An awakening will happen and it is no longer a secret deserved only for Mystics.

Awakening is necessary if we are to survive and thrive in such a crazy world. Rise above the “me” and the “mine” and above the erroneous identification with the ego. We can recognize the eternal truth of an inner dimension of formlessness is ready to evolve out of ego and  into an enlightened consciousness. 

But if this enlightenment is to be of any use, it needs to come down from the mountaintop and get its hands dirty in the marketplace of human affairs. It’s in the darkest places – where it hurts, where there is fear, where we are uncomfortable (triggered), – that we either choose to succumb to the reactive mechanism of fight or flight of the courage to rest deeply in the unbounded openness that brings an end to the war both within ourselves and within the world.

In the midst of political opinions, religious dogma, social rights and wrongs, and the push and pull of intimate relationships that we are offered the opportunity to awaken out of a dream (more like nightmare) called “separation”. In the midst of the raw tenderness of the heart – those places where old patterns of withdrawal, closure and self-defense may have a grip on us – that the cloud of denial and avoidance can be transformed into into the clarity of unbounded acceptance. It’s right in the midst of revulsion, regret, shame, and horror that we are called to surrender to what is here as the naked truth of our experience. 

If awakening is to be more than just a state that comes and goes, if it is to be an ongoing reality with very real impact on our everyday world, there must be an intimate meeting with the depth and breadth of feeling that arises from our responses misfortune or unwelcomed and unpleasant times of our human experience. In other words, the light of awakened consciousness must filter out from the mind into the heart.

When the surrender happens, over and over again, eventually the heart overflows with the light of awakened consciousness which then pours into the belly and comes to rest in an uncompromising embrace of both the ways of phenomenal stillness and the ocean of inner stillness. It is at this point that enlightenment is embodied.