Awaken To Unity

The Significance of the Heart Center
Mark Pope

Most of you have noticed that I tend to express a sense of value for the Spiritual Heart (Heart Center). Today I want to take the opportunity to explain why what we call the awakening of the Spiritual Heart is important to those of us who are interested in awakening.

At times I have, jokingly, spoken of the Texas Two Step. By using this term, I am referring to the process of awakening as having, for most of us, two steps. The first, and the one mostly spoken about in the literature about awakening (and generally the first step for most of us), is the disentangling of our sense of essential being from identification with form (ex. my name, my history, my body, my relationships). We are usually taught to notice that we are always aware but that which appears in this field of unconditioned awareness is always changing. In other words, we come to know ourselves as the witness or observer of all phenomena. We come to know that I AM awareness. This is an essential and valuable realization and through it we begin to feel detached from the constantly changing world of form (people, places, thoughts, feelings, and sensations). This can feel very liberating. We begin to perceive the world of form as a play of consciousness.
Attachment to outcomes, therefore suffering, wanes.

However, this identification with awareness and detachment from the world of form or phenomena, is still only the first step. Even though at first we experience this as liberating and even though at this point we tend to suffer much less, it is still a sense of separation. In this state I Am the field of unconditioned awareness. And in Eastern teaching this is expressed as the realization that I AM.

Eventually, we come to recognize that there is something incomplete about this initial realization. And this is the point at which, if we are fortunate and/or wise, we become willing to bring this spacious sense of awareness into the Spiritual Heart (in the area of the chest and in the body). The "view" from the Spiritual Heart is not essentially different from that of Unconditioned Awareness. It is this Unconditioned Awareness descending, as it were, into the world of form. And it is from this perspective we realize the unity of all creation. We come to experience a kind of intimacy and/or love for all creation...all phenomena. And we cannot be fulfilled until we allow this view that includes all forms (rather than temporarily excluding form by resting in awareness). This second step is what is referred to in Eastern teachings as the realization that I AM THAT.

So, our perspective changes from a subtle separation in step one, to one of fullness is step two.
It is the second step that gives rise to what we call Unconditional Love.

Historically these two steps are referred to as the Via Negativa (exclusion of all but our essence) and Via Positiva (inclusion of all form ). The Via Negativa is often referred to as the Path of Wisdom while the Via Positiva is the Path of Divine Love. The so-called journey of awakening necessitates our realization of the value of both.

In alchemy this is termed the hermetic marriage or the union of both the masculine (wisdom) and the feminine (love) aspects of the Divine.

At this point we realize that the perceiver, the perceived and the perceiving are one seamless whole.

I would express this as I AM and THOU ART THAT.

Blessings and Grace upon Grace,
Mark

" Forgive them, for they know not what they do..."

Sometimes we speak of the awakening of the spiritual heart as if it were closed and needs to open. This is not the case. The spiritual heart is the "heart" of awakening. It is as if the witness or the detached sense of awareness descends into the "heart" area. This is very close to what actually happens. And it is as we begin to see from the perspective of the "heart" of awareness, that we gaze at the world we see with all-forgiving eyes.

There is, in one sense, nothing to forgive. And yet, to see through the heart, is to sense and actually feel a kind of radiant love for all creation. From this perspective we may still see the corruption in the world but we know it is not the result of there needing to be anyone to blame...instead, we understand that many individuals (or waves in the infinite ocean) are just blinded by the filter of thier belief in themselves as an ego or separate self.

This is what causes these words to arise:

" Forgive them, for they know not what they do..."

The Awakening of the Spiritual Heart
Mark Pope

This week I have been listening to some audio recordings of Adyashanti that are new to me. I don't know if you know but Adya has retired from public work. In any case I found this piece called The 30 Day Wake Up Challenge (Challenge is not meant to evoke egoic effort) that was recorded about 3 years ago that I had never seen. A portion of this recording focuses on the Heart Center in a way I had never heard him do before. In a way much like Brugh Joy, he speaks of bringing our most valuable resources (time and attention) into a devotional approach to the Heart Center.

