VeganAwake

The spiritual ego is the most armor-plated of all egos. It really is the toughest nut to crack. Many in their journey to return to wholeness experience this phase where the ego takes on yet another layer of inflation, of “identity”. Only this time it deems it legitimate because it has a spiritual label. This phase of the ego is still the ego however now it becomes largely impenetrable. From my own experience some of the traits of this phase are: Becoming overly identified with intellectual knowledge Defending that knowledge – spiritual righteousness Spiritual vanity and pride Spiritual superiority ( seeing others as less than) Lack of genuine emotional vulnerability and transparency Lack of radical self-honesty Lack of self-awareness, self-observation Lack of genuine curiosity Teaching more than listening and learning Lack of gratitude for others as teachers in their own right (students are teachers) Resistance to being “called out” – lack of accountability Wearing a mask of positivity (arising from fear) Engaging in spiritual debates (arising from the need to be right) Every one of these expressions is simply a defense against awakening. As such they represent the ego’s many and varied delaying tactics.

Oh yeah... It snuck in the back door on me a while back when I was at home on a family vacation. It took me awhile to even admit that that's what had happened. Becoming aware early on is definitely helpful. When one is awake the Consciousness shines through these masks..

@Serotoninluv haha yes that's funny about the retreat. Divine Liberation describes it well I think... I honestly really can't say if it's absolute truth but my heart tells me it is.

@Serotoninluv I completely understand what you are saying... I am just the sign pointing to the truth. What we are discussing was one of the many big hurdles of my understanding. No one wants to hear nothing really matters but it's simply the truth...

This is a little about what I was saying. In our culture, however, the pursuit of ‘enlightenment’ (which really means abiding in direct awareness of reality) has become confused and mixed up with the self-help / self-improvement project. People talk about wanting to grow and become a better person, and often imagine that the terminal point of this growth process is something like enlightenment. This demonstrates a real lack of understanding of the nature of the spiritual path (as conceived in the Asian traditions, anyway). Not only is abiding-awakeness not the endpoint of the growth process, it doesn’t even lie in that direction. What??! Look, if you stop and think this through, you’ll see it’s obvious: according to all the Yoga traditions, your true nature is always already perfect, the core of your being is pure radiant divinity, and you are always already one with the infinite divine Consciousness which gives rise to and supports the entire universe. TAT-TVAM-ASI: you are That; here and now. Therefore, realization of this truth does not depend on any degree of personal growth. Rather, it is a paradigm shift in which you stop identifying with the phenomena within Awareness (e.g., thoughts, emotions, body-image, etc.) and wake up to the fact that you are Awareness itself—the only constant in the ever-changing world of your experience. And yes, it is possible to become so awake that you never fall back asleep again. You don’t become a categorically different kind of person, you just finally see the truth so clearly and completely that you can’t unsee it, and thus you dwell in a different paradigm from before.

The perception that an alcoholic beating his wife and kids and causing trauma and suffering is bad is again in itself the conditioned thought pattern. I think the problem is you are getting your personal self-help agenda mixed up with the enlightenment process.

There is an interesting phenomenon that occurs when one takes the stress off of themselves that they need to be a certain way. It's like when the stress of perfection is off your shoulders you naturally gravitate towards unconditional love understanding and compassion.

There literally is nothing to do... if someone tells you otherwise it is a conditioned thought pattern. Just their perspective an idea a belief. A flower or a tree doesn't strive to be perfect it just is.

Just the thought that there is behavior that would be considered perfect or imperfect is a conditioned thought pattern in itself. For example one might believe that their grouchy behavior in the morning is imperfect and they need to work on it, but the truth is, that is just a conditioned thought pattern...they can be grouchy all they want. Yeah they might not have very many friends but that doesn't mean they're imperfect.

@karkaore in my experience it's more like the realization that you were already Perfect all along and your conditioned thought patterns we're creating an illusion that you were not perfect and needed to do something. There are not certain behaviors that qualify someone to be enlightened. It's not a future destination... it's a realizing what you aren't to realize what you are process. I hope this helps good luck I am in the military as well thank you for your service!!

Meditation and emptying my glass was also very helpful for me.

Seeking to understand the process is fine... it's when you believe you have found the answer in some external form that is the problem. The reason why all the great Masters have said go within.....is because it quite literally is a falling away process of your false self, and the realization of your true self which is actually nothing. When you strip away all the onion layers and labels you have allowed yourself to believe you will realize the nothingness which is left over. Here is something I found describing what I'm describing: Enlightenment is devastatingly simple....Enlightenment is what we are. There is nothing to gain, only its recognition....Awakening to enlightenment is a journey from here to here, not from here to there. There is nowhere to go and nothing to be attained. Enlightenment is simply an awakening to what has always been the case. There is only the seeing through of our own ignorance. --Gary Crowley

Thank you very much for sharing!! I've been going through Awakening for a couple years although I'm starting to think it's been my whole life. After I awakened to my true self and snapped out of The Matrix I felt lost like stuck between two worlds and I didn't know what to do. I did go through kind of a depression where I started feeling like nothing really mattered and everything was pointless I even stopped exercising for a while. It felt like there was nowhere to go cuz everything was infinity and it was right where I was sitting. It wasn't until recently I felt I had gone full circle and it was time to integrate back into regular life again. Lately I've just been focusing on realizing everything is God and loving myself and everything. Unconditional love definitely feels like the infinite purpose. Was this simular to your experience? Do you have any advice for someone in a position like mine? I found what you said about communication very interesting thank you for that.. Again thank you for everything this was great.

