(Presence as reclaimed power)
This exercise brings an instant Shift in Power, hence returning the power to you. Therefore, in every meditation, you always start with your breath, then feel your breath and the space around your breath. When you go deeper, feel the Space around your feeling, your emotion, and around the cloud energy. There is a reason why I always say that. This is because one of the ground rules of Non-Duality, Presence, and mature or awakened being is to feel your feelings and be present with them. Be with your clouds of energies and be fully responsible for that. That is your responsibility. If you blame someone for how you feel, you instantly start giving your power away. If you judge somebody, you start giving your power away. It is not wise to do that.
Being Present is not residing in the bubble, in the river, in the energy. Even when the good times come, you still need to be Present Here and Now, rather than lost in those pleasant feelings and energies. Various justifications arise: ‘I just want to enjoy myself; I just want to have fun, I need this.’ However, what happens is that you are lost in the energy and feeling, and you have no power. You are not awakened. You are merely semi-veiled. Enjoying semi-sleepiness is a lovely feeling, but you are only half awake now, and half asleep, because you are in the energy, in the bubble.
How do my thoughts relate to my feelings? To feel the feeling sounds very simple, but it is a difficult practice because, what usually happens when people have challenges is that they think about their sadness and anger, and they project things onto other people – you did this, I am sad because of you, and I am angry because of this. They think and that is a problem.
It is no longer some ‘being-in-the-flow’ hippie kind of thing. Presence is growing spiritually, becoming present, mature, and responsible. You are not denying or escaping anything.
Feeling the energy is just something uncomfortable, and it may feel like something is grinding in the stomach, solar plexus, or the heart, but it is doable, and that’s it. It is not so bad. Associations, justifications, meanings, and stories have no power in them. However, when you come back to the feeling and raw energy, that is where your power comes back to you. As you spend time doing this practice, you find that you are healing deeply. You are healing from the things that forced you not to be present. You are healing from the things that took your power away. In the Presence consciousness, you start to heal deeply. There is deep subconscious healing happening. It is not just changing beliefs. It is much deeper than that. It is not making new habits, which is a subconscious playground.
(Transcendence through feeling, not escaping)
The breakthrough into that initial lightness is called Non-Duality, where you can be present with energies without reacting to the conditions in your life or avoiding them. That is the entrance to Non-Duality. It is called Transcendence, which goes beyond the dual conditions of feelings.
Therefore, transcendence means growing above. It is not escaping but going through and then growing above. It is hard work, and that is the real meaning of the word transcendence, living beyond any position. Now, you know what living beyond duality is because you went through duality and felt the feelings and raw energies. You felt how you were pulled to the left and right and pushed up and down.
This experience is yours. Every experience is precisely for you. Sometimes, it is good, and at times, challenging, but it is for you. There is no more distance, no resistance, no avoidance, and that is what unlimited means – being inclusive. It is indeed all included, all integrated. It is All Absolutely you, not only for you, but it is you. There is nobody else here. There is no more distinction, separation, distance, or any entity behind it. That is called a complete Non-Dual realization, but there is a path to that Absolute Non-Duality and openness. “As long as I am this or that, I am not all things.” (Meister Eckhart)
Everybody has spent 20, 30, 40, or 50 years being conditioned to avoid emotions. Now, in just a few months or years, you need to catch up with the last few decades of what you have been accumulating, storing, or avoiding. The good thing is that it does not take that long.
deeply. As you sit in practice and do it, you start seeing results, and then, you get those confirmations that you are no longer reacting in this way, no longer doing that, and no longer resonating with this and that. These are all your confirmations that you are on the right path and are steadily maturing. In Inner Love10, people tend to escape reality for a while. It is the honeymoon phase of spirituality. However, real life begins in Presence, and you return to life. You go back to the feelings and raw energies, you emerge from the clouds and bubbles, and then, you just start sitting with them. There, a significant transformation occurs, and much power returns to you.
(Consciousness as transparent background)
This white paper is the consciousness that we refer to, and, in reality, it is not even white, it is transparent. Therefore, consciousness is transparent, it is here and present, upon which your life is being lived. “You are the unchangeable Awareness in which all activity takes place.” (Papaji)
The absolute awakened emptiness recognizes that even otherness, the world, and other identities also appear right here, right now, in this awakened emptiness. If you transcend your current appearance of identity, there are other higher appearances of different identities.
