Essay Edition
The Nature of Enlightenment
I am all in on enlightenment. You can go all in on enlightenment and be a little bit of an extremist in the most beautiful way.
Enlightenment is the ultimate discovery in life. As with any discovery, it involves the apprehension of something new, something profound, and something complete. Apprehension is limited by faculties and their capacity to apprehend, the ability to perceive, and the depth of one’s capacity to experience.
Enlightenment is a discovery of the universe. It is the apex, the acme of discovery. You are discovering ultimate truth. It is a state of mind where the discovery itself is more than an intellectual epiphany. It is a deep apprehension of reality in a way that is very central to the human condition.
Rather than standing before something new, it is a matter of a shift in perspective, a shift in faculty, where you discover that this thing we were looking for was right there all along. It is like a fish discovering water. But the fish has to learn how to see.
Enlightenment includes a transformation of consciousness, where you see something really profound about what is right here. There are different gradations of enlightenment. Sometimes you have a glimpse of it accidentally. In Japanese, that is called a kensho.
Sometimes you have an experience of it of your own volition. Every time you sit down, you go into ultimate truth, and then you come back out. You can willfully do that each time. That is a higher level of enlightenment. Perhaps you might call that liberation, because you are liberated from the sense of separativity. In Japanese, that is called satori.
Then there is an even higher level of enlightenment, where you no longer go in and out of it anymore. You are always in that state. Sometimes they call it the natural state. You have gone in and out so many times that they have merged into one thing. You no longer have to volitionally try to hold the state of mind. It is simply a part of you, and you can be eating breakfast or teaching a class and be in an enlightened state.
In yoga, these are named based on the different levels of samadhi. There is savikalpa samadhi, nirvikalpa samadhi, and sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi. There are different ways to talk about it. Sometimes they call it a jivanmukta, which is a realized incarnate being, or somebody who has experienced moksha, which is liberation. There is language for this. English people just say enlightenment or liberation, which is a reflection of the depth of consciousness of the society and the language. Language always reflects the consciousness of a society.
Enlightenment is the hardest thing in the universe to do. It is also the most rewarding, because what you are doing is overcoming the strife of the human condition, which is that we are separate, we are isolated, and we are transient.
In enlightenment, you become unified. You become eternal. There is a shift, and you realize the ultimate truth, which is that you are actually eternal, that you are actually one with all.
Religious Origins and Spiritual Practice
All religions, essentially, are founded upon an interest in enlightenment. A lot of times they veer from that initial intention, and they become all kinds of other things: organized belief, political doctrines. But originally, the teachers who gave rise to these religions were seeing this truth, and they wanted to share it.
They found something beautiful that is true in the universe through themselves, and they wanted to help somebody who was stuck and enclosed in an illusion. They wanted to help us wake up. If you read the original words of the original prophets in each religion, I think you will find that they are essentially talking about that. They may be misinterpreted by all kinds of non-enlightened people after the fact. It is always good to read the words of an enlightened being.
Enlightenment comes from meditation. It also comes from mindfulness. In meditation, we go into the light and we dissolve. What is the light? Light is to us as gold is to the gold statue. It is our essence. It is what we are made of.
We are dreamers. We are cosmic dreamers. Space, time, matter, energy, and mathematics all exist within us. But who is dreaming the dream, and what are they made of? Ontologically, what is the substance of the dreamer? It is light.
When we melt ourselves into that primordial substrate that is known as light or shakti, we dissolve the impurities in our being and return to the perfect essence from which we came. That is real, powerful meditation, and there are different ways to do it.
Sometimes you will read an enlightened being talking about meditation, and they will say, “Just ask who you are. Who am I?” If you do that right, you will find that you are made of light, and then you are beyond. You are the source of the colored light, or even the clear light, and there is this realization that happens. You are trying to return to the non-transient, eternal self.
Enlightenment comes from meditation, and it also comes from mindfulness, which means that when we are not meditating, we are very mindful to do what we can to stay connected with the greater level of consciousness. You cannot meditate for five minutes and then be absent-minded for the rest of the day and expect to become enlightened in your lifetime. What is really required is a very big commitment.
Mindfulness means, ideally, that you are walking around in the light always. You should feel it. You should be doing things with your full attention, strengthening your attention field. You should be concerning yourself with all the many dimensions and complexities of liberating yourself. You should not be exposing yourself to information that causes confusion in the mental field. You should be considering the implications of certain psychic exposure. There are millions of things that you can consider to maintain your progress toward awakening.
This is why some people move into an ashram and give it their all, all twenty-four hours a day. But I think it is better to do it in the world, because in the world you are challenged. You are not insulating yourself in a way that may produce a greater state of consciousness but have some artificial elements in it. The question is, can you find yourself in the world and continue to make progress or maintain that state?
A sabbatical may be a good thing to do, because you can get yourself a little more free. Once you are up, you can go back into the world empowered and maintain it. One of my teacher’s teachers said, “You have to turn your back on the world for a time, and once you have renewed yourself, you can then turn back and engage with the world.” A lot of times people go through an initial time where they are a little more isolated. You can do it in a graceful way, or it can be a rocky journey as well.
Joy, Freedom, and Dharmic Alignment
Enlightenment is not an austere practice in the sense that it is not nihilism. You are not becoming bleakness and austerity in an unpleasant way. Enlightenment is giving yourself the greatest joy. It is the greatest joy, the greatest happiness, and the greatest love. It is a remedy for most psychological pathologies. It is a remedy for basically everything.
When you enter into the state, it is such ecstatic, overflowing contentment. Where people seek in vain to find happiness through things and circumstances, enlightenment brings it directly through you.
But here is the paradox. That is not to say you do not have those things and circumstances. Once enlightenment starts to grow in you, your life will become more true to the wish of your heart. You will not get the things that were superficial, but you will not want them. You will be living in alignment with your heart.
If that means you have the greatest guitar because you are a guitarist and that means a lot to you for living your dharma, then you might have that. If it means you toil in the mud with Mother Teresa, then you might have that. If you are an entrepreneur, that might mean you are wealthy. If you are a humanitarian, it might mean you are part of an NGO. It could be anything, but you are in alignment with your heart.
It is not austerity, but austerity helps you purge yourself of the things that are preventing it. Austerity plays a role in this, but ultimately it is simply following your heart.
