'You must want to know
the truth more than you want to feel secure in order to fully awaken to the
fact that you are nothing but Awakeness itself. '
~ Adyashanti
An Inner Revolution
by Adyashanti
by Adyashanti
The enlightenment I speak of
is not simply a realization, not simply the discovery of one’s true nature.
This discovery is just the beginning—the point of entry into an inner
revolution. Realization does not guarantee this revolution; it simply makes it
possible.
What is this inner revolution?
To begin with, revolution is not static; it is alive, ongoing, and continuous.
It cannot be grasped or made to fit into any conceptual model. Nor is there any
path to this inner revolution, for it is neither predictable nor controllable
and has a life all its own. This revolution is a breaking away from the old,
repetitive, dead structures of thought and perception that humanity finds
itself trapped in.
Realization of the ultimate reality is a direct and sudden
existential awakening to one’s true nature that opens the door to the
possibility of an inner revolution. Such a revolution requires an ongoing
emptying out of the old structures of consciousness and the birth of a living
and fluid intelligence. This intelligence restructures your entire being—body,
mind, and perception. This intelligence cuts the mind free of its old
structures that are rooted within the totality of human consciousness. If one
cannot become free of the old conditioned structures of human consciousness,
then one is still in a prison.
Having an awakening to one’s
true nature does not necessarily mean that there will be an ongoing revolution
in the way one perceives, acts, and responds to life. The moment of awakening
shows us what is ultimately true and real as well as revealing a deeper
possibility in the way that life can be lived from an undivided and
unconditioned state of being. But the moment of awakening does not guarantee
this deeper possibility, as many who have experienced spiritual awakening can
attest to.
Awakening opens a door inside to a deep inner revolution, but in no
way guarantees that it will take place. Whether it takes place or not depends
on many factors, but none more important and vital than an earnest and
unambiguous intention for truth above and beyond all else.
This earnest intention
toward truth is what all spiritual growth ultimately depends upon, especially
when it transcends all personal preferences, agendas, and goals.
This inner revolution is the
awakening of an intelligence not born of the mind but of an inner silence of mind,
which alone has the ability to uproot all of the old structures of one’s
consciousness.
Unless these structures are uprooted, there will be no creative
thought, action, or response. Unless there is an inner revolution, nothing new
and fresh can flower. Only the old, the repetitious, the conditioned will
flower in the absence of this revolution.
But our potential lies beyond the
known, beyond the structures of the past, beyond anything that humanity has
established. Our potential is something that can flower only when we are no
longer caught within the influence and limitations of the known. Beyond the
realm of the mind, beyond the limitations of humanity’s conditioned
consciousness, lies that which can be called the sacred. And it is from the
sacred that a new and fluid consciousness is born that wipes away the old and
brings to life the flowering of a living and undivided expression of being.
Such an expression is neither personal nor impersonal, neither spiritual nor
worldly, but rather the flow and flowering of existence beyond all notions of
self.
Reality is neither Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Advaita
Vedanta, nor Buddhist. It is neither dualistic nor nondualistic, neither
spiritual nor nonspiritual.
So let us understand that
reality transcends all of our notions about reality. Reality is neither
Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Advaita Vedanta, nor Buddhist. It is neither
dualistic nor nondualistic, neither spiritual nor nonspiritual. We should come
to know that there is more reality and sacredness in a blade of grass than in
all of our thoughts and ideas about reality. When we perceive from an undivided
consciousness, we will find the sacred in every expression of life. We will
find it in our teacup, in the fall breeze, in the brushing of our teeth, in
each and every moment of living and dying. Therefore we must leave the entire
collection of conditioned thought behind and let ourselves be led by the inner
thread of silence into the unknown, beyond where all paths end, to that place
where we go innocently or not at all—not once but continually.
One must be willing to stand
alone—in the unknown, with no reference to the known or the past or any of
one’s conditioning. One must stand where no one has stood before in complete
nakedness, innocence, and humility. One must stand in that dark light, in that
groundless embrace, unwavering and true to the reality beyond all self—not just
for a moment, but forever without end. For then that which is sacred,
undivided, and whole is born within consciousness and begins to express
itself.
© Adyashanti 2008
© Adyashanti 2008
Read more Writings of Adyashanti
Source: http://www.adyashanti.org/index.php?file=writings_inner&writingid=41
Source: http://www.adyashanti.org/index.php?file=writings_inner&writingid=41
Peace, love, harmony