Awakening - Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

so today I wanted to talk about awakening and what awakening really means and what actually awakens and what does it awaken to there is a whole tradition of spiritual teaching that says everything is perfect everything always was perfect and everything always will be perfect that in the moment you can realize that perfection if you like the only imperfection is our perception we are the veil that separates us from the direct experience of an awakened reality and and all you need to do is just to awaken to what is already here you don't have to change anything you don't have to improve anything you don't have to improve yourself you just have to be present with the divine perfection that is present and that's a very very ancient very beautiful teaching and many people have had such a direct experience they awaken to what is and they realize its perfection and really there is nothing else to do and that is in a way an act of grace that is given to the human being to wake up to what is not what appears there is a great difference between what appears and what is what appears is our perception what is is what is actually present and it's one of the astounding realizations if you like that that you've been living in a self-created or a culturally created illusion and then suddenly you wake up and it's not there anymore and you realize it never was it is like mist at dawn being burnt away by the Sun and and just as when you go out in the mist in the early morning and you can't see anything you can just hear a few sounds of birds through the mist maybe you hear some water somewhere or some cows in the distance if you're in Switzerland but you are surrounded by yourself that mist is yourself you are surrounded by your own self and that is in a way the veil in which most people live most of the time I think Jung said somewhere 99% of humanity live in that 99% of the time in this mist or like a traditional London Fog you can't see your hand in front of your face and then there is this extraordinary moment when the mist lifts when the veils part and suddenly you find yourself in the garden of creation in the world as it actually is and this is incredibly beautiful incredibly radiant it is I like to think to describe it as creation singing the song of the Creator it is incredibly beautiful it is life really alive it is in a way what we have actually come here to experience we didn't actually come here to experience the veils to experience the mist to experience the conditioning we didn't even come here to experience our mind there was a hope when the soul came into this world that we could actually experience this world I mean to use that classic expression we could actually be here now and if you have really had just one instance of that experience in your life something in you is deeply fulfilled you have actually arrived you have actually been present in this world for the first time so it is really important to realize that this primal experience of life of creation it is not an experience of yourself yes there are experiences you can have of yourself of your real self there are moments which you can directly perceive your true nature what you really are they are also incredibly beautiful and can be quite overwhelming when you realize the center of light the center of love the center of pure being that is your nature but in that direct experience of life there is no you there is just life in the garden of creation there is just creation it is unbelievably beautiful as many of you know I had was given that when I was 16 and I just woke up and I didn't believe anything could be so beautiful and what was quite interesting it was the same place I had been before but it was completely different and there was this light there was this beauty there was it's incredible joy an incredibly simplest incredible simplicity it just was it just is and I always know that's there once you've had that moment that direct experience you cannot forget it and you know it is there you may lose it you don't live in it all the time I think it will be unfair on people around you if you did but you never lose it you always know it is just there waiting behind the mist waiting for the sunlight to come through and to lift it and then you find you or you are in the Garden of Eden this is the archetypal Garden of Eden where of course human beings walk together with God it is not a God that we have been conditioned to think of something separate it's just a God that just is this is the divine that is always present because when you experience life like that you know it is divine it is a direct experience of the divine in creation and it is not your experience it can never be your experience just like it's not your creation it just is in a way it's a tremendous privilege to be shown that it is like archetypal II I suppose a beautiful woman taking off her clothes and revealing the radiant beauty that is underneath when the Creator does that with his creation and it is always there and there's nothing to be improved nothing to be added to it is what TS Eliot calls this moment in and out of time he writes about it very beautifully and is often one thing there is often in this equality of laughter a quality of joy a quality of laughter because there is it's something we have forgotten there is in creation this deep deep laughter this deep joy he writes about you when he says sudden in a shaft of sunlight even while the dust moves there arises the hidden laughter of children in the foliage quick now here now always ridiculous the waste sad time stretching before and after it is that primal in innocence quick now here now always and the laughter of children so that is what it means to be awake to be present for a moment in life as it actually is and then there is this whole extraordinary thing that we actually live in which isn't that which is sometimes about as far from that as one could imagine which is this mist this veils the