Speaker 1: There is a peculiar tension that arises when someone who
Speaker 1: has awakened to a certain depth of understanding encounters some
Speaker 1: one who is still, as we might say, asleep, and
Speaker 1: by a sleep, I do not mean literally unconscious, but
Speaker 1: rather living in the conventional dream, the collective trance, the
Speaker 1: agreed upon fiction that most of society accepts without question.
Speaker 1: The person who is awake has seen through something fundamental,
Speaker 1: has recognized something essential, has had the veil lifted in
Speaker 1: some significant way, and the person who is asleep is
Speaker 1: still operating within the old assumptions, the old beliefs, the
Speaker 1: old way of seeing. When these two meet, something interesting happens,
Speaker 1: and it is rarely comfortable for either party. Let me
Speaker 1: describe first what occurs in the awakened person. There is
Speaker 1: initially often an impulse to share what has been seen,
Speaker 1: to communicate the realization, to help the other person see
Speaker 1: what is now so obvious. This comes from a genuine
Speaker 1: place of compassion, of wanting to relieve suffering, of recognizing
Speaker 1: that the other person is trapped in a prison they
Speaker 1: do not even know exists. It is like watching some
Speaker 1: unstruggle with a locked door while you can clearly see
Speaker 1: that the door is not locked at all. They simply
Speaker 1: need to turn the handle differently. But very quickly, the
Speaker 1: awakened person discovers something frustrating. The realization cannot be simply
Speaker 1: handed over. It cannot be explained in a way that
Speaker 1: will make the sleeping person suddenly wake up. Because the
Speaker 1: sleeping person is not just lacking information, They are operating
Speaker 1: within an entire framework of understanding, an entire structure of
Speaker 1: perception that makes the awakened perspective literally incomprehensible to them.
Speaker 1: It is not that they are stupid, or stubborn or
Speaker 1: wilfully blind. It is that they cannot see what they
Speaker 1: cannot see. Their very way of looking prevents them from seeing.
Speaker 1: It is like trying to explain color to someone who
Speaker 1: has been blind from birth. You can use all the
Speaker 1: words you want, but the words cannot convey the actual experience.
Speaker 1: The framework for understanding is simply not there, And so
Speaker 1: the awakened person finds themselves in a strange position. They
Speaker 1: can see clearly what the sleeping person cannot see. They
Speaker 1: can see the suffering that is being created by false beliefs,
Speaker 1: by identification with the ego, by resistance to what is.
Speaker 1: They can see the freedom that would come from simply
Speaker 1: letting go, from simply seeing through the illusion, And yet
Speaker 1: they cannot make the other person see it. This can
Speaker 1: lead to a kind of loneliness, a sense of isolation,
Speaker 1: because the awakened person now lives in a different reality
Speaker 1: than the sleeping person. They are using the same words,
Speaker 1: occupying the same physical space, but they are experiencing fundamentally
Speaker 1: different worlds. The sleeping person is experiencing the world through
Speaker 1: the filter of ego, of separation, of constant doing and
Speaker 1: becoming and achieving. The awakened person is experiencing the world
Speaker 1: more directly, more simply, with less of that filtering, less
Speaker 1: of that separation, And so when they talk, they are
Speaker 1: often talking past each other. The sleeping person is concerned
Speaker 1: with things that seem utterly trivial to the awakened person, status, reputation, achievements, possessions.
Speaker 1: The awakened person tries to point to something deeper, something
Speaker 1: more fundamental, But to the sleeping person this just sounds abstract, impractical,
Speaker 1: perhaps even irresponsible. The sleeping person might say, but what
Speaker 1: about paying the bills, what about getting ahead? What about
Speaker 1: making something of yourself? And these concerns are real within
Speaker 1: their framework, within the dream of separation and achievement and
Speaker 1: constant striving. These concerns make perfect sense, but the awakened
Speaker 1: person is operating from a different understanding. Reckonize that bills
Speaker 1: must be paid and practical matters must be handled, But
Speaker 1: they also see that all of this can be done
Speaker 1: without the anxiety, without the identification, without making it into
Speaker 1: some ultimate concern. They see that you can engage with
Speaker 1: the world without being enslaved by it, that you can
Speaker 1: participate in the game without forgetting it is a game.
Speaker 1: But how do you explain this to someone who believes
Speaker 1: the game is reality, who has staked their entire identity
Speaker 1: on succeeding within the game. You cannot, or rather, you
Speaker 1: can speak the words, but the words will not penetrate.
