Science

Waking Down has the potential of being an endevour that uses truly scientific principles. Honest exploration, data before theory/model, etc.

One way to do this is to integrate it/map it onto Ken Wilber's AQAL model. Another is to use a more neutral and/or inclusive terminology.

Marketing

Ways to market Waking Down...

Target group
Those who are ready for it, who have been through or are in the "rot". People who have given up trying to "fix" themselves, who realize that they can never find total fulfillment in life. People who know that we cannot find complete fullfilment through trying to change ourselves. That there is always a sense of something missing. People who are ready for full surrender. For melting into all of themselves, all of their experiences, and find the wholness in it.

Slogans
Have you given up trying to fix yourself? Are you ready to surrender into your own being?

Inclusitivity

I have a strong wish to see Waking Down far more inclusive.

Here are some ways...

• Money
  The current flat fees serve as barriers. Instead of flat fees, use sliding scales for sessions and events. The upper end of the scale can be very high, and people encouraged to pay at the high end if at all possible. Also remind people that if they found it rewarding, then please pay so others can experience something similar in the future. There are many people out there with significant amounts of money who are more than happy to support something they find valuable and believe in - in most cases enough to balance out the several who will pay at the lower end. This will also prevent possible resentment (from those who felt they were forced to pay more than they can afford, or more than what they at the end felt it was worth for them).
  
  
• Terminology
  Use more neutral basic terminology, and include terminology from several different traditions that all point to the same/similar phenomenon. This will help people from different backgrounds orient themselves and feel acknowledged. Using for instance Ken Wilber's maps and insights will help with this process (and the next point).
  
  
• Assumptions
  Use a map of where people may come from, and teachings that acknolwedge the wide span in people's experiences and background. This will help people feel seen.
  
  
• Part of an Integral Practice
  Emphasize that Waking Down is a support for whatever other practices the individuals are currently engaged in. A support for grounding and integration. In addition, it can be the main practice for some, although with support from other elements (yoga, counselling etc).
  

Terminology

If WD is one component in a more comprehensive and integral system of practice/support, then a different terminology may help it fit better in with other components.

• The Rot >> Letting Go
  Related terms: Dark night of the soul/being. Opening up for grace. Letting go of hope.
  Letting go of ideas born from a dualistic/fragmented worldview, that we can "fix" ourselves. Opening for grace, the mystery. "If enlightenment is an accident, then [practice] makes us accident prone."
  
  
• 2nd Birth >> The Shift
  Coming to the body. Allowing the process to take hold, to work on the body on a cellular level, weaving together the relative and absolute.
  
  
• Wakedown/Shakedown >> Adjustment. Reorientation.
  Reorientation to a new way of relating to the world, a new way of being. Adjustment on all levels.
  Allowing the parts born from a different way of being to reorient to a new way of being.
  
  
• Core Wound >> Core Polarity, Basic Polarity.
  
  

Role of WD in an Integral System

From I was first exposed to Waking Down last spring, I have described it in a way that maybe more reflects my own impression of what it can be than what it currently is.

What it can be...

• A framework that anyone from any tradition can use to help with grounding and integration, through down work and mutuality.
  
  
• A support for people indepedent of their current practices.
  
  
• One component in an integral practice that includes...
  (a) Meditation
  (b) Bodyoriented practice (yoga, tai chi, chi gong, breema, etc)
  (c) Physical excercise (aerobic, strength etc)
  (d) Diet
  (e) Mind training (lo jong, R. Cushinr's approach, etc)
  (f) Counselling, therapy
  (g) Interpersonal (NVC etc)
  (h) Social/ecological engagement
  
  Of course, as with any integral practice system, the separate practices need to be mostly mutually consistent/aligned. For instance, it will be difficult to engage in WD while also engage in a mediation practice that is fundamentally escapist.
  

And to move more in this direction, WD may need...

• A more neutral/precise terminology
  
  
• Modifying the way they sometimes refer to other traditions (more accurate and respectful)
  
  
• A further developed map of where people are coming from, and paths/tools suited to each category. Some broad categories: (a) Spiritual seekers. (b) Integration/grounding seekers. (c) Those with little background from anything spiritual. (i) Those aligned and experienced with integration/transdual views/approaches. (ii) Those from a more dualistic background/fragmented views.
  

2nd Birth 4

I have heard several WD folks talk about how they experienced "consciousness" moving from being behind them to right up front/intimate after the 2nd birth. I could not relate to it at the time, except from myself experiencing "consciousness" as right here and intimate.

