It’s been about eighteen years since my teacher H.W.L. Poonja asked me to teach awakening in the West. At the beginning, when I first returned to Seattle in 1992, very few people would have a direct experience of being spaciousness, of being presence. At that time, most people were primarily identified with being “seekers.” They would project “enlightenment” onto a teacher or onto their own future, but it wasn’t accepted as part of their own now. During the last eighteen years things have changed dramatically. Not only in my experience, but others who spread awakening are reporting the same thing. I’ve heard from Eckhart Tolle, Michael Beckwith, Jean Houston, Ram Dass and hundreds of other teachers that we are together witnessing an epidemic of awakening all over the planet. It’s becoming easier and easier to relax back into your natural state and to know yourself to be limitless, the source of everything you experience.
One of the greatest potholes today to people living in this condition in their day-to-day life, is the sense of wanting to compare ourselves to historical figures and “spiritual heros” from the past. We see a statue of the Buddha sitting quietly, doing nothing. Or Quan-yin, or the master Jesus or Saint Francis of Assisi, and then we devalue the depth of our own realization because our heros look so much more advanced than we are. The first thing I want to do when I hear someone compare themselves with someone from the past is to remind us that our situation today is completely different. Buddha didn’t have children, a mortgage, or drive a car. Jesus didn’t have a cell phone, or change diapers. And above all, none of these historical figures were faced with a world in as much crisis as we are today. Although what is realized in a moment of awakening may be the same: spacious presence, unconditional love, silence, the embodiment of that presence is completely different today.
You and I were not born into a time where there is an invitation to sit quietly in a cave chanting the sound OM. You and I were not born with the same opportunity that Saint Francis of Assisi had to become a monk and leave the world behind. We are destined to be in relationship, to create, to participate in the world of business and finance, and above all, to contribute to the creation of a new kind of humanity.
What is happening today is not just a new wave of awakening, but an evolution in the nature of that awakening. The bar has been set much higher when the challenge is to rest deeply in yourself while also remaining fully in the world and participating.
We are seeing the birth pains of the emergence of a new kind of human being.
Please join me this Thursday at 6pm for a dialog with Dr. Marc Gafni, a rabbi and iconlastic teacher of Kabbalah and Evolutionary Spirituality. He is a core founder and faculty member of iEvolve Global Practice Community as well as director of the Integral Life Spiritual Center of Integral Life. He has written seven books, including the national bestseller Soul Prints, and The Mystery of Love, a Kabbalistic exploration of the relationship between the sexual, the erotic, and the sacred.
Marc is widely respected as an authority on the evolution of Awakening. It is bound to be a juicy conversation!
The Translucent View 
October 13, 2009 at 3:42 pm
As an artist and spiritual seeker, I am finding the absolute need to fuel my paths to both, with money. Yet, I have always been taught not to “go for money”, but to go for spirit. I feel I have the spirit part and am still coming to grips with the money part, as we do need to eat just like other folks. Your insightful website is stellar and I find it of great help in quelling the forces of guilt related to the duality of these two subjects that are interrelated. Thanks.
September 30, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Huh, yes, “Buddha didn’t have any children” … because he dumped his son and his wife … twice …
September 26, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Blessings Arjuna~
True true. Thanks for the shout out and reassurance on ‘modern day’ enlightenment and awakening!
One of the things I experienced (and now experience) in an awakening was the feeling of no competition. Once I had had this real and visceral ‘awakening’, I felt clearly for the first time that I had discovered something of my own…my own inner landscape …an understanding of myself and the world around me. That continues to grow. When I went to see HHDL today for the first time, I felt at home and excited rather than a craving to have something that I did not have or that someone else had. At the same time, I could also deeply appreciate his full and practiced presence.
I think the benefit of awakening is timeless. Once it has been personally touched on, we can see that it gets to be our fun responsibility to help in the evolution of consciousness and enlightenment, just like all those before us…if we are brave enough. Hah!
Peace to you
Jason
September 22, 2009 at 12:20 pm
Dear Arjuna
thanks so much for this insightful post. so very true… what our world looks like and what we experience today is so very different from any other time and so it only makes sense that our experience of awakening also looks different.
we have an incredible opportunity to utilize our awareness for positive change in our own lives and on a larger scale.
i know we often want to compare ourselves, in many ways, with others and doing this we usually lose. it is refreshing to be reminded of our uniqueness and embrace it.
much love
michelle