Speaker 1: They will bounce off the shell of the sleeping person's
Speaker 1: belief system. Now, what happens in the sleeping person when
Speaker 1: they encounter someone who is awake. This varies greatly depending
Speaker 1: on the individual. Some sleeping people's sense that the awakened
Speaker 1: person has something they do not have, some quality of
Speaker 1: peace or freedom or presence, and they are drawn to it.
Speaker 1: They may not understand it, they may not be able
Speaker 1: to articulate what it is, but they feel and they
Speaker 1: want it. This can be the beginning of their own awakening.
Speaker 1: But more commonly, the sleeping person experiences the awakened person
Speaker 1: as threatening, not consciously, not explicitly, but on some deep level,
Speaker 1: because the awakened person's very presence calls into question everything
Speaker 1: the sleeping person has built their life upon. The awakened
Speaker 1: person is not striving, not anxious, not caught up in
Speaker 1: the same concerns, not playing the same game, and this
Speaker 1: is unsettling. The sleeping person's ego interprets this as a judgment,
Speaker 1: as a challenge, as an affront. Who does this person
Speaker 1: think they are acting so calm, so unbothered, so above
Speaker 1: it all. The ego feels threatened by the presence of
Speaker 1: someone who is not enslaved to the ego. It feels exposed, diminished, invalidated,
Speaker 1: and so the sleeping person may respond with hostility, with mockery,
Speaker 1: with attempts to pull the awakened person back into the drum.
Speaker 1: You think you're so enlightened, don't you. You think you're
Speaker 1: better than everyone else. Let's see how you handle a
Speaker 1: real problem. This is the ego attempting to defend itself,
Speaker 1: attempting to drag the awakened person back into identification, back
Speaker 1: into the game, back into the dream, or the sleeping
Speaker 1: person may simply dismiss the awakened one as strange, odd,
Speaker 1: not quite right. There's something off about them. They're not normal.
Speaker 1: They don't care about the right things, and in the
Speaker 1: context of the collective trance, they are absolutely right. The
Speaker 1: awakened person is not normal. They do not care about
Speaker 1: the same things that normal people care about. They have
Speaker 1: woken up from the shared dream, and from within the dream,
Speaker 1: this looks like madness. There is a saying in Zen
Speaker 1: before enlightenment, chop wood carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood
Speaker 1: carry water. The awakened person does the same things as
Speaker 1: everyone else, but from an entirely different place, with an
Speaker 1: entirely different quality, and this difference is invisible to the
Speaker 1: sleeping person. They see the same actions and assume the
Speaker 1: same motivations, the same concerns, the same inner experience. They
Speaker 1: cannot see the inner freedom, the inner spaciousness, the inner
Speaker 1: peace that accompanies the actions. So what is the awakened
Speaker 1: person to do in this situation? How do they relate
Speaker 1: to sleeping people? Who are, after all, the vast majority
Speaker 1: of humanity. How do they navigate a world that is
Speaker 1: largely operating from a level of consciousness they have moved beyond.
Speaker 1: The first thing is to recognize that you cannot wake
Speaker 1: someone up through argument or explanation. You cannot convince someone
Speaker 1: to be enlightened. You cannot give them a realization through
Speaker 1: clever words or compelling logic. Awakening happens in its own time,
Speaker 1: through its own mysterious process. You can perhaps plant seeds,
Speaker 1: you can perhaps create conditions that might be conducive, but
Speaker 1: you cannot force it. The second thing is to let
Speaker 1: go of the impulse to fix, or save or enlighten
Speaker 1: every one you meet. This impulse, though it may feel
Speaker 1: like compassion, often has its own ego component. There is
Speaker 1: a subtle superiority in the idea that you have something
Speaker 1: they desperately need, that you can see what they cannot see,
Speaker 1: that you must help them. True compassion recognizes that everyone
Speaker 1: is on their own journey. Everyone is exactly where they
Speaker 1: need to be, and your role is not to drag
Speaker 1: them to where you are. The third thing is to
Speaker 1: simply be what you are, without apology or explanation. Live
Speaker 1: from your awakened perspective, not as a performance, not to
Speaker 1: prove anything, not to convert any one, but simply because
Speaker 1: that is what is natural for you now. And in
Speaker 1: that authentic being, in that genuine living from presence rather
Speaker 1: than ego, you become what we might call a transmission.
Speaker 1: You see, awakening is not primarily transmitted through words or
Speaker 1: concert It is transmitted through presence, through being, through the
Speaker 1: quality of consciousness that emanates from someone who is awake.
