A Prescription For Living Deeply

"Transformation doesn't require going to the mountain top," shares Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, Ph.D., author of Living Deeply and researcher at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. "Something as mundane as road rage, for instance, is the seed for a moment of compassion."

Schlitz and her colleagues have spent the last 10 years investigating human consciousness and the nature of transformative experience. What is transformation? What are the common triggers? What barriers keep us from having transformative experiences more often? And how can we set the stage for these experiences as well as sustain their impact?

Their research project was inspired in part by Richard Gunther, a businessman and father, who had a significant transformative experience and wanted to understand if there were others like him. "I experienced a profound spiritual awakening...my awakening was this: we are all part of a single entity. I was part of all others and all others were part of me. I soared into this new awareness, losing all sense of myself as individual. There was no me alone, only a universal us."

Seeking to understand the mechanics of Gunther's awakening, and others like him, the team inquired into the triggers for transformation, which can be broad ranging. According to their findings, transformation can be sudden and unexpected, like the kind Gunther experienced while gazing down the dramatic Big Sur coastline on a brilliant, sunny afternoon. It can be triggered by crisis or intense suffering - a brush with death, loss of a loved one, ending of a relationship - that shatters our defenses and opens us to a new perspective. Or transformation can be gradual, taking form in our consciousness over time through the influence of certain experiences or personal practices.

The study defined consciousness transformation as "a profound shift in perspective resulting in long-lasting, life-enhancing changes in the way you experience and relate to yourself, others and the world." It is a shift in perception from the limited, individual 'I' to a consciousness that embraces the larger sense of the collective. "My 'me' becomes a 'we'," says Schlitz. "Even in our diversity we can see the whole."

Physician Rachel Naomi Remen describes witnessing this transformative shift with cancer patients: "There's a moment when the individual steps away from the former life and the former identity and is completely out of control and completely surrenders - and then is reborn with a larger, expanded identity."

So what keeps us from recognizing this expanded reality in our normal, everyday lives?

According to Schlitz, our cognitive science has a term called "inattentional blindness." It is something akin to patterned grooves in the mind that shrink our awareness to a very small percentage of what's actually going on around us. "Our culture primes us in a material, acquisitive, success-oriented worldview. When we form an opinion, it is based on our lifelong brain conditioning. As a result, our attention is focused on only a tiny fraction of the information available to us -- most of what we experience is not conscious."

Here, it seems, science and spirituality see eye-to-eye. What cognitive science recognizes as conditioned cognitive pathways, spiritual traditions have addressed as the limitation of "personal identity" or "ego" or the "false self". Both maintain that if we could see the full truth of our reality moment by moment, without censorship from our culturally and socially conditioned grooves or "blindness," we would experience a wholly new and expanded consciousness.

During their decade-long research, the Living Deeply team investigated how over 2,000 individuals (both masters and laypeople) across a broad range of spiritual traditions set about expanding the mind - how they create the conditions for transformative experience and how they've integrated their experiences in order to live more consciously.

According to Schlitz, it boils down to a few key concepts: Intention, Attention, Repetition and Guidance.

Setting an Intention: One of the primary ingredients of conscious transformation is personal choice - the desire to use the experiences of our everyday lives as opportunities for positive evolution. Clear intention is important because transformative practice isn't always a walk in the park - moments of sublime expansion may be juxtaposed with mundane moments of agitation, boredom or fear of the unknown. By setting a clear intention, while releasing the need for any particular outcome (a concept the Buddhist tradition calls "non-striving"), we can start to bring our whole self to every situation we encounter.

Shift in Attention: Another key component of transformative experience is a fundamental shift in perspective -- from a narrow, personal focus to a larger field of meaning. We begin to see the world through an expanded lens. Personally, I remember a meditation, many years ago, in which this transformative shift occurred for me. In an instant, I realized that every breath, every action, every movement was a sacred offering to collective humanity, a prayer for the peace and happiness of the whole. Pondering my personal well-being gave way to pondering the well-being of the collective body. Through shifts like this, we naturally start to develop deeper ways of attending to the world in which we live.

Repetition, Repetition, Repetition: Whether it's pruning the roses in our garden or a more formal practice like meditation, transformative experience can be enhanced by doing our practice repeatedly with a certain discipline and order. "With repetition, we lay down neural pathways," says Schlitz. "Our brains actually change. We can continue training ourselves to be unhappy, or we can find nurturing affirming ways to shift our intention and attention, then reinforce it through repetition."

Guidance from a Teacher: Finally, a teacher can enhance our own noetic intuition and inner authority. If we wanted to become physically fit, we would hire a personal trainer to expand our skills and confidence to enact a lifelong health regime. If we wanted to become an Olympic athlete, we would insist on having a world-class coach to guide our development. So it is with spiritual or transformational teachers who understand the unique territory of unraveling the conditioned grooves of the mind. A good teacher can gently guide us to our highest potential, supporting us on the path to our own realization.

What is the outcome of all this? What are we transforming into?

"When we integrate the essence of transformation, everything becomes practice. Life is the practice," says Schlitz. "Sacred is not some abstraction. It is every moment, even the challenging moments like when we are in conflict with ourselves or someone else. Every experience becomes an opportunity for deeper awareness and compassion."

A Dialogue With Myself

Have you ever had a situation where you wanted to love someone freely but you couldn't? For whatever reason you felt constricted or tight? Your heart longed to forgive, or to release, or to spontaneously become available to a higher energy... but there you sat, stuck and closed?

