Trillium Awakening

Trillium AwakeningTM is a contemporary spiritual movement and teaching that focuses on personal and collective awakening, inner transformation, and the realization of non-dual consciousness. Rooted in the ancient wisdom traditions, Trillium AwakeningTM offers a unique approach that combines Western psychological insights with Eastern spiritual wisdom. It emphasizes embodied awakening, recognizing the interconnectedness of all aspects of human experience.[1] The teachings are offered through the Trillium AwakeningTM Teachers Circle which is an association of autonomous teachers. The teachings utilize the metaphor of the symmetry of three petals of the trillium flower to represent its work: Consciousness (awakening), Embodiment (physicality) and Mutuality (conscious relationship as a means of spiritual growth and personal evolution).[2]

The Trillium AwakeningTM Teachers Circle is an educational not-for-profit 501(c)(6) for the training of teachers and the dissemination of work involving embodied spiritual awakening. Trillium Awakening teachers do their work mostly in the form of “sittings” (interactive gatherings), private sessions between teachers and students, and workshops and retreats which are taught either by a single teacher or by multiple teachers working together.[3]

History

Saniel Bonder and Waking Down in Mutuality

In the early 1990s after parting ways from his former guru, Adi Da Samraj, Saniel Bonder founded Waking Down in MutualityTM (WDM), a profound teaching centered on embodied spiritual awakening.[4][5] Bonder drew students to him mainly from the local Adi Da and Transcendental Meditation communities in the San Francisco Bay area.[6] The students soon began to experience a deepening wholeness while in Bonder’s presence and profound awakenings that Bonder called “The Second Birth.” By the late 1990s Bonder had designated a number of his advanced students as fellow teachers. He purposely recognized these teachers as peers rather than students breaking from the traditional guru-disciple hierarchy that has been standard practice for millenia.[7]

The Teachers Association / Circle

In 2005, acknowledging the necessity for an organization to have some amount of hierarchy and autonomy, the Waking Down Teachers Association (WDTA) was formed as a teaching organization populated with a community of self-realized teachers. Their work is described as student-, aspirant-, or participant-centric rather than teacher-, guru- or organization-centric. The WDTA was registered as a not-for-profit 501(c)(6) organization indicating its main purpose was to provide education for aspiring teachers and continuing education for established teachers. Also, at that time, the Institute of Awakened Mutuality (IAM) was formed and registered as a not-for-profit 501(c)(3), an educational branch of the WDTA for purposes of providing courses and services, which were based on the teachings of Waking Down in MutualityTM, as well as the organizing of workshops and Transfiguration Retreats, for the WDTA community.[8]

In 2013, Bonder and the WDTA parted ways with Bonder maintaining the rights to the Waking Down in MutualityTMname. On June 16, 2015, a vote was taken, and the teachers unanimously chose to rename the organization. The name Trillium Awakening™ was selected to describe the organization’s educational offerings and coaching services on December 10, 2015, and the WDTA was renamed the Trillium AwakeningTM Teachers Circle (TATC) on January 1, 2016.[9] As of the summer of 2024, there were 42 teachers,[10] 16 mentors[11] and hundreds of students. It continues as a professional association of awakened, self-actualizing, autonomous teachers, chartered to help raise awareness of Trillium AwakeningTM offerings and provide mutual support for its members. All Trillium AwakeningTM teachers are free and independent agents and are officially encouraged to offer the work in their own unique ways while maintaininga focus on the core values of the Trillium AwakeningTM work.[10][12]

The main experiential component of the Trillium AwakeningTM work centers around one-on-one sessions with teachers and small group work involving 5-6 non-teaching members.[13][14] The fundamental philosophy of this work is that an individual doesn’t need to be fixed, that there is nothing innately wrong or broken within them. The basic premise is that when an individual settles into and accepts their current experience just as it is, healing can spontaneously occur both physically and psychologically leading to profound spiritual awakenings and realizations. The teachers work on the premise that since most trauma individuals carry in their bodies and minds arose within relationship then it would be within relationship that the healing would take place.[15][16] For these teachers, the understanding of the importance of mutual relational healing highlights the essential need for working in small groups as part of the spiritual awakening process. Over time, this healing process is said to lead to an experience called the initial Whole-Being Realization. This experience is described as a shift of awareness from being centered in and around the head to a sense that awareness of oneself arising within the whole body, as the whole body or from a sense of one’s whole Being.[17]

Philosophy

The Three Petals of Trillium

The Trillium flower is a genus of about 50 flowering plants in the family of Melanthiaceae in the order of Liliales(Lilies) and are native to temperate regions of North America and Asia.[18] These plants have three symmetrical large leaf-like bracts (modified leaves around reproductive structures) with three petal flowers[19]

The perfect symmetry of the Trillium is considered an ideal model that encompasses the three important core principles components of the Trillium AwakeningTM work: Consciousness, Embodiment and Mutuality; each having an equal weight in the evolution of the individual toward their wholeness. Each component is considered to be in intimate relationship with the other two so that clarification of any one component leads to further clarification of the other two in a synergistic manner.[20]

Core Teaching Terms and Philosophy

Trillium Awakening’s philosophy is rooted in the recognition of both the absolute and relative aspects of reality. It draws from non-dual wisdom traditions and contemporary psychological insights to guide individuals on a path of self-discovery and transformation. The three core principles of Trillium AwakeningTM are expressions of this paradox of absolute and relative aspects of reality.

