There are countless levels of consciousness. No one lives on one level permanently, it shifts and moves, but more or less we have most of our experiences on a stage of awareness to which we are most habituated.

Within this stage we strive to be happy and to avoid suffering. And we also strive to evolve to higher stages to avoid the typical suffering we encounter in our stage and eventually get to what we call enlightenment or salvation or the peace that is beyond understanding.

First let’s look at the particular stage you are on. There is a spectrum of good experiences and bad experiences, of happy and sad, of peace and war. And all this happens on this same stage of consciousness. It’s the world of duality and we’re quite caught in it.

Now if you observe yourself closely you may find that when you get too low down you seek to elevate your consciousness because the higher your awareness is, the less you suffer. So with therapy or a vacation or a pill or by making some changes you make yourself more comfortable and then you feel better and your great desire for change is satisfied for a while – until something else happens and you get unhappy again. In this way you stay within your habitual range.

We can also observe that when we get happier than our customary state, we sabotage our happiness and create pain for ourselves. You may remember a thought like: “This is too good; it can’t last,” and sure enough it doesn’t because in some unconscious ways you call pain into your life again. Or you may have noticed that you are saying something to your partner and you have the thought, “Why am I saying this? I know where this leads, this leads to a fight and I don’t want a fight!” Nevertheless the words come out of your mouth and two minutes later you are embroiled in your fight. You get the pain you were unconsciously seeking. Then you make up and all is well again, until the next time.

This is what we call the pain body, the unconscious desire for pain.  It is a strange compulsion or addiction, an enchantment not unlike a curse and every one has it. It is bewildering but very real. Everyone has a pain body and if you are lucky enough to know about it that means that you have a chance to get free of it. With most people it is completely unconscious.

After the pain body takes over and you have created some pain for yourself you’re back on your habitual level of consciousness and your ego feels well because now it doesn’t have to stretch and grow and it gets to stay with the way it’s been which is the most important thing for egos.

So most of the things people do, maybe 98% of it, is designed to make their egos more comfortable. This is very confusing. They say they want enlightenment but they’re on the slow road. They are still feeding their egos by seeking more comfort. Eventually everyone gets enlightened, but unless you address and overcome what keeps you stuck on your habitual level of (dis-)comfort, it may be a long time until you get there.

But what if you’re really getting determined to grow, or even have the idea, the yearning to reach enlightenment and true freedom, the only way to experience true and full happiness? What would you need to do then? Then the search for more comfort would not be enough because the comfort never lasts. It just puts you on one side of the dualities of your life. You would need to transcend your present level of consciousness and in the end transcend all the levels of dualistic consciousness with their mix of pleasure and pain to reach non-dual or unity awareness.

This is a completely different state, outside of duality and therefore free of suffering in a lasting way. This is possible for you. It will take some work but the path-breaking news is that it is possible for you. I say path-breaking here because so many of us have been on a spiritual path for a long time and yet we are mostly busy to stay comfortable with what we know, we stay in our habitual state of consciousness and are not quite sure we want to go into the unknown that scares us, even though that unknown is true happiness.

We have to break that path open and begin to truly liberate our minds and emotions if we want to realize what we have been wanting for a long time perhaps. This is where the Skills for Awakening come in. They are the essence of reaching for true freedom and they are so simple that everyone can use them with a little practice.

with love,

Ram Giri

Skills for Awakening