Asleep-Awake
We move through these two states on a daily basis. We know by experience what sleep is. We know also what it means to be awake. Traditional teaching, especially the teachings of Jesus, uses these two ordinary states of being and consciousness as metaphors for a higher reality—an inner reality of being and consciousness.
It seems to me, looking at our list of Jesus’ teachings and practices that everything else is dependent on the interior facts regarding these two spiritual states. To be spiritually asleep is also to be “dead to the Kingdom of Heaven.” When we are sound asleep at night people often say, “He or she is dead to the world.” That’s the truth. It is as if the other world, the wider world, the higher world of space-time does not exist for us. We are completely in thrall to our unconscious world. Consciousness and being are not awake to what is outside the unconscious and therefore cannot respond to or act within the world of space-time reality.
Thinking, then, of the list that we are pondering this year, I would make the case for this aspect of spiritual practice to be at the foundation of everything else, because everything else depends upon it. The question is, do we know what these two states mean for us in a practical way? What does it feel like to be “asleep” spiritually? What does “waking up” feel like inside our experience? Is this a once in a lifetime change, or do we go through cycles of sleep and awakening over and over again? How can we tell when we have fallen back to sleep? How would we define that inner state of being and consciousness spiritually? How would we be able to detect it in ourselves? What or who awakens us and how does that happen? How does one stay awake? Could you notice yourself going back to sleep? What are the signs? How can you help yourself stay awake? These are all aspects of spiritual practice, and very practical. We cannot have a significant understanding of the work of Jesus unless we have a significant grasp of what this means for each of us personally, perhaps even on a daily basis.
Give some serious consideration to these questions. Explore your practice.
It seems to me, looking at our list of Jesus’ teachings and practices that everything else is dependent on the interior facts regarding these two spiritual states. To be spiritually asleep is also to be “dead to the Kingdom of Heaven.” When we are sound asleep at night people often say, “He or she is dead to the world.” That’s the truth. It is as if the other world, the wider world, the higher world of space-time does not exist for us. We are completely in thrall to our unconscious world. Consciousness and being are not awake to what is outside the unconscious and therefore cannot respond to or act within the world of space-time reality.
Thinking, then, of the list that we are pondering this year, I would make the case for this aspect of spiritual practice to be at the foundation of everything else, because everything else depends upon it. The question is, do we know what these two states mean for us in a practical way? What does it feel like to be “asleep” spiritually? What does “waking up” feel like inside our experience? Is this a once in a lifetime change, or do we go through cycles of sleep and awakening over and over again? How can we tell when we have fallen back to sleep? How would we define that inner state of being and consciousness spiritually? How would we be able to detect it in ourselves? What or who awakens us and how does that happen? How does one stay awake? Could you notice yourself going back to sleep? What are the signs? How can you help yourself stay awake? These are all aspects of spiritual practice, and very practical. We cannot have a significant understanding of the work of Jesus unless we have a significant grasp of what this means for each of us personally, perhaps even on a daily basis.
Give some serious consideration to these questions. Explore your practice.
Labels: Jesus' teaching, spiritual practice, spiritual sleep, wakefulness
posted by Lynn Bauman at 6:32 AM
3 Comments:
Thank you for once again keeping us focused on the work. As it happens, this morning's reading of Maurice Nicoll addressed the very same subject-- that this work on ourselves is about awakening from sleep. Nicoll posits that we are, in a sense, hypnotized in ordinary consciousness and that what puts us to sleep most effectively is giving vent to our passions -- every Tom, Dick and Harry opinion, hatred, self-justification, criticism and outburst-- AND, letting external life control and mesmerize us by its events. As you point out, the way to begin to make progress with all of this is to initiate a robust practice of self-observation.
the Riso-Hudson Enneagram work i engage in uses the Gurdjieffian concept of a wake-up call, catching youself in the act of some form of falling to sleep. what's helpful about the Enneagram is that if you know your primary type, you can get really specific about what the common wake-up calls are...
When you talk about being awake or asleep, are you referring to mindfulness, or is this something different? I can look at it from two perspectives. Maybe being awake goes to a deeper level than mindfulness. I think we cycle in and out of wakefulness over periods of time, but cycle in and out of mindfulness throughout each day. Does that make sense?
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