Surviving Sudden Spiritual Enlightenment

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Synthetic Self: "I'll do this practice and go deep within to find my higher self, my essential nature."⠀
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The Synth, or your persona, has only mechanical things inside. Programs, apps, data storage, etc. ⠀
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I see you, and you are massive, immeasurable. Your Synth is like a tiny hologram inside of you, a useful tool. So it's interesting that you rummage about inside the Synth, seeking what is not inside the Synth. Seeking. Being a seeker. Becoming a Seeker. You'll find plenty to look at, lots to discover and tinker with. I rather enjoy tinkering inside my Synth. Only, it's not what you were looking for. ⠀
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I stand in a room with other people, and I'm massive. I take up the whole room, and more. My consciousness is immeasurable, rolling in and out like the tides. People don't see this. They don't even look for it. The brain is set to match a pattern, and the pattern they are trying to match is the Synth. They are looking for the hologram. ⠀
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We are massive, undulating and moving like ocean size bodies of water. We also have a Synth tool, a tiny hologram. We are the same, only your location differs. Your default location, where you focus your awareness and "reside"...the place you call Home and Self, is the Synth.⠀
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Your pattern recognition is set to Synth - to recognize yours and those of others. The world to you is populated by Synths, and the other...the Spirit or consciousness or whatever...this is an exotic thing. A mysterious thing. Because you can't see it directly, even though it is the most mundane, the most common...it's everywhere. You don't recognize it easily. So it seems elusive, "spiritual".

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You're spinning in circles. The mind wants to fret about something. It wants to rehash, replay -- either a scene or a feeling track. There's nothing wrong with that, except when it's not something you control, initiate and end. This whirring just happens. Some people leave this thing running, in the background, all the time. ⠀
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Why? Because you don't know better, mostly. You're used to it, and accept that's just the way it is...unless you become enlightened or achieve some kind of remarkable yogi status. ⠀
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But it's not like that at all. Your mind is a tool. Use it when you need to, then put it down. That's not Yogi Stuff. It's just basic human stuff. ⠀
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This background spinning leads to anxiety, friction. If your mind wants to fret, it's okay, let it. But put some boundaries on that. Like...ten minutes, starting now. Go on, fret. Worry. Replay. When ten minutes is up, stop. ⠀
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Feel better? I mean, from the 10 minutes of whatever that was...worrying. Replaying a feeling track. Rehashing something that happened this morning, when so and so said such and such. ⠀
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Did anything change? Did you resolve something in this ten minutes? Did you find a solution? ⠀
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Next time your mind wants to fret, instead of giving it ten minutes, try something different. Make a mental image of what it would feel like if whatever this thing is that your minds wants to fret about was resolved, or what it would feel like if it never happened, or what it would feel like if it was about an alien who lives on another planet and you were looking into their life from a remote viewing portal. Do this for ten minutes. Just hold this in your mind and feel that feeling. After ten minutes, stop. ⠀
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What was that like? Does it feel different? What does it feel like to feel the mind tugging you toward its default activity? What does it feel like to feel that tug and then choose what to do?

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How useful is my advice? ⠀
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In my Peerless and Mastery courses, I give a lot of practical ways to quiet the mind. Is this useful advice? Yesterday I did a private consultation in which I reframed my client's perspective: Is this mental chatter even a "problem" that you need to do something about? Do you even NEED to quiet the mind? ⠀
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It seems very different, these two perspectives. One is that you need to master the mind, learn techniques to turn down or even shut off the chatter in order to claim enough space for that elusive *something else* to emerge. What is it? Wisdom? Presence? Your Essential Nature? The other perspective is that holding onto this idea that mental chatter is a problem that needs to be remedied so you can claim some kind of pristine awareness, perfect awakening, is in fact just part of the mechanics of seeking...part of the same mind mechanics that generate the chatter in the first place. ⠀
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Both perspectives are true, depending on what level you are operating from. This is important to understand. You seek, you seek outside yourself, and inevitably you seek through the experience and wisdom and advice of others. But you can only digest and use the advice that is appropriate to your level. That's why you'll come across teachings that you feel in your gut are *true*, and yet if you try to apply them you get really weird or no results. They lead to more confusion. Then more seeking. But you're pointed in the wrong direction! You need the advice and teaching that is not only true, but true for you...where you are.⠀
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And that means also that when you are no longer where you are...when you've moved past that into truly new territory, a fundamentally new level...your old methods, the old teachings, the previous advice...may no longer be appropriate for you anymore. This is so hard, because they were true and they did work. Those practices are like old friends. You are faithful to them. But they are not old friends. They are steps on a ladder that you leave behind without looking back as you move ahead. The only precious teachings are the ones you need, the ones that are appropriate for you right now.

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My birthday is like my own personal New Year. I love spending my birthday by myself, out in nature, suspended in this liminal space between what was and what is to come. ⠀
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This morning I went out before dawn to the beach and spent the twilight with a handsome flock of shorebirds and a school of what looked like baby sand sharks, playing in the tide right up to the sandy shore. ⠀
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It's a relief to be here, no one asking me to be anybody. No one telling me who I am based on their personal storyline. Though, I suppose that is not entirely true. I met a bird this morning who looked me over and said, "You look a lot like that woman who fed me."

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