, Wittgenstein, Spinoza, Kierkegaard. I learned to trust the (often over the top) synchronicities that come along with this. It's not you that wakes up. The world wakes up to you.
I'm nearly 5 years into all of this. Things are smoothing out now, but I've experienced some of the craziest and rockiest road I've ever travelled. I've relied solely on direct experience. Talks I hear others give sound like old terrain to me. I enjoy the waystations with others, but honestly this is the most natural thing in the world. I have written volumes. I've created so many mental models to explain this and every single one I discard in about a day. Map-making has it's place, but I cannot stop wanting to be (in) the landscape. I've welcomed home fear disguised as just about everything, but nothing short of peaceful unity will do. I have given up the war to win the peace on levels I couldn't fathom before.
Thanks for this video and the others I have watched. I think a lot about how it would be to teach this. How stable you must be!
Now THAT is an awakening :))) Reality is a roller coaster you can't get off of lol. Nice to hear from you :) ❤🌊⭕
@@SimplyAlwaysAwakeHi! Thanks! I have very much appreciated your videos. You're very easy on the ears. There's an unmistakable, peaceful openness that you convey so naturally. Thank you for sharing your gifts.
@@RaraAvis42 ☺️ stay in touch
illusory experience, nothing more. neti neti.
The pathless-path of the spiritual warrior is extremely narrow. Its like walking on a wet tightrope.
When I read the question in your book, "What is true for you right now?" it made a major impact on me. I had never considered that question (despite having 70,000 thoughts a day, that wasn't one of them). I can't describe how it affected me, but it is a very important question. Thank you for asking it.
!!!!!!!
Love it when sone “gets” what I’m pointing to with a question like that! It’s so potent if you really take it to heart 💜
Awakening happens over and over again. Every moment of every day
Good point! I want to have an awakening and I will know it now if I awaken. Because every moment is now. I’ll just keep questioning and searching and figuring out who I am.
Good strategy :)
As a little girl I always thought things weren’t right in the world, but didn’t know what that meant at the time. I have had a few experiences ,all many years ago, and I feel it’s enough to just simply always enquire and questioning the things I might be fixated on.
Krishnamurti has been my go to speaker since the 1980s, you are the only other person that comes close to discussing the ending of time and fear like he does.
I can relate to that childhood impression. It was always the same way for me.
First time l had an awakening it happened at my job, a sense of universe captured my body maybe in seconds it felt like a beautiful free feeling from that day l m very different in every way !
I recently had 3 or 4 days of spontaneous REALLY intense shadow work. I couldn’t take it anymore, so for some reason I decided to forcefully bring back my attention to right here and now, like in a meditation. Then something clicked in my brain. I actually thought I had broken my brain. After that, I felt what could be described as a taste of liberation. I’ve been feeling the equanimity that you talk about, the quiet in my mind, I don’t take anything personally anymore. That’s beautiful, I’m grateful for it, but I still can’t feel the joy, the life in it’s totally, nor I can’t see the world as it is. I know it’s happening right now, but I just can’t see it.
Wonderful. Important point here: whatever the mind imagines would be an experience of totality, definitely won’t happen, because that is a doubt which is a thought. One doubt thought in this space of equanimity. What happens if you let go of all expectation?
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake Thank you for your answer. That’s right , I’m having too much expectation. there is a doubt, there’s probably some thought, some belief in me that I’m missing, that is keeping me from just being here, now. (I guess)… And thank you so much for your book and videos. I hope you know how meaningful and beautiful your work is. :)
@@75accamargo yes, and I’m not trying to split hairs, somethings the veil between suffering and infinite clarity is one single doubt… you never know when that last veil is going to fall.
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake 🙏🙂
😢 Not yet. Thanks for the clarity.
☺️
Being in the now...aware of thoughts...this where I'm at and that's o.k... just doing inquiry and meditation...come what may
Exactly!
Me too.
