Awakening sense

effort in question

Why is effort needed in any spiritual path?

Without it there's no change, no waking.

What about grace?

Without it no change, no waking.

How can both be needed? Isn't this a contradiction?

Both are essential, like a door and doorway. It's a contradiction to ego-mind but accepted norm to awakening self.

What if one focuses on just one at a time?

Not a problem. Preparation invites grace which inspires effort.  Real focus on one leads to the other.   

(see a spiritual classic)

what's the key?

What's the key for awakening?

The key is preparing the ground.

For what?

For lightning to strike, for seeds to grow.

Preparing the ground how?

Through forgetfulness of ego-mind/drop-self and remembrance of Ocean Self.

How to forget self?

Remembrance of Self effaces self, chipping it away or wiping it out.

Then how to remember Self?

It's what's left, where awareness naturally goes when we're less entangled with conditioned mind (see impressions). It's the fruit of wholehearted spiritual practice.

How do you know when that's happening?

The wondering me never knows, it's just bypassed; left in the lurch before having a chance to know what's going on.

a collective treasure (pt.2)

When does awakening begin?

The underlying urge or push to awaken is always there. It's the underpinning, the driving force of whatever we're doing.

Even when we're not conscious of it?

We may not be conscious of this 'pushing' but its work gets done. Through our dramas and darkness a preparation goes on. Our baggage and bindings are gradually shed; the dust clouds that dazzle us thin out (see 'impressions' ).

So when does the conscious part start?

Glimpses and glimmers of what's always there begin as the haze of dust particles settles. Then the pull begins, the attraction to the Real, and awakening blossoms forth.

Sounds like a kind of guarantee.

We share a common inheritance that's the rarest of treasures. It's a matter of time, though no small matter to us.     (see pt.1)

a collective treasure (pt.1)

Can awakening be a collective as well as an individual event?

Either or both, what's the difference? One affects the other. Though it may be an 'event' it includes the process of preparation leading to it.

Then how does the 'collective mind' fit in?

Our collective mind is so interconnected, so tightly knit, that any event has instantaneous and far reaching effects. Internet links are just a small reflection of collective psyche's inner links and interactions.

What's this interaction in terms of awakening?

Awakening shifts focus from ego-mind's dreams to Awake Self. It's an underlying drive we're all involved in consciously or not. Degrees of awakening accord to one's preparation that's helped by harmonious connections with others.

So differences do apply, do matter after all in this awakening business?

Whether a majority feel sudden impact or it's gradual, no matter. Whether few or many are consciously affected, no matter. Whether most are unconsciously but positively affected, no matter. Whether trickling up or trickling down what matters is the field gets irrigated, the job gets done.

In other words no definite answers or conclusions on the subject.

That's right. The words that count emerge after all questions have been swallowed up by an emptied mind and a burning heart. What's definite and really matters is whatever helps prepare such a heart/mind.

Awakening is what's there when everything we know about drops away, whatever we know falls aside leaving not a trace.                                                                          (see pt.2 and related posts: when-what-where and give and take)