Waking Down, the Second Birth & Rotting Out of Idealism
What happens when spiritual seeking stops aiming for transcendence and starts aiming for embodiment? Ted Strauss and Hillary Davis call this process “rotting out of idealism” — the necessary descent from blissful spiritual highs into full inhabitation of the body, the earth, and human relationship.
Ted and Hillary are teachers in the Waking Down in Mutuality lineage, founded by Saniel Bonder. In this conversation with Rick Archer, they trace their individual paths — Ted’s through TM, formless ecstasy, and a pivotal encounter with Saniel; Hillary’s through Poonjaji and years of intense physical and emotional challenge — and describe how their relationship itself became a vortex of mutual awakening. Ted credits Hillary as his “embodiment magnet,” someone whose slow, deeply grounded wavelength drew his high-frequency spiritual tendencies down into the body and the earth. Hillary describes learning to stop seeking flashy experiences and instead inhabit the full weight of human pain and ordinary life.
Central to their teaching is what Ted calls the Second Birth — a shift out of identification with the higher mind or transcendental consciousness alone, into a consciousness that includes and inhabits the entire body and world. They challenge the spiritual mainstream’s habit of dismissing the relative self entirely, arguing that authentic awakening is not escape from humanness but its full embrace.
Ted Strauss and Hillary Davis are teachers and long-time practitioners in the Waking Down in Mutuality community. Their website is https://tedstrauss.com.
Website: trilliumawakening.org
Interview recorded June 12, 2010
Batgap interview with Ted Strauss and Carole Griggs
YouTube Video Chapters:
- 00:00:00 – Introduction and Background
- 00:03:34 – The Magical Encounter at the Fair
- 00:06:09 – Falling in Love and Kissed Feet
- 00:08:58 – A Friendship Begins
- 00:12:06 – The Depth of the Heart
- 00:15:14 – The Tantric Challenge of Coming into the World with Awakened Consciousness
- 00:18:18 – The Awakening of Consciousness
- 00:21:30 – Cultivating the Recognition of Consciousness Embodied
- 00:24:16 – Different Experiences of Awakening
- 00:27:04 – Beyond the Ultimate Awakening
- 00:29:36 – Introduction of Samuel Bondar and his role in awakening
- 00:32:22 – Overcoming Pain and Suffering
- 00:35:19 – The Avoidance of Duality and Fundamentalism
- 00:38:13 – The Discomfort of Being Human
- 00:41:24 – Being with Discomfort
- 00:44:47 – The Evolution of Human Consciousness
- 00:48:02 – The Process of Disillusionment and Surrender
- 00:51:04 – The Rot Out of Illusion
- 00:54:02 – Evolution and Growth in Spiritual Development
- 00:56:56 – The Genius of Being is Guiding the Shell
- 01:00:12 – Evolution of Relationship Dynamics
- 01:03:30 – Partners in Waking Down
- 01:05:48 – The Three Components of Waking Down
- 01:08:44 – The Importance of Awakening in Personal Growth
- 01:11:25 – Reflections on the Awakening Experience
- 01:14:34 – The Breakthrough Moment
- 01:17:25 – Falling Into Embodiment
- 01:19:59 – Awakening and Centers of Consciousness
- 01:22:36 – Wrap-up and Final Thoughts
- 01:24:53 – Embracing Spiritual Variety
- 01:27:15 – Closing Credits
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