That’s how I am too, nice isn’t ir🙏xx
“Why do you want to become enlightened? You might not like it.” A random yet remembered quote from a book on Zen Buddhism…
You’ll love the first part (awakening), you will intermittently love and hate the second part (shadow work), and there will be no one left to love the last part. But when it is a lived reality that the substance of everything is emptiness and love, you won’t care that you can’t find anyone to care. It’s a funny thing 🐇
They say ignorance is blissful.
a quote I like is it is better to taste salt than be salt because salt can't taste itself.
I was in retreat with Adyashanti last year and he said that during retreat.
I feel after a week of turiya that last year I may understand better, at least in part, why he said that.
The fact that nothing is hidden, try as I might with substances, money, food, shopping or whatever, nothing is hidden. Ie shadow work. Yikes 😬
Kiitos!
Thank you!!
Glimpses of a more expanded awareness is not yet an awakening, a true awakening changes something underlying and you would know what it was. Thank you.
This is very clear and helpful.
It doesn’t so much answer these questions as it simply makes them kind of irrelevant.
😎🦋
And done with your typically light touch…
I don't know if I had a shift and I was hoping the beginning where you said that it likely didn't happen if I'm questioning it means I didn't would answer my confusion. But the end where you talked about it lasting for a while makes me doubt myself again. A year ago I had someone in a professional setting ask me if I was into this stuff and proceeded to tell me it seemed I was on a spiritual honeymoon. I'd never heard that term before, but I've been practicing nonchalantly for over a decade on my own primary to help with some debilitating anxiety. And it was the week before I spoke to him where I kinda just felt blissed out for a couple of months. I barely had a thought unless it was for something practical. I also cried a lot out of the blue and it felt really friggin' good.
I don't want to believe I had a shift as I have started experiencing immense suffering every now and again as of around 4 months ago. It does fluctuate several times throughout a given day where I will feel either a sense of intimacy or just a deep pain that I don't know where it comes from. Like, I felt this deep sense of peace with no pointing the finger of blame after almost having a crash on the freeway yesterday. The most obvious thing since January is even little white lies I will feel my body contract and I will feel pain for lying. Even thoughts I don't express but attach to that are obviously not true effect my body in contracting ways. On the plus, anxiety doesn't stop me from doing something if it feels important internally, meditation is actually enjoyable for the first time since I started over a decade ago, and I guess I belly laugh for no good reason sometimes.
Anywho, thanks for being very precise with your wording.
Thank you. Paul
The essence of Zen is in every word
In my truly short youth, i was able to fly, of course i have no solid proof, but i remember, oh, so well ! For no reason at all, i stoped trying ever since. In my life I suffered many wounds, but reality is always dancing on those specific scars. Not then, not now, but always. So time it self remain a poor RONIN. However, a spot of reality awekening : A small provincial hospital, 60 beds for 8 specialyties filed suddenly with 26 ambulances in less than one hour. They all made it. The poor RONIN wasn't there. I truly hope that my self i'm not RONIN but I decided to not try to fly again.
Thank for your precios time.
Again congratulations !
Daniel, Romania.
P.S. I hope my english is good eunough, because I know, a lot of subtle nuances are lost .
Thanks for your comment. Do you write poetry?
I'm glad you appreciated what I wrote here. What would we do without good doctors and ideals? Imagine this for a second at least !
Thank you again... many doubts and then a lot of faith and that's the mind game again
Thank you.
When you dream at night, how much do you weigh? How do you move from one place to another? How do you decide how to react? Are 'you' in a dream at night? If so, then what is laying in bed?
Some Chinese guy 1000s of years ago asked himself: am I a man that had a dream of being a butterfly, or am I a butterfly having a dream that I am a man?
Interesting how your videos seem to drop right when the subject is very relevant, or needed for me. Perhaps these are questions that arise as a result of people watching previous videos, commenting and that is how you get a feel for what your audience is struggling with. When your channel grows even bigger(and I'm sure it will because it has some of the clearest teaching on RUclips) and will be flooded with comments this will be more difficult to do. But for now I am very grateful for this!
Synchronicity is the language of unity
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake Oh that's so beautifully said! I love it! - There have been so many synchronicities lately. Feels like a fairy tale. But also just finally understanding "the language" is what I thought today, and now reading this, so beautifully put, is exactly what I felt.