A 100% Must Watch!!

@Aakash okay I read what you said very closely...I understand going full circle and spiral Dynamics quite well.... I believe you!! In my opinion religion is just fine because everything is God and you can't go wrong in this game. I think your assessment is high I would personally rate this information as a high turquoise or Coral. You are describing "nothing really matters".

The spiritual ego is the most armor-plated of all egos. It really is the toughest nut to crack. Many in their journey to return to wholeness experience this phase where the ego takes on yet another layer of inflation, of “identity”. Only this time it deems it legitimate because it has a spiritual label. This phase of the ego is still the ego however now it becomes largely impenetrable. From my own experience some of the traits of this phase are: Becoming overly identified with intellectual knowledge Defending that knowledge – spiritual righteousness Spiritual vanity and pride Spiritual superiority ( seeing others as less than) Lack of genuine emotional vulnerability and transparency Lack of radical self-honesty Lack of self-awareness, self-observation Lack of genuine curiosity Teaching more than listening and learning Lack of gratitude for others as teachers in their own right (students are teachers) Resistance to being “called out” – lack of accountability Wearing a mask of positivity (arising from fear) Engaging in spiritual debates (arising from the need to be right) Every one of these expressions is simply a defense against awakening. As such they represent the ego’s many and varied delaying tactics.

@Aakash the realization of the illusion or Maya is the escape in itself. Just like Leo says awareness alone is Curative. I agree with your statement that you don't actually go anywhere because it was just an illusion... When I had one of my last big Awakenings in May ....I became completely aware that it was my own mind keeping me imprisoned in the matrix of illusion... and that i had been free the whole time I just needed to realize it for myself!!! I refer to it as the jail breaking of one's mind from the matrix. When one combines this with the realization of the true self ...the person underneath the thinker... you can wake up from Maya once and for all!! I feel there is a lot of confusion about the process and I understand there's multiple paths but when you zoom out the overall process tends to be very similar. My hope with this video is to help people become aware of the realization and falling away of the false self process that this video shows very clearly.

@zeroISinfinity thank you for your words of encouragement. Doesn't this or that still equal THIS. There can still be learning that takes place within THIS. This video lays out a clear understanding of how the ego construct functions and keeps most people locked into the Matrix of Illusion for their whole life.

@Matt8800 I definitely felt a strong connection to Zen Buddhism and Taoism myself, although I have not studied very deeply into either one. I felt a big connection with the yin yang. for example: I started feeling that everything and nothing mattered simultaneously. A few things I wrote in my journal: Between nothing and everything is. We are all seeing the same thing, we just think we describe it differently. I messed around with acid and mushrooms a few dozen times when I was younger. But one time in particular I took some liquid acid and it completely wiped away my monkey chattering mind and I was in complete awake consciousness for several hours. Now that I'm thinking of it it might not have been LSD LOL. Everything is connected... I have been going through Awakening for about 2 and 1/2 years, but maybe I've been Awakening my whole life and I just didn't know it.

@Matt8800 wow.. Thanks for sharing that's incredible and almost identical to mine just a few minor differences but essentially all the meat and potatoes are there as some would say haha. I agree Enlightenment is not a big deal. I've always liked: " The great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences" I was always a middle path not heavily opinionated person that really just like taking it easy... path of least resistance. That may have assisted me dropping everything as we were discussing. I think what helped me most of all was having faith that I would be taken care of.

@Matt8800 okay gotcha yes that's great. I apologize for making that sound personal I was just talking about people in general. That's good I have recently also reached a point where I'm focusing more on my family life and enjoying just being. Was there something that triggered your Awakening? I often refer to it as jailbreaking our minds haha.

@Matt8800 it is the path that ends suffering. When you realize it your old patterns will continue to play out for a little while, but the enlightenment itself shines bright. Eventually you see it was your own mind keeping you in a prison of Illusion.

@Matt8800 I understand.. The pursuing is not the problem, it is the attachment and identification that one creates as they pursue. Or thinking they have found the answer and some external form. Being able to take something or drop it without it affecting your emotions is taking the middle path and staying neutral non-attachment. Essentially having it or not having does not affect a person emotionally that has no attachments or desires. A person can take it or leave it either way. I am currently reading a book that Osho wrote about Tantra it's very good so far. In my experience it appears that everyone thinks they're talking about a different path but when you really zoom out it is the same thing just in different order. Basically everyone thinks they're describing a different path but it ends up back at the same ocean where it started. It's just that some paths take longer to get to the same destination. But that's not necessarily a problem. As for as one practice being faster or taking longer than the other ....I believe that just depends on each individual.

This is the pathless path the wayless way and the nothing that is something. You can absolutely disagree and call it my ego but you will only be limiting your experience.

This can sometimes be a tough or confusing area to navigate through. On the biggest picture possible nothing really matters. That being said if you are trying to awaken you have to be aware of how sneaky, cunning and clever the ego is. It will absolutely slide in the back door, and yes this is commonly referred to as the spiritual ego. Remember the ego construct wants more... more more more...more power more money more knowledge more Love, more of everything there is no end. In my experience the complete dropping of the ego constructs self agenda, and becoming nobody with no preferences, no it has to be this way or that way. Just simply staying neutral in all walks of life. And accepting not resisting the isness of each and every moment. Remember nobody can enter the gateless gate. So be nobody!!