Awakening sense

the one wish

How would you say our usual mode of mind creates a barrier to the heart?

Our scattered thinking can create a veil of confusion around the heart, denying us access to its one wish.

Which is?

The heart in its pure state wants only one thing, to awaken to the Beloved's presence, to actually awaken to what Self is.

And how else could this heart state be described?

As a state of awareness without doubts, hesitations, counterarguments, endless dialogs (actually monologues) and the like.

As opposed to what?

Well, you can look at the ego-mind as a system that siphons the heart's vital energies into its various wants and programs--bits of conditioned responses usually at odds among themselves.

Any solutions?

Start to repolarize the mind with reflections of truth and develop a sense of smell to recognize those reflections.

presence of absence

Many speak of Presence and even you use the term. But in what way, meaning what?

The short answer is that presence of Presence is proportional to the presence of our absence; presence of Self according to absence of self.

OK, let's start with what you mean by absence of self.

That's the best starting point. You could say our usual self is what results when our awareness gets stuck in ego-mind's various parts. This separative-conscious self may not be eradicated by just wishing or willing it so. But its influence, its power over what are at a deeper level, can be decreased and the result is some degree of absence of our usual self. Of course we can also talk about presence with a small 'p' indicating our sense of our core or essence when awareness is freer from ego-mind's webs.

Like going into cold storage.

In a way, becoming quiescent, dormant. Then we are open, receptive. An awakening heart (heart/mind) can feel and know in new ways, can be open to higher influences, can recognize its unique connection to Real Self. This can initiate a sincere way of living that gradually effaces ego-mind's dominance.

And what do you mean by Presence with a capital P?

The less said the better, as that's truly beyond ego-mind's grasp. It's uniquely experienced by each of us. As we more and more shed the false, what we think we are, the more access and knowing we would have of Presence, of the luminosity of Self Itself.

what about conscience?

Would you equate the urge to awaken with conscience?

Very much so, but not the Walt Disney variety, not a conscience based on outside influence such as learned in Sunday school. You could say conscience in us is what responds to awakening's pull, to our innate attraction to the Beloved, to the Self-Real-Truth, to what is actually behind or beyond all these terms.

And does what you term a transitional ego serve as a vehicle for conscience?

Let's call it a vehicle for receptivity to the urge to awaken, a vehicle both fueled and piloted by true conscience. And this urge is expressed as a sensation in itself, not simply an idea or attitude.

So it's its own thing, so to speak.

Right, free of ego-mind's associations. It's a way to be open to a part of us that creates its own reality, not one based on our past memories or future expectations, a reality aligning itself with the conscience we've been talking about.

trigger points

Each has their own spiritual starting point, but what triggers that point, spurs us to move on?

First, I would put 'spiritual starting point' in quotation marks.

Because?

Because from a macro view the starting point for all would be the same--participating in the entire evolution of consciousness from rocks to people.

What if we narrow the field to people.

The starting point is the spark of connection to Real Self, of the beginning of an awareness of this connection.

And what activates that spark?

That point becomes a starting point as it begins to become activated through our brushes, accidental or otherwise, with experiencing beyond our usual limits, beyond through who we think we are. Then our life itself becomes the kindling for that spark.