One Million Awake

ATMABLOG

2007-06-02T16:25:00.001-07:00

Rather than posting on two sites, we are primarily using our atmablog site. Please go to

www.atmablog.blogspot.com

for the most recent posts.

Thanks,

Aja

Forget All!

2007-06-02T12:03:00.000-07:00

Often the path must be paradoxical by nature, apparently
contradicting itself in order to point out the truth. The following
is a perfect example of that. It is a quote from the Ashtavakra
Samhita (or Gita)

'My son, you may recite or listen to countless scriptures, but you
will not be established within until you can FORGET EVERYTHING.' 16.1

So, how would you know this unless you read the scripture (Ashtavakra
Samhita) which tells you not to read scripture? Actually, it doesn't
tell you not to read scripture, but rather forget all. Often, reading
scripture (or other spiritually oriented matter) becomes a pastime to
escape the Reality. After all, the scripture is still in the dream
world. Who is reading it? Who is contemplating it? This was Ramana's
constant question. A large percentage of the time when a question
was asked of him, he pointed the questioner back to them-Selves by
posing, "Who is asking the question?" The moment you recognize the I
Am or I-I of the questioner, the question becomes superfluous. The
scripture acts in the same way. In effect, it immediately says, 'Stop
what you are doing and look within, reverse the vector of attention
to that which is Aware, which is Awareness Itself. Forget everything
you think you know and look at the knower.'

A few verses later, the Ashtavakra reiterates in a different way:

'If even Shiva, Vishnu or the lotus-born Brahma were your instructor,
until you have FORGOTTEN EVERYTHING you cannot be established within.' 16.11

It doesn't matter who the teacher is, what the teaching is, where it
comes from, the lineage, or anything else...forget all!

At the end of the most well-known Gita (Bhagavad Gita), Krishna gives
his final instruction: 'Abandon all varieties of dharma and go to the
shelter of Me alone.' 18.66

The word dharma, traditionally thought of as religious truth, comes
from the Sanskrit root 'dhr' to hold or grasp, so in essence Krisna
is saying the same thing - forget everything and simply take refuge
in Me (or the I Am).

How does one do this? By inquiring into the 'I'. Who am I? What am
I? What is this I-ness? Who is Aware? What is Aware? Where is it
located?.....whatever points you to the recognition or REAL-I-zation
of Self as infinite Awareness. Whenever a question or thought comes
up, IMMEDIATELY return back to the 'Who is aware of it?' All else
will pull you off into all variety of spiritual, philosophical,
ontological and hoary questions which ultimately can never be
answered by the mind anyway. And as the Ashtavakra also says:

'What man is there who, having observed the diversity of opinions
among the great seers, saints, and yogis, and becoming completely
indifferent to learning, does not attain quietude?' 9.5

Every teacher, every teaching, has a slightly different 'take' on the
process. Yes, they all point, ultimately, to the same thing, but some
more directly than others; some more clearly than others; and some
may get past your filters better than others. But the moment you
start questioning the whys and wherefors, you're off in the tangle of
mental conceptions and ideas. Who are these arising to? Remember,
Self REAL-I-zation is about nothing other than the recognition of
Self, recognizing What you have eternally been. That requires no
understanding other than the recognition of that and abiding as that
(NOT the intellectual understanding of that).

So, now that you've read this.....FORGET IT! And Abide as the SELF.

Please Go To Atmablog

2007-03-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

Greetings,
If you've been waiting for lots of blogs here, go to the other site....

http://www.atmablog.blogspot.com

This is where the blogs will be....

thanks,
Aja

Who Says So

2007-03-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

Conditioning - subtle and pervasive. We can call it belief or ideas, mental
constructs, habits, it really doesn't matter. The point is that it appears
to be there, points upon which we fixate. We believe we ARE or we are NOT
enlightened. We believe that there can only be one or ten or fifty
enlightened people on the planet at any given time. We believe that
everyone is already enlightened. It doesn't really matter what the
fixation, whether it is a 'good' one or a 'bad' one - in some way it is
still holding us to an angle of vision, a perspective.

