The Elegance of Simplicity

I was invited to the launch of a new book, "Awakening All Sleepwalkers" by Sophie McLean.

The part about "moving between dimensions" struck me as a bit, "out there" and I was busy, so ignored it.

Then I realized I wasn't listening to a book at the moment, and Audible keeps pinging me about my "free credits". So I looked up the author and began listening to a previous book of hers, "The Elegance of Simplicity." She narrates the book herself, speaking a bit slowly, so I listened to it at 1.7 speed and it proceeded briskly.

It's a wonderful story that seems to make awakening from ego very accessible. I recommend it highly, and sent a copy to my mom, who, at age 93, reads a lot.

It's a story of a woman's journey to enlightenment, told to the auther, guiding the author on her own journey. It somewhat paralleled my own journey.

I discovered my own decisions that shaped my ego at age 28, in a wonderful course. In a second 6-day course where we explored some of the limits we had put on ourselves, I had my first peak experience. I experienced the world as a single entity which is able to pulse in a near-infinite number of ways, creating the world out of essentially dualities, distinctions, meanings. My mind naturally interpreted the event consistent with my mathematical bent, and everything suddenly made sense, including the character I played in the world.

It left me with my own triple nature. On the one hand, I was this character with a name, family, apartment, car, history, etc. On the other, I was the actor, a bit of the eternal self, a bit of the single consciousness, playing this part in the drama of life. And the third was the projection of me into the unity of consciousness where we, and everying, are just one.

I found great value and freedom from the course, and took more of them and had breakthroughs in many areas of life. And a friend introduced me to Siddha Yoga, a path to enlightenment from a master. I visited an Ashram once and afterwards was told that I had received Shaktipat, the awakening of the spirit. I was dubious- the chanting and meditation weren't "my style."

Then I began something more my style, a 4-year correspondence course where the sage inspired a young writer to create about a thousand pages of teachings about the nature of reality, self, and ego. Often I'd begin to read one of the 2 10-page lessons for the month and "wake up" a half hour later from a spirtual reverie. Other times, the lessons were fascinating. (The writer has a perhaps-similar training here now.)

For me, bliss, being one with the universe, is always available. All it takes is seeing that the "normal, everyday reality" is true only when I adopt a large set of "normal" contexts and meanings. This view is my own, but is very similar to most other people's. Life outside of bliss is optional, but it's like watching a movie- it's easy to get engrossed and involved in its drama and forget that it's a choice. Or as we say, "Suffering is optional."

Shifting to see that this reality comes from a created perspective allows me to dwell in the larger reality where all perspectives are possible. This includes the simplest and most true one: unity. All of reality is simply the vibration of invented dichotomies and distinctions.

While I can reach that state in an instant, to do it, I must take a break from my work, which involves drama, stress and struggle. It's nice to take a break and let the stress slip away, but breaks don't get the work done.

My work is a choice, but I wouldn't call it a labor of love. It's a labor or responsibility, creating a new paradigm for politics and making it not just available, but ubiquitous. The goal is, within the next couple of years, to fully replace the current political paradigm in America, which is a fight for power between the 2 parties and their wealthy controllers.

The new paradigm will have politics be a peacful way for us, The People, to design and pursue our future together. It'll give us real democracy (still with representatives (For more information, see PeopleCount.org. and please hit the Join button so you can receive occasional updates.)

It has been strange to have had this "calling" enter my life. While it has involved all sorts of emotions and drama, at the same time, it's a privilege to have been granted this part in the drama of human civilization. In the midst of the worst of it I had real depression! While I knew it wasn't real, that it was my own creation. But it was so severe that I had to reach out to an enlightened friend to find my way back. Ego is just ego, but it's a trap as complex as reality itself.
 

In Sophie's Facebook Post about the event, she includes 8 points about Awakening vs. Enlightenment. The first 6 I completely agree with.

I would say the 7th is true for most, that:
      We cannot "understand" Enlightenment
but it hides how poorly most us understand "understand" (which is probably why it's quoted.)

The last seems problematic, that:
      Someone Enlightened can flow
      freely between dimensions.
If "dimension" means perspectives of oneself and the world, and thus lets one move between experiences of reality, I agree. If it means moving to different physical realities, that's not my experience. But again, perhaps my enlightenment is not complete.

For me, the world is bounded on one side by the singularity of the self, and on the other by a (for all practical purposes) infinitely complex world of of creativity and possibility.

In summary, I am grateful to experience the eternal, and to have the opportunity to experience Sophie McLean's live event on the 20th. I'm just guessing: You're welcome to join us.