Life from Truth outwardly can look very much similar to any other life. The only difference is you know you are not essentially your body, mind, emotions, etc. You experientially know you are the nothingness from which everything appears. This is not a knowing from the mind like knowing the sky is filled with stars even during the day when you cannot see or experience them. It is a direct continual experience of your essence while engaged in life. A life experiencing, but not identifying with, a wide array of emotions: joy, anger, peace, unrest, guilt, pleasure, sorrow, envy, compassion, love, hate. Emotions that are felt intimately and deeply, without the attachment to a story about how life should or shouldn’t unfold.

The self-realized individual still interacts in the same perceived world as anyone else. Stories come up, apparent problems arise, etc. The difference is, from a state of awareness, the stories are seen as stories and not believed to be fundamentally true. You continue to have preferences, however, you don’t believe your preferences are the only valid way to experience life.

Life and activity continue, just without the identification with the fruits of the actions. When no longer identified with “your position” in a story, it no longer carries the weight of identification with the outcome. You continue to interact with your environment, but from a position that is free from the burden of believing your opinion or position is fundamentally more correct than another’s. When you are no longer identified with your position in a story, life is free to be enjoyed.

Don Miguel Ruiz wrote “The Four Agreements.” These simple statements do a better job than most other writings we’ve seen to describe life after awakening.

1. DO YOUR BEST. This is the natural flow of life from the awakened perspective. If you are moving spontaneously from your essence, you are automatically doing your best.
2. DON’T TAKE THINGS PERSONALLY. The recognition that you are not in essence an individual, but rather the universal ground of Being, removes the tendency to take things personally. You cannot take something personally if you do not identify as a person, but merely experience as a person.
3. BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD. Truth is the natural expression of Truth. From the awakened perspective, Truth is the spontaneous expression of life, and anything not experienced as an expression of Truth, feels like poison in your system.
4. DON’T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS. Assumptions are the spinning of stories about events based on your view of the “facts.” The belief in the validity of stories, or your particular viewpoint, is not part of the awakened experience, so there is no impetus to make assumptions.

One would not expect a self-realized individual to go through life seeming to make judgments or appearing like a jerk, but that does not mean she/he would always appear to be a saint, either. Life moves as life moves. We cannot put limits on how Truth can express. Expecting a self-realized individual to act according to a predefined list of behaviors would be making lots of assumptions. The only difference between a self-realized individual and one who is not is the continued experiential recognition of Being. How that manifests is life’s business.

Love Steve and Bec