LIVING ENLIGHTENMENT

How do we hold and live the state of enlightenment?
How do we get it to actually stick?

Living enlightenment in today's modern world creating sustainable transformation in our lives is a big question?

One way of looking at this is question is to start with what Ken Wilber and Andrew Cohen call Bottom Up and Top Down Theory. Both these states are important and all part of personal sustainable transformation.

Apparently you have to go through Bottom Up to a certain point then go Top Down. Once you go Top Down everything within you is rewired and re configured. Hence reason so many people embrace their personal growth for many years but nothing sticks then one day it sticks. This theory might help explain why this happens. I think though maintaining Bottom Up practices is something we will always have to do – for example at Integral Institute they call these ITP, we have been calling them remedies and rituals – the things you do and be to truly be living enlightenment. This helps you integrate your spiritual evolution like prayer, weight training, dancing, being with nature. So rather than make these either /or I suggest we live the Bottom Up practical and we also embrace the Top Down knowing.

When you switch to Top Down there is a re organization of your being and you must be true to this perspective in life no matter what – you calling is so strong. Once at Top Down you reach a new level but to get there you will be compelled to make the shift and feel a deep moral need to move to this place that is what will take you there, a deep intention for something beyond yourself. You can have glimpses of this state but it will not stick is most peoples experience until they want this more than anything else. The Top Down model is much more emotionally demanding to sustain than the Bottom Up model. Your role is to be true to the Top Down perspective even when you are often emotionally challenged. You stay in personal awareness through thick and thin when in Top Down theory. This will become a permanent state that you will reach and hold no matter what occurs around you.

The sensitive self as Cohen describes is emotionally invested in the time that the Bottom Up model gives it. The sensitive self is ego, the part that has to know, loves to work it out, is self absorbed, wants answers, makes meanings out of their emotions and thoughts and is personally involved. The authentic self lives in the Top Down model. It’s like the individual awakens to the psychic being, in a subtle domain, the soul or authentic self is the expression of pure motive itself and exists in another dimension to the ego or sensitive self. It is different to old school spiritual eastern theory like Brahman – because it has an interest in the manifest world. This means that within the manifest realm we will create and co create and contribute to ourselves and others. It is not about just experiencing this state of enlightenment but living it and contributing in the world with it.

In today’s world most spiritual people live in the Bottom Up model where ego resides. To move to Top Down you must have moved past your individual self and reached a higher purpose for individual transformation to occur. That means you will have found higher meaning to life and have experienced ego death through choice and surrender.

ENLIGHTENMENT & EGO

" The word "ego" is defined in different ways. In the psychological definition, ego is the self-organizing principle in the psyche. And obviously, this is not the ego we want to transcend, or we're going to be in big trouble! But in the spiritual sense in the enlightenment path, ego can be simply defined as narcissism, a deeply compulsive fascination with one's own image and sense of oneself as a unique individual. The Authentic Self, which abides between the Ground of Being and the Ego. The Authentic Self is the manifestation and expression of the first cause, or the creative principle, in the awakening human. It is the part of your manifest self that is already free from ego. It's the most wholesome, life-embracing dimension of who you are as an incarnated human being. This Authentic Self doesn't need therapy or spiritual practice to enable it to let go of unwholesome conditioning. It's a part of the self that has never been hurt, wounded, or traumatized. Why? Because, it emanates from a more subtle level of manifestation, a level that can be seen in this world but is not of this world. It cares passionately about life and truth and evolution. And its manifestation is always spontaneous. While the ego is an expression of the personal and historical dimension of the self, the Authentic Self is an expression of the evolutionary impulse in consciousness, which is always impersonal and universal." Andrew Cohen 2005

So to move your life to Top Down theory you must want to do it and also be committed to the journey of enlightenment beyond yourself.

