Power To Awaken: Totality
We all have the power to look within
“Power To Awaken” is the first book in a series that explores spiritual human potential
and the essence of life through providing personal retreat space for experiences
in silence and self-reflection.
By Scott Price.
Smashwords Edition
Copyright 2011 Scott Price, All rights reserved.
Unattributed quotations are by Scott Price
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Contents (Hyper-linkable)
Nothing To Lose and Everything To Become
Power To Awaken Personal Retreat Spaces
Inquiry ~ Furtherance or Progression of Self
Deep Listening and Personal Consultations
Next in Series: The Awakened Athlete
This pure mind, which is the source of all things,
shines forever with the radiance of its own perfection.
But most people are not aware of it,
and think that mind is just the faculty that sees, hears, feels, and knows.
Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling, and knowing,
they don't perceive the radiance of the source.
If they could eliminate all conceptual thinking, this source would appear,
like the sun rising through the empty sky
and illuminating the whole universe.
~ Huang Po
From Me To You
Totality, everything and nothing, all objects, all space, thoughts, life, energy, intelligence, silence, movement, all time, all locations, creation and dissolution, you and me. So how do we fit into All That Is and what will our relationship with it be?
This book is here to give voice to the biggest possible picture of reality because we all live in a puzzle of many, many pieces that don’t fit together. Relating to reality in its greatest context, what I call “Totality,” “All That Is,” or “One,” brings clarity and a feeling of being supported and provided for rather than being lost or confused in the World. Mind you, the mind loves puzzles and when you pull back your attention from the game and enter silence you will hear your mind protest when there is nothing for it, which is the spiritual space we are striving for.
We search for meaning in life because the World cannot provide lasting happiness, it always dissolves or disappoints. The mystical message of connecting with what endures and eternally supports us is a familiar one with many faces, and Power To Awaken comes with new perspectives, challenges and experiences for the reader. We are here to fully embrace what we are and to fully participate in exploring our life.
As the Buddha said:
“Do not believe anything
because it is said by an authority,
or if it is said to come from angels,
or from Gods,
or from an inspired source.
Believe it only if you have explored it
in your own heart
and mind and body
and found it to be true.
Work out your own path, through diligence.”
Throughout my life I have been pulled towards the challenge of experiencing things for myself to determine my own ever expanding truths of how I relate to all things in the World. Portions of this book are intentionally enigmatic to provide you with the challenge to step out of your comfort zone and to acknowledge an expanded path through life of greater awareness and understanding, and to grow as human beings. If this book provided only logical answers, step-by-step directions, and attempted explanations for everything it would be information geared for your mind; rather, this book is to be sunshine for your soul.
Be true to yourself and know that there is liberation in relaxing into being and in loving yourself as the vast wonder that you are. Here is to acknowledging and empowering each and every one of us to integrate the gifts of the unseen Universe into our own daily lives.
The message within this book is best not plowed through for mental comprehension since experiential spiritual energy does not reside within the perspectives of logic and reason. While the intellect may have to be satisfied first, it is intended for you to eventually and ultimately feel, soul search, connect with, and experience beyond your current way of being. So take pause to bring on the potential sensations, revelations, wisdom and experiences that may billow within you as beautiful growing storms clouds do.
You are invited to open to greater possibilities as we walk the World we believe to be true. Welcome to the magic within Power To Awaken!
For you, Scott
Introduction
Connecting with something greater than ourselves
Who doesn’t want this moment and their future to be filled with ease, wisdom, a sense of radiating self-love, and a benevolent flowing and purposeful life? How do we attain this? Can one attain ease and natural purpose as a state of being? The answer is right before us, as if we were looking in a mirror: we already embody these and other qualities we desire. They are inherently our “spiritual” nature. The key to remembering our spiritual nature of trusting and connecting with the unseen source, is to understand it conceptually and then to open to having the experience of it.
Words help us to understand that spirituality is both within us and all around us, yet words are only pointers to the experience itself. The most direct and clear way to have a spiritual experience is to enter into the inner stillness of silence, to suspend the rational mind and allow the sensations and movements of “no-space and-time” to move through us. In the still river of silent meditation the mirror of attainment is washed clean and we “see” ourselves in a new light. When we allow the space in our lives for this spiritual experience in a rhythmic way, that is, consistently and intentionally, it becomes ever-present as a supportive background, like breathing in and breathing out ~ who we are, rather than what we “do.”