What does the awakened person care about? They do not bother too much about other egos and identities. The whole game drops. It stops having a hook on them. The world does not disappear as such. It is not that this body suddenly no longer exists, or you do not exist anymore. No, your body is here, and everything is as it is. But in this emptiness, there is no hope that this or that would change. This hope dissipates, and you recognize that it was a hook.
You are not separate from Consciousness, but only your mind ignores it. It is too obvious for the mind to pay attention to Consciousness until it realizes that everything arises from Consciousness since it is the Source of All. All are within this boundless pure Consciousness. Upon
That is how you overlook the Source itself, the fulfiller of all qualities, feelings, and experiences. If you are honest, most likely, you are looking for something else, for a certain feeling, quality, energy, or experience. That is what 99.9% of people are seeking in spirituality.
Seeking a particular experience is an obstacle. Natural Self is freedom. It is not the freedom you feel when traveling or climbing a mountain, as those are temporary, transitional feelings of freedom. The freedom is in liberating your fixation on experience into the boundlessness of open Consciousness. What is veiling it? It is a certain imprint, fixation, position, and a certain holding onto something in you. I invite you to slow down and connect with what is being held here. You may relax and let it go, stop holding it, and release it. If you are unable to do that, at least, just notice it and become aware of it. That is an excellent beginning to gaining more clarity.
The way to collapse this distance, separation, or tension of otherness is to allow it to be here, to recognize that it is just a feeling in Awareness and verify why you are holding it. What benefit does it give you? Most likely, you were seeking something loving, pure, and beautiful, or perhaps, you were avoiding something, to have that little bit of protection, or a little space from something, or maybe a little afraid of being lost in the experience, or nothingness, or being lost in Awareness.
You may recognize that there is only this moment, this present aliveness and aware experience. Everything
else is an assumption, memory, imagination, projection, wish, hope, or desire. Avoiding and seeking anything else are the mechanisms of the mind.
However, that which is in-between is simply just in-between. You should not exaggerate the conditioning and identifications. You should not be afraid of the number of clouds, and you should not be discouraged by the seeming distance or separation. We can say that all of that is simply in-between. In the present moment, true nature is here, present, and alive, and then, there is the in-between, the veiling.
The mind may not recognize the value or importance of this fact, this truth, the importance of the most fundamental essence. The mind is more familiar with whatever it is interested in. Therefore, the mind skips to the next thing it knows best or is most familiar with. The invitation is to slow down, slow down the mind, and slow down your usual interests and familiarities. Whether physical or multi-dimensional, slow down even the experience of this physicality or multi-dimensionality and even rest from energy.
Relax, be aware – that you already are. Relax any effort, relax any understanding, looking, or searching, and relax your focus. This is how Awareness reveals itself. Everything that has ever happened has taken place in Awareness. Everything that has ever happened in your life has been in understanding, like the fish analogy.
The third step is to understand that it is you, that this Self is you, and that has been the case in every single experience you have ever had. Meanwhile, the fourth step is to clear what is in between: confusion, uncertainties, or knowingness.
The iceberg of the mind melts in soft Awareness, in the ocean of quiet Awareness, in the ocean of the present, alive, transparent, softness of Self.
To attach to, possess, attain, and achieve, and in the end, to get it – this is what the mind wants. This is how the mind functions. Then, in the end, one day, everything finishes, and all is ‘happy ever after’, like the ending of a movie or story.
However, life is not like that. There is no journey, really. That is a big paradox since there is no journey and no end.
Anything that you believe in is food for confusion. It is food for doubts, worries, and unknowns; therefore, the healthy way to live is to let go of all beliefs, including the belief that God is this or Source is that, and the Self is like this. It is only like this, or it is all like that.
The conditioned mind is like a mechanical clock. It is interconnected and wounded together in many layers. Like an onion, it has layer upon layer, and they are all connected.
This channel is also where the ego-know, the sense of ‘I’ arises. If we trace attention back to its source, we will see that it arises in the heart, not the head and specifically, it arises on the right side of the heart, just a little to the right of the breastbone.