Consciousness: A perfect definition of consciousness can never be given. It is an elusive concept and will always remain so. The current Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines consciousness as:

  1. the quality or state of being aware especially of something within oneself
    1. The state or fact of being conscious of an external object, state, or fact
    1. Awareness – especially: concern for some social or political cause
  2. the state of being characterized by sensation, emotion, volition and thought
  3. the totality of conscious states of an individual
  4. the normal state of conscious life
  5. the upper level of mental life of which the person is aware as contrasted with unconscious processes.[21]

And the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy defines consciousness as:

Consciousness: Philosophers have used the term ‘consciousness’ for four main topics: knowledge in general, intentionality, introspection (and the knowledge it specifically generates) and phenomenal experience… Something within one’s mind is ‘introspectively conscious’ just in case one introspects it (or is poised to do so). Introspection is often thought to deliver one’s primary knowledge of one’s mental life. An experience or other mental entity is ‘phenomenally conscious’ just in case there is ‘something it is like’ for one to have it. The clearest examples are: perceptual experience, such as tastings and seeings; bodily-sensational experiences, such as those of pains, tickles and itches; imaginative experiences, such as those of one’s own actions or perceptions; and streams of thought, as in the experience of thinking ‘in words’ or ‘in images’. Introspection and phenomenality seem independent, or dissociable, although this is controversial.[22]

These definitions run the gamut from simple awareness of oneself in three-dimensional space subject to the phenomenon of duality to profound internal experiences of one’s non-dual nature which are completely subjective and cannot be verified by any external measure. Of course, this simple recognition does not take into the account all of the philosophical explorations of consciousness which deal with distinguishing what is body and what is mind[23], or the explanation of mind by the empirical sciences as the flow of neural activity in the brain[24] or the numerous theoretical models of conscious.[25] This topic has been wrestled with for millenia and is presented in more depth and thorough consideration of this topic in Wikipedia: Consciousness.

The Trillium AwakeningTM teachers have expounded their own definition of Consciousness:

“It is the infinite transcendent ground that is always registering everything while remaining untouched and unbounded. It is that which makes experiencing anything possible, the unlimited and infinite dimension of who one is.”[26]

This is in line with the recent descriptions by Judith Blackstone of the fundamental ground – 

“Fundamental consciousness feels like who we are. This is not only a concept but an experience. We have, as the embodiment of fundamental consciousness, a palpable sense of our own existence…We know ourselves as individual and universal at the time. In reaching the most personal core of our being, we find our oneness with all other beings.[27]

and A. H. Almaas of consciousness – 

“What I mean is that as an individual consciousness, our true nature or beingness is beyond our usual sense of identity, is not constructed by our individual mind. This beingness is the beingness of everything and everybody and is connected to true nature because it is the true nature of everything. And it’s not only that this beingness is true nature but also that this beingness has an aliveness and a dynamism. As we are understanding ourselves and reality, at some point we recognize that there is something larger, something bigger and more fundamental than our sense of individual self or individual life. There is something that underlies it all, that underlies everything and, ultimately, is everything. We can realize this truth to different degrees, which brings in the nondual view that reality is one indivisible unity.”[28]

In the Trillium AwakeningTM work, one’s conscious nature is experienced as inextricably melded with one’s body-mind rather than standing apart. This melding leads to a paradox of experiencing one’s distinct separateness as a body-mind while simultaneously experiencing oneself as seamless unity with the Totality of All That Is. However, because of the spectrum of experience from fully embodied to fully transcendent, the recognition of consciousness is an essential element of initial Whole-Being Realization but is not considered necessary for this realization to occur.[29]

Embodiment: When Saniel Bonder had his “Second Birth” and facilitated the phenomenon to others in his community in the late 1990s, embodied awakening was not the thrust of the spiritual path. At that time the focus was about transcendence of the body and residing in one’s non-dual nature or consciousness. The movement into and focus on the body would have been considered anathema to the realization of one’s true self as infinite and unbounded.[30] However, at that time, Bonder recognized the fundamental need for embodiment to be part of the awakening process. Without it, transcendence was merely a disembodied experience that would be considered dissociative in the sense that one felt the need to transcend or move away from physicality and that movement away from the body ignored a critical aspect of one’s daily subjective experience. [30]

However, by the late 2010s and early 2020s, the fields of spiritual development and self-realization considered embodiment a crucial aspect of the spiritual awakening process. Reginal Ray’s Somatic Descent, Dr. James Gordon’s The Transformation, Dr. Peter Levine’s seminal work on Somatic Experiencing, Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps The Score, and Judith Blackstone’s Realization Process are a few of the scores of approaches currently available to the spiritual seeker. Though all of these approaches have unique practices to facilitate embodiment, overall, these approaches involve healing and releasing trauma stored in the body resulting in one becoming less dissociated from one’s bodily experience while simultaneously integrating one’s experience of one’s non-dual nature into the felt sense of physicality.[31][32][33][34][35]

Similarly to these other teachers Trillium AwakeningTM considers embodiment as the coming into full and direct contact with all levels of one’s Being including one’s personal and cultural history, one’s environment and one’s body, emotions, mind and intuitions (subtle senses). In this work embodiment has a sense of becoming more enlivened and freely expressive as well as feeling the full range of sensual delights and painful limits. Physicality coupled with the experience of transcendence results in the experience of being simultaneously finite and infinite. From this ground, it is possible to deeply investigate and embrace the profound mystery of being a human. The investigation of broken zones and meta-patterns is seen to free up psycho-emotional energy and attention that can then be used to further one’s awakening which results in more spontaneous expressions of one’s authentic nature as a human. In conjunction with the embodiment process there is usually a shift of conscious awareness away from the head region to that of the whole body. This makes sense given that an individual’s brokenness results in contractions of one’s body-mind and consequent dissociation from one’s body usually involves a movement up to and around the head regions by the time one is an adolescent.[36] As an individual opens into the space of their whole nature, they release contractions associated with their broken zones and meta-patterns and their bodies naturally relax, thus enabling them to reassociate with the body by a movement down from the head-space.[37][38]

