Vince has a good post on ways teachers and traditions sometimes speak about enlightenment, and what types of dynamics it may set up in the group.

The verbal level is of course important, partly because it sets up maps people use to navigate by.

Yet, something else is as important: The tools we are given. First, to have an immediate taste of what we are. Then, to work with beliefs and stories directly, no matter what they are about.

The tools I am familiar with here are the ones I have written about many times before.

Some tools for inviting in a taste of enlightenment include headless experiments and the Big Mind process. These give a taste of what we are and ways to explore it for ourselves, although obviously not with the same clarity as a full blown awakening. Doing this can be helpful in letting go of some of the more exotic ideas about enlightenment. What we are is something that is quite simple, available to be noticed here now, and not really out there in others or the future.

And there are also good tools available to help us unravel beliefs and stories about enlightenment, teachers or anything else. The Work helps us explore the effects of beliefs, and find what is already more true for us. And exploring the sense fields helps us see thought as thought, and how an overlay of thought on each of the sense fields create gestalts. It also helps us find ourselves as what we are, outside of what any story tells us.

At least for me, having and using these tools - with some sincerity - is far more important than any models, mainly because they first help me explore the terrain for myself, and then because they help me unravel beliefs and attachments to any story and identity.

Also, any model can become a belief, an identification with a story. So it is helpful to work with any model we are presented with - or come up with on our own - in this way, no matter how accurate it appears to be. In a conventional sense, some models are more accurate, meaning they have more practical value. But really, all models are equally far away from what they appear to be about.

I also see that I personally prefer practices aligned with awakening, but with an emphasis on the practical and day to day aspects of it. So in that sense, I would be more in the “no need to talk about it too much” camp. (Although I obviously explore it quite a bit here, but that is on my own.)

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Different teachers (and traditions, and each of us on our own lives) are at different places in terms of transparency and control.

Some are transparent about just about anything. They give it all away in terms of their insights and teachings. They voice whatever concerns come up for them, as they come up, including about own teaching style and how what they say and do may be interpreted and taken by their students. They give a behind-the-scenes view to their students, which is maybe the greatest gift they can offer.

Others take another approach and hide certain aspects of their insights, the tradition, and their concerns about how they teach and how it is received by their students. They keep their cards closer to their chest. And this tends to lead to a perceived need to control quite a bit. They need to control what information comes to their students. They need to control how it is received by the students. They need to keep students and junior teachers in check. They need to deal with the fall out when something goes awry. And so on. There is often a lot of drama coming out of this approach, including the drama of things going on behind the scenes, partly in the mind of the teacher (trying to keep it all together according to their idea of how it should be) and the students (trying to figure out what is going on behind the scenes), and between teachers and students when the students need to be put in place.

The first that comes up for me is that the path of transparency is more appropriate today. It tends to create far less room for drama, and it is also a path of trust. Trust in students being in charge of their own lives. Trust in the teaching being honest and clear enough to survive being out in the open. Trust in whatever happens as God’s will, and offering insights for everyone.

The path of secrecy tends to fuel drama in many ways, including distrust at many levels. The teacher does not trust the students to be able to receive the teaching. The teacher does not trust that even if the student receives it in an unintended way, that too is perfect, that may be exactly what the student needs to gain more experience, refine their understanding, and mature. It requires the teacher to assume that he or she knows what is ultimately best for the student. The teacher takes to some extent on a babysitting role, treating the student as a child. And it can create a great deal of drama and stress for both teacher and student, including unchecked shadow projections either way. (Where there is something hidden, either by teacher to student, or the other way around, shadow projections often have free reign.)

Of course, it is not quite as black-and-white as this.

Often, it is appropriate to portion out the teachings over time, and also target it to where the student is at. But that does not mean that what is temporarily is left out needs to be hidden.

And to hide and control certain things brings, inevitably, up a lot of projections on the part of the student, which helps them see these more clearly. It may be a valid approach, but life itself does a good job in this area anyway, and doesn’t seem to need our help.

Many of the spiritual traditions are heavily goal oriented. There is a shorter term goal of living a life that works better for oneself and others, in terms of reducing suffering. And a longer term and over arching goal of Ground awakening to itself, at least in some parts of the traditions.

There is nothing wrong in this, but it is also only part of the picture, and can create some problems if taken as all there is to it.

For me, it is much more of an exploration process. I am curious about this life and existence in general, and am happy to explore whatever comes up and wherever life takes me. And a part of that wider terrain, which is formed as we go along, is Ground awakening to itself. But it is only one small part of the terrain, and not by any means any “goal” or end point. At most, it is something that happens in glimpses, and then as a more stable shift, and all the other explorations happens - in a conventional view - before and after it, and always within and as what awakens to itself or not.

Ground awakening to itself is not inherently better or more desirable than Ground not noticing itself. The only difference is that in one there is clarity and freedom from suffering, and in the other there is confusion and suffering, so when there is an identification with a separate self, there is naturally a desire for Ground to awaken to itself.

And eventually, when this confusion is thoroughly (or not so thoroughly) explored, when aspects of that terrain is familiar, there is a point where Ground cannot help but to awaken to itself. The sense of a separate self and its identities are so clearly seen as coming just from a thought, from imagination, that it loses any grip. And right there, Ground notices itself as inherently free from anything imagined.

Existence, universe, life, this always evolving form aspect of God, seeks (or, more accurately, moves in the direction of) diversity. And so too in awakening.

If we follow a set path, it is likely to work, at least to some extent. It has many benefits. And although it is a well trodden path, what is brought to it is always somewhat unique and different, so it will have its own flavor.

But why not allow this process, unfolding here now, to lead us? To have an open curiosity, about where this path goes? It is always unique anyway, a unique expression of life and God, so why not allow it to be unique, to willingly allow it to add to the diversity of existence.

It does anyway, so we may as well embrace it, although when there is resistance to it, trying to fit into a tradition and set path, that is also part of its unique flavor.

For me, all of this leads me to embrace both ends of the polarity.

I follow traditional practices, because they work. But I am also very much aware of what can come out of too much of a goal focus… more clashes between stories of what is and should be, more stress, more struggle, and so on. There can also be too much of an expectation of the outcome of practices, which creates, in another way, resistance to what is and struggles with the process and where it wants to go.

But I also follow a more open exploration… I am willing to try anything that comes up, when it comes up for me to try it, like for instance diksha. And I engage in more open inquiries as well, where I have no idea where it will go, such as in Process Work and journeying or tracking. If there is any expectation, it may be surprise over what comes up. Sometimes, it is entirely new dimensions of existence beyond what my thoughts thought was possible.

So there is a more free exploration of any aspect of the always changing and evolving terrain. And as part of this, there is an exploration of what is so clearly mapped out by the many traditions, such as realized selflessness.

God, in its form aspect, evolves in an infinitely rich way. So why not consciously join the process? We don’t need to abandon the traditions, we only need receptivity to and curiosity for a terrain beyond them. This terrain includes what is covered by each of the other traditions, goes beyond this, and is also always unfolding and evolving in new ways.

I am in a new place, and am going to be there for a few years. It is beautiful, rural, with rolling hills and relatively sparse population. Its most characteristic feature is its many spiritual centers, each one representing the best of a particular spiritual approach, presented in a very clear way. I have time to explore each one, including the one of realized selflessness. It is clear that if I stay with that one, which I am about to, the shift will happen.

I had this dream during an afternoon nap, after a visit to the Center for Sacred Sciences library… a place that is much like the village in the dream. In general, being alive today is a great deal like the dream, having the best from many traditions available.