Deborah Boyar; Senior Waking Down in Mutuality teacher, and Co-founder of the Institute of Awakened Mutuality. www.deborahboyar.com

Ron Ambes; Waking Down in Mutuality Teacher, and Executive Director and  Co-founder of the Institute of Awakened Mutuality.

Date: January 2010 File Size: 53.4MB Audio Duration: 00:55:38 [h:m:s] [Download This File]

Mutuality & Whole Body Listening: Conversation & Practice in Conscious Relating

by Sandra Glickman

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“Why didn’t you just go ahead and bust the guy?” asked my trusted friend Junelle. We were all sitting at a birthday party-ten of us, friends and intimates of many years now. My birthday friend was commenting how both I and a companion had each in turn been candid and respectful with him regarding a sensitive relationship change occurring amongst the three of us. I had wanted to blurt out that the only two people there not being candid were this guy and myself. My being was itching to be honest and set things straight between us. But something held me back!

I bit my tongue, held my breath and the moment passed. Then I began to feel bad about myself, cowardly. Why was I still “protecting” this guy? (Junelle’s question); and after the many ways in which I have felt wounded by his neglect and absence of honesty? The therapist in me continued to label myself “passive” and “co-dependent.” I finally muttered something to Junelle about the uselessness of confronting the guy and how things spoken to him seemed as if to disappear into a black hole.

Though I had justified myself, I still felt uneasy. Why can’t I, supposedly living now as the Embodied Self, just be this One? A few hours later in the middle of the night, my reliable discriminating mind awoke me with the answer: TRUST, the necessary foundation of EMBODIED Consciousness. My body has come to know more keenly than my thinking mind where I can and cannot trust another! On many an occasion I have been perfectly capable of free expression, confrontation, even raw blurting out of unpleasantries. But in that moment, my throat held back, throttled itself against those words flying out, relegated my words to internal echoes and reverberations, and sent them up to the convoluted channels of my ever-so-greedy mind patterns, where they came to be used against my poor dear vulnerable self. My body knew what my mind, habituated to “self-improvement” and striving, hadn’t yet got: the profound need for Trust. My body consciousness wouldn’t allow myself to be wounded again in a perceived hopeless project. Therefore I was required to feel instead the limits in my relationship with this person whom I love and deeply value.

At first I felt the Core Wound of pain and confusion. This then turned into the simple Wound of loving in a limited relationship. I found and find that I have no choice but to grieve and finally accept that here is a person who can only meet me so far. Because of this I can only grow so far with him. He doesn’t trust-at least not me, not now. So I must choke off my free expression, relinquish an opportunity to know myself more honestly, forego whatever I could learn or experience by exposing myself more deeply and vulnerably, and forego a deeper level of love and intimacy which could come out of a more mutually trusting relationship. My heart breaks over and over with similar incidents in many of the relationships in my life. It is excruciating in the ones I have come to love the most.

So do you see the beauty and glory for me of finding a group of Beloveds who are capable of Trust? Who have come to perceive the value of Conscious Embodiment? Who are willing to risk with me whatever it takes to bring forth themselves in Consciousness and honesty? Who have become capable of staying in the room and going through the hard places, hearing hard feedback, giving me themselves in all their freedom, in all their rawness?

Trust is the great gift which makes all this possible, which has made and continues to make possible the finding of all the parts of myself, with which I so long to connect. These parts I now know, can only arise in relationship and can only be fully claimed in mutual trust. This work cannot be done on one’s own. In the relationship I described above, I have had to struggle alone, because my Beloved does not go there with me. I can only bow to the mystery of why this is.

Still, what a gift to find I can no longer give myself out to everyone, even a dearly loved one. Though my mind might, my body will not participate in such a horrible punishment-to speak, shout, even whisper into a black hole where nothing returns to be resolved, or it returns “sideways.” Such a debilitating depletion of self! Yet I confess I had to override myself more than a number of times to get this lesson. My body’s inherent knowledge, as the Consciousness, now ferrets out who is and who is not available for mutual trust.

Trust. How could I have found myself as Consciousness, more and more Embodied, if this sweet nectar was not available here, first with Saniel and then with so many of You? I am profoundly grateful to Saniel for his capacity to trust me and tolerate all the dark and even glorious aspects of me, and for his capacity for first finding trust of himself. His teaching of mutual Love-Trust is truly the foundation of this realization process.