The question is, "Who the hell said it had to be this way or that way???"
People are constantly quoting someone or some scripture to me to prove
their point, as if I give a damn! Sure, I love quotes as much or more than
the next person. I collect them like stamps or coins, but I also recognize
that they give a flavor, they point a direction. I never take them as
unalterable Truths. "It takes three million lifetimes to become
enlightened." It's not even about believing you're enlightened right now.
It's about seeing what you are holding onto. That's all. Choose to let it
go or choose to live with it. It doesn't matter. But don't let it define
you, bind you, constrict you.

Now, look and see how you react to what I am saying. Do you agree? Do you
disagree? Doesn't matter one way or the other, does it? You simply hold it
in your own mind as 'true' or not. Yes, it leaves you dangling, without a
particular idea to hold onto, but that's sort of the point now isn't it?

The Way to Total Freedom Takes GUTS

2006-10-06T15:40:00.000-07:00

Ryokan, an 18th century Zen monk wrote:

"Without a bit of ambition left, I let my nature flow where it will. There are ten days of rice in my bag, and by the fireplace a bundle of wood Who prattles of illusion or nirvana? Forgetting the equal dusts of name & fortune, listening to the night rain on the roof of my hut, I sit, at ease, both legs stretched out."

So, the other day I was musing how it might be easier if we just got euthanized at 50 (I'm 52) - you know, something like Soilent Green is People! I mean, a few thousand years ago, (and in some places, much more recently) I would most likely be dead by now anyway. But as humans we have this incredible attachment to living. I'm not sure why, really. We tend to treat death as if it's something to be avoided. You do know it's inevitable don't you. In fact, much of the difficulty is the great struggle to resist death in all its forms. Much of this looks like "There's something wrong!" Our day to day experience is often seeped in "there's something wrong." We can't necessarily get a grasp of what it is, but there's something wrong!

THERE'S NOTHING WRONG!

As I lay there, with nothing particular arising to be done, it ocurred to me that as long as there is a sense of something wrong, there will be an inclination to do something about it. Now, 'WHO' wants to do something about it? To whom is such an idea arising.

There is an old saying, "DIE to LIVE." In order to really experience LIFE, one must Give Up The Struggle - yes, that's right, it takes G.U.T.S. - - - Giving Up The Struggle - The struggle to live, the struggle to know, the struggle to correct what's theoretically wrong, all the struggles. Now, some would call this resignation, but resignation suggests that I want it to be different, but I can't have it different so I give up. This is more akin to surrender, which says, it's perfect as it is. All the struggle is really just resistance to what is, and the resistance comes from the sense of a localized individual that is somehow separate from the whole. Often this individual considers themselves as searching. So guess what? G.U.T.S. can also mean Give Up The Search. And who is making this search? Why the Seeker. So, once more, the answer is G.U.T.S. - Give up the Seeker.

As long as one is seeking, one can not find. The cost of freedom is EVERYTHING. You must give up all beliefs and concepts and BE the Absolute free from limitations. How do you do this. Well, it takes GUTS!!

With Infinite love & gratitude,

and Without a bit of ambition left

Aja

Triggering the Enlightenment Virus

2006-09-23T18:58:00.000-07:00

For some years now, I have had this thought that re-emerges in my head from time to time - "Trigger the 60's virus". Now, to be honest, I'm not sure if this is something that came through me, or if I picked it up somewhere else. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter. In fact, if it came from somewhere else, perhaps it's symbolic that the idea is working...I now have the virus. For those of you who might be old enough to have lived through the 1960's, the summer of love, and all that, there is a recognition, that it was an unprecedented period in history. Although very embryonic at that time, still, there was a sense or foreshadowing of what was to come, and seems to be happening now. The 60's represented a period in history where the existing memes were being deeply questioned. At that time, the principle one was, of course, Viet Nam, however, there were other ideals arising of love versus hate, collectivism versus extreme individuality and independence, return to rural and agrarian versus metropolitan life, etc. Even the idea of Enlightenment was first to really emerge here, with the Beatles going to the Maharishi and the budding of the TM movement, George and his sitar studying with Ravi Shankar, the Hare Krishna devotees chanting on street corners. But in many ways, like pre-pubescence, it was short lived, and we entered into the late 70's and 80's and onward into even more massive materialism, and domination by the media, government, and the various ills that weigh upon society on a much grander scale today.