Mutuality: The understanding that people and societies working together for the betterment of the world and humanity is not a new subject. Indigenous cultures understood the necessity of working together for the benefit of the whole community long before modern societies recognized that we are collectively responsible for ourselves, others and the world. Tribal culture understood that collective hunting-gathering, child-rearing and equal status between males and females resulted in a peaceful environment within the community. However, an individual who considered themselves completely autonomous to the culture of the tribe was considered a threat. Such an individual would typically be considered to have lost their connection to the tribe and nature and various rituals were used to bring the individual back into alignment with true nature. For example, with respect to African cultural heritage and personal identification within the community we have:

“This community also, within this transcendental term of reference (God–made), becomes the custodian of individual ideas. This is why, beyond the community – the clan – for the African, there stood the void in strong and ever-present contrast. Outside this ancestrally chartered system there lay no possible life, since a man without lineage is a man without citizenship, without identity and therefore without allies or… a man outside his clan is like a grasshopper which has lost its wings. The clan here is ‘clan vital’ that is the ‘living clan’”[39]

And Okoro expands on this:

“The network of relationship in African ontology also means diachronic mutual support in passing of generation from parents to their children. In African traditional society, the community offers its members the psychological and ultimate security at it bequeaths her members both physical and ideological ideality.  It must be noted here, that in [tribal] African mentality, the community as entity remains, while the individuals, as persons, come and go. Therefore, Africans emphasize community life and communalism as a living principle, which the basic ideology is community – identity. Its aim is to produce and present an individual as community – culture bearer. Culture is thus a community property and must be community protected.”[40]

In addition to this anthropologist Ruth Benedict made a distinction between three different mechanisms by which “Apollonian” societies control individuals either through guilt, shame or fear thereby swaying them into normative behavior of obedience and conformity. These mechanisms are so ingrained into the fabric of society and so inculcated into the psyche of the individual within those societies that practicing them is unconscious and knee-jerk in the reactionary nature.[41] To step beyond these mechanisms would be incomprehensible to the individual, it would be like asking a fish to step out of the water on which its very existence is completely dependent. Benedict sees Western Culture as a Guilt Culture-Society, most indigenous tribal culture and the Asian cultures (pre-Western influence) as Shame Cultures-Societies, and totalitarian or fundamentalist-run states as Fear Cultures-Societies or Cultures of Fear.[42]

Ritual shaming or “Appreciation” or “Peacemaking” practices were and are some of the mechanisms that were used to bring an individual back into societal alignment. This did not limit an individual’s expression as a unique person, but the social-cultural constructs did limit how far one’s individuality was allowed to progress.[43][44] Individuals lived in mutual relationship with each other in indigenous cultures, but mutuality as complete acceptance of the other as an individual independent of the tribe was not practiced.

The immigration to of Europeans North America in the 1600s was a turning away from traditional European monarchy and extended family-based societies, to one of intense individualism at the expense (over time) of the extended family and society.[45] By the early 2020s, this culminated in a breakdown of the family unit and an overly-narcissistic, individualist cultural environment[46] which, paradoxically, is at the same time “tribal”-like where groups of individuals practice identifying others they consider to be out of step with their thinking of social justice and cultural worldview and then publicly shaming them.[47] This has taken the concept of mutuality to the other extreme where an individual thinks they are allowed to do whatever they want to do to another because they feel it is their right to do so and the other is supposed to accept this treatment. If the accused doesn’t accept this condemnation of their actions, they are further accused of not being in mutual relationship with the person who is accusing.[48] This is typically associated with the phenomenon of Gaslighting which is a form of psychological abuse where one person causes another to question their sanity, memories and perceptions of reality.[49] Free reign of action like this does not take into account one’s impact on another and is not true mutuality. Valuing free unbridled expression over critical dialogue around divisive and socially “hot” issues leads to the very violence the accuser claims to be trying to remove from society and the world and is not what Trillium AwakeningTM identifies as Mutuality.

According to the Trillium AwakeningTM work, when practicing mutuality, an individual honors one’s true and total self while also making room for others to do the same. One sees and calls forth the wholeness in one another through vulnerable self-expression, compassion, conscious listening, and reflection helps one recognize and claim their own authentic nature. At no time are individuals made to feel ashamed or guilty around their innate expressions of Being as most were as children. Since this relational work occurs in a container of safety with a lack of expectation for specific outcomes, individuals feel safe to express topics and experiences that are not typically acceptable within their current familial networks.[50]

Mutuality is often seen as a messy and imperfect form of spiritual work, but the Trillium AwakeningTM teachers have found that one’s brokenness historically as a result of their interactions with the people they grew up with, the broken zones can typically be healed by interacting with other humans who trigger their woundedness in specific ways. This dynamic allows individuals to use their daily relationships and small group meetings to elicit encounters with their broken zones of old patterning and meta-patterns of unconsciousness.[51] Each interaction in this space of mutuality potentially then reinforces an individual’s ability to speak and act from a deeper, more expansive and inclusive place in their Being. Individuals experience that mutuality is not an utopian ideal but is a very real, intimate, and honest mutual engagement with others. This furthers the individual and collective unfoldment which in turn creates a safer container in which deeper trust in oneself and others grows. Within these mutual engagements individuals frequently experience an opening of their heart centers leading to an outflowing of love. For most individuals this outflowing of love can naturally arise in various stages of their spiritual development and is tends to be coupled with an increased capacity for self-acceptance and self-love that grows with time.[52]