Through trust, we find we can eventually BE ourselves, all of ourselves, from low to high, simple to complex, in every dimension. We find we can survive and even transform into delicious divine food our darkest parts. Through trust we express and celebrate and magnify our Divine and human natures. Trust is big, vast. It is equivalent to Consciousness, to Love, to God. That is what it is. Nothing less. That is what I find.

Sandra Glickman, Senior Teacher of Waking Down in Mutuality
www.wakingdown.org/SandraGlickman

by Saniel Bonder

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The idea of waking up is a part of many spiritual teachings. It is associated with the endeavor to get spiritual, conscious, awake, enlightened, free, or somehow escape the perceived prison of the phenomenal world of body, emotion, and mind as you experience it. There are innumerable methods to achieve such changes. In general, waking down, as we live and offer it, is different in that you “fall” into your fundamental transcendent nature and your bodily, human personhood simultaneously. Instead of trying to get out of life, you realize more and more that you are infinite transcendental Being concretizing, crystallizing, and incarnating as a divinely human person. The phrase waking down signals that this is very different from trying to rise out of this world and all your karmas here into some other state or dimension. In this process, you directly realize and bring the infinite divine reality to life.

And, if you bring that infinite or unconditioned quality of Being to life in real, authentic ways, you wind up becoming deeply receptive to others, and profoundly communicative about this, especially with others who are doing the same themselves. This is what we call mutuality. Because life is not just about the self, or even the great Self. Here’s a huge part of the mystery: many of us are under the impression that upon getting fundamentally enlightened in that non-finite Self or Truth, we will then somehow be free of all the impositions and challenges of relating to others. After all, they would just be part of our real Self, right? But it’s not that way. In the relative plane, otherness leaps forward to claim its dues from anyone who is deeply, authentically bringing the infinite identity to life. And it requires you to relate to others as a relative self who does not know them in any perfect sense, not just as a big infinite Self who is supposedly free of such mundane obligations. Mutuality, especially with people who are living at the same evolutionary depth you are, becomes a huge commitment and undertaking.

Thus, we speak of waking down in mutuality as a singular, multi-faceted process, path, and life-work.

Saniel Bonder, Founding Teacher of Waking Down in Mutuality
www.wakingdown.org/SanielBonder/
www.sanielandlinda.com

by Saniel Bonder & CC Leigh

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Because Waking Down in Mutuality typically appeals to people who have outgrown the usefulness of traditions, teachings, and teachers that prescribe formulaic practices for students to superimpose on themselves, we generally avoid that sort of approach. Instead, our teachers work with students to develop custom-tailored programs that address each student’s needs uniquely.

That said, there nevertheless are some practices we suggest that are designed to ensure your reception of a transmission that does three things: (1) helps you Wake Down as naturally as sunshine opening a flower, (2) reveals Mutuality as your most heart-full, intelligent choice for stimulating the how to live with others, and (3) propels you to dare, grope, stumble, persevere, discern, love, err, triumph, and trust your way into continually finding and speaking your truth and living out your utterly unique, divinely human destiny.

 In contrast to the extensive lists of practices one encounters in much spiritual work, Waking Down in Mutuality presents only two that we ask you to make your foundation. On that basis, often with the helpful recommendations of one or more Waking Down in Mutuality teachers, you will creatively evolve or adapt to all kinds of practices that feel most appropriate for you at any given time. These are the two primary disciplines of our specific work:

 1.      Practice whole-being “listening” inside and out. Listen to your heart deeply. Give yourself time and space as often as you can, hopefully daily, to feel into the impulses and desires that move you, the responses, reactions, and patterns of your heart, mind, and soul, the feelings in your body, the deeper currents of your being. And, in your attention to our Waking Down in Mutuality teachings, take real time to expose yourself to the available books, tapes, and other publications, the many communications on our website, writings by the other teachers, and all personal communications you may have with any of us who are well established in the work. Give yourself the opportunity to use any frustrations that may arise as advantages, allies, and signs that you are making progress in encountering what you will eventually realize is a whole new sensibility and view of reality. When learning something quite new, confusion is the first stage of comprehension.