There is a constant involvement and mixing between who we are, our identity, and that which is experienced. To return to boundless freedom, we need to examine how it works. We may recognize that our attention and focus are the keys. Our attention and focus are always keeping us occupied with what is happening.
“‘I’ is the body-mind, the fraction of the Whole that is now appearing and will soon disappear. ‘I’ must be surrendered to the Heart, to the Whole, which is Infinity, Wonder, and Love.” (Adi Da Samraj)
Of course, everyone tries to make the best out of their situation, but it is rather strenuous keeping that separate ‘I’ identity happy. Indeed, it is very rarely happy. That little ‘I’, that small and separate self, is more of a trouble bag. It is usually confused, anxious, doubtful, and worried. It is sometimes peaceful, albeit rarely, not fully knowing what is happening, how it came to be, and why it is not free. Because of that small stream of attention, energies became interlocked. Consequently, everything got limited and locked up from infancy. This is how the mind, or the energies, became interlocked with the identification of the ‘I’, the small self. The mental framework became structured because of this interlocking. Hence, the mind became mechanical and densified as a mental/emotional/psychological complex.
remind one that one’s energy is locked up, that something is wrong. Thoughts are only the consequence of interlocked energies.
It is better to understand less, but to Feel more, to be here more, to be more in the present. My duty is to help you to re-discover what is real. Happiness is here, joy is here, peace, bliss, you name it – all can only be experienced in the present Awareness. But the mind has many fields of coverings, clouds, and veils of other concepts, ideas, and beliefs.
What is experience? I am pointing to who you really are, but then, you are looking at the mirror of your mind and getting feedback on something more limited. Therefore, there is a reason. There is a certain program, identity, and belief behind it. Or, if you are lucky, you simply did not know that you are this infinite, open, transparent, luminous, constantly aware, conscious being, undeniably always present. You thus say: ‘I just didn’t know; nobody told me this.’ If you have no objections to that, that’s amazing. It is going to be easier to be That.
However, if you remove the ‘core belief’ of having expectations, all the anger, disappointment, and drama on the surface would suddenly disappear. You would live in a different world because you have just shifted your perception of the world and others. As the core conditioning is resolved, it is automatically replaced by inherent correct clarity. Some density of the mind has been released, and things become much clearer.
Step 5: It is like the eternal void, where you rest at the end of your life. Life is finished, all the things you have done are finished, as well as all the things you have not done – you no longer care. You are done with all the processes of life, and you just rest in space beyond all the processes of life. Step 6: Life is that which is manifested, whereas the void is that which is unmanifested. A baby in the mother’s womb is not concerned about the world, has not yet met the world. All it cares about is being cozy in the womb. Similarly, you can rest in the womb of the Divine Mother. Before birth, or after death. Beyond the processes of life.
(Divine grace and the second step of enlightenment)
Second Step of Enlightenment - Divine Grace & Love “The man who is kind and who practices righteousness, who remains passive against the affairs of the world, who considers all creatures on earth as his own self, he attains the Immortal Being; the true God is ever with him.” (Kabir)
The Unconsciousness or the Great Void is like the night, and the Divine Self is like the Eternal Light of the Sun that never sleeps. Through Divine Grace, a person reaches the second step of Enlightenment as no person can transcend the Creation of all Universes on their own. Grace is usually received from the present Enlightened Beings, as well as from devotion to the Divine Beings. The seeker realizes that their efforts to become enlightened, or to get rid of the remaining ego, would not suffice without the higher power of Grace. Therefore, true Devotion and Surrender to the Divine/God (in any higher forms) are a great way to remove obstacles on the path of Enlightenment.
It is a genuine unconditional Love and devotion: ‘to love for the sake of love’, becoming the ecstatic Lover of the Divine. Highest Bhakti (devotional) practices become truly fruitful at this stage, allowing an experience of the sweet Nectar and Bliss of the Divine.
Individuals can offer their personal and impersonal selves and their limited humanness to the Divine. The Divine helps to transcend the aspects of humanness of what is personal and impersonal as ‘not myself’.
Attuning to Divine Grace, Bliss & Blessings28 Through Divine Grace, we can enter the state of Divine Love, a blissful surrendered place of natural devotion and love. This meditation teaches surrender and devotion that melts the sense of ‘I.’ A blissful light fills the body, assisting in transmuting any persistent old energies, challenges, and issues that may come up, even from the past, allowing us to offer them to the Divine Light.