Earlier today, I remembered that for several years after my own awakening/opening, I did experience my awareness center as "behind" me, in the background. It bothered me, and I remember bringing the experience into awareness to allow it to unfold and become "right here" and intimate. And it did at some point, although I am not quite sure when it happened. It may have been slow enough so I did not notice.

If this is the case, then one part of the 2nd birth may have occured before I encountered Waking Down last spring. The sense of vibrancy and of no separation while being solid in my body came after during the summer and fall. Since I encountered WD and Breema at about the same time, I am not sure which effects to attribute to what...

2nd Birth 3

More experiences/reflections around the 2nd birth...

• For me, it was a gentle shift more than anything else, one that brought a sense of vibrancy and intimacy, of no separation while being body/myself, and of changes on a cellular level that weaves together the relative and absolute (body/consiousness).
  
  
• It seems, maybe more than anything else, to be a support in being in/being body, in being present, in being intimate with the situation. A support that is compatible with any spiritual practice (as long as the practice is compatible with embodyment/integration).
  
  
• I also realize that coming into it with less experience with integration/shadow-work etc. it can be a far more dramatic experience which requires a lot of adjustment and processing (reorientation to a different way of being).
  
  
• And I realize that it seems to be the first phase/step of a long process - of bringing areas into awareness that needs healing, of deepening my experience with the relative and absolute, and the relationship between the two (expressions of the same).
  

Teachers

Saniel was a student of Adi Da for many years, and I looked up Adi Da for the first time today.

According to Ken Wilber, Adi Da's teachings are among the most profound in modern times. At the same time, Adi Da has issues and blindspots on a personal level that leads to meltdowns and controversies. It seems to be the old Guru Disease, where the realized person is not willing to admit to the hang-ups and unresolved issues we all have. And when these come out, they are seen as "crazy wisdom" and teachings...

There is obviously a time/place for genuine crazy wisdom, but selectively (not habitually and for large groups of people). Today, and in the west, it seems more appropriate to emphasize ethical relationships, respect, and especially honesty about personal hangups.

In the case of the Guru Disease, there may be an abstract idea of "perfection" that both the teacher and the students cling to, so when hangups come out they are seen as "enlightened teachings". And there must be a poor understanding of the fact that realization does not automatically heal all the issues we all have on a personal level (especially emotional).

It is interesting to see that Adi Da and Saniel both renounced the tradition they practiced in, see themselves as "self-realized", and both present their teachings as independent of other traditions... (a little blindspot there?). Saniel is obviously reacting to many of the problems in Adi Da's approach, both in a healthy way (emphasizing down work and mutuality) and unhealthy ways (reactive, as outlined earlier).

Differences

There are some differences and similarities between Waking Down and other approaches...

• Similarities
  The intention of Waking Down is similar to that of many other traditions: awakening and embodyment/grounding/integration.
  
  
• Difference
  There is a difference in the almost cellular changes that happen in Waking Down - almost effortlessly and just by "stepping into the WD stream" (and again, it seems besides the point to put others down for not having this, it is not for lack of wanting/trying).
  

This experience, of the difference being (a) the stepping into the stream quality, and (b) the cellular change (detailed work weaving together the relative and absolute), is similar to my experience during the first weekend in Portland last spring.

Shakedown?

Another area that needs healing, and this may be connected to the "shakedown"...

A sense of profound exhaustion that I have pushed aside in the past. I am not sure where it is comming from, but seems to have started early in childhood (at least by school age), and has to do with not relaxing into the body/being.

I have often been fighting the exhaustion, instead of allowing myself to relax into it. And give it an opportunity to heal through letting go of resistance and allowing it to be more fully experienced.

2nd Birth 2

The descriptions earlier are in a way accurate, but I have thought of how to describe it in a way that is more close to my own experience and with my own words. Here is an attempt...

• I still experience mind as luminous, clear, spacious, beyond dualities (the ground/absolute)
• The second birth phenomena seems to be more related to the relative. It seems like a fine and detailed work in the cells, bringing my awareness closer into the body. There is a sense of smoothness, warmth, sensual vibrancy, aliveness - very close to my awareness. Something coming from/in/being my body and surroundings. A sense of intimacy, of no separation while still being very much myself. It is in the realm of the relative, but finely weaving the absolute and relative closer together.
  

The difference to my previous experiences may be...