Additional Teaching Terms

Core Wound/Paradox: Modern psychology recognizes that most, if not all, individuals demonstrate some level of wounding from their childhood. This is not to say that all individuals were traumatized, but that the natural development in early childhood in Western Culture is wrought with times when a child is not met in some necessary area of their psychology. Lise Bourbeau claims there are five basic “Core Wounds” that are recognized: Rejection, Abandonment, Humiliation, Betrayal and Injustice. These are considered deep psychological woundings that happened to most, if not all, individuals by the time they are seven-years old.[53] Every individual has some expression of all five which Bourbeau says appear as “masks”: Withdrawal, Dependent, Masochist, Controller, and Rigid and are associated with the above woundings in that order. These masks protect the person from their inner pain and a person can have more than one wound/mask with different intensities.

“A mask represents a person with a specific character type, because numerous beliefs, influencing the attitude and the behavior of the person, are developed for each mask. We only wear a mask when we want to protect ourselves. The deeper the wound, the more one suffers and the more one will wear their masks.”[54]

These Core Wounds are usually associated with Core Beliefs like “I am unworthy of love” or “I will always be left or abandoned” or “I am not enough or flawed or undeserving” or “I cannot express my truth.” These Core Beliefs are typically experienced as the inner voices individuals hear in the heads on a daily basis.[55]

Saniel Bonder initially identified the Core Wound differently. He saw it as an underlying existential angst at the core of one’s Being and the five “Core Wounds” listed above would be better characterized as Core Issues.[56][57] Though Core Issues are definitely valid concerns in any psychospiritual healing modality and create substantial psychosomatic distress, it could be said that the Core Issues arise from the deeper underlying existential angst that is the Core Wound which arises due to the inherent split between matter (duality) and consciousness (non-duality). Bonder uses the word Spirit here.[58] To quote Bonder:

“This Core Wound is not something that is merely happening to us. Nor is it in any way a superficial distress. It comprises the essence of what we humans are. I would say, to link these great themes together, that the Spirit/Matter split is, in turn, the essence of that Core Wound. And it’s also true to say that the Core Wound is the essence of the Spirit/Matter split!”[59]

From Bonder’s point of view, the Core Wound is the essence of what we are and not simply the result of intense psychological distress we received in childhood. The psychological distress can be healed or at least attenuated while the Core Wound is never healed, but as the Trillium AwakeningTM teachers have found, one’s relationship to the Core Wound can transform so that is simultaneously experienced as the Core Paradox/Mystery. This transformation allows the individual to experience both the wounding aspect of their underlying angst as well as their profoundly paradoxical and mysterious nature at the core of one’s Being.[60]

For the Trillium AwakeningTM work, the Core Wound/Paradox is:

“the fundamental sense of split at the center of one’s self that is initially experienced as existential angst, personal confusion, sense of inner discomfort, or feelings of separateness or insufficiency. It happens because individuals are simultaneously both finite, limited human beings and infinite consciousness, non-separate from the entire cosmos.[61] This Core Paradox can evoke the sense of contraction and pain that is especially pronounced in those who have not yet fully embraced or relaxed into their paradoxical limited-limitless nature yet can and will occur in those who are awakened as well. The Core Paradox can also evoke a sense of wonder about one’s fundamental nature as one opens to this Core Mystery. Both are paradoxically true, and life will give the individual dynamic fluctuations between these felt states as they spontaneously contract and open. After an individual’s initial Whole-Being Realization, the tension of the Core Paradox becomes conscious and is no longer interpreted as a dilemma needing resolution. It may now be experienced as a sense of mystery at the core of our Being, a mystery to oneself as well as in relation to All That Is.[62]

Greenlighting: Greenlighting is a term Saniel Bonder used to introduce the concept of allowing and acceptance of one’s current condition. It is derived from the movie industry where it was used as “greenlit” to indicate that a project had received official approval to move ahead to production.[63] For Bonder:

“Greenlighting implies giving permission for motion, for change, for a sequence of transformation to occur that allow you to find out who and what you are, and how it is most natural for All of your nature to be revealed and expressed over time…Greenlighting your true and total Self when all you’ve got for your ultimate divine humanity is an aspiration and, at the moment, empty pockets. Give yourself permission to bring forth the whole, very moving picture of Who you are.”[64]

This term has been expanded by the Trillium AwakeningTM teachers to include a radical acceptance of whatever is currently arising in order to bring it fully into conscious awareness, thus freeing greater amounts of psycho-emotional energy and attention to facilitate deepening awakening. The fundamental position of Greenlighting is that an individual is basically “Okay” and that they don’t have to radically change themselves to awaken. Greenlighting is not just a passive acceptance or resignation of what is currently arising but includes radical embrace or acceptance of it to bring it fully into conscious awareness where it can be integrated and transformed. Greenlighting helps the individual accept and experience the shame they may feel around their humanness and is an affirmation that their strong feelings are an instinctual part of being a human. All individuals are encouraged to Greenlight themselves and others in their human predicament including all their faults, failing and shortcomings as well as their gifts and strengths. Even though an individual accepts all aspects of who they are, this principle does not mean uninhibited behavioral expression without consideration of its impact on self and others.[65]

Initial Whole-Being Realization:

The concept of spiritual awakening has been described in literature going back to as far as the Upanishads some 3,500 years ago.[66] The consensus from that time to the present is that awakening happens after a time of intense clarification of the body and training of the mind which allows the individual to reach a stage of transcendence in which there is only That Which Is and coupled with the understanding that the psychological identity of “I” is a fleeting expression of the Infinite in a Finite body.[67][68][69][70] This process of training can take a lifetime (or lifetimes in one believes in reincarnation) and the final stage is called in colloquial terms Enlightenment. Various religious and spiritual traditions call this by various names: for the Christian mystic it is Divine, Ecstatic, Mystical or Transforming Union with God,[71]for the Buddhist it is bodhi,[72] for the Zen Buddhist it is Satori,[73] for the Hindu it is Moksha,[74] for the Sufi it is Maqam al-Ihsan.[75] All of these elevated states and stages are associated with the culmination of a long path of purification and training.

According to Bonder, his awakening happened after he left his guru,[76] Adi Da Samraj, but it did not follow the typical awakening paradigm of the many Eastern traditions or even the seven Stages of Life of Adi Da Samraj;

Adi Da Samraj’s Seven Stages of Life

Stage 1: Individuation – Physical Development

Stage 2: Socialization – Emotional / Relational Development

Stage 3: Integration – Mental Development

Stage 4: Spiritualization – Divine Communication

Stage 5: Higher Spiritual Evolution – Spiritual Ascent

Stage 6: Awakening to Transcendent Self – Abiding in Consciousness

Stage 7: Divine Enlightenment – Awakening from all egoic limitations[77]

He had not completely clarified his body-mind (Stages 1-5), yet a profound stage of dual / non-dual embodiment arose which was stable over time.[78] This experience was similar to what typically would occur in Stage 6 (Waking) of Adi Da Samraj’s model, but it was more imminent as opposed to transcendent because it incorporated a simultaneous deepening into what would equivalently have been Stage 1 (Down) and Stage 2 (Mutuality). Bonder found that this stage had the hallmarks of a true awakening but occurred earlier in the path than traditionally experienced. He called this awakening “The Second Birth” and it was transmissible to others who came within the proximity of it and worked with him over time.[79]

The Trillium AwakeningTM teachers have come to realize that this is an awakening into non-separate conscious embodiment which they now call the initial Whole-Being Realization. It is when consciousness fuses into feeling-union with the body-mind and realizes its existential nature as the same essence with All that Is or Source. While this is a permanent shift in an individual’s experience of the ground of Being, the infinite and finite dimensions of self feel paradoxically at odds with each other, requiring integration over time.[80] The initial Whole-Being Realization is considered a permanent shift into a new stage of one’s life. The teachers say it is not just about expansive experiences, though they may be there for some individuals, but it is more about where the individual is centered and living from at all times. Awakening to the infinite and unbounded dimensions may have a variety of flavors such as infinite expansiveness, pure love, or unshakable Being. What is common to all is the juxtaposition of the infinite with the finite, the absolute with the relative, living the divinely human paradox.[81]

Radical Embrace: Accepting oneself and others without judgment is not a new concept and is not something that is immediately embraced as a way of Being in Western culture which resides heavily in a victim mentality.[82] Carl Rogers explored acceptance in his Seven Stages of Process[83] as the marked phases most individuals attempting to self-change pass through to get to full acceptance of themselves and their circumstances:

Stage 1: People will not speak about feelings openly, and tend to blame others for causing their pain, rather than take responsibility for themselves.

Stage 2: There is slightly less rigidity, with a small movement towards wondering whether responsibility should be taken by self, but not actually doing so.

Stage 3: The person is beginning to consider accepting responsibility for self but generalizes and focuses more on past than present feelings.

Stage 4: The person begins to describe their own here-and-now feelings but tends to be critical of self for having these.

Stage 5: Individuals express that they are seeing things more clearly, and take ownership of their situation, being prepared to take action.

Stage 6: The person recognizes their own and others’ process towards self-actualization.

Stage 7: A fluid, self-accepting person who is open to the changes that life presents.[84]

Individuals may be in more than one Stage at a time depending on which psychological conditionings or traumas are currently present. When an individual is held within a safe container in which they feel they are not being judged or evaluated based on their psycho-emotional expression, they are more likely to be accepting of taking ownership of their internal dynamics. This is a process that takes time. The Trillium AwakeningTM work creates safe environments in one-on-one sessions and small groups that allows individuals to embrace their deep psychological material and broken zones. With this environment of safety, the individual can quickly move into the equivalents of Rogers’ Stages 6 and 7 of acceptance. The teachers call this level acceptance radical embrace.[85][86]

With radical embrace a person allows everything they are, all their ways of being, not only to be present within, but to be seen, heard, felt, lived, and integrated as their whole Being. Nothing in any aspect of their Being is excluded. This leads to a natural process of investigation and integration of an individual’s conditioned responses, broken zones, and shadow issues, as well as aspects of their well-being. Radical embrace is considered a more proactive approach with regards to the work as opposed to Greenlighting which may be more passive where one waits for material to surface. It supports greater freedom and authenticity in one’s self-expression and in their relationships with others. Through this process, the natural wisdom of the individual’s whole Being may be revealed, resulting in the mending of internal divisions or “splits.”[87]

Sacred Reconfiguration: Though the initial Whole-Being Realization is profound, it is not total enlightenment, but an initial awakening. Because of the stability of this realization, however, much deeper psychospiritual work becomes possible for releasing long-held patterns from within the body-mind. This process seems to come in waves and follows an organic process. After Bonder’s initial wakening he found that there came a period of intense clarification which he termed the “Wakedown-Shakedown”[88] in which individuals went through oscillations of “apparent” separateness followed by deepening experiences of the full-body union with infinite consciousness. 

