True Awakening, Part 1

The enlightenment teachings of Leonard Jacobson

Time and Timelessness

If we are fully present, there are no thoughts. If there are no thoughts, then quite literally, there is no time. There is no life outside of this moment. We can no longer function in the world of time, because there is only now. You would need a team of caretakers to take care of you, or an ashram would have to develop around you to take care of you and receive your enlightened utterances.

One such example is Ramana Maharshi. When Ramana awakened, he did not participate in the world of time. He remained in the silence and an ashram developed around him. That is the beauty of India. The Indian culture allows for one to enter into that fully awakened state and remain there. They know how to respond to one who is fully awakened.

But it is time for many more of us to awaken. Enlightenment can no longer be for just a select few, who do not participate in the world. If there is to be an awakening at a collective level, we will have to find a balance between the timelessness of the fully awakened state and the world of time. This means that we must master the art of moving easily between those two dimensions.

To do so, we must know that the present moment is the truth of life. We must know that everything outside of this moment is illusory in nature and so we no longer believe in any of it as true. We must recognize that life at the level of mind is simply play. It is sometimes happy and sometimes sad, because it is a world of duality. We relax and accept the dual nature of life within time. We are no longer for or against anything. We have transcended judgment. Life is accepted fully and so too is death. Joy is accepted fully and so too is pain. But we are so deeply grounded in the moment of now, that we no longer get caught in the movements of the mind and its world of thought and emotion. We are no longer identified with the story unfolding within the world of time. We are no longer defined by that story. We are deeply grounded in Oneness. We can move easily into time and the world of thought, and we are able to return to silence and Presence at will. In fact, silence and Presence are always there as the foundation of our existence, even when we consciously choose to venture into the world of the mind.

-Leonard Jacobson

True Awakening, Part 1,Video- Leonard Jacobson

Leonard Jacobson is one of the Greatest Spiritual inspirations in my life and I have been deeply benefited by his teachings on Non Duality and in this blog apart from sharing his teachings through text format I will also be sharing his teachings through videos and one such video I am sharing here .

Benefits of Being in Present

Being present is a fundamental key to true awakening. But even if you are not on a spiritual path, you will benefit immensely from becoming more present in your life and in your relationships.

How?

As you become more present,

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You will heal the emotional traumas of the past.
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You will free yourself from the limiting beliefs learned in childhood.
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You will not react so emotionally.
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You will be free from blame, guilt, and resentment.
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You will be more in touch with your feelings.
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You will feel more empowered.
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You will feel less anxious about the future.
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You will be less judgmental of yourself and others.
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You will not lose yourself in seeking acceptance and approval from others.
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You will feel less afraid of death, and more available to life.
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You will be more spontaneous and adventurous.
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You will be more open and loving.
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You will be more aware and conscious.

Being present will enhance every aspect of your life!

Leonard Jacobson

Respecting all dimensions of Life

It is important to not become identified with or attached to any spiritual tradition. Whilst Advaita reflects and addresses the very deepest level of awakened Presence, it is very easy for Advaita to become a concept in the mind of the seeker. When we become so present that Oneness is revealed, then of course we have transcended duality, which is what is meant by non-dualism. Of course there is no sense of self as a separate individual. But who is aware of that. Who is here in Oneness. Who is experiencing Is-ness. I am. Pure consciousness. Silent Presence. I am that I am. I would call this state God consciousness, but that is just my language. I am not sure what Ramana would call it, but we are speaking of the same thing.

We are multi-dimensional Beings, and to open into the deepest dimension of who we are, is not a denial of those other dimensions.

The pursuit of enlightenment can often be motivated by the desire to escape. There are many spiritual seekers who do not really want to be here. When asked why not, the reply is that there is too much suffering here. And they are right. The suffering exists because humanity is lost in unconsciousness. But without realizing it, they are also rejecting the natural world. If I ask them if they want to be here with the trees, the sky, the mountains or the birds, the answer is always yes.

You have to be very careful that you are not seeking to annihilate yourself in your involvement with Advaita. For those seeking to escape, Advaita offers a certain allure.

When I speak of God as Creator and Creation, I am addressing God as both. But I also say that beyond Creator and Creation I am, and God is. And beyond that, all that exists is eternal Is-Isness.

Another aspect of this is that, if Advaita is dismissive of the physical world as illusion, and I do not know if this is the case, then that would be a mistake. The only way to come out of the illusory world of the mind is to bring yourself present with something that is actually here in the moment with you. If that too is an illusion, then what will you be present with?

For me, this is Heaven on Earth, and everything in physical form is the body of God. When we are awake in the truth of life and Oneness, then we experience the living Presence of God in all things present. Who is experiencing that? I am! Pure consciousness. Silent Presence. I am that I am.

