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enlightenment
November 2009 
The beauty of the unenlighted state
Posted on Sep 27th, 2009
by 
Centria
Centria
--Why, oh god, why am I having to write another blog now? Silence wants attention! Silence wants focus! Silence wants her day in court!
**Because, dear one, you're not here in this body alone. Others of us want to speak. May we proceed?
--No, no, no, no, not if you expect me to come forth and comment on comments! I cannot do it anymore, cannot, cannot...
**There, there, dear one, you needn't respond to comments on this blog at all. You'll be fine. But some of the rest of us have some questions we'd like discussed. May we just place this blog on Gaia and let any responses which arise come up...and you do not have to answer a single one. You're off the hook. But others of us want to know. What do you say, dear one?
--I am not your dear one. OK, I am. Write whatever you have to write and then let me free of this computer, can you?
**Thank you. Dear readers, we have a question for you. We opened the Sounds True catalog yesterday and leafed through it with some interest. We discovered a 10CD set (17 hours) by Alan Watts called "You're It." We would have liked to purchase the CD's but the Financial Manager among us said "no". She said that the CD's cost $99.95 and that was way too much for the budget.
Here is the line that intrigued us: Alan Watts promises to tell us about "the beauty of unenlightened state--why you don't have to be awakened to play the great game."
Could any of you explain what you think is the beauty of the unenlightened state? Please? Some of our number doesn't appreciate the unenlightened state as much as they could and we would like to respond intelligently to their fuss without spending $99.95.
Thank you. So much. To repeat: your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to write a few words or paragraphs defending the unenlightened state. Sharing its beauties. Without pointing too much toward the enlightened state. That state will have its turn to hold the eagle feather and explain why it's preferable. Thank you.
And if Kathy refuses to comment, it's just because she's overwhelmed right now. This always happens when too many words start to confuse her. We'll leave her out of this for now, shall we?
Thank you sincerely.
Time for a commercial! **Brought to you by the creators of Voice Dialogue, a technique for getting in touch with the many selves which comprise the All. Contact a Voice Dialogue facilitator if you, too, want to learn to talk to your self (selves)!**
**Because, dear one, you're not here in this body alone. Others of us want to speak. May we proceed?
--No, no, no, no, not if you expect me to come forth and comment on comments! I cannot do it anymore, cannot, cannot...
**There, there, dear one, you needn't respond to comments on this blog at all. You'll be fine. But some of the rest of us have some questions we'd like discussed. May we just place this blog on Gaia and let any responses which arise come up...and you do not have to answer a single one. You're off the hook. But others of us want to know. What do you say, dear one?
--I am not your dear one. OK, I am. Write whatever you have to write and then let me free of this computer, can you?
**Thank you. Dear readers, we have a question for you. We opened the Sounds True catalog yesterday and leafed through it with some interest. We discovered a 10CD set (17 hours) by Alan Watts called "You're It." We would have liked to purchase the CD's but the Financial Manager among us said "no". She said that the CD's cost $99.95 and that was way too much for the budget.
Here is the line that intrigued us: Alan Watts promises to tell us about "the beauty of unenlightened state--why you don't have to be awakened to play the great game."
Could any of you explain what you think is the beauty of the unenlightened state? Please? Some of our number doesn't appreciate the unenlightened state as much as they could and we would like to respond intelligently to their fuss without spending $99.95.
Thank you. So much. To repeat: your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to write a few words or paragraphs defending the unenlightened state. Sharing its beauties. Without pointing too much toward the enlightened state. That state will have its turn to hold the eagle feather and explain why it's preferable. Thank you.
And if Kathy refuses to comment, it's just because she's overwhelmed right now. This always happens when too many words start to confuse her. We'll leave her out of this for now, shall we?
Thank you sincerely.
Time for a commercial! **Brought to you by the creators of Voice Dialogue, a technique for getting in touch with the many selves which comprise the All. Contact a Voice Dialogue facilitator if you, too, want to learn to talk to your self (selves)!**
Access: Public
This is very funny and beautiful to me, Kathy….
well…I enjoy unenlightened life because relationship still has meaning to me….I enjoy 'the other', not as myself. There is polarity, dance…uncertainly, mystery, intrigue, my blood boils from 'want'…my heart leaps still from my 'needs.' My mouth waters from the taste of the 'other.' I enjoy this very much!
