Spirit is Higher

hello everybody nice to see you all welcome back on this adventure mysterious Adventure we on together exploring the nature of Consciousness mystery of Consciousness which is a Non-Stop adventure for at least for me I hope you feel the same way so what I wanted to talk about this time is uh where does God exist so are the questions I want to go into is where does God actually exist where does he or she dwell or abide what do we where do we need to focus on in order to realize him or her experience him or her know him or her and within all that context of all that complexity what's the right relationship to the absolute principle what is the right relationship to the absolute principle it's very complicated it's very confusing it's both very simple and very as I said complex so when I was um a little boy long time ago getting older but when I was a little boy about five years old I lived in New York in Manhattan and I lived in a on the second floor of an apartment building and across the street for me was a 12 story apartment building and uh my parents were secular atheists so I didn't believe in God but we had a German housekeeper a woman with a German woman German woman who was a housekeeper with a wooden leg who was ferociously Catholic and we used to sit I used to sit on the window sill with her on a radiator on the window s we look out the window together and watch the people go by so she knew she knew I was being brought up as a secular atheist and she told me that God lived on the top floor of the building across the street she showed me the apartment that he lived in on the 12th floor and she told me that he could see every he could see everything I was doing and he could he knew everything I was doing he could see it all they better be careful careful so when I was a little boy for a little while there I believed her and I believed that God whoever that was lived on the 12th floor across the street from my apartment building I could see everything that I did that was my introduction to the location of this absolute principal and and so I wanted to just speak a little bit try to be as spontaneous as possible about the complexity of seeking to experience and awaken to an absolute principle which is inherently non- du in nature think about what that means an absolute principle an absolute principle me a non-relative or absolute principle that is inherently non-u in nature how to have a relationship with it and where does it abide so I I when I was thinking about this when I was thinking about this talk today I realized that uh I was going to have to make some distinctions that I never made before between absolute an absolute relationship to this absolute principle and a relative relationship to this absolute principle so once again I'm going I'm going to talk about I will explain everything I'm saying so it's I'm sure it's not totally clear what I'm saying but I'll I will explain it I'm going to make a distinction between what I'm calling an absolute relationship to this absolute principle the god principle and a relative relationship to this the absolute principle of the god principle now [Music] um when I met my Guru in 1986 great hwl he he made it clear to me very quickly that uh what I was looking for what I was seeking for which was the Awakening to this God principle or this absolute principle was not a concept was a living domain of reality and it was a higher living domain of reality that was beyond location then in a sense we could say the deepest understanding what the abosolute principle was is that it exists simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at the same time so he made it clear to me that there was an absolute principle that was we could find that we could discover that we could awaken to that we could experience and feel and know and that it existed everywhere and nowhere at the same time so if this absolute principle exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time if the source of spiritual Liberation and Enlightenment exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time how is it possible to have a relationship with that which exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time very difficult to know the answer so my Guru was so powerfully enlightened that just through spending time in in his physical proximity and his in his spiritually awakened company these kinds of conversations these kinds of dialogues about the ultimate nature of reality were pregnant with the presence of the absolute they really intellectual discussions because of the power of His Awakening these inquiries were fueled by the by the feeling presence of the miraculous nature of the absolute and he eventually got got got it through to me that something that's impossible to understand with the mind that the only way to have a relationship with that which exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time it's by having no relationship with it to repeat he made he made clear to me through his words and his silence that the only way to have a relationship with that which is the absolute principle the god principle which exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time the only way to to know it was to have no relationship with it sounds very counter sounds very contradictory it's very paradoxical because you need two for there to be a relationship there has to be two involved and the ultimate truth about the nature of reality that vant has taught all of us is that there only one the ultimate truth about the ultimate nature of Realties that there's only one and not two so if we if we want to know directly the nature of that which is one and not