The 4 Stages Of The Spiritual Journey

This potent talk and living practice encapsulate the 4 stages of the spiritual journey, from outside where troubles and fluctuations exist to inside where stillness abides. Hear Bassam, concisely describe each stage in straight-up talk, shedding light on the characteristics of each stage and how to begin the process. All the while, you will be guided on a journey of unexpected deepening and Self-realisaton.

Transcript

And they're just experiencing the feelings and the joy Good evening my friends,

Tuesday night 7 p.

M.

Sydney time.

Thank you for joining me from wherever you are,

Whatever time zone it is,

Whichever geographical location you are in,

It's always the here and now.

We'll wait a moment for others to join and then start our live.

In the meantime,

Relax,

Take a deep breath,

Begin to anchor in the now,

To land in the here and now with greater awareness by bringing greater awareness into the living moment as it finds you as you are in the here and now.

You imagine in fact that the moment has been traveling through history billions and billions of years to arrive right at this juncture,

This junction between presence and time,

This all-important moment.

How will it find you?

How will this moment that has been traveling in space and time to arrive at this instant find you,

Will it find you as you were yesterday,

An hour ago,

A moment ago,

Or will it find you present?

Will it find you wide awake,

Ablaze with an inner presence?

How will this moment find you?

Will it find you as you have always been or will there be something different about you?

Will there be a presence,

A stillness,

An aliveness,

Or will you simply be as you have always been and you are here in order to maintain that past reality,

Or you are here to appease its needs,

Or you are here to solve its problems,

This past identity,

This past being,

Or are you here in order to satisfy its urges and its fantasies,

Its expectations,

Or are you here for something different,

Something other,

Something more?

Or are you here in the true tradition of the Masters who advocated self-knowledge as the solution,

Resolution,

And salvation to our existential crisis,

Which is a crisis of ignorance.

It's not of things,

But of our essential reality.

And this is why it was written on the proverbial doors of Delphi in ancient Greece,

Know thyself.

This really in two words encapsulates what this whole fuss is about,

What this spiritual experience is all about,

That has unfortunately been turned into all sorts of other things,

Like empowerment,

Healing,

All sorts of wonderful things by the way,

But they are falling short of the mark,

They are missing the mark,

The bull's eye of spirituality,

Which is all about unveiling us to ourselves,

All about pointing us in a deeper direction,

Beyond our form,

Beyond our biology,

Beyond our feelings in chemistry,

Beyond our psychology and neurology,

To a deeper dimension of awareness,

Conscious awareness,

A deeper dimension of consciousness,

Aware consciousness,

Intelligent consciousness,

Formless consciousness,

Divine consciousness without locality,

Without limit.

If you are interested in that,

If you are here for that,

Then we are here in the same intention,

But if you are here merely to get some healing,

To get some relaxation,

Some tonic for the night or the day,

Then you may get that,

But don't limit it to outcomes,

Don't limit this to benefits,

To results,

Have in mind the true aim,

Self-knowledge,

It's not even some kind of exotic thing,

It's just know yourself as self,

With a capital S.

But if we are here simply to entertain our identity,

Our personality,

Our psychology,

Our chemistry,

Then we may get something,

But we will be falling short of the mark,

We will be missing the balls eye,

So to speak,

Know thyself,

And self-knowledge isn't an experience,

Though it has been turned into an experience by pop culture,

I'll repeat that self-knowledge isn't an experience that you can have,

Self-knowledge is the knowing of myself,

It is a knowing,

It isn't an experience that I can expect to have in the future,

It is characterized by technically speaking the reorientation of my awareness,

A changing of the way I pay attention,

Changing of direction,

My attention currently is focused outside of myself and has been so since I was a little child,

Since I was trained to focus my five senses on the movements of shadows outside,

And my attention has been outwardly displaced,

Outwardly focused since then,

So that I have become an expert at recognizing form,

Phenomenal things,

I no longer recognize the nominal nature of my reality,

Nominal simply means the formless within,

Within this flesh and bone and blood there is a living reality,

A living light that is not flesh and bone,

In your own body right now,

In your own meat and bones there is a consciousness,

You usually think that this consciousness is the body,

You usually think that this meat and bone is conscious,

It's the other way around,

This meat and bone body is alive because of this consciousness,

It is this consciousness that gives it life,

That turns it on,

Switches it on so to speak,

Enlivens it,

Enables it to have a living reality,

This consciousness,

This spark of light inside this meat and bone doesn't need the meat and bone to exist,

It's like electricity doesn't need a fridge to exist or a toaster,

It doesn't mean that the fridge is meaningless,

It's an instrument of great importance,

Same thing with this meat and bone,

It's an interesting instrument of experience,

It's important in as much or as far as it is an instrument of perception,

Of conception and of sensing,

An instrument of experience and knowledge,

But it cannot have a life without the life,

It cannot operate on its own without the divine current that is known within us as myself,

I.