Step 5: You can observe that your Divine Self is the bliss, the golden yellow white light. It also feels more centered and more present than before.
There is a subtle, thin veil or distance kept from ‘the World’, from ‘others’, and a slight resistance from being fully submerged in the world, thus not yet being the Absolute Self, which fully Includes the whole Experience, the World, and Others too. This veil, once removed, also resolves the perceived Separation of humanity and the Divine. In reality, the physical and spiritual are ONE since there is only ONE, an all-inclusive and indivisible Absolute Self. In Buddhist teachings, there is a saying that, at this stage of realization, if one sees the Buddha, one needs to ‘kill’ it since the true Buddha (Awakening) is openness itself, and not an image. Seeing any Deities and assuming a sense of ‘them’ and a sense of ‘myself’ thus need to be resolved.
The seed of separation is seen, and thus, it needs to be isolated from all other thoughts and eventually transcended by a continuous familiarization with the Absolute Self.
There is still slight duality, a separation with the World and Experience, as well as an unwillingness to fully merge or engage with the World. The seeker may prefer to hide in a cave and enjoy their own inner peace and tranquility. This veil, once removed, also resolves the perceived Separation of humanity and the Divine. In reality, the physical and spiritual are ONE since there is only ONE, an all-inclusive and indivisible Absolute Self. Learning about a higher level of consciousness enables the seeker to know that there is one more step to Full Consciousness; thus, more clarity, simplicity, naturalness, and freedom are possible.
While you feel progressively freer from limiting emotions and assumptions, consciousness is still veiled from the Absolute reality, as long as this sense of ‘I’ is present. This meditation brings you into openness with what IS, with what is here, now. The focus is on relaxing the looking, searching, and wanting – the primary functions of the mind. In this relaxing mode, consciousness is opened, and the natural light of awareness strengthens to dissolve the sense of individual self.
(Full consciousness: the absolute self including all)
In Full Consciousness, no diamond, crystal, or any kind of filter is in the way of the Pure Light of Consciousness. It is the Absolute Self, God Self, the Source of All that is. It is the final state of Non-Dual Enlightenment, thus completing human consciousness. Divine and the ordinary become ONE. There is no more separation between physical and spiritual as all separations are dissolved. This whole Experience of NOW is fully included and is not separate from boundless Consciousness. The Absolute Self fully includes the whole Experience, the World, and Others too. There is only the Self. All is seen as Self. All emanates from, and all IS, this Primordial Consciousness. The Self is unborn, undying, undivided, and inseparable. It is all there IS, manifested and unmanifested, as the Source of both. It is the ‘I AM THAT’.
The Source allows all energies to exist in the light of consciousness, without avoiding or hiding them away. This meditation helps to illuminate the ties to these unwanted energies, enabling you to dissolve them in the pure light of consciousness.
Full Consciousness is Not the End “The best service you can do is to keep your thoughts on God. Keep God in mind every minute.” (Neem Karoli Baba)
Nothing has changed, yet everything is different. This present moment in pure consciousness becomes more alive, open, spacious, and complete; nonetheless, life goes on within consciousness too.
Some gurus sit and stay in silence, and they do not speak. There are many stories of gurus who became self-realized, and then, they took some time to be alone. Why? To work through the past backlog and to integrate. A good teacher or guru will keep their focus on the Self, on Consciousness, God, and they continue polishing their energetics. Like an analogy of the mirror of Awareness, one polishes the appearances in the mirror, polishing the energies in the clear light of the Self. A guru or teacher continues to strengthen their abidance in the Self every moment. Their energetic capacity has different degrees, and they keep giving a lot of quality time for that ‘polish’, moment to moment. After the initial Enlightenment, your work continues to advance energetically further, to polish up further, to learn more about the universe, how to manage things, how to work with energies, and most importantly, how to help others. Essentially, you learn how to be of service to the world, to others, and to yourself because you are the world, you are the others. You become of benefit to everyone. Your Enlightenment is for the benefit of all.
In Presence, we are not trying to block anything, and we are not trying to detach or observe, which is a common practice in Inner Light and Higher Self Consciousness when we watch and observe the mind. Being present is being behind the five senses, behind this appearing world, but here and now too.