He says that this is often entirely overlooked by us. Even after we have realized our essential being to be a field of alert, alive awareness, we tend to live in awareness as if it were located "behind the eyes." He suggests that a further step in embodying this already and always free awareness is to bring it down into the area of the chest which he calls the Heart Center. He calls this the Heart of Awareness and says this is where we discover an ability to look at the tragedy of the human condition without needing to label it or judge it...that we can sense this subtle center as a kind of "felt" silence in the area of the spiritual heart that can and will eventually allow us to feel a complete intimacy or oneness with all form.

This is what I tend to call waking down...so that the Truth of our Being begins to pe*****te our Psychological sense of self and reveals what I have often called the experience of realizing "it is all God pouring God into God." Or it is all the One Presence as both context and all content.

Mark Pope

The original inquiry was suggested by Ramana Maharshi: It was for the individual to ask the question "Who Am I?

Not that there was an answer to the question that could be apprehended by the surface mind...mind you; It was a part of what is today known as the path of wisdom or the Via Negativa. We can see for ourselves if we look, not through the mind, but simply look without using thoughts to label what we see... that "I" cannot be found in the world of form...because all form (people, places, things, thoughts, emotions, sensations and states of consciousness) come and go.

So to realize that my essential identity cannot be found in any form, we are left, by a process of elimination (again by negating everything that is temporal) that what is left is a field of alert, alive, awareness that never dims and is always already the case. This is also termed the Path of Wisdom...not ultimately different from the Path of the Heart, as we soon discover that this field of alert, alive, awareness is also a field of unconditional love.

We can see this for ourselves because this field makes no judgments, has no opinions, but is able to allow us to see the world of forms as expressions of the One Presence that Thou Art and that I AM. We are often confused about what the term "Unconditional Love" refers to. It is not an emotional feeling. It is not bliss or ecstasy. It is simply seeing from The Wisdom of the Spiritual Heart that all life is a formless Wisdom and Love AND... that all form is a temporary expression of the One Presence appearing within its own essential formless SELF.

It is the One presence recognizing Itself as the essential nature in everything.

So the Wisdom of the Heart is expressed quite simply and purely in the words of Teddy (from the short story by the same title by J.D. Salinger:

He says in response to being asked how old he was when he realized "whatever he realized" that he was about 6 years old and watching his sister sitting in her highchair drinking her milk when :

"Suddenly I remembered it is all just God Pouring God into God!"

All opinions and judgements of the human mind that obscure this essential reality are obstacles to the Truth!

Love and Wisdom,
Mark

"Realization is the medicine given to the disease of suffering---And it is the only medicine there is." --Adyashanti

So, taking the quote above, what does one realize that ends our suffering? One realizes that our true nature cannot be found in thoughts, or emotions or things. One realizes that I AM the Light of Awareness in which all thoughts, emotions, and things arise and change and fall away.

This realization is not a doing...there isn't a "how to." It is simply noticing that this Light of Awareness is now here and is always here now...in fact one sees, I Am this Light. And then noticing that awareness is always here and the world of thoughts, emotions,and things is in a constant state of flux. We just stop trying to control the world of thoughts, emotions, and things and relax into being the Light of Awareness and observe the thoughts and things as they come and go...this is called Liberation.... no more pushing and pulling on things and suddenly we find we are free of suffering...we are now living in GRACE!

When speaking of mind and using words as we must with speaking and writing, it is important to distinguish between the essence of Mind (or some may say Divine Mind or Universal Mind) which is simply the fact of unbroken ever present awareness and thoughts which appear in mind/awareness (and are constantly changing). Relating to life in all its forms through thought creates a distortion in perception...things seem separate and even more significantly, they seem separate from one's so called self.

From the perspective of Divine Mind or Pure Unconditioned awareness, we observe the Reality of One Presence or One Reality containing everything (including whatever forms arise in the present moment).

Here are some words from Rupert Spira:

"Nothing has its own existence, but rather everything borrows its apparent existence from God's being, the only being that is. There is only one reality, and that reality stands alone, indivisible, indestructible, whole, perfect and complete."