Awakening encompasses an existence beyond ourselves; the qualities of wisdom, expansion, clarity, and openness bring action and purpose into our lives, and into the World as a whole. In meditation or contemplation we are not moving toward "all that is", we are integral as "all that is".
Integral being-ness is the field within which our experiences unfold, and expanding our sense of self to include our spiritual nature relieves the tension of relating to the World through the illusory lens of lack, separation and isolation.
Power To Awaken provides a sacred space for entering into spiritual experiences. You might think of it as your personal “retreat” place, where the doorways to your true nature are always open and welcoming, and where you can come and go as you please. The process of becoming aware of and infused with spiritual nature is an awakening, a quiet but powerful rousing of something deeply transformative, fulfilling, and life altering.
This book is divided into two sections: the first sets the structure and tone for your spiritual awakening, and guides you toward the second section and heart of the book ~ a series of 31 personal retreat spaces and discourses designed to expand the human condition through present moment experience, which cultivates stillness and silence, contemplation, and meditation. The retreats can be visited sequentially or randomly, as you feel moved to engage with them. People new to spiritual experiences, or those looking to expand their meditation practice or wanting to try something new will find the power to awaken stirring deep within by entering into any of the retreats.
Your retreat experience will be unique to you. In my mind’s eye, I see the Power To Awaken as a path that winds away from the confusion, noise, and distraction of the World and leads to the space between thoughts; from there, one can walk right up to the end of a dock where form meets the invisible Sea of Spirituality. Here is where we face all possibilities and can discern our relationship to the World with clear vision and an open heart. When we choose to immerse ourselves in the mysterious and maternal waters before us, the vastness of potential becomes our playground of reality; this, in turn, shifts how we walk in the World.
This book has a heart of balance and neutrality, as its essence does not judge or label things as good or bad. My intention is not to lead you toward an implanted experience or expected outcome. The words, intention and visual design of Power To Awaken have emerged organically as a spontaneous creative expression from my own retreats, pursuit of truth and happiness and embracing the possibilities of this life. I feel honored to offer this first book in the Power to Awaken series, which ventures beyond mental concepts, into the silence between thoughts, and invites readers to allow pauses and retreats of reflection into daily experience: a space where you can just “be,” or explore, feel, contemplate, expand, and connect in the timelessness beyond oneself, and in the oneness that exists beyond time.
Within this synergy of words and imagery is a sacred template for the integration of the invisible spiritual realm into physical life and action: a union of you as the clarity and balance of Heaven and Earth as one. Being healthy, active, in a relationship and financially secure is not our whole potential; a full human experience embraces the physical body and the objects surrounding it and listens to the unseen spiritual essence and intelligence that contains the manifest World. We do not lose anxiety, hopelessness, stagnation and confusion through objects. We discover a content, profound and desirable way of being in the World through an aligned picture of reality and that includes acceptance and spiritual sensitivity accessed through silence, attention and the blessing of Totality and its grace beyond human control.
A spiritual life is the journey of discovering, experiencing, and embracing, with trust and love, that which cannot be held in our hand. We complete the circle of our wholeness when we embrace our whole nature and when we believe in and love all that we truly are.
Perhaps the most useful way to approach Power To Awaken is with humility, spaciousness, lightness, and a sense of exploration. No matter how you came to be here in this moment, these retreats are here to strengthen your journey. You are invited to enter into the retreat spaces by walking to the edge of your familiar patterns of being and leaping into the unknown, trusting that you will learn to fly ~ or will find your solid ground to stand upon.
What You Might Notice
Power To Awaken is an acknowledgment of your humanly gifts and the potential of ever expanding awareness that is your birthright. We are, however, creatures of conditioning. Our language, traditions, genetics, epoch, location, and belief systems each contribute to constraining us in our individual reality and yet also provide something for us to push against so that we can realize spaciousness and a way of being liberated within ourselves and within the World.
These pages are designed to be a supportive and contemplative energy that surrounds you with a retreat experience for self-reflection, removed from your daily routine and enriching your life with a path of self-discovery. Such a path results in authentic clarity and expansion, both in the steps you are currently taking and the direction of growth in which you are moving.
