The Toltec Nagual

Becoming a Self-Realized Being

2008-02-21T11:48:00.002-07:00

Self-realization is a term many use. However, what exactly does self-realization mean? In this article, I will give a definition of self-realization and follow with what steps we need to take to become self-realized.

Self-realization is the state of complete alignment of the personality self to the Authentic Self or Divine Self.

To understand this, we must have awareness of our connection to Authentic Self, what the personality self consists of, and what it means to align the personality self to the Authentic Self.

The Authentic Self is referred to by different names such as the Higher Self, the Essential Self, the Soul Self, the Identity, and others. It is the Self that comes into body when we come into physicality. As we master the art of awareness, we become increasingly aware of this aspect of who we are, which is eternal. In the beginning of our spiritual quest, the Authentic Self communicates with us through deep urgings. These urgings motivate us to embark on a spiritual quest in whatever form that may be for us at the time. The Authentic Self may also urge us to make life decisions such as a career change, a relationship change, and so forth.

Through focusing, strengthening and expanding our awareness of both our personality self and Authentic Self, our communication with the Authentic Self becomes clearer. When we become more advanced in the work, the Authentic Self gives us essences, or unstructured energy impulses for us to align our personality self to. Therefore, what does it mean to align the personality self?

The personality self consists of three bodies of structure, the mental, the emotional and physical bodies. Each body has a different function and purpose. We also have unstructured bodies such as the energy body, the intuitive body, the casual body and so on. However, when aligning to the Authentic Self we must begin with the three bodies of structure.

In simple terms, to align means to adjust our thoughts (mental body), our feelings (emotional body), and actions (physical body) to the Authentic Self. For example, if you have an urge to do something that seems more harmonious with your spiritual path you align the human personality to it. Specifically, you think thoughts that are in alignment with the urge. You feel feelings that are in alignment with the urge. Then you take physical actions that are in alignment with the urge.

The more you do this the stronger the connection and communication will be from your Authentic Self. As you advance on your path and are able to have awareness of direct essences from the Authentic Self, and you continually align the mental, emotional and physical bodies to these essences, your structured, personality self begins to become one with your Authentic Self. As your personality self aligns to your Authentic Self, your life manifests in alignment to your Authentic Self. When complete alignment occurs, you are Self-Realized. You realize your Authentic Self completely in your personality self and in your life. For those who are on a Toltec Path, this state is called "burning from the fire within." Your Authentic Self completely transforms your personality self, sometimes called by the Toltecs your human tonal, in total alignment with who you are at your energetic core. At your energetic core lies your Divine Self. You and your Divine Self become one and you become self-realized.

As you go about your day, recall those deep desires, those urgings from within that compel you to heal, grow, develop and evolve. Those urgings come from your Divine Self. Align your thoughts, feelings and actions to those desires and urgings. As you do so, the path of self-realization will open to you.

The Land of Truth

2008-02-05T18:33:00.000-07:00

"A certain man believed that the ordinary waking life, as people know it, could not possibly be complete.

He sought the real Teacher of the Age. He read many books and joined many circles, and he heard the words and witnessed the deeds of one master after another. He carried out the commands and spiritual exercises which seemed to him to be most attractive.

He became elated with some of his experiences. At other times he was confused; and he had no idea at all of what his stage was, or where and when his search might end.

This man was reviewing his behavior one day when he suddenly found himself near the house of a certain sage of high repute. In the garden of that house he encountered Khidr, the secret guide who shows the way to Truth. (In Sufi lore, Khidr is also known as ‘the green one’. Green is the color of compassion).More...

Khidr took him to a place where he saw people in great distress and woe, and he asked who they were.

'We are those who did not follow real teachings, who were not true to our undertakings, who revered self-appointed teachers,' they said.

Then the man was taken by Khidr to a place where everyone was attractive and full of joy. He asked who they were. 'We are those who did not follow the real Signs of the Way,' they said.

