I have just one question about all this, Robert: supposing one is awake and sees those that are not, is it wise or unwise to attempt to provoke that awakening experience in others? Is that something we ought to do or steer clear of?
On the one hand, I feel that is a kind of calling to do so, yet on the other, in trying to awaken others, you are trying to impose some sort of experience that you have on them when ultimately you know it's just all 'this' right, they're part of it already. I wrestle with this because if you embrace the feeling of being called to awaken others as a valid part of the experience, then it's all groovy. But I also have experienced that through any attempt to do so, you sort of 'curse' yourself with a messiah complex.
It seems to me that everyone who has ever 'tried' to awaken someone has been completely misunderstood; every guru, mystic, and enlightened Buddha appears to have failed to produce anything tangible. I also feel that one who is awake does actually 'get' what all these gurus are saying and trying to do, yet sees that they have largely failed. It seems to me to be the case that 'it takes one to know one' and beyond that seems ultimately hopeless. Perhaps it's not that I'm asking you for some ultimate answer, but what is your experience with this topic?
I agree with your take on Zen. I found it to be one of the direct and honest attempts, though I don't practice Zen or any formal meditation, really. There is something that feels to me to be special about kōans and the direct method of inquiry. It seems that if there is any sort of method, Zen has had the most 'success,' success, in this case, meaning perhaps the closest you can get to embracing the human experience aspect in its totality. It could be that it just scratches a certain itch of intellectual curiosity for some, I don't really know.
Hi. I don’t imagine any ultimate answer to such a question, particularly since what one person means by “awake” may not jibe at all with what another means by that word.
I have no method of awakening anyone. I have written two books on the subject that some people find helpful in coming to terms with the human condition and such topics as free will, self-determination, destiny, choice, and who are we anyway, but they offer no methods. My approach to sharing my own “awakeness” is simple phenomenology—a straightforward report of how I approach the inevitable challenges of being here as a human primate animal with all that entails.
I wish you well.
The Ten Thousand Things, sample chapters
Depending On No-thing, sample chapters
I like the way Robert answers this long question in a few short sentences, keeping it very direct and simple.
I’m not awakened, but if I were, I would say, there’s nothing to give and nothing to get, so get lost and stay lost and have the courage to stand alone.
No doubt you know my answer to this question!
For a while, this sort of activity was booming business…and still is, to some degree.
I feel in my bones we are *rapidly* coming to the end of that era.
-Leslie@ integrityintruth.com