three steps to awakening

8/13/2019 Three Steps to Awakening

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Three Steps to God: Awakening Your EvolutionaryCreativity and Reclaiming the Higher Obligation andJoy of Your Life

By Marc Gafni

Hi Friends. I am writing you from the road. Traveling, meetings to unfold the World

Spirituality movement based on integral principles, teaching and much more. I am

delighted to be alive and to be writing to you. I am thinking a lot of these days about how

to Harness the Fire of Your Evolutionary Creativity.

Here are some thoughts about creativity which come from deep within the Source Code

of our emerging Integral world view. What a delight and privilege it is to participate with

you in the evolution of consciousness. What a wild and holy privilege it is to have this

conversation with you. One of the things I wish to make clear is the trajectory ofemergence from Unique Self Unique Self, to Love to Evolutionary Creativity. As we

connect the dots, the eros and ethos of the Great World Spirituality Awakening story

comes into view. So here we go.

It is time to change the game. To uplevel the great Integral evolutionary project of

reconstructionthe reconstruction and evolution of God. And, make no mistake about it:

Integral is a reconstructive project. We seek to unfold a vision of World Spirituality

based on Integral principles, a trans-lineage path. This is the path that we have forgotten.

It is the memory of the future. No ancient tradition, no pre-modern tradition by itself can

address us, yet without the core insights of the traditions, life becomes a flatland of

dreary emptiness without eros or telos. We make a reverential bow to the great traditions,

and open ourselves to receive their wisdom in humility, even as we uplevel and evolve

them in integral consciousness.

Id like to identify for us three steps three insights and realizations that lead us to

God. Awakening these realizations comes from your personal practice of the greatest

heart, mind and body mystics from all agespre-modern, modern and post-modern. All

three steps manifest themselves through the three faces of God.

Move Beyond the Mythic God

Before you begin this three step process into the heart of the divine you must first movebeyond the mythic God. You must shatter the Idols, or kill the Buddha. The God you do

not believe in does not exist. The reconstruction of God is nothing less the reconstruction

of self as Self. But it is not only that. It is no less the reclaimed depth of delight as we

devotionally bow, in Rumi-like rapture, before the personal face of the Beloved. It is the

realization that wherever and whenever we fall, we fall into the arms of the Beloved. The

ethnocentric mythic God that lives solely outside the Kosmos has passed away in the

evolution of consciousness. We reclaim the depths of the divine post-mythic


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consciousness. The depths of the divine reveals itself in three faces, in the three major

perspectives that are the building blocks of reality. In Integral terms we call these the

First, Second and Third Person of God or the Three Faces of God. The divine is both

beyond{second person}and within{first person}, everything and no-thing, the ground and

suchness of all that is{third person} as well as the beloved that lives in us, as us and

through us{first person}, even as she holds us{second person}. The Divine is both theawakened divinity that lives as us{first person}, the evolutionary process and power of

the Kosmos{third person}, as well as the God who knows our name {second person}.

The Three Steps

Step One: Engage in continual daily practice to evolve beyond exclusive identity with

ego: awaken to your true nature, your true self.

It is crucial to recognize that, from an Integral perspective, this practice must be

done both in first person and second person.In other words, we need to engage both

the first and second person faces of God. These are the two paths that invite, demand and

delight in your Unique Creativity, which gifts the world with your Unique manifestationof love-intelligence and sacred activism.

So lets touch in to each path so you can feel it and taste it.

First person Evolution Beyond Ego: Awakening to Your True Nature

To incarnate the God that lives in you, as you, and through you, you must first evolve.

Not beyond your ego. You never evolve beyond your ego. You evolve beyond exclusive

identification with your ego. You realize that you are an indivisible part of the seamless

coat of the universe. You move beyond your limited identity as a separate self, and access

your True Self, which is not apart, but an inextricable part of the one, of all that is, of the

seamless coat of divinity. When you evolve beyond ego and awaken to your true self yourealize with joy and delight that your true nature beyond any physical expression is

consciousness. And you feel the alive and awakened nature of consciousness is creative.