'But if you have ignored the Signs, how can you be happy?' asked the traveler.

'Because we chose happiness instead of Truth,' said the people, 'just as those who chose the self-appointed chose also misery. '

'But is happiness not the ideal of man?' asked the man.

'The goal of man is Truth. Truth is more than happiness. The man who has Truth can have whatever mood he wishes, or none,' they told him. 'We have pretended that Truth is happiness, and happiness Truth, and people have believed us, therefore you, too, have until now imagined that happiness must be the same as Truth. But happiness makes you its prisoner, as does woe. '

Then the man found himself back in the garden, with Khidr beside him.

'I will grant you one desire,' said Khidr.

'I wish to know why I have failed in my search and how I can succeed in it,' said the man.

'You have all but wasted your life,' said Khidr, 'because you have been a liar. Your lie has been in seeking personal gratification when you could have been seeking Truth.'

'And yet I came to the point where I found you,' said the man, 'and that is something which happens to hardly anyone at all. '

'And you met me,' said Khidr, 'because you had sufficient sincerity to desire Truth for its own sake, just for an instant. It was that sincerity, in that single instant, which made me answer your call.'

Now the man felt an overwhelming desire to find Truth, even if he lost himself.

Khidr, however, was starting to walk away, and the man began to run after him.

'You may not follow me,' said Khidr, 'because I am returning to the ordinary world, the world of lies, for that is where I have to be, if I am to do my work. '

And when the man looked around him again, he realized that he was no longer in the garden of the sage, but standing in the Land of Truth." (ldries Shah, Thinkers of the East, pp. 66-67.)

This story illustrates one of the fundamental ways people get tripped up on their spiritual path. A spiritual path is a path of Authenticity – leading to your Authentic Self, which is the truth of who and what you are.

In the story, Khidr returns to the world of lies. The world of lies is where the average person lives. In Toltec terms the world of lies is the dream of the planet or the world of mass consciousness. The average person lives in a world of lies. They know of no other world. They were lied to from the time they understood words. They were taught to disregard their true feelings, to suppress them and put on a smiley face when they were really weeping inside.

By the time they are in their teens the average person has mastered the art of lying to themselves. They fear the truth. They fear that they may not like what they see in themselves. They master the art of avoidance and denial. The problem is that, to the extent we avoid and deny how we feel or what we see in ourselves, we cut ourselves of from our Authentic Self.

No one wants to hear the truth. When someone greets you with, “How are you doing today?” they don’t want to hear “I’m feeling down and my head hurts.” They expect you to lie and say, “Great!”.

People have a great fear of the truth. They fear that the truth will show them their weaknesses. They fear the truth will be painful. The truth can be painful, but through the pain comes healing.

Pain is different from suffering. The truth may be painful, but it also has the power to set you free from pain. Suffering, on the other hand, is caused by lies. The lies disconnect you from your Authentic, True Self and you cannot help but suffer.

When you are disconnected from Self you are in ego. Ego, as I have discussed before, is the body of pretension. It pretends it is something it is not. The truth is you can never be disconnected from Self, the whole of Who you are. However, ego pretends you are separate from Self, and thus you suffer.

The ego constantly tries to mimic the Authentic, True Self. The ego is not capable of true Love, for example. Only the Authentic Self is capable of love. So, instead the ego tries to mimic love, but is only capable of co-dependency, accompanied by jealousy, competition, fear of loss and so on. The ego causes suffering, and then convinces you that the way out of suffering is the pursuit of happiness. Happiness is no more than a temporary state. One morning you may wake up happy. The next morning you wake up melancholy.

The way out of suffering is connection to your Authentic, or True Self. They only way to connect to your Authentic Self is through the truth. As ego is based on the lie of pretension, if you live in the Land of Truth, the ego must die. The ego knows this and will fight for its survival in everyway it can. One of the most common ways for the ego to survive is to convince you that you must pursue happiness over the truth. As the truth does not always make you feel happy, you avoid the truth and the ego has one the battle.

