(Live words saturated with the perfume of their source)
FOREWORD When I was a Zen monk, I learned to distinguish between “live words” and “dead words.” Most of the words we read and hear are lifeless, in the sense that they’re rooted in concepts and intended to appeal to the mind. Of course, such “dead words” have an important role to play on a relative level, in helping us to negotiate the world of apparent objects and people. To point us beyond the body-mind to the source from which this relative reality arises and in which it abides, however, we need “live words,” like those we find in the teachings of the great nondual masters and sages. The sayings of Ramana Maharshi, for example, or the Tibetan master Tilopa, or the Third Patriarch of Zen have the power to short-circuit the mind, light up the heart, and quicken the revelation of who we really are. In Vajrayana Buddhism, such words are called pith instructions or heart wisdom. As Jean Klein puts it, they are saturated with the perfume of the source from which they come. The space in which live words are spoken is called satsang—literally, “being together in Truth.”
In addition to his passionate call to awaken to our identity as the Self, rather than as the body, senses, and mind, Adyashanti puts particular emphasis on what he calls embodiment. In this, he provides a much-needed counterpoint to some contemporary teachers of Advaita Vedanta, who seem to suggest that awakening is complete after the first glimpse of Truth. Rather, Adyashanti teaches that awakening is a never-ending process of opening and deepening, in which we’re often faced with difficult old patterns and stuck places that rush to the foreground of our experience to be liberated and released. As this liberation unfolds, our lives increasingly become an expression of the unfathomable mystery we have discovered ourselves to be. The process of embodiment culminates in the elimination of any vestige of separation. Awakening continues, but there is no one who is awakened.
He has a penetrating way of engaging in dialogue with people, in which layers of false understanding drop away in the radiance of awareness, leaving the freshness and clarity of the living moment. He embodies what he teaches, and his approach is truly nondual; nothing is left out, not even the ego!
(Who you are: beyond all assertions, yet not denying a speck of dust)
WHO ARE YOU? You are… beyond the body-mind and personality, beyond all experience and the experiencer thereof, beyond the world and its perceiver, beyond existence and its absence, beyond all assertions and denials. Be still and awaken to the realization of who you are. In this realization of no separate self, the supreme Reality which you are shines unobscured in all things, as all things, and beyond all things. Having returned to the formless source and transcended all separateness, do not stop or cling even to this source, but go beyond to the supreme realization which transcends all dualities, yet does not deny even a speck of dust. The enlightened sage abides as the eternal witness, wholly unconcerned, yet intimately engaged, resting beyond all definitions, neither clinging to transcendent freedom, nor entangled by the dualistic world; therefore, one with all of life.
Living in the perfect trust of supreme realization, the enlightened sage has nothing to gain or lose and naturally manifests love, wisdom, and compassion— without any personal sense of being the doer of deeds. Having abandoned all concepts and ideas, the enlightened sage lives as ever-present consciousness, manifested and manifesting in the world of time and space that which is eternal, ever new, and whole. In this unobscured realization, supreme Reality shines consciously in all things, as all things, and beyond all things. Shining unobscured, it penetrates the entire universe. Penetrating the entire universe, it knows itself as Self.
THE EVOLUTIONARY IMPULSE TO BE FREE ~ Do not seek after what you yearn for; seek the source of the yearning itself. ~
Enlightenment depends to a large extent on believing that you are born for freedom in this lifetime, and that it is available now, in this moment. The mind, which creates the past and future, keeps you out of the moment where the Truth of your being can be discovered. In this moment, there is always freedom and there is always peace. This moment in which you experience stillness is every moment. Don’t let the mind seduce you into the past or future. Stay in the moment, and dare to consider that you can be free now. ~
A: Ego is neither positive nor negative. Those are simply concepts that create more boundaries. Ego is just ego, and the disaster of it all is that you, as a spiritual seeker, have been conditioned to think of the ego as bad, as an enemy, as something to be destroyed. This simply strengthens the ego. In fact, such conclusions arise from the
ego itself. Pay no attention to them. Don’t go to war with yourself; simply inquire into who you are.