Adyashanti describes a similar experience in which his final awakening was followed by period of clarification of body and mind. He describes it as follows:

“For a couple of years after my awakening at thirty-two, I felt like my mind was one of those old telephone switchboards where they had to unplug a jack from one outlet and put it into another. It felt like the wiring in my mind was being undone and put together in different ways. I can’t say that I knew what was happening or that I had any understanding of it; it just felt like my mind was being rewired. I could feel a deep structural transformation happening in my brain, in the way my mind was working and functioning. That energetic process continued for two years, almost as if something or someone was in my brain cells, redirecting and restructuring them. After a couple of years, I noticed a much greater capacity for clarity and simplicity. My mind became a more subtle tool, a more powerful tool; it could be used in a very precise way, like a laser. Before this transformation happened, I wouldn’t say that my mind operated on that level, so there was some sort of a transformation that led to a new sense of clarity and focus. There was also a significant quieting of the mind.”[89]

The realized state is stable, but the individual continues to fall into broken zones and unconscious regions to facilitate healing those regions where they still remain unconscious.[90] As an individual moves through their unconscious/broken zones which seems like a loss of their realization, they typically reconnect to their realization at a more profound and deeper level of well-being. Ted Strauss and Carole Griggs in their iConscious model place this oscillating period in Stage 10 of their model which they call Transforming[91] while Rod Taylor places this process in his Continuity Phase of his Whole Being Evolution model.[92]

At this time the Trillium AwakeningTM teachers consider the Sacred Reconfiguration to be a post-initial Whole-Being Realization passage that is characterized by a profound reconfiguration of the individual’s most deeply held conditioning and beliefs about oneself and the world. Often cyclical, with periods of rather intense immersion in one’s shadow material and broken zones that is typically followed by new openings and expansions of consciousness. The Sacred Reconfiguration ultimately leads to greater trust and confidence in one’s Being in the midst of the ups and downs inherent in the human condition which can appear as more profound compassion and deeper appreciation for oneself and others. This reconfiguration also leads to a deepening of the integration of one’s divinely human nature and ever-increasing sense of freedom to live from a standpoint of authenticity.[93]

The Journey

For many, the initial Whole-Being Realization seems like the goal of enlightenment because it is an experience so profoundly different from the previous stages one has been living in and yet paradoxically, the movement into this stage feels natural and doesn’t overtly change one’s experience of the world. People who have experienced this say it changes their relationship with the world and has an internal sense of “coming home.” It’s as if nothing has changed and yet everything is different.[94][95]

But the Whole-Being Realization is inherently understood to be just the beginning of a myriad of realizations and awakenings that can happen for the rest of one’s life. From the point of view of spiritual teachers throughout the ages, the Infinite can never be fully known by any one human and therefore it makes sense that one could potentiallyexperience an infinite number of future realizations and awakenings.[96] In essence, the work is never done. The continued evolution of the path after initial Whole-Being Realization as shown by Trillium AwakeningTM teachers is varied and quite profound.[97] The paths elucidated by Rod Taylor’s Whole-Being Evolution model, Ted Strauss and Carole Grigg’s iConscious model[98] and Krishna Gauci’s Tapestry of Being[99] are three examples that have arisen from teachers who have detailed their journeys from initial Whole-Being Realization to deeper stages of flow and freedom. Some of these stages can only be experienced many years after the initial Whole-Being Realization because the movement to those more profound stages follows an organic and natural progression through one’s psychospiritual history and that takes time. The fact that these models are so diverse are a reflection that each person’s journey follows a unique path. These models are useful in that they provide common milestones that many will traverse in their post-initial Whole-Being Realized life, but they are not the definitive path espoused by the Trillium AwakeningTM work. The Trillium AwakeningTM work does not define which path the individual should take. Each person’s path is considered unique and unfolds in its own way.

Disclosure: This article was written by a Trillium AwakeningTM Teacher.