2.      Tank up on our transmission. Don’t assume you already have it intact in your being. Don’t assume it’s floating around for everyone to breathe at all times. Make it a point, especially at the beginning, of finding every way possible to receive as much of this particular radiant Being-essence as you can. Explore all three of the tracks we describe below. Find out how much spiritual infusion you can receive just through our books and tapes. Attend our sittings, workshops, and seminars whenever you can. Make sure especially to cultivate direct, personal contact, optimally face to face but at least by phone and email, with one or more authorized teachers of Waking Down in Mutuality and with other advanced practitioners as well, particularly authorized mentors.

 Compared to intricate, sophisticated exercises you might have learned in other sciences of transformation, these two disciplines may appear rudimentary. Please don’t be fooled. To make a computer analogy, they provide the essential elements Being requires of us to upgrade to a new kind of “operating system” for living. Then, on the basis of that new whole-being worldview, we can creatively develop or adapt our own “software applications” of many distinctive, ever-changing disciplines personally tailored to our individual situations. That’s what Waking Down in Mutuality involves for serious explorers.

Saniel Bonder, Founding Teacher of Waking Down in Mutuality
www.wakingdown.org/SanielBonder/
www.sanielandlinda.com

CC Leigh, Senior Teacher of Waking Down in Mutuality
www.wakingdown.org/CCLeigh

by CC Leigh

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Introduction
The following is an outline of some of the stages people experience as they are unfolding in their process of spiritual awakening, especially as they show up in people who are moving in the direction of embodiment–the simultaneity of being both the free, unbound dimension of their nature and the very human emotional body/mind. Depending on the current focus of your own personal inquiry, you may or may not find this relevant to you right now. I present this because being aware of the general territory and trajectory of spiritual unfoldment can provide some confirmation and understanding of your personal process wherever you find yourself on this map. Plus, having a realistic framework of the larger process can help you continue to evolve in the most auspicious manner.

There are many different maps of awakening to the infinite, transcendent dimension of our human potential, and they do not all point to the same outcome. What I set forth below reflects my own experience and what I have observed in the students I have had the privilege of working with. My intention here is to put forth a working model of embodied awakening that neither is so esoteric that it is impossible to grasp nor so generalized as to render discrimination pointless. It could be called an expanded Waking Down map.

There is a great deal of confusion in the world of spiritual teachings due to insufficient discrimination of three important aspects of what we might call “Consciousness” (or the Absolute, or I AM). These three aspects are Awareness, Being, and Heart (which will be further described below). It is possible to experience an awakening to the infinite through any of these three aspects. While they are all quite valid and all reflect a significant departure from a narrow identification with self as a separate, discrete autonomous unit, the subjective experience of Awareness, Being, or Heart will differ significantly. There is often a tendency to assume that awakening to one aspect is total-the ultimate condition-thus overlooking further potentials for growth and discovery.

In this investigation I am drawing from a number of spiritual teachers, including Aziz Kristof who has a remarkable ability to discriminate subtle states and phases of awakening, and most significantly upon my own experiences with Waking Down in Mutuality (which was originated by Saniel Bonder). While I wish to give credit where credit is due, I take full responsibility for what I set forth here as this working model.

We do well to keep in mind that every type of awakening normally has three phases: first is the shift to the new state itself, sometimes called a glimpse (Illumination)-an enhanced or exalted condition which reveals something previously unknown to the experiencer and then sooner or later fades. Next is the subsequent stabilization of the new state which might better be called a stage shift-this is when the condition is always effortlessly so (Realization) . Within this stage we might distinguish three possible sub-categories: “transcendent” in which Consciousness is experienced to be witnessing or registering everything without identifying with the body-mind; “embodied feeling” in which Consciousness registers everything while being also fully present in and as the feelings of the body-mind; and “second birth” in which the embodied feeling Consciousness recognizes itself to be inherently seamless with and non-separate from everything else. Waking Down in Mutuality cultivates the embodied experience, while recognizing that a period of transcendent awakening is often a precursor to embodied awakening. Finally, there is further integration which follows upon stabilization as the whole being is reconfigured in light of the new condition (Actualization). The first shift is a sudden occurrence and the others are almost always gradual. There is a common tendency to mistake initial sudden shifts for a stabilized condition. In the Waking Down practice of evaluating awakenings there is often the caveat “let’s see how it shows up over time”-which allows for the possibility that an awakening might not yet be stabilized fully and still needs some further cultivation.