I can not imagine that Ramana would have a problem with that!


Leonard Jacobson

Dealing with difficult emotions like anger or sadness when they arise

If you are carrying repressed emotions from your past, particularly from your childhood, you will need to allow these emotions right of passage through you so that they can be released. Just feel the emotions as they arise within you. Identify them, confess them and express them in a responsible way, but do not become identified with them.

Do not believe in the story that your feelings are presenting. The story is always from the past. The present moment is free of the past. Whatever it is that you are angry or hurt about is not happening now, so it would not make any sense to believe in it. It is just a memory that you are caught in at some unconscious level.

Let the feelings up. Allow them conscious expression within you. One of the keys to awakening is to come into right relationship with your feelings. Everything that arises within you is seeking unconditional love and acceptance, even your feelings and emotions.

It is only when you repress your feelings that you create an inner disharmony which eventually leads to disease.

Leonard Jacobson

Handling repressed emotions

If you are carrying repressed emotions from your past, particularly from your childhood, you will need to allow these emotions right of passage through you so that they can be released. Just feel the emotions as they arise within you. Identify them, confess them and express them in a responsible way, but do not become identified with them.

Do not believe in the story that your feelings are presenting. The story is always from the past. The present moment is free of the past. Whatever it is that you are angry or hurt about is not happening now, so it would not make any sense to believe in it. It is just a memory that you are caught in at some unconscious level.l

Let the feelings up. Allow them conscious expression within you. One of the keys to awakening is to come into right relationship with your feelings. Everything that arises within you is seeking unconditional love and acceptance, even your feelings and emotions.

It is only when you repress your feelings that you create an inner disharmony which eventually leads to disease.

Leonard Jacobson

What causes physical illness?

What causes physical illness? Is it state of mind, random factors, external influences, karma, past lives, or biochemical? Is it all of the above? Is it different for each of us?

I think you have answered your own question. It really is all of the above. However, there are some significant factors, which I would like to mention here.

One significant factor is that, if we ignore emotional dis-ease, it will most likely manifest as physical disease or illness. For example if you carry resentment within you for a long period of time, then that will have an impact upon your body and will eventually create physical dis-ease. It is the same with repressed hurt and anger. And guilt!

If the body has to carry all these repressed and unresolved feelings within it, eventually it will show the signs of that burden. That is why it is so valuable to live more fully in the present moment. To continually release the past and live more fully in the present moment is very supportive of a healthy body.

As for Karmic factors, the most important aspect in this regard is to learn those lessons that will heal your soul and release it from its Karmic history. Any conflict or disharmony in your life is a good indicator of those lessons. Sometimes a past life can be at the root of a physical illness and it is necessary to bring that past life to consciousness before a healing can occur. That healing can occur at the soul level as well as at the emotional and the physical level and is sometimes quite miraculous.

I once worked with a woman with an inoperable brain tumor. Her life expectancy was very short. When she uncovered a past life, which involved extreme guilt in that past lifetime, her brain tumor disappeared. It is interesting to note that there had been a significant re-creation of guilt in this lifetime, but healing that was not enough. The true source of her dis-ease was in another lifetime.

There are many factors involved in physical illness.

What you eat and how you eat has a direct impact upon your state of health. Your state of mind is obviously a significant factor. If you are constantly stressed or anxious, that will affect you.

If the inner environment is still and quiet and in a state of harmony, obviously that will promote physical well being. If you consistently release the past from you, there is no burden for your body to carry and so nothing accumulates.

On the other hand, if you accumulate the past within you, it becomes an increasingly intolerable burden for your body to bear and eventually it weakens, and illness or dis-ease sets in.

Sometimes illness is simply a result of environmental factors. I worked with a woman who had extreme toxic poisoning from the environment. This had nothing to do with her state of mind. Did her karmic history play a part in her being subjected to the poisoning in the first place? Possibly! But that was not revealed in my work with her.

Another client had been involved in a series of serious motor accidents several years earlier, and she experienced some permanent disability as a result of those accidents. In working with her, it was revealed that her karmic history played into these events, as did her unconscious resistance to actually being here on the earth plane. At an unconscious level, she wanted to leave, which somehow played into her involvement in the accident.

It is difficult to generalize. It really depends on each individual as to which causative factors are prominent. It is even possible that illness is simply a sign that the body is cleansing.

One thing is sure though. Whatever the cause of illness or disease, the actual experience of the illness or dis-ease provides an opportunity for healing and evolving at the level of soul. What is your relationship to the illness and to your body during the illness? How do you respond? Some people find great inner strength in the face of illness. Some people's lives are transformed in a way that is profoundly healing for the soul, even if it sometimes does not lead to the healing of the physical body.

