Conceptualizing "The Infinite"

Zendancer: From reading the vast array of spiritual literature and biographies about people involved in the non-duality spiritual traditions (Zen, Advaita, Mystical Christianity, Sufism, etc), one would think it obvious that each human is unique, and that each seeker's path is unique, even though there are often many commonalities. However, people frequently get attached to a particular tradition or practice, and fail to see that there are many other pathways that can lead to the truth besides their own path.

I remember going to hear Gangaji speak for the first time in Nashville. At that time I was very attached to the idea of serious meditation practice, and I was shocked when she said that although practice was okay, a human could wake up in one moment, with or without practice. Her point was that you can't practice your way to being what you already are. Unlike Tolle, who I suspect is more palatable to an intellectual looking for clear directions, Gangaji struck me as all over the place. IOW, she didn't seem to have what I considered a coherent explanation for what's going on or what to do to attain freedom. ATST, however, it was obvious to me that she was extremely clear, and her answers to questions from the audience seemed totally on target. Later, after I listened to her a bit more, I began to accept what she was saying even though I didn't fully understand it. Today, of course, what she said at that time makes perfect sense!

There seems to be a wide range of possibilities, and here are just a few examples:

In terms of the paths seekers will take to try to improve upon their experience (which is really what all seekers are doing) there are UNENDING possibilities.

1. Hakuin: this famous Zen Master claimed that he experienced more than 150 kensho events during his lifetime, but he never distinguished between CC-type events and simple realizations. It seems clear that his two initial kenshos were extremely powerful and were probably CC events. He doesn't make it clear what he considers to be satori, but he claimed that he re-experienced satori at the age of 60, and that it was the deepest of all his experiences. Because he claims that it was triggered by the sound of falling snow, it was almost certainly a CC event. Some of us consider SR to be the realization involved in penetrating the illusion of selfhood, so it seems unlikely that Hakuin was pointing to anything like that as his "deepest experience."

2. Paul Morgan-Somers: At the age of 16 Paul was kicking a soccer ball around when he felt compelled to sit down on his back porch. Suddenly, he became psychologically one-with the cosmos, and that never changed. Unlike most ND sages, I've never heard Paul give any advice to anyone concerning how to attain such a state of oneness, and that's probably because he, himself, didn't do anything to fall into that state of flow, freedom, and equanimity.

3. Ramana: His story is well known, and self inquiry concerning the inexorable fact of death apparently resulted in immediate SR.

4. Tolle: His story, too, is well known, but more is known about his "vortex" experience and resulting bliss than exactly what happened over the next several years. He was clearly in a state of flow during his "park bench" years, but whether that ever changed is not something I've read about.

5. Adyashanti: His story parallels that of many soto Zen practitioners. In his own words he was "a spiritual athlete" who meditated like crazy for two decades without success. He finally realized his true identity one day while sitting in a small church, and that resulted in freedom.

7. Norio Kushi: He had several significant existential realizations while driving a big rig and contemplating the meaning of life. He finally saw through the illusion of selfhood and got free after spending two weeks driving his truck in total mental silence.

8. The Buddha: Siddhartha Gautama's story is pretty well known, but he is the only individual I can think of who had one big CC event that resulted in complete awakening and a resolution of all his existential questioning.

9. Seung Sahn: At the age of 19 SS was conflicted about many things related to the Japanese occupation of Korea. He was told by a Zen Master to go do a 100 day solo retreat in the mountains in order to get clear. During the retreat he had many unusual experiences, and on the final day of the retreat he heard a temple bell in the valley ring out, and he had a huge CC. He then joined a monastery and studied with Ko Bong for two or three years, during which time he discovered the answers to all of the formal koans in the Rinzai tradition. He became a Zen Master at the age of 22.

Other people could be added to this list to illustrate the different paths that can lead to awakening. Although most seekers seem to find what they're looking for via meditation practices, contemplation of existential questions, and mental silence, a few rare people, such as Morgan-Somers, wake up and attain what we call "the natural state" without doing anything at all. In effect, they get struck by grace right out of the blue. A few other rare souls, such as Ramana, ask a single question, inquire within, and the same sort of thing happens. Reality can be much stranger than fiction.

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Zendancer:
Laughter: Last night I watched some more videos of Spira, and he made one point that I thought was quite important (considering the theme of this thread) is that some people gradually integrate or embody various realizations over an extended period of time whereas other people get gobsmacked all at once and require a subsequent period of time to integrate and understand what happened to them. He was asked if he thought his 20 years of serious meditation and inquiry had been necessary as a preparation for attaining SR, and Spira replied, "Yes, but that might not be the case for someone else." He used Tolle as an example of someone who suddenly got sucked into a state of flow/oneness, but needed a few years of silent park bench sitting, reading, etc. before he could understand what had happened to him. In Spira's case, the final shift was almost a non-event because he had already been embodying the teachings for many years before the final shift into clarity and understanding occurred. The same was true for Adyashanti.

His view about this is pretty much the same as my view, and it highlights a misunderstanding that is sometimes perpetuated by teachers who are disparaged as being "Neo Advaitists." Papaji and other such sages, for example, often say things like, "Meditation is not necessary for attaining SR," even though they, themselves, may have meditated for 20 years prior to SR. What they're saying is not incorrect in the sense of what's possible; it's only incorrect when applied to a particular human being who has pursued a particular path that involved an extended period of time involving various experiences and realizations.

Spira's comments tie in rather well with a claim that I often make--"It's impossible to make a mistake." Each human life unfolds in a particular way, but there were never any alternative scenarios other than the one that actually occurred. If someone asked me, "Was it necessary for you to spend 20 years thinking about existential issues, and then spend another 15 years meditating and doing ATA-T for you to discover what you wanted to know about the nature of reality?" My answer would be, "Absolutely, because that's what happened." Would that sort of thing be necessary for someone else? Not at all; someone else might walk out the door one morning and, like Paul Morgan-Somers, suddenly be sucked into a state of psychological oneness.

This was a point that Satch could never seem to accept, and perhaps that's because he was exposed to only one tradition and one pathway, and that pathway seemed to "work" for him. By contrast, I've read so many different stories of how people attain freedom and peace, that I know that it can happen in an infinite number of different ways. For this character SR was also virtually a non-event because by the time it happened, my entire life had already changed, and all of the previous ND experiences and realizations had already become embodied. I had already gotten out of my head and into the body, and life had become quite simple and straight forward.

All that was needed was one last realization (seeing through the illusion of the SVP) for the big picture to finally become obvious. It was like, "Oh, of course, how humorous that this couldn't be seen until now."

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