As an expression of God, you go where God takes you. God says to do this work, and you have to do it. God says to be silent, to be nobody, and you have to do it. There is a great responsibility when you are willing to face truth. God tells through truth. We know the truth. It is not a big, booming voice. It is a knowing of what is correct, righteous action.
Enlightenment is a state of extreme freedom. It is not the freedom to have what you like. It is the freedom to be true to who you are. It is liberation from untruth, liberation from illusion, so that you can be what you are. It is absolute spontaneous action.
Freedom is freedom from the ideations of the self, the self-reflection that causes us to miss what is beyond the window and see only our ideas of existence. Reality comes into focus when we stop looking through the agenda of the concerns of the self and start acting from the freedom of the deep self, the true self, the knower, the be-er, the one who is free.
In enlightenment, we dissolve the self. We discover the baggage of the self, all the things that we carry that obscure these fundamental truths. Some part of us recognizes that we are not free, that freedom comes from emptying the contents of the self and abiding in the actions of love, in the spontaneity of the self-transcendent.
It is a state of doing what is necessary in total freedom, on behalf of the totality, without any sort of pathological guilt. You become that voice of righteous love that acts correctly based on what is true.
If you are a mathematician, you are not going to deliver pizza or engineer buildings, because that is what you are. You will serve in the way that is true to who you are. All of these things become very self-evident. What is the right thing to do? There is a lot of courage in it, but to do anything else would be to estrange yourself from dharmic flow, the flow of truth.
We step into the currents of dharma when we live like this, and we must abide by the will of dharma. We are responsible to God’s wishes.
Enlightenment comes from meditation. It comes from mindfulness. It also comes from contemplation. You have to get clear. You have to have a degree of lucidity where you understand life. If you are confused, it is hard to act from the foundations of confusion. You have to know.
This is where mathematics is actually really valuable, because in mathematics we get really good at thinking. You could use anything you like. It does not have to be math, and you could be good at thinking even if you do not know math, especially because of the way math is generally taught. But the whole idea is that you are super clear, you have a powerful attention field, you are super mindful, and you can go away. You can dissolve into nothingness and become your primordial source.
Religion is the study of cosmology. It is the study of the self. It is the remedy for a psychological issue. It is the remedy for every human being.
I am all in on enlightenment. Meditate, be mindful, be kind, study the scriptures in any form that they come, go into light, be humble, and give everything you have, not to the vanity of the superficial surface of life, but to the deepest calling, the deepest endeavor, the deepest aspect within: enlightenment.
Expressions and Exemplars of Realization
People working toward enlightenment are necessarily all different, because in enlightenment every flower is different. These are not always shaved-head monks in ashrams. These can be people in the world.
There are plenty of unknown individuals who may be shaved-head monks in ashrams who also became enlightened, but do not assume that they did. A lot of times, ashrams do not have any enlightened beings there. It is a rare thing.
Some people are very overtly interested in enlightenment. They talk about enlightenment, like Sadhguru, Eckhart Tolle, Ramana Maharshi, Anandamayi Ma, Paramahansa Yogananda, Jesus, Buddha, and Krishnamurti. You can see how they talk about it. Nisargadatta Maharaj and Ramana Maharshi write from a deep degree of certainty about it.
Ramana Maharshi said:
“Of course, God is required for sadhana, spiritual practice, but the end of the sadhana, even in Bhakti Marga, the path of devotion, is attained only after complete surrender. What does it mean except that effacement of the ego results in Self remaining as it was, as it always has been?
“Whatever path one may choose, the ‘I’ is inescapable. The ‘I’ that does the nishkama karma, motiveless action; the ‘I’ that pines for joining the Lord from whom it feels it has been separated; the ‘I’ that feels it has slipped from its real nature; and so on. The source of this ‘I’ must be found out. Then all questions will be solved.”
The Practice of Dissolution
The energy practice is dissolution. We are not meditating on the chakras. We are trying to go away.
What does it mean to go away? It means you submerge yourself into the ocean of the real and become the unknown, unknown to yourself. Unknown means you are not thinking. You do not know that you are, because you are not thinking at all.
What happens when you stop thinking entirely? You do not even think that you exist. Imagine you cease to think entirely. This is dissolution.
Try to dissolve. Try to be nothing. Try to go away. Dust in the wind. It takes courage, but it also opens your heart. The heart opens. The heart is small because it is resisting. When the heart accepts, it expands. It asymptotically expands to the universe if you become nothing.
Astrally, you have your heart, your navel center, and your third eye. They can all support the dissolution process. The heart makes you feel at home, unassailably, no matter what happens. The navel center helps you will to transform the energy, and the third eye helps you maintain clarity. It helps you navigate.
Take a deep breath. Let out resistance. Surrender to the ambient power that you encounter, your own being. Notice all the ways you have been holding on to controlling.
Give yourself this moment. Become irresponsible. Become absorbed in the moment. There is nothing to attend to now. Go home.
Allow the light to dissolve you with its brilliance and brightness. See yourself as a child of the universe, innocent, beyond all of these spatiotemporal transformations. It is like returning to the Divine Mother, dissolving and becoming home, at home in the universe.
Be absorbed in the light, or bring your attention to your heart center. Think of what dissolving is, allowing destruction. It is a destruction of transmutation. To go from one formation to another, one must allow one to dissolve into the next.
Let the universe make you and unmake you, mold and unmold you. Let the ambient power of the universe move through you. You are that power.
What are you? When are you? Where does space come from? All of these questions break down the habitual, paradigmatic orientation, helping you return to the source.
Feel your heart radiate from your center. Let yourself be the center. Enjoy the sweetness of existence as it shines within you.
Initially, we create the conditions from which we can let go. More energy, more light, more heart. When you are in a place where you can dissolve, this is the difference between yang meditation and yin meditation. Dissolving to that degree is a very yin meditation.
We are clearing the energy. If you are so blocked up that you cannot stop thinking, and you are totally dense, you are not going to be able to dissolve into kensho. That is why kensho is very advanced. You have already done a lot of the work.
If you can have a kensho experience, if you are able to dissolve and do not need to do a lot of clearing, go ahead and do that. We are trying to go away. We come back, we go away, we come back, we go away, we come back, and then we realize that we are everything and we are nothing.
Sahaja samadhi, the natural state.
