Moksha

Animal minds are subject to conditioning just like humans (which are another animal). The difference is that being more advanced, humans have deeper capacity for self-deception (e.g., ego) and for self-awareness (e.g., enlightenment).

Crucifixion wasn't their first attempt: ‘I tell you the truth,’ Jesus answered, ‘before Abraham was born, I am!’ At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. - John 8:56–59

There's a reason this has traditionally been the case. People need to be taught according to what they are ready to realize, nothing more or less. * I have fed you with milk and not with meat; for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. * Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. * All that I or any teacher can do is reflect back to you who or what you are. An apple falls when the moment is right. * Do not share this wisdom with anyone who lacks in devotion or self-control, lacks the desire to learn, or scoffs at me.

Enjoy the show ?

Trust your instinct to realize direct experience. It is supreme. If you are early in the spiritual path, there are many insights along the inward journey to the absolute. The next best thing to direct experience is pondering the direct realizations of others. You will find this most clearly through mystics across every major religion (Christianity, Hindu, Buddhism, Muslim, Kabbalah). You have to look deeper to see the absolute in mass writings like those collected into the bible. It is there also, but these writings can become a belief trap if you aren't careful. Eventually though, you must let go of the teachings of others and directly realize the absolute within.

At least he knows that nobody knows anything.

But then you miss the phenomenal parade of misled creatures, trying to remember where they left themselves.

Yes, the absolute is maya but it is also beyond maya. It is the essence of every qualia, and is beyond every qualia. It is the kaleidoscope, and is looking through the kaleidoscope, and is beyond the looker and the kaleidoscope. You understand this, but only intermittently, then the door closes. Learn to keep the door open, even the slightest crack, as you move through life. The light that you let through will set you free. It is about relaxing, not forcing. Distancing, not attaching. Letting go, not grabbing. Like a finger trap, the secret is to release pressure rather than falling into the instinctive trap of fighting your way out. Feel the energy within, and instead of pushing it away let it flow through and beyond you. The absolute already understands the solution to whatever needs to be solved, just let it happen already.

Every person is Sisyphus until he decides to get out of the way. It doesn't require becoming a recluse, which is still left with the incessant yammerings of the mind. You can live in a city of people, and be silent.

An incoherent fool can babble a string of words realized as pearls by someone ready to hear. What matters is not whether someone appears to be enlightened, but whether in whatever way, they direct attention more deeply to the absolute within.

The absolute beyond maya, and sometimes even within maya, understands that maya constantly changes and is never fulfilled. It is the kaleidoscope, and you are looking through it trying to understand it, rather than simply enjoying its phenomenal beauty.

Damn, I love this thread.

Your person is the intersection of the absolute and the relative. It doesn't have to be dissolved, only directly realized. When it happens, the light of the absolute clears the obstructions of the person, and the form becomes its transparent conduit. You don't have to fight tooth and nail for every inch of enlightenment. The more you struggle with it, the tighter the door becomes within the frame. You have to relax and it will open of its own accord. How do you relax? Realize your true nature, and deepen the trust. As long as you are sincere, the healing will happen naturally. It is inevitable, once the light begins to flow.

It is always a surprise, but the knock that wakes you up is not always the same.

@BlueOak ?Different life forms (maybe including Leo's alien) with eyes instinctively gravitate to each other's gaze when they meet. Maybe that's why they're called the window to the soul.

Be careful of the appearance of spiritual arrogance. It's true that awakening comes at the deepest cost, but there is no superior path for the absolute to realize itself. The light finds its own way through the crevices of the contrived self.

Aldous Huxley called it the Doors of Perception. It is opening and closing within yourself, revealing the angels and demons of your experience. Let it flow through you without resistance, according to the deep current of the absolute which is clearing it through you. The blockages will naturally dissolve in the light of absolute love. I'm sorry for your suffering. You are deeper than it is, and it will resolve.

Isn't life phenomenal?

Expression is the imagination of the absolute. It is what it does to experience phenomena, and the apparent losing and realization of itself within the dream. The relative you typing a post on a forum on a planet in the cosmos is an infinitesimal example of this expression.

Relatively, you are responding to me. Absolutely, you are one expression of yourself responding to another expression of the same absolute self. It is all the absolute, in apparently different forms and states of self-awareness.

By that definition, which is the relative, of course things exist outside of your awareness. The person creates its own cosmos through its senses, perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and actions, but so does every other person. The absolute is beyond definition, and nothing exists outside of its awareness. It is who you actually are, which is why I asked for clarification.

Great, now please define what you mean by "you".

@Consept Even arrogance serves a purpose. Look at how much introspection was driven by Leo's recent thread about being the creature with the deepest understanding on the planet. Everything, including Leo, is an expression of the absolute and can help it realize itself.

You clearly defined objectivity. How do you define "your experience"?

The Mind Illuminated is my meditation go-to. It is chock-full of techniques for developing a solid meditation practice. As for the specific meditation object and process, experiment and see what works for your mind. Focusing on the breath is distracting for me, but focusing on the inner body is sublime. Some respond well to guided meditation, but I immerse myself in silence. There is no proper way for meditating, except what allows your thoughts to settle and focuses your attention on the spaciousness within. Avoid extreme practice, impatience, and self-judgment. Learn to enjoy the process. With time, the light of the absolute will seep past your blockages into that spaciousness, until eventually it fills you and flows through you.