Bibliography

  1. Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. p. 20-24.
  2. Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. p. 28.
  3. About-Us. Trillium Awakening.
  4. Khalsa, Sat Puran Singh (2008) Journey into Spiritual Maturity: A Thematic Analysis of Transpersonal Development. pp.1 63-168.
  5. Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. p. 29.
  6. Khalsa, Sat Puran Singh (2008) Journey into Spiritual Maturity: A Thematic Analysis of Transpersonal Development. p. 176.
  7. Khalsa, Sat Puran Singh (2008) Journey into Spiritual Maturity: A Thematic Analysis of Transpersonal Development. p. 104.
  8. Khalsa, Sat Puran Singh (2008) Journey into Spiritual Maturity: A Thematic Analysis of Transpersonal Development. p. 181.
  9. Gilbert, Fax (2016) Trillium Awakening Newsletter, Issue #5.
  10.  Teachers. Trillium Awakening.
  11.  Mentors. Trillium Awakening.
  12.  Gilbert, Fax (2016) Krishna Gauci – Circles of Engagement Trillium Awakening Newsletter, Issue #9.
  13.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. p. 118.
  14.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. p. 136.
  15.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. pp. 145-146.
  16.  Taylor, Rod (2015) New Principles of Awakened Relationship. pp. 20-21.
  17.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. pp. 185-188.
  18.  Case, Frederick W., Jr. and Case, Roberta B (1997) Trilliums. pp. 15-17.
  19.  Case, Frederick W., Jr. and Case, Roberta B (1997) Trilliums. pp. 23-24
  20.  Taylor, Rod (2015) New Principles of Awakened Relationship. pp. 8-9.
  21.  “Consciousness”. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2023) by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
  22.  Craig, Edward (1998). “Consciousness”. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Routledge.
  23.  Ryle, Gilbert (1949). The Concept of Mind. University of Chicago Press. pp 156-163.
  24.  Crick, Francis and Koch, Christof (2003) A Framework for Consciousness. Nature Neuroscience 6 (2): pp. 119-126.
  25.  Seth, AK and Baynes, T (2022) “Theories of Consciousness.” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 23 (7): 439-452.
  26.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. pp. 179-182.
  27.  Blackstone, Judith (2023) The Fullness of the Ground. pp. 26-27.
  28.  Almaas, A. H. (2014) Runaway Realization. pp. 69-70.
  29.  Backstrom, Cielle (2013) Inner Relationship Focusing and Embodied Awakening. p. 2.
  30.  Bonder, Saniel (1998) Waking Down. pp. 13-17.
  31.  Ray, Reginald (2020)Somatic Descent. pp. 117-128.
  32.  Gordon, James (2019) The Transformation (renamed Transforming Trauma (2021)). pp. 71-74.
  33.  Levine, Peter (2015) Trauma and Memory. pp. 6-8.
  34.  Van der Kolk, Bessel (2014) The Body Keeps The Score. pp. 333-335.
  35.  Blackstone, Judith (2018) Trauma and the Unbound Body. pp. 70-73.
  36.  Blackstone, Judith (2023) The Fullness of the Ground. pp. 48-49.
  37.  Ibid.
  38.  Backstrom, Cielle (2013) Inner Relationship Focusing and Embodied Awakening. p. 2.
  39.  Ifemesia, Chicka (1979) Traditional Humane Living Among the Igbo. A Historical Perspective Enugu: Fourth Dimension Pub. p. 34.
  40.  Okoro, Kinslgey (2013) African Concept of ‘Inochi’: A New Paradigm For Peace Education in the Contemporary Society. Modern Social Sci. Journal 2(2), pp. 87-112.
  41.  Benedict, Ruth (1934) Patterns of Culture. Chapter 8.
  42.  Benedict, Ruth (1946) The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. pp. 222-227.
  43.  O’Neil, Cathy (2022) The Shame Machine. pp. 3-15.
  44.  Okoro, Kinglsey “Re-thinking shaming Practices in African [Igbo] Traditional Society as a Viable Option for Maintaining Justice, Social Integration and Moral Development in Modern Africa.” Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal 2016 Mar;3(4): 95-115.
  45.  Bellah, Robert et al. (1991) The Good Society. pp. 261-270.
  46.  Hall, Gordon “Is Narcissism The Cost Of Being an American?” Psychology Today April 24, 2018.
  47.  Sophalkalyan, Jay “Perspective – The Moral Myopia of Woke Culture” Journal of Political Inquiry. March 25, 2023.
  48.  Smith, D. S. et al “Land of Woke and Glory? The Conceptualisation and Framing of “Wokeness” in UK Media and Public Discourses. Javnost – The Public (2023) 30(4), 513–533. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2023.2273656]
  49.  Huizer, Jennifer, “Examples and Signs of Gaslighting and How to Respond” Medical News Today March 22, 2024.
  50.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. pp. 135-163.
  51.  Ibid.
  52.  Backstrom, Cielle (2013) Inner Relationship Focusing and Embodied Awakening. p. 6.
  53.  Bourbeau, Lise (2014) Heal Your Wounds & Find Your true Self. pp. 13-27.
  54.  Ibid.
  55.  Baum, Jessica (2022) Anxiously Attached. pp. 3-31.
  56.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. pp. 39-55.
  57.  Bonder, Saniel (1998) Waking Down. pp. 25-30.
  58.  Ibid.
  59.  Bonder, Saniel (2004) Healing the Spirit Matter Split. p 84.
  60.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. pp. 39-55.
  61.  Bonder, Saniel (998) Waking Down. pp. 25-30.
  62.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. pp. 39-55.
  63.  Bonder, Saniel (1998) Waking Down. p. 83.
  64.  Ibid.
  65.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. pp. 57-74.
  66.  Ridgeon, Lloyd (ed) Major World Religions (2003) pp. 15-17.
  67.  Garrigou-Legrange, Fr. Reginald (1948) The Three Stages of the Internal Life: Prelude of Eternal Life Vol 1 and 2 (1948)
  68.  Snelling, John (1991), The Buddhist Handbook. A Complete Guide to Buddhist Schools, Teaching, Practice, and History.
  69.  Shearer, Alistair (2002) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
  70.  Helminski, Kabir (2000) The Knowing Heart: A Sufi Path of Transformation
  71.  Garrigou-Legrange, Fr. Reginald (1948) The Three Stages of the Internal Life: Prelude of Eternal Life Vol 2. pp. 519-572.
  72.  Cohen, Richard (2006) Beyond Enlightenment: Buddhism, Religion, Modernity. p. 1.
  73.  Suzuki, D. T. (1960) An Introduction to Zen Buddhism. p. 34.
  74.  “Moksha.” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2023) by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
  75.  Tazkiyah: Purification of the Soul. http://www.muhajabah.com/tazkiyah.htm
  76.  Bonder, Saniel. (1998) Waking Down. pp. 5-8.
  77.  Samraj, Adi Da (2009) Aletheon. pp 183-221.
  78.  Bonder, Saniel (1998) Waking Down. pp. 13-17.
  79.  Ibid.
  80.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. pp. 185-205.
  81.  Ibid.
  82.  French, David (2015) Victim Culture Is Killing American Manhood.
  83.  Rogers, Carl Rogers (1946) On Become a Person. pp. 123-147.
  84.  Ibid.
  85.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. pp. 116.
  86.  Backstrom, Cielle (2013) Inner Relationship Focusing and Embodied Awakening. pp. 4-5
  87.  Ibid.
  88.  Bonder, Saniel (1998) Waking Down. pp. 119-124.
  89.  Adyashanti (2009) The End of Your World. pp. 121-122.
  90.  Bonder, Saniel (1998) Waking Down. pp. 125-128.
  91.  Strauss, Ted & Griggs, Carole (2019) iConscious. pp. 183-197.
  92.  Taylor, Rod – need reference
  93.  Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human. pp. 207-222.
  94.  Valine, Bob (2005) The Second Birth.
  95.  Valine, Bob (2009) Dancing in the Fire.
  96.  Almaas, A. H. (2014) Runaway Realization (Kindle). pp. 183-200.
  97.  Taylor, Rod – need reference
  98.  Strauss, Ted & Griggs, Carole (2019) iConscious.
  99.  Gauci, Krishna (2018) The Tapestry of Being.