Second Person Evolution Beyond Ego:Feel yourself held in the arms of the Mother

who desperately cares about you and knows your name. Experience all of the infinity of

divine power and intelligence {God in the third person or the third face of God} sitting in

a chair in front of you pouring divine personal love into you and caring about every detail

of your life even as she calls you to your fullest and highest life. Your highest life is to

engage in the creative act of the evolution of your consciousness.

The mystics and realizers from every great pre-modern, modern and post-modern

tradition yearn to know the heart of reality. They yearn to know God. But what do we

know of the unknowable God? The second-person mystics all say something stunningly

simple and wondrous. There is one thing we do know about God: God is creative.

Consciousness is creative. The Tao is creative. How do we know? Because here we are,

right now. Just open your eyes and look around. Or, if you prefer, just close your eyes

and look around. We live in a world of manifestation, infinitely complex and beautiful

manifestation. Creativity is an essential quality of the divine.


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Step Two: Awaken to Your Unique Self:

Then, you take the next step. Your awakening deepens. In First Person, you awaken to

your Unique Self. This is the realization that the coat of the Universe is seamless but not

featureless, and that you are a unique feature of that seamless coat. You realize that while

the total number of true selves is only One, every manifestation of True Self sees througha unique set of eyes. This is Your Unique Self. Through Your Unique Self, Gods

creativity lives in you, as you, and through you. In Second Person, you realize that God

loved you so much that he signed his name all over you. Your Unique Self is the personal

face of essence, unlike any other, utterly unique, emanated by God. You are Gods

special beloved even as you are Gods partner in the evolutionary healing and

transformation of all that is.

Step Three: Awaken to Your Unique Gift, Obligation and Vow:Your Unique Self

creates your Unique Obligation and Unique Vow. First Person: In the Buddhist tradition,

the bodhisattva is one who seeks buddhahood through practicing noble action. The

bodhisattva vows to postpone his or her complete awakening and fulfillment until allother beings are awakened and fulfilled. The determining factor in his or her actions is

compassion, moved by the highest insight and wisdom. The realization of Unique Self

may be regarded as bodhisattva activity the unique manifestation of wisdom and

guidance. The Unique Self bodhisattva vow is an expression of evolutionary joy and

responsibility, even as it is a commitment to the fulfillment of your evolutionary

obligation.

A note on Obligation at at the second tier of consciousness:

Now we need to pause for a second and in these brackets talk about the strange and

unpopular word obligation. Many of us recoil when we hear the word obligation. We

identify obligation with arbitrarily imposed limitations by church or state that suffocatethe naturally free human being. Lets enquire for a moment what obligation might mean

at a higher level of consciousness than the obligation imposed by an authority external to

you.

This inquiry yields the deeper truth that obligation is the ultimate liberation. Obligation

frees you from ambivalence and allows you to commit one thousand percent to the

inherent invitation that is the Unique Obligation present in every unique situation.

Obligation at this level of consciousness is created by the recognition that there is an

authentic need that can be uniquely addressed by you and you alone. For example, lets

say you are stuck on a lush tropical island with and old, boorish ugly man who has no

obvious redeeming features. You are absolutely certain that you will never be rescued.

The two of you are stuck on this island forever. There is abundant food on the island. The

problem is, due to a physical ailment, this man with no obvious redeeming features that

are easily discernible is unable to feed himself. Are you obligated to feed him?

The question is not whether it is noble or even good to feed him, but whether you

are obligatedto feed him. I have posed this question to thousands of people in audiences


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over the years. Virtually everyone agrees that in this situation you have an absolute

obligationto feed him. This obligation is substantively different then the external

obligation imposed by a fundamentalist or what Jean Gebser calls a mythic

consciousness. This is not the obligation imposed by a mythic god, king, state or

government. This is an obligation to help preserve life that is inherent to consciousness

itself. In articulating the demand of consciousness inherent in this freely assumedobligation I have developed the fourfold doctrine of higher obligation. Higher

obligation is the obligation that wells up from the higher structure-stages of

consciousness.

The fourfold doctrine of obligation is directly based on the fourfold structure of need.

Need creates obligation. First there is a need. But not only is there a need, it is an

authentic and not a contrived need.

Second, you clearly recognize the need.

Third, you have the skills and creative capacity to meet the need.

