~ ღ ~ Awakening From the Dream of Life 2/2 ~ ღ ~

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During several subsequent years, I began to observe my surroundings even closer than before, and what I found was shocking to say the least. Whenever I looked around, no matter where I looked, I saw people sleepwalking through their lives, with each passing day, fervently and relentlessly running in the “rat race,” denying themselves of what they really wanted on the inside. What I mean by the idiom “rat race,” is that most people seem to be so deeply immersed in their busy daily lives, running against time and keeping pace with time and deadlines, tough competition, latest trends and what is popular that they have very little, if any, thought of the deeper aspects of life — or time and interest for that matter, you see?

As years went by, it became ever so clear to me that most people live through their lives in an unconscious state, which means that such people aren’t aware of their life as part of a bigger context within a larger whole; they repeat the same activities daily with little or no conscious control over them. Now, having said that, it is paramount to emphasize that being conscious is not about being physically awake — many people are physically awake, yet living unconsciously; to live consciously means being aware of everything that may have an influence on one’s life. And, yes, whilst living unconsciously, these people are part and parcel of society, and they fulfill that purpose and function exceedingly well, if not too well — being part of a machine that grinds mercilessly day after day, week after week. This, in turn, helps keeping people’s focus on the endless and pointless pursuit of material satisfactions, which inevitably always, ultimately, without fail, ends up with disappointment, thereby strengthening and deepening the vicious cycle.

The conclusion being: one doesn’t need to have a keen eye for detail to see that most people seem to live their daily lives with little thought of who they are, why they are here, or where they are going. One can easily get the impression that most people are, indeed, moving through their lives completely unconscious, without present moment awareness. Isn’t it fascinating that all too many accept the work-eat-entertainment-sleep-and-repeat-cycle as life and have no desire for a deeper understanding of it? Isn’t it intriguing that hardly anyone is wondering what we are actually doing in this world? Isn’t it interesting that all too many have no desire for a deeper understanding of our purpose in this universe? Isn’t it intriguing that all too many accept the status-quo and settle for less?

Indeed, from cradle to grave, people are sleepwalking through their lives — as though this would be the default setting, as it were. Whether unable or unwilling to wake up, people are slumbering in an illusory dream, day after day, week after week. It’s like people in droves would go about their day in ‘autopilot’ mode, as though people would voluntarily prefer to live their lives in an unconscious state. It is no wonder, then, that the cycle of repeated birth into mundane existence prevails. As we have learned earlier in the book, this chain of lives or “samsara” as it is called in Sanskrit, refers to the idea that human life is a repeated story, or a series of stories that are more or less related, intertwined and interconnected; the one we all have been caught up — a dream from which we are unable or unwilling to wake up.

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This perpetual cycle of interconnected and interrelated chain of lives is caused by a lack of knowledge, lack of awareness, and most of all, ignorance that is caused by our desire for fulfillment outside of ourselves, grasping at fleeting experiences. Now, let me ask you this: Is it not true that we all want the same things in life: health, happiness, and love — very much in that order, and most of all, contentment and fulfillment? Is it not also true that none of them are dependent upon external factors such as money or belongings? Yet, the peculiar thing is that most people seek these things from the world outside themselves through various means, methods, and activities. And so you see, when people are looking outside, they never have to look inside.

And so it goes that yearning for fulfillment outside of ourselves only generates more desire, making the cycle of desire a continuous, perpetual self-sustaining loop. As such, we continue to embody ourselves, or be reborn in this infinite and eternal universe as a result of these unfulfilled desires — the chain of births lets us resume the pursuit, until such time when we can become aware enough to awaken from this never-ending dream, and realize that we ourselves hold the key that can end this perpetual cycle, resulting in the cessation of suffering that arises from our ignorance of the true nature of reality, and which is caused by our desire and attachments — see?

Influenced by external stimuli, external circumstances, primal drives and desires, people don’t really understand how precious human life really is — far too many take it for granted — failing to see, recognize, and acknowledge the immeasurable value of human life. Whether people don’t have the time or interest, or they are just simply ignorant. Either way, their attitude and actions are keeping the vicious cycle alive — keeping them distracted, keeping their minds focused on anything but the true nature of their existence — preventing them from seeing the true value of their lives. As a result, most people have never realized the True Self — our innate Spiritual Nature, the Living Essence beyond name and form, words, ideas and thinking.