So if you are here for all of this stuff,

Let's call it irreverently,

Then we're here for the right reasons,

Within your meat and bone there is something that is alive,

It's not a something,

It is in fact a nothing,

Not nothing in the sense that nothing,

But in the sense that it's not a thing that you can perceive,

Conceive,

Sense with the five senses,

You can't touch it that way,

But yet it is you and the only reason you don't cognize it is because you no longer recognize your real face,

Your faceless face and we begin by becoming interested in the body,

At first the stages of our inward movement are like this,

First we are interested in the objects of the world,

The outermost circle of experience,

We're interested in the experience and things that move in front of our eyes and at some point we begin to become interested in the body which is living in this apparent outer circle the world,

So we come inward from the world to the body,

We recognize its existence and we say that my body is inhabiting this world,

I become interested in this body and then along the way as I learn to look after this body,

To beautify this body,

To obsess over this body,

I ripen to some degree and I may come across someone who says or some material reading that says but what is in this body,

What is this life inside the body and you say what do you mean I am the body,

You say yes but this body that is living in this world on the outside it looks solid but have you looked inside and suddenly you become interested in what is within as opposed to what is without,

So your attention now that has been focused on the world is beginning to do an about turn,

A U-turn kind of thing,

It is relaxing backwards from the world to the body where it has been obsessing for a while and now we begin to be interested what is this life inside the body and so we begin to move inward with our attention and quickly,

Very quickly we recognize that this body that inhabits the world it looks solid outside,

Permanent but on the inside it is just a field of vibrations so this body looks solid outside but if I keep my attention on it,

My attention,

My awareness starts to seep inward and I begin to feel the back end if you like of this physical body,

I begin to feel what this body is made of behind the scenes and I realize that if I look inwardly at my hand,

Try to feel it from within,

I notice that it is just sensations,

Pulsations,

Cold heat continuously changing,

Oh interesting,

If I look at my right hand I see that it is the same,

Oh my feet,

My knees,

My elbows,

My ears,

The top of my head everywhere it is just sensations,

Soft sensations,

Hard sensations,

Pleasure sensations,

Painful sensations,

Cold,

Tingling,

Vibrations,

Heaviness,

All these are called sensations,

They are the energy field within,

Some of the energy maybe knotted up in some places so it feels painful,

Some of this energy is free flowing in other places so it feels pleasant,

Free flowing energy feels pleasant but energy that is stuck from moving feels painful,

In short I see for myself not because someone has told me that my body only looks solid and permanent outside but inside I am anything but permanent,

I am continuously changing,

I am this continuous field of fluctuating energy and that becomes very interesting so I have moved from being fixated on the world of experience to being fixated on the world of form,

The body,

Now I am moving inward and I am becoming interested in this energy reality vibrating and the more I stay with it,

Connect with it,

Attune to it,

The more this energy softens,

Opens,

Releases the knots that have become tight in the absence of my self because I have been outside for years now that I am back these knots start to release,

They start to become unknotted,

The aches and pains start to release,

Energy is returning to flow,

The whole body sooner or later becomes free flowing energy,

Softer,

Softer,

Opens,

Releases,

The knots release and I start to realize that this back end feels pretty good,

During all of this I also realize that the content of this body includes the mind so there are thoughts not just energies but there are thoughts but I notice if I identify and attach to the thoughts they take me back outside of myself to the world but if I ignore them,

I don't stop them and I stay connected with the vibrational field then the vibrations become faster,

Softer like pixels on a picture they start to open up,

Become spacious,

Almost porous,

Ecstatic,

Whoa what drug are you on?

Nothing man,

I'm just going inward,

That's why they say happiness is an inside job or as I like to put it,

The chocolate is in the fridge,

It's not outside,

It's inside,

Nothing is outside,

Is as sweet as inside,

In fact all the outside is doing is triggering samples,

Little tasters of what is produced inside,

That's why we're so addicted to the outside because it triggers a little whiff of what is inside but let's go direct,

Meditation is the direct path,

It says I will go to the factory within instead and so I become aware that there's the vibrational field inside but also these thoughts that are continuously trying to interest me in the outside again,

What am I going to eat later,

What shall I do with my problem with my girlfriend,

My husband,

My dog,

My mother died yesterday,

Oh no and this and this and this,

This thinking stuff,

If I identify,

Couple with,

I'm dragged back out into the world and I've got to come back in through the body,

So how do I come back in?