Experiences of Dissolution
When you go away, you do not go somewhere else. There is simply no you. It is not that you do not know where you were. There was nobody to be anywhere.
How would you know what happened? You would come back feeling renewed. You would come back with a sense that you had entered into an alternate state of consciousness and that you were putting your cosmic clothes back on. It is almost as if you took off the garments of personality, and you come back and re-enmesh with the illusion of individuality.
That is what it feels like when you come out of a kensho experience. It feels like an energetic purification and renewal. Doubting yourself might be natural, because this is not a very well-understood or considered topic.
In yoga, there is a god in Hinduism named Shiva, and Shiva is called the Destroyer. It feels like you are getting destroyed, in a way. You can also go through love, where you are becoming bliss. But the Destroyer is nice, because it liberates you for you. You cannot really do it. You have to let the Destroyer do it, or let love do it.
We are trying to describe something that is elusive and ineffable. It is like taking off your cosmic clothing. There is this clothing that says “I,” and you take it off, and there is no “I” anymore. It hints at the idea that we know we are not our clothing, so are you your personality? If you can take it off, then what were you all along?
All that is left is that you do not even know you exist. And yet you do, of course, because you are still here.
It does not take fifty-one percent of people to shift the emotional atmosphere of humanity. If one hundred people became enlightened, or one thousand, I think we could greatly alter the current subconsciousness, because it is extremely potent.
We have to start with ourselves. It is like a garden. We have to work on our little patch, because only we can work on our little patch. Nobody can do it for us, and we cannot do it for another. We can only help them, show them the door.
Full Transcript
Adam Wes Oh, that's right. Namaste, everybody! Welcome! Hi, Kira!
Hi, Daniel. Nice to see you again. Hi, David!
Hi, Mom and Dad and Ariella! It's her birthday today. Happy birthday, Ariella!
The solar return, where the Earth returns to its same spot, is a powerful time to make spiritual progress. So it's a good day to meditate together with sangha on your birthday. I'm so glad you chose to do that.
Wonderful.
And just in case anybody doesn't know, Ariella's been basically here every week for the last three years. So, really special, and I'm so grateful for you, Ariella. Happy birthday.
We can't hear you, by the way, unless you don't want to be heard.
Ariella I'm so grateful that you're here for me to do this with you, Adam. Thank you.
Adam Wes Oh, that's so good. Kindred spirits, shared values. Really, really special.
So, I think, Ariella, you'll like what we're talking about today.
The Nature of Enlightenment
Today I wanted to talk about enlightenment itself. We're going to just focus on enlightenment. What is enlightenment?
Usually I just do a stream-of-consciousness discussion, but I already had my stream of consciousness come through when I woke up, and I wrote it down. So I'm thinking I'm going to just read what I wrote, because it's pretty extensive.
Shall we dive in?
Okay.
Also, I'll be able to share it with anybody who wants it, so you don't have to take notes. But you can if you want, if it's your own personal copy.
All right, but don't read ahead too much.
All right, so, enlightenment.
I actually took out my first line, which was, "I'm all in on enlightenment." I thought that was a funny way to start this, but I'm feeling right now I should start it with that. I'm all in on enlightenment.
Why am I telling you about myself? Well, just as a possibility. You can go all in on enlightenment and be a little bit of an extremist in the most beautiful way.
Enlightenment is the ultimate discovery in life. But as with any discovery, it involves the apprehension of something new, something profound, and something complete.
Apprehension is limited by faculties and their capacity to apprehend, the ability to perceive, and the depth of one's capacity to experience.
You know what? I can't read like this, because when I read, I'm not connecting with the feeling, but this came from a feeling. So I'm going to share this with everybody and just talk about enlightenment, actually. I'll leave it up here, too, if you like.
Enlightenment is a discovery of the universe, and perhaps that's a unique way to talk about it. I experience it that way. It is the ultimate discovery.
Sometimes it's fun to look under a microscope, discover the grand unification theory of physics, discover a mathematical equation, or discover love. Enlightenment is the apex, the acme of discovery. You're discovering ultimate truth.
It's a state of mind where the discovery itself is more than an intellectual epiphany. It's a deep apprehension of reality in a way that is very central to the human condition.
It's the ultimate discovery. Rather than standing before something new, in a way it's a matter of a shift in perspective, a shift in faculty, where you discover that this thing we were looking for was right there all along. So it's like a fish discovering water, in a way.
But the fish has to learn how to see.
It's interesting, because the way I connect with this is a direct experience. I can't really read this, because this is not now. Here, I'll just show you. It's quite long. It's four pages. So I'm going to even close this and just talk about enlightenment, but I'll share this with you. I can show the document.
Enlightenment includes a transformation of consciousness, where you see something really profound about what's right here. And there are different gradations of enlightenment.
Sometimes you have a glimpse of it accidentally. There are names for that. In Japanese, that's called a kensho.
Sometimes you have an experience of it of your own volition. Every time you sit down, you go into ultimate truth, and then you come back out. You can willfully do that each time. That's a higher level of enlightenment. Perhaps you might call that liberation, because you're liberated from the sense of separativity. In Japanese, that's called satori.
Then there is an even higher level of enlightenment, where you no longer go in and out of it anymore. You just always are in that state.
Sometimes they call it the natural state. You've gone in and out so many times, they've merged into one thing. You no longer have to volitionally try to hold the state of mind. It's just a part of you, and you can be eating breakfast or teaching a class, and you're in an enlightened state.
So, just to be clear, I'm not in that state. I want to be in that state. There's a very, very small number of people in the whole world in that state.
I've heard people say that there are only 12 people in the whole world at any given time, approximately, who are in that state. There are 2,000 billionaires in the world, and there are only 12 enlightened beings. So it's like trillionaire level, right?
You're laughing, Bob. Yeah, billionaire is easy on the enlightenment route. Enlightenment is the hardest thing in the universe to do.
It's like, if you guys want to perform the greatest water-skiing trick in the universe, because I went water-skiing yesterday, this is it, right?
Now, it's also the most rewarding, because what you're doing is overcoming the strife of the human condition, which is that we are separate, we are isolated, and we are transient.
In enlightenment, you become unified. You become eternal. There's a shift, and you realize the ultimate truth, which is that you are actually eternal, that you are actually one with all.