All this leads us to conclude that, it is, indeed, possible to Awaken From the Dream of Life; it is, indeed, possible to realize our True Self, and it is, indeed, possible to become free of suffering. Awakening from the dream of life is simply becoming aware; and being aware, each moment, of what we are doing as we are doing it, of what we are thinking as we are thinking it, and how we are feeling as we are feeling it, you see? Remaining aware each moment is Self-Mastery, which can eventually lead to Self-Realization and Self-Actualization. Thus, if we awake from the illusory aspect of life (dream — unconscious, unaware state), the quality of our consciousness is elevated; likewise, the quality of our mind is elevated, and in turn, the quality of our thoughts, words, and actions is elevated.

It is only by becoming more aware, more conscious, of ourselves and our surroundings, which will lead us to grow and evolve, realize our true potential, and fulfill the telos of human existence. This is something that can only be achieved through awareness, and hence it is important to highlight the following truth: all development and progress, growth and maturation — whether spiritual, mental, or physical, comes from within the individual. This goes on to say that spiritual development is a process like any other — it arises from discipline and continuous self-improvement. Mindfulness, meditation, concentration, and contemplation are the keys through which, and by which, one can make real progress — see?

It is through these methods that one is able to discover their true essence, which is just pure beingness, pure awareness — unchanging state free from all ideas, concepts, and definitions. And so it goes that of all the words we have in our vocabulary, awareness is best suited to describe our core essence, for you see, whatsoever you can see, whatsoever you can understand, and whatsoever you can interpret — will not be of much use. This is because the seer is not the seen, which goes on to say that whatsoever you can see — you are not that. This includes thoughts, feelings, dreams, desires, memories, imaginations, projections, and so on and so forth. What you are, though, is awareness; and awareness is transcendental to all that it can see — the observer is beyond the observed.

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~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~

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~ ღ ~ Awakening From the Dream fo Life 1/2 ~ ღ ~

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Perhaps it is best to start this chapter with the following thought: so far in our journey through this book, we have encountered many different aspects of life in several of its sections, each exploring different facets of the same, with a variety of topics, ideas, concepts, perspectives and approaches. In so doing, we have learned something new from each section and chapter — the core of our focus remaining much the same: Awakening From the Dream of Life. This chapter serves as a perfect bridge between everything discussed thus far, and everything awareness related, such as presence, self-awareness, and mindfulness, which are all essential for awakening, and are explored in more detail in the following few chapters. Awakening itself is something that takes place within each of us whenever we are ready to remember our eternal nature, whenever we are ready to take that first step in remembering who we are at the deepest level of our being, whenever we are ready to know our core essence as Spirit.

Now, let me ask you this: What if life is a dream, and when we die — we wake up? To stretch this even further, let us consider for a moment, that the individuated experience of life can be seen as a form of simulacra, in which the existence simulates the possibility of limitation, separation, and ultimately, its crescendo — that of death, where the individuated, finite expression of life is revealed to be part of a larger whole, to be part of the continuity that transcends all concepts and definitions. And now, let me ask you this: What if, it is, indeed, possible to awaken from the dream of life, whilst being alive in material reality inhabiting physical body?

When we investigate this idea, we find that on a deeper level, our shared “reality” seems to resemble, quite indeed, more of a collective dream than anything else. In this bigger dream, what we often call “life,” we ourselves are both the dreamer and the dream at the same time. This goes on to say that there is nothing outside of ourselves, even though it may appear to be so. This is because everything within the dream comes from the dreamer’s mind, from the dreamer’s consciousness, and therefore the whole dream can be seen as a projection from our unconscious mind. In this respect, the whole dream world is simulated from the contents of the mind — originating from deeper levels of consciousness.

Now, if we are to suppose for a moment that life is, indeed — a dream, wouldn’t that mean, then, that eventually, the dream itself is dreaming the dream and creating reality? And if so, wouldn’t that mean, then, that reality is creating you as you dream? Now, if that is indeed the case, wouldn’t that mean, then, that essentially, we are dream characters in each other’s dreams? In that respect, this is my dream from my perspective, that is your dream from your perspective, and our dreams are entangled — isn’t that fascinating? This brings us to conclude that life is a dream, and the dream is very much real and tangible. Every once in a while, it happens that we wake up to know that we are dreaming; every once in a while, it happens that we wake up to a higher spectrum of awareness where the dream is happening. In this higher spectrum of awareness, it is possible to know how truly mysterious life really is. And so you see, while we are at it — we may as well dream lucidly, become awake and aware in a dream, and make the most out of it. But alas, unfortunately, most humans are dreamers who are not aware of the dream they are dreaming.