Speaker 1: When you are genuinely present, genuinely at peace, genuinely free
Speaker 1: from the constant agitation of ego, this creates a kind
Speaker 1: of field, and people who are ready, people who are
Speaker 1: ripe for awakening will feel this field. They will be
Speaker 1: drawn to it. They will not necessarily know what it
Speaker 1: is or why they are drawn, but they will feel
Speaker 1: that something different is possible. This is how a true
Speaker 1: teacher works, not by preaching or explaining or trying to convince,
Speaker 1: but by being so completely established in awakened consciousness that
Speaker 1: their very presence invites others into that same consciousness. The
Speaker 1: teaching is not in the words. The words are just pointers,
Speaker 1: just fingers pointing at the moon. The teaching is in
Speaker 1: the being in the silence, in the quality of presence.
Speaker 1: But this requires that you are not attached to outcomes,
Speaker 1: not invested in whether people wake up or stay asleep.
Speaker 1: You offer what you are, and you let go of
Speaker 1: what happens with that offering. Some people will be touched
Speaker 1: by it, some will be threatened by it, some will
Speaker 1: not notice it at all. And all of this is fine.
Speaker 1: You are not responsible for waking people up. You are
Speaker 1: only responsible for being awake yourself. Now, there is a
Speaker 1: particular challenge that arises when the sleeping person is some
Speaker 1: one close to you, a family member, a spouse, an
Speaker 1: old friend. These are people with whom you have long
Speaker 1: established relationships, relationships that were formed when you were both asleep,
Speaker 1: both operating from ego, both caught in the same dream,
Speaker 1: and now you have woken up, but they have not.
Speaker 1: This can create tremendous tension. They expect you to be
Speaker 1: the person you were. They want you to engage with
Speaker 1: life in the way you used to engage with it.
Speaker 1: They want you to care about the things you used
Speaker 1: to care about, to get upset about the things you
Speaker 1: used to get upset about, to participate in the drama
Speaker 1: the way you used to participate, but you cannot. You
Speaker 1: cannot go back to sleep. Once you have woken up,
Speaker 1: you cannot unsee what you have seen, and so you
Speaker 1: find yourself in a relationship where you are fundamentally out
Speaker 1: of sync with the other person. They are speaking a
Speaker 1: language you used to speak, but no longer speak. They
Speaker 1: are playing a game you used to play but no
Speaker 1: longer play, and this can be painful for both parties.
Speaker 1: The sleeping person feels abandoned, feels like you have changed
Speaker 1: in some fundamental way, like you are no longer the
Speaker 1: person they knew, and they are right you are not.
Speaker 1: The awakened person feels lonely, feels misunderstood, feels the impossibility
Speaker 1: of truly connecting with someone who is operating from such
Speaker 1: a different level of consciousness. What is to be done
Speaker 1: in such a situation. There is no easy answer. Some
Speaker 1: relationships can evolve, can accommodate the change. If there is life,
Speaker 1: an openness and willingness to let the relationship be different
Speaker 1: than it was, then something new can emerge. The sleeping
Speaker 1: person may not understand your awakening, but they can perhaps
Speaker 1: accept it, can perhaps allow you to be different, can
Speaker 1: perhaps even be curious about what you are experiencing. But
Speaker 1: some relationships cannot survive such a fundamental shift. If the
Speaker 1: relationship was based entirely on shared ego concerns, on mutual
Speaker 1: reinforcement of the dream, on playing specific roles for each other,
Speaker 1: then when one person wakes up, there is no longer
Speaker 1: a basis for the relationship, And as painful as this is,
Speaker 1: sometimes the most compassionate thing is to let the relationship go,
Speaker 1: to release each other, to find connections that are more
Speaker 1: aligned with where each of you actually is. There is
Speaker 1: also the phenomenon of the sleeping person who claims to
Speaker 1: be awake. You will encounter many of these people who
Speaker 1: have learned the language of spirituality, who can talk fluently
Speaker 1: about presence and awareness and non duality, but who are
Speaker 1: still fundamentally operating from ego. They have replaced one set
Speaker 1: of concepts with another set of concepts, but they have
Speaker 1: not actually seen through the conceptual framework itself. These people
Speaker 1: can be particularly confusing to deal with because they sound awake,
Speaker 1: they use the right words, they say the things that
Speaker 1: awaken people say, But if you are genuinely awake, you
Speaker 1: can sense that something is off. There is a quality
Speaker 1: of efforting, of performing of subtle self aggrandizement. They are
Speaker 1: using awakened language to reinforce the ego rather than to
Speaker 1: point beyond it. The truly awakened person is not invested
Speaker 1: in appearing awakened. They do not need to prove their enlightenment.
