Talk:Adyashanti

What Might Be Done Here?

Before logging in (from IP address 74.171.214.232), I made some changes to the Adyashanti article to tidy it up a bit. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of any of the text since my only knowledge of the fellow comes from watching his videos. In addition, my knowledge of Wikipedia techniques is rather spotty. This Wikipedia page would benefit from the services of somebody more qualified than me. Accordingly, then, I have opened up this Talk:Adyashanti page to encourage discussion of what might be done. Timothy Campbell (talk) 15:02, 21 December 2009 (UTC)

Direct path vs. progressive path

This article incorrectly defines enlightenment according to Adyashanti as indifference. This directly contradicts the teaching, for instance found here:

"It is a very subtle egoic trap; it's a fixation in the absolute and all unconscious form of attachment that masquerades as liberation. It can be very difficult to wake someone up from this deceptive fixation because they literally have no motivation to let go of it. Stuck in a form of divine indifference, such people believe they have reached the top of the mountain when actually they are hiding out halfway up its slope". ( Selling Water by the River )

Adyashanti teaches a direct path to enlightenment. The difference between views of enlightenment on progressive and direct paths can be explained with the following analogy.

Suppose you are a smoker who wants to quit and become a non-smoker. Some people will teach you that in order to reach the full freedom from smoking that a non-smoker enjoys, you will have to stop and then endure cravings, irritability and other forms of suffering in order to become a non-smoker. Non smokers never crave cigarettes. They can enjoy a meal without the need to have a cigarette afterwards. They never feel tempted to smoke. So when does the smoker who wishes to become a non smoker, actually achieve this? He or she cannot be certain. After five years, the temptations may be very few and far between. They may last for only a fraction of a second. But remember, a non-smoker never feels this kind of temptation. And so he or she is not yet a non-smoker. Ten years may pass, twenty years... How can one know for sure that one has become a non smoker? Perhaps it has been years since one thought of smoking, but can one really know for sure that such temptations will never arise in the future? Can one be sure that one has really become a non smoker? This is the progressive path to non-smoking. It is a long and painful path, and most fail miserably.

Then you have the direct path to becoming a non smoker. All that is required on this path is to realize two things: a) Smoking has ZERO benefits, mental or physical. b) The craving for a cigarette is not a need one is born with, it is created by smoking. Smoking, then, gives no pleasure, it merely alleviates the cravings caused by smoking. Once one has had this realization, one puts the cigarette out, as there is no reason to continue doing it. Hurra! One is now a non smoker. Yes, yes, there may be some residual habitual patterns (karma) that still needs to run their course. There may be the occasional thought about lighting another cigarette. But once you have put the cigarette out and decided never to smoke another, you are truly a non smoker, and as more time passes, the old habitual thought patterns will die out. This direct path to becoming a non smoker is called Allen Carr's easyway, and it has a success rate of more than 90%

So, when has enlightenment occurred? When you have realized the truth, or when that truth has impacted every fiber of the body/mind phenomenon to the extent that, for instance, anger will never arise again? In the direct path, enlightenment occurs when one directly perceives the truth of no-self and emptiness. There may be some residual karma that needs to run its course. Enlightenment can always deepen in that the body/mind phenomenon becomes more and more attuned to the truth (like the non smoker in the example above). On the progressive path, how can one know that enlightenment has occurred? Perhaps you have lived 30 years without getting angry, and you have realized non-self and emptiness and think enlightenment has occurred. But then, something happens and anger arises, and you weren't enlightened after all :) Enlightenment is what you truly are to begin with. Your real nature. It is not some glorious state of mind that you "attain". All states of mind arise and pass away. Enlightenment in the direct path is NOT a state of consciousness. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 46.9.230.236 (talk) 18:28, 15 September 2013 (UTC)

The above is a worthy effort. It appears to be correct on the mental narrative of the mind. I'd offer when one directly *sees* the composite sensations of narrative thoughts, feelings and emotions that make up the repeating cycle of smoking, then that's a start. Depending on what works best for the individual there can then be a natural diving into and rooting out of the sensations in consciousness. The "directness" is in the new perspective that does not reactively interpret the constituent sensations as one's own desire to smoke (identification), rather it can see the bodily and subtle sensations with a varying degree of freedom from the rote interpretation. This appears to be a key step in what makes the dissolution from directness possible. 67.232.68.200 (talk) 23:35, 10 August 2014 (UTC)DAK