After awakening we can be in a place of what Byron Katie (2007) described as a perpetual state of gratitude or what Adi Da (1978) pointed to as an ecstatic place of divine humour as we transcend the need to continue in independent form and now realize nothing is necessary.  But puzzling for many of us even after awakening is the fear that can keep knocking at our door.

We lose our gratitude, humour and let go surrendering as we once again get caught up in the fixated state of fear. Even after “awakening” we can spend much time managing, escaping, and resisting our fear. And yet, fear is still arising and we feel defeated by fear. As Adyashanti (2006) described, we get to a place of constantly saying “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t……” But, we do not let this wisdom in. We keep on trying to manage fear. One day though, a person realizes the truth of “I can’t” and gives up managing truth, as the realization there is nothing that can be done is felt. All of a sudden the realization “I can’t” is accepted and one allows him or herself to be totally effaced to fear. Nothing can be done, and a person dies to all separate self strategies and just sits there in the truth of “I can’t.” And here is the grand paradox, by realizing there is no escape and sitting in fear with no strategy, and doing nothing, the truth is revealed. As Gangaji (2005) explained, fear is found only in the resistance to its existence, because when one sits with fear one finds “Fear is energy. Fear is space, Fear is the Buddha. It is Christ’s heart knocking at your door” (p. 175). By letting go of all of our strategies to manage, resist and escape fear, and sitting in fear, and doing nothing, fear is revealed as nothing but our spacious awakened nature. So, dying to fear, sets us free.

As we move into our third issue, and prepare for our second international conference, working with issues after awakening such as fear becomes a huge invitation as so many of us are implicated by the need to keep working on our issues after some form of awakening. Whether it is moving from a partial awakening to a more full awakening, getting caught in being attached to the nondual, still having some emotions and stories to work through or still finding oneself caught in “grabbing” at our separate self identity and survivalhood, the key is for each one of us to still keep working on our issues so that we don’t get caught in some obvious shadow issues that stunt our day to day abiding in nondual being. Let us not make the mistake of so many before us, who have announced their “awakening” or “enlightenment” to be perfect and refused to keep working on issues as they arise in day to day life and got into terrible binds of denial and idealized transference. Let us keep on with our authentic embracement of working through our issues as they arise in day to day life.

References

Adi Da (1978). The enlightenment of the whole body. Middletown, CA: Dawn Horse Press.

Adyshanti (2006).  The five truths about truth. Campbell, CA: Open Gate Publishing.

Gangaji (2005). The diamond in your pocket. Boulder, CO: Sounds True.

Katie, B. (2007). A thousand names for joy. New York: Three Rivers Press.

An interpretive account of the transformation of consciousness is explored in this article along with the irreconcilability of experience and conceptualization of nondual consciousness. Twelve themes explore experiences of five ordinary women, whose self experience was profoundly changed by a process beginning with breakthrough experiences of mystical interconnectedness and progressing to increased abiding in nondual consciousness.  Themes of transformation included emptying out psychological issues, taking responsibility for one’s life, and cycling through painful and mystical experiences beyond one’s control. Additionally,  finding courage was critical and fueled by spiritual practices of re-connecting to the nondual state.   Later stages revealed an acceptance of “what is,” increasing surrender and a deepening of compassion, along with loosening the attachment to separate-self identity and a loss of the fear of death. The pattern of the transformative events reflected in these themes suggests one that is naturally cyclical as opposed to the linear progression portrayed in the current literature.  Additionally, this research supports the notion that the shifts of consciousness occurring along the nondual pathway are, at least in part, the work of divine forces far beyond an individual’s control and personal intention.

Marcia Rich, Ph.D. is a psychologist and Assistant Professor in the Addictions Counselling program at the University of Lethbridge. Prior to joining the faculty she worked as a private practice psychologist for sixteen years. Working from an existential-feminist-transpersonal framework she provides psychotherapy engaging the consciousness of the body, emotion, mind, and spirit. In the past four years she had been involved in shamanic training through the Foundation for Shamanic Studies and is interested in researching and practicing the integration of shamanic methodology with transpersonal psychotherapy.

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In this article, challenges after awakening are considered. While being in the awakened flow can be very captivating, we see issues of the mind, the heart, and the guts may still emerge that need to be worked through. The mind can fixate on the witness state or attach itself to nothingness or to the concept of awakening. These fixated positions, beneath which lay the dark emotions of the heart, must be recognized, openly embraced and collapsed. By burning through the stories around these emotions, we can reclaim our openness of the heart and our ability to come from a place of love rather than from the illusion of the separate self.  Connecting with all at a gut level, we can be in a place of let go, no longer grasping at self survival as we embrace existence in each moment.