The circular language that you will experience here in Power To Awaken’s retreats is intended as a bridge between confusion and clarity, illusion and truth, form and non-form, concepts and reality, and Heaven and Earth.
You will know you have experienced or are experiencing awakening to your spiritual nature when qualities that permeate everything you do begin to surface, including…
•Mental, physical, and emotional relaxation. Decrease or absence of anxiety
•Freeing up of creativity, joy and energy for life
•Dissolving of an isolated sense of self and loneliness
•Dissolving of identification with thoughts, doubts, hopes and fears
•Greater truth and clarity through inclusion of a bigger picture of reality
•Expanded ability to accept what is and take action from truth
•Attention of where you choose to focus your energies and life purpose
•Awareness of the essence that your likeness, personality, and story are built upon
•Ability to relate to others in equality not rigid positionality
•Love unconditionally regardless of reciprocity
From the state of calm observer awareness, there is greater sensitivity for vast spiritual experiences, and ultimately, the experience of unification with the energy, brilliance, and conscious intelligence of All That Is.
You are already perfect radiant clarity. When we experience low energy, confusion, depression, disharmony, or a sense of lack then something is obscuring our way and our view through the window of possibilities. That something is always inside you as your relationship to things, not external things that are placed upon us out of our control. A timeless retreat into meditation reconnects us with our liberated self and invites spaciousness into our obscuring patterns, which allows for greater inner freedom. This is why Power To Awaken leads you to an experience rather than projecting an opinion onto you. The challenge before each of us is to allow our light to radiate its true brilliance.
What would you have the future of humankind be?
As we cultivate a personal spiritual path with an eye toward our collective future, the treasures of the human experience lie within each of us accepting and loving ourselves just as we are, right now. It is vital to understand this: that the path of self-discovery and awakening is actually a path of self-acceptance. In spiritual retreat we are not collecting concepts or attachments to add to our being, but rather we are acknowledging personal and collective limitations as well as expanding our experience of reality into an ever widening view that is both seen and unseen.
Accepting and loving ourselves as we are does not mean that we don't put our energies and hearts into re-making or improving the World. It means that when we are clear, we are synergistically aligned with each unfolding moment and reality itself is the reward, rather than a concept or an illusion.
Reality itself is the reward greater than anything to be imagined or attained.
Much potential movement, growth, and many ideas have been constricted in the funnel of possibilities by fear or lack of self-acceptance and self-permission. We dine at the table that is set before us, so-to-speak, and our mind and conditioning is often at odds with what our heart and intuition tells us. What is being opened within these retreats is the opportunities to excuse ourselves from the table and have an aligned power of self-awareness infuse the quality and direction of everything we do.
The answers to our collective problems, suffering, confusion, and loss of meaning in life do not come from addressing the symptoms. We see that there is much disharmony and suffering in our World, and it pains us to witness and experience this condition, and yet know that something better is possible. This creates internal conflict, where heart and mind and truth and expectation are at war with each other.
Lasting resolutions come from shifting the cause of the problems, the sleepy state of being that allows us to remain silent, apathetic, or in denial about the unacceptable and untenable conditions we know exist. By transforming anger into harmony, conflict into peacefulness, judgment into acceptance, and revering life itself we bring the qualities of Heaven to Earth.
We begin by each of us taking responsibility for our inner state and how that ripples out into the World. The gifts of self-acceptance and unconditional love, happiness, and purpose that arise from such an intention expand outward, benefiting, our relationships, community, all life and the future of humanity.
Power To Awaken is here to acknowledge this flowering of your Self into embracing the wonders of human existence, to provide a space for personal transformation that reveals clarity and supports individual and united growth. Within these pages you are empowered to ask yourself how you want to co-create all your relations, remembering that you can embrace yourself and ask for what you want.
When we ask to reframe our relationship to people, events, feelings and ideas, to go beyond our limitations and pre-conceptions, it becomes available for us to do so.
As you approach your heart’s desire, not from the perspective of “me doing this (cause) resulting in a certain outcome (effect),” and as a temporary act, but rather by purifying and empowering your core being, whatever manifests in your life will have its roots in fertile ground.
* As you read each retreat you may find that you need to reread and contemplate the content, allowing it to settle before returning to it in the trust of silence.
