Other Writings

Embodiment

Embodiment describes the incorporation of an achieved state into the everyday living of the person who achieved that state. Living the 'awakened state'. Living the 'enlightened state'. Some descriptions include a further 'deepening' of the already achieved state, which is also incorporated into normal living.

The concept of 'Embodiment' is based on the assumption that 'awakening' or 'enlightenment' are discrete states that one hopes for, achieves and then embodies in normal life.

Are 'enlightenment' and 'awakening' discrete identifiable states?.

Our true nature is Awareness / Consciousness / Aliveness / Presence which is Non Dual. One without a second is the other way of describing NonDuality indicating one essence for all. It is not personal - there is no personal 'me' there at all. No-one there to become enlightened or awake.

All apparently separate individuals are, in their essential (meaning 'actual') nature, not separate and never have been. They are all temporary expressions of the One Life. That is our essential nature.

When we 'become enlightened' or suddenly 'wake up' does our essential nature change? Our essential nature, by definition, does not change.

So whatever the concepts of 'enlightenment' or 'awakening' are - they are not changes in our non-personal essential nature. Our essential nature has not awoken (it never went to sleep), has not become realized (it has always been real) and has not become enlightened (it was never unenlightened).

Who is the 'one' to awaken? Who is the 'one' to become enlightened? It is the personal sense of self, the current identity, the 'me' that wants enlightenment, wants to become awake. The 'me' that suffers and wants relief, liberation.

The 'me' cannot awaken and cannot become enlightened as its nature is thought, thought and only thought. It is the one we believe in - the personal sense of self. When investigated it is found not to exist. It is a fiction.

Awakening or enlightenment do not apply to our essential nature, nor to the illusory sense of self. One does not need to attain those states and the other is incapable of doing so. There are no other possibilities to which it might apply.

Why not drop the concepts of enlightenment, awakening and embodiment? How can there be 'embodiment' when the apparent states that are to be embodied do not apply to our true nature, nor the illusion of the separate self?

We have always been 'Lived' by the One Life. We were lived before a so-called 'awakening experience', during a so-called 'awakening experience' and after a so-called 'awakening experience'. There is no increase or decrease in the degree to which we are Lived by the One Life, although it may appear that it varies.

Life is a continual unfolding, a continual arising - all in the immediacy of the present moment. Life, Awareness, Consciousness is universal and impersonal. It is Life unfolding, not 'your life'.

The SEEing occurs in the immediacy of the present moment, the re-cognition of your true nature occurs there, the seeing of the false as false occurs there. The seeing of the truth as truth occurs there. The SEEing itself is also impersonal - there is only SEEing. The SEER does not exist and never has outside of concepts.

Fresh Unfoldings only ever occur in this instant. It is Life itself, which is fully present, right now. Life is fresh, new, vibrant know-INGs, See-INGs - that is the way life occurs/works. Awareness being aware.

This is not a process - it is Life itself. That is the way Life works, but only in the present instant. A process has a start point, an activity that takes time, an end point and a final product, which is a future objective. There is time, projection into the future and anticipation of the final result. None of that applies or exists.

There is no "Now I have this state, and now I am going to learn how to incorporate it into my whole life". There is no person there to 'have that life' and no-one there to do the incorporating or embodying. There never has been anyone there at any time, despite a little voice in the head saying that there is someone there.

Retaining a belief in awakening or enlightenment as states that can be achieved lays the groundwork for believing that these states need to be embodied, or that embodiment occurs. All of this is conceptual. They are not discrete states that can be achieved.

The Real, the Actual is that Life Live us. Life itself is continually arising, unfolding in the immediacy of the present moment. There are no divisions or separations in this - no separate states. Any divisions are conceptual only. There is no separate Awakening and no separate Embodiment - there is not even a hazy line between them - even if they did exist, which they don't. It is the Movement of Life, the Movement of Consciousness. The One Life.

The Real, the Actual, is that Understandings occur, SEEing occurs, KNOWing occurs but there is no entity there that 'has' those. There is no-one there that says 'I know' or 'I understand', or even 'I see'.

Pure Seeing by Life Itself. Awareness

Which is your true nature.

Written by Mike Graham, 3 Feb 2008, major revision 12 Mar 2008