Gary Nixon, Ph.D., is a transpersonal nondual psychologist, and professor in the Addictions Counselling Program at the University of Lethbridge.  He was drawn to eastern contemplative traditions after an existential world collapse at the end of law school in the early 80’s and embarked on a nondual quest for wholeness that spanned many years. He completed his masters and doctorate in Counselling Psychology and joined the University of Lethbridge in 1998 after working in addictions and mental health settings. He has been running nondual transformational groups and maintaining a transpersonal psychology private practice over the last ten years.

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This article explores different ways in which the spiritual path is pursued using the concepts of the ego and egolessness as the common theme.  The article profiles extreme ways in which we perpetuate our suffering, for example, by fortifying a sense of separation and vulnerability by establishing the notion of an “ego” that needs to be destroyed, or by saying that we are already perfected; that there is no ego, and hence nothing to do.  We also explore more balanced, yet equally artificial, versions of these extremes.  By deconstructing polarized ways of thinking about the ego and egolessness, we are invited into nondual wisdom that transcends the ontologizing tendencies that either affirm or deny the existence of an individuated self.

Peter Fenner, Ph.D. is a leader in the Western adaptation of Buddhist wisdom. He is a pioneer in the new field of nondual psychotherapy. He was a celibate monk in the Tibetan Buddhist traditions for 9 years. He has a Ph.D. in the philosophical psychology of Mahayana Buddhism and has held teaching positions at Universities in Australia and USA. His recents books include, Radiant Mind: Awakening Unconditional Awareness; Radiant Mind: Teaching and Practices to Awakening Unconditioned Awareness (7CD set); The Edge of Certainty: Paradoxes on the Buddhist Path; and The Sacred Mirror: Nondual Wisdom and Psychotherapy (ed. with John Prendergast and Sheila Krystal). Peter is the creator of the 9 month Radiant Mind Course (radiantmind.net) and 10 month Nondual Teacher and Therapist Training (nondualtraining.com).  He has taught workshops at Naropa University, the California Institute for Integral Studies, Omega Institute, and others and orally presented, by invitation, at JFK University, Saybrook College, Stanford Medical School, Columbia University, and internationally.  Contact: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  www.nondualtraining.com

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This paper examines Eastern mindfulness practice from various psychodynamic perspectives inspired by Freud, Jung, Assagioli and Perls, among others. Western psychotherapy praxis has typically been characterised by confidence in the ability of the logical, analytical and thinking mind to resolve most forms of psychological distress, e.g. from the use of Freud’s “talking cure” to cognitive therapy’s dialogues and prescriptions.  However, there may be times when much older approaches to resolving human suffering are useful, for example, the fostering of reflective silence as in meditation practice, with its emphasis on the intuition emergent from the resultant “no thought” state, as well as from the mindfulness of the embodied mind in the here and now.  The ancient Eastern wisdom traditions, Hinduism, Taoism and Buddhism for example, with their use of Koans, promotion of non-attachment, compassion and various meditation and yoga exercises may even see the labelling, reactive, polarising, grasping or rejecting mind itself as the main obstacle to be overcome if we are to leave undue levels of suffering, as in anxiety and depression, behind.  Most of us form emotional attachments to people, objects, social roles and ideas.  We may also over-identify with these attachments – especially in the context of idealisation. Self-reflection, as fostered by depth psychotherapies, mindfulness meditation, and the like, may enhance deeper levels of awareness. This in turn may enable us to dis-identify from dysfunctional ideas, habits, longings and attitudes, and to let go of attachments and identifications which no longer serve beneficial purposes.  However, detachment may be engaged in defensively by some people via exaggerated introspective meditation and thus increase social isolation.  Moreover, escapist introspection may, with some, lead to self-engrossment rather than to genuine self (and social) awareness with its concomitant healthy relational engagement.  “For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” (William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 2, Line 267)

Dr. Michael DelMonte majored in both Genetics and Psychology from Trinity College Dublin, where he also completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in the area of meditation and mindfulness. He also has a Masters in psychotherapy.  Dr. DelMonte is Principal Clinical Psychologist in St. Patrick's University Hospital, Dublin, founded by Dean Jonathan Swift in 1745. This hospital is linked to Trinity College, Dublin, where he also lectures in Psychology and Psychotherapy. Dr. DelMonte has a particular interest in integrated psychotherapy, drawing on his training in Constructivist/Existentialist, Psychodynamic, Systemic and Oriental (e.g. mindfulness) approaches to mental health, in his work with individuals, couples and groups.

In 1990 he was co-founder of the "Transnational Network for the Study of Physical, Psychological and Spiritual Well-Being" in Tokyo, Japan. He has published about 80 articles in professional journals and books on a variety of topics dealing with psychotherapy, mindfulness, meditation and evolution. He has been a guest speaker at about two dozen international symposia and conferences - some of which were linked to the Transnational Network.

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