21 Notice how you are, then be how you want to be.

Close your eyes and feel your self.  What is going on inside?  Do you feel tension? Pain? Hurt? Stress? Nothing?  Racing thoughts?  Troublesome emotions? Anticipation? Love and Peace? What are you experiencing?  Don't change anything just notice what you are feeling.  You are the infinite energy of Being and always will be. We are using this moment to get a snapshot of how you are choosing to use your clear explosive energy of Bliss and Love.  This is the world you are creating.  No one else is creating it but you.  You are the only one inside of you.  Why is it important to look?  Because at one time what ever you are feeling now made sense.  You created habits of tension, stress, anxiety, etc because you love yourself and it was protective and adaptive at one time.  Now that you are stopping and looking you have an opportunity to see if it still serves you.  Is it what you want today?  You can update your files and make them current.  Notice how you treat yourself and others.  Are you ever harsh?  That's you doing that so you can stop and begin to treat yourself in a way that feels better and that is aligned with the qualities of Being that you are discovering in meditation.  Adi Shankara, the 8th century Indian saint who consolidated Advaita Vedanta said that the infinite and the world are one.  The world is not an illusion but is experienced as a delusion.  Awakening is coming to clear seeing and from there, clear experiencing and relating.  We are addressing awakening on many levels because it is happening on many levels.  Sometimes it is best to step out of the way of the bus.  Let's begin to love our personalities and love others through them because we are Love and that is what feels best.  Because it is real.  The next podcast is a short meditation to put into experience these principles.

These podcasts are meant to supplement your personal path of awakening whatever that might be. They are a compilation of what I have found to be the most helpful over the last 50 years on my path of awakening. I feel these podcasts are most powerful when listened to in sequence from podcast one forward because each is built on the last.  Though they, also, all stand on their own.  Since we are each a bit different, if anything does not resonate, please disregard it and follow your heart. All my podcasts and website are free. Enjoy!

Though I am a psychotherapist, and these podcasts are offered to be spiritually helpful, they are not psychotherapy.  If psychotherapy is ever needed, please reach out to a psychotherapist.

www.williamecooper.wordpress.com for more support.  You may, especially, enjoy the short contemplations and the resource page which gives you some supportive material.