Now, we are at a new point. I am totally convinced of it. I feel it to the core of my Being (or perhaps better from the core of Being). I see it echoed by spiritual teachers in all traditions. Suddenly, it was as if we turned around, and it was happening. In Joseph Chilton Pearce's recent book, Biology of Transcendence, he speaks of research which points out that the brain goes through very specific changes at certain ages in early life - around 3 or 4, again around 12 to 15, and once more at around 18 to 22 (I may have these ages wrong by a few years), where the whole chemistry changes; certain synapses are created, others destroyed, specific things are sought (primarily meaning in life), and so forth. It takes a certain maturity for these things to happen. Similarly, globally, as a species, we seemed to have reached one of these points. We are evolving to the next stage, potentially a stage that may be occurring for the first time in human history. It is an age of Global Awakening, an Age of Enlightenment.

As someone who has been teaching about Enlightenment and Consciousness for nearly 20 years, for most of it, there wasn't a whole lot of interest. Suddenly, you see people talking about it on talk shows, on the street, on buses. Perhaps not in a deeply serious way, but still, it's in the air. But it's a little like talk about a cure for many diseases - something of a remote possibility, but not taken too seriously. It's time to change that!

Trigger the Enlightenment Virus!!!
Our culture, our world, has been deeply infected with a virus. This virus has been going on for quite some time, and its hold is insidious and pervasive. It is the virus (or viruses) of egoism, narcissism, materialism, fragmentation and divisiveness. Whereas we used to have tribes and families, we now have billions of independent entities, each vying for personal fulfillment and even supremacy. Even the so-called nuclear families of the 50's and 60's have passed on, and a huge percentage of children grow up in single parent households. Our culture has become terminally ill. If you watch TV, you see that half the advertisements are for things that no one needs, while the other half are for medications to cure them from the diseases they have acquired from those very things - many of them for obesity, depression, and anxiety. What we essentially have is a virus of anti-Enlightenment, in all its various forms. We need to trigger the Enlightenment Virus!

What does the Enlightenment Virus look like?
First, it is an understanding of what Enlightenment or Awakening is. It is the recognition that we are not the ego-based individuals we think we are. The spiritual teachings of a wide variety of traditions essentially tell us the same thing - You are Absolute Consciousness - the sense of an individualized and localized self is part of this Infinite and Absolute Consciousness. When you inquire into the thing you call "I", it is not the body or the mind or the emotions, although all of those things are occurring IN Awareness, you are in fact that Awareness within which the personality 'you' is arising.

Secondly, it is the recognition that this is not something for some 'Special' people only - the Jesuses, the Buddhas, the Mohammeds (or any other well known, living or dead, spiritual teachers) - but is in fact the normal reality, which we have simply missed because of our infatuation with the phenomenal reality. It's like looking in the mirror and completely identifying with the person IN the mirror, rather than recognizing you are the person that is gazing AT the mirror. It only requires spending some time to look at the 'looker' and realizing that behind it all, the 'BIG' looker is the real, impersonal, and ever-present YOU.
Thirdly, it is spreading this virus. This is the most important part, and, for now, perhaps the most difficult. The Anti-Enlightenment Virus is SO pervasive, that it literally drowns out all other ideas. It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack. And to make matters worse, for many, they don't even know there is a needle. But Enlightenment is a reality, and it is possible to spread it. That's what teachers have been doing for centuries. But commonly, the virus has been mutated to a belief system, which is another type of Anti-Enlightenment virus. Real Enlightenment has nothing whatsoever to do with belief systems. It is an actual and concrete recognition of Who One Is. What's more, this virus has a tangible effect on deeper layers. It has an advantage. Unlike traditional memetic viruses, which need to be spread AS a belief system, the Enlightenment Virus is spread not only through mental and intellectual understanding, but also by 'resonance'. Most people who have spent time with a deeply Enlightened being recognize that there is more going on than simply seeing and hearing; there is an energetic influence taking place. This is what Alan Lithman in his ground-breaking book, An Evolutionary Agenda for the Third Millennium calls Evolutionary or Integral Activism:

