The Whole "Awakening" Thing Falls Away

This may be one of those things no one can understand until they experience it, but I’ll try.

I used to focus on “awakening”. I wrote about it a lot. (Sometimes I called it “enlightenment”). The concept behind this word is attaining a state of awareness that the Truth is true and that illusion is not true. I call this state the Awareness of Truth (also, Holy Spirit or Christ Consciousness). But my experience has led me to see that attaining this state never happens. Oh, yes, the Awareness of Truth is real and can be a mind’s experience. But It is never attained.

This split-mind is always aware of Truth to some degree now. That the Truth is true has become a quiet knowing that suffuses its experience. This split-mind is also still aware of an ego (personal thought system) and its world but they are less and less significant to it. But would this split-mind say it has “awakened”? It would feel inaccurate to say so. What would have awakened? This split-mind is aware of the Awareness of Truth in it. Would it be awake if this split-mind was not just aware of the Awareness of Truth but was the Awareness of Truth? But then there wouldn’t be a split-mind. The split-mind can be aware of the Awareness of Truth. But it cannot be the Awareness of Truth because then there is no split.


A split-mind (also called “decision-maker” or “learner”) is split between the Awareness of Truth and the ego. When it releases the belief in an ego What is left is the Awareness of Truth. So at that point there is no split-mind. There is nothing that has attained something. There is nothing that has “awakened” or “become enlightened”. There is no decision-maker or learner because there is no decision to make and nothing to learn. The concept of awakening or becoming enlightened implies that something attains this. But Truth just is and It is All that is. There is nothing to attain It. This concept, this goal of “awakening”, has fallen away from this mind because it sees that the Awareness of Truth is always here and there is no need to “attain” It.

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Comments

will said…
Here’s my two cents worth:
“Would it be awake if the split-mind was not just ‘aware’ of the Awareness of Truth but ‘was’ the Awareness of Truth?” “Was” the Awareness of Truth is the Holy Spirit.

“Oh, yes, the Awareness of Truth is real and can be a mind’s experience” is what I think of when I see the word enlightenment. Enlightenment is a ‘degree of awareness or communion’ with the Holy Spirit.

Liz, for me you are one of a handful of enlightened people. I base that on what you write. Tolle is enlightened. I say that not to put you on a pedestal. It’s just what I see going on. It’s what I’m striving for.
will said…
The first time I picked up the Text within minutes of starting to read I knew it wasn't enlightenment, that it was Awareness. That is something that I will remember all my life.
Maria Angela said…
Así ES, gracias por compartirlo a todos.

No hay nada que alcanzar, nada que reparar
MB said…
This is where my path has completely taken me. For me ACIM was a huge stepping stone to making the transition to a true understanding of non-duality. Charlie Hayes, Sailor Bob Adamson, Rupert Spira and Liz are among the teachers who are pointing us all most directly to the truth. There is no path, even. Only a separate self could be on a path anywhere!
will said…
This week’s blog led me to the Manual for Teachers. I have been reading the later chapters from about chapter 12 on. I'm using The Way of The Course in Miracles as well as the Text. I am very visual in my thinking which leads to concrete images. The dialogue and the Mentor Notes seem to switch back and forth from Will sitting here reading, back to the one split mind and then back again.

The mentor notes in Chapter 12 say “Does the salvation of the whole world depend on you alone? No because the ‘one’ mentioned…is not you alone - a personal self - but ‘you everywhere’ - the split mind that projects the world…” Later “You are going to meet the whole range of personal selves…but these are all just ideas in your mind given form.” The mind here, meaning the one split mind where everything is taking place, not Wills brain/body. Later the notes say “As a teacher of God, in time you will recognize that there are not many minds that are split between God and not God (personal mind), but that there is really only one split mind…” this would be enlightenment (I assume).