two my Guru made clear to me that I had to give up having a relationship with it because it was it was my striving to have a relationship with this absolute principle which was pushing this absolute principle away from me which is what was making the after principle unknowable or feeling like it was very far away because I was insisting Andrew whoever he is I was insisting on having a relationship with was absolute principle but since the absolute principle is everywhere and nowhere which means it's already always everywhere and nowhere the very notion of an of a relationship ship pushes the feeling presence The Knowing presence the cognitive cogn the cognitive cognizance of absolute principle pushes it away I hope you can understand what I'm saying it's very difficult to grasp this with to mind and so then I was a true Seeker I was a very committed Seeker all I wanted to do was to awaken to Enlighten awareness was to be spiritually free and having a relationship with my idea of what the absolute principle was was my deepest relationship to life at that point in my life so having to give up having a relationship with absolute principle to me felt like death which in fact it was it was ego death which because it really means that your ego that if you whoever you are wants to be enlightened wants to awaken to Enlighten awareness directly if you whoever you are want to awaken to Enlighten directly then Enlighten awareness directly then you have to give up and your you have to give up your ego's frontal self your your ego's desire have a relationship with God because in a relationship if you can have a relationship with God in the context of absolute nonduality you make God other not self that's the problem so in the earnest wanting or aspiring for this absolute knowledge this conscious cognizance of the absolute this feeling of knowing the ultimate mystery that transcends life and death the frontal self attachment to being the knower being the experiencer being the one who knows and being the one who's having the experience the one who can claim knowledge has to be we have to die to that part of our own self which is a very difficult thing to do and that's why we all need help to do this that's why in most cases gurus are necessary spiritual guides are necessary to help us perform this complex metaphysical surgery of letting go of the frontal selves need to have a relationship with the absolute nature of reality because once again the desire to have that relationship is what pushes the experience of conscious cognizance of the absolute away from us makes it unreachable so then so then so the mystery of the mystery of the Awakening to align awareness is facilitated or occurs when usually through the grace of the guru or some other miraculous means we find ourselves swimming in the presence of the absolute swimming in an ocean of transcendence that can't be understood by the mind but only recognized by the heart and and then we then in in that ecstasy we know there is no other there is no other that this God of this absolute principle does not ever exist is being separate from the totality of reality and who we are at a relative and absolute level is not separate from the totality of reality so the door to Enlightenment opens up when we give up to need to have a relationship with God we use Mythic [Music] language and this is very difficult to understand with the mind but it is what it is so that's the first step it's the foundation of everything I wanted to say and something I would lovingly encourage all all encourage all of you to spend some time with this week if you can this is why when we engage in meditative practice and the practice of meditation the de the deepest form of meditation practice is the pursuit of meditation in The Pursuit Of The Awakening to enlightened awareness as I constantly try to make clear to everybody the Awakening to enlightened awareness will happen spontaneously when we can cease to have a relationship with the content of Consciousness it's for giving up the relationship the relationship in this context means Duality the space between objects between thoughts that somehow if you want to become awaken to Enlighten awareness and some people actually do some people actually do some people actually do could be even you maybe it's through the miraculous Transcendence of Duality which I personally believe is is always in the end an act of Grace it's not something you can really pull off as a result of muscular effort but if you want it badly enough somehow some way eventually that space that creates that creates the appearance of two all through your experience will disappear dis the space will close and Duality will be gone and there's no relationship there anymore and one thing I wanted to I wanted to add to this is that um when this has happened to somebody when that space has has been closed when the two is gone when the relationship is gone the Gap has been closed there the evidence can be seen that in that individual's capacity for spontaneity because is the the measure of enlightened awareness can be seen in the expression of awaken spontaneity the presence of awaken spontaneity it could be through spontaneity of Joy ecstasy expression of love and kindness expressions of love and kindness expressions of miraculous insight and the Pres the presence of mysterious depth but it's always in the context of of of the expression of that the expression of a radical spontaneity of an un Unleashed and unlimited spontaneity spontaneity means freedom it's the expression of inner Freedom so Enlightenment Express expresses expresses itself as spontaneous Freedom not just as an inner experience of