That's why Jesus had so much compassion, because he was in that state. I'm not sure if he was liberated or enlightened.
Enlightened is the level of always, right? If you go in and out of it, when you come out of it, you're really high. You're still very high. You're not some jerk. You're in a good state of mind when you come out of the state, if you're a satori-realized individual.
The Japanese word for the next one is daigo.
In yoga, these are named based on the different levels of samadhi. There's savikalpa samadhi, the first one; nirvikalpa; and sahaja nirvikalpa samadhi, the third one.
But there are different ways to talk about it. Sometimes they call it a jivanmukta, which is a realized incarnate being, or somebody who's experienced moksha, which is liberation. These are Sanskrit words. So there's language for this.
English people just say enlightenment or liberation, which is a reflection of the depth of consciousness of the society and the language. Language always reflects the consciousness of a society.
What else can I tell you about enlightenment?
Religious Origins and Spiritual Practice
All religions, essentially, and, Colin, I'm really thinking of you when I talk about this, are founded upon an interest in enlightenment.
I think a lot of times they veer from that initial intention, and they become all kinds of other things: organized belief, political doctrines. There are so many things that they've become.
But originally, the teachers who gave rise to these religions, which are built around them, were seeing this truth, and they wanted to share it. Really, it was, "I found something beautiful that's true in the universe through myself, and you can too. I want to see if I can, of my own goodwill, help somebody who's stuck and dreaming a nightmare."
Well, that's not a good way to say it, but in a way it's kind of true. You're enclosed in an illusion, right? It's not a nightmare, but it is illusion, and they want to help us wake up.
That's what these great enlightened beings originally said. If you read the original words of the original prophets in each religion, I think you will find that they're essentially talking about that. They may be misinterpreted by all kinds of non-enlightened people after the fact.
It's always good to read the words of an enlightened being.
I actually want to go and grab some of my books that I was going to hold up so you can see some of the individuals. I love to just read them, because they're in that state, that beloved, wonderful state.
Enlightenment comes from meditation. It also comes from mindfulness.
Think about it this way: in meditation, we go into the light and we dissolve. We use this light.
Now, what is the light? Light is to us as gold is to the gold statue. It's our essence. It's what we're made of.
We are dreamers. We're cosmic dreamers. Space, time, matter, energy, and mathematics all exist within us.
But who's dreaming the dream, and what are they made of? Ontologically, what is the substance of the dreamer? Well, it's light.
So when we melt ourselves into that primordial substrate that is known as light or shakti, we dissolve the impurities in our being and return to the perfect essence from which we came.
That's real, powerful meditation, and there are different ways to do it. Sometimes you'll read an enlightened being talking about meditation, and they'll say, "Just ask who you are. Who am I?"
Well, if you do that right, you'll find that you're made of light, and then you're beyond. You're the source of the colored light, or even the clear light, and there's this realization that happens. You're trying to return to the non-transient, eternal self.
So it comes from meditation, and it also comes from mindfulness, which means that when we're not meditating, we are very mindful to do what we can to stay connected with the greater level of consciousness.
You can't meditate for five minutes and then go and be absent-minded for the rest of the day and expect to become enlightened in your lifetime. I mean, you might. Who knows? But what is really required is a really big commitment.
Mindfulness means, ideally, you're walking around in the light always, right? You should feel it. You should be doing things with your full attention, and it's strengthening your attention field.
You should be concerning yourself with all the many dimensions and complexities of liberating yourself. You shouldn't be exposing yourself to information that causes confusion in the mental field. You should be considering the implications of certain psychic exposure.
There are millions of things that you can consider to maintain your progress toward awakening.
This is why some people move into an ashram and give it their all, all 24 hours a day.
But really, I think it's better to do it in the world, because in the world, you're challenged. You're not insulating yourself in a way that may produce a greater state of consciousness, although it'll have some artificial elements in it, right?
The question is, can you find yourself in the world and continue to make progress or continue to maintain that state?
Now, a sabbatical may be a good thing to do, because you can get yourself a little more free. Once you're up, you can go back into the world empowered and maintain it, right? So sabbaticals are very needed a lot of times.
One of my teacher's teachers said, "You have to turn your back on the world for a time, and once you have renewed yourself, you can then turn back and engage with the world."
A lot of times people go through an initial time where they're a little more isolated. That happened to me. You can do it in a graceful way, or it could be a rocky journey as well. Mine was quite rocky, which was probably not necessary.
If you share in the path, the perspective, and the teaching that I'm sharing, there are some teachers, well-known teachers, in fact, and perhaps even enlightened teachers, who will differ with what I'm about to say. Well, I don't know. Are they enlightened? They might be liberated.
Joy Freedom and Dharmic Alignment
Enlightenment is not an austere practice in the sense that it's not nihilism. You're not becoming bleakness and austerity in an unpleasant way.
Enlightenment is giving yourself the greatest joy. It is the greatest joy, the greatest happiness, and the greatest love. It is a remedy for most psychological pathologies. It's a remedy for basically everything.
When you enter into the state, it is such ecstatic, overflowing contentment. You have the best car. It's better than the best car. I'm just trying to think of the materialistic thing, like, "I want to get a really nice car or a really nice wife or whatever, so that I'm happy."
Well, this is the ultimate happiness. You're finding the source of happiness itself.
Where people seek in vain to find happiness through things and circumstances, enlightenment brings it directly through you.
But here's the paradox. That's not to say you don't have those things and circumstances. Once enlightenment starts to grow in you, your life will become more true to the wish of your heart.
You know, in that song from Disney, "If your wish is in your heart, then it'll come true." I'm trying to remember the exact words.
Kira A dream is a wish your heart makes.
Adam Wes What? Say it again.
Kira A dream is a wish your heart makes.
Adam Wes And then it keeps going and says, "And if it's in your heart, then it'll come true," something like that.
I love Disney. That's a really, really correct assessment of the situation, because when you become enlightened, you won't get the things that were superficial, but you won't want them. You'll be living in alignment with your heart.
Now, if that means you have the greatest guitar because you're a guitarist and that means a lot to you for living your dharma, then you might have that.
If it means you toil in the mud with Mother Teresa, then you might have that, right? Whatever that means to you.
If you're an entrepreneur, that might mean you're wealthy. If you're a humanitarian, it might mean you're part of an NGO. It could be anything, really, but you're in alignment with your heart.