So for Will who is visual in his thinking, he does forgiveness by visually placing himself in the center of this cacophony of the one split mind, sitting with Jesus on the ground at this cave entrance, and looks out on himself and everything else.
Why a cave? Who knows, it just showed up.
hannah said…
does life feel like a lucid dream to you liz?
Christine said…
Thank you, Will, I have learned so much from your learning so much....
ACIM Mentor said…
Hannah, it's more like a stage where there's a set and the actors move about but there's no story.
Christine said…
Liz, is there "no story" - or you have no interpretation/meaning of what's seemingly going on around you now? Projection of a meaning...
ACIM Mentor said…
Christine, they're the same thing. The "story" is the projection of meaning.
will said…
Liz,
A quick question. In chapter 9 the second section “The Answer to Prayer” it says that Fear is the reason that prayer for anything is not answered or if it is answered we can’t access it because of fear. This would include things in line with the course (p.164) or sickness or anything.

“The very fact that the Holy Spirit has been asked for anything will ensure a response. Yet it is equally certain that no response given by Him will ever be one that would increase fear” (p.164).

From a common sense perspective, having my illness cured would not be a cause for fear. What’s going on here? Is it referring to fear in the split mind? It’s not reading like that.
ACIM Mentor said…
Will, as you know I've been led a different way by the HS with regard to the body and healing. You may want to ask another teacher, like Nouk Sanchez, who seems to have had experiences in line with ACIM on this topic. But I'll try:

The way I read that quote is the HS will not give you an answer that will increase your fear. It will give you an answer that you can accept at this time.

With regard to fear and healing, if you are talking about spontaneous healing of the body then fear could indeed be an obstacle. If that were to happen it would turn your world upside down. And even if you are talking about being led to treatments at the level of form you may still have fears that get in the way. You may fear the treatment and/or its consequences. You may fear the changes not having the illness would bring to your life. Change is often feared in itself.
Liz, when you said: "There is nothing to attain It." Are you saying "There is no separate entity named Cairn, deciding anything, let alone doing anything, including being on a 'path'?"
ACIM Mentor said…
Cairn, what I am saying is that you already have the Truth so you do not have to "attain" It - you only have to accept It and allow any self-concepts that you have for "Cairn" to fall away.
hannah said…
liz, i dont understand the difference between the two descriptions (lucid dream vs stage with no story). i wonder if you could clarify, if you think that understanding the distinction would be helpful?
ACIM Mentor said…
Hannah, I searched ACIM for the word "lucid" and did not find it. So I do not know to what you are referring with "lucid dream". Therefore, I cannot compare it to what I described!
hannah said…
oh, fair enough too. ('scuse the probable over explaining to follow ;) )

you know the experience where, during a nighttime dream, you become aware that you are dreaming, that what a moment before was reality, is now just something your mind is inventing while you are asleep? nothing happening around you or within you is actually happening, its just a seeming experience triggered by idea etc in your mind, while reality carries on regardless. thats the only aspect i was really referring to.

the other aspects are ive experienced fun as a self, but not necessarily helpful in letting go of self identity. i used to like the idea of becoming lucid in my dreams, so that then i could choose what was 'going on', or choose at least how i responded to what was going on. i never really went beyond a beginners practise i got from carlos castaneda, that when you became aware you were dreaming you would just look at your hands and maintain that focus and awareness as long as you could, til you could hold it. the last one i had, i was flying past a school when i realised this was a dream, and looked at my hands, and held the awareness with enough time to think well, now im maintaining this, what would i like to do? and i realised that really putting acims principles into practise was the only valuable thing i could think of, so i thought for a bit til i remembered the days acim lesson, repeated it a few times, then woke up. thats when i stopped trying to lucid dream at night, cos i thought that it was just leading me to a less painful acceptance of the value of trying to maintain an awareness that my 'waking life' was not reality, while i was still afraid of that fact.
ACIM Mentor said…
Hannah, in my experience of sleep-dreaming the very few times I've become aware that I'm dreaming I always woke up right after.

I do not go around thinking this is all a dream. However, I have no desire to control the world because at that point I would realize it was meaningless. It's only when I really focus on something that I become aware it has no substance. Then, of course, I just drop it.
hannah said…
ok.. so could you say its (life as you currently experience it) not like living in a constant state of present attention to the awareness that 'this self/experience/situation etc is not reality', but is living in a state of constant peace with the experience of liz, as you have already accepted that only the truth is true?? it requires no more attention or thought? and only disturbances to that peace, or study (do you still study!?) bring it to mind at all?

ive spent so long focusing on this path, am so identified with, um.. seeking, focusing, remembering, its hard to imagine what life beyond this might feel like!
ACIM Mentor said…
No, Hannah, it's not a state of constant peace though peace is always here. It's hard to characterize because all characterizing no longer matters. What I experience is no longer relevant to this mind. I no longer seek an experience. I just let it all, internally and externally, unfold.