In an enlightened state, I will lose some of this…the other has become one…not two. Until then, ooooohhhhh, I enjoy so much two…more than one!
I hope you are resting…not beating your head up against the wall!…Your blog is quite charming!!….
with love!
Cheyenne
Shoot, even God had to have “other” in order to recognize Him/Herself. And what was that old Three Dog Night song? “One is the loneliest number…” I'm with Cheyenne on this one.
Alan Watts is a great teacher, but the True Teacher is within…for free. Treat yourself to a spa day with the $99.95 and call it even.
hmmm how about this?? : I AM
or this: oh look a chicken
or even this: yummy Halloween candy corn! (ew we cannot believe we said that)
oh nutboogers? i think i am trying to say that to know each simple thing can look unenlightened cause we just see it and not a label or a huge array of thoughts..that's unenlightened, but perhaps to know that one doesn't need those damn cds is the MOST enlightened of all
what a pickle and i thought it'd be a simple answer (she just says that she really doesn't think so)
the group conscience(and one dissenter/ok two)
The beauty of the unenlightened state is exactly the beauty of the enlightened state… or would be if we were to stop thinking 'states' or 'this/that' and start feeling 'one'.
It is all one, unless we choose to believe the thoughts that drive the words that say there is a difference.
Believing the thoughts that drive the words that say there is a difference, well, it separates me from me. It's all part of the illusion, of course, but I begin to feel separate. Until I drop the illusion, drop the thoughts, the beliefs, the adjectives, the judgments, the___, and find that what's left says everything I ever wanted to say about me, and says it with perfect truth.
Like Elisa said: I AM
…sneaking back in to whisper “I'm loving all your answers!” thank you for posting. your combined wisdom is worth more than $100!! thank you from the bottom of my heart. :)
Kathy,
Here's an admission, I don't know what “enlightened” means.
I'm just a very simple, natural woman who loves walking in the woods and thinks that is about the best I could and will ever know during this physical life. Oh, my husband and kids keep me from feeling lonely or drive me nuts or are just plain fun. Work can be a real drag and I will try just about anything to avoid it, as I am doing now.
I like reading books and I like listening to cds of people who love spirituality but what does spirituality mean to me? It just means that I feel the aliveness of Being here Now, even the wind and the rocks seem to be alive somehow but I can't say why, it's probably just my tendency towards craziness. Neither of those can speak to me in a language I understand, except the love I feel in my heart when I notice them.
I fear that the “path to enlightenment” has too many burdens and will ask me to give up stuff that I don't want to. I hate dieting. So, what that statement means is that I hate giving up stuff that I like, even if somewhere deep inside some human aspect is telling me, I'd be better without it. So, that same human aspect tells me, I'm happier to just BE the way I am.
If you want that, then I hope you go for the spa choice. I wouldn't. If you really want to manage your finances, just go for a walk in the woods. I bet the leaves are putting on bright colors for you now.
Deb - just enjoying and liking
that it isn't hot or cold today and
that there is a light breeze to ruffle my hair.
Ahhh, Deb, that simplicity that you have just described, that “just so” is such a beauty! We've been pulling up the beans plants and putting away the bean fence this afternoon.
I find that in this journey of “everything” I am very complex. The stars, the flowers, the grasses, this thought, that thought, enlightenment, not enlightenment, doing, not doing. Embracing them all. There is so much to me that I never know where to start or begin or end. How could you unravel so much complexity?
The simplicity you've just described is in Awareness. Awareness feels so simple, so non-seeking, so “just so” as you've described. Awareness loves the complexity and the simplicity. But it FEELS so simple and right and heart-felt and good…how could we not surrender to it?
The energy of just being…that's it. Of allowing the spa-goer to go to her spa, the book reader to read her book, the woods-walker to walk her woods. To allow each and every impulse a home, a recognition (and to allow it in others when we see it coming forth too.)
To say YES to it all. Even the challenging parts. The dissonant parts. To allow them a voice to speak. To allow them to be, and not to cut them off, not to crop off their head. (I'm not saying other people do this, I'm just saying I've seen myself do this.)
