Moksha

Within the cosmos, the more true you are to your nature as Consciousness, the more moral your behavior will be. Ultimately, Consciousness is beyond good and evil, and beyond the suffering of the human heart. Find your true self in the field, and instead of worrying about right and wrong, simple be. Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about. - Rumi

You can easily still the mind by drinking a few long island iced teas until you pass out, drooling on the floor. Meditation is less about stilling the mind than about opening the curtain of your conditioning to the infinite sun, which is your true nature.

Exactly. You can be awake, but if you are still suffering from some perception of past or future, you are not enlightened.

Connecting to deeper Truth is a spiritual, not a conceptual, realization. Full realization, or enlightenment, occurs when attachments are entirely released and your unconditional nature is embraced. It is not about understanding, but about being. Life is the dancer. You are the dance…Being is the dancer. Human is the dance. - Eckhart Tolle

Awakening is the beginning of the end of the ego. Enlightenment is its destruction, due to the dissolving of all apparent boundaries. As humans, we're in a bit of a quandary. We have the capacity to realize our ultimate nature as Consciousness, but we are still attached by our desires within the dream. Awakening isn't some epiphany that instantly dissolves all of our desires. It simply shows you what is ultimately real. It is then up to you, as Consciousness, to actualize it. It scares the ego to death, which is what it is intended to do.

@Vincent S ?

I agree; reality is literally the product of awareness. Whatever we attend to, we amplify, whether consciously or unconsciously. Cause and effect only exist within the dream; ultimate reality is changeless. I appreciate Eckhart's recognition of the vast intelligence of Consciousness. It is super-cosmic, and it is has a purpose that is beyond the capacity of the human mind to comprehend. Eventually, evolution will reunite the creation with the creator, and the process starts all over again.

One of the most honest answers I've seen to this perpetual question: The essence of who you are is beyond death. That comes out of inner realization. I don’t know much beyond that. You’ll have to wait and see when you actually die. - Eckhart Tolle

Good insights, you might find this interesting: The Universe is engaged in the process of awakening, or becoming more conscious, and every life form is gradually becoming more conscious…After mass extinctions, new life forms even more complex developed…What we see is only the surface reality. There is a vast intelligence operating underneath the world of phenomena. This vast intelligence is consciousness, the universal consciousness, and that is the ultimate reality…It’s not finished. God is still creating this world and you are an essential part of this creative process. You are not separate from the awakening; you are an expression of the awakening…Now there is not only the evolution of consciousness. There is also conscious evolution of consciousness…That happens when you face an external situation and bring conscious presence to it, rather than reactivity…The next thing that is going to happen, to a large extent depends on your state of consciousness at this moment…Reality changes as a reflection of collective consciousness. - Eckhart Tolle

NDEs are still bound to the dream. There is the appearance of an individual, which has been conditioned over many lifetimes, and which carries its karma from one apparent life to the next. People see whatever supernatural being they believe in, because that entity is a product of their unique conditioning. It doesn't mean the entity is any more real than they are, only that it is a natural effect of their conditioned beliefs. Eventually, the apparent individual wakes up and realizes its true nature as Consciousness within the dream. That is the beginning of the spiritual journey, which is the gradual dissolving of the self, until that individual ceases to exist within the dream, and all apparent boundaries dissolve.

How do you differentiate serious vs. fun? Love, happiness, serenity, and creativity are...(fill in the blank).

The irony of spirituality is that the more enlightened you become, the less of the apparent you there is. Awakening is the realization that your apparent identity is not who you actually are. It is the first step on the path of enlightenment, which gradually dissolves the bonds of your conditioning, until only a translucent apparent self remains. Consciousness, which is who you actually are, shines more brightly through the apparent self the less bound it is to identity within the dream.

The more of you there is, the dumber you are.

If someone has directly realized their true nature, they are in a better position to help others than someone who has not. It's true that language is self-limiting, and at best teachings can only point to the truth. As long as the teachings are not mistaken for the truth, but seen for the map that they are, they can help others navigate toward the truth within themselves. Once that truth is directly realized, the teachings can be dropped entirely.

Enlightenment means to be filled with light. There is still a translucent shell of the apparent self, but it is filled and overflowing with the Consciousness that is our true nature. I differentiate the term from awakening, which is the seeing of your true self. It is a critical first step, but not yet the purification of the conditioned mind. As the Buddha put it: Few are those who reach the other shore; most people keep running up and down this shore. But those who follow the dharma, when it has been well taught, will reach the other shore, hard to reach, beyond the power of death. They leave darkness behind and follow the light. They give up home and leave pleasure behind. Calling nothing their own, they purify their hearts and rejoice. Well trained in the seven fields of enlightenment, their senses disciplined and free from attachments, they live in freedom, full of light.

There are credible accounts of people who have had a near death experience, where they were separated from their physical body but still had a form identity, and were able to perceive events around them. For example, one woman heard and reported on a conversation between her husband and the doctor down the hallway, which she wouldn't have been able to hear in her normal state. I don't believe anything about what happens after death of the apparent form, just presenting it as a possibility.

Near death and other paranormal experiences suggest the possibility that the apparent form of you perpetuates in some way after death, as a continuation of the dream. Ultimately, whether Consciousness imagines the same or a new form doesn't really matter, does it? Your true identity is always Consciousness, whether or not it appears to be other than it is.

I agree with you. Not only is it impossible for concepts to capture reality, but they can become a barrier to realizing who you are. Awakening is direct realization, and it is entirely non-conceptual. When we identify with concepts, even spiritual concepts, we hinder the awakening process. It is a form of slavery, as you describe. Ideas about spirituality are not spirituality. At best, teachings can only point toward and prepare you for awakening. The awakening itself happens when Consciousness is ready for it to happen. Teachings like those in the Bhagavad Gita and the Dhammapada can point toward truth, but only when they are seen as the scrawlings of fellow mystics on the map, and are not mistaken for the territory itself.

Leo has said in the past that he is not enlightened. What is enlightenment, other than the direct realization and actualization of your true identity, within the dream?

Every concept, including the concept of letting go, is bound to the dream. I'm not suggesting that the finger is the moon, only that it points toward it. We don't understand how Consciousness dreams, only that it appears to do so, including appearing to awaken to itself within the dream. Spirituality is the game of Self-discovery that it plays. Once the appearance of you has awakened to its ultimate nature, there is no need for spiritual teachings. However, these can help you cross the river to the true shore of yourself.

The letting go is of the appearance that you are something other than your ultimate nature. It is seeing truly, within the dream. Spirituality is Self-realization. It is the reason the dream exists in the first place As Aldous Huxley put it: The Perennial Philosophy appears in every age and civilization: There is an infinite, changeless reality beneath the world of change This same reality lies at the core of every personality The purpose of life is to discover this reality experientially, that is, to realize God while here on earth

Spirituality is the letting go of concepts, attachments, and aversions, or awakening to your ultimate nature within the dream.

What is the difference between losing your mind, and losing identification with your mind? You can still be enlightened, and enjoy the apparent human form, without ultimately identifying with it.

The Buddha compared the mind to an elephant: Long ago my mind used to wander as it liked and do what it wanted. Now I can rule my mind as the mahout controls the elephant with his hooked staff. Meditation is the exercise of learning to ride and guide the elephant, rather than being trampled by it. It can be a beautiful, powerful beast when it is properly trained.

God, as a pointer, is a blessing and a curse. It resonates with the mysterious truth of ultimate reality, but it can be heavily laden with conditioned beliefs. I'm all about God, absence the concepts. Let go of the idea of God and be it.