Lesson 1 homework

Jan. 22, 2013.
I signed up for the 10-lesson Waking Down course on December 17, 2012. As of today I am on Lesson 6. The first homework assignment in Lesson 1 was to create a journal, based on suggested questions at the end of the lesson. I wrote down the questions and some short answers for Lesson 1, but I did not follow through on later lessons--not a great beginning! So this morning I started reviewing all the lessons and will resume my journal.

Here is what I wrote at the time after Lesson 1:
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Lesson 1. Dec. 17
Q: What have I been hoping awakening will do for me?
Open me to, and ground me in, my infinite self

Q: What did I think I’d have to do to awaken?
Meditate regularly and it will happen by itself, eventually.

Q: Do I believe I’m a real candidate for awakening?
Yes

Q:Why?
Because I have had several very real short tastes of it.
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The best "short taste" occurred a few days before I signed up for the course. It happened about 3 am as I was lying in bed awake. I reached for my iPod, something I often do when I wake up in the middle of the night, and decided to listen once again to the Batgap interview with Steve and Winifred Boggs that had originally introduced us to Waking Down. As I listened to Winifred describe her awakening experience I began to feel expanded. This expansion somehow moved down into my lower body. I felt myself to be full, complete, solid, universal, totally grounded, and remarkably three-dimensional instead of flat. I thought:"This is remarkable. For the first time in my life I am experiencing what it is really like to be me." It felt very good to be me. The words "authentic self" came to mind. I could clearly see now how 'un-authentic" my previous, ordinary sense of self had been. The shift lasted for a few minutes, long enough for me to savor it, reflect on it. Then it gradually faded. This shift was very different from anything I have ever had before. My one previous clear shift, several years ago, was one of pure expansion, infinity, transcendence, and it lasted only a second or so. It had no content; it was startling. This one had content; it was fully satisfying.