Are they "awake"?

Often students will ask me if I think a certain spiritual teacher is awake. I tell them that I don’t even know what that means. A self cannot be “awake”. THE Awareness of Truth (Holy Spirit, Christ Consciousness), Which is all that could be called “awake”, is in every mind. Seemingly-individual split-minds are aware of the Awareness of Truth to varying degrees but I would not call any of them “awake”. As I wrote last week, a split-mind never attains the Awareness of Truth. It falls away and the Awareness of Truth is what is left. But only the one experiencing this would know that this has occurred. And they would feel no need to bring it up unless they were asked.

A split-mind can never see past itself. It only ever sees its projections onto others. Sometimes those projections mirror itself; sometimes they are what the split-mind hopes to see. Clients will share with me their disappointment in someone they thought was “awake” but then who did something human that they have determined no one awake would do.  They are looking to a self (body/personality) for what will never be awake. You will never see an awakened person. But you may become aware of the Awake mind - in yourself. And when you do you will be aware of It in others, too. Then you may be able to sense a mind that has transcended the self but you could never be sure unless you asked.

Back in the 90s or the aughts there was a movement among Christians, especially the young, where they asked themselves, “What would Jesus do (WWJD)?” The idea was to ask oneself this in any given situation to model appropriate Christian behavior. But of course the story of Jesus is an allegory about the transformation of mind. To focus on behavior is to spiritualize the self. To look to another for a model of an awake mind is to make the same mistake. The Awake mind is found within, not in the behavior of any self.

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Comments

Christine said…
Thanks - so clear.
6:23 PM
will said…
God Christine, that second paragraph has me sooo confused. Not the writing, just me trying to put the pieces together! Every once in awhile it just all gets away from me. When I read my mind goes visual and I am trying to picture "who" is doing what. I had to call in the big guns and will talk with our mentor tomorrow.
7:45 PM
will said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
9:50 PM
Christine said…
Will, that's why the confusion is there: you write, "...just me trying to put the pieces together!" Oh, and the next sentence, too...that's our puny ego self seemingly getting in the way! And I say "our" because it's all our one puny self (personal self) that seems to be trying to get our attention when we become more aware of Our Awareness.
8:05 PM
will said…
Christine, Liz was talking to me about the first two lines in the second paragraph and what I understood her to say, she was making the point that we only ever hear ourselves when listening to others. We read something and it's looking in a mirror at ourselves. Some of the course is a puzzle to me, how do things fit together. The most important thing I got out of our visit was my own realization that the turmoil that is taking place in my life currently, makes it a poor time to try and figure things out. This is a time to be kind to myself.
12:18 AM
will said…
To those who live in the dream as reality the ego is a monster of unimaginable strength and cunning. Remember its source. To the Holy Spirit it is nothing, but for us that 'nothing' is something we read about in a book; it's not 'our' reality. Hopefully, somewhere down the road we will be able to commune with the Holy Spirit to a place that we see it as he does.
12:42 AM
Kathy said…
I had an very "seemingly real" experience once of leaving my body and joining with a "sea of light", a union of my "higher self" joining with other "higher selves". It was utterly ecstatic. It lasted what seemed an instant, and I came back to my body. I was upset that I couldn't go further and continue the experience more deeply, and for several years I thought this was a glimpse of being awakened, I wanted to experience it again. But now I know that I was not awakened, not even close. I experienced a very happy dream. As long as there is any trace of identiy, I can be sure I am still in the dream. It seems to me that we are incapable of going beyond the dream on our own. I feel this must be done for us, when we are willing. I wonder what that must be like! It seems to be the greatest adventure, all at once terrifying and utterly perfectly peaceful. I feel it's the moment of knowledge that we are Love, and we want nothing else because we know there is nothing else.
5:40 AM
Nicci said…
thank you kathy. endless L, nicci
8:32 AM
Christine said…
Thanks, Will/Kathy - I just want to let you know you are not this alone self - we are - you're not struggling all by yourself....it's all the very same struggle - from studying the Course and Joel Goldsmith's writings now, the "struggle" is just remembering Who we are, sounds silly, simple, or stupid, but it's not. And it's important to pay attention, not to deny our individual lives here/experiences, whatever - but the interpretation is not our own (leaves us confused and going to a dead end) but the HS's interpretation (leads to undoing believing the dream is Reality)...anyway - I have sort of come up with this, I may be all wrong but: This world is an elected exercise in remembering that it is an exercise in remembering. I am sorry if this seems nutso, but I feel like this is no mistake that we are experiencing this separated self - and it's not "good" or "bad", like gym class was in school, for example, but it's just something we chose like an excursion, or a ron-de-vous, and when we finally "get it" we'll be relieved, laugh, and then go on from there.
9:34 AM
Anonymous said…
. . . and may I add, there can be joy in the contemplation of the Self. Simply, as Liz guides, keep growing your Awareness of Truth.

Peace, Deb
1:46 PM
will said…
You got it Christine, having a picture in your mind on how it works. It's your personal learning experience, just you and the Holy Spirit.
2:29 PM
Unknown said…
Thanks, Liz, for helpful e-mail, and I love the comments. As a newbie I've finished my year on the Workbook and I,m ploughing my way the Text,in both cases with the help of the Pathway of Light insights. I've just finished reading Ken Wapnick's Forgiveness and Jesus,which I found interesting and enlightening. Wow,all this really shows the amount of work in front of me. But what a journey ( humanly speaking , of course !) Love to all. George.
12:01 AM
will said…
A PUZZLE

For you puzzle fans this one is pretty good, see if you can figure it out.
These two paragraphs are a single meditation taken from the first chapter of a book by Tolle so they stand alone, I’m not cherry picking. He appears to contradict himself. Can you find where?

“When you lose touch with inner stillness, you lose touch with yourself. When you lose touch with yourself, you lose yourself in the world.
Your innermost sense of self, of who you are, is inseparable from stillness. This is the I AM that is deeper than name and form."

"Stillness is your essential nature. What is stillness? The inner space or awareness in which the words on this page are being perceived and become thoughts. Without that awareness, there would be no perception, no thoughts, no world. You are that awareness, disguised as a person.”
4:21 PM
Christine said…
I love it! Thanks, Will.
4:32 PM
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