Speaker 1: They do not need to be recognized as special or
Speaker 1: advanced or spiritual. They are simply being what they are,
Speaker 1: and this has a quality of ordinariness, of simplicity, of
Speaker 1: lack of pretense. The person who is performing awakeness, by contrast,
Speaker 1: has a quality of trying, of needing to be seen
Speaker 1: a certain way, of subtle superiority. And when a genuinely
Speaker 1: awakened person meets someone who is performing awakeness, there is
Speaker 1: often a mutual recognition, though not the kind either party
Speaker 1: would prefer. The genuine one sees through the performance. The
Speaker 1: performer senses they are being seen through, and may respond
Speaker 1: with defensiveness or competitive spiritual one upmanship. It is all
Speaker 1: rather tedious. Let me also speak about what does not
Speaker 1: constitute awakening. Awakening is not about having special experiences or
Speaker 1: achieving altered states. It is not about feeling blissful or
Speaker 1: peaceful all the time. It is not about becoming perfect
Speaker 1: or never experiencing difficulty. The awakened person still has a
Speaker 1: human life with all its challenges and sorrows and complications.
Speaker 1: What has shifted is the relationship to all of this.
Speaker 1: The awakened a person is not identified with the content
Speaker 1: of experience. They are not taking the ego's story as
Speaker 1: the ultimate truth about who they are. They are resting
Speaker 1: more in awareness itself, in presence, in the witnessing consciousness
Speaker 1: that holds all experience. So when you meet someone and
Speaker 1: you are trying to discern whether they are awake or asleep,
Speaker 1: do not look at the content of their experience, look
Speaker 1: at their relationship to it. Are they caught in it,
Speaker 1: identified with it, defending it? Or is there a quality
Speaker 1: of spaciousness of allowing of being with what is without
Speaker 1: needing it to be different? The awakened soul meeting the
Speaker 1: sleeping soul is in many ways the fundamental encounter of
Speaker 1: the spiritual path. It is the encounter between levels of consciousness,
Speaker 1: between ways of being in the world, between the dream
Speaker 1: and the awakened state. And it happens not just between
Speaker 1: different people, but within each person who is in the
Speaker 1: process of awakening, because you are both the awake soul
Speaker 1: and the sleeping soul. There is the part of you
Speaker 1: that has seen, that knows, that is free, and there
Speaker 1: is the part of you that keeps forgetting, that gets
Speaker 1: pulled back into identification, that falls asleep again. And these
Speaker 1: parts encounter each other constantly. The awakened part witnesses the
Speaker 1: sleeping part with compassion and patience. The sleeping part sometimes resists,
Speaker 1: the awakened part sometimes surrenders to it. This is the
Speaker 1: inner work, not achieving some permanent state of enlightenment where
Speaker 1: you never forget again, but becoming increasingly established in the
Speaker 1: awakened perspective, so that even when you forget, you recognize
Speaker 1: you have forgotten and can come back. Even when you
Speaker 1: get caught in the dream, you wake up again more quickly.
Speaker 1: And as you become more established in this, your encounters
Speaker 1: with sleeping souls become less fraught, less frustrating, less lonely.
Speaker 1: You recognize that they are you, not the current you,
Speaker 1: but the you that you were, the you that in
Speaker 1: some ways you still are, and you meet them with
Speaker 1: compassion rather than judgment, with patience rather than frustration, with understanding,
Speaker 1: rather than the need to change them. You recognize that
Speaker 1: the sleeping soul is not your enemy. It is not
Speaker 1: a problem to be solved. It is simply consciousness in
Speaker 1: a different stage of its own unfolding. And your role
Speaker 1: is not to wake them up, but to be awake yourself, fully, authentically,
Speaker 1: without apology or explanation, and in that being you offer
Speaker 1: an invitation, a possibility, a reminder that another way of
Speaker 1: living is available. Some will accept that invitation, most will not,
Speaker 1: and both are perfectly fine, because in the deepest sense,
Speaker 1: there is no separation between the awakened and the sleeping.
Speaker 1: There is only consciousness experiencing itself in infinite variety, in
Speaker 1: infinite stages, in infinite expressions, and it is all necessary,
Speaker 1: It is all part of the whole, It is all
Speaker 1: in its own way, perfect