One Million Awake as a MEME

More and more One Million Awake is clarifying in my mind, which believe me, with this mind is no easy task.

The real and primary aspect behind One Million Awake is to spread the Enlightened Humanity meme.... So you may ask...

What is a meme?

Memes are the basic building blocks of our minds and culture, in the same way that genes are the basic building blocks of biological life.
Isn't memetics just a fancy name for _________ (fill in the blank with "cultural evolution", "behavioral psychology", "sociobiology", or anything else)? Why is this anything new?
The breakthrough in memetics is in extending Darwinian evolution to culture. There are several exciting conclusions from doing that, one of which is the ability to predict that ideas will spread not because they are "good ideas", but because they contain "good memes" such as danger, food and sex that push our evolutionary buttons and force us to pay attention to them.

Every time you (or anyone) considers the possibility of 1,000,000 Enlightened Beings on the planet, or an Enlightened Humanity, or sees the One Million Awake logo, or considers themselves as Enlightened, committed to Enlightenment or committed to planetary or Kosmic Enlightenment, it expands the meme. It opens the possibility just a little more, and a little more and a little more. As Gandhi said  - First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.  

Remember our Exponential Enlightenment. That's the meme. Every time you send someone the link to www.OneMillionAwake or tell them about it, or share the idea of 1,000,000 enlightened beings, or awakened humanity, they have to think about it. It WILL touch them. It will open their hearts. It WILL and IS creating that Reality!!!

Think about it!  And then.....Pass it on.

With INFINITE Love and Gratitude
Aja

More Questions on Enlightenment and Claiming Enlightenment

Dear Jason,
Thank you for your kind letter, and I'll see if I can't respond to some of your points. Some of this may be rather spontaneous, so hopefully if you consider it carefully, it will make some sense or cause some recognition:

Q. Teaching the XXXXXXX  Course, one of the first things that happens is people realize they maybe aren’t as enlightened as they think they are. 

A. 1. Perhaps they ARE as enlightened as they think they are, but also NOT as enlightened as they think they are. For most people (spiritually oriented people) there are two distinct realities - the noumenal and phenomenal, i.e. the absolute and relative planes. (By nature, I must answer according to the Recognition that is afforded me, so if some of this doesn't make sense, play with it.)  The process of Waking up or Enlightenment is several layered:

1st - one must let go of the old identifications...I am this idea, this belief, this perception...all the way down to I am this body, I am this mind, I am these emotions, etc. All of these things are objects of awareness. When you separate yourself, or widen the gap, so to speak, between the Seer of all objects and the objects, you are left with what is the actuality of that which we call "I" and is perceiving the objects. That "I" becomes recognized as Awareness. So you have not really changed anything, other than the boundary line. Body and mind are now added to all of the other objects "out there".  2nd - However, that leaves you with an "I" that apparently is nothing. And yet it remains aware. In fact, what you find is that the "I" is in fact Awareness itself. If you investigate into the whereabouts of that "I" or Awareness, you find that it is actually nowhere and more specifically everywhere. Everything, EVERYTHING arises within that Awareness as the Awareness itself. (Much like the dream, where everything IN the dream, including the you in the dream are simply non-divisible aspects of that one dream consciousness.)  3rd - As Awareness, as Infinite Awareness, everything within that awareness is One Thing Happening, i.e. One Absolute Substance.  This is Pure Recognition is total Non-Duality. There are no more distinctions. There is just, in the words of one sage, God Godding, including as the apparent 'persons', like finger puppets of the Divine, the Universal Being, Presence, whatever you want to call it.

