Resistance to Awakening
I sometimes hear people mention "resistance to awakening".
When I look at it, I see that this resistance also is God expressing, manifesting and exploring itself - perfectly and completely in the present. If it was not for some resistance, we would immediately awaken as God - full blown and with no veils - and God would miss out of the whole process. There would be no exploration, no manifestation, no exploration.
I also see that the resistance some folks describe, is more a resistance to a particular image of awakening - formed by traditions and teachers who, for some reason or anther, chose to use obscure images and terminology, to make it into something "special", to elevate it beyond what seems reasonable for any regular person to attain, etc.
Awakening, at least in my experience, is really very simple, very natural, and in some ways very uneventful and unremarkable (although the implications for this small self can be remarkable indeed).
As Ken Wilber says, it is a case of transcend and include. Nothing is lost, apart from two things:
- The exclusive identification with the small self. I awaken to myself as pure awareness, and find myself as capacity for the world, as space for what arises in the present.
- The sense of separation and a exclusively dualistic view. I see the world of phenomena as a seamless fluid whole (internal and external to the small self), and my view functions in a more transdual way. I also see that in my own immediate experience, there is no separation between awareness and what arises within awareness. The separation between subject and object, experiencer and experienced, falls away - although I can still discern between the two when need be. When I awaken to myself as awareness, there is no exclusive/fixed identity, so I become whatever arises in the present.
Everything else, everything associated with this small self - such as personality, information, knowledge, skills, likes and dislikes, etc. - are all still there. Although now in a quite different context - one that allows me to see this as a vehicle in the world of phenomena. From being exclusively identified with it, it now becomes a very useful tool. It allows me to fully participate, fully engaged, fully experiencing the richness of my holarchy of being - from the absolute through to the relative.
Nothing is lost (apart from that which just caused me suffering anyway) and the whole world is gained.