Sufis talk about the veils that cover us and cover us and cover us and cover us until we forget why we are here until we forget even the memory of creation so we read about it in Genesis it was like that at the beginning not realizing the beginning is now beginning it's what is and everything afterwards is what got lost and that presents human beings within enormous paradox that everything we create everything we do is what separates us from what is I repeat that because it is it is so astounding everything we do everything we think about ourselves everything we create separates us from what is in a way everything in our life is about putting ourselves to sleep or is about gentle snoring rhythms and I suppose some people are so fast asleep they just have their nightmares and they live in them I suppose some people have really pleasant dreams and they live in those and some people are in this half waking half sleeping strange state where nothing is real it's what's called spiritual life now seriously it is what is called spiritual life because it is not completely asleep if you are completely asleep and having your your dreams of I don't know what people dream of fulfilled relationships BMW cars whatever it is or nightmares losing everything the next earthquake whatever the nightmare is some people have nightmares some people live in anxiety ridden nightmares day after day night after night and some people are lucky and they live a good dream and they drive the BMW car that kissed by the beautiful girl or they go out to dinner with the handsome man whatever their dream and then there is this strange state half awake half asleep when you are no longer satisfied either with the nightmare or the beautiful dream and you know you're not awake and it torments you you're not awake but you can't sleep soundly and you start to do spiritual practices and the purpose of spiritual practice is to help you to make the transition from snoring to awaking once you're awake there is no need for spiritual practice I can assure you who is there to do a spiritual practice my Shaykh by sup he said there there are times when he he didn't pray because there was nobody even there to pray if you are awake you're awake you're present and there's not even a you to be present it's a very very beautiful state there is nothing to add there is nothing to take away it just is so this is the the ancient ancient story of humanity they say interestingly in the the whole Christian Western iconography it was there at the beginning in the Garden of Eden and everything that has happened since then has been what got lost has been what happened when humanity tasted duality tasted the fruit of the tree of good and evil tasted duality and then was thrown out of the Garden of Eden and that wonderful image that has stayed with me since my childhood are the angels with flaming swords not allowing you back and so really since then say it has all been about what has got lost thousands and thousands of years of what has got lost now what I find very interesting is this is both an individual story we were all in the Garden of Eden we all got thrown out of the Garden of Eden we all tasted duality good and evil light and dark and also it is the story of the whole of humanity and of the world the whole world was once Adam and Eve the Sufis actually say that that Adam is the archetypal man they even talk about the greater Adam and the lesser Adam Adam is the archetypal man Eve is the archetypal woman it is in a way all of humanity not just the first man in the first woman but that essential man an essential woman the one real man the one real woman that lives in the Garden of Eden that is present there in the world in its intrinsic beauty naked with God so that is both each of our stories and also the story of the world of everything that got lost all the wars that were fought after this news have to read the Bible all of the wars and all of the judgments and all of the punishments and all of the tribulations and all of the prophets and all of the revelations they're just about what happened afterwards and that goes on for thousands of years and occasionally individual people want to return there want to wake up want to no longer live in a nightmare or a dream and also because of this extraordinary relationship between humanity and the world there also comes a time when the world itself wants to wake up when the world wants to throw off this debris of thousands of years it wants to waken out of the mist and what is very interesting is there is a whole ancient esoteric tradition I should say that there are there are always two if you like levels of esoteric traditions sacred wisdom and one has to do with the spiritual evolution of the individual and that's what you can find in some of the books now available in the West and some of the teachings that have been made public in the last twenty thirty years and then there is a whole other level of esoteric teaching which has to do with the world which has to do with the spiritual body of the world and most of that was lost a long time ago there are vestiges it vestiges of it in some shamanic traditions that have been passed down from father to son there are hints of it in some of the remnants of the real Tibetan teachings that have come to the west but what has come to the West is a very watered-down version most of those sacred Tibetan texts got burnt by the communists and of course in the West some of those teachings were held by the Gnostics that those were last long long ago so there is this whole other esoteric tradition of how the world functions as a living spiritual being and part of that teaching is that there are signs that something is going to happen there are signs when the world begins to want to wake up they are very odd signs they aren't signs that you would think they're usually signs of things going really off base of things getting really skewed out of proportion they're almost signs of things being misused rather than used they're signs of