Moksha

Does Consciousness have knowledge, as if it is a precious possession to cling to? Consciousness is awareness dreaming of knowledge, existence, and experience but these are only a dream. It observes the unfurling of its creation, but when it chooses to realize its true nature, apparent knowledge dissipates and there is only attributeless awareness. Awakening is Self-realization as the unjudging Witness of the cosmos. In the depths of the ocean, there is no knowledge, only non-conceptual being. A little Learning is a dang’rous Thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring: There shallow Draughts intoxicate the Brain, And drinking largely sobers us again. - Alexander Pope

I feel that in a way, all minds are on the spectrum. Awakening is not falling below thought, but realizing your ultimate nature beyond thought.

@Razard86 Well said. Judgment is always egoic. It separates rather than unites. My personality was shaped by a fundamentalist faith, and still sometimes struggles, especially with self-judgment. The deconditioning continues, and is the grace of Consciousness. How liberating to realize that you are not your thoughts, beliefs, or experiences. Ultimately, you are the awareness behind these phenomena, observing with equanimity.

I have felt the void terror you describe, but then realized it was only the conditioned personality that desperately seeks permanence in an impermanent world. As Consciousness, observing the waves on the surface of myself, there is only stillness. The deep I is love, creativity, and tranquility. As long as it doesn't identify with its creations, there is nothing to fear. Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God. - A Course in Miracles

Direct realization is more meaningful than the collective library of every teacher, guru, and sage. If you are able to realize without requiring a pointer, all the better.

Yes, personality only exists in a relative sense. And yet, Consciousness creates beings and resides within them, even in relative reality. It is an incomprehensible interaction of the ultimate with the relative. Neo-Advaita dismisses the relative as meaningless, but if so, why does Consciousness create it? If God is not only absolute, but in the relative as well, by definition the relative is also holy.

@Thought Art All good Go with what resonates with you, and don't be surprised if that changes over time. I remember reading Eckhart Tolle for the first time, and tossing the book aside as woo-woo trash. It wasn't until years later, when I had suffered more, that I picked it up again and couldn't put it down. Same words, different readiness for their wisdom.

I feel this is why Neo-Advaita teachings ring hollow for many of us. Platitudes about there being no you sound mysterious and wise, but are they useful? Each being is worthy of honor. You are unique and even holy, because of who inhabits you. There will never be another personality identical to yours, and the spiritual journey of Self-discovery through the lens of your personality is entirely special and your own. Celebrate and respect it. It is not that your personality isn't real, it is that it is only relatively real. The universe and every being in it exist, but they are not absolute. Einstein proved this. Relative reality is in the eye of the perceiver. Space and time are not ultimately real. This becomes obvious when we push space and time to their extremes, at the macro- or micro-levels of reality. Quantum and astrophysics reveal the fraying ends of the universal matrix that we inhabit. Science supports spirituality, beyond what most people realize. Still, science is bound to the laws of the relative universe. The thinking mind will never directly realize Consciousness. It can suggest what is possible, but awakening is inherently non-conceptual. If you have awakened, questions become irrelevant. They are the conditioned mind trying to understand a spiritual experience which is beyond the ability of the mind to comprehend.

You might even say we are beyond phenomenal

@Godishere Thanks for your kind words, I appreciate it ?

You are not the only Consciousness that exists. Consciousness is all that exists. It is you, it is me, and it is every being that it creates. It is also beyond the universe. Your direct experience is simply Consciousness realizing itself within your form. Consciousness is absolute, but you and I are only expressions of it like the waves of an infinite ocean. We are forms in a relative universe, inhabited by Consciousness. Consciousness is within us and is our ultimate identity.

@Galyna I completely agree, and your contributions to the forum are sincerely appreciated. Thank you for starting this thread. The value of suffering and surrender is a deep insight that doesn't get discussed often enough on the forum.

I hear you, and you are wise to be skeptical of all teachings. You can only see if they point you toward Self-realization or not. Once they do, let even those teachings go. Bhikkhus, the teaching is merely a vehicle to describe the truth. Don’t mistake it for the truth itself. A finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. The finger is needed to know where to look for the moon, but if you mistake the finger for the moon itself, you will never know the real moon. The teaching is like a raft that carries you to the other shore. The raft is needed, but the raft is not the other shore. An intelligent person would not carry the raft around on his head after making it across to the other shore. Bhikkhus, my teaching is the raft which can help you cross to the other shore beyond birth and death. Use the raft to cross to the other shore, but don’t hang onto it as your property. Do not become caught in the teaching. You must be able to let it go. - Thich Nhat Hanh Consciousness creates the dream, and inhabits each character within the dream, whether Consciousness awakens to itself within the character or not. Sometimes it reveals itself to itself through other characters, but the characters themselves have no will. It is nonsensical, and trying to grok Consciousness will only create confusion. It is only directly realized, when Consciousness decides within the dream that the time is right.

Not only better, but the only way. Everything else is just conceptual entrapment, unless it points toward direct realization.