Blessings galore,
Mark

Once Again I suggest this simple pointer:

The human condition: Lost in thought - Eckhart Tolle

Over time it has been evident that this is still the way most of us live a great deal of the time...lost in thought. We cannot break the trance of believing ourselves to be a separate entity and a "personality" (meaning mask) while still living our lives predominantly from the perspective of thought...no matter how bright we deem our thoughts to be. To be free or liberated refers to being very clear that our so-called personal thoughts and feelings do not really refer to a real self...no matter how convincing this may seem. Consider how deluded we are to actually believe that we are a body and a personality.

We've worn the mask so long that we have forgotten it is a mask. It is as if on Halloween we decide its so much fun that we'll leave the mask on...until after enough time, we forget that it is only a mask and what or who we are beneath it is largely lost from view. Our so-called personal problems can never really be resolved from this perspective. We must, if we are to be free, eventually notice that who we are can never be found in thought. We are the awareness within which all thought registers.

The above is not a good theory. We are speaking of who and what we are in reality...

Blessings all-ways...Mark

Disentangling of Awareness

In order to recognize or become aware of itself as it is, awareness doesn't have to do anything special. Awareness is, by nature self aware, just as the sun is, by nature self-luminous.
Therefore, awareness of itself---that is, our knowledge of our own essential irreducible being---is not a new or special kind of knowledge. It is the knowledge that is inherent within awareness though seemingly obscured due to the exclusive focus of our attention on objective experience.

The underlying field of awareness has become entangled with thoughts and things etc.

I was present in Malibu, California once during an Eckhart Tolle TV session being filmed. I was sitting in the front row. Eckhart Tolle said...by resting in awareness,
"what happens is, awareness disentangles itself from identification with form."

Adyashanti upon being asked what the greatest obstacle to awakening is, answered as follows:
"There are no obstacles, only concepts"...and then elaborated and said..."it is our fascination with thoughts and things." ( the so called objective world)

In other words, we humans seem to mostly become entranced in what is occuring in the world of form. We find our thoughts and the happenings in the so called world to be of great interest...so much so that we have overlooked or forgotten our own essential nature (awareness).

This is the human condition and only leads to conflict and suffering. We only need to note that awareness is always the case while thought and things (objective world) come and go (as in the Buddhist idea of impermanence).

Here is a little piece from Rupert Spira's tiny book,

I AM:
I have no name
but am called by all names.

I have no form
but all forms indicate me.

I have no origin
but am the origin of all things.

I am without division
but all divisions exist in me.

"The awakening of the Heart Center is the acme of human spiritual development." --Brugh Joy

Of all the spiritual resources I have encountered or experienced, one stands out as most significant. That one is the awakening of the heart center.

There are seven primary spiritual centers (chakras) built into the body. Each one, when activated or awakened, gives rise to specific resources and perceptions. The heart center is located in the center of these seven, with three above and three below. It is symbolized in some Buddhist or Hindu traditions by a circle with lotus petals around it and with a six pointed star (two equal triangles joined) within the circle. This image suggests the union of the six other centers in a field of unconditional love.

Most everyone has seen the image of Jesus with a kind of fiery heart in the middle of the chest. Often such images also depict Jesus pointing to this center. Some call it the sacred heart. Others have named this center of consciousness the Love Center. When even slightly activated, this center allows a kind of radiant warmth and an indescribable love to enter awareness. Previous limited beliefs and concepts about Love are transmuted into the actual experience of a love to which all things are instantly made possible. One knows in such a moment of awakening that one has encountered a power that comes from beyond our limited sense of self. And quite significantly, we experience such an awakening, not as something unfamiliar, but as something valuable beyond measure that had been forgotten or lost from view.

In the moment in which we experience this, we know beyond doubt that it did not come through having "earned" it, or "deserved" it, or "caused" it to arise into awareness. This love has the capacity to change us forever in the blink of an eye.

Words like awe and wonderment and grace suddenly make sense.