spontaneous freedom exp of freef fall which it could be it's not only that expression it's expression of beingness of our Humanity the beingness of your Humanity my Humanity our Humanity expresses itself spontaneously as liberated love liberated mind liberated Consciousness liberated [Music] knowing liberated higher knowledge liberated presence spontaneity spontaneously as spontaneity the ego is never spontaneous it's always conditioned but the true self the authentic self is spontaneous because it's unconditioned and has a particular flavor and for those of you who that have been in this process of seeking for Liberation for some time occasionally you you come across the presence of Awakened spontaneity of a person who's actually awakened and become stabilized in this capacity for awaken spontaneity and that's the sign that's the that's the sign of the Living Proof Telltale sign that this Gap has become closed the Gap the gap of Duality is closed that opens up a door the door it opens up the door to the interior of the UN the deepest interior dimensions of the universe or so it seems like so it feels like feels like it opens up the door to the deepest dimensions of the inner inner inner world of the universe the in in inner most subjective dimensions of the universe open up and they begin to be felt and felt his vibrations [Music] and knowing and radical Insight so the foundation of Liberation is giving up the relationship with the frontal self relationship with the absolute and that relationship is given up through learning how to let go of your mind when you're meditating you're good at that not so easy it also can happen if you have a relationship with someone who's stabilized in this in the end of that in the end of that relationship if if you have a relationship with someone who giving up having a relationship with God and therefore it's become one with that also can be a source of of access to the Divine to the miraculous nature of non the Nal nature of Ultimate Reality so that's how that works and the truth is for most of us find it very difficult to become stabilized in this non dual position and usually for some for for most true Seekers they end up having occasional they end up having to settle for occasional glimpses because for this to become stabilized in any meaningful way I believe we have to really be willing to come to our knees in the deepest way possible for that to happen I told this story many times but I know my my my after I haven't seen my Guru for a few months after my initial Awakening in the night returned to see him after I hadn't seen him for a few months when I walked in the room he said to me Andrew I'm so glad you found a friend you'll never be able to see I'm so glad you found a friend you'll never be able to see I'm so glad you found a friend you never be able to see what brand you'll never be able to see so some the so this fundamental point I'm trying to make here my talk is that to know God to know this absolute principle any gross or subtle relationship with this absolute principle has to be given up has to be surrendered has having a relationship with God has to become no relationship and we have to be able to to bear this is you want to take me spiritual maturity we have to be able to Bear the austerity the radical the radical austerity of giving up that which is most precious to us which is our which would be our relationship with God our relationship with this absolute principle so if we want to become one with his absolute principal we have to be able to Bear the austerity of giving up that relationship which means as I'm fond of repeating having nothing knowing nothing and being no one no Duality anymore no Duality my relationship is absolute principle so we have to be able to Bear the austerity of giving up that which is most precious to us in order to directly know and experience that which is most precious we have to be willing to give it up unconditionally radically and absolutely it's very paradoxical so that's clear I hope hope it's clear so what I've been describing is what I would call in the context of this talk an absolute relationship with the god principle but upon further thought and further consideration becomes clear there's relative that there's relative reality and absolute reality and in the context of relative reality where the body mind personality Karma exists and functions it's a world of relationships to World of karma cause and effect but in this in this context in the context of relative reality of course we need to have a relationship with this absolute principle even though we at a deeper level we've given it up the relative Body Mind personality is still going to need to on occasion engage in a relationship with absolute principle if nothing else at the level of just share cognition just because you have no relation just because of the deepest nonu level your relationship with God has been transcended doesn't mean at a relative level you're not going to be called to express a relationship with absolute principle in some way or other even in your own thoughts so Ken Wilbur um's one of my favorite philosophers and he's also a friend I've learned a lot from him he came up he made he made this he made three distinctions about the the nature of different kinds of relationships that we can have with this absolute principle and he calls he calls us the three faces of God so the first face of God is which is this which is the relationship with this absolute principle which is the realization that God is the vibration of the I am the vibration of the I I sense not the ego sense much deeper than the ego sense is the vibration of the eye sense it's the feeling