So it's not austerity, but austerity helps you purge yourself of the things that are preventing it. Austerity plays a role in this, but really, ultimately, it's just following your heart.
There's this one TV series with a guy who was considered the Messiah. I love what he said at one point. They didn't believe him, and he said, "I go where God tells me to go. I go where God takes me."
The woman said, "Well, that's really convenient for you to say."
And he said, "No, it's not. That's a great responsibility."
So, in a way, you, as an expression of God, go where God takes you. God says, "Do this work." You have to do it. Or God says, "Be silent. Be nobody." You have to do it, right?
So there's a great responsibility when you are willing to face truth. It's just simply truth. God tells through truth.
We know. We know the truth, right? It's not a big, booming voice. It's a knowing of what is correct, righteous action.
One of the other things I really talked about here was that it's a state of extreme freedom, too. It's not the freedom to have what you like. It's the freedom to be true to who you are.
Colleen That's funny. I was going to ask you two questions.
Adam Wes Yeah?
Colleen When you talk about liberation, I think about freedom. When you talk about being true to yourself, I was thinking about the way to live as the person who is true to yourself, whatever your needs are when you're true to yourself. So that all encompasses everything you're saying, I think.
Adam Wes Well, what are the questions? I'm not totally following.
Colleen It's not really a question. It's just a comment. Liberation goes with freedom.
Adam Wes Yes.
Colleen Freedom means being true to yourself.
Adam Wes Yes.
Colleen You're saying whatever that means to you is the way you should live. So that gives you freedom. Does that make any sense?
Adam Wes Absolutely, yes. It's liberation from untruth, liberation from illusion, so that you can be what you are.
It's like absolute spontaneous action. Actually, I'll read a little bit of what I wrote here.
Colleen Sorry to interrupt.
Adam Wes No, no, I love it. Thank you.
"Freedom is freedom from the ideations of the self, the self-reflection that causes us to miss what is beyond the window and only see our ideas of existence.
"Reality comes into focus when we stop looking through the agenda of the concerns of the self and start acting from the freedom of the deep self, the true self, the knower, the be-er, the one who is free.
"In enlightenment, we dissolve the self. We discover the baggage of the self, all the things that we carry that obscure these fundamental truths.
"Some part of us recognizes that we are not free, that freedom comes from emptying the contents of the self and abiding in the actions of love, in the spontaneity of the self-transcendent."
So that's just reading a little bit from what I wrote.
It's a state of doing what is necessary in total freedom, on behalf of the totality, without any sort of pathological guilt. For example, "I'm so guilty, I won't love myself," or, "I'm so selfish, I won't give anything away."
You become that voice of righteous love that acts correctly based on what is true.
It means if you're a mathematician, you're not going to deliver pizza or engineer buildings, right? Because that's what you are. So, of course, you will serve in the way that's true to who you are.
All of these things become very self-evident. What is the right thing to do? There's a lot of courage in it, but to do anything else would be to estrange yourself from dharmic flow, the flow of truth.
This is related to that word, dharma, that we've used in the past. We step into the currents of dharma when we live like this, and we must abide by the will of dharma. We're responsible to God's wishes, like that character in the show I was talking about.
So it comes from meditation. It comes from mindfulness. It also comes from contemplation. You have to get clear.
Thank you to my teacher for this clarity. He distilled that very clearly from many religions and passed that on to me with that clarity, and I'm sharing it with you.
It comes from contemplation, too. You have to have a degree of lucidity where you understand life.
If you're confused, it's hard to act from the foundations of confusion. You have to know.
This is where mathematics is actually really valuable, because in mathematics, we get really good at thinking. It's easy to think about anything.
You could use anything you like. It doesn't have to be math, and you could be good at thinking even if you don't know math, especially because of the way math is generally taught.
But the whole idea is that you're super clear, you have a powerful attention field, you're super mindful, and you can go away. You can dissolve into nothingness and become your primordial source.
All right, let's see. What time is it? We're going to wrap up in a moment here.
Is there anything else I want to share from this document? Maybe I'll read the last part.
"Religion is the study of cosmology. It is the study of the self. It is the remedy for a psychological issue. It is the remedy for every human being."
Really, I'm trying to share that this is relevant to everybody. I think some people are just not ready for it, most people, perhaps.
So I said, "I'm all in on enlightenment. Meditate, be mindful, be kind, study the scriptures in any form that they come, go into light, be humble, and give everything you've got, not to the vanity of the superficial surface of life, but to the deepest calling, the deepest endeavor, the deepest aspect within: enlightenment."
So that's the end.
Any questions?
We could talk forever about this, so I just don't know where to stop.
Expressions and Exemplars of Realization
Colleen People working toward enlightenment can all look different, right?
Adam Wes They are necessarily all different, because in enlightenment, every flower is different.
Colleen Right. Okay.
Adam Wes Bruce Lee is a good example. He attained liberation as an actor, a famous actor and martial artist.
Let me just talk about some of the enlightened, liberated, and self-realized. Self-realized is the lowest level, because you've realized God. It's kind of enlightenment. Then there's liberation and enlightenment.
Einstein, as far as I can tell, I think he was actually self-realized. He was able to go into that light, sometimes accidentally.
Nikola Tesla was close to that as well. Emerson was apparently maybe higher. Shakespeare as well.
These were people who weren't shaved-head monks in ashrams, right? These were people in the world.
Now, there are plenty of unknown individuals who may be shaved-head monks in ashrams who also did become enlightened, but don't assume that they did. A lot of times, ashrams don't have any enlightened beings there.
It's a rare thing, if you think about it. There are 12 of them. Does every ashram have a powerful, Shakespeare-like individual? Shakespeare was a powerful, clear individual. Very powerful.
Colleen Composers?
Adam Wes Mozart was apparently somewhere in that, maybe even enlightened, actually. Who else?
Colleen Artists?
Adam Wes I don't think Picasso was. You probably wouldn't cut off your ear if you were enlightened, just because these are people who are in a very good headspace, right?
I don't know the full story of Picasso, so I say that with a grain of salt.
