To support your becoming self-reliant and to powerfully and effectively mitigate your existential suffering, all you need is the Simple Reality trilogy and your own inner wisdom (intuition). We assume that you have already embraced Buddha’s First Noble Truth, namely, that life is suffering. Ken Wilbur has given us a model to help us see where we are in the process of awakening.
Translation: In the translation stage you read the content of the Simple Reality trilogy for intellectual comprehension. In doing this you are creating a foundation of understanding that will support a fundamental change (paradigm shift). Then when you choose to begin the actual process of change you are ready for the next step.
Transformation: In the transformation stage, we find the first level of behavioral change. You can support the initial phase of this stage by simplifying your lifestyle, spending more time alone (solitude), and becoming more quiet (silence). Then you continue the transformation process with Insight Meditation. (Begin with a ten-day retreat and annual refreshers as needed.) The “insight” refers to the realization that your true identity is that of the observer focusing on your breath, not that which is being observed (the body, mind or emotions). In this stage you have begun the process of separating P-A from P-B, truth from illusion.
Transcendence: The last stage of the process of the paradigm shift, that of transcendence, is when your whole life becomes a meditation. Using the Point of Power Practice you enter the moment-to-moment process of reconditioning your behavior, choosing response over reaction each time your old survival strategy patterns are triggered.
This is simple behavior modification. You are choosing to live in the present moment rather than with the guilt and shame associated with the “past” or the anxiety associated with the “future.” The difference between the “afflictive emotions” associated with a reaction and the “feeling” associated with a response will be the feedback by which you measure your progress. The energy you used to devote to craving and aversion is now experienced as joy, peace, liberation, happiness and compassion.
Congratulations, you have begun to become present to your natural state as a human being. Keep it up—you can do this!
