| When we talk about spiritual awakening there is an | | | | will never arrive, because it is not a real goal. |
| implication that there is a definitive before and after. It | | | | Rather awakening is a very real experience, precisely |
| is as if there is a place that you have arrived at. | | | | because you are no longer locked into the fantasy of |
| But the experience of awakening is exactly the | | | | make-beliefs but here and now in the moment. |
| opposite of ‘arriving' for there is precisely nowhere | | | | This could be the benchmark of whether one has |
| to arrive at, at all, since there is only Now. Everything is | | | | awakened – how much do you believe you need |
| to do with the Now, not the past, even a few seconds | | | | something other than what is here and now? |
| ago, or the future. But rather you could say the past | | | | When we talk about awakening what is meant here is |
| and future both exist here and now. When you | | | | the seeing of reality without the mind's concepts, |
| awaken to this, then awakening has begun! | | | | judgments and other filters in the way. Ordinarily, this is |
| To think of a place to be arrived at is a concept in the | | | | impossible to do by sheer will-power alone, or by |
| mind. And as J Krishnamurti said, thought is always old, | | | | simply wanting it. However all such sincere enquiry is |
| and so we come back to the Now. | | | | useful and essential, as the mind needs time to get |
| The desire to arrive somewhere is the work of ego, | | | | used to what is occurring. |
| which has you thinking that the Now is too | | | | However the nature of awakening is such that you |
| uncomfortable so it invents a fantasy of another time | | | | either are awakened in any given moment or you are |
| place which you believe to be better than Now. This | | | | not. It is not a question of trying or effort or will power. |
| involves effort to maintain this illusion as something that | | | | It is more a question of letting go of all concepts, |
| is real (when it is not). | | | | seeing the concept mechanism at play and standing |
| When we think thoughts such as ‘ when I get x or | | | | back from it. When we develop such attachment we |
| Y I will be happy', or ‘when I am enlightened life will | | | | give ourselves the chance to see what is real and |
| be blissful', it's that holy grail that we are chasing, that | | | | what is fantasy. |