Self-Realization And Other Awakenings Ed Muzika 1 Self-Realization and Other Awakenings © Copyright 2013, Edward Muzika All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or utilized, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author or publisher, except for brief quotations in critical articles, books, and reviews. First edition published by: We Are Sentience, USA ISBN: 978-0-9847767-3-3 Line-edit and proofing: Lila Sterling Book Layout & Cover Design: Waldo Thompson Additional illustrations: Chrissy Core www.brainflowercreative.com First Edition, February 2013 2 Self-Realization and Other Awakenings Acknowledgments I want to express profound gratitude to Lila Sterling, a most diligent editor, and Waldo Thompson who provided formatting, layout, and expertise in production. Without these two friends and their active encouragement and hard work, this book would not have happened. I also want to express deep appreciation to Chrissy Core for her ever cheerful presence and brilliant work on the diagramming of consciousness. This was a collaborative effort, and there was not anyone who did not offer help in all areas of production. I also want to thank my three muses: again Lila Sterling, Rene, and Deborah Gair, whose easy access to the Subtle Body and direct expression of the feminine has completely changed what and how I teach, from classical Zen and Advaita, to the way of the heart. I dedicate this book to all those who helped write it, and to those who have shaped a new way of teaching. 3 Self-Realization and Other Awakenings We Are Sentience (WAS) is a California religious corporation with a federal 501c3 charity tax status. Its mission is twofold: to support the teachings of the two lineages of Sri Ramana Maharshi/Robert Adams, and Nisargadatta Maharaj/Jean Dunn as interpreted in the converging figure of Ed Muzika, and to function as an animal rescue and preservation organization in Los Angeles. There are about 1,500,000 or more homeless cats living on the streets in Los Angeles, and there are only thousands of people who care for them: providing food, vaccinations and medical care, as well as trapping some and finding homes. Ironically, most people who manage these feral cat colonies are poor themselves, and the sheer burden of caring for 100 homeless cats each nearly exhausts their resources. Ed is a caretaker himself and helps many other colony caretakers with food, medical supplies and veterinary services for several hundred cats. 4 Self-Realization and Other Awakenings In addition, WAS aims to bring Los Angeles shelters to a No-Kill status wherein no healthy animal is euthanized. Currently about 80,000 dogs and cats are euthanized each year in Los Angeles City and County. For more information about the mission of “We Are Sentience”, visit: http://www.wearesentience.com/no-pet-left- behind.html A feral cat colony in Reseda, California. 5 Self-Realization and Other Awakenings Contents Acknowledgments............................................................................3 Introduction......................................................................................9 My Story.........................................................................................14 The First Awakening:...............................................................15 No Self; There is Only One!.....................................................15 Illusion’s Realm.......................................................................26 Robert Adams and I................................................................33 Second Awakening:.................................................................44 That One Is Not Real!..............................................................44 The Absolute, the Void, and Identification..............................50 The Third Awakening: Self-Realization....................................54 Personal Love..........................................................................59 The Self as Other: Self-Realization..........................................68 Conclusions.............................................................................70 The Helicopter................................................................................79 Consciousness Diagram................................................................101 The 100 Room Mansion................................................................105 Things Gurus Don’t Tell You..........................................................124 The Majesty of Self.......................................................................130 Of Energies, Ecstasies and Orgasms..............................................134 Can You Go Naked Before God?....................................................142 More On Robert:...................................................................150 I Am Here for My Students, Not for Me........................................152 6 Self-Realization and Other Awakenings Self-Inquiry: With Affection and Love...........................................154 Love, Surrender and Awakening...................................................160 The Spiritual Processes Around a Guru and Ashram.....................177 Continual Seeking.........................................................................193 Freedom!......................................................................................200 Confessions of a Bhakta ..............................................................211 Awakening in Daily Life, Letter from a Student.............................213 All is Love, All is Self......................................................................219 Faith..............................................................................................220 On Being Comfortable..................................................................228 Have Your Cake and Eat It Too ....................................................233 The Search....................................................................................239 Robert Adams...............................................................................250 A New Way of Teaching................................................................255 The ‘True” Teacher........................................................................261 Ramana, Siddharameshwar and Nisargadatta..............................269 Sex and the Guru .........................................................................276 The Ecstasies of Women...............................................................286 The Difficulty of Awakening..........................................................290 Hunting the I and the Witness......................................................296 Emotional Truth............................................................................305 We Are Also Human Beings..........................................................311 On Guru Concepts and Self-Inquiry..............................................316 More on Being Human..................................................................320 7 Self-Realization and Other Awakenings Role of the Teacher.......................................................................328 Coming Alive to the Whole Self....................................................332 The Void is Not the Absolute; Silence is not the Absolute............341 Who Says the I-Thought is the Ego or Self? .................................347 Creating a New World, One Life at a Time....................................371 Little Red.......................................................................................376 My Evolving "Depression".....................................................379 Well, the Deed is Done. Little Red is Dead...........................383 Strong Emotions, Negative and Positive--a Path to God...............390 Robert Adams II............................................................................396 A Dwarf and a Siddhi.............................................................398 Meeting Ramana.................................................................. 400 Into the Silence.....................................................................401 Exodus.................................................................................. 406 Dimitri...................................................................................412 Our Poem..................................................................................... 416 Ed Muzika Online..........................................................................418 8 Self-Realization and Other Awakenings Introduction You are not who you think you are. You are much, much more than that! You are not just your body or mind. You are not just your emotions, thoughts, images, and dreams. You are more than all your relationships, family ties, career, and loves. You are these but also much, much more. There are rooms within the spiritual mansion which are ‘You’ that have never been explored because from infancy onward, You (and we all) have been educated, indoctrinated, acculturated, and nailed into boxes of social conformity and multiple networks of thought and communication. The world of our senses is really an interpretation of an underlying “real” as experienced through multiple cognitive filters. Both the “real” external world and the “real” Self are far different from what we now experience. This book is about that real world (and real You) which can be experienced and lived in after many of the filters are unlearned. This unlearning is done through various kinds of self-investigations, both through the use of the mind, 9 Self-Realization and Other Awakenings but mostly through exercises, learning how to shift awareness out of the “brain,” thinking and cognition, into the heart. Experiencing the world through the heart's senses reveals a very different ‘You’, your real Self, and a very different world that is far more fluid, far more alive, far more energetic than the relatively flat world most of us live in. This is a world where our bodies, our hearts, and even our minds become drenched in bliss so remarkable that all we can do is swoon and fall to our knees, feeling the ecstatic grace of total self love and love for another. There comes a peace so profound you do not want to move so as to not disturb it. Finally, there may be an inner explosion like an erupting volcano of joy, energies, light and love that reveal the deepest levels of the Self to the 'little self' you had always thought yourself to be. I call this Self- Realization in contrast to the multitude of other kinds of awakenings or enlightenments so much talked about in Eastern and Western spirituality, although these other awakenings are thoroughly explored in this book. Remarkably, you lose nothing in this realization, for you are still much, but not all, of what you were before. You still have a body and mind. You still have relationships with family and other. But you have also found the much larger world of flowing and healing energies of the subtle body and world, as well as a 10