Doubt is the theme of life currently and she’s beautifully disorienting with a heavy feeling in the chest.
Thank you for another great video! Is it as simple as seeing reality for yourself? What's right here, the totality of perception... What's been seen is what's seeing? Been listening to "The Power of Now" (so good) and there is no such thing as past, present, or future. All are mental constructs so there is only this. Silence is its true language. Stillness is its true nature. Life is its true being...
The practice, which isn't really a practice, most beneficial for me is just simple "be here now"... Don't wanderlust (something thoughts love to do) but don't hold on, just let it wash. Rest in what is here right now. Everywhere else is unreal (mindscape illusion fantasy). What's here is presence-awareness or light of consciousness or many other such names for the formless nameless. This is it. It's always been here....its the ocean, womb, space, wellspring from which all things come into being ✨
what does "of this" know?
Who finds out?
Is there anyone who experiences this?
Or is it just what is?🙃
Sorry, just talking to myself!😄
Beautiful insights 💥
That is very helpful ❤️ thanks 🙏
You’re welcome 😊
Thank you
The final piece fell into pace after a crisis/trauma event in my life. I had to let go. Finding the branches of thought and realizing that they dont even exist is powerful. My thoughts are not real, they are just fodder, unnecessary. Being is reality
When you explained that thoughts do not exist because they're constructs based on a perception fallacy - time, was the piece i needed. Why would i allow something that prectically does not exist rule my reality? Preposterous! Had to let it go...
Thanks for this great video. Would resting on the senses/direct experience of the senses be a helpful practice?
A sort of related but unrelated question came up when I was watching, what do you think about awakening leading to 'laziness'. Or at least to a general feeling of not needing to do anything? I've felt uncompelled, and maybe unmotivated to go out and do stuff for the past year or so. Previous to awakening I was extremely career driven and goal oriented, but ever since I've been way more chill to the point where I could sit on the couch all day happily and guilt free. But I also know relatively this isn't healthy, and there's this faint storyline that I am using awakening as an avoidance mechanism.
It would be awesome if you could speak on this, or speak in more detail about that 'phase' between awakening and liberation! Thanks :)
Yeah as Adyashanti has said, it’s perfectly ok to stay there until it’s not. Meaning something inside will prompt us at sone point. Sitting with that presence is ok of course. But what’s usually coming to the surface is an instinct to address deeper identity structures. This is where equanimity work comes in. Looking into reactions, triggers etc.
I feel like you need to add a really simple answer to this where, if it feels like you are somehow "doing things", like you are "thinking" thoughts, or moving your hand, then you haven't awakened. Like a subtle sense that I am the one thinking this thought. That feels like a really simple way to understand if it hasn't happened. It's not really made clear in this video, but a teacher just helped me click this for me. (Is this correct in your understanding?)
It's super confusing because I do feel like I've had a shift in my own daily experience, that is irreversible - my perception is super amplified and open, to everything. But there's definitely a feeling that "I" am somehow thinking thoughts when I think "mu". Quite confusing, because I'm like "should I still ask who I am, when I feel at peace almost all the time?" Thoughts?
Agree. 99% of the awakening stories sound like crazy, psychedelic, absolute oneness with zero doubt, etc. Even for initial awakening, these are the stories you read and hear about. Rupert Spira talks about the ordinariness aspect for most people of their first awakening, but never goes into describing it. Maybe there’s a good reason for that.
I think there are ranges. I know that in Zen, most people I knew with Kensho needed it confirmed bc they didn’t know they’d had one. One new teacher upon meeting practitioners for the first time informed a woman she’d had a kensho some time ago 🤷. I recognized mine because of the communication I’d had with friends who’d ‘broken through’ before me. That was a major life changing glimpse but didn’t precede awakening per se.