of being the feeling of being the vibration of being the vibration of existence it's what it's what it feels like to be you at the deepest level what does it feel like what what do you feel like I'm not talking about what how your ego feels from time to time or moment to moment but I'm thinking about how what are you what does it feel like to be you what what's what's that feel the feeling of being the vibration of existence that you always feel in all your moments of conscious awareness there the feeling of being the feeling of existence it feels like something to exist feels something like you I'm not speaking about your ego I'm speaking about the ey sense that exists prior to the ego sense foundational to the ego exists prior to that feeling the feeling of being feeling of being you rahan mahashi called it the I am the feeling of I amness feeling of existence that transcends all Duality and all relativity so that's called the first face of God is the is the I amness which is the feeling of being and the feeling of existence the Second Face of God is called I is is the second face of God is when you see God as the great other not my will but thy will be done that's when you see your that's when you're concept that's when you conceptual framework sees the god Principle as the great as the inconceivable un knowbly unimaginably great other to which you are almost almost non-existent in comparison I thou first CH of God Second Face of God is when you see God is great others I thou and many people who have a very devotional relationship with the god principle or the guru principle often practice this this interposition of I th I thou seeing God as a great other seeing the personal self the personal ego being being small [Music] and regr others being huge and profound that's the second face of God and the third face of God is seeing God is it God is the great it God is the evolving universe so the third face of God is the three faces are I we and it so seeing God as it is seeing God as the is both the evolving universe and that dimension of reality that transcends the evolving Universe seeing the totality of reality seeing the totality of reality is being God God is the total the some totality of all reality which includes the evolving universe and that which transcends the evolving Universe which is everything that exists and everything that does not exist is God that's God is it so these are the three faces of God I'll go over them briefly one more time because they're a little difficult to understand and when I'm trying to explain this what I would like you to to do is to here he my words with feel feel into these feel into these areas of yourself that I'm pointing to and see if you can feel what I'm pointing to so the three faces of God are I we and it the first face of God is the I am the feeling of being the absolute eye that exists everywhere and nowhere I am that the ey sense it vibrates prior to the ego awareness is the I sense that transcends and includes everything everything exists within it it exists everywhere and nowhere at the same time what you experience is the feeling of being you what does it feel like to be you not your ego not the small self when your awareness of the small self disappears there's only that so that's the first face of God is the I Am Second Face of God is I thou God is the great other which is what we experience in Min more devotional relationship with God from the god principle God is the great other which shall I exist in submission to the great other and the third face of God is it God is the great it I we it God is the evolving universe and that which transcends the evolving Universe now I've I I found I've always found the three faces of God very helpful and very interesting because I I feel very I feel very easy with all three definitions of God I feel very comfortable with God as the I am as the feeling of being feels very natural to me I have a very devotional nature I always have so I've always inwardly felt very submitted and surrounded to to God is the great other so this the ey that relationship with God as the great other is always felt very comfortable to me and very appropriate very appropriate because when what this God principle is is so so overwhelming and so conceivable at times it does bring me to my knees has brought me to my knees when I when I was to see the truth of who God really was I came to my knees which is what happens when you really see it and then especially since especially for the last 25 years or so since I had my own Discovery and Awakening [Music] to Evolution it's a fundamental principle about the nature of reality and I discovered though that I was really part of an evolving universe and saw this in the context of Spiritual Awakening as the as is part and partial in the expression of L awareness itself bearing witness to the fact that the universe is a developing process that God is in fact evolving as us as it as me and you this has been one of the most mindboggling Revelations I've ever experienced and continue to experience how could something that's absolute and perfect evolve and develop and so it does amazing so God is the evolving Universe something that that I felt very continue to feel very inspired by comfortable with inspired by God in the first person God in the second person God in the third person God is I God is we God is it there are all three different perspectives on what the god principle is and as we in our spiritual journey as we awaken to enlighted awareness as we become enlightened beings once we become enlightened beings we will be compelled to reflect on the three faces of God in the way that we think about reality and