Then there are some people who are very overtly into enlightenment. They talk about enlightenment, like Sadhguru, Eckhart Tolle, Ramana Maharshi, and a whole bunch of Indian people. Anandamayi Ma, Paramahansa Yogananda, who was, I think, liberated. Jesus, Buddha, the Muslim people, whom I don't know as well, and some of the Jewish rabbis, whom I don't know as well.
It would be cool to know all the Muslim and Jewish ones as well.
Daniel R Krishnamurti, would you say?
Adam Wes Yeah, Krishnamurti was apparently enlightened, actually. Well, I think he was liberated. It's hard for me. He was liberated or enlightened, one of the two. It's hard to say. I'm not sure.
I may know better one day when I get clearer on it myself. I'm going based on what my teacher has said and also my own reading of these people's writing.
When you read Krishnamurti's writing, you can kind of see how he's talking about it. It's a little different from Nisargadatta Maharaj or Ramana Maharshi, who write from a little higher degree of certainty about it.
But I love Krishnamurti. He's one of my favorites, and at a very basically enlightened level.
I'm going to go grab the three books I wanted to show.
When I think of enlightenment, one of the books that comes to mind the most is this book, and this beautiful man.
I'll just open to a random page. You'll see how he talks. It's kind of amazing. It's intense.
"Of course, God is required for sadhana, spiritual practice, but the end of the sadhana, even in Bhakti Marga, the path of devotion, is attained only after complete surrender. What does it mean except that effacement of the ego results in Self remaining as it was, as it always has been?
"Whatever path one may choose, the 'I' is inescapable. The 'I' that does the nishkama karma, motiveless action; the 'I' that pines for joining the Lord from whom it feels it has been separated; the 'I' that feels it has slipped from its real nature; and so on. The source of this 'I' must be found out. Then all questions will be solved."
This is one little page right there, from this person who devoted his life to sharing and talking about this.
What other books did I grab? I grabbed a Krishnamurti book, one of my favorites right there, and that Eckhart Tolle book.
So let's do some meditation. Any questions?
What do you think, David? Did you enjoy that?
I love it. David is so all in on the transformation right now. It's great. This is really good. I'm honored to be a part of that and watch you. I'm happy to watch you go through it.
David P Thank you, man.
The Practice of Dissolution
Adam Wes I think you'll like our energy practice for today. The energy practice for today is dissolution. I think that's a nice, very appropriate energy practice.
We're not meditating on the chakras. We're trying to go away.
What does it mean to go away? It means you submerge yourself into the ocean of the real and become the unknown, unknown to yourself.
Unknown means I'm not thinking. I don't know that I am, because I'm not thinking at all.
What happens when you stop thinking entirely? You don't even think that you exist.
Imagine you cease to think entirely. This is dissolution.
Just try it. Just try to dissolve. Try to be nothing. Try to go away. Dust in the wind.
It takes courage, but it also opens your heart. The heart opens.
If it's too much for you, always feel your heart. But essentially, the heart is small because it's resisting. When the heart accepts, it expands. It asymptotically expands to the universe if you become nothing.
So let's do it.
Any questions, Mom?
I love the way you're listening. Thank you. I'm so grateful.
All right, let's grab some music here.
Oh, that was not too long. Sorry. Well, it's been 30 minutes. Half talking, half meditation, I like, if people are okay with that.
Is the music starting?
And hi, Lolly. I don't know you, but nice to meet you. Or perhaps I do know you. Welcome.
Can everybody hear the music? No? Here. There you go.
So, astrally, you've got your heart, you've got your navel center, and you've got your third eye. They can all support the dissolution process.
The heart makes you feel at home, unassailably, no matter what happens.
The navel center helps you will to transform the energy, and the third eye helps you maintain clarity. It helps you navigate.
And we're the navigator.
Deep breath.
Let out resistance.
I'd really like to do this with you guys, which means I may become unable to guide, literally, because I'm going to go away myself.
Let's just try to all go away.
Surrender to the ambient power that you encounter, your own being.
Notice all the ways you've been holding on to controlling.
Give yourself this moment. Become irresponsible. Become absorbed in the moment. There's nothing to attend to now.
Go home.
Allow the light to dissolve you with its brilliance and brightness.
See yourself as a child of the universe, innocent, beyond all of these spatiotemporal transformations.
It's like returning to the Divine Mother, dissolving and becoming home, at home in the universe.
Make sure to be absorbed in the light, or bring your attention to your heart center.
Think of what dissolving is, allowing destruction. It's a destruction of transmutation.
To go from one formation to another, one must allow one to dissolve into the next.
Let the universe make you and unmake you, mold and unmold you.
Let the ambient power of the universe move through you.
You are that power.
What are you? When are you? Where does space come from?
All of these questions break down the habitual, paradigmatic orientation, helping you return to the source.
Feel your heart radiate from your center.
Let yourself be the center.
This will be our final song in the meditation. I've really enjoyed coming on a journey here together.
Enjoy the sweetness of existence as it shines within you.
And when you're ready, you can come out of the meditation.
It doesn't take 51 percent of people to shift the emotional atmosphere of humanity.
If 100 people became enlightened, or 1,000, I think we could greatly alter the current subconsciousness, because it's extremely potent.
We have to start with ourselves.
It's like a garden. We have to work on our little patch, because only we can work on our little patch. Nobody can do it for us, and we can't do it for another.
We can only help them, show them the door.
So, birthday girl, would you like to share first?
Experiences of Dissolution
Ariella Yes, thank you.
Adam Wes I hope you enjoyed that.
Ariella Yes. Thank you so much, Adam.
Adam Wes You're welcome.
Ariella I was wondering, before, I've spoken about feeling that I just spaced out. Was that me dissolving into enlightenment and not understanding what that was?
Adam Wes This is a very important question.
When you use the words "spaced out," I think you should check and see if that's appropriate, because that sounds like it's not a good thing.
Usually, spacing out means your mind is wandering, right? But I don't think that's what is actually happening with you. It could very well be that.
How would you know? You would come back feeling renewed. You would come back with a sense that you had entered into an alternate state of consciousness and that you were putting your cosmic clothes back on.
It's almost as if you took off the garments of personality, and you come back and re-enmesh with the illusion of individuality.
That's what it feels like when you come out of a kensho experience. Does that sound like what you experienced?
Ariella When I come back, I feel like I have no idea where I was, but I was gone.
Adam Wes Perhaps it doesn't feel as if you weren't there. It's not that you don't know where you were. It's that there was nobody to be anywhere.
