1. -- AWAKENING
Here we experience an opening, kensho (Japanese word for awakening). This might happen only once or repeatedly. Here we catch perhaps a glimpse, or an even more clear experience of our true self, that life as we know it is not exactly as it appears. But instead, we have a profound realization, a knowing of the inarguable truth that we are The Way. But as time goes on, we discover that we are no longer in the state of awakening, that it is no longer an immediate felt sense state of being. Instead the experience of awakening fades into a memory that we find ourselves constantly referring back to. After this, we are possessed by a strong desire to make this a 24/7 experience and we set out on a spiritual path to make this spiritual state a permanent way of being. But yet we’re firmly removed from the experience. This presents dangers for those of us who teach spirituality because we’re teaching about awakening in the 3rd person rather than having a 1st person experience of it while teaching. We begin to fake it until we hopefully make it.
2. -- SURRENDER AND SUBMISSION
This is a lengthy process of letting go of old concepts, beliefs and opinions; the ways in which we think it ought to be, should be, might be, rather than relating directly to a felt lived sense and relating to that. In the course of this path, we may submit and surrender to a teaching or a spiritual path. We receive many new teachings and gather new ideas and concepts. But as we aspire to be truly spiritual people, good people, we begin to disown all the qualities that we consider to be unspiritual. For instance, really spiritual people don’t get angry, aren’t egotistical, aren’t depressed, etc., and so we disown these qualities and relegate them to the shadow. We’ve become even more distorted and one-sided as we try to return to the awakened experience and to be “spiritual”. Shadow work becomes more important than ever during this stage. Roshi says that the majority of us are in stuck in this stage, and that it can take many years to move through and beyond it.
Stage 3 – GREAT DEATH & GREAT LIBERATION
Any doubt about who you are is completely gone. This stage is also called Supreme Enlightenment. All concepts are entirely gone and we are living in direct contact with reality. This is also called Buddha Mind or the absolute. We feel that we have entirely been successful in eliminating the self or the ego. It feels incredibly free and a tremendous relief; but it is just another trap. We might find ourselves saying things like “I don’t feel anger or pain anymore”. But this is because now we’ve completely and thoroughly disowned the egoic self. To others, we come across as impersonal and condescending but we don’t see this. Very few people make it beyond this stage because the pseudo peacefulness is highly addictive. If we can see the trap of it, we must consciously choose to give it up.
Stage 4 – FALL FROM GRACE
This is an experience of great disillusionment. The ego comes back in full force with all its disowned emotions. But because we thought ego was gone long ago, all our filters are also gone and we have nothing to protect us from feeling the full experience of all of our emotions. What’s even more painful is that we not only do we feel our own emotions, but we also feel every one else’s. It is a time of deep despair where everything seems pointless. At this stage, the task is to completely own all our feelings, positive and negative, and to consciously choose to feel them and not disown them yet again. This is where we can work with the emotions in a tantric manner.
5. -- THE HUMAN BEING
This is the stage where we consciously choose to be a human being and to embrace the ego as an important aspect and embrace it consciously and completely. This is where we fully integrate as being human. Here we have the ultimate flexibility, to feel, to own and to experience the entire spectrum of human emotions. Very few people make it to here. It could take years or even lifetimes to accomplish.
All of this reminds me of one of my favorite stories about Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Notorious for showing up late at his own lectures, he strode into one gathering, already speaking as he entered the room. He said that the spiritual path is a very arduous one. If you haven’t begun as yet, you might want to reconsider. But if you have already begun, it’s best to finish.
Here we experience an opening, kensho (Japanese word for awakening). This might happen only once or repeatedly. Here we catch perhaps a glimpse, or an even more clear experience of our true self, that life as we know it is not exactly as it appears. But instead, we have a profound realization, a knowing of the inarguable truth that we are The Way. But as time goes on, we discover that we are no longer in the state of awakening, that it is no longer an immediate felt sense state of being. Instead the experience of awakening fades into a memory that we find ourselves constantly referring back to. After this, we are possessed by a strong desire to make this a 24/7 experience and we set out on a spiritual path to make this spiritual state a permanent way of being. But yet we’re firmly removed from the experience. This presents dangers for those of us who teach spirituality because we’re teaching about awakening in the 3rd person rather than having a 1st person experience of it while teaching. We begin to fake it until we hopefully make it.
