Jesus Didn't Have a Cellphone...

It's been about eighteen years since my teacher H.W.L. Poonja asked me to teach awakening in the West. At the beginning, when I first returned to Seattle in 1992, very few people would have a direct experience of being spaciousness, of being presence. At that time, most people were primarily identified with being "seekers." They would project "enlightenment" onto a teacher or onto their own future, but it wasn't accepted as part of their own now. During the last eighteen years things have changed dramatically. Not only in my experience, but others who spread awakening are reporting the same thing. I've heard from Eckhart Tolle, Michael Beckwith, Jean Houston, Ram Dass and hundreds of other teachers that we are together witnessing an epidemic of awakening all over the planet. It's becoming easier and easier to relax back into your natural state and to know yourself to be limitless, the source of everything you experience.

One of the greatest potholes today to people living in this condition in their day-to-day life, is the sense of wanting to compare ourselves to historical figures and "spiritual heros" from the past. We see a statue of the Buddha sitting quietly, doing nothing. Or Quan-yin, or the master Jesus or Saint Francis of Assisi, and then we devalue the depth of our own realization because our heros look so much more advanced than we are. The first thing I want to do when I hear someone compare themselves with someone from the past is to remind us that our situation today is completely different. Buddha didn't have children, a mortgage, or drive a car. Jesus didn't have a cell phone, or change diapers. And above all, none of these historical figures were faced with a world in as much crisis as we are today. Although what is realized in a moment of awakening may be the same: spacious presence, unconditional love, silence, the embodiment of that presence is completely different today.

You and I were not born into a time where there is an invitation to sit quietly in a cave chanting the sound OM. You and I were not born with the same opportunity that Saint Francis of Assisi had to become a monk and leave the world behind. We are destined to be in relationship, to create, to participate in the world of business and finance, and above all, to contribute to the creation of a new kind of humanity.

What is happening today is not just a new wave of awakening, but an evolution in the nature of that awakening. The bar has been set much higher when the challenge is to rest deeply in yourself while also remaining fully in the world and participating.

We are seeing the birth pains of the emergence of a new kind of human being.

Please JOIN US on this Thursday at 6pm for a dialog with Dr. Marc Gafni, a rabbi and iconlastic teacher of Kabbalah and Evolutionary Spirituality. He is a core founder and faculty member of iEvolve Global Practice Community as well as director of the Integral Life Spiritual Center of Integral Life. He has written seven books, including the national bestseller Soul Prints, and The Mystery of Love, a Kabbalistic exploration of the relationship between the sexual, the erotic, and the sacred.

Marc is widely respected as an authority on the evolution of Awakening. It is bound to be a juicy conversation!

 

 

Follow Arjuna Ardagh on Twitter: www.twitter.com/awakeningcoach

Comments

[Fudgefase]

If Jesus HAD had a cell phone, he wouldn't have been able to call anyone on it.

[minimalist syntax]

People nowadays can still choose not to have children and they can still choose to live a monastic life.Monasteries are well and flourishing for many different faiths all over the world.

[TakeSake]

"If you'd come today you could have reached a whole nation - Israel in 4BC had no mass communication"

[khanti]

Interesting that you should bring up Kuan Yin. Also known as Avalokitesravaya. Kuan Yin is suppose to be a manifestation of Avalokitesrvaya in China. Together with Manjusri they are icons of a Boddhisatva .
Each of these icons possess their own quality and are often used in meditation by visualizing their form and quality. Awaken from the meditative state one uses their quality as a way of life as much as possible in daily living. In Kuan Yin the quality is Compassion while Manjusri symbolizes Wisom. Kuan Yin also is synonymous with sound and so her name is chanted.
When Chinese porcelain figurines became available to the Western World, Kuan Yin was mistaken as Mother Mary so became popular.
So chanting or visualizing Kuan Yin and the qualities is actually a way to purify the mind. Buddhist to not worship idols the compassionate ones have many methods of helping people free themselves from sufferings. Not all people possess the same karma so just as in sickness, different sicknesses require different medicine. Buddhist practice is done through one’s own effort and ability there is no pressure to emulate others. Only have patience, understanding and perseverance.
I post this comment just so there is a better understanding of Buddhist practice especially from people of other faiths.

[JohnFromCensornati]

"We are seeing the birth pains of the emergence of a new kind of human being."

Je$u$ didn't have a microchip in his head either. The cyborgs of the future will.
It's not far off. The end is near.

[apoyo]

Sometimes you feel like Robinson Crusoe, shipwrecked among a sea of people.