Wisdom is the silence that your thoughts arise from…
What also comes in the silence is to be experienced by you.
Putting It All Together
Our life blossoms through the nurturing of a friendship with the soil of silence. The Allness that we are aware of is ever present, although our ability to attune to it varies. You might picture the “essence of everything” as a bright yellow wave that fills your awareness or mind’s eye. Immersed in the highest spiritual experiences we lose our constricting mental constructs and swim freely in this glorious wave of energy. In more mundane moments we may feel as though the brilliant fabric of essence is lost, though it cannot be. It is ever present; it is in the attention and the sensitivity that our human form becomes when we are completely open and completely connected. Know this and embrace it, become intimate with this radiant wave and inseparable from it, even as you walk amidst the noise of the World.
Be mindful of your retreat process, for as challenging, exciting, and energy-filled as it may be, humility and inclusiveness soften the edges of each newly formed step we take. As the next step always leaves behind the last, it is best to tread lightly. We are told, taught, and shown many things, yet the most valuable and ecstatic things learned are those we discover for ourselves. Only by having our own experience does something become alive and real for us.
So here you are, standing at the end of the dock, with noise and distraction behind you, and nothing in front of you. I invite you to take a deep breath, allowing the stillness to enter into your being, and to let go of anything you might do to interfere…
Unless you come with emptiness, how can you expect to receive?
The Observer Presence
At the heart of the experiential treasures in Power To Awaken is the practice of “not interfering” with what is. Our conscious growth as human beings directly relates to our ability to become an observer presence. This observer is the “I” that watches your thoughts and actions without interacting or identifying with them. When we say something offhand like, “I can’t believe I just said that,” it captures this inner awareness of dual entities.
The self or “me” that reacts from thoughts, patterns, expectations, hopes, and fears is always second-guessing itself in a confusion of options. The “I” or observer perceives with spaciousness, non-investment, non-judgment, and clarity. It is able to see more than a single self-centered view; it sees “what is” without projecting problems or judging as good or bad.
Power To Awaken invites exploration of this observer awareness through meditation, silence, asking (prayer), and contemplation of how we relate to things ~ all are active tools to better understand our truth and enter into spiritual experience. When we enter a state of observer awareness (watching your own thoughts and actions from spaciousness and without judgment) a profound and deep peace occurs, as the mind is calm and silent, and at the same time completely alert, unlike when asleep. Observing we are “awake” as alive and aware consciousness, we know ourselves as what we are before thought, we are receptive to truth as the universal mind, and we invite a deeper experience and the mysteries of grace.
We are an infinite tapestry, not just a single isolated biological unit.
Experiencing as the observer presence (through meditation and potentially constantly) permits you to explore and discover your relationship to all things: clarity and awareness arises from stillness, not the distracted mind or external input. You are invited to be open to an ever-present wisdom and expansive connection that defies bodily limits and holds the experience of the supra-
conscious spaces from which we came, exist within, and whence we shall return.
Power To Awaken is an exciting entry point into the mysteries of the unseen. Our spiritual experiences are unpredictable, and often not directly communicable to others. Enjoy what shows up for you, allow it in, embrace it, and be wide open to the wonders and possibilities. We are not merely pawns to destiny as our thoughts shape our reality and influence what we experience, so openness is a vital tool for inviting new horizons.
Some helpful aspects for connecting to your deeper self, totality, and spiritual experience through observer presence practice are:
•Observing without needing to add or do anything is the key. Watch your mind.
•Let the experience guide you, you do not need direct or influence anything.
•Let go of seriousness. There is no position to defend, no thought to own, no force or doing is required.
•When “nothing” is happening just enjoy the relaxation and silence, which may allow you to go deeper and become more sensitive to experience. There is more than initially meets the eye.
•Release any pressure you might feel: spiritual experience and totality are timeless dimensions. There is no clock, so there is no expectation. Short duration is fine, long is fine, interruptions are fine. Anger or frustration with time or an interruption reflects that the inner state is not fine / in acceptance.
•Any thought that floats by is allowed to just carry on as it is. You do not need to cling, grasp, label, or contribute anything. Just watch with acceptance and let things be as they are. Any sense of exerting force or control provides an opening to observe those behaviors and accept them as they are. Once we observe something and accept it as it is, we become liberated and free from it.