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Naturally, taking all the aforementioned into consideration, it brings about the question: How is it possible to awaken from the dream of life? How is it possible to become more aware? Well, you see, there are three classical paths that lead towards being more aware, towards higher consciousness: meditation, concentration, and contemplation. Even though each path is different, they all lead to the same final goal or destination — absorption of Self into the Ultimate Reality; like a river flowing into the sea, the Soul returns to its Source, becoming one with the Ultimate Truth, you see? There is another side of the coin, though: just like the water from the river flows to the ocean, evaporates from it, and falls as a rain to gather to streams and rivers again, likewise is the nature of human existence — cyclic, you see? Without being present, without awareness, without higher consciousness, one is destined to repeat the patterns again and again, unless, of course, one is able to break the cycle and Awaken from the Dream of Life.

By virtue of the aforementioned, with regard to the dream of life, it is worth highlighting the following: this dream is so deep, so strong, and so captivating in its essence that it makes us continue to sleep. As majority of the people are sleepwalking through their lives, slumbering in an illusory dream, it goes without saying that it is a challenging process to awaken from this dream; it is difficult to go against the stream, if you will. In this context, the collective humanity represents that stream — most humans are not ready to awaken or to be awakened. Blinded by groupthink, people function like a flock of birds or herd of sheep, nearly all of them running at a given time in the same direction — this is that stream, you see? It is for this reason why the spiritual path is often a lonesome one — only a few are able to awaken, and even fewer can become aware that such path even exists; of those who do, only very few recognize, acknowledge and appreciate the possibility it represents, even fewer contemplate and reflect upon it, and finally, a rare few have the capacity, tenacity and resilience, perseverance and will to embark on a spiritual path.

In other words, as we have learned throughout this book, the whole of humanity is a single being, having a collective consciousness — the sum total of all human life, having a collective direction and destiny; each life is a link in a chain of lives, bound together by cause and effect, different, yet the same. All things — both seen and unseen, are intertwined and bound together in ways incomprehensible to most, which poses a huge challenge when it comes to awakening — one must go against the stream, if you will — to awaken, you see? It is a wide-ranging process that each individual must go through by themselves; no one else can do it for us — we ourselves are responsible for our own awakening, our processes of unlearning and unbecoming everything we are not, our processes of relearning, growth, development, and maturation. When we are talking about the spiritual awakening, it is worth pointing out that it is a complete surrender — a process of harsh self-honesty. It’s a path of complete acceptance of the truth — no matter how difficult it is to bear; this is also the main reason why only so few individuals embark on a spiritual journey — it is challenging, demanding, and time-consuming — yes, but it is also exhilarating and rewarding, you see?

That said, a brief insight from personal experience might shed some light on this, after which we will circle back to the topic at hand with a wider perspective. So, here we go. When I reflect back several years, I can see in hindsight that the awakening happened in stages. It began with a deep inner feeling that there is something wrong with the world, or more precisely, the way in which people interact with the world and with each other. As I spent time observing the world and people around me, an overwhelming sense of emptiness or soullessness washed over me, sending shivers down my spine — it was almost eerie-like feeling, if you catch my drift? Something essential and fundamental was missing. It was like people were hollow empty shells — like there was no one home, you see? Although you could see an occasional smile in people’s faces, there was a certain something that was missing — you could see it in their eyes: people were lost, wandering through life like a ship lost at sea, drifting in search for hope and meaning.

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~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~

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~ ∞ ~ Awaken the Living Awareness Within: Overstanding ~ ∞ ~

Awaken the Living Awareness Within Glossary

Overstanding is when you can explain something so someone else; to completely “know”; to be able to explain a subject just like the person who explained it to you; having complete clarity on a particular subject or discussion; no gaps in the comprehension of a subject; the flip side of 'understand,' for example, “When I was a student, I understood Tai chi. Now that I am a teacher, I really have a better overstanding.” See also closely related term Innerstanding.

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~ ∞ ~ Awaken the Living Awareness Within: Spirit ~ ∞ ~

Awaken the Living Awareness Within Glossary

The terms ‘Soul’ and ‘Spirit’ are often used interchangeably, although there is a profound difference between the two. Soul is the unique expression of the Spark of God, which is sometimes referred to as the “Breath of Life,” whereas the Spirit is that Spark of God itself. Soul is the essence of all that makes us human and unique – our emotions, experiences, thoughts, will; Spirit is the essence of our Divine nature – it is same in every being (human, animal, or other).