The subconscious mind is that part of us that stores memories, beliefs, and emotions that influence our behavior. In contrast, the unconscious mind is that part of us that operates outside of our conscious and subconscious awareness and contains our deepest instincts and impulses.
You have already mastered Doing. You have learned the lessons of Doing. You now recognize that the value is in Being.
The mind is like a magician. It can pull all kinds of magic tricks from its sleeves. It is always going to find a way to wow you. The mind would say: “Oh, look at this!” And you are instantly back in your mind. The mind is often called a trickster. It always finds a way of getting you interested in something that appears, that is, the manifested reality in all its dimensions. There is a lot of stuff that can be interesting in the multi-dimensional universe. This is why you need to keep a firm focus on the light of consciousness, because, otherwise, the mind would find ways to make you interested in some appearing phenomenon. “A mind that is fast is sick. A mind that is slow is sound. A mind that is still is divine.” (Meher Baba) All qualities are also fragments of creation; for example, peace, happiness, love, and a sense of freedom are illusionary in the ultimate sense. They are only the tastes that appear in the consciousness, which is the lightless light beyond all appearances.
Therefore, the key to Self-Realization is to go beyond energy, feelings, emotions, thought forms, names, shapes, spaces, and dimensions – beyond Experience. Awareness that is beyond experience is the key. It is easy to verify this truth because you know experience, no matter what form it takes or how deep it goes. You are aware of yourself being in peace or love, and it is just another experience. Enlightenment is not about maintaining a blissful state since there is a certain effort to keep it. Your awareness of experience becomes increasingly stronger as you stay as an awareness. As you see and investigate each experience, observe how the experience is attracting you and how sticky it is. There are an infinite number of experiences that can draw you. Experience has a force of action that makes you do things. Then, there is the balancing force that maintains balance and peace, but that is still experienced.
Therefore, you need to become stronger from the forces of these experiences because you would be sucked into the energies, your emotions, and feelings. Alternatively, you would be spacing out and unsettled with spiritual experiences, such as, feeling your energy centres, having kundalini sensations, or experiencing higher spaces and dimensions. Energetic sensations and going into blissful states are side effects of your return to the natural state. Altered perceptions are also side effects of returning to the natural state that feels very natural, beyond, and with all as it is.
Good practice is to ask yourself what you are aware of. You can further state: “In my awareness, I’m aware of this.” This allows you to see the position of your awareness at that moment. At the moment of noticing, you can release any position. Fighting against external or internal conflict is a position and defending that position or resisting injustice keeps injustice.
You may see that holding a certain position is always limiting. The ego is defending a position, denying the truth, and protecting that position. Neutral awareness, on the other hand, is unconditional allowing. It is not concerned with experience. When this final resistance with experience is transcended, that becomes Natural Consciousness.
Guess what it means to be your real Self. Being your real self means being authentic, being real, being true to yourself, and being honest with yourself in your own life, right now. There is no denial, no argument, no protection, and no defensiveness. These were the luxuries of the Ego, and you cannot afford them anymore. However, these mechanisms would only arise to indicate that some more healing needs to be done. In Full Consciousness, there is a certain sense of self-honesty and self-truthfulness. Nothing is taken personally. There is a lightness of being behind any circumstances. Even if some troublesome stuff comes up, there is lightness behind it because there is no more identity. Things are easier overall. It becomes easier to continue healing and living your life too as there is no more stick in the wheel.
The brighter the Consciousness is, the brighter it shines into every corner of your Being. You must investigate every corner of your being and turn every pebble upside down. The bigger light gives you a bigger capacity to handle deeper and more complex mechanisms and see the functions of the deepest and darkest places of the human psyche. If you want to be strong in consciousness, you need to see deeper. However, do not try to do too much at once either as the healer should not get sick. You should not drown in more problems because that is not the point. The real intention is to see more clearly how all things work.
They can become quite angry, rageful, and even abusive. Your ability to realize that this person is acting through the blockage would thus help you to not take it personally.
(Nervous system as the bridge to higher consciousness)
Our nervous system is like the motherboard of a computer. For example, our solar plexus is one of the major channels where many nerves meet. These channels are like a microchip, where the nerve force is traveling, electricity is transmitted, and signals pass through our nervous system to give instructions for certain actions. The nervous system connects with all meridians and distributes all the life force energy throughout the body, connecting with chakras, kundalini, and all the nadis (Sanskrit: (energy) channels).