disaster which is what happens when the world begins to kind of shake itself a bit now what really interests me is the possibility of being present at that moment now this is a paradox because the world is always perfect the world can never be other than perfect and yet the world can also wake up and this is kind of beautifully imaged in one of the Western myths of the grip of the human awakening which is the Grail legend and as many of you know the young Knight passive al he found his way to the Grail castle one morning he was there in the sacred magical place that wasn't far away the mists lifted and he found himself present in the Grail castle and everything he had ever wanted was fulfilled in that moment he was present at the most sacred place in the world in the Grail Castle and that is like everybody's initial awakening it is always there it just happens I think almost all human beings are given such a moment at some time in their life I don't think the soul could come into this world and remain in this world if it didn't have that experience at least once and an incarnation it might be something very simple like like finding a really beautiful tomato and eating it and in that moment there is actually a direct experience it might just be just watching a sunset that's why I I like what TS Eliot said when he says sudden in a shaft of sunlight even while the dust moves there Rises the hidden laughter of children in the foliage it is there for everybody there is that kind of moment that is there something is awakened there is a light in the air there is sunlight in the air there is this laughter oh yes and for a moment you remember what you have forgotten and then like passive Ally gets lost I had that experience when I was 16 I had it for two weeks which was amazing but then the veils fall again then you have to go through all of the process all of the tribulations all of the passive all had to rescue the maiden there are nights to be fought there is the Battle of life and then slowly something begins to disintegrate now interestingly Oh in the last century there have been terrible terrible battles that have been fought humanity has gone through strange contortions and it all begins to be distorted when the possibility of something awakening within yourself something begins to distort inside of you it's very odd and then if you notice it in your own life when you come to that kind of a point it's like the worlds don't quite fit together it's a very disturbing experience it is like one reality comes very very close to the other reality I I can tell you very simply what it is we have our own self created reality for example the image we have of ourselves whether it came from our childhood or a therapist it doesn't matter right we have our own self created we have this kind of a person we have this lot of problems or we have you know you are well educated Californians and then there is reality with the capital our and most of the time they don't interfere too much with each other just like for example traditionally if you have a good spiritual teacher he won't interfere with you too much of the time it's too dangerous he'll let you live your illusion or she'll let you live your illusion won't interfere too much because you know your image of yourself is your particular to a bit of mist that you carry around with you and some have it nicely perfumed as a kind of you know rose tinted mist and some have a more demonic mist that you know has Devils peering through it it's just mist and behind the mist there is reality there is life as it actually is and most the time they're quite separate human beings have been given this incredible freedom to make up almost any illusion they want animals don't have the same freedom animals have to live their reality they don't have a choice I was a member a friend of mine had a dream experience with a fox and he was in the dream he was trying to kind of civilize the Fox and the Fox said no the Fox will always do what a fox is that animal reality has to be true to itself it's in the DNA it can't lie as human beings we have been given this incredible freedom to create almost any illusion that we want any sense of ourselves any sense of our life we can create and we can create terrible scenarios and beautiful scenarios and all between and then there is something called reality and I say most of the time reality and your illusion do not interact very much in exactly the same way as it said in the apana shots about the two birds who sat on the branch of the tree one eats the fruit of the tree and the other looks on which is why in Sufism the the higher self is often referred to as the Shaheed the witness it just watches reality just watches romera doesn't judge there is no good and bad from reality that's the fruit that banished us from reality judgment something being better than something else or worse than something else reality just watches doesn't interfere this is for most spiritual people this is very difficult to understand that reality just watches it watches you and gain in the same way in a spiritual tradition most of the time the teacher just watches you this has very little we are conditioned to say very little otherwise we would interfere with the free will of the human being always be careful of a spiritual teacher who tells you what to do but as I was saying there are these when something has the potential to wake up reality with a capital R comes a little bit closer it is no longer completely detached the energy starts to shift and when reality comes close to the illusion that you have everything gets distorted the worst gets worse the good gets good and the good and bad are just illusions nothing is good Hamlet said that nothing is good or bad only thinking makes it so in fact there is a mystical experience where you see the ultimate good and the ultimate evil are just two sides of the same coin you can flick them in the air but when what is real comes a little bit closer to the illusion everything gets distorted