the way that we discuss reality with each other and we'll be compelled to use Concepts to discuss that which is beyond conception it's not a sin it's not a crime just part of the truth of embrace embracing both relative reality and absolute reality at the same time we're going to discuss the nature of the absolute principle in it's in the in its multifaceted expressions and forms we can have to speak about it from a relative perspective speak about that which is absolute from a relative perspective therefore we will we will build we will have to speak about the first place of God the second place of God and third place of God somewhere somewhere or another realizing that we're just using Concepts to speak about that would just beond conception but what else are we going to do God gave us a mouth and a vocabulary because he wanted us to he wanted us to speak and express our knowledge express our divine knowledge of his or her true nature so therefore we have to speak about these things in the minute we we Endeavor to speak about them we have to embrace relative truths but if we're grounded what I was speaking about in the first half of this talk if you're grounded in the knowledge that to know God truly one has to give up all any all Notions of any kind of relationship with him and her if one's grounded in that absolute knowing then one can engage in this conceptual repar without in any way being diluted by it or distracted by it or confused by it so now that I've said all that which is mostly what I wanted to say um when we when we're looking at these three faces of God once again God is the I am God is the great other and God is the evolutionary process okay the Ken Wilber made an interesting point when speaking about the three faces of God and he said that when you awaken to to God to the first face of God which is the I God is the I am is the feeling of being as the I am said your ego can still hide out in that I am space he said in the third face of God God is the god is the evolving Universe God as it great it the E eego can also hide out hide out in you all the universe somewhere behind you a couple of galaxies or something but he said interestingly enough and this I I found this very enlightening and en livening and compelling that it is only in the ey thou relationship with goddess the great other that the ego cannot hide and until I heard him describe this I didn't know I never had thought about this myself you made this fundamental point that only in this only only with the with the Second Face of God which is embracing God as the great other can the ego not hide so do with that do with that information what you will that's very helpful to think about this because for example when we're Experiencing God when we're experiencing the first face of God God is the I am God is the feeling of being God is the vibration of om God is the vibration of the totality of reality God is the grounded being the intensity of non-u Oneness that we may experience may be Indescribable and absolutely overwhelming but that doesn't inherently mean the ego's been subdued apparently which is very interesting the intensity of the experience of the unity of the N State as a state experience does not necessarily mean that your ego or the ego has been subdued or conquered to slain or finish with and in the same way when you're awak to the Blazing mindboggling recognition with the evolutionary process is none other than the god principle in the process of becoming more of who and what he or she is capable of being which is I said which is as I said before truly mindboggling knowledge recognition it's truly mindboggling that the eagle can hide out in that can be hide itself somewhere in that blazing inside also but apparently it's only in the in in this in the in the duality of the ey thou relationship with the absolute principle that the ego cannot hide anymore apparently so if somehow in your own life you're avoiding a and it's whatever this means to you it's how you should relate to what I'm saying make sense out of it but if you find that in some way you are avoiding an i out relationship with the absolute principle your conscious or unconscious regions is something that we should look into for your own sake but my own personal solution to this to all this complexity is to is the first abandon my relationship with the absolute principle in order to awaken to a truly truly literally absolutely and completely and to become irrevocably grounded in that in conceivable space and inconceivable Place Beyond thought and make sure that I'm grounded there no matter what no matter what seems to be happening no matter what it seems to be real knowing that nothing is real except that so first striving to ground myself in that absolute non relationship not to Space Place dimension of reality in high State and as I get more comfortable and the fact that there's a that I that my best friend is someone I'll never be able to see as I get more aable in the realization that I'll never be able to see my best friend become more comfortable knowing I'll never be able to see my best friend that makes it possible to let go absolutely so become more comfortable in knowing that then I can begin to conscientiously consciously and conscientiously begin to engage with some these more relative distinctions about the nature of the absolute without getting lost in them then I then I can then we can begin to engage in some of these more relative absolute distinctions without getting lost in them and we can become very proficient in the challenging business of discriminating between relative reality and absolute reality ising gross and subtle Concepts and not getting