For the last 2 1/2 months I’ve been gradually losing any sense that it’s me chewing, me talking, me moving, etc., so I was interested to read your comment. It’s not one of these meditation phenomenal that leaves in a day or two. When I walk, it’s not me moving through an environment, it’s an environment morphing around me. Yet there’s no way I could say I’m attuned to timelessness or absolute oneness. Just a gradual disassembly of what I think I am.
Certainly something in me has cracked. It has definitely altered my emotion and thought patterns. I’m relatively unconcerned about defining it though. Having said that, I did look up this video.
Only as a reference to waking up. "Mountain to move by Nick Mulvey". I understand exactly what he's saying yet I don't seem to be able to stop begging for misery...
Yeah, oh
Caught up in specialness
I wish you could see that we are kings of bliss
Begging for misery
We get lost in comparison
Looking outside of me
I see this world is unraveling
I wonder, who could we be
Oh, I don't want to see us lose any more time
This moment is a mountain to move
So move it inside
Wake up now, wake up now
Wake up now, wake up now
'Cause Marianne is a healer
She had pain on the mind
She said, "Your money is your medicine"
But she's sick all the time
'Cause you got lost in comparison
Always pretending you knew
When everything you were looking for
Was already looking at you
Oh, I don't want to see us lose any more time
This moment is a mountain to move
So move it inside
Wake up now, wake up now
Wake up now, wake up now
Give it to me, realness
Give it to me, stillness
Give me some forgiveness
Give it to me, wholeness
'Cause I was lost in comparison
Always pretending I knew
But everything I was looking for
Was already looking through
Wake up now, wake up now
Wake up now, wake up now
Wake up now, wake up now
Wake up now, wake up now
Thx for sharing
I’m not sure if I even want to see the video so I don’t fix the idea in my mind…😊
Lol,
Why is this funny? Is that an unfounded fear?
... yes yes, always new ideas .... come and go .... now, here .... and it doesn't matter at all ... just ideas 😀
@@AlexVerbruggen I’m laughing at the way thoughts function. I know Diego and I assume he gets it as well. Thoughts feel so personal like they are about “me” and yet the self referential thoughts are quite stereotyped and shared among all humans. At sone point you learn to just pat the mind on its head and say “thank you dear for your concern.”
I understand I can analyze my thoughts and let go of them. Still hate it I dont seem to be able to control which thoughts arise.
So you are saying if you pat the mind on the head enough it will become more silent or will it return more beneficial thoughts?
Angelo, can someone still temporarily lose themselves in their conditioning even after they've had an awakening?
Can awakening happen slowly, over “time” or is it always a sudden event?
There is often a build up that appears to play out slowly over time (a few months to a few years). Then usually this is punctuated by a very distinct transformation in identity. Kinda turns things inside out... then the real fun starts ;)
Could you put me on your waiting list to work with you one on one?
Unfortunately I don't have such a list :/ You might check out the video interview with Violet from couple weeks ago, she does one on one work :)
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake ok, great. Ty!!
Duuude, what's the music on the background?
Just stuff I mix
Is this the same as enlightenment?
First awakening, no it’s just the beginning of the process. :)
I usually use the term liberation rather than enlightenment. Even those teens are not always used in the same way among people who talk about this process.
Is it possible to have an awakening in childhood and totally forget about it, and have the underlying understanding get covered up with muck?
I’ve seen it yes .
Rest in paradox, does that not make more sense than peace?
Indeed! If there's one word that describes the experience of realization more and more it is paradox!
🙏🙏🙏
Any further seeking whether it be "Shadow work or Fetters, etc." is actually continuing self-seeking. Any attempt to be a more "spiritual" person or to practice "non-attachment" continues the idea that an individual is needed. This is the trap of seeking and it is seen that there is no "me" to have any of these intentions. In reality, "you" are already the infinite source of all being, awareness, life, love and freedom. Self-seeking ends with this recognition.
If only. It’s very easy to fool yourself with beliefs like that. Many people do. Authenticity is key.
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake if the ‘self’ was seen to be nothing but illusion... Why seek through ‘one’s own conditioning? Why the obsession over a fantasy, another story created to fix this fabrication that is ‘you’? What’s left to fix? Really?