Now for many, the first stage, i.e. the recognition that they are Awareness, is a huge step, particularly considering 99% of the population considers themselves simply the body/mind. So to recognize that they are something more than that IS, to me, a definite awakening. However, even though they have recognized this aspect of themselves as consciousness, there is still a strong identification (due to habit) of being the body/mind. So they flip back and forth between these two - relative, absolute, relative, absolute. The Absolute recognition, of course affords them deep peace, happiness, quietude, a sense of being home, at one, etc. But they quickly jump back to the relative and wonder where that 'experience' went, and how to get it back. Now, because the Recognition of who they are is not an 'attaining' but a recognition of something they have ALWAYS been, the recognition of that is profound and is the 'enlightened' state. However, they are also identified as being a limited person incorporating all the doubts, darkness, pretenses, etc. Also, and very important, is that the ego/mind/personality wants to grasp onto and own that recognition of Consciousness. However, it is backwards. Although they haven't realized it yet, the ego/mind is arising in and as part of that Vast Awareness that is already present, but due to some temporary clearing of mind/ego, was recognized. As the mind/ego again takes control, it wants to own that recognition, which it can't do. The ego, i.e. the personality can never be enlightened. This is why virtually all true spiritual processes end in some kind of ego death or total dis-identification with the ego, etc., surrendering the temporary or illusory smaller identification into that Absolute Larger Being. It's like saying the wave is the ocean or will become the ocean, when in fact, the ocean is the wave, and for the wave, it must first recognize that it is part of the ocean, and finally that it is nothing BUT ocean - i.e. it doesn't exist as separate waveness, even though waveness may still be showing or 'popping up'.

Q. They have to get past their pretenses and really feel exactly where they are in life so they can take responsibility for all of the darkness they have created. 

A. Yes, they do, however it is not that simplistic. This part becomes difficult, and essentially boils down to the fate vs. free will aspect. Ultimately, everyone will act (choicelessly) as if they had free will, until there is the actual recognition that there isn't any (or extremely little). The wave, being the ocean, doesn't make decisions on it's own. They are simply the process of the ocean oceaning, God Godding. Now, this goes against every individualistic ideal. It means, "I don't exist," and for most, "Homey don't play that game!" Thus, most philosophies, religious teachings, etc. move one toward an ever-increasing path of purity or righteousness, and most importantly, understanding. All of this is good and important, except that they too often get stuck within that new belief system, thinking they are doing good. Everyone must face every aspect of themselves - the darkness, etc., but it is not necessarily self-created. Better might be to say ego-identified. Which moves me onto the next point...

Q. I had a little charge on people just stating that they are enlightened. 

A. There is a verse in Ashtavakra which has been extremely important for me. That same idea is stated in many other places in similar ways. "If one considers themselves free they are free; if they consider themselves bound, they are bound. 'As a man thinks, he receives,' is a truism in this world."  Now considering oneself free may not entirely make them free. However, considering oneself bound definitely keeps one bound. So it is important to rest in the place of being free, being enlightened. In other words, one has to let go of the idea of themselves as ignorant and bound even to begin to recognize the possibility that perhaps they really ARE Awake, they are enlightened, that they as Infinite Awareness are themselves what they are seeking. So, although people may simply be stating that they are enlightened, without any recognition to 'back it up,' it is better than deeply holding onto the conviction that they are NOT Awake, and most probably never will be.  Henry Ford said, "Think you can; think you can't - either way, you're right!"

Q. When one looks at the state of the world, we certainly don’t have 1,000,000 or even 1000 Jesuses or Buddhas already in action.

A. No. There was one Jesus and one Buddha. There is also one Aja, one Jason, and one of every other apparent 'individual' personality. Part of the mystery is that each player in the play has their own part and function. We don't need 1,000,000 Jesus's or Buddhas. We need 1,000,000 enlightened Ajas, and Jasons, and Chucks, and Sallys and Tom and Janes, and Albertos and Ingrids, and.... you get the picture. As long as we are trying to be a Buddha or Jesus or anything or anyone else, that is the ego/mind saying there is something wrong. It says that my mind/ego has a better sense of who or what I should be than that Divine Intelligence which created me. It should be kept in mind that the very word 'personality' means a mask, from the old greek plays in which they spoke (sona) through (per) a mask (per-sona). The Aja-ness or Jason-ness is the mask through which the Absolute speaks, lives, experiences Itself in its Infinite manifestation, just as Jesus and Buddha were. The distinction, is to what degree there is identification with that mask.

Q. What are your thoughts about this? 

A. So those are some of my thoughts, and more importantly, the Recognition as well as this persona is able to describe it.

Q. I feel like this is an important conversation to open in the spiritual community so we get beyond our pretenses, hidden judgments and spiritual identities.  At the same time, I appreciate that nothing creates until someone commits to something.  I would love your viewpoint. 