lost always knowing where we are not getting lost so as I said for me personally I I have always found these three distinctions the two faces of God first face of God the Second Face of God the third face of God God is I God is we God is it God as I am God is I thou God is the evolutionary process I find them all equally satisfying [Music] equally significant equally meaningful there are a lot of people who are interested in Enlightenment and nonduality that have have a very strong preference for God as the I am have trouble recognizing that God also is the great other and God is also the evolutionary process itself some people they can't get that they only get they only can understand and want to want to understand God is the I am of course this is all the matter of whatever you want but um as I said I find all three equally compelling equally B fasinating and liberating meaningful and there are also some people who have embraced a more devotional relationship to this absolute principal the I thou position I would resist embracing this absolute Principle as the I am absolutely whereas The evolutionary process absolutely and there are other people who might be more philosophically oriented who appreciate that God is God is the evolutionary process who may have trouble with the other two the God is the first place of God and the second place of God so in my Approach I encourage everybody to explore all three why not become as fully why not become as fully why not become as fully enlightened as possible and remember one of the greatest Gifts of being a human being in the 20 in in this second Millennium and one of the greatest Gifts of being a child of this postmodern time in history is it because this uniquely unique historical context some of us many of us who've been reasonably relatively educated have been have cultivated the capacity to see reality through different perspectives people who are less cognitively sophisticated tend to be able to only receive reality through one perspective at a time or one perspective period but those of us who are more sophisticated as a result of Greater education learning and cultural Evolution have been given the gift of the capacity to embrace to see reality through different perspectives and then if you can see reality through different perspectives reality becomes more and more lit up at the light of awareness more illuminated the more you see the more you know the more you see the more you know the more you can respond with awareness greater knowledge and understanding the course inspiration and insight so the more perspectives the better we should I I believe as part of our spiritual awakening as part of the process of our own ongoing Awakening we want to use our spiritual awakening to cultivate this capacity of multiple perspective taking and include that as a big part of what it means to be awake and enlightened more you see the more you know more Enlighten you truly are but this kind of the practice of the practice of this process that I'm describing requires a a measure of um diligence and humility and ongoing commitment to the evolution of Consciousness itself for its own sake not just for your sake or my sake could not just your mind lighten you're your lightening but it means that um this process of waking up is an infinite process no matter how much you've woken up no matter how much you know no matter how much you've seen there'll always be more to know and understand so to take that very seriously means we have to embrace a level of humility that's very profound and very self- [Music] implicating always realizing always realize that there's more to know there's more to understand there's more to become that's called good news and that's why I call this evolutionary Enlightenment because it's an infinite process of becoming more enlightened hopefully if we have the courage and the level of commitment necessary to stay to stay in it to stay in it eternally for eternity I would say so that's one last thing I wanted to add I won't take any questions this time but I wanted to tell you that the reason that I G CH gave the title of the talk spirit is higher is because as I've been explaining the it seems that the position of the second pH of God God is the ey th as challenging as that might be to substitute some of our postmodern sensibilities seems to be the safest position as far as our ego is concerned in other words with the second second place of God we're always putting ourselves in the position of being small and God is being inconceivably vast and that that and that keeps ego in check so that's why I have felt for a long time that the that it is very that it's good insurance it's good spiritual insurance policy for all of us to keep ourselves keep our egos in check as it's good insurance policy to make make the spiritual effort at times all the time to see our relative self-existence as being minute and almost completely relevant in the face of the in the face of the profundity of the absolute nature of the god principle so that's what the that's what the name that's what the title of the talk spirit is higher meant that's what it means and it's if we can learn to cultivate an attitude of humility well no matter how profound is the n nature of our relationship with this absolute principle which means even if we've given up having a relationship with the absolute principle and have merged with it which can happen means even even then we would choose to have a conceptual relationship with God as a great other as a preference as a way to keep our egos in check always a good idea thank you so much everybody for coming I really appreciate your presence thank you so much