And out of this allowing of all the voices, all the complexity, comes probably the same simplicity you've described, dear Deb. And nods to you, Ruth. And Elisa. And Kat. And dear Attainment. To truly feel what you say as yet another truth, another turning, another leaf falling.
I am in awe of leaves falling. In the differences of words coming forth. And saying yes, yes, yes. You, too. And you too. And this part too. And this part too. Yes, you can exist. I may not choose your choice in the next moment, but you can BE.
I AM. A multitude, I AM.
“The beauty of the unenlightened state..”
How could it not be.
Only an unenlightened state of mind makes a distinction to see it otherwise.
Hey, Cheyenne, you don't have to give up any of that, in my experience. The One is not a homogeneous blob. It is everything it presently is !!! The Buddhists have their Not One, Not Two doctrine, which I interpret as meaning the One is not a homogeneous blob. It is, simple Awareness, as all the commenters above have so beautifully described!!
And Ken Wilber talks about the 2nd person Face of God, which is exactly what you were describing. God loving God as the “other.”
That, IMO, is the beauty of the unenlightened state. I do think it is distinct, but is also a specially-created experiment or project of portions of my Self which are “enlightened.” A decision to play a character in a play, if you will, and deciding to play it well enough to temporarily forget who I ELSE I am !!!
If I might get cosmological, in my understanding the entire purpose of the experiment or project of creating portions of the One Self to function “unenlightened” was the awe and wonder of the awakening process. Who can appreciate the water as much as the fish who's spent a few minutes in only air?? That's the whole of it all. We're volunteer portions of It All, the volunteer fish. And we return with a precious unique gift: we have contrast to what other Beings have never known anything but. So we can appreciate what is, we can appreciate Awareness, in ways and to a depth and extent that no other Beings ever can. Self-appreciation, after Self-exploration.
And besides, “Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once.” Awareness has really learned so much from this slow-motion reality, in which manifestation is not instant, in which linear time and space really slow things down and take them apart so the details are more apparent. Wow. Like a microscope. So much knowledge has been gained!!!
So, to my portion of the Infinite Awareness Self, the beauty of the unenlightened state is first in the knowledge gained, and second and most of all, in the awe and appreciation of My magnificence which would not have been possible to experience, without that state for contrast. So, like hitting oneself on the head with a hammer, it feels good when you stop.
Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time…..
Loved your blog, Kathy. You are so magnificent – and gracious to comment after all, haha!! Loved all the comments. Thank you Deb for your wonderful perspective. One might not think so, from my idea-oriented wordiness, but I deeply resonate. And with others here, too. Rudyan, love the quasar icon!!
Love, OM Bastet
OM Bastet, you are SO wise and insightful, and I mean it. I am feeling like a volunteer fish with a huge hook stuck in its mouth and suddenly sooooooo very tired for volunteering to be a channel for all this energy that wants to come through. Just eat me and get it over with, the fish sighs…
Ummm, that's the most wise & insightful comment I can come up with. All your comments sound much better and wise and fruitful. Just allowing…but sometimes just allowing is HARD. Because is Awareness saying what the separate self wants to say? Which separate self? And who the hell cares?
I love you all because you FEEL like shining spokes on the wheel of the All, shining beautiful shimmery spokes of irradescent light. Who speaks and who listens? Who turns the wheel of What Is? Why do we each play our role? and it doesn't matter at least to the wagon and the horses neighing in the frosty dawn.
And dear Lucienne, my unenlightened self forgot to reply to YOU. I am sorry. The unenlightened self does not yet see quite clearly. But it loves YOU.
I cain't hep it, my Cosmic Essence is Divine Intelligence. Always wanting to know, always seeing details, patterns, similarities and differences. And missing the horses neighing in the frosty dawn. My guides just said jokingly “Wise is the booby prize.”
Fish swim in channel. Awareness hook fish and eat fish. Awareness swim in channel. Channel now fish and Awareness.
If that's Intelligent, not the usual sort, LOL !!!
Hugs to all
OM
ROTFLMAO…
Deb, just read over your words again: the aliveness of being here now.