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~ ∞ ~ What Is Life? 3/3 – Awaken the Living Awareness Within ~ ∞ ~

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Before we move on to the next chapter, we would do well to summarize what this chapter has taught us about life. In this chapter, we have seen how we as human beings are always eager to pin everything down, categorize, label, define, explain, classify, and prescribe that which we don’t understand; and that, of course, we do in the hopes that someday we may understand what we don’t yet understand. As such, we have traditionally defined life to be just some “physically” organized structures that are able to grow, develop and reproduce – “living” organisms aiming towards evolution. Thus, most scientists seem to agree that all living things share certain basic characteristics like organization, reproduction, growth and development, homeostasis and evolution. However, we should keep in mind that these, too, are but mental abstractions and approximations – not actuality; which brings us to our first conclusion: in spite of all our efforts and extremely detailed and fine-tuned descriptions – we have failed to define life. This brings about the question: Could the reason be that there was never anything to define in the first place?

Here we should challenge ourselves by asking the question: Does life really exist at all? Is there any such thing as life, or have we just invented it as an abstraction to represent something we don’t quite yet understand? Well, the honest truth is that the mission to define life is in many ways – futile, for the simple reason that the materialistic view is incomplete. Having said that, it is important to emphasize the following: the scientific definition of life is valid only in its context, which leads us to realize that life is indeed a concept that we invented, and hence it doesn’t reflect the actuality of existence. In other words, what we call “life” is merely our failed attempt to capture the essence of our being, which in its deepest core – is pure awareness. And so you see, one should not make the mistake of confusing the idea of a thing with the thing itself; or in this case, the appearance with the essence. You see, the Essence of Life is not the same as the description or explanation of it. So, can we therefore conclude that what we call “life” is but a facade?

Against this backdrop, we can see that what constitutes our existence is something beyond words, symbols, numbers, formulas, definitions, descriptions and explanations. The aforementioned methods are essentially tools by which humans convey information to one another, which is another way of saying that all of these methods are extensions of language; and language, in and of itself, always, ultimately, fails to describe the actuality of existence. So in this sense, there’s a certain irony in that we have to use words to explain why words are so limited; the problem arises when we start to confuse descriptions and explanations with the actuality. And with this, we arrive at an astonishing conclusion: recognizing life as a concept would free us from the old way of seeing and lead us in a direction to discover a completely new way of approaching our existence.

Therefore, when we ask the question, “What Is Life?” we should want to know what Life is at its highest form beyond mere chemistry, DNA, RNA, proteins, enzymes, and heredity. It is well known throughout the world that Life in its deepest core is Spirit, or just simply pure Awareness; it is active, sentient, feeling, thinking, purposive, valuing, social, other-respecting, relating and caring. Hence, it goes without saying that if we really want to know what Life is, we should start our search within ourselves. It is clear that if we pay close attention, we find that deep within each and every one of us, there is, indeed – a Life Force that permeates everything in the universe. However, this Vital Spark of Life becomes obvious to us only when the organism is imbued with purpose and self-regulation, as is a living plant or a human being.

In this chapter, we have talked about life and concluded that what we call “life” is but a vague definition of a finite. Life – emphasis on the capital letter, on the other hand, is something completely different – it is more like a living Spiritual Organism than anything else: it learns and gains experience by expressing itself through its many emanations – including us human beings. From this perspective, all of life is essentially one gigantic ocean of life; one gigantic being of all beings; one gigantic Life of all lives. It is only our self-grasping ignorance which cuts up the ocean of life into discrete, independent beings that are somehow separate from one another. In other words, we grasp at self and other as being distinct and separate beings – but in actuality, we are all part of the same Living Life.

One last thing before we move on: considering all the aforementioned, one should be inclined to ask the following question: If life isn’t what we think it is, maybe death isn’t what we imagine it to be, either? Here we should challenge ourselves by asking an intriguing question: What is the opposite of death? Most people would probably say that it’s life, but when you really see clearly – you cannot help but arrive at the conclusion: the opposite of death is birth; both are gateways through which Life passes in and out of time in physical existence. Life Force that moves through us is the same Eternal Essence that moves through every living being, including trees and plants – Living Life expressing itself through all life – constantly finding the best and the most efficient ways for life to grow, flourish and thrive. Life Force is beginningless, which means that Life has always been, always is, and always will be. In other words, death is but a temporary putting away of the physical expression of existence by the Soul or Spirit, which is the real “I” in all of us. This “I” is the center of Life in each and every one of us; it is the unchanging Eternal Truth in us; the real “I” in all of us. When the individual arrives at this realization, their whole perception irrevocably changes.