Although working with the nervous system is not easy, it is worth it. When people rewire their nervous system, their life experience constantly changes for the better as life experiences align with a higher light of expression. “The wound is the place where the light enters you.” (Rumi) Healing the nervous system is essential to sustain higher consciousness because this higher light shines through the body and the nervous system. Consciousness opening is number one, and nervous system development is number two. It bridges the gap between the top and the bottom.
Kriya practices and Pranayama breathing exercises significantly increase the nervous system capacity and Life Force energy flow through your nervous system. Life Force energy flows through the chakras into the nervous system. Another way to increase your bodily vibration is with super nutritional supplements. At New Humanity Divine Marga, we have done extensive research on what helps most, and all the information is presented on the webpage called ‘High Vibrational Heath’. A lot of everyday foods are highly processed and lack life force energy. Meanwhile, they have heavy metals, pesticides, and toxins. It is thus best to look for organic foods to avoid this. Detoxification helps to remove heavy metals and toxins from the system. There are also healing devices for the nervous system. You can even carry a small portable device to help you keep a higher vibration and protect your energy field. These devices are listed on the ‘New Technologies’ webpage.
Therefore, with ignorance or not knowing whether it is really true, we assume the reality of a problem, limitation, and separation. And to make it worse, we reinforce it with additional feelings. And that is very common.
What are those additional feelings of anger, judgment, sadness, depression, cravings, longings, desires, and dissatisfactions? All of these things are also optional only because of mismanagement, not knowing what to do with them, and not knowing how to manage them. Indeed, 95-99% of all suffering in the whole of human existence is quite optional.
Many of you are open to investigating this resistance. If you notice that there is immediate resistance, it means that something inside you is reinforcing suffering. This is important to bring to your awareness.
A mature being does not distinguish between spiritual and non-spiritual life. An integrated life is life without separation, with a sense of equanimity that spiritual things are not exaggerated and any more significant than everyday life.
In reality, any life activity is special because it is a life activity. It is a source manifestation. Suppose we can see the simplicity of any action, and that it is the mind that distinguishes one thing as special and another as mundane.
It is a common issue in spirituality because spiritual people try to behave very spiritually, showing off to others, and then, facing issues because of their feelings of specialness.
Therefore, some people are reluctant to open all the way because it can be a loss of what they are holding onto.
Real freedom is not about rebelling, but about becoming open and without resistance, about letting go of ideas of how things should
(Experiences pass; presence is the only ground)
Do spiritual experiences affect consciousness? Experiences wear off. The only reality is in the present background of all experiences. Even after I returned from months of travel with many activities and experiences, it was like nothing had ever happened. I am here and now, always, settled into unmoving consciousness itself. Experiences are the only thing that moves. This can be pretty shocking and disappointing for many people when they realize that, in consciousness itself, experiences ultimately do not matter. Most people carry the past in their present; thus, they are not truly present. This also applies to spiritual people because they are often fixated on their past spiritual experiences. It shocks people to learn that, in natural consciousness, we are here, now. Holding all the memories and experiences is like carrying around our luggage, whereas the present moment is open, alive, and light. People say the present is boring, but that is because they have not discovered what the present really is. They are living in the past or future, and thus, they do not know the real present. The real present is open consciousness. It is where experiences happen, and not so much about what experiences take place.
How do I live my daily life while my sense of identity is dissolving? Life manifests that which needs to happen. If you are meant to meet a specific person or get a particular job, it will happen. It may help you to know that, when you focus on the Source, you do not need to bother so much about goals and other achievements. Everything that needs to happen will happen, and other things that are not of the highest importance will change or will not happen. Full Consciousness is the best thing to focus on. Even if somebody were to promise me gold, riches, and fulfillment of all desires, if I am not in Full Consciousness, I would refuse it all. I know many wealthy people who are slaves to their wealth. They are stressed, often in poor health, and are usually never truly satisfied. They are limited in their experience because they dream about that ultimate happiness that never comes via material means.
