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Home » Blog » Exploring the Undefinable- Being, Love, and Consciousness

Are we coming from a place of self-authenticity, or are our ego-patterns leading the way? Are we elevating our levels of consciousness?  And how would we be able to tell? Leon Vanderpol joined us on the xMonks Drive to discuss how consciousness and profound awakening can unlock a whole new paradigm of leadership potential.

Here is an edited version of the conversation.

Which Part of Your I is Tired?

Gaurav: So physically probably I am burnout. Mentally I am stressed and emotionally, I might be experiencing kind of drained out and I can fine. Define how to define this I? 

Leon: We often get confused between what’s the I that’s tired and the I that’s perhaps that which never gets tired. And I noticed that in myself, that when I start to feel fatigue, and the mental illness comes on some stress. Sometimes there’s some emotionality in there, too. You know, it can come naturally with those kinds of dips. That if I just take the time, which I know I need to do, it’s just about self care very often returning to that state of groundedness in myself, when I do that, when I take that time, and I literally just sit there and can say, how am I doing? And I inquire within to that place in the self, how am I doing? And very much it’s just the spark of life is just going. It is telling me I am well, thank you for inquiring.

So what part of me is asking, I don’t really pay attention to that. There’s just the spark that says the I is well. But temporarily, there’s this glitch in the more physical 3d-ness of myself, that needs to be attended to so that that part of me feels as good as the inner spark. 

Can A 5-year Old Understand ‘Being’?

Gaurav: You do a lot of work in deep transformation. You do a lot of work with leaders and coaches, and facilitate a journey for them where they can actually tap into their being. You’re an author of a book called A Shift in Being as well, thought and practices of deep transformation. If you were to define this term called Being to a five year old child, how would you define them? Because I struggle to define and explain the simple term called Being.

Leon: I read once that I won’t take credit for it, someone said, to explain to a five year old, you simply say it’s who you are, when no one’s watching. And the five year old can get a sense. When no one’s watching, when mom and dad are around grandparents and around, who am I in that moment, it’s just a sense of guilt that, but that’s not just for a five year old. That’s a wonderful way to explain a sense of being to people at any age, even adults with Who are you in that moment, the sense of self when no one and I mean, no one appears to be watching in any form.

Okay, because this is a quality of selfhood that is very difficult to put words to, I was actually working with a translator recently for the book into Portuguese. And the primary challenge he said that they have at the very beginning of the translation is that in Portuguese, there is no term for beingness and way of being.

And I thought, that’s fascinating, because in English, we just take it for granted, way of being might not be common, but when we sort of talk about presence and ways of being people readily after struggling, yeah, you know, I grasp what this is pointing to. 

But that there’s a whole language that doesn’t have a term for it is interesting to me, because language is descriptive in many ways, kind of a cultural understanding of things and the way people view life in the world. So we see that not everyone grasps beingness. But it is important for us to begin to understand it. Because it feels for me that it’s part of the forefront of what we’re really starting to understand about the evolution of humanity, if you will. We’ve learned so much about ourselves through psychology, through psychiatry, through coaching through all kinds of modalities. We’ve learned so much about who we are, as a race. 

But beingness is still this, this kind of unknown frontier, it’s right there with consciousness, right to understand this mysterious phenomenon that gives rise to my sense of self is a part of my energy systems, my aura, part of my consciousness and how that works. Do you know how I experience life? Because of it, how it interacts and engages with others, and how we expand it? Evolve it? 

These are questions that there are no yet ready answers for but like you said. This has always been for me, that was the passion point. Not that I have all the answers I’m not even going to pretend to but the passion point of sitting with people in exploration of this, both verbally or verbally, but beyond the verbal into those moments of silence, or beingness arises in the spaces in the silence and something extraordinary unfolds. But no one can necessarily say what it was. But something is happening in the interplay within the consciousness within the matrix of our connectedness.

The Art of Deep Transformation in Shift 

Gaurav: You’ve written this book called A Shift in Being:The Art and The Practices of Deep Transformation. Just curious. What does it mean? When you say Shift and Being?

Leon: It’s akin to a shift in consciousness, if you will. For some people, that might be an  easier word to grasp this idea that consciousness can expand into alternate levels. And in that case, as I write in my book, each level of consciousness has its own built in reality.

