The surrender of the drop to the ocean

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING


Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

The essence of love in human nature takes root in the relationship between the individual identity and the universal identity. In the relationship between limited self and supreme Self, the dynamic of the expression of love occurs, and this is surrender—the surrender of the drop to the ocean.



The experience of surrender is difficult to describe. It is a willingness to unmask the heart and let it be touched; a willingness to let the heart sit open and unprotected. It is not necessarily a large experience; it’s actually quite personal, quite small, like a yielding, a softness inside. And it is in this softness, in this yielding, that the idea of sacrifice occurs.



In this moment, the raft is abandoned and the ocean is attained. It need not be a huge action. It’s as if you were holding onto a raft and you simply let go. You don’t know what will happen next; it is a moment of absolute trust, of absolute humility. It is a moment of total abandon.

There is only the moment

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING


Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

Karma is the action that is generated by the ego through the operations of the senses. Data comes in through the senses and the ego, along with the list-making capacities of the mind, creates its own closed universe in which it can rule, a false kingdom in which it is trapped.



The false identity of the ego takes the power of infinite consciousness and runs it through the senses, and a river of desire-based activity is produced. The karma that is generated from this activity is the foundation of the cycle of death and rebirth.



During meditation the senses are switched off, the mind stops functioning in a linear fashion and moves into its natural state, universal mind, in which truth spontaneously begins to arise. When this happens, the light of reality arises within, dissolving the fabric of the false kingdom which the ego has held together with its desire-based activity. The ego is obliterated and the Self arises.



Until this happens, you’re trapped in the past, trapped in time. But as the light of the Self gets stronger and stronger, it dissolves all karma. The idea of past, present and future is erased. There is only the moment.

Death is inside you at all times

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING


Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

Death is inside you at all times. It’s part of you, not separate, but a simultaneous event. It is the vibration of “not life.” Like the dark side of the moon, it's always there, you just can't see it.



The longer you live in your body, the easier it is to see death. At first, the newness of the body is overwhelming, and because your mind operates in a linear state, dominated by the senses and the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep, you can't see death within you. But as you become familiar with your body as you wear through the fabric of your life, your awareness will change, and your death will make itself more evident to you.



Like a wind, death matches the circadian rhythms of the planet, moving through your body and striking you once a day. When you are still and totally present, and your mind moves into its universal state where it begins to operate according to the spontaneous truth, you will be able to see death within you and witness the event of being struck by its rolling force. When death strikes your body at just the right point, it will kill the body. The event we technically characterize as death is the separation of the mind and the soul from the body. How you manifest the illusion of your death matches your karma—by illness, by accident, by decay.

Law of Dharma

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING

Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

Always seek to establish a presence of emptiness and humility. This is the whole idea of spiritual life; you listen intently to every situation. No presupposition, no judgment, no set of expectations about anything.



When you see a person and they have three thousand dollars worth of clothes on, you don’t make any judgment about that. You see another person, a homeless person pushing a cart down the street; you don’t make any judgment about that. Because if there's one thing for sure in this world it's that nothing is as it seems on the surface, not a single thing.



The law of dharma that defines right from wrong is very deep and very simple and very direct. If you listen, you can feel what’s right and what’s wrong; you won't need anybody to tell you.

Humility is one of the greatest tools of dharma

HARD LIGHT CENTER OF AWAKENING


Excerpt of a talk by Mark Griffin...

Arrogance is a psychological posture that serves as a defense mechanism of the ego. You cut yourself off from reality by defining a situation in a way that glosses over its true nature so you don't have to deal with it. You generate a definition of a situation so that you can control it, cause the world to serve you in some way. By placing this template onto a situation, reality is displaced; you override and blur the simple suchness of a situation that is always vivid and apparent.



The immediate antidote to arrogance is humility. Humility is one of the greatest tools of dharma, the great Tai Chi; you are listening to what the great light is saying and aligning yourself with that, without presupposition, without agenda. This listening and sensitivity unveils the presence of truth in any situation. By aligning with the infinite light of creation to the depths that you can observe it, you serve it, and you will find that all situations and circumstances will naturally unfold through and around you, annihilating all false agendas of the personal will.