In Waking Down in Mutuality, the term “Consciousness” with a capital “C” is used rather generically to refer to that which is non-finite, unbound, unconditioned, Witness, Source, or Divine, and it may be used at times interchangeably with “Being” (though I’ll be using this term in a more specific way for the purposes of this discussion). It is that which appears to be separate from matter and manifestation but actually is inseparably interwoven, such that neither exists independently. This unity, or “Onlyness,” is described by Saniel as the “sacred marriage” of infinite Consciousness and finite matter. Much of the emphasis of the Waking Down work has been focused on the very human, personal experience of awakenings that are embodied-very much a “both/and” expression of this sacred marriage. This is a rather radical departure from classic or traditional descriptions of enlightenment (which typically focus more on states of consciousness than on the human experience and expression of the awakened condition). The Waking Down community is collectively bringing a strong new voice to a “divinely human” potential that quite possibly has never manifested on earth prior to this time.

(A note on capitalization: many special terms are used herein and the temptation is to capitalize all of them. To keep things somewhat simple, certain names will be capitalized: Waking Down in Mutuality, for instance, and the names of the various stages introduced below. In addition, I have capitalized words referring to the non-finite, unbound, empty, unchanging, unconditioned, free, or divine-essence dimension of what we are, in order to distinguish what’s being referred to from tangible, relative, changing reality. For instance, “Consciousness” with a capital “C” refers to the impersonal and universal dimension, whereas “consciousness” with a small “c” refers to one’s personal awareness. The use of capitals in this regard by no means indicates a preference for, or superiority, of one over the other, since both the essence and the manifestations of that essence, are divine. Ultimately there is no way to determine where one ends and the other begins since both are totally interpenetrating and inseparable.)

 Phases of Embodied Awakening
What follows is a broad, simplified overview of human spiritual development. Much like a fractal, were we to zoom in on any stage described below we would be able to distinguish many more subtleties and aspects than are here described. While there is a rough sort of linearity about the awakening process, the various elements will show up in different ways and timing for each different person-and some elements may not show up at all. Still, it is often useful to have a conceptual framework of what’s happening as a support for your own unique unfoldment into your divinely human potential.

First life.  This is the stage of life that spans our development through infancy and childhood into adulthood. It would include the learning of many skills and also the progression through puberty into sexual maturity. It includes being “socialized” such that one learns patterns of adaptive behavior that further survival and success in the social world. And it may include the development of a spiritual awareness through participation in organized religion or through independent study, inquiry, and practice-possibly carried to high levels of refinement. However, this stage of unfoldment is characterized by ignorance of our full nature and primary identification with the thinking mind and self-concept (ego).

The reason for this ignorance of our true nature is partially a result of a natural and inevitable process that occurs early in childhood called “loss of Being.” It results when some intrinsic, essential, and divine aspect of the child is not seen or reflected back by the parents (usually quite unintentionally and innocently). Because of that lack of mirroring, the quality never comes fully awake and available, and stays hidden in the background. The child subconsciously detects that “something’s missing, or something’s wrong about me” and begins to undertake strategies to try to get or earn what’s perceived to be missing. What drops out of awareness is one’s inherent, true, and perfect divine nature. What forms instead is a strategy of “trying” to be or get what appears to be lacking. This sense (which generally lies below the threshold of awareness) of “something’s wrong or inadequate about me and I need to do something about it” carries into our adult lives and fuels much of our human activities, including strategies to avoid feeling the discomfort or shame of it.

Illuminations. These experiences of heightened perception, illuminating insight, visitations by divine entities or essences, or blazes of consciousness can occur at any time along the way, sometimes as a result of cultivation and sometimes spontaneously without any prior effort, by grace or through the transmission of an awakened person. Illuminations give us the gift of a radical shift of perspective, or a direct experience of that which transcends our ordinary, familiar frameworks of understanding. A “glimpse” of the cosmic perspective will often seem so freeing and uplifting that, after it fades, the experiencer begins seeking ways to regain what was experienced and lost, and attempting to make that into a permanent condition. Illuminations, however, are states of consciousness that are by nature transient and ever changing, as opposed to stages of development, which are permanent, irreversible transformations. Much confusion exists over this distinction. Remember that a variety of states from the mundane to the mystical are available to all people (at least in theory) at any stage of their evolution. Stages, however, unfold in a more-or-less linear fashion, always proceeding toward greater evolutionary complexity and coherence.

