Day 4: Abiding as I AM

August 5, 2020August 11, 2020solanataraLeave a comment

Day Four of 30 Day Wake-Up challenge

with Adya (Solana’s insights)

Day four begins with a reminder that these teachings are meant to be experienced, to experience the truth of your Being, not just thought about.(This again is emphasized because it can be a turning point to realize that for us to really get it, we need to get if from within ourselves as an insight, as our own realizations. Otherwise it does not go very deep and we are missing the pointer. Also when we realize this, it can help us to realize that this is also true for others, in case you are spending a lot of energy trying to get someone else to realize something.)

Today’s practice we are deciding to Abide in the I Am, before all its personal identities. We generally define ourselves through our thoughts. Remember thoughts are just thoughts, they are not who we are, even though they may create feelings that make us believe that we are those feelings.
(I have heard this many times, but it is only recently that I actually looked to see what it means. When we have feelings, especially intense feelings, we feel them and we naturally associate them as our feelings, that they belong to us, or they are my feelings. That sense of mine, is what makes us believe there is an individual ( I )connected to the feelings, rather than realizing the feelings are just present in a space of awareness. If we realize this it can give us a sense of distance, which can give us some space to see the reality of the truth. People also talk about people can use this as a spiritual bypass of feelings. That is not what we are discussing here, you can realize, yes these feelings are present, and be fully present with them. If you are feeling angry about something it is good to acknowledge that the anger is present. Then it can be released, rather than allowing it to be suppressed in the subconscious, which will rear its head in other ways if it is not acknowledged. The way I deal with these emotions is to acknowledge their presence, and see them as small hurt children that are abandoned, so I welcome them into my heart. That welcoming, that sense of acceptance, is what dissolves them. When we do this, it does benefit the Whole.)

How could a mere thought or collection of thoughts be who you are?

So say to yourself, I Am and feel the stillness afterwards, and again I AM, notice how quiet and silent the experience of I AM. Stay with that for a while.
(There is also a proverb in the Old Testament that says BE Still and know I AM God, that has the same purpose if one contemplates it, and one can drop the word God and say Be still and Know I AM if the word God does not agree with your mind).

The rest of the practice is to notice that thoughts are just thoughts, abstract ephemeral creations of your mind. When the mind has moments of silence you still are, but not as a thought, not as a someone or something to be evaluated or judged. Then to rest in that pure still Sense of I AM, the key word is Sense. Remember we are feeling this to have the sense of experience. Again just I AM, prior to thoughts.

Just rest in the direct awareness of I Am

The I am is awareness’s recognition of itself as awareness. So just rest in this recognition of your true being, of your formless being
And Enjoy!

All of these practices are so powerful, and any one of them can be life transforming. Even just the reminder to Enjoy the practices. It is extremely enjoyable for the Presence to recognize itself. Sometimes I move into great feelings of ecstasy when this happens. So Enjoy.

Many Blessings to you All,

Solana Tara

Awakening is Breaking Free

July 20, 2020July 20, 2020solanataraLeave a comment

Spiritual Awakening, I got it, I lost it.

Many people, including myself, have had Moments of Awakening, Clear Seeing. This is where the realization that we are more than a small, unworthy person. We see that what we are is THAT which sees, sometimes called The Presence.

I have also had moments of seeing all is right with the world, and that the same Spirit that is in a Holy person is the same Spirit that is in all other beings. This seeing may last a few moments, a day, week, month, or even years, and then is lost again.

Here I review chapter three in, The End of Your World, by Adyashanti. He calls the Seer, the Abiding or non- abiding Self. If it stays, it is called Abiding. But even if it is non-abiding, there is a part of us that does not forget. We can never return to the same level of unconsciousness as before.

I have seen a few people suffer from the idea that they had it and lost it. It is a feeling that we did something wrong and want so much to get it back. Adya comforts us by assuring us that it is just part of the natural awakening process.

Here Adya uses a great rocket ship metaphor for awakening. “A rocket ship takes a tremendous amount of thrust and energy to get off the ground and then to break the gravitational field as it travels through the sky and ultimately into space. If there is enough fuel in the rocket and it gets far enough from the Earth, it can eventually get beyond the gravitational field of the planet. Once the rocket is beyond Earth’s gravitational field, Earth no longer has the power to pull it back down.