I'd suggest you not try to imagine this stage because you will only misunderstand it from where you are now. This is why I say none of this has unfolded the way I imagined. My preconceptions were faulty because from my point of view I could not understand what I heard others describe.

I have not studied for myself in years. Just with others. I reached a point where whenever I picked up a book I'd only long to turn inward instead. Too many words! So I just turned inward.
hannah said…
thank you liz xx your post made me beam inside, and relax. the Promise in those paragraphs.. which feel like they present to my mind enough ideas to imagine that i can trust and drop it! i feel kind of glad? relieved? greatful? that i cant pin down an image of where you are, that what i pictured as i read your words was abstract um.. lack of seeking to fill, lack of urgency and importance?! and that feels perfectly enough, even from the side of experience/point of view where i 'naturally' describe these pictures as a lack of something im currently experiencing as 'real', important and valuable!

oh laugh, something just struck me as funny. the sentences that really made me beam, relax, and trust had the words 'no longer matters', 'no longer relevant', 'no longer seeks' and 'too many words'... oh the dropping and simplifying! big squeeze liz, thanks again x
Anonymous said…
Thank you Hannah for your inquiry with Liz and Liz with your constant love. The insight was a "knock in the head." Blessings, Deb
hannah said…
you are so very welcome deb xx

im interested in what the insight was for you, if you feel like sharing it. im experiencing a really lovely flow on from the point this conversation led me to in my mind. these parts of liz' last comment

'It's hard to characterize because all characterizing no longer matters. What I experience is no longer relevant to this mind. I no longer seek an experience. I just let it all, internally and externally, unfold. ... I'd suggest you not try to imagine this stage because you will only misunderstand it from where you are now. ... from my point of view I could not understand what I heard others describe.'

so, once again liz (in my mind) has highlighted the lack of need to control that is inherent in the right mind. the trust that is natural when you have ceased to identify with selves and stories. and what im finding in practise in the current news headlines of my story (hehe!) (my family is experiencing a lot of turmoil right now, three young members in crisis, and two mothers who appear to be only just 'holding it together', and i have a strong drive to try and control everyones behaviour via changing their understanding of whats going on, so that they will 'do helpful things not brew greater chaos, guilt and terror.') of course, there are many ways that holy spirit shows that this is insane on my part, and seeing my projections outward is becoming more obvious and its been sinking in more that EVERYTHING i see/interpret is an inward condition. but i have had trouble shifting it, due to seeking for a different experience for this mind! turning inward didnt seem like enough.. 'yes, fine, ill do that, but ill also do this equally valuable thing.. change my mind, change theirs.' but the deeper acceptance that i, hannah-self, am not directing this undoing-of-my-blocks-to-the-awareness-of Loves-presence, because i COULD not! i would need to be able to have clear perception of the whole 'path' with no fault in the perception to be able to do that! so if hannah does not direct this minds undoing of blocks to awareness, she sure as hell cant direct anyone elses!! of course, when sarah and taran came to my home yesterday, and taran went into a rant of blame and fear and hate.. i lept in in the same old way.. but i saw it, in my mind i placed a loving hand on my fear, and did my best to shift from trying to change him or avoid my feelings, and to let where he was be, and just listen and love as is.

hows that for words words words ;)
Anonymous said…
Sounds to me Hannah that this dialogue is your internal unfolding. The insight for me was just that, Liz's share, "I just let it all internally and externally unfold" and so when I read that it hit me like, oh ya, the internal unfolds too. Ha!

May I also share, a huge lesson in my classroom was letting go the need to fix, rescue, save others and when I truly let that go, the "victims" I was invested in fixing either fell away or the relationship was transformed. It was all about my mind's healing. Liz's posts about this were most helpful as were her articles on setting boundaries. So now with that lesson learned, I can be used to be truly helpful when I hear a call for love.

Carinos, Deb

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