Deconstruction. This is a phase, called “the rot” in Waking Down circles, wherein the strategies and systems of value that carried one through the first life to this point begin to prove somehow insufficient or inadequate to address the deeper issues of life that are now presenting themselves. It is as if the hidden, sleeping essence-nature or Being that had lain dormant since childhood begins to stir, causing ripples in one’s outer life. This may show up as an intuition that one is more than just one’s thoughts or personality, coupled with a longing to discover one’s true nature. And it may proceed into frustration or despair when one’s spiritual aspirations are not realized-perhaps after long years of dedicated practice. One begins to get a sense that the will-based techniques and strategies that worked in the past no longer work, or just don’t work for you in particular, or you begin to sense how powerless you are to control outcomes. Not just a time of life challenge, this is a profound spiritual passage where the patterned ways of thinking and acting formed in childhood are being loosened up by the evolutionary action of Being itself-creating the possibility of something new coming to life. Where most spiritual teachings recommend discipline and practice to free up energy and attention for deeper self-investigation, Waking Down has discovered that the natural and organic operation of this phase of deconstruction accomplishes a similar result with little overt effort.

What one rots into at this stage is the “core wound.” Although our sense of our unbounded divine essence may be beneath the threshold of our ordinary awareness, we still carry some intuition of it. As this subtle sense or intuition is juxtaposed against what we usually experience of ourselves as patterned, limited, finite human beings, there is a sort of “rub” or existential tension right at the core of our sense of who we are. A sense of “not okayness” often accompanies this core wound, and there may be feelings of confusion, separateness, and insufficiency as well. The source of these feelings is a complete mystery to most people, and has led to concepts like “original sin.” However, there is nothing sinful about this condition, as it is a natural and inevitable consequence of a unique human attribute: the inherent ability to be, or become, fully conscious of our divine essence as it is expressed in our human forms.

 Before that happens, there is only the subtle sense of distress at the core, and this feeling is instinctively resisted and avoided-that is until we rot out of that avoidance and into a dawning recognition that it cannot be avoided forever. Facing and falling into the core wound opens the door for the quantum shift of embodied awakening.

Realization. This is a transformative passage wherein the individuated person is beginning to demonstrate a greater capacity for experiencing their true nature as simultaneously infinite Consciousness and finite, human body-mind. Depending on their natural proclivities or perhaps because they have been directed in a particular way by a spiritual teacher, the avenue of access to the infinite may be through any of the following aspects of Consciousness:

Awareness or Presence. Awareness is where Consciousness touches the personal through the avenue of the personal mind (small “c” consciousness) and its thoughts. Awareness, which is centered in the head, makes the activity of the mind possible. Sometimes called the Witness, Awareness is without boundary, form, or content, and is continually registering everything which is arising as thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the field of perception, memory, and fantasy. Attention is one of its attributes, as is intelligence, and its primary quality is light-the light of clarity that permits anything to be experienced or known. Normally attention is completely absorbed with the objects it is focused upon, however it is possible for a relaxing of that absorption to occur, allowing Awareness to become self-evident and the sense of Presence to come awake. Awareness is accessed through active noticing and self-inquiry, and is generally the easiest aspect to awaken to.

Being. Being is where Consciousness touches the personal through the avenue of the body and its felt sense of aliveness or existence. Being is naturally more impersonal in nature-as the life-current it is the same for all beings, and is also without boundary, form, or content. It provides our sense of existence in space-time, and its attributes include instinctual knowing, the sense of “now,” stillness and peace, and the recognition of being non-separate from all of life and form which leads to deep trust in Being. Its primary quality is the feeling of life itself. Being is accessed passively, through resting, surrendering, or abiding in the deep Ground of Being.

 At its deepest, through the mechanism of surrender and grace, the experience of Being gives way to dissolving into Source itself (sometimes called the Absolute): our original home of bottomless peace.