A. Yes, all conversations are important in the spiritual community so that all aspects can be understood as well as possible. Often, recognition comes simply through understanding things that were in plain sight, but it just never occurred for us to look at them. You can not very well light to something if your back is to it. So Waking Up, includes a deep investigation of both what we see and believe, and either discovering for ourselves, or having pointed out to us, those more subtle ideas, habits or beliefs that perhaps we're not quite as aware of.  Galileo said, "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." Most people are content (or rather dis-content) with what they currently hold onto. Thus, above all, a deep love for Truth, to understand Truth and ultimately to surrender into Truth are highly recommended.

I understand that some of these answers may or may not fit into your current belief system or recognition, but we must each speak from our own highest Truth and Recognition, yes?!

With infinite love & deep gratitude,
yours,
Aja

The TRUTH about Enlightenment

This is a topic which we will probably discuss endlessly, so let's
start here: There is no absolute definition about enlightenment. Now,
if you just believed that, you just believed an absolute definition
of enlightenment. See how tricky the whole thing is? However, that
being the case, there still are some things that can be discussed.

"One who says they are enlightened can't be enlightened." Is this
true? Then how come there are so many recognized teachers of
enlightenment who are either directly saying that they are or
speaking from the platform of being enlightened? Why is there so much
literature and scriptures on the nature of enlightenment if nothing
can be said about it. Lao Tzu starts the Tao Te Ching with the words,
"The Tao that can be spoken of is not the Tao" and then proceeds to
speak hundreds of words about that which is evidently NOT the Tao,
since he is speaking of it. Why would he be speaking of it, if not
subtly suggesting that he knows it? Yes, words fall short, are
fingers pointing to the moon, and so forth, but are required for
those who have no understanding. The difficulty here is
distinguishing to what degree the 'individual' is identified with the
body/mind/ego. There are MANY assumptions about an enlightened person
which greatly hinder someone from recognizing it themselves. Dogen
said, "Do not think you will necessarily be aware of your own
enlightenment." So, you may well be enlightened and not have a clue.
Is that likely? Certainly! Most people don't really know what
Enlightenment is. The thing to understanding is the inability to
understand anything. We live in a place of infinite potentiality, and
nearly any explanation you might have for what enlightenment is, is
possible. But in probably the most simplistic terms, Enlightenment is
the recognition that you are not just the body/mind, but that you are
the Consciousness in which the body/mind/world is arising.

There is a story of Ramakrishna walking with a student and explaining
how you can never tell who is awakened to the Absolute (because
people have strong beliefs and assumptions about what an enlightened
individual should look like). Suddenly Ramakrishna points to a
decrepit looking street person who is fighting with a dog for some
scrap of meat and tells his student that the street person is fully
Awake. NO, the students says, but Ramakrishna tells him to go over
and ask. The student approaches the street man and asks, "Are you a
knower of Brahman (the Absolute)?" The street person simply stops
fighting with the dog for a moment, looks at the student, puts his
finger to his mouth and says, "Sshhhhh" and goes back to fighting with the dog.

In traditional literature, there are kings, bums, students,
housewives, butchers, doctors, shoemakers, crazy people and every
other category of person, all of whom are enlightened. Some will say
they are enlightened, others will not. Or perhaps they may not say
it, but they will acknowledge it in one way or another - they will
teach, accept students, perform compassionate acts to instruct. Or
they may simply go about their business as usual with no one
suspecting anything. Enlightenment doesn't necessarily make you look
like anything. An enlightened master is JUST as likely to wear skate
shoes and jeans as flowing robes, a cook's apron as a loincloth. You
are not likely to turn into a Jesus or Buddha or a Mohammed, or a
Ramana, or a Nisargadatta, or ..... Hopefully you will fully
recognize YOU, that which is aware of you, THAT which IS.

So what is Enlightenment really? To most, the answer is to Recognize
Truth, particularly the Truth of Who you Are beyond the senses and
mind - the recognition of Being Awareness, Consciousness, Presence,
the Seer, the Witness, the ALL, the One, etc. etc. etc. Perhaps it is
a glimpse. Perhaps the ego/mind dies entirely. Perhaps you will speak
it, and perhaps you will never speak again. The truth is when you try
to define Enlightenment, you have limited it, and that is one thing
that nearly all will say - Enlightenment is certainly beyond any
limitations. "The Tao that can be limited (by being spoken) is not
the eternal Tao."

