Dissolving The Self/Ego
The magic of technology has allowed us to look at the brains of the "spiritually enlightened" and compare the key differences between the brain activation of the average person and of awakened spiritual masters.
It is interesting to note that there are essentially three different kinds of spiritual awakening a person can have. Firstly we can have the atypical experience of oneness or connection with all things, secondly we can have a waking up to the present as with mindfulness practices where the mind detaches from or stops the trains of thought into past or future and begins to pay attention to or absorb the sights, sounds, smells , tastes and sensations of the now.
The third kind of spiritual awakening is the epitome of enlightenment and is a combination of the first two, both the collapse of the objective sense of the material world being separate from you and the collapse of the subjective sense of being a time based entity. A collapse of the identity or "self" with a simultaneous implosion and explosion into the infinite oneness and eternal now of consciousness by which the universe is manifest and known.
While enlightenment may appear to be an extraordinarily spectacular occurrence realised by a small few, it is a profoundly ordinary experience that we have not only all had as babies prior to the development of our self-concept and internal dialogue which places conceptual labels on the world inside and out, but is something that happens frequently to every adult throughout each day, yet is just as frequently overlooked and left unrecognised.
What The Brain Scans Of The Enlightened Show
Not surprisingly brain scans of meditation masters confirm their minds reside continuously in the present and they experience a near constant sense of oneness, the self concept or ego largely ceases to exist.
The default mode network is a network of 11 neurological centers scattered about the brain which are responsible for the idea of self, these centers are split into two sub-networks, the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex subsystem (dMPFC) and the medial temporal lobe subsystem (MTL).
The dMPFC is responsible for the idea of self located in time between past and future, when this center shuts down we experience the present without the filter of moving through time , no sense of past or future, we live in the eternal now.
The MTL is responsible for the idea that we are an entity or self that is located at a point in space or located inside the body separate from the objective world, when this center shuts down we experience being the whole experience of the experience we are having rather than being a localised witness or "experiencer" of experience, we become one with all.
While the shutting down of one or other or both of these networks happens naturally to us all either in the brief moments between thought where any conceptual overlay about the world ceases, or in times we are engaged in tasking activities such as perhaps dancing or even watching a movie where we may "lose our self", meditation masters have learned to near permanently switch off the default mode network whether engaged in tasking or simply sitting in their armchair with no distraction.
Nonduality
The essence of nondual awakening is the realisation of what life is beyond concepts, and due to the nature of this realisation it is impossible to describe as any definition would fall back into the limits of concept. Ironically there are a number of nonduality teachers who have fallen victim to a dogmatic and almost hypnotic style of attempting to point people to spiritual awakening.
A few of the teachers who I feel eloquently cut through the crap of nonduality and spiritual awakening and effectively point us towards a life free from suffering or help us deepen into the nature of consciousness are, in no particular order, Scott Kiloby, Greg Goode, Gary Weber and Rupert Spira.
Training ourselves to notice the present moment as it appears completely free from thought is the prerequisite for spiritual awakening. There is no requirement to sit and meditate for hours on end but only the "invitation" to empty your mind even if only for a few seconds and be aware of life without labels or concept, doing this often will begin to train the mind to collapse the default mode network.