Although we cannot "cause" the heart center to awaken, we can devote some attention to it with the understanding that a universal principle is at work..a principle that is quite simply suggested by the following:

"We become that to which we give our attention."

The above is just a reminder that the wondrous and seemingly miraculous are always possible...that grace is here and can be known by simply being open and receptive to this Love ( which we often overlook but is always already here within us awaiting out invitation to have it shine in and through us.

Out of the radiance of the heart,
Mark

Judge Not by Appearances

Before judgements, opinions and labels, all simply is as it is --MP

The underlying wisdom of the suggestion that we not judge by appearances lies in the understanding that everything that occurs affects everything else thereby leaving us no actual basis upon which to judge the "goodness" or "badness" of a particular outcome in the short term.

We can only see the surface of things. This can leave us like a wave judging the "goodness" or "badness" of every other wave without any respect for the deep forces within the oceanic depths of our being.

Often we may discover that something quite difficult, painful, or even catastrophic... will turn out in the long run to have been the Source of some of our greatest wisdom and understanding. So, "judge not" means never rely on the surface appearances of things to attempt to determine the value of those things.

There is an ancient oriental parable that most have heard before but that makes a nice reference to this point:

A farmer gets a horse and it runs away. The villagers say..."too bad"...to which the farmer replies: "We'll see."
The horse returns bringing another horse with him. The villager say..."what good fortune" to which the farmer replies: "We'll see." The farmer gives the 2nd horse to his son, who rides it, then is thrown off breaking his leg. The villagers all say, "too bad"... to which the farmer replies, "We'll see." A week later the emperor's men come and take all the able bodied young men to fight in a war. The farmer's son is spared because of his broken leg. The villagers say..."what good fortune" to which the farmer replies: "We'll see."

The story suggests we remain detached about results or outcomes,
...since we never really know.

Love and blessings, Mark

Flying Eagles Perspective
recorded by
Mark Pope
Love Offering

I rarely discuss or even contemplate what some call "psychic" stuff. I have had some interesting (at least to me) experiences that one might say fall into that category. The words and the experience described below occurred many years ago. I was beginning a typing class and I typed the words as they came to me. I share it because it is in alignment with what I still value as true today.

Once upon a time, a certain individual appeared upon the screen of my mind. This individual appeared in the form of an American Indian. Flying Eagle and I had met before. It was back in 1976 in Phoenix, Arizona. According to information given to me at the time, Flying Eagle was dis-incarnate. He had spoken to me through the medium-ship of another individual. I knew him then as a voice and as a mind but he had no form, at least not that I could detect.

Now, let’s get back to the present time (1989). As I sit here, I am viewing the form of a very lifelike American Indian on the screen of my mind’s eye. There is a look of wisdom, a somehow distinguished look to him. If I can trust my intuition, he has a few words to say. I believe this might be a good time to listen:
"A long time ago I was given the name Flying Eagle. I was given this name because the Great Spirit had blessed me with the ability to see life on earth from an elevated perspective. I can tell you that from my present perspective, the name still applies. The earth may appear to have major problems. Your life may appear to have major difficulties. However, from my point of view, there is only the unfolding activity of the Great Spirit which we once called the Medicine Wheel. Actually your lives are perfect. The Great Spirit knows exactly what It is up to. And It is up to plenty good! From my point of view or perspective, most of you are taking life much too seriously. It turns out fine in the long run anyway. Trust me. You could be enjoying this thing all along the way.

“Let me explain something to you: Right this very moment the events in your life are telling you something. They are attempting to give you exactly what you really want. Just stop trying to figure everything out from the perspective of lack. You lack nothing necessary. Assume that the Great Spirit is in charge of life; that It knows exactly what It is doing; that It is up to plenty good. Now, from this perspective, take a look at your life, and ask yourself what it is that life is saying to you.