How to Make 1,000,000 Dots Very Quickly

We have been moving along at a nice, slow clip, so to speak, up past
40 people who have now signed on as awake or committed to awakening.
Now it occurred to me, that this could move much faster, especially
since, I'll have to live to be over 2,000 years old at the present
rate to reach the designated 1,000,000 awake. It occurred to me also,
that this could move exponentially as well.

On the website, there is a link to 1,000,000 dots. This was
originally conceived of as a kind of joke, but I did it anyway. As a
word doc, it took up 68 pages (so you don't need to open it if you
don't have to...take my word for it). But I didn't sit there and hit
the 'period' key1,000,000 times. I actually made 50 colons (each
being 2 dots). I copied that and pasted it 10 times. That gave me
1,000 dots. I copied and pasted that 10 times, that gave me 10,000
dots. Copy and paste 10 times - 100,000 dots; copy and paste 10 times
to 1,000,000.

So, what if 10 people got 10 people to commit to waking up, and those
100 each got 10 more to commit, and those 1,000 each got 10 more.....
In less than 1 week, you would have 1,000,000 people. Let's call this
Exponential Enlightenment.

Now even if those 10 people you tell don't sign up, they have at
least heard about the principle...they have considered the idea of
what would 1,000,000 enlightened being do for the Awareness. Everyone
recognizes we're in trouble. Most see that there are great changes
happening. Most don't have an answer to the trouble or a way to
explain the changes. Most would rather hide their head in the sand or
worry about their own little troubles. But their own troubles won't
mean anything if we go right over the abyss. "But I'm hungry," he
exclaimed, as the airplane went plummeting toward the mountain. If we
see the absolute necessity of humanity waking up to Reality, we will
have an impetus to tell 10 people, or 100, or 1,000. Each person who
knows about One Million Awake will have to consider, even briefly,
the ramifications of a different perspective, a wakeful perspective.

So for yourself, put the small "I" away for a moment, and consider
the larger picture. What would it look like to have 1,000,000 people
awake, or at least committed to being Awake? What would it look like,
in the process of gathering or recognizing those 1,000,000 awake, if
tens of millions or hundreds of millions, or even a billion people
started thinking about it? What would you do, what would you give to
make that happen? Could you tell one person about it, or five or ten
or 100? We don't have to wait 2,000 years. (Honestly, I'm not sure
I'll make it that long.) If each person will commit to "Being the
change they want to see in the world," by telling others, sharing
with others, teaching what you know to others, helping others,
serving others, in an extremely SMALL period of time, a vast
revolution could be created. Why wait?

Begin today, this moment, to tell others about One Million Awake. Be
the Change!

With Infinite Love & Gratitude,
Aja

Knowing

One of the predicaments which many (probably most) come across in the
process of Awakening, is the difficulty of "who" wants to wake up. The
impetus behind waking up comes directly from the ego wanting to end
suffering. But the ego can't end suffering because it IS suffering. It is
essentially the identification with the ego/thoughts that cause all
suffering and in fact, bondage. The Ashtavakra says "Where there is an I
there is bondage, and where there is no I, there is freedom."

In Sanskrit, there is a grammatical noun called an agential noun. It is the
adding of the suffix 'tr' to a verbal root. Thus, drastr is a seer; kartr
is a doer, and conceivably jnatr is a knower, i.e. one who knows. However,
when speaking of an actual knower of the Truth, they don't use the term
jnatr, knower, but rather jnani, which could conceivably be translated as
one who IS knowledge.

So wisdom or enlightenment is not KNOWING, but rather NOT knowing. It is
freedom from the beliefs or concepts, and BEING knowledge rather than
understanding it.

On another note, we're not even close to 1,000,000 yet (in case you were
wondering); however, we are up past 3 dozen. For only a couple of
weeks.....well, keep putting the word out there. And if anybody wants to
start getting this out in other languages...that would fantastic.

Freedom FROM and Freedom FOR

Awakening is about Freedom. Many of the terms that are synonymous with Awakening mean Freedom:  Liberation, Mukti and Moksha (both of which are Sanskrit terms for freed), Nirvana (literally extinguished or blown out), etc.  And what are you freed from? Everything. It is freedom most of all from the limiting believes and perceptions of limitations that are binding you, most rudimentary of which is the belief that there IS a YOU.  This can be most difficult (obviously) to let go of.

We recently received a wonderful offering from Michael:

---

What Is That I Am?