Heart. Heart-essence is where Consciousness, as the Divine, the Mother, the Goddess, or the Beloved, touches the personal through the avenue of emotions and subtle feelings. Heart is multi-dimensional and its awakening may involve many steps to help it heal from the wounds it has sustained as a highly sensitive center of feeling. Its attributes include intuition, radiance, warmth, tenderness, gratitude, and compassion, and its primary qualities are unconditional love and grace. Heart can be accessed energetically through giving it attention, and through prayer and invocations which connect the individual with the Divine through the feeling of deep longing.

The Second Birth: Regardless of which aspect of Consciousness is awakened first, embodied realization is said to have occurred when the sense of being an isolated, separate individual identified solely with the thinking mind has been superceded by a sense of being paradoxically both infinite Consciousness and finite, here-now human being, and a recognition that one is non-separate from and of the same essence as all of creation. This is realized both experientially through various possible types of revelatory experience, and also tacitly, as a continual background knowing that co-exists with whatever else is in the foreground of one’s attention. This awareness of both levels simultaneously reflects a new capacity to experience paradox and, when combined with the recognition of the seamlessness of internal and external reality, inaugurates a stage (not a state) of evolution called the “second birth” in Waking Down terminology. Although this shift is permanent and irreversible, it is also just a birth, and requires integration for its full potential to be realized.

Further Evolution
It is only after awakening to our divinely human nature that we have our Self -an established center of feeling-awareness that can now more directly participate in the co-creation of our evolution and our experience in the manifest world of things and relationships. Before that, we are rather unconsciously identified in the more automatic functioning of our thinking and reacting mind, and we’re living more or less exclusively out of acquired, conditioned patterns rather than from our essential nature.

Actualization. For most people, Realization does not provide instant transformation such that one’s life becomes a perfect expression of what was recognized in the Awakening experience itself. The conditioned patterns of behavior are too subconscious and deep rooted for that to be the case for any but the extremely rare few. Instead, Realization is just the beginning of another, even more intensified period of re-configuration of the body-mind to allow greater freedom and range of expression. This has been colorfully labeled by Saniel as the “wakedown shakedown.” This phase continues for years after Realization. The initial years of repeatedly encountering (and being humbled by) the most limited, deeply shadowed areas of the body-mind give way gradually to a natural rhythm of investigating patterns as they surface, knowing that the goal isn’t to be completely rid of them but to live with increasing freedom and possibility in the face of them. Over time, the “human” self becomes more tenderized and permeable to the light or radiance of Consciousness-and more able to be an expression of the qualities of freedom, truth, self-expression, compassion, beauty, aliveness, creativity, etc., according to each individual’s inherent nature.

In addition to gaining an increased freedom in the midst of our basic human tendencies, the period of actualization is a time when the experience of Consciousness becomes more evident in our day-to-day lives as well. A useful analogy is that of a lamp with a dimmer switch: at the time of the second birth it is as if the lamp of Consciousness is switched on, but set on the low setting. While it never goes out, it can be overshadowed at times by strong thoughts or emotions. Over time with further cultivation and as more energy is freed up through the action of the wakedown shakedown, the light gets turned up ever brighter until it shines through all of our experiences and is no longer able to be significantly overshadowed by the ups and downs of our changing moods, thoughts, and emotions.

Most people will initially awaken through one, or sometimes a combination of two, aspects of Consciousness according to what is most natural to their nature. This initial awakening is a great achievement, no question, and may be the fulfillment of their Soul’s purpose for this lifetime. However, a more comprehensive awakening is possible for those who find themselves so moved. It involves exploring the other aspects of Awareness, Being, or Heart that weren’t initially clear in order to awaken those, as well.

Worth specific mention here are three avenues of further development in the second birth that provide opportunities for a more complete awakened experience. Development in any of these areas may be-and ideally is-undertaken prior to the second birth as well as following it, but development in these areas cannot and will not reach full potential until there is awakened Presence with which to engage these elements fully.

