The Downplaying Of Awakening (Non-Duality) - The Goodie Isn’t Good?

I got a question the other day.

This has come up a couple times,

Some version of it,

Mentioning,

Or more of a comment about the downplaying of the goodie,

The downplaying of awakening as expressed by other speakers and authors regarding the non-specialness of awakening.

And it's interesting,

It's understandable,

I guess it's similar to hearing the phrase money can't buy happiness and then the mind says yeah well I'll be the judge of that.

And the mind is,

The mind will be the judge of everything.

That's just what it does.

It categorizes,

It labels,

It creates problems,

It fixes them,

It creates more problems.

It will be the judge of that.

I'll be the judge of that,

Of whether or not this awakening thing is so wonderful.

Because it certainly feels,

It certainly looks like it's wonderful.

I've seen people giggling and in some cases they call it punch-drunk non-duality,

Just sort of staring off and checking things out.

But it's the mind that actually wants to be awake.

It's the mind that wants to awaken.

The ego,

Excuse me,

It's the ego that wants the ego to be gone.

No bigger ego trip than getting rid of one's ego as Alan Watts once said.

The thing is,

There's this programming that happens where the mind and all the thoughts,

And the mind isn't separate from the thoughts,

It just is this non-existent bundle of thoughts that we put together and call a mind.

The thoughts and the mind has been running the show for so long that even it wants to get rid of itself.

And there's no reason to get rid of thoughts,

There's no reason to quiet the mind or kill the ego or any of those things.

I've said this in other talks.

But it's the mind that is in the search of that destination,

That place,

That gateless gate,

Enlightenment,

Awakening,

Whatever it is that you want to call it.

And when this non-event happens,

It doesn't mean that the mind stops what it's doing.

It doesn't mean that it stops trying to interject into this idea of relevance,

Interject itself into the conversation,

I guess.

It is the conversation,

But maybe there's a better way to say it,

But that's what's being said.

So when that happens,

It's actually seen that the mind wasn't,

Hasn't been running the show,

That it's not in charge of anything,

That the thoughts that have been arising are not coming from this unit,

This person,

This character,

Because this character is just part of the illusion.

It's part of consciousness.

It's an energetic contraction of consciousness as consciousness.

And when that is seen,

Then it's no longer believed.

So then you're in this conundrum where the mind has been saying,

We've got to get,

We've got to awake,

We've got to wake up,

We've got to figure this out.

And then that happens and it's like,

Oh,

That thing that's been screaming,

Scratching and seeking to reach this place isn't real.

It's as if you have this tour guide who takes you to a place,

Well this might go off the rails,

But it's as if you have a tour guide that says,

Hey,

You need me to go to this amazing place.

And then you get to the amazing place and you find out you didn't need the tour guide the whole time.

So you don't get upset,

Well some people might,

I don't know,

But you don't get upset with the tour guide.

You just go,

Oh,

Okay,

So the whole thing was kind of a trick,

A ruse.

If you are,

I'll use another,

We'll try another concept and metaphor,

The best we can ever do with words and they always fail.

If you're walking through a forest and your pant leg snags on a stick and you're pulling and you're pulling and you're pulling and you finally get free from that snag,

There might be a little pop of joy,

Like,

Oh my gosh,

I'm free now and I can continue on.

You might even celebrate,

Depending on how long you're stuck there,

You might even celebrate finally being free so that you can continue on that path.

And some might say,

Well,

Yeah,

That's just a,

That metaphor just uses a snag,

But if there's been a lot of suffering in this character's life,

Then awakening and seeing that,

It's freedom from that suffering.

And it's not freedom from the suffering in the way that it might be projected,

That might be expected.

It's freedom from the suffering through the allowance of it,

Through the acceptance of it.

So it's not freedom as in this thing that no longer exists.

And maybe that forest example is different.

It's as if maybe the snag doesn't let go of your pant leg but you just keep walking anyway.

I don't know if that works at all.

But there's not,

I think the,

I guess maybe if there's a frustration or a question that comes up,

Why is seeking,

There's so much seeking energy that's happening and then when awakening happens all these people that are talking about it are saying like it's no big deal,

It's just sort of ordinary and simple and plain.

And it is ordinary and simple and plain and beautiful and it's just,

I mean,

This is it to say it's great.

