I like Adyashanti. He comes across as a perfectly normal guy who just happens to be enlightened. And when he talks about the true nature of enlightenment, his explanations are clear and simple firsthand reports.
But for students of A Course in Miracles, those explanations can be troubling, because Adya’s descriptions of enlightenment are markedly different from those offered by the Course.
Adya says enlightenment is nothing at all – it’s merely what you have left after the ego mind is dissolved. There’s no more distorted perception of the world; you just have the clear, ever-present truth of Oneness. It’s a state of awareness that’s neither happy nor sad – it merely is. And there’s nothing else beyond it.
(It’s not just Adya who says this, of course. Jed McKenna, various Zen masters and many other self-realized teachers throughout history have all described their enlightenment in similar terms.)
The Course, on the other hand, speaks of a fully enlightened state, which it describes as limitless joy, infinite fulfillment and completion. Perfect love and safety and freedom and peace – along with the certainty of being home at last, exactly where we belong. And this is said to be a permanent, changeless state, radiating with brilliant holy light, forever and ever amen.
So whose description should we believe?
The answer, as far as I can tell is: Both. But they’re describing two different states.
Adya’s explanation seems to be a description of non-dualism, which the Course says is the 3rd step of 4 on the road to full enlightenment. Non-dualism is just what it sounds like: It’s the realization of Oneness, waking up to the reality that we’re not separate.
(The first 2 steps of 4 would be: dualism, which is where we all start out – an unquestioned belief in separate bodies and separate minds; and semi-dualism, which would be sincere-ish belief in Oneness while mostly maintaining faith in the reality of separate 3-D existence at the same time. Trying to have cake and eat it, in other words.)
Adya and the aforementioned other guys are enlightened. I’m not. (I’m assuming the same can be said of you.) So it seems ridiculous to stand up in front of a self-realized guy and say: No, excuse me, you’re wrong, because the teaching I believe in describes enlightenment differently from what you say about it.
I mean, who am I to disagree with an enlightened guy, right? He’d probably just smile and tell me all beliefs are illusion, so get over it.
Well, as it happens, I did get within spitting distance of enlightenment once. And it left a sort of residue of truth behind – a lasting ability to see the big picture.
In the Dinnertable Awakening of 2005, I was presented with an invitation to accept enlightenment. (That’s what awakenings are – you’re awakened to the truth of all existence, but whether you embrace that truth or turn away from it is up to you.)
I didn’t embrace it. At the time I found the limitless freedom of enlightenment so disturbing, so uncomfortable that I willingly threw away the opportunity. I pulled myself back into my body and my 3-D world instead, choosing to turn away from Oneness.
(Could I kick myself now for making that choice? Uh…hell yeah. But I wasn’t ready; I just couldn’t stand to stay in that infinite state of awareness.)
But when people like Adya are presented with the option of enlightenment, they choose it as their permanent operating system. So I’m not about to claim they’re mistaken or misinformed about what that enlightenment looks like. How could they be? They’re clearly just reporting on their own authentic experience.
Yet I choose to believe that there’s more, as the Course says there is. Call it a strong intuition that there’s another chapter to the story – one that those enlightened guys just haven’t experienced yet.
That would be the 4th state of 4, the full awareness of union with God. The unending joy of knowing that all of us, together, are Heaven.
And that state is called pure non-dualism, a condition that’s so far beyond plain old non-dualism that the Course says there’s no point in even trying to describe the magnificence of it.
Pure non-dualism, that’s the one I want. I’m going for the gold. Could I be wrong about its existence? Absolutely.
But it’s still where I’m headed. And if I make it in this lifetime, I will promise you one hell of a blog post.
9 Replies to “Enlightenment: infinite joygasm – or just release from ego?”
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I’m with you, going for the gold!
