How the enlightenment transmission enlivens my soul

UPDATE FROM ORIGINAL POST: Dave also posted a YouTube video here (for the first time) so you can see him as he speaks.

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I wrote two blog posts on enlightenment teacher Dave Oshana a few years ago but nothing recent.

I find my tendency is to avoid it because the experience is…difficult to word. Difficulty finding words or labels reminds me of a quote from Eckard Tolle: “the next step in human consciousness is to rise above thought.”

Dave recently gave a Saturday class titled, “Nothingness,” that reminds me of this same theme.

Okay, so, I want to write a little more as a follow-up from my first two blog posts.

 

(Sitting here blankly looking at my computer screen.)

 

I want to write about the enlightenment transmission which is the energy field that one encounters when hearing Dave live, in listening to recorded audio of Dave, when at intensives or retreats led by Dave, or sometimes felt when interacting with participants in the teaching.  (Click here to listen to some free audios.  I think the “Beyond The Form Of The Spiritual Student Teacher Relationship” articulates more what I am writing about in this blog post than the others listed.)

 

From what I remember from Dave, the transmission has been referred to as a “special field of energy” likened to the rays of the sun on how it shines on (and influences) people. It does not have a human component or human agency and is different from the transmissions that emanate from people. He has said that we all have different kinds of transmissions and that some people’s transmissions feel good and some don’t feel good to us. Many times in the teaching, he’s encouraged us to pay attention to our sixth sense or gut sense about how we feel about people or the energy of places to inform our choices in the moment.

 

Dave says the enlightenment transmission is both separate from and inside of him. So there is a “Dave odor” enlightenment transmission, then there is the enlightenment transmission itself which, from my understanding, Dave hopes someone will become enlightened and will carry the new/different “odor” enlightenment transmission. Also, please, I prefer that you listen to Dave’s bookable replays when he describes the enlightenment transmission instead of just reading my account here.

 

I have heard him refer to the enlightenment transmission as the Holy Spirit. I hesitate to mention this because there are certain concepts like “God” or “love” or even the “Holy Spirit” which carry a charge and are harder to take in and understand because of the charge.

 

Okay, now that I’ve tried to offer a little bit of a definition of what I mean when I write “enlightenment transmission” (ET) what I want to write about in this blog post is how the ET has affected my life in permanent, positive ways.

 

Firstly, I have to say that I increasingly feel like it’s not “my” life. I mean, of course I have a name and letters after my name and a job and I present at conferences and I wrote a book and blah blah blah, but I don’t identify with that so strongly as I might once have. I attribute this to the gentle influence of ET over time.

 

The ET has sort of softened my relationship to life. Like most modern day folks, I had the Puritan work ethic drilled in me believing that doing and accomplishing especially within the “system” (educational system, government system, etc.) were very important components to life and to “my life.” I’ve personally struggled with this doing vs being question since age 15. Even within the discussions involving participants IN Dave’s teaching, I tend to “lean” towards wondering “What are participants DOING about the good energy (the ET) they are receiving?”

 

A lot of my skepticism around ANY spiritual teaching revolves around “spiritual materialism” where a seeker will create an identity around their spiritual search. This has contributed to my not writing about my experience with the ET, not wanting to create an identity about who Dave is or what the ET is. This is because I feel like my beliefs wouldn’t necessarily benefit another seeker’s search. What does my belief have anything to do with what YOU are seeking and whether the ET will feel helpful to YOU?  My recommendation is to listen to a class by Dave or do a one-on-one with him, not read about these concepts and words that I am writing here. Because REAL CHANGE at the soul level doesn’t come about by reading words alone.

 

I attended a fascinating workshop led by Dr. Dan Siegel last weekend, (Soul and Synapse). Dr. Siegel is the UCLA medical researcher and psychiatrist whose interpersonal neurobiological concepts I based my book on. He is a genius and I love how interpersonal neurobiology scientifically verifies the importance of a coherent mind and meditation. At this workshop, I realized how concepts from the mind are flat, no matter how fascinating they might seem. As opposed to flat, the ET nourishes and enlivens my soul. Also, the ET over time has helped me to “feel” what it means to come from a soul level verses the mind in interacting with people.

 

One example of how the ET enlivens me is how I’m more upbeat after I finish a one-on-one with Dave. I’m not sure what happened exactly in the hour that we spoke, but there was a positive energetic influence on me. And (most important to me) it didn’t just pass after a few hours or days, but it has influenced how I experience reality, and consequently, how I interact with people, who I interact with, and what I do with my time. There is a restructuring of my priorities as I realize that I am not my mind, or ego, or concepts, or thoughts, or accomplishments, or activities, I’m not any of these things.