Am feeling so much more able today to sink into words and essences and feel their beauty and individual truths. Just reading your words this morning sparks awareness of just that…the simplicity…and not the need to turn it around to the complexity. Thank you for sharing that.
Lucienne, yes, it's only our unenlightened minds which would question it. LOL… (can't help myself…or PARTS of our minds question it!)
OM, your words have helped me feel deep love for time and the separate selves. The precious separate selves with our preferences for latte or words or spas or questioning or silence. To leave it just there. :)
Starlight, so glad for laughter! And for your poem, how beautiful. That contraction, that birth contraction, is so part of it and yet we sometimes push away the contraction as newness is birthed, don't we? There is so much we could never figure any of it out. Can we feel the joy as awareness plays? Or are we tensing and struggling to figure it out? Can we relax into the stream and allow it all to flow? I watch it flow and then I watch struggle. We can never figure it all out I don't think because it's a precious mysterious dance of yin and yang.
Enlightenment, the more you think about it, the further away from it you stray.
Peace,
Dean.
Hi Dean, how I love your smiley face right now! Has that been your experience, that thoughts lead you away from Oneness? That has been my experience sometimes. Oh it's so wonderful in the no-thought place where one simply experiences the “is” and the “being” without thoughts. So peaceful, so incredible. Yesterday all the thoughts could arise (even the thoughts of thinking about enlightenment) and they all felt One, just so. Who knows what today will bring–thoughts about what, feelings about what, beautiful smiley faces, straying into confusion, absolute bliss, feelings of Oneness, what? Thank you so much for being the part of the One that just may (who knows) be pointing toward that field of blessed no-thought today?!
Yes, certainly, intelligence is acheived when harmonious thoughts are accurate. But enlightenment is beyond the realm of the mind. Yes its a state of being.
Peace,
Dean.
Dean, oh what a blessed state of being…I see what you're saying. Thank you!
P.S. But it's such FUN trying to explain the unexplainable! It lifts my heart with such joy. (except when it doesn't, tee hee…)
trips centria just to see what off un-centria looks like :P
Elisaaaa, you actually DID trip me! Because I kept looking for your comment under the last blog and thinking…what…? did she delete it? and here it is under the Beauty of the Unenlightened State. Which has been so deliciously explained, hasn't it?
OK, a number of things could happen if you trip centria. She could fall…splat!!…and oh what a mess and lots of swearing. That probably doesn't happen often. You could trip her and she'll say 'owww…” and get up and shake like a wet dog. That happens often. Or…one time centria fell…and time stood still, like the frames of a silent movie. She was falling unto slate rocks and when time stood still…Awareness became very acute. She noticed the blue sky up above and it was very still. In the falling there was absolute awareness. And when she hit the sharp rocks, the hands went down in a judo position, but a surrender position also. and she lay there on the rocks for a long time admiring the sky, the rocks, the body that had just fallen. JUST SO. Body lying fallen on rocks. Who knows what happens when we're tripped? Whether we'll be on center or off? And can we love 'em all, or at least which ever one appears flat out on the rocks?
The unenlightened state. In a state far far away there walked three people and as they walked they fell into a ditch, once in the ditch covered in dirt and grime they started to laugh and laugh at themselves.
“Who” one of them the said “put the blind guy at the front”
“ I don't know said the another” I can't see anything for all the dirt in my eyes, how about you?”
Eventually after helping to clean one another off they got up and continued on their way no longer blind but knowing every body is a little soiled in their way.
J.M.
What a cool story! I like that they laughed and laughed and laughed at themselves. And I also like that, even though they were blind and had dirt in their eyes, they kept walking. Thank you, Just Me (Just You?)
I read this .. ….”And if Kathy refuses to comment, it's just because she's overwhelmed right now. This always happens when too many words start to confuse her. We'll leave her out of this for now, shall we?” ….and think … oh wow…..
the Beauty of non-resistance …..
And, “dear One”…. well, surely that was always a 'given' -
Just Me is another You, another Me… I am you and you are me and … smiling
Sweeting, I really love that story. We are all a bit soiled yet all pure.You have such a wealth of beautiful stories, I have the feeling I will never come to the end of them.
Here's another insight, perhaps.
