Enlightenment, Nonduality, Personal Self by Katie Davis, Author, "Awake Joy"

Questioner: This is what I read on the book cover of "Awake Joy."

"KATIE DAVIS spontaneously awakened over twenty years ago, without spiritual practices or teachers. She had never heard of awakening and had never been a seeker of Truth. In fact, she had no intellectual reference whatsoever for what had occurred."

This statement is too illusive, as if it were too personal, or worse, that it seemed to you like a complete blunder or accident, like maybe you fell off your bike and hit your head: what i'm saying is, it is like you are not taking any personal responsibility for "what happened" to you. I can't help but to be a bit uncomfortable with such an evasion, if it is that, and so i am asking again.

The whole idea of Non-Duality is that it starts as a mere point and you are it. Your first task is to be it. Then, once you realize nothing-ness, then you must enlarge the point which you do by enlargement, which is achieved by rotation, like a whirling dervish; thus you grow both vertically and horizontally. I'm not sure that makes sense to you, but it is a perfectly natural state of affairs. I relate it to Non-duality because it regards time and space as a duality not to be taken as a stand alone reality. To see them together, you first must take them apart. If the only time is Eternity, then all time is Now!

I know this is a bit strange, but you probably are none the less familiar with it. The idea of taking responsibility for Enlightenment is fearless and in complete Joy, knowing in no uncertain terms, that no harm will come of such a venture. You know that you are in complete control over the experience you have inside and you are the exact same thing as the substance you are surrounded with, so you are at onement with bliss.

What I am trying to get you to say is something like "I always is!" If so, then you don't have to hide behind who or what you currently are presenting as, which is the Image of you , but you are so much more than that. You should know who or what you were presenting as at the moment you came into being or when this enlightening moment changed your perception of self. So what is consciousness? Katie, tell me, tell me, tell me, what do you remember?

Katie: First and foremost, I encourage you to follow your direct observations, which it seems from what you are saying that you would do just that. I mention this, since so many are looking for answers 'outside themselves' and the Truth is revealed through silent still watching. Before I begin sharing, I must also say that the world experience has only to do with the individual and its life story. Whereas, Self-realization is the final end to individuality as identity. This is no diminishment of course, but it is radically different than we have believed 'reality' to be.

Now over 20 years ago, the awakening did in fact happen to 'katie' quite by accident. I had never heard of awakening, enlightenment and indeed, did not even know that there was an 'inner' world. In retrospect, I see that all life experience was leading me to the Heart's way of living, rather than the mind's idea of life. You ask me to remember, but Self-realization is in fact, a non-experience ... a profound gap in experience that transformed 'my' life as I had previously known it to be.

There is absolutely no personal responsibility for 'what happened to me.' It is the end of the "me,' the mind-made sense of self ... the childhood toy that we attempted to carry with us into adulthood. Instead of being a fraction of Totality searching to complete itself, the fraction releases into a wholeness that already is and always has been. Our delusion has been that we call ourselves 'I' and equate it to the limitation of the body. It is for you to investigate to see if this is really so. Self-realization is the end of all psychological suffering and the conscious discovery of unending, uncaused joy. You are experiencing this transcendental peace right now ... you just may not yet be conscious of it.

All of the lovely ancient scriptures inform what you are not. So many helpful practices concentrate thought. Nonetheless, in the end, a concentrated mind and distracted mind are still merely mind. At some point, it is recognized that the practitioner itself is a delusion and another postponement strategy of the mind-made self and its desire for more time to be what it already is. Teachers can also help inform the mind, but the truest teacher is within. We simply dust off the dust of the mind, its time and all of its false concepts and what remains is Pure I ... not the 'dreaming' I that we equate to our body. We honor the body for it is the portal to the 'inner' body and of course its Essence is also consciousness. It is just that you are profoundly more than form and conscious experience.

"The whole idea of Non-duality" ... release it. It is an idea that brought you here and now. After the mind is informed, let it go. The mere point that you are speaking of is the limitation and primary obscuration. If you have discovered this point in consciousness that is quite beautiful. I now point to the spaciousness within which it appears. You are already the 'expansion' with no need to expand. So yes, if this is your reference point ... a point ... it will seem like expansion, but in the end you are the infinite Totality. Spinning is a practice and it can be helpful for some. The body spins. What is not spinning? Are you aware of spinning? Who is that?

Exactly ... the only true time in the universe is now. Could it possibly take more time to take you out of time? Does a mountain spin to become a mountain? No, the mountain IS. You are already that which you are seeking. So, spinning has worked well for you and we are grateful for that. You are aware of the duality of time and space. So now it is time to just stop all doing in the mind and see what already IS. Can you see the duality in 'me' vs. the Heart? Who is aware of duality?

Beautiful that you are aware of the formless no-thing-ness. Those are two reference points. Awareness aware of no-thing-ness ... duality. So, at this point we stop. Rest in 'I am' and when you become aware of the space around the dreaming I, just stop and be still as AM. If 'you' are in movement searching, you cannot be who you really are.

There is no control. There is no 'personal' self other than the primary idea that is the body. As an individual body, you are so unique. It just is not your identity, other than your given that you call your body. You have no limitation or boundary whatsoever. But don't take my word for it. Look for yourself.

Finally, yes, "I always is." It just is not the "I" that you think it is. Who is "I?" Ask "who am I?" This is the only essential question and sooner or later every intelligent person asks this question ...just like 'you.'

There is only the conscious intelligence of sacred unconditional love ... you are That ... just as everything that you see and everything that you cannot see is only That.

Yes! "I always IS" but it is not what you may think. Who is that? Who am I?

Katie Davis Website: www.katiedavis.org