“From my point of view, it appears that life is telling you to laugh, to love, to enjoy, and most of all, to trust IT! The Great Spirit is appearing as every form in your life. None of these varied forms are out of order. Every single event is guided by the Great Spirit. It is completely in charge. Actually the idea of releasing and letting God is ludicrous. God, or the Great Spirit is in charge whether you like it or not. You have nothing to say about it. Either accept it or suffer the consequences of pretending to have control over that which made you. The Great Spirit created you. You didn’t create It. Can you begin to glimpse the ridiculous position you put yourself in when you insist on being in control? It is almost laughable. You think you are learning to trust when the truth is…you have no choice but to trust. The Great Spirit will continue to unfold exactly as It sees fit. A better policy might be to accept your proper place in the scheme of things and enjoy the show! You may want to cease this resistance and accept the reality of the situation. The options are few and unattractive.

“As a final gesture, let me invite you to assume with me, an eagle’s perspective: Rise up and out of your petty concerns. Refine your sight. View the activity of the Great Spirit with humility and gratitude. This activity is The Teaching of the Medicine Wheel and it is given by the Great Spirit!!!”

Mark Pope

Barking Up the Wrong Tree
or
The Three Injunctions
(from Joy's Way by Brugh Joy)

with
Mark Pope

In his autobiography, Brugh Joy writes about an encounter with a woman with authentic psychic abilities. These abilities caused her to be able to "see" future events in the lives of her clients...some of which were less than positive. She was so accurate that she began to find herself in demand by people all over the world. She came to Brugh because she wanted to get rid of the psychic insights because such insights were overwhelming to her surface mind.

During the session with Brugh, she mentioned an experience she had just before the psychic insights began. The experience was one where she suddenly and inexplicably sensed the Oneness or Interconnection of all things. suddenly everything she saw was radiating with light and color.

Then she had heard an inner voice speak saying:

There are 3 injunctions for you. Pay attention to them:

1. Make no comparisons; make no comparisons.
2. Make no judgments; Make no judgments.
3. Delete your need to understand; Delete your need to understand.

His point in telling the story was to remind us that the deeper mystery of life cannot be grasped by the surface mind...The woman's psychic ability was only problematic because she had failed to follow the 3 injunctions...

The need to understand through the surface mind or ego structure has definite limits. The deeper Mystery of Being cannot be grasped in this way.
Such a lesson carries a great deal of value for anyone interested in awakening...simply because the surface mind can never grasp or contain the Mystery of Being.

In other words, the finite mind is incapable of understanding or appreciating the infinite. A little like: "barking up the wrong tree..."😗
Mark Pope

The recognition that it is the stories we tell ourselves about most everything that cause our confusion and suffering has to be SEEN. No teacher can explain it away. And this SEEing requires us to look from Awareness at the words/stories that the surface mind tells.

We do not need to make an enemy of this voice, nor do we need to demean it...(nor do we need to believe it). This self concerned voice in the head isn't really who you are...it typically serves a self that doesn't exist...a separate and needy or fearful sense of self that is assumed to exist.

This limited sense of self has no ability to see deeper purposes or ultimate cause. Typically this voice is attempting to explain things from an extremely limited perspective...this perspective is held in place by our identifying ourselves as separate from the whole...that is, from the perspective that who I am is this separate person.

I speak regularly with inmates in county jail and/or in prison. They know they are in jail or prison. For many of us, we are in a prison created by beliefs...beginning with the belief that who we are is a little separate needy "me." To be free (liberated) we must first come to see we are living in a conceptual prison. Instead of being largely concerned with the ego or surface mind's perspective, we must come to see that everything it perceives is built upon untruth (separation), the ego's strategy based upon this assumed separation.

Someone sent me an article this week about some scientists who have come to see that the separate self doesn't really exist. It used a quote I haven't heard in a while:

"Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 % of everything you think, and of everything you do is for yourself----and there isn't one.
---Wei Wu Wei

SEEing that this voice is simply expressing an accumulated set of beliefs that need to be questioned is the beginning of awakening. Without the recognition that we are living from an untrue assumption, we are unlikely to question our beliefs. And that's okay too 😗❤...
Mark

Notice that while thoughts are present, you are not your thoughts. Thoughts come and go...you are not your feelings, because feelings are also something that are occurring to you...that are coming and going. This is a common spiritual strategy...what we are doing is pushing consciousness into the witness state. We are learning to dis-identify (which is different from disassociate) from identifying ourselves by our thoughts and feelings or even the world around us. We realize we are awareness, as opposed to, well, everything else. When we perceive ourselves as awareness it can be life changing...this is a kind of awakening...but it is not the end point. It is the midpoint of realization.