Works Cited/ Bibliography

  • Adi Da Samraj (2001) The Aletheon: Volume 1.
  • Adyashanti (2009) The End Of Your World.
  • Almaas, A. H. (2014) Runaway Realization.
  • Backstrom, Cielle (2013) Inner Relationship Focusing and Embodied Awakening
  • Baum, Jessica (2022) Anxiously Attached.
  • Bellah, Robert et al. (1991) The Good Society.
  • Benedict, Ruth (1934) Patterns of Culture.
  • Benedict, Ruth (1946) The Chrysanthemum and the Sword.
  • Blackstone, Judith (2018) Trauma and the Unbound Body.
  • Blackstone, Judith (2023) The Fullness of the Ground.
  • Bonder, Saniel (1998) Waking Down: Beyond Hypermasculine Dharmas: A Breakthrough Way of Self-Realization in the Sanctuary of Mutuality.
  • Bonder, Saniel (2004) Healing the Spirit / Matter Split.
  • Bourbeau, Lise (2014) Heal Your Wounds & Find Your True Self.
  • Case, Frederick W., Jr. and Case, Roberta B (1997) Trilliums.
  • Cohen, Richard S. (2006) Beyond Enlightenment: Buddhism, Religion, Modernity.
  • Crick, Francis and Koch, Christof. A framework for consciousness. Nat. Neurosci. 2003 Feb;6(2):119-26. doi: 10.1038/nn0203-119. PMID: 12555104.
  • French, David. Victim Culture Is Killing American Manhood, Online Nat. Rev. September 29, 2015. https://www.nationalreview.com/2015/09/victim-culture-kills-american-manhood/
  • Garrigou-Legrange, Fr. Reginald (1948) The Three Stages of the Internal Life: Prelude of Eternal Life Vol 1.
  • Garrigou-Legrange, Fr. Reginald (1948) The Three Stages of the Internal Life: Prelude of Eternal Life Vol 2.
  • Gauci, Krishna (2018) The Tapestry of Being: Talks on Practical Mysticism.
  • Glickman, Sandra and Boyar, Debroah. (2016). Trillium Awakening. In O. Gunnlaugson & M. Brabant (Eds.), Cohering The Integral We Space: Engaging Collective Emergence, Wisdom, and Healing in Groups. (pp. 95-114).
  • Gordon, James (2019/2021) The Transformation / Transforming Trauma.
  • Huizer, Jennifer, “Examples and Signs of Gaslighting and How to Respond” Medical News Today March 22, 2024.
  • Khalsa, Sat Puran Singh (2008) Journey into Spiritual Maturity: A Thematic Analysis of Transpersonal Development (2008).
  • Leigh, CC (2017) Becoming Divinely Human: A Threefold Path to Embodied Awakening.
  • Levine, Peter (2015) Trauma and Memory.
  • Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2023) by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated.
  • Okoro, Kinglsey “Re-thinking shaming Practices in African [Igbo] Traditional Society as a Viable Option for Maintaining Justice, Social Integration and Moral Development in Modern Africa.” Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal 2016 Mar;3(4): 95-115.
  • O’Neil, Cathy (2022) The Shame Machine.
  • Ray, Reginald (2020) Somatic Descent: How To Unlock the Deepest Wisdom of the Body.
  • Ridgeon, Lloyd (ed) Major World Religions (2003).
  • Rogers, Carl (1946) On Becoming a Person.
  • Ryle, Gilbert (1949) The Concept of Mind.
  • Samraj, Adi Da (2009) Aletheon.
  • Seth and Baynes (2022) Theories of Consciousness.
  • Shearer, Alistair (2002) The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
  • Smith, D. S. et al “Land of Woke and Glory? The Conceptualisation and Framing of “Wokeness” in UK Media and Public Discourses. Javnost – The Public (2023) 30(4), 513–533. https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2023.2273656
  • Snelling, John (1991), The Buddhist Handbook. A Complete Guide to Buddhist Schools, Teaching, Practice, and History.
  • Strauss, Ted & Griggs, Carole (2019) iConscious.
  • Suzuki, D. T. (1960) An Introduction to Zen Buddhism.
  • Taylor, Rod (2015) New Principles of Awakened Relationship.
  • Van der Kolk, Bessel (2014) The Body Keeps The Score.

Further Reading

External Links