Does anyone get the 'should' in all this? Are we supposed to be 'enlightened', either as a natural state or through conscious evolution? What if there were no 'should' in that?
(not) thinking out loud, lol
that's what i meant, i think we are just intended to show up every day, however we are
A girlfriend and I some years ago started to write a book. Working title: Endarkenment - And How To Enjoy It While It Lasts. Unfortunately, we were having so much fun experimenting with various techniques designed to enhance feelings of contractedness, resistance and stress, we kept laughing our heads off and never got much further than some hilarious outlines.
So, no book on Endarkenment. But it's still a good idea to deliberately try to be unenlightened, try really, really hard to be whatever you think the opposite of enlightenment is - because you'll see so clearly then that you fail miserably at NOT BEING what you are, not being simply present.
Sorry to leave you guys hanging for a day or so. I was…kinda…preoccupied yesterday. Am just calming down enough to talk now, ha ha.
Dear Ms. seed before you're fully a star: the beauty of non-resistance. Oh it's so beautiful…peaceful…allowing…
Nicole, it's Just We. You, Me, We, Us, Nothing, Everything. Maybe that's the beauty of stories (snippets of unenlighted enlightenment) is we get to see this little crack in the All. How did Attainment put it? enjoying the two so much more than the One. Nudging it all forward, the separate diamonds. PS If you and I had talked on the phone yesterday our combined happiness may have sizzled the phone wires. ha ha
Paul and Elisa, every time there is a “should” isn't there a feeling of shame that kind of accompanies it? When we get the energy of “should” it's always like we're somehow wanting, somehow “not there”, isn't it? Whether it's “You should be/get enlightened” or “You shouldn't get enlightened” there's often that twisty sick feeling in the pit of our stomachs. You know what? As soon as I finish responding to these comments I'm gonna do a Voice Dialogue with the two Should Voices. I really should, anyway…
Mascha, how funny! Endarkenment…And How to Enjoy It While It Lasts! We can't fail, can we? And yet we so often think we can. What a conundrum! What a hullabalo about nothing! It's so funny writing anything about enlightenment because it always ends up with differing viewpoints coming up to say yes-no-yes-no-yes-no and That's IT! Isn't it fun? And sometimes not fun? I like it when it's fun the best and not when the thoughts get all frazzled and confounded. But poor things, that's OK too. :)
Best koan ever, Centria! Thank you. You freezed my mind!
I thought that in the end, a good koan is just pure love, pure God, a bug in the Matrix!
mmmmm…divinely sweet.
P.
Oh, and Mascha, Mascha, Mascha! You divine trickster!
OK, inner self, there seems to be at least two of you here. Who wants to speak first? The part that thinks we should get enlightened? Or the part that thinks we shouldn't get enlightened?
SHOULD: Me! Me first! Um, I mean…let the one who thinks we shouldn't get enlightened speak first.
SHOULDN'T: Thank you. We shouldn't work to get enlightened. Why do we need to? Like so many have said, there's no effort. How can you not be enlightened? In our apparent separateness there is only the Whole coming forth. No effort should be needed. We shouldn't try. We shouldn't do anything except notice. We shouldn't fuss. You're wrong if you try. I have tried to tell you this 5,000,000 times. Why don't you listen? Why must you proceed like this? Shouldn't you know by now?
SHOULD: Can I speak now? Shouldn't doesn't know what she's talking about. I do. You should try to be enlightened. You should realize you're enlightened. You should work at it, or believe in Enlightenment, at the very least. You should aim like an arrow into the sky. Enlightenment is where it's at baby, and you should know it by now. You should!
Ooops, a THIRD voice coming in now: May I speak?
Yes, who are you?
THROW the Shoulds in the Garbage! I am the part of self who despises shoulds. Forget the word should. Or shouldn't. Neither word should be in the dictionary. Toss them out. Annhilate them. Put them in concentration camps and prisons. They are so shameful. How can anyone use the word “should” or “shouldn't”? They are despicable.
Can I speak, can I speak?
Yes, and who are you?