How can an illusion create suffering when seen as such, if not because of a thought/belief that it's an option?
@@johannahebert1715 Because if you don’t see through the conditioning, emotional repression, identity structure, they will totally be running the show. You’ll think there’s no self so there’s nothing to do but you will continue to suffer, be half way unconscious to that fact, and perpetuate suffering in others around you. Why does this all happen? Well bc the human mind is complex enough to allow it. There are a lot of people out there who believe “there is no self so nothing to do, no one to do it” and yet have had not even had the initial shift. Or have had that shift but nothing beyond it. Realization is a very real process, but just getting a glimpse and convincing yourself that there’s nothing more to do is not realization.
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake :
“Because if you don’t see through the conditioning... they will totally be running the show.”
Johanna :
What control do you have over them? Don’t they run the show anyway? Any expectations emerging here?
Of course, nothing is wrong with seeking, it serves its own purpose before Gate, (mainly to realize after a lifetime ...it doesn’t work!) but I fail to see how it’s even possible pass Gate? The usual toys were tested extensively here but nothing was found to attach them to. There was an unsettling feeling about it first: “what to do if I get stuck?” but after looking it was realized it would be fine 😊
No efforts in seeking has ever changed a ‘self’ or ever will. When seeking (the desire to change one ‘self’) finally disintegrates, it becomes clear that these fruitless efforts are a denial of life’s experience... of what IS. The manic pursuit to eradicate what is considered ‘at fault’ emotionally is a constant rebuff of the inherent mechanism we are born with to feel. A numbing of the senses, playing dead by rejecting our most intimate connection to life.
Simply Always Awake :
“You’ll think there’s no self so there’s nothing to do but you will continue to suffer, be half way unconscious to that fact, and perpetuate suffering in others around you.”
Johanna :
What needs to be done will be, regardless of any denial one might have, and suffering will play. Conditioning is not the reason why suffering happens. Only a belief in a thought ‘about’ it brings suffering. Thoughts don't go away, or need to stop, or be modified as they have their little chats ABOUT life. Once seen to not BE life, they are useful or entertaining, you don't need to infuse them with belief and go along for the story, that is all that changes.
PS Not to worry, no others suffering around here... 😊
Simply Always Awake :
“There are a lot of people out there who believe “there is no self so nothing to do... just getting a glimpse and convincing yourself that there’s nothing more to do is not realization.“
Johanna :
Some claim to have ‘Conceptually’ passed the Gate, being tricked even further by the illusion . Totally agree!
.
.
@@johannahebert1715 sorry I don’t have time for a point by point discussion. Your points are well taken, just like to caution people that it’s quite easy to realize no self to one degree then believe that means there’s nothing left to do bc there’s no one who can do it but for instance there’s still a lot of reactivity left. “Oh getting angry it people is just what’s happening, there’s no one who can decide to do that or not do that.” This is common and neo Advaita teaching style has made it easy to convince oneself of it. Just because there’s no self doesn’t mean no work can be done.
Would you say its an awakening if I have no clue who I am anymore and I'm desperately seeking for things like integrity? Who am I and what do I really want? Or is that just a midlife crisis?
Ps: I do not like you using the word irreversible. Seeds like that carry a lot of gravity. To me it feels like you are saying choice is no longer a part of life.
Probably more like a midlife crisis. Awakening is the opposite, typically an undeniable knowing of being. Often experienced as pure I Am sense.
The reaction to irreversible is interesting. I would say that the awakening process is pretty accurately described if a series of irreversible dispelling of a nested series of distortions. As each dissolves there is a clearer sense of peace, freedom and intimacy. So it’s not something you’d ever give back even if you could .
I have a lot of fears and lack of trust. Because the languague of awakening is always so generic it feels like you are hiding knowledge instead of sharing it. Because it's not clear to me it stops me from looking closer.