Greetings Dear One,
Finding this blog and web-sight is a breath of fresh air. I’m linked to you through Joe Wolfe. I’ve recently started writting to an inmate (female) who has embraced The Course. Sweetheart I have spent years reading,doing the lessons, going to workshops, attending devotionals and about 50% of the time I’m good the other 50% is let’s say shit times. I felt something in reading your blog that was Light, airy (not faerie)and that is what I want. It feels so much like swimming up stream reading Course material. I love David Hoffmeister and the Messengers of Peace they have spoken to me in a language I can understand. It’s just the abstract concept that trips me up.So I’m writting to thank you for your being clear and humorous. Always Rozes
thank you dear! I’m all about going for the clear translations, it’s always heartening to hear when another person “out there” connects with it. 🙂
Thanks, once again, Carrie, for not stopping right at the edge of enlightenment. It just doesn’t do it for me. All or nothing. Illusion or Reality. No in between. Even to be considered ‘enlightened’ while still in a seeming body is a bit of a stretch for me. But we all make it Home, in the end. Guaranteed. I look forward to your and Spirit’s next book, and the one with Fran, as well. 😀
Dearest Triskana! Thanks for your encouragement! Now & forever, we’ll make it Home together.
(on the understanding, of course, that there’s no ‘there’ out there… 😀
Such interesting thoughts..I am a male I thhink I am enlightned I was oneness in life. We all have different views and paths on this journey. The key is to listen to one another, find knowledge in there thoughts ! Because becoming one is more about having the ability to listen , not pass judgement , learn , share with one .
Carrie, I have an idea – read my book, “Knowledge, The Essence of World Scriptures”. I’ll send you a pdf if you like. Read what all the great masters have said throughout history… and think about it for a while. Is it possible that one of the ideas you are compare above does not preclude the other?
“This course will lead to Knowledge, but Knowledge itself is still beyond the scope of our curriculum… The readiness for Knowledge still must be attained.
“Love is not learned. Its meaning lies within itself. And learning ends when you have recognised all it is not. That is the interference; that is what needs to be undone. Love is not learned, because there never was a time in which you knew it not. Learning is useless in the Presence of your Creator, Whose acknowledgement of you and yours of Him so far transcend all learning that everything you learned is meaningless, replaced forever by the Knowledge of love and its one meaning…
“And when the memory of God has come to you in the holy place of forgiveness you will remember nothing else, and memory will be as useless as learning, for your only purpose will be creating. Yet this you cannot know until every perception has been cleansed and purified, and finally removed forever. Forgiveness removes only the untrue, lifting the shadows from the world and carrying it, safe and sure within its gentleness, to the bright world of new and clean perception. There is your purpose now. And it is there that peace awaits you.”
The release of all fear (ego) results in everything the course promises. Words are limited. but that experience is everything. Receiving Knowledge does not require one to be perfect, but it is helpful to be prepared to sort out the True from the untrue… and the course does that. The course, from what I can tell, is coaching us in the practice of Knowledge… until we are finally convinced that we no longer wish to stay in the dream.
Enlightment – I had a brief dream experience while reading your book Carrie. What I describe happened pages before I read about stepping into another soul. I had a dream where I had died but had not crossed over yet. Somehow I ended up on a train with a few other pasengers. No one I knew until I felt a complete peace, undonditional love with a sense of familiarity. I turned in my seat to see my bff who I had missed dearly for many years (she is alive by the way). Tears streaming down my face I rushed to hug her, tough her face. She was crying too. Then she told me I was trying too hard that all I had to do was step into her. And I did. I remember a feeling beyond anything could ever begin to describe. In an instant we knew everything about eachother with total exceptance and love.
When I woke up I thought what a great dream. Then weeks later I read about your experience and was blown away.
Back to the dream, my friend told me she was there to help and guide me, that I still had a song to sing to heal the world. By the way, I have a terrible voice.
LOL! Lots of different kinds of songs are needed, I guess. 🙂
Thanks for telling me about your dream, I can feel its power in your description of it.
xo
Carrie