It is important to make a distinction here between individuality and separateness. We are meant to be individual. This is why we come into body. While in body we can bump into each other. We have our own hair and skin color. We look different. We have different characteristics in our personalities. And, most importantly, we come into body with different pieces of the karmatic pie of humanity to work through. Due to individuality, our Soul, or Dreamer in Toltec terms, is able to focus an entire lifetime on one aspect of the karma it needs to refine. It can only do this through individuality. Individuality does not exist on the level of our Dreamer or Soul. Our Dreamer lives in a collective state, bordering on the state of oneness.

To further understand the difference between individuality and separateness we can look at one of our fingers. Our left index finger is individual. It has its own fingerprint and while it looks similar to our right index finger it has many differences. Both the right and left index fingers are connected to something larger, however. They are connected to our body. Each finger has an Intent and Purpose for the bigger whole of the body.

If we were to cut off one of our fingers, it would be separate from our other fingers and our body. This is the state of separation – the state of ego. In its separate state the finger can no longer fulfill its purpose for the body. The finger suffers and the body is in pain.

The same is true for you. In the state of individuality you are connected to other human beings through the greater Soul that you are. Through living in the state of individuality you come to know your purpose for this lifetime. As you live from your Authentic Self, you no longer suffer. You are consciously connected to the whole of Who you are.

The ego, on the other hand, puts you in the state of separation. As the Authentic Self can only come through in the truth, the only way the ego can survive is to convince you that you are separate from the Authentic Self. Instead of pursuing truth, it will have you pursue feeling good, or being happy.

Coming to know the truth is much bigger, and deeper than the temporary state of happiness. This doesn’t mean that by pursuing truth you will not be happy, you will. You will also come to know the state of bliss that vibrates much higher than happiness.

As teachers and guides, one of Kalyn and my primary roles is to bring you to the truth. Many so called teachers try to make their students happy or feel good. A spiritual path is not about the pursuit of feel good. It is about coming to know and live from your Authenticity, the Higher Self that you are and expressing that all the way through your life.

So ask yourself, ‘what is my real Intent in this situation?’ ‘Am I trying to find happiness, or am I pursuing the truth?’ The former will keep you in ego. The later will connect you to your Higher Self. The former leads to suffering. The latter, Living in the Land of Truth will set you free.

Love and Light,

Kristopher

The Mastery of Awareness Online Course

Leave Struggle Behind

2008-01-26T15:36:00.000-07:00

A spiritual path is not meant to be a struggle. It is the most difficult thing you will ever do, but it need not be a struggle. If you are struggling, it simply means you are choosing to align to oldpatterns, old fragments, old personalities, instead of aligning toyour Authentic Self.

Many people get discouraged and tired of struggling. Stop struggling.Instead, shift to what is real in self and embrace what is in front ofyou. Every morning, when you wake up stop – stop and go deep. Don’tjump up and rush around trying to get ready for your day. Stop andmove into what is important in your life. Move deep into your bigger hopes, dreams and desires. If you have a sense of your Life Purpose,find the sensation of that. Feel the bigger picture of your life. Feelthe significance of your life. Intend your day from your depth.

When you do this, life will bring you challenges. But the challenges need not be struggles. They are simply opportunities to grow,strengthen and develop self. Life is your playing field. Use theplaying field to improve your game.

If you find yourself struggling with the same old patterns, it meansyou are in motion, but not movement. It means you are choosing toattach to the old self, instead of embracing the new Authentic you.Stop struggling and embrace the new. Embrace the challenges the newbrings you. Old struggles are boring, and discouraging. New challengesare invigorating and exciting.
A Spiritual Warrior embraces his or her day with excitement andpositive anticipation about what opportunities life will bring themthat day. Embrace change and transformation. Leave the struggle of theold behind. Welcome the new into your life.

Do this and your old struggles will soon become a distant memory.

Love and Light,

Kristopher