|
Q. Please talk about the journey towards enlightenment
A. The path of enlightenment is not the path of escaping from pain but of learning to sit in the presence of all things and remain connected with higher love. When you begin the journey, when you envisage the goal, what you dream of is a happy life. Your picture is one of life just as it is, only you are always smiling in this picture, you are successful, wise, recognized by all who see you as special in some way. This is your sweet dream. But this is not the actual quality of awakening. To live in an awakened state is an utterly different experience from the experience in which you are engaged. Perceptions, sensations, goals and ambitions are all absolutely changed. It does not translate into any images that you can produce. It is for this reason in part that the path is so confusing. You do not know where you are going. All of your striving, all of your self discipline, all of your comparing and hungering lead you to a place you cannot even imagine.
Your hunger for awakening comes from the taste of spirit that is at the core of your being. Of course! You are created from the very fabric you wish to embody. You are it. This is why the teachers and gurus are constantly telling you that you are already there. Of course you are. But the opening into it, the dissolving of small self into Self, has not happened yet.
The process if dissolving into the Self is a process of releasing, unraveling, exploding whatever holds you contracted in form and structure. It is a process which requires some skill. Without this, without the understanding of gradual unfolding, the structure that is essential for your continuation in form can be damaged. This would result in physical, emotion, mental malfunction and does not serve. Although there are moments of sudden awakenings, the integration and preparation for these is entirely necessary. This structure of personality that you struggle so hard to break, to move beyond, is in fact fragile. As you open to the energies of cosmic love the structure is shaken and threatened. In its efforts to balance itself you find yourself moving from bliss to despair. The egoic structure must be kept in tact for the form to function. But it can be gentled, informed, introduced to the light so to speak. So you journey into openings experiencing occasional breakthroughs and swings into darkness until the structure of personality and form is flexible enough, expansive enough, cleared enough to contain more and more of the fabric of love. Until the final opening, a shift in energetic structure, a complete revolutionizing of perception and experience.
Q For this to be accomplished, is it necessary to have a teacher?
A. Teachers along the way are essential. But remember, there are many teachers who are not embodied and they too can guide you if your are willing to be so guided. And though you may find all the teachers and guides in the world, some steps must be taken alone. Though alone is in fact a false construct. The facing of the experience of separation and oneness simultaneously must take place.
Q. Is it helpful, then, to choose one path and stick with it?
A. There is no one way of approach. You must know this from the great multitude of religions on your planet. Your dimension is multidimensional and there are many approaches that arrive at the same point. Therefore, for some one path is best, for others the journey is through several. As you move along the path discernment in these areas becomes easier.
Q. Is enlightenment possible for everyone?
A. This question is difficult for us to answer because from our perspective your entire world is made of enlightened awareness and therefore awakeness is the context in which you all exist. But, of course, the game that is being played by Consciousness is one of journeying and so within the confines of the game board "planet earth" the journey is from forgetfulness to remembering or from unconsciousness to awakening. Within this frame of reference, the individual must be at a certain level of expandedness before the desire for awakening arises. But yes, enlightenment is indeed possible for everyone once that longing is evoked.
Q. And once awake, is it possible to be reborn?
A. Oh yes! Of course! In the awakened state desire and manifestation are one. Form is always an option but not the most frequently chosen. In other words Spirit can manifest as and when it chooses, in any identity, old or new, that it chooses and so can you when you know yourself to be, completely, Spirit. Then the "I" becomes an act of choice and creativity rather than a prison. Most identities, though, release themselves from material existence fairly quickly when that option becomes available, because this is the densest plane. The transcendence of duality is a great delight and the moment of transcendence is a great delight.
|
