une/July 2008
My Mother’s Garden
Muktha Jost
Getting A Grip
Frances Moore Lappé
The Documented Health Risk of
Genetically Engineered Foods
Dr. Jeffrey Bland Interviews Jeffrey Smith
The Emerging Significance of Urban Agriculture
Jody Woodruff
Our Food Future
Scott McGuire
We Need A New Generation of Farmers
Zoë Bradbury
Soft Intentions, Hard Results
Peter Moore
Fitness Training For The Brain
Jim Brown and Molly Brown
Improved Health Through Detoxification
Daniel Smith, ND
Awakening and Embodiment
An Interview with Judith Blackstone
Randall Keller
Reclaiming Our Attention
Guy Finley
Cosmic Calendar
Salina Rain
Awakening and Embodiment
An Interview with Judith Blackstone
By Randall Keller
Judith Blackstone, PhD, an innovative international teacher and writer, is founder of Realization Pro-cess, a method of realizing nondual consciousness that includes psychological and relational healing. Judith has been a meditation practitioner and student of contemplative traditions for over thirty years, studying in both the Hindu and Buddhist traditions. She is on the faculty of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology and of SUNY Empire State College, a regular teacher at Esalen Institute, and a psychotherapist and Realization Process teacher in private practice in NYC and Woodstock, NY. I began working with Judith over a decade ago, when we were both still living in California. I loved her attunement exercises and appreciated the clarity of her written expression. I recently read her latest book and realized it was time to make contact with her again. This interview emerged from one of our email conversations.
I wonder if we might begin, Judith, by sorting a few things out. In your books you speak of the subtle self, of the enlightenment process, and about nonduality and fundamental con-sciousness. How do all of these concepts fit together? Who realizes what, and how does that happen? In other words, from your perspective what is the spiritual journey all about? I have to admit that, after some 40 years on the path myself, I’m still not sure I know.
The word nonduality has been used by various teachers to describe many different kinds of experiences. For me, nonduality is the realization, or the laying bare, of a very subtle dimension of our being. This particular understanding of nonduality is found in some Buddhist teachings such as Mahamudra and Dzog-chen, and in some versions of Advaita Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism in the Hindu traditions.
This subtle dimension of our being is ex-perienced as unified consciousness, pervading our whole body and our environment at the same time. I call this dimension fundamental consciousness or nondual consciousness but it has been referred to in traditional spiritual teachings by many different names. Because we experience fundamental consciousness pervading our whole body, it is the basis of our individual authentic self. I have sometimes called this the subtle self, or the qualitative self. Fundamental consciousness is the essence of our individual being but it is also the essence of all other life. Because we experience fundamental consciousness pervading our body and environment at the same time, it is the basis of our oneness with everything around us.
When we realize nonduality, everything we experience is transparent, or permeable, pervaded by the luminous space of fundamental consciousness. Our own body feels like it is made of empty space, but space that is also rich with the essential qualities of our being, such as the qualities of love and intelligence. When two people attune to fundamental consciousness together, they experience this empty luminous space pervading them both as unity. They also experience resonance between the essential qualities of their being. So for me, the spiritual journey is about becoming more and more open to this underlying, essential dimension of our being. I call it a process, because, although we may enter into suddenly, we can then spend the rest of our lives continuing to open to it throughout our body.
There seem to be an ever-increasing number of self-proclaimed nondual teachers, or at least authors, confidently offering their take on what it means to “awaken.” Many of them suggest that all it really amounts to is shifting our attention to awareness itself, the always present background of awareness, and recognizing that that is what we are. Isn’t there more to it than this?
Nondual realization can be described as con-sciousness becoming conscious of itself. So it is a shift to experiencing consciousness along with the contents of consciousness. Some teachers are saying that all we need to do in order to realize nonduality is to become alert to the present moment. This has led some students and teachers alike to understand nonduality as alertness to the present moment. But our ordinary alertness to the moment is not necessarily the very subtle consciousness that is the essence of our being. In order to access this fundamental consciousness, we need to be open throughout our entire being, not just alert to the world around us. For example, we have to open our hearts. For most of us, this means addressing specific constrictions in our hearts that we created in response to painful or confusing events in our childhood. If we do not address the constrictions in our being, then the alertness that we bring to the environment is very limited, it is not the subtle, pervasive consciousness of nondual realization.
In your work, you emphasize the importance of bringing our attention into the core of the body, and of awakening not only the head and heart areas, but the solar plexus, pelvic region as well. What is it about inhabiting the body in this way that’s so important?
There is a subtle channel that runs through the vertical core of the torso, neck and head. It is called Sushumna in the Hindu yogic system, and the “central channel” in Buddhism. In order to realize nonduality, we not only have to bring our attention to this core of our body, we have to enter into it, to live within it. It is our entranceway into fundamental consciousness. In this way, nondual realization, the transcendence of the separate self, is based on deep inward contact with oneself. I emphasize awakening fundamental consciousness within one’s whole body. This is another way of saying that, as fundamental consciousness, we inhabit the internal space of our whole body. So it is not just the head, heart and pelvic region that we need to inhabit, but the entire body. By inhabiting our body, we also attune to the essential qualities of our being. For example, we can experience the quality of love when we deeply inhabit our chest; we can experience the quality of power when we deeply inhabit our mid-section.
