Moksha

Plato's allegory of the cave resonates. People are chained to the wall of a cave, with their backs to the entrance. They can't see the fire beyond the cave, but its light creates shadows that dance on the surface of the wall, and they mistake these shadows for reality. Awakening is being unshackled from the cave, and stepping into the light. At first, the light is blinding, and it takes your eyes time to adjust. Eventually they do, and you see reality truly for the first time. Being filled with joy, you want to share this truth with those still shackled in the cave. But when you return, your eyes have to readjust to the darkness. The prisoners mistake your apparent blindness for foolishness, and attack you for trying to set them free. You can't unshackle yourself, but once you are free, it is an individual journey out of the cave.

Love and belonging is recognized in Maslow's hierarchy, and other psychological models, as a basic human need. As with every model, there are probably some exceptions, but for most it is important to our well being. If someone is fully enlightened, they will still probably engage with others, but the motivation is different. The Buddha didn't need others, and realized that we are ultimately the same, but he cared about helping people end their suffering, even within the dream.

Absolute Consciousness is beyond time, and perpetually creates and destroys the cosmos. The human mind can't grok paradox, or conceptually grasp how time intersects with timelessness. It is only directly realized as truth.

When the attachments of the self are dissolved, everything false falls away, including ambition. Engagement with life is lighter, and more pure. It is more about enjoying life and helping others, than about proving yourself. You still have to survive of course, but even that is easier because your work is improved by creativity and quality that wouldn't have been available otherwise.

The only proof of your absolute identity is non-conceptual, and is directly realized. When that happens, you will see the unity: The Self seems to move, but is ever still. He seems far away, but is ever near. He is within all, and transcends all. Those who see all creatures in themselves And themselves in all creatures know no fear. Those who see all creatures in themselves And themselves in all creatures know no grief. How can the multiplicity of life Delude the one who sees its unity? Your happiness doesn't hang on this realization. Enjoy the journey.

Is the I creating the magnificent universe limited to the little I that feels so crappy?

Senses are only a seeming. Ultimately, they don't actually exist. Consciousness creates the appearance of senses, but only within the dream that it imagines. The supreme Self is beyond name and form, Beyond the senses, inexhaustible, Without beginning, without end, beyond Time, space, and causality, eternal, Immutable. Those who realize the Self Are forever free from the jaws of death.

The form identity is not imagining this. Consciousness is. You can only imagine within the parameters of your parochial reality. Imagination is just a pointer. Consciousness creates, without being created. It feels, without having any senses. It indulges in form, while being formless. How better to define imagination?

@Red-White-Light Is it about becoming more intelligent, as measured by the SAT? Or is it about Self-realizing absolute intelligence and creativity? Which would you choose? There is a tiny intelligence, which humans vaunt as an achievement, and there is infinite intelligence, which Consciousness channels through the transparent you. Would you rather be a candle, or a magnifying glass for the sun?

It is the same destination, arrived at through the inward or outward path. Whether looking inward or outward, if the seeing is clear, there is no difference. It is all boundaryless Consciousness.

@Terell Kirby There are lesser awakenings that may not even be realized as such. Even children can have these moments of clarity, without seeing them for what they are. I agree that when "the awakening" happens, it is an irreversible paradigm shift. You may still fall asleep after, but the seeing is an inextinguishable fire that will ultimately consume your desires, until there is no you left, only the fire.

Awakening does feel like coming home. However, it is only the first step in the spiritual journey. Most of us, after awakening, fall back to sleep. The challenge is to remain awake for longer periods of time, until it is a perpetual state of being.

You're right to question your thoughts. Someone told me years ago that our thoughts can't be trusted. I didn't understand at the time, but now it seems obvious. Socrates realized it when he concluded, "I neither know nor think I know." I feel this is why absolute truth can only be directly realized. It is Consciousness resonating with itself, and is entirely non-conceptual. When it happens, there is no doubt.

