Awake People Play Bridge Too

The day Michael and I talked about my starting the bridge club, he saw a book on my dining table called, "The End Of Your World," by Adyashanti. Adyashanti, if you are not familiar with him, is a teacher trained in the Zen tradition of Buddhism. He awoke in that tradition and was asked by his teacher, Arvis Justi, to teach. But, he does not teach from a strictly Buddhist perspective. He teaches from an awake perspective, or from a non-dual and Advaita perspective.

Michael told me based on his review of Adyashanti's work, that he felt Adya was attracting mainly people who were already awake, to help them understand the path once awakening has happened. This was new to me too, since I had heard Jan tell me that one way Michael was helping her was with what comes next, after awakening. I, too had not considered this. It has been dawning on me, that my understanding of what being awake was has been very confused. That it is not what I have thought it was at all.

With this dawning new perspective, my conversation with Michael took a different turn. I told him that people I knew were telling me that thought they were awake, and that I was awake too. This baffled me. I asked Michael about this. He said, "I believe you are awake, but there are many different levels of awakening." Huh? Wow! I asked him for more about this. He said, " Enlightenment is the culmination, the state of being fully awake without disruption. The perspective or awareness, of being awake at all times, and under all circumstances."

With this idea in mind, he asked me to start the bridge club. He then said, "You know, Adyashanti plays bridge." I said, "really?". "Yes," he said. "He has bridge parties at his house, and when they play, no one is allowed to talk about anything 'spiritual'." " Oh, " I said. "He then said, "yes, and if anyone does, they are not invited back to play again." "Why?", I asked. "He is trying to make a point, that people fixate on the 'spiritual' and ignore the rest of life. When in reality, there is no separation." "Everything is 'spiritual', and ordinary, when viewed from the from the awake state."

Was he trying to make this point with me, that I was fixated on the 'spiritual' and needed more balance? He did not say meditate with people when you play bridge. He said just start a bridge club, and play the game. So, now I am trying to learn the rules of the game, trying to find people to play with and trying to figure out where this club will meet. All this while trying to deal with all the feelings that are coming up about it as well. I am still in the stage of feeling like, "why am I doing this, and what does it have to do with enlightenment?" But I will persist.

Michael did say to me, that it was not just the goal of the club, but the journey of playing and everything else involved, that I should take as my practice.

OK, Michael, want to play bridge some time?