What always is, is so easy to overlook because it’s not a thing and it’s not an experience.
- INSECURITY AND THE UNKNOWN ~ The door to God is the insecurity of not knowing anything. Bear the grace of that insecurity, and all wisdom will be yours. ~
(The Self is found in the background, not the foreground phenomena)
You have to become more interested in the silent background than in the foreground, the phenomena: thoughts, emotions, sounds, smells, etc. Most people are focused on the foreground and what their five senses bring them, but the Self is discovered in the background. The Self is the source from which the phenomena spring and the ground in which this display of phenomena is happening, from the subtlest feelings and experiences to the grossest matter. When you rest as this background, you can taste your Self. You just give yourself to it. Actually, you’re giving your idea of yourself to your true Self. The idea comes out of the silence, so you give the idea of who you are back to silence.
Q: For many of us there have been periods of intense or prolonged fear. On my part it’s been fear of not existing or not being. This fear seems to have arisen with what might be called “looking into the unknown.” How might one hold the unknown until one sees that That is what we are? A: Inquire into “Who is looking?” Is the one looking any different than the emptiness itself? Q: No. Actually, no. A: So in this recognition, what happens to the fear? Q: It’s gone.
Awareness is something that already is, so there’s nothing we need to do to get it. The deeper the relaxation, the more obvious it is that you are this aware space.
Abiding means letting everything be as it already is—no matter what it is. If you’re feeling good, let that be as it is. If you’re feeling bad, let that be as it is. No matter what your emotional, physical, or mental state, let it be as it is and don’t wish it to be otherwise. If you want it to be different from what it is, you’re not abiding; you’re picking and choosing and trying to control your experience.
A: If you put all of your spiritual eggs in that basket—in that one Truth—and dedicate everything to that and that alone, if you let the recognition of that deepen and deepen, you will discover a freedom that will spin your head right off your shoulders.
- CEASING TO BECOME ~ There’s nothing to do, nothing to be, and nothing to become. There’s nowhere to go and no experience to have. ~
(Ceasing to become: stopping is effortless, it comes from wisdom)
Ceasing to become means that in the face of that which the mind can never know, you do not move. As long as you are trying to become, trying to get somewhere, trying to attain something, you are quite literally moving away from the Truth itself. In order to cease becoming, you must reject the path and the journey. You must reject time, which means the future, which means that tomorrow is never going to come. Enlightenment will never happen tomorrow. Tomorrow is becoming, and becoming is time, and time is thought. Thought is the garbage can. If you look into the garbage can, all you will get is garbage. To rest in the Unknown literally means that your mind knows absolutely nothing about how to get you to your goal. It means that you’ve stopped looking toward the mind to tell you how, when, and where. By absolutely ceasing to become, you stop. This stopping is effortless. It comes out of wisdom.
Q: I’ve heard it said that the ego must die in order to be enlightened. What does ego death mean? A: It is said that the ego must die in order for you to truly live. But nothing need die; you simply need to grow up. A child does not die in order to grow into an adult. The child simply grows up; it evolves and leaves behind what is no longer appropriate. See that the ego is no longer useful or appropriate and leave it behind. Only the ego makes its own demise seem dramatic.
This life is a dream. To call it a dream is not to disparage it; that doesn’t mean it isn’t worthwhile. It’s no different from dreams you have at night. You wake up from your
dreams into this dream we call life, and when you go to sleep, you wake up in another dream world. But that which is awake in both worlds, the dreamer, is always the same. Awareness is always present. That’s the reality. What doesn’t come and go, even in the dream state? That’s who you are.