I've had a couple of days recently like that. With great sincerity, I desire to love freely in my life, to ignite this grand heart like a cosmic explosion. I revel in the warmth and courageous tenderness of an open heart and desire to invite every living being into that space with me.

But some days this darn heart just feels closed and guarded. It does not cooperate.

So, hoping to investigate this resistance to love, I ventured into an internal inquiry today -- a dialogue with parts of myself. What if I was an innocent bystander peering into this heart? What if I had nothing to defend and simply looked deeply without agenda? What if I could see my constriction with clear eyes, not clouded by identity or ego, as if I was examining someone else's life rather than my own? What would I observe here and how would I describe it?

Ego Self: I feel hurt, misunderstood, maligned, unappreciated...or any other number of emotions that accompany my constriction.

Higher Self: Who feels that?

ES: Well, "I" do.

HS: Who is this "I"?

ES: "I" am the one who wants to feel validated, understood, cared for and appreciated.

HS: And who is that?

ES: I am the competent, thoughtful, reflective woman who cares deeply for the peace, happiness, and well-being of all people and our planet. I pray that we all awaken into our highest expression and know the divine light that shines within. I commit my life to serving this global awakening and surrender my will to the universal will in whatever way is called.

HS: Sounds rather saintly.

ES: So how come I sit here feeling closed and tight? I'm supposed to be someone who's loving and compassionate, damn it. I'm supposed to be a lot of things, according to me, that I'm not feeling right now.

HS: But if I look closely and with beginner's eyes, with no need to defend or preserve even a single fragment of my current view of self, what is the truth about this identity? The truth is I'm defending a ghost. My identity is completely fictitious. It is a storyline made up by me, energized by me, and acted out by me, but is not who I am. My reactions and hurt feelings are a direct artifact of the very identity that claims to be so noble. Without an identity, there would be nothing at all to defend. There would be no image to protect. This identity is too small -- any identity is too small.

ES: If I don't have boundaries, definitions, or identifications to assert, then what is left of "me"?

HS: When the pretense and masks of the false self fade away, what radiates forth is the inner effulgence of the soul. It is the authentic love and authentic light. The light of pure intelligence imbued with rapture and delight. This is not the kind of love you add as a casual descriptor on your list of personal attributes. It is beyond personal. It is the cosmic radiance that infuses the core of every being.

When you feel constricted, know that you are being called into this greater love. The constriction is a pregnant pause, a signaling moment, to let you know the time is...now! The time to release the next layer of identity that obscures the brilliant and beautiful radiance that is you. Constriction signals the moment to summon all your courage and to truly see -- without blinders or excuses -- how your identity locks you into certain orientations in this world... and to let it go. It is time to surrender the standard defenses, voluntarily melting yourself down into a molten state so the majesty and splendor of your being can shine through.

This eternal effulgence is the truth of who you are.

You are the greater love. You are the radiance.

Principle #7: Embrace A Miracle Reality

This is the final post in the series "7 Principles for Consciously Creating Your Life". Previous posts covered Living in the Now, Entering the Divine Mind, Summoning Pure Desire, Interrupting Old Patterns, The Ecstasy of Asking and Relax & Let it Go.

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle," said Albert Einstein.

Pablo Picasso added his unique vote for the latter: "Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one's bath like a lump of sugar."

This week's post will be short (miraculous in itself you might say) and sweet, like a lump of sugar.

The process of conscious creation we've explored over the last seven weeks, at its core, has been about liberating ourselves from our limited view of reality.

When we move into the ripeness of this moment...

Releasing our old, conditioned patterns of thought...

Accessing the infinite intelligence of the higher mind...

Acting innocently from the pure, creative desire that stirs our soul...

And relaxing into the greater mystery without agenda or attachment...

What was mundane and limited becomes wondrous and unbounded.

You see, when we slow down and experience ourselves as a vast reservoir of intelligence and creative energy, we understand our own true nature. We recognize ourselves as infinite, eternal, as powerful co-creators of our reality. It's a transformative experience. The whole darn thing is an undeniable miracle.

Living a miracle reality means embracing this deeper awareness, bringing our full attention to every moment, compassionately shedding our restrictive conditioning, and living into our capacity to be limit-free.

A miracle reality is sourced from the pure delight of the soul. No thinking required. No agenda. No plan. The thought-free mind is a miracle mind.

Jesus lived a miracle reality. He recognized himself, with unwavering faith, as son and servant of God. Through the power of his faith, he performed miracle after miracle. And he invited us to step into this same power and knowing, "If you have faith like the grain of a mustard seed, you (too) can move mountains. Nothing will be impossible for you."

When asked the definition of faith, Dattatreya Siva Baba responds simply, "Faith is utter positivity."

When we open into the awe and wonder of the mystery, we are simultaneously giving less energy to the negative, doubtful thoughts that keep us stuck in a non-miraculous reality. We are usually so full of worry and concern that there's no room left. But as we empty the cup, it can be filled with unpredictable blessings.

Miracles will come in unexpected ways. They will come as insight, spaciousness and delight. They will come as spontaneous healing. They will come as the effortless resolution of seemingly intractable problems. They will come as deeper personal connections, moments of meaning, acts of kindness both given and received. They will come as new opportunities to live in alignment with our most authentic calling.

Miracles will come as quiet appreciation for things large and small, good and bad, pleasant and unpleasant, exhilarating and challenging, simply for the wisdom they bring into our lives.

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change," said the Buddha.

May you experience miracles.