it gets thrown out and two things can happen then you can either start to freak out which is a basic human reaction can't cope anymore it's all too much or you can begin to take notice you can begin to sniff the air you can begin to access an ancient ancient wisdom inside of you that belongs to all of humanity that has been covered over and forgotten and covered over and forgotten which is something is about to happen and then you have a choice you can bury your head in the sand and save for your 401k I think it's called in this country or you can say I want to be there when it happens I want to be there when life wakes up now personally and I think this time is such a time because when I look around me something very very odd is taking place and it's not just politicians and weapons of mass destruction and Wars it's everything has got really really distorted I mean so distorted on all planes that it's really wacky I actually gave a whole talk about this recently in London I saw that in Sufism we talked about the veils that separate us from reality the veils that cover us up and I saw that those veils have become so distorted now that you can't possibly find your way towards anything everything you see is distorted everything you see in the outer world and everything you see in the inner world it's all distorted it's all you know like another channel on the television it's it's very very odd and why did what is interesting is that I mean most of us here are like you know been here at least 40 years or so and we can remember it wasn't always like that even 30 years ago it wasn't distorted like that I mean it's interesting how we kind of take it for granted this distortion we say well that's progress or computers or globalization and and we don't realize that something has really really gone off key I guess we kind of adapt and adapt and adapt until we don't realize what is happening so what interests me is that that there isn't inside of me this ancient knowledge that when something gets distorted like that gets off key and it is like I give you I give you an example in our culture now everybody needs healing right have you ever met anybody who says I don't need any healing I'm fine I'm great you know I mean now why is that our human beings basically born sick or is it because everything is distorted and it affects our psychic body it affects our physical body it affects our inner alignment we don't think about it we take it for granted we kind of take it for granted that everything is wrong but what it means is just everything is off key and so there is inside of us a natural balance physical emotional even mental actually and that's off key so we all kind of need a treatment to try and put it back not realizing that the cause is the problem is not ourselves we don't need to get healthy out you can eat all the organic food you like you know and and do your morning yoga's and yes it will help a bit but if you're you know if you're in a culture a world in which everything is distorted it will distort you it will distort you it's a very strange time very strange what I find really interesting is that that everybody's aware that something's off you know we have global warming we have all of the things that are off but it's somehow we lost this ancient understanding to really say what does that mean as I'm just sharing you that there is this ancient teaching and I don't know it's both applies both to the individual and to the whole that when some things get seriously distorted it's because something is about to happen and I have a deep passion I want to be there when it happens I really want to be you know I was at the first Glastonbury Festival you know you know when something was supposed to happen then it didn't and and I want to be here when it happens because I know what it means and there is this incredibly beautiful thing we call the world and it's changing its metamorphosizing and what I find difficult to understand is nobody seems to be noticing they're so identified with either their individual or collective problems that they're not aware of what is actually taking place now it is said he is the greatest of tricksters I think that's in the Koran he is the greatest of tricksters he is the greatest of deceivers and and somehow he allows humanity to be caught again and again and again and again just as you know individually you get caught again and again and again and again in whatever your particular puncture is whether it's failed relationships psychological problems spiritual crises whatever it is you want to go through you get caught in again and again and again and again and that comes this time in yourself when you say look I've had enough of this I don't want to play those games anymore I would like actually to be present I would like actually to live not to dream to live I would like actually to live and it's like then you make a commitment to something in yourself I am here for the sake of life the moment you say my life forget it because you've created the veil you've put another layer of mr. but the moment you say I am here for the sake of life or for the sake of God it doesn't matter I really think life and God are somewhere fundamentally the same then a door opens then something in life responds so what fascinates me is how to be present at this moment in time so one doesn't miss the opportunity how to be awake when the world wakes up I am personally completely convinced the world is going to wake up one way or another because there are signs because you can smell it in the air because something has gone so completely wrong that it has to there is this kind of laughter in the air and that's when you can make this shift a very simple shift in consciousness which is to realizing you are not a separate individual this is one of the great illusions that has been perpetuated you are not a separate individual you never were a separate individual everything else in life knows that is not separate every ant every hummingbird every spider