Leonard Jacobson

Silence

When you become fully present, thoughts stop and your mind is silent. You are not trying to stop the thoughts. It simply happens as you become present. Thoughts stop as you become present, because thoughts are always about the past or future. You cannot think about the present moment. You would have to take yourself out of the present moment in order to think about it. So if you bring yourself fully present with something that is actually here now, you must emerge out of the mind, and the world of thought. It cannot be otherwise. A noticeable shift will occur within you as you transition from the past and future world of the mind, to the world of now.

You cannot stop thoughts. It is impossible. The very effort to stop thoughts is a reinforcement of the thinking process. All you can do is relax, notice that you are in the mind, and then bring yourself present with that which is already present. If you can see it, hear it, feel it, taste it, touch it or smell it, in this moment, then it is of the present moment.

It is not something you are remembering or imagining with your mind. And so you can be present with it. You are not thinking it into existence. It is actually here now and so you Thoughts will stop, and you will experience a deep feeling of peace as your mind falls silent.

But there is an even deeper level of peace and silence waiting to emerge, as you become more and more present. As your mind becomes more silent, an inner door is opened, allowing an infinite and eternal silence to emerge. This infinite and eternal silence is the very essence of your Being. It is your true nature. It is the essence of all existence. It is the eternal silent presence of pure consciousness. It is the "I AM" of you. It is that dimension of you that exists in this moment and only this moment. It is that dimension of you that exists in Oneness.

It is your Buddha nature. It is the Christ of you, which exists in Oneness with God. It is awakened man. It is awakened woman.

Leonard Jacobson

Freeing Yourself From The Past

In truth, there is no life outside of the present moment. Sooner or later, we must all come to terms with this simple fact.

If you are to awaken fully into the present moment, and remain fundamentally grounded in Presence, then you will have to liberate yourself from entanglement in your own past. It is not the true past. It is the remembered past, which you access through the mind whenever you think. You will also have to free yourself from the imagined future, which is nothing more than the past projected forward. It is simply a fantasy.

The true future does not exist in the world of the mind. The true future unfolds through the doorway of the present moment, just as the true past is accessible through the doorway of the present moment.

To free yourself from the past, there are a number of steps you will have to take.

1. If there are feelings from the past, which have been repressed within you, will have to allow these feelings the opportunity to surface into conscious and responsible expression. You are not trying to get rid of these feelings. You are simply allowing them to express. Everything in existence has a right to exist, including the feelings of need, hurt and anger. If they were denied the right to exist when you were young, because they were too painful then or simply not allowed expression, they will have to be restored into the flow of conscious expression that was once denied them.

2. Forgiveness is a powerful force, which can release the past from you and you from the past. Forgive all those who have hurt you and seek the forgiveness of everyone you have hurt. The forgiveness must be authentic. Sometimes, the pain and the anger at those who have hurt you must be experienced fully, before forgiveness can occur.

3. With some people, healing of the past is necessary before forgiveness and release can truly arise. The good news is that, through the power of awakened Presence, which is a state of Oneness with God, emotional and soul healing is possible in a way that defies all reason and is beyond belief. In working with others, I have so often seen their lives transformed, as we successfully bring to consciousness some traumatic experience from the past, either in this lifetime or some earlier life time, which has been unconsciously projecting into and affecting their current experience of life.

4. To the extent that you maintain yourself in resentment, guilt or blame, you cannot be present, simply because these feelings keep you imprisoned within the past. You must bring these feelings to the surface. Bring them to consciousness in a loving and accepting way. Identify, own, confess and express these feelings, but do not project them onto anyone. Do not believe in them. You are allowing them into consciousness, simply so that they are no longer hidden and so they can no longer control you unconsciously. Feelings of resentment, blame and guilt are an indication that you are not taking responsibility for your life or for yourself. It is easier to blame someone, than to take responsibility for yourself.

5. This next point is the most difficult to understand and is the most easily resisted. If you continue to generate good feelings by remembering happy experiences from the past, you will remain in bondage to the mind and ego forever. Identification with happy memories holds you in the world of the mind and locks in place all those unhappy and painful memories you would rather avoid. This is because the mind is a world of duality, and there is no way to avoid duality, other than by becoming so fully present that Oneness is revealed as the fundamental ground of your existence. It is the same with deriving pleasure from the anticipation of a future event. Only the present moment can fulfill you. It is only when we awaken fully into the present moment that duality is transcended and Oneness is revealed.