But it is not like you get there and that is it as Ken and Andrew state, there is more to it than that. If it was a % it might be that your awakened or authentic self awakens in Top Down theory to 51% and that means 49% is still not there, you get you are no longer a seeker and that you are one with God but you still carry memories, cells, imprints in our body mind from the Bottom Up days that will be there. The road also down and through the 49% is not easy and one without bumps staying committed to this is part of the journey but you do not question that commitment you just are. So whilst you are poking into new stuff you are shaking off old stuff but they are not mutually exclusive. When you switch from Bottom Up to Top down it is like a whole momentum changes for you.

So when you reach the Top Down place you will view life from an integral perspective. The Integral Institute of Ken Wilber takes into consideration the whole – universe, nature, self, community, evolution and the interconnectedness of these and teaches the application of ITP and Bottom Up theory. At the Institute they teach people how to live 1st and 2nd tier consciousness where the self becomes aware of the integral nature and at this evolution is becoming aware of itself. According to Ken most people are at 1st tier consciousness and only 0.05% are aware of this and moving to 2nd tier consciousness. Andrew Cohen teaches people how to live 2nd tier consciousness as a spiritual teacher which looks more at the Top Down perspective. They both believe according to one of their talks on Integral Naked that it takes 5 years to move to a stage and to live it powerfully. You will think you have got it but actual complete re organisation can take 5 years.

ENLIGHTENMENT & CO - CONSTRUCTION

What we have found in our work is the power of the collaborative relationship and what we call CO - CONSTRUCTION means in the energetic relationship we transform at a fast pace. This means we NOT only view this as a spiritual transition but an enlightenment transformational ride. We use Energy Medicine to assist us to release all the emotions of the ego that limit transformation. This means the physical body becomes our guidance system and with consciousness development and teaching we take you across the line. Enlightenment then is NOT something you seek as a state experience in courses or following a GURU it becomes a permanent stage of development - enlightenment.

So our aim has to be to personally transform who we are through working with a teacher that mirrors the values that you respect and wish to follow. A teacher that will collaborate with you but also a “Nasty Girl or Rude Boy” as Andrew Cohen calls it – the one that will make you shake and is full on in your face – the one that is committed to transformation, not just merely making you feel good. So with this in place you’re your commitment to your freedom more than anything else there will come a time when you are ready to unlock it all and forget it all and step into the void of nothingness knowing that freedom exists there without ego and live being your authentic self contributing to the evolution of consciousness.

LIVING ENLIGHTENMENT & AUTO - IMMUNE DISEASE

How does this affect health and healing today?

The number of people with auto immune structure is on the rise. The statistics regarding this are amazing. Apparently there are more than 80 different Auto-Immune Diseases and according to the research of international auto-immune expert Dr Robert Lahita, more people die each year from these diseases than from Cancer and Heart Disease.

With that in mind and also having been diagnosed with an auto immune disease in 2003 I have spent time reflecting on this and through personal experience I have found healing and well being but I also have an opinion from my experience.

Maybe some people who have the structure of an auto immune disease need to be re configured to live the Top Down theory in life. To live an enlightenment path of self discovery and one that takes you out of the self. Ironically it looks exactly the opposite yet it calls you out of separation and self attack. A bold statement maybe, but only because we are so afraid of the word disease and the meanings we place on it. If we gave that up and could see it as a transient state that a person is living within we might have more freedom to see this perspective.

The structure of an auto immune is the body is attacking itself – we destroy our self by attacking our cells. Maybe we do this so that we can re build them again from a new learning perspective which having a dis ease or being unwell often gives us.

Imagine if your immune system is actually your unique spiritual/energetic self – it is your link to the higher realm within your unique biology. So if we are attacking our immune system and destroying it then maybe that is what we need to do to challenge our current energy frequency and where we are resonating at to redefine it, recognise it and re ignite our spiritual essence without ego in its purest form.

