The Call to Awaken: Igniting the Flame of Intention [Episode 48]

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

There’s a seemingly paradoxical aspect to the spiritual path—the path of awakening—which is that it requires a very passionate, burning desire to be free, a yearning to break out of the confines of the conventional mind and the constructed self.

The Indian sage Ramana Maharshi used to say, “You have to want enlightenment like a drowning person wants air.” And I think that’s true. The habit energy of our past, of our entire life, is so strong—the momentum so relentless—that unless we want this like we want life itself, it will be very hard to leave that momentum, that habit, that comfort behind for more than a few moments.

But the reason I said it’s a paradox is that if you look at what the practice is, it’s really a practice of not wanting anything—from one point of view, that’s the whole practice. Don’t want anything to be any different than it is. Let it be. So rather than trying to resolve those for you, I’ll just say for now that both are true. You have to want it like a drowning person wants air, and that kind of passion can give you the motivation to really let things be when you’re practicing—to really do it, to go all the way with that absolute inner posture.

Cultivating an Enlightened Motivation

As you may have heard me say, the work of cultivating an enlightened motivation for practice—or the work of clarifying our intention and cultivating a profound intention to awaken—is never done. It’s not as if we do that once, and now we’re finished with our intention and can just rely on it. I’m not saying we should doubt our intention or question our motives, exactly. What I’m saying is that as our practice deepens, as our awakening deepens, that very depth becomes fuel for our intention to strengthen. It gives us more motivation to take our practice seriously—to be ever more wholehearted about it.

I would say the first aspect of cultivating a clear, strong motivation for awakening is recognizing how extraordinary awakening really is—what enlightenment makes possible. We may have had tastes or glimpses of it that help fuel our motivation. But to speak about it for a few moments: the great opportunity of spiritual awakening is that we are opening ourselves to an extraordinary, vast, infinite, sacred dimension of reality and consciousness that is none other than our own true nature—who we really are. We’re opening ourselves to that which unleashes the very evolutionary power of the cosmos into our lives and into the world, through us, as us.

Awakening into Our Most Natural State

It sounds extraordinary, and it is extraordinary—so far beyond the ordinary.

But from another point of view, spiritual awakening is simply opening us up to optimal human functioning, to a completely natural way of being.

It’s based on the recognition that we already have everything we need to function in an effective, powerful, creative, resilient, responsive, agile, generous, caring, wise, intuitive, fluid way. Pardon all those adjectives, but those are just a few. There’s a way of living that’s dynamic and alive, facing the truth, able to meet reality as it comes—to adapt, evolve, and dance with the flow of life, rather than keep getting slammed by it or tripping over ourselves.

There’s this amazing, optimized way of living and being. But our human conditioning, the habit energy of the past, our fixed and erroneous beliefs about reality and ourselves—these get in the way. Our unconscious habits and reactivity get in the way. Our fear, short-sightedness, and self-interest get in the way. Our distorted, biased perceptions and immense cognitive biases and ego defenses—all of these obstruct this remarkable, natural, optimal functioning.

Meditation practice enables us to step out of all that momentum and habit energy. When we do these direct awakening practices, we’re stepping into the unconditioned—the non-habitual, non-reactive dimension of who we are. We’re stepping, in this very moment, out of the world as we’ve known it, out of the self as we’ve known ourselves to be.

And what from one point of view seems a super-ordinary way of being is, from another, simply the most natural. It’s what some Buddhist teachings call our natural state—our true nature. A completely organic, fully functional way of being. That extraordinary possibility is right here, at hand, for all of us. And realizing that can give great fuel to your practice—taking in the recognition that everything could work for you in ways far beyond what you’ve known.

Awakening for the Sake of the Whole

Another dimension of profound spiritual motivation is seeing that potential in the context of where we are as a species right now.

Take a moment to reflect on human ignorance, narrow-mindedness, and short-term self-interest. Scan the globe—or even your own life—and notice how often we human beings act out of unconsciousness, disconnected from this deeper possibility.

That recognition can also give us motivation to awaken. I need to awaken to be part of the solution—to help humanity become an awakened species. A species liberated from the narrow confines of the constructed sense of self, awakened to our wholeness and unity, with all the love, generosity, and wisdom that flow from that. This is what could allow us to solve our global problems and come together beyond our differences.

We can sense this potential. But unless some of us truly awaken and create momentum for spiritual awakening in the world, how will we ever reach that potential? Not just by enacting better policies—though that’s also critically important.

A Noble Responsibility to Awaken

So we reflect on our place in this process as individuals. Each of us here has the precious good fortune to be among the small percentage of humanity with the time, safety, and luxury to devote ourselves to spiritual practice—to participate in the awakening process with all the fruits it brings.

When we really take that in, we may feel a sense of responsibility—a noble obligation to awaken. I know “obligation” isn’t a popular word these days. Nobody wants to feel obliged to anything or anyone. But I’m inviting us to re-embrace that responsibility for the whole, the care for the greater good, and for the potential of human awakening and evolution.

