Eternal life

“There is a phase where we transition from a “personal” viewpoint–with all its personal will, motivations, and driving energy—to a way of being moved by the wholeness of Life which lacks the personal will, personal motivations, and personal energy. This is a massive transition, and part of this transition involves going through a plateau phase where the personal viewpoint is mostly dead and the wholeness of Life has not yet started to function through/as you in an obvious way.

During this plateau phase it can be very challenging to engage in life in the ways that are necessary. However, it is important to do the things that are necessary even though there is no personal energy or motivation to draw upon. As strange as this may sound, you function from a place of no energy and no drive. You simply do what you truly need to do without drawing upon any inner source of will or motivation. During this phase you are literally being weaned off of all forms of self-consciousness and the various forms of motivation and energy that self sustains itself with.

The danger is that some people become stuck in this no-man’s-land. They keep reaching back for something that is no longer there, and never learn to function from a place beyond self. They have unknowingly grasped onto and become stuck in the limbo state between self hollowed-out and self fallen-away. Either that happens, or what is left of self can hide away in a false rejection of society and life as a subtle means of sustaining itself.

While it is important to give yourself time to be still and silent (and unproductive) during this phase, it is also important not to become stuck in a non-functional state. The key is to stop looking at what is no longer there, which is a subtle form of self-consciousness, and experience Life from Life’s point of view, which is neither an “inner” experience nor an outer expression, but a non-relative knowing of Eternity here and now. This is of course, completely nonconceptual, nongraspable, and nonunderstandable until it has taken place—and self in all its subtle manifestations has fallen away.

Then there is an adaptation to a new way of being, and life goes on with great simplicity and beauty, and is lived by a totality that the mind can never know. While this may not sound compelling to the ego, it is quite literally, Eternity experiencing itself—timelessly.

And still, one is as unimpressive as they ever were.
Sitting here at home in a faded T-shirt,
typing words into an empty screen
in a world where nothing ever happened.
Strange how we keep meeting like this.
And still such joy,
Such joy.”

~ Adyashanti

Experiencing No Self Study Course