 
The fact that I can see objects means that I stand apart from them. I am not the objects I see.
 
The fact that I can see my thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and experiences means that I stand apart from them. I am not the thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and experiences I see.
 
The fact that I see the “I” that sees objects, thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and experiences means that I even stand apart from that “I.” I am not the “I” that I see.
 
And yet, I cannot say “I am not.” I cannot deny the sense that I am. The fact that I am is obvious, self-evident, and undeniable.
 
I must, then, be That in which all that happens, including that “I am.”
 
There is no word for That. Words occur in That. That is a sense, and sensation is wordless.
 
I am that wordless sense.
 
I ........................(sigh)

---

When I wrote to Michael how much I enjoyed it, particularly the "..................................(sigh)", which I perceived as a sigh of contentment, beauty and love, he responded:

"Yes, that sigh holds a lot, unfortunately though, nothing of contentment. It reflects more the utter inadequacy of words and linear logic in leading one, or leading oneself to the embodiment of the truth. And, if knowing it doesn't lead to embodiment, then what?  Remember Peggy Lee's song, "Is That All There Is?"

While Michael's 'poem' gives a very succinct description of the process of Self-Inquiry or Neti Neti (not this, not that), like many, he has gotten stuck on the last wrung, so to speak. You let go, let go, let go, but then you want to hang on to a 'Person' that 'gets it.'   In other words, "I" want to be Enlightened, and it doesn't work that way. One must give up everything, including one's self, or idea of self, which is still a 'perceived limitation'.... "I" versus "not I". 

Recently, we came across a beautiful concept in Gerald May's Dark Night of the Soul: "Freedom, however, is not an end in itself. It is not just freedom from something; it must also be freedom for something."  Wakefulness can be defined, in simplest terms, as the recognition that You are Consciousness. However, that consciousness may still be perceived as limited...limited by the body, etc. But this is like the 'zero point'. It is simply the doorway. Imagine that you want to go to India and you travel thousands of miles, land in the Delhi airport terminal and go, "Wow. I made it." But after a few minutes (or hours or days) you go, "Is this it?"  No, of course not. You haven't even begun to see India. You've seen the airport, which, trust me, is pretty uninspiring. The landing is only the beginning. Now you continue to expand out again, but this time, not as a limited "I", but as Infinite Consciousness itself. "You" let go of the ideas of an individualized person, surrendering entirely into the Absolute. Now there is only the Absolute, the Emptiness, the Fullness, that One, yet manifesting as some body/mind that may still happen to also arise in that infinite Consciousness that YOU now are. It is freedom FROM the limited perspective of 'me' and freedom FOR the Infinite Absolute.  So see what limited views may still persist, and allow them to be released.

In a slightly different vein, we recently added to our "Count Me In" webpage, "Let us create $1,000,000 for that One Million Awake."  A friend's response on seeing that was, "You might want to get rid of that ...it doesn't 'play' well."  This, also, is the conception of the "I".  While it's understood that for most people (nearly ALL people) money defines them...how much they have, how much they don't have, how much they want, how much they can spend to fortify, validate, and comfort that separate sense of "I", for those who are Awake, money is just another energy arising in Infinite Consciousness, which is itself Infinite Potentiality! While it's dreadfully obvious that many religious, spiritual, and even ecological and other 'helpful' groups have utilized money for selfish profit motives - the idea of giving is a very powerful one. In our culture, we hide our money, it deeply defines who we are (or rather who we think we are). When we recognize that we are not our body/mind (or at least not limited to that), money is just one more thing (or non-thing) in Consciousness. So many of these methods which have traditionally been utilized to loosen the bonds of "Me-ness" (surrender, prayer, donating, working for others, etc.) are now perceived in this "I" centered narcissistic world as a way to get something FROM Me. Yes, they are.....Your ILLUSIONS!  The whole paradigm needs to shift....from freedom from to freedom for. What would you be willing to give to see One Million Awake?  What would you be willing to give to see an absolutely new humanity? What would you be willing to give to see an Enlightened planet? I would give my life. You could say I HAVE given my life.  Dr. Martin Luther King said, "If a man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." So, be willing to die FROM the individual sense of self FOR Truth. And as many have said before, "What is the cost of Truth???  EVERYTHING!"

With Infinite Love & Gratitude,
Aja