"Awakening is not the end of things. Awakening is only the beginning. When we awaken, the real affair of love begins. It goes on forever. It is as if one has been finally qualified for the depths of Love."
These words written by Ramana helped me realize what the path has always been and now consciously is for me. I have awakened to the meaning and purpose of the awakening. I believe I have awakened to and known Divine Love itself.
My awakening occurred in May of 1999. A student of mine invited me to a private home in Youngstown, N.Y. where a spiritual teacher by the name of Ramana (Yukio Hasagawa) was giving Satsang. It was the end of the semester of teaching at college. My summer was open. I had no plans. There was nothing I really wanted to do. I was feeling relaxed and ready to enjoy whatever came along that summer. What did come along was radically transformative-- an awakening to Self-Awareness and Love -- the very thing I believe the incomparable Plato spoke of in his dialogue, The Symposium, the Beautiful One beyond knowledge and reality.
Ramana conducted a brief workshop exercise at the beginning of the Satang session. We gazed at a pencil we held in our hands. In short, he asked us to finally become aware of the awareness that gave us the perception of the pencil. Suddenly, something burst through. I lost awareness of the pencil and became aware of a universal consciousness. I felt an absolute love for myself and realized that my life, a failure, had been an attempt to achieve this love through success and the approval of others. It was a vicarious love that I sought. But here in this moment of bliss I experienced a love for myself that I had never before experienced in my life. I was free of my life. I was the Love which was my Self.
No comments:
Post a Comment