"Motivated by an evolutionary Force... this integral activism (i.e. Enlightenment Virus - ed.) effectively reunites the once-polarized paths of peace and power;invoking an invincible evolutionary dynamic that acts directly, vibrationally upon the body, cellular and terrestrial; not simply overpowering from without but setting up a resonance that "agitates" the "particles" of consciousness in the surrounding material field. In effect, this "agitation" awakens and quickens that same power locked within each crystallized form; setting in motion the consciousness equivalent of a nuclear chain reaction; catalyzing and releasing this truer power and potential lying dormant (i.e., unconscious or half-conscious) within each being and form; freeing that power to consciously transform the instrumental vessels it inhabits; out-sustaining the counter-reactive resistances through an inexorable takeover from within...in effect, "radioactivating" the particular field through which one acts; shaking it (i.e., vibrating it at an accelerated rate) from its present status quo trance; provoking in the most positive and profound sense a mutation of consciousness."
This is the mission of www.OneMillionAwake.com - To spread this enlightenment virus around the globe; to document and assist 1,000,000 people in their Enlightenment, so that this all-important Enlightenment Virus can infect the world, eventually overcoming and wiping out the Anti-Enlightenment Virus. Remember, at first it is a joke, then it is possible, than plausible, then inevitable. Be a part of this Virus!

Pretend I'm Dying

2006-09-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

When I look around and see the situation in the
world, like many people, my reaction is, "Whoo
boy! What a mess!!" Next is the thought of what
can possibly be done to improve the situation.
But, there is a problem in order to solve the
various crises of the world, it's going to
require a significant change in the way people
view and act in the world. However, very few are
willing to do anything that will significantly
impact their own lives. Global warming? "Oh,
well, my one little SUV won't make much
difference, and I sure love the roominess. I
mean, come on, I still need to look good, right?"

So, how does one get anything done? How does one
make an impact on the world? What would actually
cause people to initiate action? And then I came
up with it: Pretend that I'm dying. Better yet,
pretend that I am a young child and I am dying.
Works every time. For instance, a young boy could
come up to you in the street, not well dressed,
pretty pathetic looking and say he'd really like
a bicycle. Our reaction, "Swell kid. Get a job,
and you'll be able to buy one." However, if we
saw on the news that a particular child (he might
even be fairly well off) was dying, and his one
wish was to have a new bicycle, within a week,
that kid would have enough bicycles to reach from
here to the moon and back, as well as several
motorscooters, dune buggies, a trainset, a rolls royce, and an elephant.

So here's the deal - I'm dying. I've been
diagnosed with terminal temporary-life-ism, and
can't tell you how much time I have left. It
could be any day now. (Well, it could, you know.)
And I have only one dying wish - which I beg you
to fulfill: I want to see an Enlightened world! I
want to see 1,000,000 enlightened beings
inhabiting the planet and tipping the scales of
evolution to a more evolved Awakened humanity.
Come on, how hard can that be? It won't cost you
a thing, and we've already set up the foundation
for it (you know, like make-a-wish). It's
www.OneMillionAwake.com. The whole purpose of it
is to foster the awakening of 1,000,000 beings,
to document their enlightenment (via email), and
to give permission to everyone in the world to
Wake up! So, the only thing you have to do is go
to the site and declare that you are Awake or
that you are committed to your own and humanity's
awakening. And then do what everyone else does,
send this as an email to everyone you know,
because for a change, this one is actually
important. This one could actually make an
unprecedented difference on a global scale. This
could change humanity forever, in the way people
have been seeking forever. So please, do this for
me; I'm dying. In fact, if my dying will make
this happen, I'm more than willing to give my
life, again and again. There could be no better
reason to give up this existence. In fact, there
could be no better purpose for this existence.

So, how about it? Take a few minutes for a young
dying boy's wish of Global Enlightenment?

Never More Enlightened

2006-09-01T08:22:00.000-07:00

The reality is, you will never be more enlightened than you are right now!

It's like happiness. If you're not happy now, nothing, NOTHING will
make you any more happy in the future. Nothing will change that -
nothing will change who or what you are. Certainly circumstances will change. Circumstances always change. That is the nature of the flow
of life. But the moment you depend on some circumstance to make you
happy, you're sunk. As Socrates said, "He who is not contented with
what he has, will not be contented with what he doesn't have."