Transcript

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Hello, this is William Cooper. Welcome to Awakening Together. How are you doing today? I trust well. Let's continue to look at what's going on with us as we awaken. I don't know if you've been around an awakened being, maybe a saint you could call them, where their energy of bliss is so radiant that it almost knocks you over. It's palpable. You almost have to sit down. Sometimes you have to lie down on the ground. It's that strong. That's the same energy that is your being as well. And it's running through your body as well. And it's right here, right now. How is that energy being used in your body? Well, let's take a look. Close your eyes and just notice the energy in your body. Some of it's being used as tension, perhaps. Feel your shoulders. Maybe there's tension there, or your stomach, or your forehead, or some other place. That's your awakening energy. It's just been snarled and tightened into tension. Perhaps you feel emotions. That's energy too. Notice the energy and emotions. If you happen to be very angry, or anxious, or fearful, or hurt, that's a lot of energy. Don't change it. I'm just saying that's a lot energy. You have a lot of energy running through you. And that's just how it looks today. So maybe you've got pain in your body. That's a lot of energy too. So take a few moments with your eyes closed or open if you want. And just notice the energy that is within you. It's a lot of energy that is not going to change when you're awakened. Those tensions will open up for the most part, maybe completely. And it'll just be one bright light. They'll turn into bright light, but it'll be the same energy. The pain will turn into bright light, but it's the same energy. Perhaps you feel boundaries around you that make you different than the tree in front of you, or the wall in front of you, or the desk in front of you, or whatever your surroundings are right now. You feel a distinction. I'm here and everything else is there. Well, that's a kind of attention too, that takes energy. You have to manufacture and maintain that boundary. Oneness, of course, is when those boundaries disappear and there's a free flow. There is no me or you, or me and the wall. When I look at the wall, I am the wall. When I look at the tree, I am the tree. And I'm all the energy of the tree. When I'm walking on the ground, light comes through the ground and I'm animated with an explosive light that runs through my body. So in that sense, much more energy flows through me because I'm not disconnected or blocked from my surroundings. And the other tensions and pains inside of me also open up. So I'm not blocked on the inside either. It's just one open flow. But notice everything is in place now. All of this energy is inside of you. Even if it is snarled up, it's there. And the tree is there and the wall is there and the ground is there. It's all here. All of the energy that you'll ever feel is all here. All the bliss, all the love. It's all here and it's all perfect. Perfect? What do you mean by perfect? Well, tension is there because you love yourself, right? For instance, if you get tense because you're hurrying to get to an appointment, why are you hurrying and why are you tense over it? Because the appointment is important to you and you love yourself. So you want to get there on time. You want to make a good impression or get that job or complete that task. Why? Because you care about yourself and that's how you're going to get paid or whatever it is that you're interested in. Let's say you're feeling hurt. Why are you hurt? Your girlfriend broke up with you. Well, why does that make a difference? Because you love yourself and you want her company. So you manufacture a hurt feeling inside of you, a pain because you care about yourself. Let's say you feel dumb. Why do you feel dumb? Well, because somebody that you loved said that you were dumb and you knew that they would only love you if you agreed with them. So you decided to treat yourself in a way where you disparaged yourself because you love yourself. Yes, I know it's maladaptive but in a strange way, it can feel good that you feel bad because at least it's a sign that you love yourself. You're doing these bad things to yourself because at one time in your life, you felt like it was a good thing. But now in your life, it no longer serves you. And that's why you're starting to sit still and let these things unwind. Lots of your energy is trapped in these tensions and these snarls and these emotional maladaptive misperceptions. So now take a moment, close your eyes and imagine what it would feel like if all those tensions opened up. You can almost feel it. Don't do it. But just imagine what it would feel like if it did happen. All the pain turned into light. Imagine if there was only light moving through your body or well-being or happiness or all of the above. And imagine there are no borders around you. And you're one with the ground underneath you and the tree in front of you or the desk or whatever surrounds you. Imagine that it's all light and you're being fed. It's coming into you and you're being nourished. And the light is flowing out of you as well. And it's nourishing everything around you. It's one big whole, wholeness, oneness. Take a moment and just imagine what that would feel like, what that would be like, because that's really what's happening now. It's just that sometimes we're distracted by the pains and all the thoughts and the dramas going on in our head and within our body that we don't notice. This is what's happening. And maybe it's time to let go of these snarls. That's called awakening. And that's what you're in the process of doing because you're listening to these podcasts. In the next podcast, I'm going to do a short guided meditation working with all of this. So we'll get to it a little bit more deeply. But for now, I'd like you to just wonder and experiment. Can you find a tension in your body or a pain and do an experiment or a hurt and see if you push it to the side, does it go away? Or if you kind of get mad because it's there, does it go away? If you ignore it, does it go away? No. Maybe it even gets worse and stronger. Willpower has no good effect on it. At best, it can manage it. It can shove it to the side or push it away, which sometimes is necessary when you have a task at hand. I have a friend that said, you've got to get out of the pounding surf sometimes before you move on. And so sometimes, yes, you have to do what it takes, whatever that is. But permanent resolution doesn't work with willpower generally. Instead, take that tension, find that tension and ask it what it wants. Now, this might take some time, but when it tells you, imagine that happening, let it drink it in, let it soak up some care and love. And there's a certain key that will affect that particular tension. And that's why you ask it, what do you need? That's the key. You listen and you give your emotions, your tensions, what it is they're asking for, what it is they need. Just like if you saw a little child that was hungry, giving it a toy truck, isn't going to help. It needs food. Or if it needs a hug, giving it something else, isn't going to help. It needs the hug. So you ask, you find out what does it need and you give it that. That's what you do to yourself. These are structures. Our mind is made of structures. Our personality is made of structures. Adyashankara, who lived 1500 years ago, he didn't say the world was an illusion. He said, no, it's quite real. It's simply a delusion. We're seeing things incorrectly. That's why when you look inside of yourself, you see all of the power that's there, but some of it's twisted into tension and pain or separation from the world around you and blocks rather than flows because it's deluded. It's made mistakes. It's done things that made sense at the time, but now where you are today, they no longer make sense, yet they continue. That's called a delusion. And the awakening process is unraveling all that. Things are returning to clear seeing, clear flow. They're returning back to right relationship with yourself. Your own personality is coming into right relationship with you, your being. So what happens in meditation? You sit still so you don't jump into further distractions. And that which is aware, you, your being looks and is aware of everything that's going on within you and around you. And it feels it. So you can begin to work with everything and let it unravel and come back into right relationship. One last thing I'd like to talk about is when you close your eyes and you see and feel everything that's going on inside of you, who's making all of that happen? Who's maintaining it? Whose energy is that? Whose snarls are those? Yours. Nobody else is in there, but you. You're doing all of this. You're maintaining it for some reason. You don't have to figure out why it's an old habit, karma, past life, if you want to believe those. And we'll talk about all that at some other podcast, but it's not so important now. What's most important is that you take responsibility. You see clearly and say, Hey, this is me doing it. And you want to make a deep decision. Do you want to continue yourself in pain? Do you want to continue in separation? If the answer is no, listen deeply to yourself and say, no, I don't. You may wake up in the morning and notice that you treat yourself poorly. Maybe you say mean things to yourself, or maybe in the example I gave before, you're hurrying very quickly to get to your next job and you're beating yourself up. You can just stop that. You know, maybe you're saying I'm dumb. I'm dumb. I'm dumb. You can stop that. You know, this isn't rocket science. Just stop. That's the first layer. Just stop. Take responsibility and stop being mean to yourself. If you want to be a loving being, start with yourself. If you're pushing yourself, stop. If you're not connecting to the ground, begin. If you're not feeling the trees in front of you, begin. Stop blocking. Even if you've done it for decades, it's not a law that you have to continue. Stop. Just stop. And yes, I understand that sometimes it's not so easy to simply say, stop, and have you stop. But we've got to begin somewhere. And when you see clearly that, wow, I am doing this. Wow. I'm beating myself up inside. I'm trying to get to this appointment and I am just beating on myself. Or I'm telling myself horrible things. You know, I can begin to change that just by seeing clearly and making a decision, changing my behaviors. That's a beginning. There are many spiritual practices that we're going to cover and methods that we will cover, including meditation that will get to deeper places that don't respond to simply your decision to stop. But that deep commitment will go all through your mind, your body, your emotions, and your soul. And it will help immensely. So be committed to do what it is that you want to do. If you want to love yourself and treat yourself nicely, make a commitment and do that. We'll work with these other things along the way as well. And when we put it all together, you're going to be in great shape. The awakened you. Okay. That's enough for today. In the next podcast, let's do a short meditation to work with all that we've talked about in this podcast. That will be the experiential component to what we've just discussed. And we'll start doing more of these two part podcast where we'll talk about it and then we'll have an experiential component afterwards. Okay. I look forward to talking with you again soon. Take care. Bye. Hello, this is William. I trust you enjoyed this podcast. How would I listen to them? Since each podcast is built on the podcasts that stand before them, I would start with number one and work my way forward. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider sharing it with a friend. Thanks so much. Bye.