Imagine if we are being called to live the Top Down theory as an enlightenment pathway that Andrew Cohen and Ken Wilber talk about and to do this we need to re configure ourselves but who would do that by choice – none of us – but with dis ease and less than perfect health we are forced to understand our energetic self and our faith is called upon so our authentic self can come through. So maybe if you are living purely through your sensitive self responding to all your thoughts, physical states and emotions as if they are real and have intense meaning and not living within your authentic self your system becomes over activated which results in an auto immune disease with a stimulated immune system.

LIVING ENLIGHTENMENT & CONSCIOUSNESS

Maybe we are judging the many levels within us that Don Beck talks about in the Spiral Dynamics theory and these 1st tier consciousness levels need to be acknowledged and also the shadow experiences of these levels through enlightenment awareness can be addressed so that you as an individual can access your second tier consciousness.

This excerpt from What is Enlightenment is a great example from nature and what happens naturally for something beautiful to metamorphous. Imagine if these dis eases and ill health are actually gifts of new life and complete metamorphous and as a collective group we are being called to transform hence the vast number of prevalent auto immune diseases and mental illness problems many people are face in the world today. Maybe we need to view them, differently.

“Drawing on an example from the work of evolution biologist Elisabeth Sahtouris, she explains: “ When a caterpillar is beginning to transform, imaginal cells from the butterfly start to appear inside the caterpillar and the caterpillar’s immune system destroys them. The first response of the system to the new work, to the new models, is to eat them alive because they are a threat. And this is when the caterpillar is in its most voracious state.”Wheatley’s current efforts are focused on connecting the imaginal cells of the new paradigm so that “ they don’t get eaten but get connected so that we can grow, we can emerge into something much more powerful. When the caterpillar finally loses the battle, it turns into a goo- a complete mess – but it’s that goo that nourishes the imaginal cells that then turn into the butterfly.” What is Enlightenment March – May 2005

Maybe we have to access our real essence beyond our ego and to do this we have to break down to transform and be our authentic self. The way that some of us do this is through dis ease and the awareness that comes through being in ill health or physical maladies or death, loss and grief. There are many ways we find the way to do this, it just seems physical health is so personal and one of the most powerful ways to find this awareness.

Graves, Beck, and Cowan from Spiral Dynamics work pointed out in a recent What is Enlightenment magazine, “humanity is destined to remain victims of the global "autoimmune disease," where various memes turn on each other in an attempt to establish supremacy.” Their take is the various levels of 1st tier consciousness fight to be right and justified is why we are experiencing a global auto immune disease. When we can accept that all parts and all levels are needed as part of the integral and whole picture then the dis ease will cease – the fighting will cease. The analogy for the world and our current situation is similar for the bodies of many of us that struggle with our physical, mental and emotional well being.

THE ENLIGHTENMENT OPPORTUNITY

The learnings then for all of us might be:

1. We need to learn to STOP, and notice our energetic self and become aware of it so discontinue making yourself do things that you innately can feel are not right – learn to stop, wait and then take action

2. We often do not have permission to defend ourselves and for others to be defensive to us? There is a fear of not being able to defend our self often at core. Make it okay to be defensive and know you are able to react accordingly if needed.

3. Often those of us have such discomfort with the judgment from others, but find ourselves surrounded by judgmental people so we wonder what does this mean for us?We have found that this may be a sign to you that you have not yet identified and made friends with your UEI – your unique energetic imprint or authentic self. You are making your UEI wrong so you get others reminding you externally what you are doing to yourself internally. You are judging your sensitive self and need to allow your authentic self to un ravel itself through you but that can only be done by finding your UEI, your connection to the source, your essence.

4. There are many layers and levels within you and society – our role is to accept and embrace all types and parts and allow them to be.

5. Stop thinking is key – stop working it out, stop analysis and surrender to the state of reverence. Find that place within you as often as you can throughout the day.

6. Accept dis ease and ill health as nothing more than an opportunity. Stop judging yourself and others for their health. It is meant to be.

7. Learn to shout – make that okay to speak your truth whether it is right or wrong – EXPRESS yourself in the world.

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TO SARAH MCINTYRE HOMEPAGE

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