Leonard Jacobson

Being in Presence and participating in the world

At the very deepest level of Presence, there is no time and so you cannot function in the world of time. Quite literally, there is no past or future. You are simply immersed in Oneness and the moment of now. All sense of yourself as a separate individual has dissolved. All sense of your self from the past and future has disappeared. You are in Oneness with all that is. It is impossible to know what I am speaking of other than through your own direct experience of what I am speaking of.

At this level of Presence, you cannot function as others do within the world of time. You will need at least two caretakers to care of your day to day needs and to lovingly watch over you. This seems to be the highest level of spiritual attainment. But an even greater challenge is to master the art of balance. We must awaken so fully that we are fundamentally grounded in Presence, but we can participate in the world of time, without getting lost there.

Once you awaken, there are two worlds, the world of the present moment and the past and future world of the mind. At this stage of human evolution, we must master the art of balance and flow between these two worlds. How is this accomplished? As a part of the awakening process, we must hold the right intention. Intend to be present often enough that the present moment will become the very ground and field of your existence. This means that you will have to choose to be present many times each day. When you notice that you have drifted off into the world of thought, memory and imagination, gently bring yourself back to the present moment. You do this by bringing yourself present with that which is already present. That is the key which will liberate you from the world of the mind. If you can see, hear, feel, taste, touch or smell it, it means it is actually here now in this moment with you and so you can be present with it. To be truly present with something that is actually here now will immediately bring you out of the thinking mind into a state of silent and awakened Presence. Your second intention is that when you do play within the world of the mind, which takes you into the world of time, with all its memories, imaginings, thoughts, ideas, concepts, opinions and beliefs, you will not become identified with any of it. You will not believe in any of it as the truth. The past is gone. The future will never arrive. Only this moment is the truth of life. Your third intention is to transcend judgment in your life. The energy of judgment imprisons you in separation. To transcend judgment, simply own it, acknowledge it and confess it whenever it arises, without judgment. Your fourth intention is to live as an expression of love and truth in this world, even when you are functioning within the world of time. No longer functioning as an ego in a world of separation, your expression at the personal level, within time, is now in perfect alignment with the impersonal and eternal dimension of you. In other words, you are now a personal expression of the impersonal, and you are an expression of love, truth, acceptance and compassion.

To reach this level of consciousness is a process. You will make mistakes. You will get caught in the mind, or in emotional reaction. When you notice yourself acting or reacting from within the mind and ego, simply acknowledge it and then disengage from it, without any sense of judgment of yourself. Just notice when you are in the mind and then bring yourself present. That is the only solution. There is no other way. You may need to allow the ego its expression, for you do not want there to be any hint of judgment, repression or denial. You may need to allow emotions into conscious expression for exactly the same reason. Do not even have the sense that you need to fix or improve yourself, for that is a very subtle form of judgment. Just allow it all to surface into the bright light of consciousness. Only acknowledgment, love and acceptance of everything that you have been denying, hiding and repressing will bring about the alchemy of healing and transformation.

Leonard Jacobson
http://leonardjacobson.com/about.php

Characteristics of an enlightened person

One who is awake or enlightened lives predominantly in the present moment. The present moment is always recognized as the truth of life, even when entering into the mind and functioning within the world of time.

At the very deepest level, an enlightened person does not function within the world of time. The past and future have disappeared and only the present moment is available. This does not mean that an enlightened person is always functioning at the deepest level. At other times, he or she might be functioning at a more superficial level of Presence and so the world of time becomes available.

An enlightened person lives without judgment.

An enlightened person lives without fear and desire.

An enlightened person lives in a state of acceptance.

An enlightened person lives as Love in the world.

For an enlightened person, the illusion of separation has dissolved. He or she lives with a strong sense of the Oneness of all things.

An enlightened person lives with a continuing awareness of the impersonal or Eternal dimension of existence.

An enlightened person is compassionate.

An enlightened person always acts with integrity.

It is impossible for an enlightened person to be dishonest.

One who is truly enlightened sees all others as equal and enlightened, even if they are unaware of it. This extends to animals and the world of nature. It is impossible for an enlightened person to intentionally harm another.

An enlightened person is substantially free of ego motivations and reactions.

This is not to imply that an enlightened person is somehow perfect. An enlightened person can, at times, react like any one else, and experience fear and uncertainty or feelings like hurt and anger. The difference is that the enlightened person knows that he or she is caught temporarily in the illusion of separation and takes full responsibility for whatever he or she is experiencing. The experience is owned and accepted but not acted upon as if it is the truth.

In the midst of constant change, an enlightened person knows himself/herself as the One who never changes.

Leonard Jacobson
http://leonardjacobson.com/about.php