Next come the deeper states of realization, when the perceiver or witness state collapses. This is where we begin to perceive that everything that exists is an aspect of the I AM that I AM and Thou Art! This second stage is what Adyashanti calls waking down...where the essential Truth of Being pe*****tes the psychological sense of self.

Mark Pope

The Mechanism of Projection
or
I AM the Light: Conditioning is the Film

by
Mark Pope

"Let go or be dragged..."

Projection is the means by which we see what our actual beliefs are. We watch the Mystery Play of form and according to immutable principle, the world "plays out" in accordance with our beliefs. The mechanism of projection cuts two ways:

1. First the "bad" news: We cannot ever fully escape or hide from what we deeply believe because our beliefs are projected by inviolate spiritual principle.
As in "no place to run and no place to hide." And how ridiculous would it be to create/project a world of form and then go to sleep and pretend the world is "doing it to us." Which is exactly what the unconscious belief (i.e. general consensus) of the world assumes is the case. Talk about being asleep...

2. The "good" news: We are always capable of dis-covering these beliefs and seeing their false nature, thereby being liberated from what otherwise would be an eternal GroundHog Day. The immutable principle that brings our beliefs into form or manifestation through projection serves as the Grace by which we are ultimately destined to awaken from the dream/nightmare of the individual and collective value system. Ultimately, projection means we can always discover what has otherwise been hidden and persistently causing suffering (so really there is no good or bad to it...only grace...

The mechanism of projection is the means by which the entire world of form appears in awareness. The specific nature of the world we see is upheld by our specific conditioning and by our unconscious agreement with the general consensus of opinion and belief. The general consensus is what Jesus means when he says "the world." This is why we must eventually let go of believing our conditioned thoughts/beliefs.

The Zen proverb puts it this way:
"Let go or be dragged..."

The Truth of our essential being is Light (awareness)....as in:
"I Am the Light of the World"

It is of enormous value to understand this, as with this understanding we begin to see the dreamlike nature of what had seemed so solid (and often harsh).
Row, row, row,... and so on...

Mark Pope

The World and Myself are One
(from Rupert Spira's Being Myself)
with Mark Pope

In the first stage of meditation, the inward facing path or the way of discrimination, we extricate our essential self from everything we are aware of. Awareness turns away from the objects of experience, and recognizes itself as the knower of the known....as in...

"I am aware of thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions, but am not myself any such object. I am that which knows or is aware of them"

In the second stage of meditation, the outward facing path or the way of inclusion, we face the objective content of experience from which we previously turned away, but we no longer lose our self in it.

Eventually we see clearly that no object exists independently of God's being. No thing has its own independent existence. No person or object is an entity unto itself. Properly understood, this is an affirmation of the fact that every object or event we encounter is a temporary name and form of eternal infinite being.

Things don't have thier own existence; being has things. Selves don't have awareness. Awareness has selves.

To feel this in reality in the midst of experience is to know beauty and love. It is
God's beauty shining in and as existence.

"In real Love, you want the other person's good. In romantic love, you want the other person."

We live in a collective where the term love can be used in many ways. Brugh Joy used to suggest that having only one term for love can be confusing since we end up using the same word for emotional attachment as we do for unconditional love...

Regarding the above quote, let us be aware that wanting the other person's good does not imply any action or require any doing. It is a quote intended to clear up the confusion...and reveal the underlying intention of true Love with clarity.

Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity than its dogmas (beliefs). It is true that every dogma crumbles sooner or later, because reality will eventually disclose its falseness; however, unless the basic delusion of it is seen for what it is, it will be replaced by others."

"What is this basic delusion? Identification with thought."

"Spiritual awakening is awakening from the dream of thought."

❤❤❤, Mark