2. -- SURRENDER AND SUBMISSION
This is a lengthy process of letting go of old concepts, beliefs and opinions; the ways in which we think it ought to be, should be, might be, rather than relating directly to a felt lived sense and relating to that. In the course of this path, we may submit and surrender to a teaching or a spiritual path. We receive many new teachings and gather new ideas and concepts. But as we aspire to be truly spiritual people, good people, we begin to disown all the qualities that we consider to be unspiritual. For instance, really spiritual people don’t get angry, aren’t egotistical, aren’t depressed, etc., and so we disown these qualities and relegate them to the shadow. We’ve become even more distorted and one-sided as we try to return to the awakened experience and to be “spiritual”. Shadow work becomes more important than ever during this stage. Roshi says that the majority of us are in stuck in this stage, and that it can take many years to move through and beyond it.
Stage 3 – GREAT DEATH & GREAT LIBERATION
Any doubt about who you are is completely gone. This stage is also called Supreme Enlightenment. All concepts are entirely gone and we are living in direct contact with reality. This is also called Buddha Mind or the absolute. We feel that we have entirely been successful in eliminating the self or the ego. It feels incredibly free and a tremendous relief; but it is just another trap. We might find ourselves saying things like “I don’t feel anger or pain anymore”. But this is because now we’ve completely and thoroughly disowned the egoic self. To others, we come across as impersonal and condescending but we don’t see this. Very few people make it beyond this stage because the pseudo peacefulness is highly addictive. If we can see the trap of it, we must consciously choose to give it up.
Stage 4 – FALL FROM GRACE
This is an experience of great disillusionment. The ego comes back in full force with all its disowned emotions. But because we thought ego was gone long ago, all our filters are also gone and we have nothing to protect us from feeling the full experience of all of our emotions. What’s even more painful is that we not only do we feel our own emotions, but we also feel every one else’s. It is a time of deep despair where everything seems pointless. At this stage, the task is to completely own all our feelings, positive and negative, and to consciously choose to feel them and not disown them yet again. This is where we can work with the emotions in a tantric manner.
5. -- THE HUMAN BEING
This is the stage where we consciously choose to be a human being and to embrace the ego as an important aspect and embrace it consciously and completely. This is where we fully integrate as being human. Here we have the ultimate flexibility, to feel, to own and to experience the entire spectrum of human emotions. Very few people make it to here. It could take years or even lifetimes to accomplish.
All of this reminds me of one of my favorite stories about Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Notorious for showing up late at his own lectures, he strode into one gathering, already speaking as he entered the room. He said that the spiritual path is a very arduous one. If you haven’t begun as yet, you might want to reconsider. But if you have already begun, it’s best to finish.
6 comments:
Hm, interesting stages. I love that it starts with Awakening and ends with Human Being- that the goal is to truly be what we are, rather than aiming for some sort of mystical, airy-fairy, celestial transformation that we can't understand. What a beautiful idea - to BE 100% - a true, full, real human being. I think I'm just gonna let that ruminate for a while.
OK, I hope your other friends are not getting annoyed at hearing from me so much Pat. And I am not even part of the Shalom Community, although there is a certainly a spoke of connection from that hub to me through Pat Parisi, creator of possibilities (your initials are appropriate). So I am reading along again and I hit # 3. And I read,
"Any doubt about who you are is completely gone. This stage is also called Supreme Enlightenment. All concepts are entirely gone and we are living in direct contact with reality. This is also called Buddha Mind or the absolute. We feel that we have entirely been successful in eliminating the self or the ego. It feels incredibly free and a tremendous relief; but it is just another trap. We might find ourselves saying things like “I don’t feel anger or pain anymore”. But this is because now we’ve completely and thoroughly disowned the egoic self. To others, we come across as impersonal and condescending but we don’t see this. Very few people make it beyond this stage because the pseudo peacefulness is highly addictive. If we can see the trap of it, we must consciously choose to give it up."