It sounds like kensho to me, actually. Do you feel renewed, and does it feel like an energetic purification and renewal?
I think you usually say you feel great after that happens.
Ariella But also, because I haven't heard all this before, I feel confused. Like, what happened to me?
Adam Wes Yeah. I think doubting yourself might be a natural thing, because it's not a very well-understood or considered topic, right?
Exactly. It sounds like you went away. That's what I'm saying when I say you go away.
You go away, meaning you don't go somewhere else. There's just no you.
That sounds very much like a kensho.
Ariella Oh, thank you so much, Adam.
Adam Wes Very good, Ariella. Yay! Wow, I wouldn't be surprised. Your energy is strong. You've been doing this for a lifetime.
When you and I gazed together for 12 seconds that one time, I could feel that you have a very strong power. It's a power of the ambient power. There's a power of dissolution in you.
In yoga, they have a god in Hinduism named Shiva, and Shiva is called the Destroyer.
It feels like you're getting destroyed, in a way. You can also go through love, where you're becoming bliss. But the Destroyer is nice, because it liberates you for you.
You can't really do it. You have to let the Destroyer do it, or let love do it.
Wow, wonderful, Ariella. I recommend you write about it as extensively as you can.
Try to be selective with your words. Consider what they are really saying.
"Spaced out." What does that even mean? Who came up with that word anyway?
This is why I like poetry. I think you guys probably know I like to speak in all these different ways and metaphors, because we're trying to describe something that is so elusive and ineffable, right?
So it's like taking off your cosmic clothing, right? Also, that's a little bit silly and sexy. Maybe not sexy. I don't know. It's flower-child-like. It's something hippie-like, right?
I'm trying to weave these metaphors together, but that's kind of what it is. There's this clothing that says, "I," and you take it off, and there's no "I" anymore.
It also hints at the idea that we know we're not our clothing, so are you your personality? If you can take it off, then what were you all along?
It's your birthday suit, cosmically, right? Then all that's left is, "I don't even know that I exist."
And yet you do, of course, because you're still here.
Wonderful, Ariella. Happy birthday!
Ariella Thank you!
Adam Wes Wonderful.
Well, namaste. Thank you. Happy birthday.
Ariella Thank you, thank you. Yes, a whole new thing is birthed for me.
Adam Wes I love it. You can look through the Jewish wording as well.
If you write something that describes your experience, I'll show you a way to find the Hebrew words for this.
Ariella Oh, thank you.
Adam Wes There should be Hebrew words for it, so we should do that for you, since you have that connection.
Ariella Yes. I'm not aware of it in Judaism, but thank you.
Adam Wes How come? All right. Colleen?
Colleen It's funny that Ariella said that, because I had a totally different experience today, and maybe it would be similar to what you had, Ariella.
Adam Wes Okay.
Colleen I just saw color for a moment at the beginning. At the end, when you started talking, I couldn't even understand what you were saying, because none of the words sounded like anything that made sense. It was just words.
But I felt like I disappeared in all that time in between. So I don't know what that was. I didn't have dreams. I didn't have visions. I didn't have anything.
It was just like starting and coming back, and then nothing.
Adam Wes Wow!
Colleen I'm not sure if that was kind of what you were saying. When Ariella was talking, I was thinking, "I understand what you mean when you say 'spaced out,' because space is so big. You just were part of this big nothing."
But I just felt like something was different today.
Adam Wes It sounds like we had two kenshos here today!
Colleen Could be.
Adam Wes Can you describe it more?
Colleen There was nothing. I saw the red in the very beginning for a short time, and when you started talking at the end, I saw a teeny bit of red. I couldn't figure out what you were saying.
I can hear you now, but I couldn't figure out your words. I knew you were talking, but I didn't hear anything. That's it. The next thing I saw was Hera's head bobbing around. I had to come back to it.
Adam Wes Wow, congratulations, Mom. I'm so happy to hear that. Wow!
Colleen It was different.
Adam Wes After all these meditations, you know.
This is my mom, Colleen. She has also been here meditating for three years, just about every single week, and she's been through lots of light experiences.
This sounds like you really had a kensho experience. What does the aftermath of it feel like? Do you feel it in your body?
Colleen Free.
Adam Wes Free?
Colleen Mm-hmm.
Adam Wes Wow!
Colleen Your sermon makes such a big difference, I guess.
Adam Wes Maybe it's because of what we were talking about.
Colleen It clicked inside, and I gave myself permission to be nothing, or whatever you said. It was just a different experience.
Adam Wes You guys are amazing. I'm impressed. Congratulations.
Colleen Ariella, were you born in '51 or '52?
Ariella '51.
Colleen Okay, so we're twins.
Ariella Oh!
Adam Wes Same year, same age.
Colleen Connected.
Adam Wes I love it. Well, namaste, Mom. Good job. Wow.
Please write it. It's good to write about these things. I can go back and read my writings from the very first week I went into light in 2011. I have the writings.
Colleen I can't do that. Ariella can, but I can't.
Adam Wes Just sit down and write a description. If you get in your head about it, then it's not going to work. You're simply describing.
Colleen It's not going to work.
Adam Wes Okay, fine. Namaste, Mom. Good job. Wonderful. Blessings. I'm so grateful.
Kira! I saw three fingers held up. So, Kira, how was your meditation?
Kira I can barely talk.
Adam Wes Oh, yeah. You look very blissed out. I was thinking your energy looks great. Wow. You don't have to talk if you don't want to. This is enough.
Kira I think the funny aspect of it was disappearing, then momentarily coming back for a second, my eyes opening and seeing my body was totally...
You know how people go away, and you hear the stories where serious meditators will just go, and they're totally not connected to their bodies, and the attendants come and have to feed them and stuff?
When I saw myself for a second, because I didn't have any awareness of what was going on, it was only for a moment when I opened my eyes. I thought it was funny, and then I just went right back into it.
Adam Wes Wow. Amazing.
Kira I guess it's interesting because there's a certain spiritual path or endeavor where you're increasing your level of awareness and consciousness. Then this is like you're almost removing it, you know?
Adam Wes Yeah. Initially, we create the conditions from which we can let go.
Kira Right.
Adam Wes More energy, more light, more heart. You guys were all in a place where, okay, now I can dissolve. This is the difference between yang meditation and yin meditation.