It’s that noble obligation that says, Because I can, I must. As the old phrase goes, “Of those to whom much is given, much is required.” We get in touch with that deeper must, that enlightened “should,” that says: You must awaken. You have the potential. You have the time, the freedom, the luxury, the aptitude. Don’t waste the opportunity.

Life Is Short—Don’t Miss this Rare Opportunity

And that brings us to the final part of motivation for practice: realizing that life is short. We don’t want to come to the end of our lives and realize we spent them on less important things—that we missed the great opportunity to awaken, to become that awakened human being who can manifest those extraordinary capacities and contribute to the evolution of life at a higher level.

Everything I’ve spoken about here—these are reflections worth returning to again and again, throughout our lives. They reignite our motivation to practice fully and wholeheartedly.

So before we meditate, allow yourself to digest all this. Notice which perspectives move you. You don’t have to connect with all of them—just the ones that resonate.

And also notice what else arises in you that I haven’t mentioned—your own deeper why. Let that come to rest in your being as a powerful intention, guiding your practice today and in all the days ahead.

Longing as the Movement of Awakening

Narrator: In our next segment, Craig responds to a question from a listener, illuminating one of the most powerful sources of enlightened motivation we can experience: our intense longing to awaken. Here’s Craig.

The Paradox of Spiritual Longing

Vianno says: “Today you said that if I have even a brief experience of awakened consciousness, then I realize that this existence is miraculous, sacred, divine, perfect—that this moment is full, complete, and there’s nothing missing from it. When I hear this, a deep yearning immediately arises in me to experience awakened consciousness in these terms. But then I realize this is still a projected experience for the future, which doesn’t exist right now. Is awakened consciousness, as you described it, an experience to long for?”

This is a wonderful question, and it gets right to the heart of one of the paradoxes—one of the challenges—of spiritual life. I’m glad to hear that hearing my description of awakening awakens a longing within you.

Sometimes we tend to think that longing is just another form of wanting, as if it’s our ego now wanting this new shiny object it’s heard about called awakening. And it can be that sometimes. But the way you’re describing it—as a longing that’s awakened by hearing this description of awakening—that’s most likely not just another ego drive, like, “Oh great, there’s another thing I get to have for myself.” What you’re describing sounds very much like a genuine longing for awakening, a spiritual longing, and that actually comes from awakening itself.

Longing Is Actually a Spark of Awakening

In other words, we’re used to thinking, I’m this person on a journey to this thing called awakening, and someday I, the same person I am now, will have this great experience of awakening. But that’s not actually how awakening works. It would be more accurate to say that the awakened being that you already are is longing for you to awaken to it.

There was a wonderful book title by the Zen teacher Cheri Huber that captured this beautifully. It was called That Which You Are Seeking Is Causing You to Seek. The point of that is that the longing is coming from a higher dimension of who you are. It’s not your little self longing to get to something out there—it’s that deeper reality longing to be discovered.

The reason I’m highlighting this is because the longing for awakening itself deserves our attention. It’s a seed of awakening. Inherent in the longing is a spark of awakening. We long because something has already woken up.

Transforming Longing Into Practice

You even used the phrase “a deep yearning immediately arises in me.” That’s not you suddenly deciding to want something—that’s something in you waking up. And within that awakening is a kind of gravitational pull toward your higher potential, a deeper knowing of who you are.

We want to fan the flames of that spiritual longing. We do that by letting ourselves feel it fully—by allowing that yearning to deepen and then acting on it. That longing can take you right into very deep meditation. If you let it fuel your meditation—if you sit down filled with that aspirational yearning—it can become a powerful propellant into depth. Because that longing already comes from depth. It’s like a kind of homing beacon.

The Paradox of Longing and Letting Go

The reason I called this a paradox of spiritual life is that in almost every meditation I teach, I’m inviting you not to try to get anywhere other than where you are, and not to try to have any experience other than the one you’re having. The instruction is to fully embrace the moment as it is, to stop trying to get somewhere else.

So we find ourselves in this tension: we’re yearning for profound depth, and at the same time, we sit down to meditate and are asked to give up all yearning, all effort to get anywhere. What do we do with that?

There’s one simple way—and yes, it is a paradox. The thing about spiritual paradoxes is that they ultimately resolve themselves through practice and realization. We begin to see that the longing isn’t separate from awakening.

Activating Awakened Consciousness Right Now

If we look more deeply, we can see that this longing isn’t reaching toward some future—it’s actually the beginning of an awakening to something that’s already here. When you give your attention to that longing, it activates in the present moment. There’s no future in it, not really. But that’s not something the mind can understand—so perhaps I shouldn’t even say more about that.

This is how it resolves: through realization, practice, and direct knowing.

If you want a simpler way to hold it, you can allow your spiritual longing to propel you into meditation—but once you begin the practice, simply do the practice as it’s given. Trust that the instructions are designed to activate awakened consciousness now, in this very moment. If you give yourself fully to the practice right here, right now, it won’t be about getting somewhere else.

Hopefully that helps resolve the question enough for you to practice. Thank you for that really wonderful question—I’m glad I could speak to it a bit.