Alpha and Omega Awareness-Ep. 2

Let’s you and I start where my journey ended, which of course, takes us right back…to the beginning. You know that old biblical Alpha and Omega thing, right? True that.

I’m currently writing this blog post fully aware of my own true nature, which is the source (beginning and end) of all enlightened reasoning.   I am that source.  Everything I see (including you) is me.  Everything I behold is occurring within the dream-state of my own mind or consciousness and only one such consciousness exists. I am the universe gazing upon itself. I’m all alone, dreaming that I am an individual among many.  Like a vast mushroom, my true identity is a primal, singular underground consciousness which gives birth to an infinite variety of consciousness(es)––above ground.  Like you, I once believed I was a separate unique individual mushroom. Now however, I know that my true nature is the singular primary underground organism.  There’s only one mushroom.  I am that. (And of course, so are you.)

All that hoopla being said, you probably wouldn’t notice that I reside in a state of enlightened reasoning, unless I told you so directly.  Enlightened reasoning, contrary to historical myth, needs no pr or marketing. Flashy advertisement is quite antithetical to it, because it knows that absolutely nothing in the dream-state universe needs to change or improve.  Everything here is fine just the way it is. 

Enlightened reasoning has always been notoriously reluctant. Hindu teacher and author Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) famously rejected requests from the Theosophical Society to become a guru, world teacher or religious authority of any sort. Richard Bach (1936-present), the author of the classic spiritual book “Illusions” nailed it with his subtitle: “The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.”  I’ll take this reluctance one step further: Who am I to disturb your dream?  The exact point of this odd place is to get lost in the drama of the dream.  The purpose of the dream is to live it fully.  This dream is a stage and you my friend are the star of the show. I’m the party-pooper. My voice shakes the dream revelry.  My voice shouts to the actor in the play––exit stage left!! My voice is the dream-killing, cosmic alarm-clock of consciousness. (You may quote me on that superb alliteration.)

So, why then do I write? I write, because, for some souls, the dream has soured into a nightmare. I write for these souls. I write because existentially I have nothing better to do.  I write because there seems to be a certain logic and flow to this dream-state that is recognizable by enlightened reasoning.  I write to align myself with this logic and flow.  I am simply adding my small part to the vast archive of human wisdom.

What is the path to this state? I talk about this (with irreverent and entertaining gusto I might add) in all of my books.  The path to the state of enlightened reasoning is the journey from ego-mind through attention through awareness through mindfulness through spiritual awakening to reasoning––interspersed with multiple intensity varying dark-night-of-the-soul episodes. Here’s the basic gist of the path:

1. Ego-Mind
2. Dark Night of the Soul
3. Attention
4. Dark Night of the Soul
5. Awareness
6. Dark Night of the Soul
7. Mindfulness
8. Dark Night of the Soul
9. Spiritual Awakening
10. Dark Night of the Soul
11. Enlightened Reasoning

“Dark Night of the Soul” simply means suffering or unhappiness.  Wherever you find yourself, to quote author/philosopher/teacher Ken Wilbur, on “the spectrum of consciousness” you will eventually, to quote another author/philosopher/teacher, Saniel Bonder, “rot” out of it. In other words, nothing lasts forever.  Everything is impermanent.  Eventually, what makes you happy one day will make you unhappy another.  To cross the river Styx and gain entry into the shadowy underworld, one must always pay the ferryman Charon to do so. 

Throughout every level of the spiritual journey there is a reality-shattering, world-ending, life-rotting, dark-night-of-the-soul period.  Of course, most individuals don’t realize or subscribe to the idea of the soul’s evolution and thus remain in a static state of unconscious suffering, otherwise known as hell.

What technique or tool is used to achieve enlightened reasoning? The primary tool used on the journey is observational awareness. Here’s a simple exercise you can use to get a sense of what I mean by this: Pretend you don’t speak or have a language. Try it.  Take a moment––to intentionally forget about all language. You can’t speak.  You can’t understand others. You can’t communicate. You have no means of expressing yourself. You have no internal mental dialogue, because there is no language to do so. Then what? Then––observational awareness is what remains.  Pause for a moment and try it.

I know this may be a hard concept to grasp.  It’s no easy feat pealing back the ego and mind long enough to take stock in underlying observational awareness. But, take baby steps and stick with me here.  I’m betting you’ll catch a good glimpse, sooner or later.  It’s simply awareness observing itself: the quiet, still, witnessing, observing part of you noticing itself.  

Observational awareness is present, in varying increasing degrees, during every phase of the soul’s journey from separate ego-mind to enlightened reasoning.  At the beginning of the journey there is very little observational awareness and a lot of ego-mind.  At the end of the journey there is a lot of observational awareness (enlightened reasoning) and very little ego-mind. 

There are hundreds, if not thousands of systems, some better than others, to cultivate observational awareness: yoga, meditation, dance, devotion, prayer, therapy, guided relaxation, hallucinogens, music, nature, sex, reading, etc. No path is perfect and no path is one-size fits all.  I experimented with numerous systems before settling on one that resonated with me: Satsang.  This Hindu term simply means “meeting in truth”.  Satsang is just hanging out with individuals who have already completed the journey to spiritual awakening or enlightened reasoning. I hung out with dozens of such individuals.  I listened to them. I spoke with them. I meditated with them. I inquired into the nature of mind and awareness with them. I laughed with them. I cried with them. I participated in Satsang multiple times per year with such individuals for over a decade. 

Each Satsang with each teacher increased my sense of observational awareness, which then brought on the next dark-night-of-the-soul, which then gave birth to the next level of observational awareness.  It was a long, sometimes grueling process, but I survived it and so can you.