The world situation today is desperate in countless ways, and seems to call for immediate action. But a deeper analysis of the problems confronting us suggests that the underlying issues are fundamentally spiritual in nature. For example, we Americans literally won’t be able to stop consuming a disproportionate amount of the world’s resources until we realize that the emptiness we’re trying to fill can only be satisfied by a deep connection with our true essence. But for most of us, reconnecting with Being is itself a life’s work and requires most of our time and attention. How would you frame this seeming dilemma, and how would you address it?
I think that along with spiritual practice, there has to be specific education about how we are abusing our planet. We need to have our consciousness raised in this particular way. Spiritual realization can help quite a lot, but it is not, I believe, sufficient by itself to resolve the world’s problems. In fact, some spiritual teachings can have the opposite effect, by encouraging passivity in the guise of receptivity, and apathy disguised as detachment.
Of course, true spiritual maturity is also very important. With the correct guidance, attunement to essence (to fundamental consciousness) does not take very long, even though it is a life’s work to continue to expand this realization. As soon as we have even an initial taste of essence as an actual experience, we begin to know our basic kinship with all other life. Then there is an automatic upwelling of compassion for people in pain or need that can be channeled into action.
Randall Keller has, for the past decade or so, been involved in the both the Hakomi and nondual worlds, seeking the bridge between psychological maturity and spiritual awakening. His most recent essay, “Hakomi as a Nondual Method,” can be found at the Transformation Pathways website. He is also a short story writer and visual artist. He makes his home in Grants Pass. Judith Blackstone is author of Living Intimately: A Guide to Realizing Spiritual Unity in Relationships; The Subtle Self: Personal Growth and Spiritual Practice; and The Empathic Ground: Intersubjectivity and Nonduality in the Psychotherapeutic Process. Her book The Enlightenment Process: A Guide to Embodied Spiritual Awakening was reissued in May 2008. Judith will give a presentation at the UCC Congregational Church, 717 Siskiyou Blvd. in Ashland, Oregon on July 25 at 7pm and will offer her Embodiment Training July 26-31. Contact Transformation Pathways at (541) 482-1714, or visit www.transformationalpathways.com.
Realization Process Exercises
Direct Perception in Nondual Consciousness
Sit upright with your eyes open. Feel that you are inside your whole body at once. Mentally find the space outside of your body, the space in the room. Experience that the space inside and outside your body is the same continuous space. It pervades you. Experience that the space that pervades our body also pervades the other people and objects in the room and the walls of the room. Stay in your whole body as you experience this.
Experience that all the sounds you hear are occurring in the stillness of nondual consciousness, without altering the stillness. The space itself is hearing the sounds. You do not have to listen in order to hear. You can receive the sounds without any effort. Experience that you are hearing with your whole body and mind.
Now allow everything that you see to just be in the space of nondual consciousness, without disturbing or altering the space. Experience that the space that pervades your whole body also pervades your eyes. Your visual field relaxes and becomes one with nondual consciousness. Experience that the space itself is doing the seeing. You do not have to look in order to see. You can receive the visual images without any effort. Experience that you are seeing with your whole body and mind.
You can practice this in front of a moving object, such as a flickering candle or steam rising from boiling water. Experience the stillness of nondual consciousness without disturbing it. The sights and sounds emerge directly out of nondual consciousness. You are seeing and hearing with your whole body and mind.
Partners Core-to-Core Attunement
Sit facing each other, with your eyes open. (Both partners follow the instructions at the same time.)
Find the center of your head. Now look at each other across the distance between you—be aware of the space between you. Find the center of your head again. From the center of your head, find the center of your partner’s head. Do not leave your own head to do this.
From the center of your head, find the center of your chest, deep in the core of your body. (You can now let go of your awareness of the center of the head.) Staying in your chest center, look at each other (make eye contact) across the distance between you. Find your chest center again. From your own chest center, find your partner’s chest center. Be careful not to come out of your own chest center to do this.
Find the center of your head again. From the center of your head, find your pelvic center, an inch or two below your navel, in the core of your body. Staying in your pelvic center, look at each other across the distance between you. Find your pelvic center again. From your own pelvic center, find your partner’s pelvic center.
Now with all three points: find the center of your head again. Find the center of your head and your chest center at the same time. Find the center of your head, your chest center and your pelvic center at the same time. Staying in all three points, look at your partner across the distance between you. Find all three points, in your own body again. From these three points, find the same three points in your partner’s body.
This exercise can be done with any point along the subtle core of the body, including points above the head.
Inhabiting Your Body in Relation to an Imagined Person
Feel that you are in your whole body at once. Breathe smoothly and evenly. Picture your mother in front of you. Feel what happens in your body (in your pelvis, midsection, chest, neck and head) as you picture her.
If part of your body contracts as you picture her, let yourself experience the contraction. Be aware of any emotions or memories that occur as you do this.
Now try to inhabit this part of your body, as you continue to picture your mother in front of you. Attune to the essential quality (pelvis-gender, midsection-power, chest-love, throat-voice, or head-understanding) of this part of your body.
Dissolve the image of your mother. Feel that you are inside your whole body at once; make deep internal contact with yourself. Attune to the quality of your self in your whole body.
