What Does it Look Like to Live an Awakened Life?

Posted: Friday, February 2, 2024
Meeting: Wednesday, August 9, 2023
Duration: 4min 23sec

Summary

In this short talk, bestselling "letting go" author Guy Finley talks about what it means to wake up from spiritual sleep, which does not include comparing ourselves to what the world says it means to live an awakened life.

Additional Details

Guy: Laura has asked, "What does it look like to live an awakened life?" You know, there's an old story, Laura, I don't know if you've ever heard it. I don't know exactly how it goes. I think it's like a Zen story... you know, someone asks an awakened monk or a master, "So, what did you do before you came into this awakening?" And the master says, "Well, I used to chop wood and carry water." And she says, "Well, what do you do now?" And he says, "I chop wood and I carry water." The thing is - and I would be treading dangerous ground to try to explain what it looks like to not be in a dream - the thing is that you're still "in this world." You're just not "of it" in the same way. And you can't see that. Even the person who has awakened, to whatever extent it's true, doesn't look upon themselves as someone who has awakened. They're just grateful that they have that much less fear. They're just grateful that they understand that there is no end to awakening - that awakening is what the hand of God, what the light of the sun, whatever you want to call it - wakening is what happens every time life touches life. Life awakens life. We're just not in the place where we're awakening, because we're in a world where we are dreaming ourselves into a world. I think if we had eyes to see - and I was alluding to that in the story, Laura, about how in this beautiful valley, that light didn't just come from below, it came from above. Everything emanated it. That is a fact. And everything is involved in that. As opposed to in a dream world where everything is special or not, in an awakened life there is nothing special because everything is. You're not special. You meet a spiritual man or woman who tells you somehow or other they're special, grab your pocketbook and run. So I can't tell you what it looks like to have an awakened life. I can enjoin you, I can invite you, I can urge you - and I will help you as best I can to understand what little understanding I have, and how as an understanding grows, Laura, so does your wish to no longer live in a dream. Before I can wake up from a dream, I have to know I'm in one, don't I? And as long as I'm identified with the dream and what it's promising and the temptation of a time to come, much like "Satan" tempted Christ with all these promises - as long as I have a life like that, I'm in a dream. And Christ himself, even in that instance in scripture, he kept saying, "Not by this, not by that, but by the word of God" - by the light, by the intelligence, by the wisdom of being in direct relationship with what is awakening itself with real life, with real light. That's how I want to live. That's how you want to live, I'm assuming. So let's work at it - and we can work at it together.

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What Does it Look Like to Live an Awakened Life?

Posted by Guy Finley in 459 Galice Road, Merlin, OR 97532 on Friday, February 2, 2024 , and updated on Friday, February 2, 2024 .

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What Does it Look Like to Live an Awakened Life?

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