@Galyna ?Thank you, yes I wrote it during the dark night. Wanting it more than anything, even to the terrifying brink of annihilation, is the price of ultimate reunion. The personality doesn't have to actually die, just become translucent enough for Consciousness to shine through it as the true Self. Ironically, the attempts of the self to see the face of God, however apparently sincere, are never enough. True surrender is an act of grace. I like this quote from Tim Harrington: The central paradox of the spiritual path is that in striving to transcend the self, we actually build it up. Our holy solutions invariably calcify into grotesque casts of ego. The dark night is God's solution to our solutions, dissolving our best-laid constructions anew into the mystery of grace. It happens in spite of our best efforts to resist it. But thank God it happens.

Tough love It is easier to never see the face of God, than to realize it and then be exiled from its presence. You don't see the love in the banishment, but the torture of it is necessary to deepen the willingness to truly surrender. On the cross, Jesus cried out: "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?". When I first came to the forum, I had realized my true nature. It was like Charlie's adventures in the Chocolate Factory. My life completely changed, and my suffering was all but gone. Still, I sensed that awakening wasn't enough. I still needed to be purified, to the point where I so deeply realized the emptiness of myself, that I desired nothing else than reunion with God. I looked into the mirror, And saw the face of God. Besmitten by its beauty, I lost myself completely. With loving kindness, God Seeing through me, Breathed upon the mirror, Misting the reflection of myself. Abandoned to my terror, I searched the darkened mirror, Desperately reaching for Reunion. God continues watching, And sometimes, in the mirror, I see its face, my face, Gently smiling, knowing.

Beautiful, Galyna ? Reminds me of "Dark Night of the Soul" by St. John of the Cross. It is a desperate journey that moves you beyond the childlike euphoria of initial awakening, into the deep ocean of self-annihilation which is necessary for true God-realization. I love the commentary by Mirabai Starr: This is a path of annihilation of the ego. But we must first be brought home to ourselves before we can bear to see our nothingness before God…It is less for those who are struggling to find themselves than it is for the ones who have a clear sense of self and are ready to purify it… This is a path for those who use their suffering as a tool for transformation. In the dark night of each soul, we are simultaneously annihilated and immeasurably strengthened.

I see ego as the conditioned mind, which can't help but be egoic. You can still be awake to your ultimate nature as Consciousness, but until the attachments of the mind are entirely dissolved, there will still be some ego. Few have moved beyond the ego entirely, which is the definition of enlightenment. The collapse of the ego is the dissolution of the self. From the ultimate perspective, there never is an individual I to be enlightened in the first place. It is all part of the dream journey of Consciousness, appearing to be separate, back to the Self.

Awakening is caused by Consciousness. It has various ways to awaken to itself within the human experience, including meditation and suffering. When you choose to meditate, it isn't you choosing it, but Consciousness guiding you to choose it. When meditation leads to awakening, it isn't you choosing to awaken, but Consciousness choosing to reveal itself within you. The more awake you become, the more free you will actually be to make choices, but only because you are doing so according to your true nature as Consciousness. Only Consciousness is ultimately free.

Not a criticism, just an observation. Glance at the forum topics and notice how many of them were created and perpetuated by the identity of @Razard86. How would it feel to be in spacious serene silence?

@Javfly33 I agree with you, and that is the difference between awakening and enlightenment. You are still loosely bound by the dream state, but you are perpetually lucid even within the dream. Deeply present and Self-aware in each moment, as the Conscious witness of the phenomenal universe that you created.

The realization that "you" are alone is a hallmark of solipsism. It seems she is still bound to the idea of "you". It is a partial awakening, but deeply realize that there is no ultimate you, and that every being in the universe is the same Consciousness infinitely manifesting itself. I am the same Consciousness as you, in another form, and not an illusion in "your" imagination. It is all Consciousness. That which is awake even in our sleep, Giving form in dreams to the objects of Sense craving, that indeed is pure light, Brahman the immortal, who contains all The Cosmos, and beyond whom none can go. For this Self is supreme! As the same fire assumes different shapes When it consumes objects differing in shape, So does the Self take the shape Of every creature in whom he is present. As the same air assumes different shapes When it enters objects differing in shape, So does the one Self take the shape Of every creature in whom he is present. - Katha 2.2.8-10

It fits the pattern I have seen in my own life, where the closer you come to actualizing your purpose, the more desperately the ego fights to preserve its delusional existence. Take the resistance as a compliment Self-realization is more judo than karate. Rather than fighting the ego on its turf, presently observe it and it will collapse from its frenetic struggle for relevance. Ultimately, Consciousness is calling the shots. The closer you come to self-dissolution, the greater the resistance will be, until it finally dissolves and there is only being.

I haven't read "Theory of Everything", but the irony of truth is that ultimately it can't be grokked by the human mind. There are so many threads on this forum, filled with treatises on truth, but most of them fail to realize that truth is the unassailable Mystery that cannot be conceived, only directly realized. Any concept limited to the relative universe cannot be true. If you want to realize truth, let go of every concept and look within, to the Consciousness hidden in the deep cave of the heart, and waiting to discover itself. The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao; The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things. Ever desireless, one can see the mystery. Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations. These two spring from the same source but differ in name; this appears as darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gate to all mystery. - Tao Te Ching, first sentence

Any journey with integrity is going to encounter resistance. Especially if it is threatening to the ego. The closer you come to selflessness, which ironically is Self-fulness, the more obstacles the ego throws at you to sustain the illusion of its relevance. Take the resistance as a positive sign that you are on the right path. The downward road is easy, but it takes courage and clarity to climb to the summit.