Enlightenment is the same. Enlightenment is not something to be
achieved. It is like happiness - it is what is already present when
you let go of their being something wrong, like the idea of NOT being
enlightened. When you recognize that the "I" that is seeking, is
itself nothing of real substance other than an idea of seeking, and
that the sense of Presence, of 'I AM'-ness has always and already
been present, then you can be happy, peaceful, and FREE of bondage,
free of suffering, free of illusions of some future enlightenment and
happiness. The Reality is NOW...deeply rooted in the beauty of this
mystery called Here and Now. It is not in a past 'experience' nor in
the future when 'such and such' happens. It is always right
NOW! Stop and be the Presence that IS. Spread that wondrous
Recognition. Be the Enlightenment that is What You Are. Now DANCE!

With Infinite Love & Gratitude,
Aja

One Million Awake as a MEME

2006-08-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

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

The TRUTH about Enlightenment

2006-08-16T07:56:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-08T17:13:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

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

I Can't Be Awake

2006-07-30T16:53:00.000-07:00

For many people, the idea of Enlightement is like, "I can't possibly
enlightened. Enlightenment takes millions of lifetimes."

To which, I can only respond, "Starting when???"

First of all, how do you know you are not at the END of those
millions of lifetimes, eh??? Perhaps this is the one you've been
waiting for. Look at all the people waking up. Certainly you've been
around as long as them.

But looking at it from some different viewpoints: How do you know it
takes millions of lifetimes? How do you know there even is more than
one lifetime? How many lifetimes have you had within THIS lifetime?
Within this Moment?

The point is that NOW is the only time to wake up...not in some
anticipated future, which is contemplated in the NOW. There is only
this moment. This moment IS the now, and it is the time to Wake Up!

Get This Smiley World Out There!

2006-07-28T23:22:00.000-07:00

This is the official logo for One Million Awake. There is nothing spectacularly involved in it. It's a happy world with the words One Million Awake.com. But like Awareness, it is simplicity itself. When you simply are Present in the Moment, in the Here and Now, there is no "I" or other, simply that Presence. Let this little smiley world represent our service to Awakening Humanity.

IT'S BEGUN

2006-07-28T17:11:00.000-07:00

It's only just begun, a bare smattering in relation to the whole, yet I am already overwhelmed by the enthusiasm people are responding with. I'm going to try and make a conscious effort (so to speak) to make sure I keep blogging as so many ideas are coming through (both myself and others) and for each idea that is implemented, 10 more come pouring through: emails to send, bumper stickers to make, people to contact, and on and on. As almost overwhelming as it feels, it's amazing!

We want to see this as a world wide meme. If you don't know about memes, they are sort of the mental equivalent of genes - self replicating ideas based on a human host. If you consider the power and ramifications of actually having at least 1,000,000 Awakened people in the world, it's quite beautiful. So if you have ideas, please feel free to send them to us, OR implement them yourselves. Everyone should be involved in this. Download our smiley earth logo from the website and start sending it places. We'll make it like an "Andre the Giant" phenomena (where stencils of Andre started appearing all over the world). Email friends and colleagues with the One Million Awake idea and or weblink. This is not a time about arguing what does or does not constitute Awakening, or if this can work or not, but actually affecting the collective consciousness.

with deep gratitude and love,
Aja

Welcome to the "One Million Awake" Weblog

2006-07-18T18:15:00.000-07:00

As it is stated above, the purpose of this blog is about Awakening.
It all started, in a way with Kyle MacDonald. If you don't know
about him, I suggest you check out his website at
http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

Kyle decided he wanted a house and wondered what how he could get it.
He decided he would utilize the idea of the game "Bigger and Better"
to trade one red paper clip up until he got a house, and he did it.

This caused me to think. My teacher used to say, "Be Bold. If you
want to hunt, try for rhinoceros. If you want to steal, go for the
government reserve. If you fail, everyone will say, 'It couldn't be
done,' and if you succeed, everyone will say, 'How Great!"

Into my mind came the words, "One Million Awake" and I decided to
start this website and blog. Please feel free to subscribe, etc. and
to visit the website itself (if you didn't come from there) at
www.onemillionawake.com.

I have chosen this space to blog as it will allow me to blog from my
mobile phone wherever and whenever I want, which will perhaps cause
me to blog more.

Hoping this finds you well.

Love & Shanti (Peace),

Aja