By David Spero (An edited talk given January 16, 2001 in Palm Springs, California)
It is longing that–through the Grace of the Spiritual Master–eventually becomes Fire. This longing is “quenched” in Fire.
Up to that point, the Devotee will work through many disturbances within their own subjectivity. It is the working through imbalances or disturbances that releases the aspiring being from meditation into Fire. This is the Fire of Devotion, which is intense thirst and infinite longing for the Supreme Fulfillment. That Supreme Fulfillment is entering into the Consciousness and Love of the Spiritual Master
This is a larger, more vast process than just “attaining enlightenment,” for enlightenment is limited to expansion. It sounds paradoxical to say “limited to expansion.” How can expansion be limited? Well, you can only expand so far. That’s why it’s limited. Even when you’re totally expanded, you merely become non-localized in your awareness [i.e., the Self].
The Fire of your longing places you in a desert. In the aridity of this atmosphere you begin to feel this thirst for complete release in sahaja samadhi (the natural state). That naturalized, full awakening of Infinite-Eternal-Bliss, both on the subjective level and the objective level, is what catapults one out of the spiritual process forever.
Sahaja samadhi is the end of spiritual evolution. It’s the end of any kind of physiological or emotional purification. Sahaja samadhi means a fully integrated state of being one with the Divine. It’s paradoxical how each person reaches that state. At some point, your own footsteps begin to vanish behind you and you realize you’re on a pathless path.
You begin to really sense that you’re getting dissolved in this state completely. At some point, you have to relinquish all your knowledge of spiritual traditions and spiritual literature, no matter how sophisticated or subtle that knowledge is. You’re walking into “no man’s land” and that’s where you soon will find a home.
I learned about this quite suddenly and without preparation. It felt like something was culminating, but when it culminates it’s different than even feeling like something is culminating. It’s being pushed beyond everything. How can one express this? You see, I’m struggling to try to express this to you. It’s the Fire itself that makes this transition possible, this Final Awakening, which transcends awakening and non-awakening.
If you have struggled with the issue of meditation and awakening seriously in your life, if you have evolved yourself through meditation to higher levels of consciousness, you’ll realize that what I’m saying is no trivial point. The intense dedication and devotion that’s necessary to produce even a small amount of awakening is beyond description. To live into this Fiery Longing and then move into Unconditional-Awakened-Non-Awaken-ness, Consciousness is beyond anybody’s ability to describe. It’s something that you are invited to become without any knowledge. Your security begins to wane. Your sanity begins to wane along with that and what begins to dawn is that you are the Fire. You are Pure Spiritual Fire.
You are a Fire which destroys and consumes this world, the understandings of this world, the feelings of this world. You become a Living Embodiment of Truth. You become the Truth. That means no understanding can understand you. Nothing limited can comprehend you. It’s unfulfilling to say you become the Truth. There must be a better thing we can say. Truth sounds too righteous. You become God. That’s better. You become the Consciousness of God. You become awakened In and As God.
