Awakening: the one practice to enlightenment

The illusion of progress

I had a rude awakening this morning. The illusion of progress, the illusion of doing something that works hasn’t left me untouched either.

In my coaching session this morning I woke up, I woke up from my illusion. The illusion that people understand what it takes to grow, what it takes to become an expanding human being, the illusion that people know anywhere what the work entails.

I think this illusion is shared by quite a few teachers, but not being alone is not a consolation, it’s just a fact.

What I realized this morning is this: everything I have taught until this point only works, will only work, if you start at the beginning, at the pivotal point, and that is: waking up and getting present.

the pivotal point: waking up and getting present

Now, there are many people who teach living in the present moment, Zen is all about that, and there are Zen centers in every bigger community in the USA… and yet, when I muscletested, only one person practices it as a way of life, only one person practices being awake and present all the time, at this time in history.

Many people ask the question: what is the work I am supposed to do?

You ask: what shall I do to raise my vibration? The number of answers, the number of “things” that are part of “the work” is very high, unmanageable.

But unless you practice the pivoting point skill and ability, the rest is a waste of time. Waking up. Waking up to be in the present moment.

So how do you wake up? How do you practice being present?

The first step is to ask the question: Am I present right now? Am I in the herenow?

Now, unless you know how to recognize that you are in the present, you may fancy an illusion in your mind that indeed you are present… so the next step, even before you start this practice, is to get clear about the main ways you can recognize that you are NOT in the present, that you are either in the past or in the future, but not in the present, not in the herenow.

Three signs that you are not in the present moment

1. If things have a name, then you are not in the present moment. Names of people and things come from the past. They carry tons of meaning with them, good, bad, indifferent, but meaning nevertheless.If you recognize things and their characteristics in the moment… you were just transported to the past. In the present moment there is no meaning.If you label things or people: those labels come from the past. It doesn’t matter if the label says good, or if the label says bad. Label is label, and there is no labeling possible in the present moment.
2. If you resist what you see or experience, you can be sure that you accessed meaning, accessed the past. So any resistance will clue you in that you are NOT in the herenow.
3. Desire or want: all desire and all want is a dead giveaway that you are in the future and the past at the same time: you make the present wrong, and you want to fix it with a future that is different.In addition: desire is a concept, and if you recognized it, you are not in the present moment.

You can see that it’s not easy. If it were easy, many more people would live like this.

Now, given that you live in the real world, you interact with people, you work, you travel… how do you do this?

The answer is simple, doing it is not easy.

You need to locate yourself in the Observer position. You need to create some space between your self and the mind, the past, the future, the desires, the meanings, and simply observe them.

None of those (thoughts, desires, feelings) can remain untouched by the fact that they are observed by a consciousness: the Observer is consciousness itself.

And remember that the Observer does not label, the Observer doesn’t judge, the Observer doesn’t even wish you to be different, do different, feel different. I just sees, witnesses, and hears.

The Observer hears your thoughts, but doesn’t get entangled in them: it stands outside of the mind. It feels your feelings, but it doesn’t get entangled with them: it stands outside of the body. Your only choice is where you stand.

You see, the Observer is observing always, observing right now, but you are standing in your mind, or in your feelings. So you are unconscious of it…

So the job is to step back, and stand in the Observer position, every time you ask the question: Am I present right now?

You only need to remember to ask the question. Don’t force it: it cannot be forced. Forcing comes from the past… not from the present moment. Just like resistance. Forcing comes from the egomind: it is in the past.

If you’d like to listen to the call I teach this, you can buy it. My line is bad a few times, but otherwise you’ll be able to hear it well.

When you are awake, when you are present, when you locate your self in the Observer position, you may have emotions, feelings, thoughts that — if you were entangled with them — you wouldn’t like. All kinds of emotions.

But from the Observer position you don’t resist them, and therefore they have a chance to just move on like the clouds in the sky.

You’ll have a sky that has running clouds in it, with frequent periods of sunny, as opposed to your current unconscious state, where your resistance fixates what you don’t want, and clouds your sky forever.

PS: all the people that talk about awakening are not talking from their own experience… it is all Tree of Knowledge. All. B.S.-ing you. But for entertainment purposes I’ll put a video here from youtube… it is up to you to discern or not… You could use and benefit from my Astute activator… lol

Author: Sophie Benshitta Maven

True empath, award winning architect, magazine publisher, transformational and spiritual coach and teacher, self declared Avatar View all posts by Sophie Benshitta Maven