Freedom & Direction
Among the many topics that has come up for me over the last days, during our intensive, is that of freedom and direction.
These topics usually come up when the words of the teacher appears less inclusive than my own experience - when they are used to paint very broadly (and there is an impulse for more differentiation coming up here), or when they are used for effect - srtrongly emphasizing one side and leaving out other. So even that is helpful to me, as it encourages me to go to my own experience to see what is alive there.
So one topic then is that of awareness and seeking awareness. This has been a thread throughout the intensive, and what then comes up for me is the other side.
Awareness and sleep, awakening and delusion, are both expressions of life. They are ways God is exploring itself, lila. Both are OK. Both are good. Both are God. This is the absolute take on it, and gives a sense of liberation and freedom. At this level, there is no preference for one over the other. When I find myself as headless, as Big Mind, as Witness, etc. this taste of the completion of the present comes alive.
At the same time, our human self certainly has a preference (at least this one does). Delusion leads to suffering, and awakening to liberation from suffering, so my human self naturally seeks one and not the other.
Together, there is the freedom of the taste of completion of the present, and the movements and directions of the preferences of my human self.