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~ ॐ ~ Sambodhi Padmasamadhi ~ ∞ ~

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~ ∞ ~ Awaken the Living Awareness Within: Meditation ~ ∞ ~

Awaken the Living Awareness Within Glossary

Meditation is a practice for the mind that allows us to hone our perception, clear our awareness and open our heart to fully experience this moment. Research shows that regular meditation fosters physical and emotional health and well-being; it strengthens the immune system, helps reduce stress and anxiety, stimulates attention and focus, enhances creativity, cultivates compassion, improves productivity and increases performance to mention but a few benefits.

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~ ∞ ~ Awaken the Living Awareness Within: Soul ~ ∞ ~

Awaken the Living Awareness Within Glossary

The terms ‘Soul’ and ‘Spirit’ are often used interchangeably, although there is a profound difference between the two. Soul is the unique expression of the Spark of God, which is sometimes referred to as the “Breath of Life,” whereas the Spirit is that Spark of God itself. Soul is the essence of all that makes us human and unique – our emotions, experiences, thoughts, will; Spirit is the essence of our Divine nature – it is same in every being (human, animal, or other).

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~ ∞ ~ Awaken the Living Awareness Within: Mnemonic ~ ∞ ~

Awaken the Living Awareness Within Glossary

A mnemonic is any learning technique that aids information retention or retrieval (remembering) in the human memory. Mnemonics aid original information in becoming associated with something more accessible or meaningful – which, in turn, provides better retention of the information.

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~ ∞ ~ Awaken the Living Awareness Within: Innerstanding ~ ∞ ~

Awaken the Living Awareness Within Glossary

The ability to know what you need to know when you need to know it. Innerstanding (Direct Inner Knowing) is a deeper level of knowing. The term basically means “I intend to not only understand life but to innerstand my being, my purpose, my divine mind, and so on.” See also closely related term Overstanding.

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~ ∞ ~ Awaken the Living Awareness Within: Epigenetics (DNA) ~ ∞ ~

Awaken the Living Awareness Within Glossary

Epigenetics is the study of phenotype changes that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. Epigenetics most often denotes changes in a chromosome that affect gene activity and expression. The term also refers to the changes themselves: functionally relevant changes to the genome that do not involve a change in the nucleotide sequence. Examples of mechanisms that produce such changes are DNA methylation and histone modification, each of which alters how genes are expressed without altering the underlying DNA sequence. See also closely related term Human Genome (DNA).

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~ ∞ ~ Awaken the Living Awareness Within: Artificial Intelligence (AI) ~ ∞ ~

Awaken the Living Awareness Within Glossary

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the idea of intelligence exhibited by machines or software, utilizing Machine Learning and Neural Networks. Since the digital revolution, there has been a growing interest on studying how to create computers and computer software that are capable of intelligent behavior. The field of studying AI was originally founded on the claim that a central property of humans, human intelligence – the sapience of Homo sapiens sapiens can be so precisely described that a machine can be made to simulate it.

AI research is highly technical and specialized, and is deeply divided into subfields that often fail to communicate with each other. Some of the division is due to social and cultural factors: subfields have grown up around particular institutions and the work of individual researchers. AI research is also divided by several technical issues – some subfields focus on the solution of specific problems; others focus on one of several possible approaches or on the use of a particular tool or towards the accomplishment of particular applications.

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~ ∞ ~ Awaken the Living Awareness Within: Self-Awareness ~ ∞ ~

Awaken the Living Awareness Within Glossary

Self-Awareness is the capacity for introspection – therefore it is the ability to recognize oneself as an individual and separate from the environment and other individuals. Self-Awareness is being aware of the things one should be aware of and paying more attention to that. Self-Awareness allows us to sense that we are separated from each other – resulting the perception of individuated consciousness.

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Awareness Quote of the Day from the Book: Awaken the Living Awareness Within, in the section Awareness:

The only reason why people feel the need to return to Living Awareness through these various methods is because they think that they have left from somewhere as Spirit. In all actuality, there is no distance between Living Awareness and itself, nor time where something can occur; Living Awareness never becomes anything else than Living Awareness, it never leaves anywhere — Living Awareness just is. If the individuated self could comprehend this on a conscious level — that realization alone would set it free. You see, knowing that you have never been anything else than pure Living Awareness — is true peace and happiness; the clear, deep inner knowing that I am whole, all experience is made out of myself, I need nothing but I am everything — is fulfillment in and of itself — see? This we can call an “Awakening,” which is something that takes place within each of us whenever we are ready to remember our eternal nature, whenever we are ready to take that first step in remembering who we are at the deepest level of our being, whenever we are ready to know our core essence as Spirit.