I am the one who thinks that the the shoulds and shouldnt's should both be allowed to exist. I know that's another should. But it's a qualified should, perhaps? If they arise in consciousness, awareness, can we just wrap our tenderness around them? Ahhh, a should is arising! Ahhhh, a shouldn't is arising! Ahhhh, someone who doesn't like them both is arising! Ahhhh, someone who likes them both is arising. Isn't that what awareness is about, beyond words….allowing? Just a thought.
Thank you, all the voices, for your input. So very glad to hear from all of you. Have a good day.
Patrick, you snuck in while I was trying to express another koan. YES! You got it. That's what all these words are about ~ writing koans. Freezing the mind and you get to that place of “I don't know” and the world stops and THERE WE ARE. Love to you today!! Kathy
We Enneagram One's (see my profile for info) are the experts on should and shouldn't. And yes, you're so right, Kathy, about that sick feeling in the pit of the stomach which is part of those experiences!!!
Loving all that's expressed here! Voice Dialogue is so useful! “Freezing the mind” and koans and the end of your Dialogue are kinda like what I mean by “implosion.”
Expansion continues apace !!!
Love, OM
Yesterday at work a mental health nurse gave a talk on Post traumatic stress disorder. It was very interesting and I learned a lot however during the talk she handed out a number of questionnaires, scales etc to ascertain what sort of state ones mental health was in. Reading through it I discovered I must have some pretty severe mental illness because some questions were “do you have deja vu experiences, do you sometimes dream future events, do you sometimes find yourself communicating with some discarnate being either inside your own head or outside it”, and more in this vein as well as “do you feel like you are in a fog”, “unable to focus” etc then tick the box sometimes, always, never.
More relevant to this blog though was the question “do you refer to yourself as 'we' or 'us'? Before I had even seen Kathy's blog I was thinking to myself “thank god I have Gaia. There it is normal to communicate with other parts of self and communicate with other discarnate beings. Communicating over the net brings a whole different meaning to this concept of communicating with other discarnate beings. I'm also pretty sure most if not all of us have experienced the sense of being in a fog, or driving somewhere and not recalling any part of the journey (because you were too busy thinking about what you might put in Gaia when you get home.)
Just a few thoughts on us and we
love Jenny
Oh my, Jenny. I too am glad you have us here in Gaia. That was a pretty mainstream nurse!! Possibly even an extremist of some sort who shall go unnamed. Apparently she doesn't even believe in angels who communicate back and forth with us now and then, which puts her in a minority of the population!!!.
Do you suppose she herself made up the questionnaire?
Hugs and reassurance,
OM
Jenny
I was so glad, but most of all so relieved to read the words, 'discarnate beings' in your offering! Even when those voices have made me crazy or worse still driven me further into the trench I have dug out for myself, they are sort of weird and familiar, and I have lived with them, as friend and foe, for as long as I can remember.
My humble opinion.” every human needs to seek enlightenment.”
Peace,
Dean.
OM ~ like that term “implosion”, the more you mention it. I also so admire your quality to slow down and deeply listen and respond to folks. You have such a knack for Presence in that regard so often ~ a gift for recognizing the kernels of truth people are sharing and honing right in on that. Thank you.
Jenny ~ that is one thing that makes this Gaia-space so precious, isn't it? You can speak of things here that we can't speak so freely about in everyday life. Not everyone understands that we're in a world filled with spirits and energy and enlightenment and all sorts of things. On another note, I find it fascinating that psychologists were the ones who began the work of voice dialogue. And hundreds (thousands?) of pyschologists all over the planet are utilizing it now. It stands at the edge of two worlds because for many it's acceptable to talk to inner “parts” ~ people can frame it in psychological terms ~ but in actuality its much more dynamic and freeing and pointing toward integration in a way that makes sense cellularly.
star seed, blessings to your for learning to integrate the voices into your awareness and learning to live with them. Not everyone can do that. Hugs!
Dean, That is my humble opinion most of the time as well. Peace to you…
yes, I know what you mean about combined happiness being explosive! my beloved and I were joking about the fact that we should prepare adequately for his weekend visit here in two weeks, maybe outfit a bomb shelter to contain the energetic radiation that will sizzle from us lol!
feeling some of that explosive radiation right now, dear Nicole! Whew! Sizzling… !!
ROTFLOL! Love you so much, my Kathy!
What??
((((((Robert)))))) my heart, my own… :)