Hi Rupert,
In your amazing, illuminating book you say, ‘From time to time old layers of identification with the body-mind reappear. Those that are necessary for the functioning of everyday life continue as and when they are needed. Those that are not functional drop away naturally.’ Would you please speak to this a bit more? It’s very disheartening to find oneself in the middle of old arguments instead of the more conscious, clear state that I’m getting used to. I wonder how much un-consciousness is needed to function in our everyday lives.
Julli
Dear Julli,
What is normally described as enlightenment is the experiential knowing that what we are is impersonal, unlimited consciousness.
This realisation may seem to come at the end of a long process of preparation or it may seem to come unexpectedly and unsolicited. In either case, the patterns of the mind and body that have been rehearsed, in most cases over many years, do not disappear immediately, but continue to appear out of habit for some time.
However, they are no longer fuelled by the apparent separate entity that was previously at their origin. They are simply old habits running on momentum. How long these habits take to run down varies from case to case. It is a common misunderstanding to think that after this so-called enlightenment, everything will be perfect, and we sometimes lose heart when these old habits reappear.
You see, enlightenment is the end of one process, the separate entity, but the beginning of another, that is, the beginning of the realignment of the mind, body and world with our new understanding.
If one has been on the path for many years, the body and mind may already be aligned with this new understanding and, as a result, very little change will take place. For another, who has stumbled across this without much preparation, there may be an explosion at the level of the body and mind, with dramatic effects and experiences. These are the ones we normally hear about because they make good stories.
It is for each of us to see whether the thoughts, feelings and activities of separation have, at their origin, a belief in separation, or whether they are simply old habits of the body-mind winding down. But in neither case do we have an agenda with them.
So there’s no need to be disheartened! Be happy when these residues of ignorance show up. They are the self showing itself those areas of the body and mind that have yet to be colonised by its presence. Offer them back to presence. She will take care of them beautifully.
Don’t make a problem of your problems. Simply continue getting used to your self.
* * *
What does offering them back to presence mean? It may mean subjecting our beliefs in separation, and the actions that follow from them, to the scrutiny of reason that comes directly from the true nature of experience. Or it may mean simply welcoming these uncomfortable feelings, allowing them to take their full shape within our self, with no agenda for or against.
In both cases, what seems to be an offering of the mind and body to presence is in fact presence gathering in the mind and body, permeating it with itself. Enjoy the process! We meet many beautiful beings on the way!
As the residues of ignorance at the level of the mind and body drop away, we are free to respond to situations as they arise. Nothing necessary for the functioning of an ordinary life is lost. All that is lost is our unhappiness, the sense of separation, which is another way of saying our rejection of the current situation and our search for happiness.
No longer dulled by the sense of separation, the body and mind become open, sensitive and available. In response to a situation they become instruments of love and understanding in action. Left to themselves they quietly get on with life, celebrating their origin at every possible moment.
You say, ‘I wonder how much un-consciousness is needed to function in our everyday lives’. None is needed and none is possible. ‘Un-consciousness’ is simply an idea that appears in always-consciousness from time to time. The mind may rise up and seem to obscure this ever-present consciousness, either with thoughts and feelings or with a blank state, but consciousness is never ‘not known’.
Even at our most apparently ‘unconscious’ moments, in the depths of unhappiness, we long for happiness. If this were not the case unhappiness would be tolerated and would not therefore be known as unhappiness. In fact it would be experienced as happiness, because there would be no motivation to escape it.
There is only the self and the apparent veiling of the self, but never not the self.
With love,
Rupert