1. Awakened Heart. Although there may be an initial “fall” into the Heart as a part of the awakening process, the full awakening of radiant Heart-essence is a complex process that must evolve over time. Awakening cannot be complete without awakening the Heart, because the Heart is the seat of the Soul and also our connection to the Divine and to unconditional love. Some people awaken to the other aspects of Consciousness without awakening Heart-essence, but there is an aloofness or austerity with regard to the personal dimension of life if the Heart is not also included. Heart-awakening requires healing work that includes re-parenting by one’s self and also by others to help sooth and heal the wounds we acquired throughout life, especially in childhood. Only by facing and addressing the places where we closed off our tender hearts (and developed reactive patterns for self-protection) can we allow Heart to reopen to the receiving and giving of love, caring, and deep compassion for ourselves and for one another.

As we evolve and move through different layers and dimensions of our totality, we may find our center of identity shifting through ego, Presence, Ground of Being, or even the Absolute. We are all these. And within all that we are, we find the center of our unique personal identity dwelling in the Heart. It is our Soul, which can only fully recognize itself after the Realization of Presence and Being, and after the Heart center is opened along with its profound sensitivity. The Soul, as the meeting point between infinite Consciousness and finite matter, partakes of both-experiencing the Onlyness and the separation simultaneously in an endless Mystery of dynamic creation.

2. Awakened Mutuality. Once we have learned to gently be in Presence with our personal feelings, thoughts, emotions, impulses, and reactions, the next major phase of our evolution is to bring this self-awareness and compassionate Presence into all our relationships-not just to be nice to one another, but because other people are now seen to be intrinsically non-separate from one’s self. Therefore their pain is our pain, so to speak-and this becomes ever more evident as our hearts open in their capacity to sense and feel others. Mutuality is more than patience and understanding; it is a vivid encounter between Self and other in which there is a commitment to expressing one’s own truth as genuinely as one can, while also making room for the other to do the same. Mutuality is a practice where more and more aspects of ourselves-including our divinity-come alive through our interactions with one another. It involves risk and daring, and it requires courageous willingness to act from integrity, and stay present even in the face of discomfort, without any assurance of outcome. It is not some utopian ideal. It is very challenging, and also very enlivening, and it does create the possibility of a powerful sort of deep intimacy that is still rare on planet earth.

3. Awakened Purpose. After the second birth Realization, our most tender, innocent, genuine self is available to a greater degree than ever before. We may find that we are rather clueless about “who we are” at that point, and discover many new things about what works for us as we take risks and try out new ways of being and communicating that are more authentic. During the Actualization passage, we will inevitably find ourselves alternating between times of authentic self-expression and times of automatic response based upon prior conditioning. Sooner or later, the impulse of Being itself will move us to step up more fully to our Life, and to encounter our destiny. Saniel speaks of this as the “Avataric Ordeal” or the “Force of Destiny’-the manner in which our purpose lands upon us with finality that is inescapable. Our attempts to live small and avoid this encounter ultimately prove futile. And whether the outer appearance of our lives is grand or simple, what’s important at this stage is the fundamental encounter with issues of choice, meaning, and personal power.

Enlightenment? There are many degrees and subtleties of the Mystery that can be discovered by one who seeks to take their awakening as far as humanly possible. This map is not intended to be comprehensive so much as practical. The further we go in our collective love, investigation, and expression of awakened Being, the more we realize that idealized descriptions of “enlightenment” as some sort of a static, utopian state are more fantasy than reality. They represent the ever-receding ideal, and we’ve come to realize that as we are evolving collectively, our descriptions of enlightenment need to evolve with us and reflect what is real, tangible, and possible now without reducing the concept to something meaningless or hollow.

What we’ve been discovering through our collective practice of Waking Down in Mutuality are greater degrees of wholeness, trust, autonomy, and freedom of expression, profound compassion for the difficulties of being here as conscious beings, and relationships that are richer, more authentic, and more fulfilling than anything we had dreamed of. The second birth awakening is the beginning step of a genuine nondual realization that has far-reaching potentials we are just beginning to tap in our mutual explorations. It’s real, it’s compelling, and no one who really engages it seems to be willing to give it up (as if they could). Waking Down in Mutuality is a very practical and accessible path of awakening to our paradoxically divine-and-human nature in a culture of people who are doing the same. It may or may not look like the “enlightenment” you expected, but the more you look, the more beauty you will find. May this map of embodied awakening help guide you in the fulfillment of all that your heart deeply desires.

CC Leigh, Senior Teacher of Waking Down in Mutuality
www.wakingdown.org/CCLeigh