I replace my focus on my thinking with the focus on my body,

The feeling and I start to see back in again,

I feel and I stay in that feeling,

The job of my mind is to drag me back out,

To interest me,

To tempt me,

It wants me to think about certain things but as I become knowledgeable and acclimatized to this kind of thing,

I realize and I don't couple or I minimize my coupling with my thoughts or I recover quickly,

This is the trick,

The signature of being advancing on this path,

I'm recovering from being distracted by my thoughts much quicker,

Like an athlete,

They're running and they stop running after some time,

It takes them maybe in the beginning an hour to recover,

Then half an hour to get back their breath and ten minutes and finally they stop for just a minute after a real intense workout and they recover their normal breath very quickly,

That's what we want to do,

We want to recover from being taken by our thoughts,

Oh I'm taken again,

Come back to feeling,

Oh I'm getting angry that I was taken,

No that's a reaction,

Come back to the feeling of the energetic feeling of the body and as I become more and more adept at this practice,

At some point I start to realize but what is aware of these feelings,

Something is knowing them,

It's not a something,

But what is knowing the vibrations of my body,

What is knowing the thoughts of my mind,

What is knowing the feelings of my emotions,

What is this knowing dimension and at some point I start to become more interested in the knowing dimension than the energy,

The experience,

The knowledge of the mind,

The feelings,

I become more interested in what is knowing,

So now interest in what is knowing replaces the interest with the energetic field which replace the interest in the physical form,

Which replace the interest in the world,

The phenomenal world,

That doesn't mean we lose interest in the world and all of these things but our priorities are changing and each time we move deeper our problems which belong to the world begin to dissolve because the deeper we go to the real self the more we are saved from the troubles of the realm of duality outside,

So now we are interested in that which is knowing the sensations and the perceptions and the mind's conceptions and the feelings of the emotions,

So now the knowing replaces the interest in the knowing dimension,

Replaces interest in the experience,

We move from experience to knowing and if we can stay with this knowing,

If we stay with this knowing,

As we stay with this knowing the veil is lifted,

The veil,

Biological veil,

Chemistry veil,

The psychology veil is lifted and self stands revealed to itself,

Awareness is now aware of itself,

Aware-aware and this is the aware-aware that is aware in this meat and bone,

In flesh,

God ensconced in flesh,

Butterfly in the cocoon,

There is a living light in your body,

Become interested in the light,

So if you are here for the light in the body then you are in the right place,

It's like if you are a peach,

We are interested in the seed not the flesh,

In fact the seed is eating the flesh,

The flesh is a source of food for the seed,

How cool is that,

Similarly the cocoon is a source of food for the caterpillar as it transforms into a butterfly,

Similarly the body is not only our vehicle but it is also our food that is intended for the soul to feed on,

Food,

Experience,

Knowledge,

All of this is food,

The issue is when you begin to identify with the flesh and you lose sight of what you are.

So my friends,

This in short encapsulates the stages,

The various stages of the journey from outside inside which is also a journey that encapsulates the movement from mind to the heart,

From thinking to loving and this is what the human being is being called upon at the moment to take this journey,

From outside where troubles and fluctuations exist to inside where stillness abides,

From pictures on the screen to the screen of consciousness itself,

From being if you're looking at a picture from seeing the pixels to see in the spaces between the pixels,

You are the space and your form is the pixels.

So how do we do that?

In our daily activity we keep coming back to the sense of the body which is pointing us in the inner direction,

You might take pauses,

You're moving about doing whatever you're doing,

You stop,

You take a breath,

Relax into the moment for a second,

Take a look around S T O observe while still breathing softly,

Notice objects around you and then proceed P S stop T take a breath O observe P proceed a little bit more mindfully than you were a second ago,

Do this often.

Another thing you can do is to keep coming back to a sense of yourself,

Your hands or your feet or your legs when you're walking,

When you are talking,

When you're listening,

Stay soft,

Someone is talking,

Stay soft and keep feeling,

Watch yourself making judgments,

Watch yourself eager to share with the other person.

Another thing I advise you to do is to build a meditation practice into your daily life so that you can practice,

Meditation is like a laboratory that you can go into and practice what you're going to have to try to do outside,

Meditation is a laboratory experiment in presence because that's what you have to learn to do,

To be,

Not do but to become cognizant,

Aware of yourself as present.

So meditation,

Daily 5 minutes,

10 minutes,

15 minutes until you can meditate for at least 45 minutes,

45 minutes is the minimum really,

In the beginning it's the minimum you need in order to enter into that meditative state.