•There are no problems. A problem is a projection that things are not right: in Oneness everything is always exactly as it should be. Any problem you might experience is simply your mind creating a resistance to what is, thus again we can observe any chaotic mental patterns and let go into acceptance.
•As we weave our way as the observer to where we accept all things, we become free, open, and still. As we gain greater awareness, spiritual experience moves away from thoughts, observations, and positions, and swims in a limitless aliveness that can only be described as love, brilliance, intelligence, and acceptance ~ that which supports and holds all things.
•An interesting thing happens to us as we gain clarity and a refined observer presence, it comes with us wherever we go and in whatever we do. As we speak and think and do, we gain a sense that we are an observer watching our thoughts and speech as if we are not them. These thoughts and actions seem to arise on their own without the force of control. We then move through the World with clarity, neutrality, benevolence, natural action, and as the true purpose in life that is not a quantifiable purpose but rather it is the absence of confusion, time pressure, doubt, fear, maliciousness and non-acceptance.
What lies within these pages is just a reflection of what lies within you. There are treasures waiting to be uncovered (and are available to everyone), all you have to do is dive in and explore the sacred waters for yourself.
When inner peace, reflection, radiance connection, expansion, love or silence comes,
follow that gift,
be with it.
Close the book to honor the inner state and what arises.
Here the space says more than the content.
The sky does not need the clouds, nor does it create or destroy them. They arise with its all-encompassing boundless space. The sky does not judge, retaliate or punish clouds. The sky provides equality to all clouds as well as context for their formation of perceptual appearance and disappearance.
~ Dr. David Hawkins
Nothing To Lose and Everything To Become
Resistance to allowing the inherent human sun of our full potential to blaze fully realized can stem from the cloud of unknowing, layers of conditioning, fear of change, or fear of loss of control or survival (or lack of belief / awareness that more potential is available). Anyone who has had awakening and expanding experiences will relate that this is not the case.
Nothing is lost by trusting All That Is and treating our mental structures with humility and some space from personal attachment and identification with those thoughts. What flows is as natural as breath; actions are automatic and graceful, with just the right amount of energy. Expanded awareness dissolves limitations, problems, pain, confusion and disconnection, and reunites us with a loving state that is hard to believe was ever lost.
So begins an exploration of Self. Along the retreat journey you may find yourself feeling strong emotions, shifting into lightness, swirling in a mysterious stream, communicating in ways you had not imagined, coming home into yourself, or expanding beyond the previous limits of the shell of your body. Notice such sensations as if aliveness itself is speaking to you, and out of your intention to see yourself and all things more clearly, you will. No matter what the World around you looks like, read on with openness and humility that the World you see is not all that there is.
The Sun is always shining.
Even if partially or completely obscured
by environmental (local) conditions.
The same can be said for the human condition.
Power To Awaken ~ Personal Retreat Spaces
All its life that self, has been measuring its candlelight by other candles.
Now for the first time it is out in the open air and sees the Sun.
Evelyn Underhill ~ Mysticism
Take time to listen to what is said without words,
to obey the law too subtle to be written,
to worship the unnameable and, to embrace the unformed
~ Lao-Tzu
Now it is time to begin!
Retreat 1 ~ Where are we going?
Welcome to your first retreat. Our spirit has no need for where we think we are going. Our practical and conceptual life, however, needs to work toward a future point that holds many choices, any of which may or may not prove to be illusion when that point arrives. A liberated life is about bringing the essence and wisdom of the unknown into action and purpose in our lives and the World as a whole.
We are not going towards All That Is. We are integral as All That Is.
When we live from a rooted awareness of the essence that our World is built upon, there is clarity, openness, and alignment with the single reality that each of us lives / walks. We say “what if?” in relation to imaginable past and future realities, yet the “what if?” is launched from “what is.” A common delusion of humankind is the multitude of options that appear to be real and possible, when only one outcome ever unfolds in each moment. This creates and feeds doubt, worry, stress, anxiety, regret, and confusion when one’s security is founded in the single path taken. Inner harmony is found by acknowledging and trusting the One, whether perceived as desirable or not and not getting lost in the multitudes of imaginable potential fragments.