Fourth, the need can be effectively addressed only by you. The matrix of these four

factors creates the matrices of your Unique Self Obligation.

Essentially, you are obligated to give the Unique Creative Gifts that can be uniquely

given only by you in this moment. While most of our gifts address more subtle hungers

than food, there is no person who does not possess Unique Gifts that respond to unique

needs.

This is precisely the awakened realization of Unique Self in first person. It is the

powerful recognition that there is a Unique Gift, a direct function of your Unique Self

that can and must be given only by you. It is your gift to the good and to the evolution of

consciousness. It is both the reason for your life and the joy of your existence. From a

non-dual perspective, it is your Unique Gift that creates your Unique Obligation. To live

your Unique Self and offer your Unique Gifts is to align yourself with the evolutionary

impulse and fulfill your evolutionary obligation. The realization of your Unique Self

awakens you to the truth that there is a Unique Gift that your singular being and

becoming offers the world, which is desperately needed by all that is, and can be given by

you and you alone. There is no more powerful and joyous realization available to a

human being. It is the meshwork of meaning that fills your life and is the core of your

Unique Self enlightenment.

As we said, this awakening to Unique Self happens in first person and second person.

In First Person, when you awaken to your unique self as the I AM, you realize that you

are both a part of the seamless coat of the universe, and unlike any other as a uniqueemanation of the divine. You realize that you have Unique Gifts to give, as part of your

most essential nature as a Unique Self. You experience your unique obligation to give

those unique gifts. Because you are the only person in the word capable of giving those

unique gifts of being and becoming, if you do not give them, there will be a corner of the

world that is left unloved. Your creativity is ultimately and infinitely necessary for the

continuing great project of evolutionary creativitythe evolution of consciousness

towards the place where all of the good is experienced and known as the fullest depth of


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all that is displayed in the wondrous magnificence of the divine symphony. Knowing

that, you feel it, you taste it, and you rock it out for God with the creative depth of genius

that lives in you. Giving your gift might be private or public, quiet or loud, but the

universe desperately needs and yearns to experience it.

Second person: Up till now in step three we described awakening to your Unique Self asyour Evolutionary Creativity in first person. You awakened to incarnate your Unique

Creativity which is your Unique Self the Unique Expression of love that lives as you.

Now we move to the call to Unique Divine creativity through the face of God, God in the

second person.

You can awaken to your Unique Self not only through a first person recognition of

yourself as a unique expression of the love-intelligence of the Universe, but also through

a second person encounter with the Divine. Here, through practice or as a gift of divine

love, you can experience yourself being held in the arms of the Mother who both loves

you and obligates you. This was the great realization of the Mother, central to the

spiritual way of Hindu mystics, Kabbalists, Sufis, Christian mystics, and so many more.In Hebrew the same root word means both Love and Obligation. What that simply means

is that to be loved is to be obligated. To be loved by the divine does not mean, as

religions used to teach, that man is freed of obligation. Rather, it means that God loves

and holds the human being as his/her partner in the creative process. To be loved is to be

obligated. In the language of the second person mystics the human being is obligated as

the core essence of being alive to engage in imatatio dei the imitation of god. The

second person mystics now go the next step (and this is Rumi Hafiz, Ibn Arabi, Akiva,

Luria, Augustine, Aquinas and the whole gang.) We are commanded by consciousness

itself to be like god. To partner with God in the healing and transformation of all that

is. But, how can you be like God if we do not know God? Ahhh. Remember there is one

thing we DO KNOW about God. God is Creative. Consciousness is Creative. Creativityis the essential manifest quality of Consciousness. So therefore: Just as God is creative so

you be creative. To use biblical language, just as God stood as the abyss of darkness and

said Let there be light- so too shall you stand creatively at the abyss of darkness and

say let there be light. Just as God creates worlds, so too shall you as Gods partners be a

creator of worlds. God in the second person, who holds you and loves you, has but one

wild, ecstatic, rigorous and uncompromising demand: Be my creative partner in the

healing and transformation of the world. Evolve consciousness, and fix the broken places

with Me because I cannot do it without you. I need your service. My gift to you in

love, whispers God in our ear even as She caresses our heart, My gift to you is to make

you my partner and allow Myself to be at least in part dependent on you!

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