Dissolving to that degree is a very yin meditation.
We're clearing the energy. If you're so blocked up that you can't stop thinking, and you're totally dense, you're not going to be able to just dissolve into kensho.
That's why kensho is very advanced. You've already done a lot of the work.
So I recommend that, in your meditations, if you can have a kensho experience, you're able to dissolve, and you don't need to do a lot of clearing, just go ahead and do that.
We're trying to go away. We come back, we go away, we come back, we go away, we come back, and then we realize that we're everything and we're nothing.
Sahaja samadhi, the natural state.
Kira Thank you.
Adam Wes It's beautiful. Congratulations. Namaste, Kira. Thanks for being here. I was so happy to see you show up.
David?
I love this guy. David's great. Positive energy. It's so good.
David P Yeah, I don't know if I got to the point of dissolving completely, entirely.
Adam Wes Not required.
David P I'm going to tell you what happened.
Adam Wes Yeah.
David P I was locked in. I felt a huge magnetic, really, really big, strong field. I could not move. My neck was locked in, and my body was just...
Adam Wes Mm.
David P It was the first time.
Adam Wes Beautiful.
David P It was very, very dense. That's the word. It was dense. Usually, what I feel is more light. This time it was super dense, and I was locked in.
Then the second thing is, I started to see patterns, flowers, and figures, like in your software when you're showing your beautiful art and mathematics.
Adam Wes Yeah.
David P I was in one of those videos, but on the inside. I could see different things, shapes, and colors.
Then I saw a triangle. There was a point when I started seeing triangles.
Adam Wes Beautiful. That's an astral experience, this literal sacred geometry.
David P Would you call it sacred geometry? This was the first time that I saw this. The peak of my experience was that.
I was so locked in, so engaged. It was like a series of triangles coming toward me.
Adam Wes Okay.
David P Then I got disconnected because some noise distracted me, but the feeling of being locked in kept going until the very end.
When you said, "You can start to come out," I couldn't. I couldn't move. I started moving my fingers, and it was hard to come out of that state. That was my experience.
Adam Wes Beautiful. Keep meditating like that. Make sure to have a good meditation tonight. It's pretty late over there for you, I think, but even 15 minutes if you can.
David P Okay, yeah. Thank you. I don't know what you do in these meditations, but it's amazing.
Adam Wes Thank you.
My mom says she feels hypnotized. It's good. It means it's working over the computer.
When Kira and I get together, usually I do gazing meditations with people, where we gaze with each other, and then the light comes.
There should be a transmission of energy. We're aware of each other. We're focusing in a certain way, with a certain paradigmatic frequency, right?
So I think the transmission is happening through that and through your own sincerity. It's all the energies inside of you already, right? You're connecting with this potentiality inside of you.
Wonderful. Namaste, David. Thank you. Good job. Thanks for being here.
And Daniel, whom I haven't seen for a few months. Nice to see you from Mexico.
Daniel R It's also been a while since I meditated.
Adam Wes Oh, bud.
Daniel R As soon as the meditation started, I don't know why, but I felt the connection I used to feel when I meditated with you guys.
Adam Wes Oh.
Daniel R Although it was hard to keep that connection. There was a lot of noise around here, my neighbors and some dogs, so it was a little bit hard.
Then I started focusing on the music. I don't know if you have seen these videos where some music is played and a light goes through the music sheets.
Adam Wes Oh, yeah?
Daniel R I felt like I was that light. I was going along with the music, but again, this didn't last long because of all the noise around here.
Then I started thinking of other things. I tried to concentrate on my breath. I imagined the breath going from my navel all the way up to my third eye.
It was just for a few seconds, because I remember opening my eyes a little bit, and I saw it was 8:08. Then I closed them again, and when I opened them again, it was still 8:08.
But there were 10 seconds, 20 seconds, and I don't know what happened in those 10 milliseconds. When I came back, it was like, "Where am I? What am I doing?"
I don't know. It was very different from other experiences that I've had.
Adam Wes Maybe you were letting go as well, dissolving.
Even just a few seconds of it is a big deal. Any of this is, right? You're having an abnormal experience. It's not mundane consciousness.
Me 15 or 20 years ago would have considered this magic. To me, these are magical planes we're talking about, from the material perspective.
Daniel R Well, I'm really, really grateful, because of this sensation I had at the beginning.
I have been trying to meditate again for the past two weeks, and it's been hard. At the beginning of this meditation, again, it didn't last long, but that connection I used to have in these sessions, remembering and feeling it again, it was...
Adam Wes Good.
I love that. That's what satsang is. It's a feeling. You come back to it. You tap in, man.
Cool. Nice to see you again, Daniel. Thank you for joining, and hopefully we'll see you again soon.
Kira Adam, how was your meditation?
Adam Wes How was my meditation?
It's hard. I don't know how to describe it. I mean, it's good. My meditations have been really fantastic, especially the last few weeks. Lots of light, lots of stillness.
But there's a lot of power and energy, and the stillness is happening through that.
It's interesting, with all these kenshos going on. I'm like, "Did I have a kensho too? Do I always have kenshos?" I'm not even sure. I have to reassess that.
I'm not sure because I'm kind of always in this space of flow. It's a little trippy. I'm trying to reorient in the universe a bit.
I don't know if that's a good answer for you. There's a lot of light. There's a lot of stillness.
Kira It doesn't have to be good. I just want to know how you are and how you're doing.
Adam Wes Oh, thank you.
Well, that's my best explanation of my lovely meditation that I had with you guys.
Kira Thank you.
Adam Wes You're welcome.
Kira Nice meditating with you all.
Adam Wes Yeah.
Colleen Thank you.
Adam Wes Bye, everybody! Namaste. See you soon. Thank you.
Happy birthday, Ariella.
Colleen Thank you. Happy birthday!
Kira Yeah, happy birthday, Ariella!
Oh, we can't hear you.
Ariella Have a great night. Bye-bye. It was a birthday gift to be with you all. Thank you.
Kira Oh, thank you. I'm so happy we could celebrate with you.
Adam Wes Bye, everybody, and sorry we went over a little bit.
Kira Okay. It's an important topic.
Colleen Bye!
Adam Wes Bye, everybody. Thank you, Ariella.
Ariella Bye.