People tend to expect that, when a person is at a higher level of consciousness, they are saintly, angelic, and wise. Some teachers may develop a certain way of expressing themselves, which may be very mystical or confusing. One moment, they are talking about peace, balance, and stability, and the other, they are saying something very different, thus possibly causing many instabilities for their students, hence shaking up the mind, which can be helpful in some instances.
However, somebody in Full Consciousness, after some time and reasonable integration, would be generally more consistent and able to help someone in a more integrated way. Additionally, the level of consciousness where one is integrated brings a flavor to how one presents information. I know some lesser-known teachers who are integrated into Non-Dual consciousness, and they developed a very strong flavor of negation. It is the common ‘Neti-Neti’ (neither this nor that) approach, but too much negation can cause challenges and confusion to peoples’ psychology and mentality.
What are some (Ego) pitfalls on the way to maturity? Many people like to find flaws and faults, especially at a certain stage of spiritual development. They see their truth and think that everything else is wrong. This commonly happens in the mid-levels of consciousness, after spending some time in Inner Love, Unity, and Oneness consciousness. People tend to start owning their truth, fighting for the truth, and proving to others their one-sided spiritual truths. These are the spiritual ego pitfalls.
I usually ask them what is important to them now. Do they want to continue proving their truths? Or do they want to continue growing on their journey and becoming mature beings? Truth can be relative, arrogant, and one-sided.
Consciousness is already aware of what is here and now, of the body, of what is within and what is around. This Seeing is sometimes referred to as direct knowing, not knowledge per se, but direct self-luminous knowing. This Seeing is deeper than the eyes because, even if we close our eyes, we still see. This Seeing is recognized as the Self. It is recognized as the Natural Self (Sahaja Self) because it is the most natural and closest way of being.
This is what is meant by pure love, joy, or peace. Pure means not being mixed up with attachments and conditioning. There is no story attached to it, no confusion about it, and no identification with it. You do not identify with even the nicest things because, if you identify with peace, this identity becomes a certain fixation. Maybe peace is more natural to you, but you are more than peace. You are the Seeing of peace.
But you generally become increasingly more functional, attain a higher capacity, and can do whatever comes up in the Natural Self (Sahaja Consciousness). Whatever comes up is what comes up. You are no longer avoiding, denying, resisting, or wanting to change what comes up. The beautiful part is that, once you settle into this spacious, open, natural Full Consciousness, older cycles of experiences return for the clearing up. For example, if you had a problematic relationship that ended badly, memories and emotions about it may arise. You no longer resist, avoid, or deny them when they appear. Subsequently, they can be processed and released for you to re-harmonize.
(Meeting obstacles as entities; gentle resolution)
This is the clarity and immediacy of the intelligence that you have. Intrinsic intelligence, beyond thoughts, beyond understanding, beyond mind. Something in you already knows the awakened natural emptiness. The Self recognizes that which is not awakened emptiness, that which is an obstacle, that which is a stick in your wheel. Change is on its way; therefore, approach it very gently. I wish to emphasize taking a very gentle approach to that which is bothering you. You could even do a meditation to bring to the fore what bothers you, bring it in front of you as another person. Let’s say it is a judgment, or fear, or at a deeper level, the ‘I’, or something else. Just bring it in front of you as an entity. Gently allow this entity to tell you it’s story, why it is there. When you bring it as a separate entity, you may find that resolution and healing that is needed. That is how you can resolve it and return to the natural emptiness that you are.
That is what we usually practice between the Great Void and Full Consciousness. We look at what is being held. What is our point of reference? Many people can recognize what is different when they are experiencing from emptiness and when they are experiencing from something more limited that feels uncomfortable. Then, they would want to get rid of it, and the best way is, as I described above, to meet it gently, softly, as a separate entity. Talk to it, just be with it, heal it, reconcile with it, and be liberated, be free.
Things will come when they need to come. Things will happen when they need to happen. You will receive what you need to receive, what is real to you. It is just a question of time. Many other things are generated from the mind, from desires, from expectations, from all sorts of incompletions. These things are but transitory, and they do give you lasting happiness and fulfillment. When you receive something that you truly need, then, you are truly grateful for it, and you value it. Start by creating more space inside you, familiarizing yourself with emptiness. Align yourself with the deepest way of your being, with your Presence, Awareness, and eventually, with your Natural True Self.