A True Seeker

* The date shown above is incorrect. The correct date of this posting is June 7, 2009


Before I ever traveled the daring road less traveled, or in other words, before I "knew" I was on a spiritual path, I had to let go of of my beliefs about the world as I perceived it and who I thought I was. I believed I was a a separate self (a psuedo self) who had many labels and identities attached to it. Some of those labels I used in the past were: my name - Diane; my gender - female; my early religious upbringing - Baptist; birthplace - Louisiana; marital status - married; siblings - one; mother of three grown children; parents - deceased.........and so on and so on. Later in life, I added the label of agnostic to describe myself, and finally I attached the label atheist to myself. I also subscribed to the philosophy, "I think, therefore I am", and I was quite proud of myself for that which I perceived as being an individual entity, unconnected to the "others" who were different than myself.

The labels, thoughts, and beliefs of who I thought I was were all suspended one day when my very spirit, or soul, was called out of its deep sleep. A certain passage I read in a book blew me away, as if it were tailor-made for me. The words I read were from the book, "A New Earth", by Eckhart Tolle. There I was, standing in a store, reading from that book, and something within me transcended from the ordinary reality to the non-ordinary reality. My consciousness was forever altered on that seemingly very ordinary day. The non-ordinary reality I entered into was one in which something within me interacted with, saw it, touched it, heard it, felt it, and smelled it. The essence of my real self was responding in a way it had never done before. The "I Am" , or me, was awakening.

Although you may not perceive these following words as anything meaningful to you, I'll present them for you to ponder. The passage which transformed my life and is so sacred to me still to this day is as follows:

"Since time immemorial, flowers, crystals, precious stones, and birds have held special significance for the human spirit. Like all life-forms, they are, of course, temporary manifestations of the underlying one Life, one Consciousness. Their special significance and the reason why humans feel such fascination for the affinity with them can be attributed to their ethereal quality."

I have no way of knowing if those words are stirring your soul to awaken as they did mine. I do know that not many people want to come out of their sleep, not many want to give up their false self. When and if you are ready, you could become awakened anywhere or at any time. Your awakening moment will be tailor-made for YOU, and like me, you will be suspended like a bridge between this world and the next.

After an awakening experience, if you do not go to sleep again (and please don't go to sleep, as you may never pass this way again) the labels and identifying words you've used previously to describe your-self, meaning your false egoic self, will no longer be needed. You will no longer need to justify your existence when someone asks you, "...and what do you do?" You won't allow any person, including yourself, to put you into a box of society's making. You won't play the game of "let's measure, judge, and decide if you are part of the club", no matter how politely the question "what do you do?" is asked of you. It will no longer matter to you what another person "does" or how they spend their time. But, what you will want to know about someone whom you meet is who they think they are. "Who are you, really?" or "Do you know who you are?" or "Why are you here?" will be the questions you'll want answers of from others.

Once awakened, I began searching for others who were also awakened, or who are on the razor's edge of becoming awakened. I keep my radar out for the ones who have laid down their egos at the door, the ones who have no use for their "weapons of defense", the ones who have no need to live in their story, their drama, their right doing, their wrong doing and excuses. I watch and wait for the ones who KNOW who they are, or who they are awakening to - Spirit.

We find each other, we who are coming out of our sleep, we who are an intense, alert presence. We are the ones who have dropped our swords and shields at the door.

The following quote describes what a true seeker is:

Beyond the Boundaries of Already Knowing

To become a true seeker requires the heroic willingness to suspend, at a fundamental level, our most cherished beliefs. I'm not speaking about suspending our good judgment, discerning intellect, or common sense, but I am saying that we have to be willing to let go, even if only temporarily, of whatever our deepest convictions are about the nature of life, love, purpose, and the meaning—or meaninglessness—of existence.

Perennial enlightenment teachings tell us that we have to make room for the unknown. And to make this more specific, I always say that to seek in earnest means that we have to ceaselessly make the effort to peer beyond what we already know. It is only beyond the boundaries of already knowing that we come upon that miraculous domain of unmanifest creative potential and higher knowledge that always liberates and is ever new. And in an evolving world, this will always be the case, because there will always be infinitely more development at every level, more knowledge, and ever-deepening enlightenment to unfold within us.
- by Andrew Cohen