Process of Awakening

Process of awakening: 

meditation is part of it, or so it has been for me, and yet it's not the sole means of any process of awakening. I don't believe there is a single method that leads to a direct revelation of a certain truth and understanding of ourselves. It's life that leads us to this point and really it's more if a surrender than it is a great reveal of who we really are. Meditation helped bring me to this point, being a continuous letting go of the activity of clinging to my thoughts. I naturally found myself relaxing to my own company, unconcerned by the flow of thoughts and simply resting in the awareness of their passing - and this eventually, easily, led me to a restful inner silence. 

it was a start.

and still a meaningful part of my life. 

inquiry too has aided the process of awakening, most specifically the Headless exercises of Douglas Harding, pointing towards my actual present experience of emptiness and at once finding that this too holds the completeness of the world. It was an instant awakening, really not a process at all, but a satori of availability, reality always found exactly where I pointed, immediately showing the truth of who I am without need or use of any words. 

indeed, it's beyond whatever could be told.

and perhaps it's my own sorrow that has provided the surest path to my surrender, a low level depression that's filled a large portion of my years, a past struggle with addiction, losing relationships and the love of others. My sorrow brought to me to the point of letting go, a surrender to the magic of the present moment that seemed completely unavailable until the instant I let go.

so it seems to me that life itself is the process of awakening and every practice, guru, and spiritual book is simply a means along the way, valuable for the moment of their need. Meditation and inquiry fuel my artistic inspiration, they are aspects of my life of great importance and I perform them without any expectations of the possibility of enlightenment. 

but they are a demonstration of reality.

an awaken moment of their own.

not needing to be anything more than this.

it's all a process of awakening. 

~

Peace, Eric