I guess that's just a thought arising.

So someone says,

Is it great,

You can be like,

Yeah!

And then there's always a but,

I mean,

It's just this,

It's just,

You know,

It's great,

Just that thought just arose,

That feeling sort of arose.

But it is simple and ordinary and the freedom,

The breaking free from the illusion,

The realization that this thing has been all a dream,

That it is an illusion.

Yes,

Of course,

And in many cases it does create tears and joy and confusion,

In some cases depression,

You know,

Big apparent changes because there's a paradigm shift,

There's an apparent paradigm shift that what is seen has always been.

And then the mind starts going,

Oh my gosh,

I can't believe we were fooled by this for so long!

This is amazing,

This is amazing!

And in other cases running around,

Tell people,

Tell others,

Call it the save the world phase here that happened for a little while.

But it's the mind that wants enlightenment,

It's the mind that wants awakening.

And that event,

When it happens,

It's seen that that mind,

That tour guide that you had was never to be believed.

And it doesn't mean it's out of a job,

It can still continue working,

Thoughts are still arising.

That can go on for a while,

It can go on forever,

But with the volume,

The volume settles.

So this mind that planned the trip,

Made all of the logistical elements come true,

Consistently pointed at things on the horizon that needed to be met,

Signposts that we needed to get to for this to happen,

It's all seen that that was false,

That it was never real.

So the greatness that apparently exists is seen that,

Oh,

The great,

The wonderful label that was placed on this was from that same false entity that exists.

So the downplaying of the goody,

The downplaying of awakening is not,

It's not a,

I don't think it's intentionally done.

It's obvious why it can create some confusion or I guess even frustration of like,

You know,

That sort of,

I'll be the judge of that,

Easy for you to say,

You don't have all these bad things going on in your life or maybe you didn't have any trauma or suffering before.

This is simply not the case in terms of the play of life and at least with this character.

And I think also,

I don't know,

I feel like if all these talks were,

Whatever comes up,

I mean thoughts arise about it and then they happen,

But if all these talks were about how amazing this was,

Oh my gosh,

It's so amazing,

You wouldn't believe it,

Oh my gosh,

It's so cool,

It's so cool,

It's so cool,

Then the mind may hear that and say,

Well,

I'm not buying it.

I'm not buying it.

It can't be the case where things are always amazing,

Where it's always beautiful,

Always blissful.

The mind wouldn't buy that either because the mind doesn't buy anything.

It can pretend to,

It can act as if it's satisfied with a response that it gets,

But it will always move the goalpost.

There will always be something else that it is looking for,

That it's going after,

That it's seeking.

And so that seeking energy comes in those actions,

In those thoughts that are happening.

And then when the seeking stops,

The mind loses its say.

It loses its relevance in the conversation.

I'm not going to lie,

There are moments of bliss.

They don't come from talking,

They don't come from conversations,

Even though I like talking about this.

They come from quiet.

But even those moments of bliss are stuff of the mind.

The moments themselves,

The observing and the witnessing,

It is beautiful,

But the mind is the thing that comes in,

The thoughts that come in and say,

Oh this is beautiful,

Oh this feels great.

So it's still at work.

Again,

Never satisfied for long,

Even when it's cheering on.

This experience that's being had right now,

The heart welling up and all the things.

Not downplaying the goody,

I'm not selling it either.

You seek until you don't.

Period.

That's just how it goes.

These talks,

If there's one intention that these talks have,

These talks,

Any writings,

Anything here,

And I guess a satisfaction that comes,

It's in having a conversation and watching,

Consciousness here,

Watching,

Consciousness there,

This physical relaxing of the shoulders,

A smile of like,

Oh,

Oh,

Oh,

Yes,

Okay.

It's this,

It's always been this.

It's not for the building up of some amazing event,

The selling of this wonderful thing.

It's really for this relaxation,

For the deep breath,

Knowing that it's not just that everything is going to be okay,

It's just that it always is.

It always is okay.

I hope that answers any questions or comments about the subject and it may actually,

The mind may be up with,

Yeah,

Yeah,

But,

Yeah,

But,

Just keeps doing that.

I got a great message and so I wanted to respond to that and it was in the context of some other comments that I saw.