every cloud even the Angels they know they're not separate they know they're part of something you can close them they know they all work together they all know there is this extraordinary hole of which even to say they are a part it isn't quite like that we are the only species that thinks we are separate that thinks it is my life and let alone thinks it's my realization or it's nice spiritual life which of course now is mass-marketed in the West and you can have it in any taste and color and perfume and variation you you can imagine you know some people like the kind of Nina maca spiritual life and other people prefer the whole food spiritual life you can you can get whatever you like but there is no such thing as my spiritual life it is a complete contradiction in terms because if there is any truth about spiritual life is that it is about the divine that is about God it is about what is real if there is any single truth about spiritual life it is it is about the divine but that brings us back to this basic point how can we be here when the world wakes up now there isn't in the Grail legend there is a very very simple clue in the beauty of the Grail legend is it it's part of our western heritage and one thing young stressed he said you cannot just take on an Eastern religion because the eastern psyche is different and in the Grail legend the second time that passive I'll is shown the Grail Castle if you like the second time he is present in paradise he is asked the question for whom serves the Grail and he answers the Grail serves the Grail King and is I always find it fascinating in all of the spirituality in the West we almost seem to have forgotten the most basic question the Grail serves the Grail King it is all about God everything is in service to God and the moment you say that and the moment you live that you are present hammer used the Sufis say all is he everything is he and we are in service to that with a capital T and one thing I don't understand was so much has been given to the West in the past 30 years so much so much spiritual wisdom so many teachings but this kind of greed that we seem to have been born with that we want to take it back to ourselves to fill this bottomless void which we have created forgets that basic truth that simple essential question and answer which is in the Sufis was also in the primordial covenant when the not yet created humanity when God called the not yet created humanity and said am I not your Lord and they said yes we witness it it's called the primordial covenant the covenant between the creation and the Creator between humanity and God and we made that covenant before we came into creation as the not yet created humanity when the very essence of the soul that's central spark of what is actually the real you it's very very beautiful incredibly beautiful he knew what it was you would just die when that bowed down before God and then of course you have to live it here in this world you have to answer that question and sometimes it is just an individual question it is at that turning point in your own life when in a way you step into what can only be called spiritual maturity when you are given a glimpse of something true and you have the right attitude to live it and you said this is for his sake this moment is for his sake this music is for his sake this Zeca is for his sake this dance is for his his sake this lovemaking is for his sake and you honor that deepest part of you then a light comes on within the human being the Sufis call it the light of remembrance the light of something waking up in this world of forgetfulness so that is your in your individual journey that is this moment that happens to you and at the beginning you struggle to do it and you struggle to do it and you struggle to remember and to know that it is about him and then the comes this extraordinary moment when it wakes up in such a way that it can never go back to sleep when you are always in remembrance when you are always bowed down before God when something in you is always praying the heart prays from the heart raised in the heart brain and then from that moment everything you do in life is in service to God whether you are baking bread whether you are vacuuming whether you are working as a banker everything you do is automatically in service to God because your heart is in service to God because your breath is in service to God that is a kind of inner awakening you don't always aware of it consciously because it it has to do with the souls relationship to God but that is in the individual but there is at this moment of time one can if you like step into the global arena and asking this question for answering this question for whom serves the Grail the Grail serves the Grail King I am here in service to you [Music] it's Chinese New Year's then you can be present in what is really happening in what is really taking place and then you can be used by creation to help this mystery unfold to help the world to wake up you who each of us we are part of creation we are part of the light of God in this world if you really knew how it looked from somewhere you would just you would just bow down before God it is so beautiful when you if you saw how your spiritual consciousness is part of the light of the world and what is happening at this moment in time as something is turning or something is being turned actually it is both an organic natural process and it is also in the hands of something else like the Sufis say the beloved holds the heart of the faithful between his two fingers and turns it as he wills what is true for the human being is also true for the world he holds the heart of the world between his two fingers and turns it sometimes he turns it away from him and we have been through at least a thousand years of him turning the world away from him so much so we don't even realize that it's what has happened we don't even realize the world has been turned away from God and is about to change he is about to turn or he is already