What About YOU?

[Michael Hawkins]

We're just completing a roadtrip to visit family and spend time in one of our favorite getaway places. Relaxation is finally happening at the back-end of our journey.

Two days before leaving, I did something to my neck and have been dealing with pain issues the entire trip -- such that I called my doctor's office to get advice and a prescription, so that I could get a little sleep at night (instead of pacing and groaning until daybreak).

Beyond physical pain, however, this has been a time of excruciating self-examination. I find myself at a transition point in life, as many of you are, and, like you, I'm discovering that doing things the same ol' way just won't cut it. There's no more comfort zone, no turning back to tired old patterns -- and, despite difficulties accessing a vision for the future... the future is HERE!!!! Must confront what is, even as all the accumulated trials and wounds of my life explode in and around me.

I desperately desire the transformation that is underway, even at the expense of so much pain and suffering. Like you, this is what I've always wanted, depending as we do on the universe to force us into changes that we otherwise routinely sidestep on our daily walk.

The last two nights I've slept very well, thank you very much, and am gratified to see that physical symptoms diminish in response to a willingness to fully open to self-examination. I don't like everything I see down in the areas of woundedness, but it's necessary to move through it rather than tip-toe around.

Tell me: what is your process of transformation made of these days?

Much love,
Michael

[jhananda]

Spiritual Crisis

Hello dear friend Michael, while I am sorry to hear about your recent difficulties it is excellent to read that you are finding the experience transformative. I found as I mastered each stage of the 8 stages of contemplation (samadhi) there was a corresponding spiritual crisis that was stimulated, and was needed to negotiate before I could master the next stage of the contemplation (samadhi). Thus, it suggests that a new stage of contemplation (samadhi) will soon open up to you.

The Existential Crisis is the first Spiritual Crisis, and it typically puts us onto a spiritual journey.


The pursuit of bliss brings about the second stage of the Spiritual Crisis


The Dark Night of the Soul is the second stage of the Spiritual Crisis.


The descent into hell, is the third stage of the Spiritual Crisis


Meditation induced psychosis is the Fourth Stage of the Spiritual Crisis.


There are 4 more spiritual crisis to come

[Michael Hawkins]

I'm guessing elements of the fourth crisis are in play right now, amplified by physical phenomena known as "pain." Very different from earlier crises, in that there is ample trust that things are moving through, even without obvious signals that this would be true. The body is not as young as it used to be....

[Karen]

Thanks Jeffrey -- I just watched these 4 helpful and insightful videos... do you have videos for the final 4 stages of spiritual crisis?

Warmly, Karen

[jhananda]

Thank-you Karen, for posting your support for my videos. Yes, I plan to post videos on the immaterial attainments and the spiritual crises that they can bring about. However, there are so few people who meditate skilfully even at the level of the four jhanas, that my focus has been to build a community that is well-established in the 4 material attainments before putting much effort in describing the immaterial attainments, which can seem just too fantastic for people to read about.

[Nick]

In a similar spot myself. My outer actions (job, friendships ect) where no longer congruent with what I inwardly felt and knew. I knew for some time that a realignment had to occur, but after thrusting myself out of habitual job into somewhat chaotic scrapping by existence I am finding the transition chaotic and disorienting.

In particular I am having trouble establishing myself in a vocation that is congruent with my deeper self. Many of the barriers to this are societal and cultural, others are actually deep inner barriers of my own doing. I'm afraid to commit, I've grown comfortable in a false and wrong habits because sometimes its just feels so hard to push through to the other side. I'm sometimes lazy and a major bliss seeker and I avoid using will power and determination to succeed, I'd much rather rest in deep space. My biggest barrier to commiting is a fear I have of it all being futile and a desperate waste of time and energy. Time and energy I could have instead spent in blissful meditation.

The more I contemplate our society the more I realize there really are a great number of other potential other evolutionary tracks our society could have taken. The one we seem to have gone down is appalling on so many many levels. We as a country seem so utterly materialistic and so convinced of its correctness that it is nauseating. Nothing but money is sacred here and one only needs to rattle the walls of its confinement system to realize just how serious we are about making everyone participate in the giant earth destroying ponzi scheme that is the sacred american economy.
I am so conflicted over what to do with these thoughts, run, hide, fight it, just meditate and ignore it?
I know from a larger view societal systems come and go, and few of them are perfect, yet within each one we still have to negotiate our own standards of right livilehood. So my struggle for now is trying to understand what is the best right livilihood that I can uphold, and can I step up and actually meet the challenge.

[jhananda]

Nick, part of the spiritual crisis is recognizing that something on one's life must change, then doing whatever is necessary to change it. The rigorous contemplative life is radically different from mainstream life, because mainstream life is all about materialism; whereas the rigorous contemplative life is about radical self-awareness. It requires dedication and transformation. But, be kind to yourself as you move through the necessary changes. And, never forget to meditate every day, several times a day to the ecstasies, because that will help you through the necessary lifestyle changes.