And I started laughing when I read the bit about seeming condescending and not being aware of it. I laughed and at the same time I felt like crying. This isreally refreshing, I really appreciate this.
# 4 and # 5 bring up other things. Like I remember when I was in my twenties and reading about buddhism and yoga or trying to see was all about, I was affected by the idea of nonattachment. I think that had a profound effect and later in life I reflected that had I had more life experience, I would have recognized that I needed to experience attachment before I could appreciate what nonattachment was all about. I found value and helpfulness in feminist relational theory which honoured the development that takes places in relationships. Too many steps were skipped for me in the reading I did back then. I just remembered that I once checked out a local spiritual group as well although I didn't latch. That was in my twenties also. Hmmmm. Anyway, I like stages 3-5. How do you look at them Pat. From where I'm at right now the spelling out of stages 3 through 5 expresses great and enduring patience with the learner/s. I read this as loving and kind and acknowledging of humanness and the ongoing dance of experience. That's me. What comes to mind is seeing the movie Meetings with Remarkable Men which I wish was called Meetings with Remarkable People but that's another movie I guess and the sufi dancing. It's an image in my mind. So Pat, I feel something in my stomach and heart as I appreciate your offerings to us. I don't know if my body parts talk to you though or what they might say! later and greater, you are wonderful, thank you again, Linda
"All of this reminds me of one of my favorite stories about Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Notorious for showing up late at his own lectures, he strode into one gathering, already speaking as he entered the room. He said that the spiritual path is a very arduous one. If you haven’t begun as yet, you might want to reconsider. But if you have already begun, it’s
best to finish."
Again this is hilarious. I take my spirituality with a big dose of humour and lively spirited irreverence on the side if at all possible. My six year old nephew keeps asking me why I laugh so much. And you know I don't have a good answer for him. You know, I said for a while, well, it's because I learned it from Grandma (and I want to say it's because it's part of the Newfoundland culture? if that's true and he would not get that I don't think) and now I have started saying, because it makes me happy. Of course I can be very sour and serious too so I am always delighted by opportunites to laugh. I've been thinking about the seriousness that age brings, the deepened understanding of so many painful frightening things in the world around us which I feel touching and limiting my life. Yesterday on CBC Sunday morning I heard this man who was a journalist talk about what his coverage of war has done to him and he is on antidepressants now *he said used to drink to deal with the emotions* and he said he died a long time ago but is using his remaining time the best he can to do what he can. And he said he doesn't experience the happiness he used to. He said it was gone. Something in his experience is recognizable to me since age brings a different experience of joy and happiness and lightness and a deepening of seriousness. I remember talking to you about an experience of meaningfulness I had and how I don't expect to repeat it. He touched me in how he opened what he is experiencing and in how he is unafraid to say how looks at it to the public on national tv. I have a little argument with myself about whether he is speaking or whether biomedical psychiatry is speaking but I am taking the voice as his. And it's not satisfying on one level what he says, but it's how he constructed it and the meaning which he gives to his life now regardless which I find so powerful - I want to say he's courageous but I don't know if it's that. He seemed stripped down, bare, real and I respect this man for that, for the extent of the caring he expressed. I don't know why I'm thinking about this now but he comes to mind. Bye Pat, I have some other things to share with you on email. Remember I mentioned small changes leading to bigger changes - butterfly wings - to you recently? I am seeing many things lately, making new connections, which may bring changes, we'll see. I am reluctant to expect change. lots of love and I'm sorry I wasn't reading when you got sick, or I would have sent you lots of encouragement and sympathy a virtual bowl of chicken soup for the soul, Linda
From where I'm at right now the spelling out of stages 3 through 5 expresses great and enduring patience with the learner/s.
I would add, potentially with ourselves and with each other.
I grok a lot of what you are writing about...
I sit with it a lot during my days.
I don't know what to make of it yet or what I'm supposed to do with it yet...
...but it jives deeply within me, and I feel like I fundamentally understand it - I grok it.
...interesting...
*hugs*
Dale
Post a Comment