He is calling the ego structure, aka the dream state, as the Earth. Its gravitational force tends to pull consciousness down to itself. This force is what one is dealing with throughout the entire spiritual journey.

Awakening is Breaking Free from this Gravitational Force.

At first, awakening may be a realization that there is not a separate ‘me’. Here is a key point:

“Because we have awakened does not mean that consciousness has gotten past the gravitational pull of the dream state” (aka the ego structure).

‘Thus the I got it, I lost it phenomenon. The rocket ship has gotten off the ground, gone a few miles up into the atmosphere, and ran out of fuel and is being pulled back to Earth,’ (the ego structure, that which suffers, that which believes it is separate, that which believes things should be different than they are, that which resists what is.)

Awakening happens in just a moment, but the dissolution of the ego takes time, the process that takes one beyond the gravitational force of the Earth.

The above point has been pivotal for my understanding of my awakening process. This is why I am sharing this now. I feel like I am in a major recycling project. There is a noticing of situations that still create a sense of contraction. Now I see, anytime there is a resistance within me, that is the ego gravitational force. Some thoughts are easier to release into the recycle bin than others. And there are still a few that show up that are quite a bit heavier. Although it may be uncomfortable when they arrive as a roommate in my consciousness, I am grateful to work on letting go of whatever takes me away from the Truth of my Being. I am working with being Present with that which is feeling uncomfortable, and bringing in a sense of compassion.

This process is happening to the Consciousness of Human Beings as a whole, and we are all asked to participate if we are aware enough to do so. So know it is part of natural awakening, to get it and then to lose it and that we are being asked to look at that which resists what is, and release that into the Grand Recycle Center of the Universe.

May we all Awaken to the truth of our Being.

Blessings, Solana

P.S. This is a re-write of an earlier post and I still find it relevant now.

Spiritual Awakening, I Got It, I Lost It!

November 16, 2013November 23, 2013solanatara2 Comments

Spiritual Awakening is Breaking Free from

the Gravitational Force of our limited Beliefs.

Spiritual Awakening, I got it, I lost it.

Many people, including myself, have had moments of awakening, clear seeing. This is where the realization that we are more than a small, unworthy person and what we are is that which sees, that Presence. I have also had moments of seeing all is right with the world, and that the same Spirit that is in a Holy person is the same Spirit that is in all other beings. This seeing may last a few moments, a day, week, month or even years, and then is lost again.

Here I review chapter three in, The End of Your World, by Adyashanti. He calls the Seer, the Abiding or non- abiding Self. If it stays, it is called Abiding. But even if it is non-abiding, there is a part of us that does not totally forget and can never return to the same level of unconsciousness as before.

He is calling the ego structure, aka the dream state, as the Earth. Its gravitational force has the tendency to pull consciousness down to itself. This force is what one is dealing with through the entire spiritual journey.

Awakening is Breaking Free from this Gravitational Force.

At first an awakening may be a realization that there is not a separate ‘me’. Here is a key point:

“Because we have awakened does not mean that consciousness has gotten past the gravitational pull of the dream state” (aka the ego structure).

‘Thus the, I got it, I lost it phenomenon. The rocket ship has gotten off the ground, gone a few miles up into the atmosphere, and ran out of fuel and is being pulled back to Earth,’ (the ego structure, that which suffers, that which believes it is separate, that which believes things should be different than they are, that which resists what is.)

Awakening happens in just a moment, but the dissolution of the ego takes time, the process that takes one beyond the gravitational force of the Earth.

The above point has been pivotal for my understanding in my own awakening process. This is why I am sharing this now. I feel like I am in a major recycling project. There is a noticing of situations that still create a sense of contraction. Now I see, anytime there is a resistance within me, that is the ego gravitational force. Some thoughts are easier to release into the recycle bin than others, like a single plastic container, but there are still a few that show up that are quite a bit heavier. Although it may be uncomfortable when they arrive as a room mate in my consciousness, I am grateful to work on letting go of whatever takes me away from the Truth of my Being. I am working with being Present with that which is feeling uncomfortable, and bringing in a sense of compassion.