So we practice 5 minutes,

10,

15 until you can get to a point where you're practicing for 45 minutes and that's the start.

What?

Yes,

I'm not going to tell you what others tell you,

5 minutes will do this and that,

Yes,

5 minutes will do in helping you to become conditioned,

To help your knees become softer,

To help your back become easier,

To release some of these pains that are trapped in the body,

All of this.

So there is,

That's the first stage of meditation,

It's conditioning,

To condition yourself to be able to,

The second stage,

Meet the second stage of being able to sit for 45 minutes because that's how long it takes in the beginning at least to be able to enter into that meditative state,

That consolidated still point of being and then you can do that morning,

Evening,

Morning,

Evening and deepen your meditation practice which will reward you in ways that you cannot describe.

Daily ritual then is important,

Meditation and beginning to return the sacred into life because the sacred has been taken out,

We have disconnected from it,

Our error is not an error of the sacred,

It is an error of the opposite and oh no,

That's a terrible thing in this,

No it's not,

It's the reality where you and I must do our work,

We don't complain or if only and it's a so much evil in the world,

Yes good,

That's how it's supposed to be,

It's within this situation that we are intended to find our light and in doing so we usher in a new age of light.

Evil is simply saying disconnection from source,

The definition of evil for me is simply disconnection from source,

The degree of disconnection is the degree of evil or suffering,

Same thing,

Divinity is simply the degree of reconnection with source.

People don't like to hear this,

They want chewing gum,

They want sugar coated things,

Yes five minutes will do for you,

Ten minutes,

Oh that's fine or this and that or no the world is you know and stop judging,

Not judging,

I'm simply calling it what it is in order for us to recognize,

Awaken to the reality that we have to do our work in,

Our inner work is done in reality,

Not in some fantasy,

Some ideal garden in the woods,

It's in the world if you're born in the world,

That's where your church is,

It is the streets of the city,

The urban life,

That's where it is,

It's so much easier to connect with God in the woods and in the forest,

I know,

Of course it is.

But that's not where we are,

Our inner work is exactly where we find ourselves,

It's not a mistake where you are,

It's not a mistake that you are in the relationship that you're in,

Reality doesn't make mistakes,

It's not a mistake that you are in your financial situation,

That you are rich beyond measure,

That you are poor beyond measure,

It's within this reality as it is that you are required to find your way back home,

It's easy,

There is a saying,

It says it's a good man who can have a good time,

Good woman of course you know what I mean,

It's easy,

It's a good person who can have a good time when things are good,

But it's a great person who can have a great time when things are terrible,

To remain lit up in the darkest dark,

Away shower,

Like the wonderful symbol or image of what do you call those,

Lighthouse,

What a spectacular phenomenon,

A lighthouse stands on the cliff lighting up the night,

Warning ships not to come too close or to show them the way back to shore.

It's easy when things are good and right now we are in such times when we need inner warriors because right now is when we can profit the most for those who are interested in the inner life,

Everything is against,

But like the teacher Gurdjieff used to say,

When things are easy you don't profit much,

In other words you don't gain inwardly much,

This is when things are tough however and you don't react and you still maintain your inner work,

That's when you profit,

That's when you keep what you work for.

So my friends I hope you have gotten something out of this talk,

I won't be doing as many lives anymore,

But I will continue to do recordings and post them on my face,

On my,

What do you call it,

On my profile on here,

I'll do one or two or three a week even,

I won't be doing many lives,

Maybe one every couple of weeks or every three weeks and at some point,

Hopefully soon I'll be finished with this practical meditation course,

It's called Divine Calm,

How to set up a successful daily meditation practice and it will be available on Insight Timer.

So that would be great if you feel that you've been benefiting from this,

What we've been doing for months now and you feel that you want to show your appreciation or you want to benefit from this course then buy it or whatever,

However Insight Timer does.

So that's it from me tonight my friends,

I hope that you've gotten something out of it,

Thank you for showing up and for anyone who has felt the impulse to make a donation,

Good on you,

Thank you and take care,

Bye bye for now.

Reviews

Thank you for this very interesting talk, illuminating the pathway of my journey towards truth.

Well done Bassam. You've changed. Yourself, the way you teach, speak, radiate what you are. Thank you for letting us join your inner journey. I am grateful for these many live sessions you did, I am very interested to do your course as soon as it's ready.
Staying with the inner knowing long enough to gradually being changed and finally becoming aware of Self is what I am up to. Thank you, and have a divine journey as long as you are here. 🐌🦋🐬🦅☀️

Wonderful as always Bassam🙏