Previously, I experienced the mind (the clear, luminous ground) as transforming body. All the cells were light, "refined", brought closer to the absolute. In a way, it was a "hijacking" of the body into light, transparency. There was an embodyment and integration, in a particuar way.

This is different. Mind is mind and body is body, but there is a transformation taking place that weaves the two togheter in a very fine and detailed way. It allows the body to just be body, while weaving the relative and the absolute finely together. It is a different embodyment and integration.

Process

As far as I understand, a typical process is rot > second birth > shakedown. It seems that I went through a similar process in my teens: rot (profound isolation and nothing to hold onto) > transdual awakening/opening > reconfiguration (felt that I was taken apart and put together in a new way, aligned with the new way of being).

My second birth (if that is what it is), was a "soft landing"... No or little rot, no or little shakedown. I may have gone through much of the rot and shakedown already, although I know there are many more layers that needs to be aligned and worked through (and come to think of it, my time in Wisconsin may qualify as a rot).

2nd Birth

After the experience (with Sean) in the fall, I felt a shift. For several days, there was a strong experience of consiousness in me and my surroundings, of everything coming alive. It was a bubble that travelled with me as I moved around. The strength of the experience wore off, but what was left was...

• A sense of consiousness as timeless, right here now, being my body and surroundings, and vibrant and alive
• Intimacy with myself and my surroundings, a sense of no separation while being very much myself
• A deep sense of grounding and integration - of consciousness and body merging in every cell in my body
• A deep sense of relaxation, that it allows me to relax and merge into myself and my surroundings, again while being very much my self and independent
• That it seems "permanent", there is no sense that it will go away
  

This may be the 2nd birth they talk about. One the one hand, there are no bells and whistles, it seems very ordinary. On the other hand, it is also extraordinary.

Concerns & Alternatives

Hi [Waking Down teacher],

Good to hear from you as well...! Here are some thoughts for now - reflecting my own experience (which is based on my own history, hang-ups etc. and nothing "absolute"). I know that some of my concerns have been addressed already such as "core wound".

Terminology

My main concern is overdramatization. It seems that some terms used in Waking Down are more dramatic than they need to be, and thus bring attention to themselves rather than the processes they point to. I would be more comfortable with a terminology that is more neutral and bring less attention to itself. Ironically enough, this would be a terminology that I experience as more grounded...!

Examples:

• Core wound
  This term seems to indicate something that was healthy, now is "wounded", and can be healed, instead of pointing to a polarity that is just a part of human existence. Core mystery is a term that I am more comfortable with.
  
  
• Hypermasculinity
  This term seems a little charged and judgmental to me. It is also somewhat impresise or vague. I am not sure if I understand well what is meant by hypermasculinity, so my alternative here may be a little off. I would be more comfortable with something like "blind duality" (this term may be seen as a little judgmental as well!). Blind duality points to a fragmented and alienating worldview, where we identify with one part of existence (the good or ideal) and try to change the rest to conform, instead of just relaxing into it and transforming our relationship with it.
  
  
• The Rot
  I am more OK with this one, although the phrase "dark night of the being" hits home better for me.
  
  

My other concerns may have more to do with Saniel's particular approach. I have not seen this so much in other Waking Down folks.

Overgeneralizations

I have some concerns when someone puts other traditions down, or take aspects of some traditions and generalize to all traditions. If we are truly comfortable with our own path and realizations, this does not seem necessary. Instead, it is possible to just point to the processes that (from the WD perspective) are counterproductive, without identifying them with particular traditions (people will know what you are talking about anyway). Treat other traditions with appreciation and respect, and you are less likely to put people off and more likely to establish a good relationship with them and find mutual appreciation and respect. Where is the mutuality in habitually putting other traditions down?

People's Backgrounds

I feel that the teachings/materials are aimed at people with a particular background (mainly "spiritual seekers" who has been involved with specific traditions from India). My background is somewhat different in several ways, as I have always been seeking grounding and integration (have never been a "spiritual seeker" in the usual sense), and that I have a background in traditions that focus on just grounding and integration - not very different from Waking Down. This brings up an experience for me of not being seen/acknowledged, which can be another obstacle for people new to Waking Down. I know it was/is for me. It may be good to create a "map" that includes a wider range of the possible backgrounds that people may have who come to Waking Down, and then use this map explicitly in the teachings. This will help people appreciate even more the diversity of people attracted to it (and the unique gifts/insights each brings), and help new people feel seen.

This is all that comes up for me now. I'll be happy to have a phone conversation about it as well if that is helpful!

Be well,
Per