Moderator: A question from a participant in England: Why do these realizations or insights sometimes not lead to an embodied, lived reality of this truth?
David: Because Consciousness first has to be realized abstractly, Consciousness’s involvement with the body as embodiment of Consciousness has to go through stages. The first stage is to recognize Consciousness itself prior to the body, within the body, beyond the body. Then through maturation, organic development, natural development, Consciousness becomes more and more compatible with the functioning and the existence, the physical existence, of the body. That process happens over time, and there’s no way to predict whether it will happen or to what degree it will happen. So really the first step is the central step of realizing or awakening to Consciousness beyond all viewpoints, beyond all perspectives, beyond the mind. That will provide the basis and the foundation for the possible evolution of Consciousness based on each person’s inherent potentiality for that development.
Just as there are many kinds of flowers, some very ornate others very simple and plain, so to within the human spectrum. Some human beings will develop flamboyant colors so to speak, and others will remain more plain and simple, more basic, that is oriented toward Consciousness in the abstract. The key is not to favor one development or the other through casual choice but to favor one’s inherent desire and move about in that desire within the awakening of Consciousness, in the direction that it points spontaneously. In that way over time you will more and more become what you are supposed to become in Consciousness and then perhaps throughout the body, etc.
The best thing to consider here in the context of this question is the naturalness with which this must proceed and also the inherent qualities within the individual that bring it out, which is just another way of saying that you can only be what you are desiring to be. Your desire process, which is the organic unfolding of your life will open you to the possibilities that are relevant to you without comparing yourself to another person’s or several persons’ spiritual development. So, there’s no room for comparison, envy, jealousy and so on. One simply takes upon oneself one’s direction, one’s inherent integral direction toward realizing Consciousness and then letting everything happen on its own after that. You will desire and you will actualize what you are most naturally inherently meant to do.
Moderator: “Does one need a teacher to be self-realized?” David: No. This question like the previous one though requires clarification. If you understand the teacher in a strictly objective sense as a separate person, then your view about the ...
David: This idea of a static realization that never changes is more the by-product of wrong use of language than anything else because you can’t conceptualize permanence. Permanence is just the opposite of transient. If someone says, “I am ...
“Socrates, I certainly used to hear, even before meeting you, that you never do anything else than exist in a state of perplexity yourself and put others in a state of perplexity. And now you seem to me to be bewitching me and drugging me and ...
David: Quite frankly, I didn’t even want to come here tonight, but now I’m very interested all of a sudden because I too am being instructed in that. In other words, the teaching is arising for all involved. Not that I’m receiving the teaching, ...
Participant 1: You’re one of only two teachers I’ve ever heard say that with enlightenment the ego is not destroyed. David: There are two reasons that could give rise to a person or a teacher saying that there is no destruction of the ego. ...
David: When we talk about things like Divine Oneness there’s a particular context in which that needs to be understood. And not many people realize this because they usually think of Divine Oneness as an experience, as just an experience, like ...
David: In spite of there being many people here this evening, we have a highly individualized relationship. Each person is invited into a spectacularly intimate connection with the primordial origin of Consciousness, the primordial Consciousness ...
David: There's great energy present, really ripping. That Shakti is here, that very potent communication of fire, energy, intensity, fullness. May you be activated by that. May you be activated in that. Where that is, the absolute is also. It ...
David: You can't think about something that's beyond thought. Even a person who’s fully enlightened if they come out and speak it’s all dualistic. There’s nothing sublime about it. It’s very odd. Let’s see if a discussion can create itself with ...
David: This illumination you have is not just about spiritual things, it’s about how humans function, how the way you’re going to function in your naturalness. When this Bliss really takes hold, wow! You’re in for a real amusement park ride. ...
Participant 1: Can you say that third aspect, the more mature aspect is also where perception…. David: There’s only the Self. There’s only the Self, and it’s not anywhere now. It’s in and it’s out. It’s up and it’s down. And it’s not in and it’s ...
David: The particularity of her experience is asserting itself and the ability to distinguish the different textures or fabrics within experience. Now, isn’t this, or would this not be, if we phrase this in terms of a question, an ironic ...