A: The Truth doesn’t care about consequences. It’s concerned with the Truth. It doesn’t care if you’re liked or not liked. You won’t always be liked for it, and sometimes you will be disliked for it. As long as you’re acting in the world based on what you like or don’t like, or what others like or don’t like, you’re not in the realm of Truth. Truth insists that we not only be truthful, but that we act truthfully. It’s not enough just to know the Truth. You have to be it—to act it, and to do it.
(Accepting everything completely is what moves you beyond it)
Many spiritual people are involved in a radical denial of what is happening. They want to transcend it, get rid of it, get out of it, get away from it. There’s nothing wrong with that feeling, but the approach doesn’t work because it’s escapism in spiritual clothing. It’s wearing spiritual clothing and spiritual concepts, but it is really no different than a drunk in the gutter who doesn’t want to feel the pain anymore. When you abide and accept everything completely and fully, you automatically go beyond.
Q: Is awakening just another spiritual experience you have? A: Awakening doesn’t mean you awaken. It means that there is only awakening. There is no “you” who is awake; there is only awakeness. As long as you identify with a “you” who is either awake or not awake, you are still dreaming. Awakening is awakening from the dream of a separate you into simply being awakeness.
A: When you awaken, all becoming ceases. Being awake means that you realize by direct experience who and what you are. You do not become anything. All becoming is in time, which is mind. Awakening is outside of time: You awaken from time to that which is timeless. Wisdom and love are aspects of your own Self and as such do not need to be created or pursued.
The person whose realization is profound has become the evolutionary force of consciousness. They’ve become that. And the evolutionary force of consciousness to awaken is only concerned with the Truth.
First you awaken out of life, then you awaken as Life itself.
This process of embodiment is a continual stripping away of every remnant of attachment and ego. It is a movement of continual surrender to the vast implications contained within true spiritual awakening. It is a phase of spiritual unfolding fraught with many dangers, self-deceptions, and misunderstandings. It is where many seekers of liberation succumb to fear, doubt, and a lack of conviction. The process of embodiment can be simultaneously very thrilling and quite disorienting. It is an area of incredible subtlety and complexity which few truly understand.
So it’s not that you have to do something to the human body to make it a bigger, vaster, or wider container for the Truth of being to come through. What’s most important is to perceive your entire body, which is everything. Then, your humanness will reflect the depth of that realization.
Enlightened behavior liberates. It doesn’t matter if someone likes it or not; the question is, does it liberate? That’s the only worthwhile question, and it’s the only proof of enlightenment.
(Karma rising into awareness is a consequence of freedom, not a mistake)
Having a profound awakening can be like taking the lid off of a jar. All the karma that has been repressed, all the karma at the bottom of our misery that we aren’t conscious of, comes flying out because there is finally space in which it can emerge. When it hits you in the face, you wonder where your freedom went and what went wrong. But understand that this is a consequence of the freedom; it is not a mistake. Everything wants to come up into and be transformed by the freedom. If you let it come up into this aware space, which is love, it will reharmonize. This space that you are is unconditional love. Unconditional means just that: everything is welcome; nothing is cast away or set apart from it.
A: In liberation you are in that state which is prior to any causation. Therefore, actions happen without any motivation for doing them. You are not doing for yourself or for the love of others. You are prior to any motivation. Actions simply happen. From the outside, such actions may be viewed as loving, kind, and wise, but to the liberated one, all happens spontaneously and free of any motive. Actions arise out of the most natural, primordial state.
A: All realms are on the surface. No matter how subtle the psychic realm or the spiritual realm—it’s all manifestation. When you wake up to who you are, all manifestation is transcended. No realms are any better than any other realms, ultimately. All realms are manifestation and therefore illusion. The deepening is something that can’t be talked about. First find out who you are, then you’ll find yourself sinking into an infinite ocean. You will be as if in deep sleep, yet fully aware and functional.
It’s like Buddha’s final night under the Bodhi tree. What did he do when confronted with this? He reached down and touched the ground and said, “I will not be moved.” Finally—when everything that could be thrown at him was thrown, and he was still unmoved—it was done. He never looked back.