turning the world back towards him as I said when the reality with a capital R gets closer begins to interfere with the illusions of humanity and distort them and distort them and distort them and then you have this choice to be present when the world wakes up to be awake when the world wakes up to to welcome the dawn or to be caught in this strange distorted illusion delusions already distorted but they're going to get more and more distorted I can assure you they were very strange bizarre things will start to happen if they haven't happened already I mean nobody knows what's true anymore I don't know if you're aware of that nobody knows what to believe anymore you know there was a time when you know you had an apple tree and it produced apples and you picked them and you shared them with your neighbors or you made apple pie and and it was real but we don't live in that kind of world anymore we have to have a label telling us it is a genetically engineered Apple we don't even really know what that means I really don't know if you are aware that that you don't really know what to believe anymore you've got so used to just two lies and deception and lies and deception on a global scale I mean what does global warming really mean what does globalization really mean what does your pension really mean it's extraordinary how we have got used to it how we kind of everything we live in is poisoned now that's the truth every bit of water is radioactive everything is poisoned almost every thought is poisoned is distorted is manipulated who's thought is it is it your thought did it come from somebody else was it somebody manufactured that thought is there ever anything that you actually want yourself or is it just come from somewhere else into your mind you have any idea anymore do you want something because it tastes good because you actually like it or somebody's told you it's good for you and we don't even realize that has happened 40 years ago was not like that when I grew up yes there was materialism but it was honest straightforward materialism you wanted a washing machine and maybe your neighbour's neighbor had a color TV if he were in England you wanted a Sunday roast on the table with potatoes and Brussels sprouts and it was real and in the midst of this incredible illusion incredible Distortion unbelievable and what I realized recently that I've shared with some of you it's not only as the outer world distorted the inner world is distorted you don't know what's true in the inner world you don't know if the symbols in the inner world have just been put there by some advertising company or whether they come from the collective unconscious you don't know anymore in the West the Catholic Church used to have good control over the symbols and everybody knew what they were and they worked with them but it's all being manipulated now you've no idea what is truth and that is a sign that an error is coming to an end a classic sign what happens when an error is coming to an end it's actually what happens when reality with the capital R begins to distort the illusions almost out of control and so you can either try and change the illusions work hard to realign yourself with a better illusion or you can say that is not really what I am here for that is not what it's about there is something deep within the human being and you know we do actually underneath it or we do have each of us a basic integrity as human beings somehow in the midst of it all we know we are being lied to we know nothing is true and what I say is just return to that basic human part of you which is your relationship to God that is all my teacher she said you bring two things with you into the world the desire to live to survive the survival instinct and the desire to worship everything else is added afterwards everything else is added afterwards so just return to that basic imprint which is in a way the memory of when you were together with God in the Garden of Eden when you are together with God return to that within yourself and then you can't go wrong because that is true if you didn't have that the soul would no longer survive and there are souls that have lost that in this world they've lost that memory that call lost souls they cannot find their way you can see them on the inner Plains wandering wandering they can't find their way they lost that connection and all the soul retrieval work in the world won't help them they wonder between the world strange existence but all the illusions cannot fool you in your own human integrity in what is real within you as simple as that someway you know what it means to be really alive you know what you are here for and it is not self-development no saying self-development is a bad thing it can help you sure but you are here for his sake just like the whole of creation is here for his sake his hair doesn't matter just a word this beautiful poem probably sovereign spirit beneficent and merciful Allah my infinite one at thy command only will I carry out the pilgrimage of life for the love of all created by thee and for thy glory that is a way to live at I command only will I carry out the pilgrimage of life for the love of all created by thee and for thy glory if you live that that imprint within you then you can turn from a world that is dying to a world that is waking up because it is his work it is not his world that is dying I can assure you it is a bad dream a distorted dream but it is his world that is waking up just like in your own awakening you are suddenly present in his creation not in your creation it's a fundamental difference you know suddenly present in his creation that is why it is called awakening you awake to what is not what is not and I think maybe I am spiritual romantic I think he would like a few people to be present when he wakes up his world

Channel: LlewellynVaughanLee

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Id: A4n8QPhSCXU

Length: 63min 37sec (3817 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 17 2016