I love the work of Dr. David Hawkins, this was some seminal work for me in terms of understanding consciousness evolution, where he maps out human consciousness from very low levels of power to very high levels of power. He puts words to it and labels to it so we can get a sense of what these levels of consciousness are, from the more disempower varying levels, fear, hate, desire, that kind of thing to more expansive levels of will, love, even reason as a higher level of enlightenment and beyond. Yeah, joy. So when I began to understand that each level of consciousness has its own built in reality, it dawned on me that as we shift our state of consciousness or way of being in this world into these more expansive levels, automatically, our perceptions shift, to mirror to reflect, if you will, the consciousness reality is sort of embedded within that consciousness.

But what a lot of what happens in coaching is that we’re not really focused on helping people shift their state of being or consciousness, we’re having them think differently or think through things. But the assumption going in is that my state of consciousness coming into this session is not the focus, I don’t need to shift it necessarily, that I can achieve what I want in this session, with the state of being or consciousness that I currently inhabit. And I need some support thinking differently. But the way of being is not the focus. But in the work, we’re doing it saying, “No, the way of being is everything. That once that shifts often the solutions that are desired, just naturally fall in.” It’s kind of like the image of the Rubik’s Cube. Remember the Rubik’s cube with all the sides and colors? 

It’s kind of like you suddenly get this? Yes, I know what it is, I need to perceive everything differently, because I’ve completely altered my inner state of reality, not just thinking differently, not just perceiving differently. So the gist of the work becomes, how do we support people in a coaching session or transformative space, to truly shift their inner state their inner beingness, to elevate and expand their consciousness, because when we do that, that which needs to be known, just arises, these new ways of perceiving reality just literally arise almost by magic.

And they simply then live into that reality. And we start to see and experience the world that we have never in the past, glimpsed it, or we glimpsed it like we’ve had moments of it, but the sustainability piece becomes a question: how do we sustain these altered states of experience? Right? 

Because that’s often what happens, we move in and fall back. Sorry, go ahead. Yeah, absolutely. with you on that. So we moved there, and we come back. And I really loved it when you said an altered state of being, the way we show up, the way we look at the world. You know, while I’m listening to you, the work of Richard Barrett, the work of spiral dynamics, the work of Robert Keegan, when he talks about the vertical development that’s coming to my mind.

To deepen your understanding of authentic self and awareness of being, tune into the conversation here

About the Speaker: Leon VanderPol

Leon VanderPol (PCC) is an internationally known coach trainer, transformational coach, coach mentor, and founder of the Center for Transformational Coaching. He runs the Deep Coaching Intensive, a professional coach training and personal growth journey developed to help coaches learn the art of deep transformational coaching and to facilitate profound inner growth and awakening. He has over a decade of experience as a coach trainer, and mentor.He is the author of A Shift in Being: The Art and Practices of Deep Transformational Coaching, a new paradigm of coaching which invites people to drop below surface-level engagement, explore the boundaries of their existence, and tap into their most authentic self.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the meaning of being?

It’s difficult to define and explain the basic term “being” because it refers to a trait of selfhood that’s hard to describe. We’re finally starting to grasp the concept of humanity’s evolution, if you will. We’ve learnt a lot about ourselves through psychology, psychiatry, coaching, and a variety of other techniques. We’ve discovered a lot about ourselves as a race.

Does each level of consciousness have its own reality?

When you realise that each level of consciousness has its own built-in reality, it becomes clear that as we shift our state of consciousness or way of being in the world into these more expansive levels, our perceptions shift as well, mirroring or reflecting the consciousness reality embedded within that consciousness.

What is the meaning of shift in deep transformation?

It’s akin to a shift in consciousness. For some people, that may be a more understandable word to grasp the concept of consciousness-expanding on many levels. When we alter our state of consciousness or way of being in the world to these broader levels, our perceptions shift automatically to mirror, or reflect, the awareness reality, which is sort of embedded inside that consciousness.

Who is Leon Vanderpol?

Leon VanderPol is the founder of the Center for Transformational Coaching and a globally recognised coach trainer, transformational coach, and coach mentor. He is the founder and director of the Deep Coaching Intensive, a professional coach training and personal growth experience designed to assist coaches in learning the art of deep transformative coaching.

What is transformational coaching?

Deep Transformational Coaching: The Art and Practices is a new coaching paradigm that challenges people to go beyond surface-level involvement, explore the frontiers of their existence, and delve into their most authentic selves.