@@AlexVerbruggen I understand. If you only knew how much I’ve challenged myself daily with people over and over to try to find ways to relate this… the weird and paradoxical thing is that it’s so hard to relate because it’s already in your experience AND YET, the exact thing that makes it so hard to see for most (myself included until the shift), is the belief that it’s something only special others get, have, or understand. Something about the way humans interact with one another brings about a strange sense that I’m not quite enough and those people out there somehow have it together. But what I’ve found is everyone is hiding from themselves and simultaneously hiding their suffering from others. I’ve been surprised again and again how people who really seem confidant, put together, when they start shedding identity layers feel exactly that way, like there is something they don’t get or deserve. The sad part is this is some sort of mass hypnosis among humans. The way you wake up is say fuck all that and let it go and look deeply into your own immediate nature. That happened for me when I started recognizing each thought as a thought one by one and did this ruthlessly until everything became quiet. The world and “people” out there essentially disappeared. Then I saw how it actually was/is and that changed everything. I can’t say what I saw bc it’s impossible but I know for sure any individual can see it, they just really have to let go of the hypnotic suffering mass and see that that world out there including the people in it that have shaped their view of themself is not what it appears to be. In short it’s a matter of letting go. ☺️
Yeah, if its a matter of letting go I guess its normal I've been playing "All night by The Vamps, Matoma" over and over again.
I think I've had transformative shifts, but I've had just as many transformative shits.
😂 there's always a funny guy 😂😂
For whom is it important whether an awakening has taken place!💭
Who wants to know!....👁😊
Excellent question...
It's the only question worth asking 🌟🙏
This is kind of funny because "I"👁️ am always awake.
(But as long as someone looks out of their two eyes, instead of "the one", it seems to be an external spiritual concept or state to be worked towards to.)
@@carolina_is_free
👆 That's also a concept...but it doesn't matter😉❣️
something needs to happen now...ish. what is that?
It's strange to me you could even be interested in this stuff without an awakening. I only found all of this after I had a profound awakening otherwise I'm pretty sure all of this would have sounded like gibberish. Perhaps they contracted very hard after a glimpse and are not sure what happened? Not sure really.
It happens on so many different ways, but yours is quite common
Among people who have had an uncommon experience 😂
What about people like me who haven't got the intelligence to take in what your saying 😔
Doesn’t require intelligence, in fact it is intelligence that gets in the way for many people ;)
I had an an awakening 2 years it was wonderful. One question? Is there a higher level than spiritual awakening? I ask because I think I my have had another experience after this.
It continues to deepen. Investigating the sense fields and working with equanimity are helpful. The playlists on non duality and equanimity are helpful. Also the no self playlist
Are familiar with the densities of consciousness?
@@flyprincess69 I have sense I probably know what you are referring to but can you clarify what you mean from your own experience?
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake i am a Law of One and ACIM student. These 2 teaching blasted me deeper into my spiritual awakening.
@@flyprincess69 haven’t heard of law of one, but I know David Hoffmeister, he’s a good Hooman.
If you had an awakening there wouldn't be any you left here to know they had an awakening.
Most people who have had initial awakening are quite aware of it but may not call it that. Liberation is whole different story. When the realization of no-self is clear it is quite obvious that there is no one to wake up, no one to whom awakening refers etc, yet even in that case there is no need to negate the conventional. For instance you might have learned that Santa never existed, but once you saw through that illusion and it's implications, did you feel a need to walk around telling everyone you don't believe in Santa anymore?
A Libertarian ... who's "Spiritual"??
What does that mean? It's just for people who believe that there should be no laws against what YOU believe?
Or maybe, there should be no fire departments to put out other people's houses ... THEY should be so self reliant that it doesn't impose on your taxes??
Or maybe if the fire started in your home, and the homes of others catch on fire, it's their fault that their homes burn down??
Libertarians are confusing.
With youtube a lot of people believe now they are "awaken" like ramana Maharshi or Buddha, this is so funny.
What we’re talking about here has nothing to do with belief,
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake I understand, maybe for you or some rare others you had an awakening but when i saw all those vidéos on youtube and all those people commenting "i 'm awaken" or " my kundalini was activated", allow me to have a doubt. They maybe think they are "awaken" but it's surely another egoistic thought.
stop daydreaming