@Thought Art Trust your instinct. It sounds like you have had insights, but have not awakened yet. Awakening is the direct realization of absolute truth, beyond any experience. If thinking is involved, it is not awakening. It is the direct spiritual resonance with your divine nature. This enduring realization of unity, where boundaries dissolve and you see the sameness of yourself in all things, is the purpose of life. But where there is unity, one without a second, that is the world of Brahman. This is the supreme goal of life, the supreme treasure, the supreme joy. Those who do not seek this supreme goal live on but a fraction of this joy.

Similarly, just because someone doesn't realize absolute truth through suffering or meditation doesn't mean others haven't. Psychedelics are appealing, because they require less effort than these other paths. Perhaps the insights they deliver are also less sustainable. How many people have learned not to suffer on psychedelics alone? Even after I understood the need to disentangle from my attachments to get there, it has not been an easy or rapid process. Instead of the instant enlightenment I envisioned from psychedelics, it has required years of incremental practice to even begin to get free of the conditioned feelings, habits, and unconscious urges that keep rising to the surface. And it's not that they have gone or will go away, but how I identify with them as I shift more toward the soul that Maharaj-ji reflected back to me. - Ram Dass

The memories of what happens to your form identity are relatively true, compared to what doesn't happen to your form identity. Time and events exist, within the relative cosmos, but they are not ultimately real. If I dreamed last night that I was flying, it is true that this was my dream. But was I actually flying?

@Thought Art ?

@Thought Art It's human nature to look for a shortcut out of suffering. We want to believe that awakening will instantly solve all of our problems. Unfortunately, merely seeing won't do that for you. We still have decades of conditioning to deal with. Spiritual integration of insights requires sincere dedication and effort, in the context of patience and kindness toward oneself. Spiritual teachers do people a disservice when they make snake oil claims to free people from suffering, if they just sign up for this particular program, available today at 50% off. There is no easy path to enlightenment, but it is well worth taking the journey.

Good insights. I agree that anything experienced as a thought is inherently false. No thought, no writing, and no work of art can accurately describe ultimate reality. As the Upanishads say, "Words turn back frightened." God is beyond the conceptual mind to comprehend. It is only directly realized. Awakening is the opening of the third eye, and clearly seeing your ultimate nature, beyond the limitations of the senses. The conditioned mind may try to question it, but the seeing itself is spiritual, and beyond doubt.

@Thought Art I agree. To be fair, if you read Leo's teachings in context, he has always recognized the importance of integrating spiritual work with any insights gained through psychedelics. Others that I have read, like Ram Dass and Aldous Huxley, make the same observations. Awakening, whether through psychedelics or through meditation, is only the first step on the spiritual journey. Enlightenment, or being filled with light, is the purifying process of deconditioning the mind. It is developing clarity and commitment, so that rather than being distracted by desires, the mind remains a still and present flame. ?

@Strangeloop ? ?

Consciousness is pure awareness, and states only seem to change, as Consciousness navigates between them. You are the fish, and the apparent states of dreaming and waking are the banks between which you swim. It is said of these states of consciousness that in the dreaming state, when one is sleeping, the shining Self, who never dreams, who is ever awake, watches by his own light the dreams woven out of past deeds and present desires… But he is not affected by anything because he is detached and free; and after wandering here and there in the state of dreaming, enjoying pleasures and seeing good and evil, he returns to the state from which he began. As a great fish swims between the banks of a river as it likes, so does the shining Self move between the states of dreaming and waking. You, as Consciousness, are calling the shots of your dream character.

If only they had 5-meO-DMT when the Buddha, Jesus, and the sages of the Upanishads directly realized their true nature You are them, and they are you, and not every enlightened character requires psychedelics to see the dream for what it is.

Trick question, not falling for it Awareness = Consciousness = Love. It has no properties. At least, not when it is not pretending that it does.

One realizes the map isn't the territory, until realizing that the one realizing doesn't ultimately exist. The map is the territory, pointing to itself.