This process is happening to the Consciousness of Human Beings as a whole, and we are all asked participate, if we are aware enough to do so. So know it is part of natural awakening, to get it and then to lose it and that we are being asked to look at that which resists what is, and release that into the Grand Recycle Center of the Universe.

May we all Awaken to the truth of our Being.

Blessings, Solana

An Enlightened Being is All Knowing, true or false?

Image November 4, 2013November 4, 2013solanataraLeave a comment

Lets play the game, true or false!

An enlightened being knows everything. True or False.

False. I used to believe that enlightenment made one ALL Knowing. While enlightenment is a portal into the truth of who we are, it does not automatically make someone all knowing. And while there may be a few great masters out there who can look at us and see into our very nature, it is not the norm for the rest of us. And while a few may see beyond this dimension, if they want to learn a new skill, they still have to go through the process of learning.

Enlightenment is so far out there, I could never achieve it in my lifetime. True or False.

False. While it may have been the truth thousands of years ago, it is not true today. There are many people waking up to the truth of their being. Enlightenment is our natural state and for many of us, our own knowledge of it comes from the great yogic masters who spent years meditating in a cave. (Do you know today you can rent a cave in India?).

But today is a time of great awakening and there is a reach for a critical mass where the influence of this awakening is affecting more and more people. The knowledge of enlightenment and acknowledging the place inside that yearns for the truth is helpful. There are many that believe that the greatest service we can offer humanity is to wake up to the Truth of our Being, so we can lift up the collective consciousness.

When one reaches enlightenment there are no more problems. True or False

True in the sense that they are not seen as problems by the mind. False in the sense that there are still events that come into play in one’s life that one may have to deal with. I used to believe that if one had a health problem after enlightenment, one could automatically heal it. There are those that have moved through their healing process quickly. While there are some Masters, such as Ramakrishna and Ramana Maharshi who just recognized they were not their body and did not feel a need to have to change the illness to the body.

Enlightenment is a one time Event., Poof! I am Enlightened! True or False

False! This one was a great surprise for me and the most recent of my Enlightenment myths de-bunked by three different teachers. Swami Dayananda says that the Buddha’s story of enlightenment is one that has helped to keep this myth alive. Adyashanti in his book, Way of Liberation says that, “The enlightenment I speak of is not simply a realization, not simply the discovery one one’s true nature. This is just the beginning, the point of entry into an inner revolution. Realization does not guarantee this revolution, it simply makes it possible.”

I highly recommend this book, it is what I am studying at the moment. Here is a link for a free pdf.

http://www.adyashanti.org/library/The_Way_of_Liberation_Ebook.pdf
Blessings, Solana Tara

Welcome to a conversation on Awakening to the Truth of Our Being

October 30, 2013October 31, 2013solanataraLeave a comment

Welcome! The intention of this blog is to invite conversations on Spiritual Awakening. I have been studying the subject for over 30 years. It began with my first Yoga Teachers Training with Swami Satchidanada and has taken various routes along the river of life, sometimes straight and narrow and some times wide and zig-zagging. Sometimes this body was in the United States, sometimes in India, Europe, Egypt, Australia, or Brazil. There has been movement through the path of Bhakti (devotion), Jnana (knowledge), dual, non-dual, and Raja (meditation and Eight limbed path of Yoga.) There have been deep connections with Krishna, Christ, Jesus, Mary, Buddha, Ramana Maharshi, Ramakrishna, Yogananda, Sivananda, Archangel Michael, Archangel Raphael and others and moments where all of them disappeared in the Oneness. I have sat in the presence of Amma, Satchidananda, Swami Dayanada, Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra and Adyashanti to name a few. There have been moments of awakening and moments of forgetting. At this time, it appears, moments of remembering are happening more frequently and that which is always Present seems more present then ever.

I would love to hear from others that are on this similar path (of no path). What are you doing right now to remember? What teachers are with? What is most beneficial to you at this time? How would you define enlightenment? What experiences have you had that revealed to you the Truth?

Looking forward to hearing from you?

Blessings

Solana