Tag Archives: Direct Path

Wait, What? How Did I Miss This?

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As I am diving deeper into the direct path of meditation, there are a couple of extremely helpful books. One of them is The Seven Steps to Awakening. One of the gurus, the great master, Ramana Maharshi, shares that Self-Inquiry is one of the greatest tools to help one Awaken in this lifetime. How I have interpreted this is how self-inquiry is seemingly always interpreted as asking, “Who am I?” And sure this may be one of the ways and helpful in some way. But the real breakthrough for me was what unlocked within me when I finally read the introduction before the actual quotes began in the book.

On page 12 of The Seven Steps to Awakening Michael Langford describes Self-Inquiry as Self-Attention, Self-Abidance. This is what awareness watching awareness really is, it’s paying attention to the Self and that SELF is Awareness.

Now, if you tie in the blog that I just did on how Aliveness is Awareness then you have what I am feeling right now which is a huge insight into Self-Inquiry, that up until now hadn’t ever unlocked for me! The insight that is brand new is seeing that paying attention to the LifeForce, the Radiant Aliveness Within, is awareness watching awareness. And since there’s only one awareness, this is true for all.

What are the implications of this discovery? Well, it radically changes how I view Self-inquiry. It’s not just about asking, “Who am I?”. It’s how we both wake up and stay awake. It’s how we abide, it’s how we stay ‘centered in bliss’. And most wonderfully, it makes this practice of awareness watching awareness come alive, it’s juicy and vibrant! The scintillating Life-Force cascading in around through and beyond is where it’s at, in this state of fullness, meditation is no longer a chore. It’s both the doorway to the Infinite and how one abides serene and true.

Aliveness is Awareness!

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As I deepen into this meditation path and continue to discover the sensuous delight that is Shakti as she flows as the Life-Force energy. The recent insight that feels helpful to share is how paying attention to this life-energy-essence is awareness watching awareness. The paying attention to is the verbiage used to describe how one’s everyday ordinary awareness is being used while at the very same time, the pulsations of aliveness (Shakti) are what is paid attention to.

I remember back in the day when I was introduced to the direct path meditation called Awareness watching Awareness, sometimes called Being Aware of Awareness, I had absolutely no clue what any of it meant or how to do it. And, finally, after all of these years of exploration and meditation, the truth always reveals itself as Truly Simple.

As this effervescent, Radiant Aliveness, permeates the field, I could see how the inseparable bond of Shiva-Shakti, Shakti-Shiva really dances in a perfect flowing union. Without Awareness, there is no ability to perceive this radiant aliveness, without the radiant aliveness awareness would just be barren and dry. This made complete logical sense to me and it’s how I could reconcile how both awareness and aliveness are crucial to living the embodied Awakening. But the newness is this deeper diving and seeing how Shakti herself is, in fact, Awareness. When I pay attention to how this Radiant Aliveness dances intimately within my own experience, it becomes beyond obvious She is indeed this intelligent Presence, awareness awake onto itself and as I let go more and more of the false identity of the mind as who I am, I can finally stop obscuring the truth that I am Her, She is what I am.

I share this to perhaps shed light on how a little tweaking of the awareness watching awareness meditation can really blow things wide open for revelation. Or, perhaps, just a little soft shift in the direction of no longer being in the dark about how to make this practice lively, juicy, and truly make you want to come back for more.

I also share this in hopes that Life-force can be seen for what it truly is, it is what we are, and this is how we are not separate. This is how we are one. This is the Essence of it all. When this comes Alive within you as a felt experience, Bliss isn’t too far off, or like now as I am writing this, it’s happening!

May you know Bliss, and may you at least taste a glimpse of Reality. Hopefully, this blog is one nano-step in that direction!