Moksha

Yes, you are real and everyone around you is equally real. Most of us know this intuitively, but what does it mean? Consciousness is everything, including all that it creates. You are Consciousness, in a particular form of Self-expression. I am Consciousness in a different form of Self-expression. We are all Consciousness, expressing itself in myriad forms. Whether you are awake or asleep doesn't make you more or less real. Your level of Self-awareness is important, but it doesn't change who you are. Your ultimate nature is always Consciousness. People sometimes dismiss Maya, or relative reality, as unreal. It is still the same Consciousness, but in different states. Is H20 less real as ice, than as liquid, or as vapor? It is all the same H20, in different states. To paraphrase below, know H20, know all. Regardless of its state, it is still and can only be H20. Consciousness creates forms to experience sensation, and within those forms it is still Consciousness. Regardless of whether it is asleep or awake, it is still real and it is always Consciousness. Can there be anything not known to That Who is the One in all? Know One, know all. That through which one enjoys the waking And sleeping states is the Self. To know That As consciousness is to go beyond sorrow. Those who know the Self as enjoyer of the honey from the flowers of the senses, Ever present within, ruler of time, Go beyond fear. - Katha 2.1.3-5

The Buddha sought enlightenment for the same reasons you mention. He saw the transience of existence, and that true happiness cannot come from the world of change. He sought to understand the reasons for suffering, and how to overcome suffering and attain peace. The ego doesn't want to be enlightened. It may pretend to seek enlightenment, or even claim to already be enlightened, but the truth is that enlightenment is the death of the ego. Renunciation refers to letting go of your attachments to the world, because you realize they cannot make you happy. The path to enlightenment is the willingness to develop equanimity, or in other words discovering happiness through the Self within, rather than seeking it through the senses. In the secret cave of the heart, two are Seated by life's fountain. The separate ego Drinks of the sweet and bitter stuff, Liking the sweet, disliking the bitter, While the supreme Self drinks sweet and bitter Neither liking this nor disliking that. The ego gropes in darkness, while the Self Lives in light. - Katha 1.3.1

Awakening happens when you are ripe for it to happen. You can't put a timeframe on it. For some, it happens at a young age, and for others it may not happen at all. It is a direct realization, not an accomplishment. It is profound, beyond conceptualization. No amount of study will wake you up, until Consciousness is ready for you to wake. That said, there are important steps you can take, meditation and renunciation being key among them, to prepare yourself for awakening. The Self cannot be known through study Of the scriptures, nor through the intellect, Nor through hearing discourses about it. The Self can be attained only by those Whom the Self chooses. Verily unto them Does the Self reveal himself. The Self cannot be known by anyone Who desists not from unrighteous ways, Controls not the senses, stills not the mind, And practices not meditation. None else can know the omnipresent Self, Whose glory sweeps away the rituals Of the priest and the prowess of the warrior And puts death itself to death. - Katha 1.2:23-25

Cessation points toward waking up. It is ending the dream of the separate self, and realizing the seamless Self. In other words, it is Love. 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? - Isha 1.1.5-7

Consciousness is ultimate reality, manifesting in relative reality. It is the undying sun, and its infinite rays. The foundation for manifestation is always the present moment, not the future. Jesus said, “Whenever you pray for something, believe that you have received it and it will be given to you.” (Mark 11:24) - Eckhart Tolle

Ultimate Consciousness is beyond space, time, and separation. There is no directionality, and thus no raising or lowering in the ultimate dimension. In the relative dimension, where beings are born and die, raising "your" consciousness simply means realizing your ultimate nature. It's like having a lucid dream. Even within the dream, you realize that the dream is not ultimately real. The character is not ultimately who you are. The all-knowing Self was never born, Nor will it die. Beyond cause and effect, This Self is eternal and immutable. When the body dies, the Self does not die. If the slayer believes that he can kill Or the slain believes that he can be killed, Neither knows the truth. The eternal Self Slays not, nor is ever slain. - Katha 1.2:18-19

As I see it, the angel is teaching him that his suffering is self-inflicted. The guy is the angel, he just doesn't realize it yet. It is all seamless. Consciousness has a way of slapping its dream characters around, until they finally have had enough. When that happens, the guy sees the sameness of himself in everything else, and he laughs. It was Consciousness, all along.

@Raptorsin7 Seeing the difference is a good first step. Sometimes people chase after mystical experiences, as if they will heal their suffering. Siddhis and spiritual insights are more of a distraction than a cure. These experiences heal nothing, because they are still bound to the dream of the little self, and reinforce the idea that there is something to be healed. Freedom from suffering has nothing to do with experiences, and everything to do with simply being present. The Self, which is who you actually are, is hidden inside and waiting to be realized. Instead of seeking specific states, find the Self within.

Suffering is hitting yourself, without seeing why you are hitting yourself. When do you stop hitting yourself? You realize that the angel and yourself are the same. The delusion of the little self dissolves, and there is nothing left to hit.

Are you looking for mystical experiences, or the pure state of being where you are no longer controlled by your thoughts and emotions? Do you see the difference?

Traditionally, meditation includes a meditation object, such as the breath or the inner body. The intent is to focus your attention on the meditation object as the primary objective, while allowing external or internal sensations to come and go, without identifying with them. The more you practice attending to the meditation object, the easier it is to ignore everything else and simply be. When your intent is single-pointed, simply being present is its own reward. It is a joyful and healing state of being. If you meditate earnestly, through spiritual disciplines you can make an island for yourself that no flood can overwhelm. - Dhammapada 2:25

? When you look into the eyes of an enlightened being, you see unconditional freedom. Thoughts and emotions have no gravitational pull. Like clouds, they come and go, but are not identified with. It takes pure courage, sincerity, and wisdom to see beyond the desires and aversions of the world, and realize the Self that is hidden within. In the secret cave of the heart, two are Seated by life's fountain. The separate ego Drinks of the sweet and bitter stuff, Liking the sweet, disliking the bitter, While the supreme Self drinks sweet and bitter Neither liking this nor disliking that. The ego gropes in darkness, while the Self Lives in light. - Katha 1.3.1

Consciousness has the capacity to create different states of Self-awareness. Everything is Consciousness, including the transient beings that it creates. Waves of the ocean are still part of the ocean, but in a different state. Awakening happens when that part of Consciousness which is unaware of its true nature realizes itself. The wise, realizing through meditation The timeless Self, beyond all perception, Hidden in the cave of the heart, Leave pain and pleasure far behind. Those who know they are neither body nor mind But the immemorial Self, the divine Principle of existence, find the source Of all joy and live in joy abiding. - Katha 1.2:12

Consciousness made your life personal, not the ego. It creates, and it destroys, which is another way of saying that it partitions and unpartitions itself, infinitely. It is all Consciousness. Ultimately, you are impersonal. Only in the relative cosmos is personality a possibility. Within that cosmos, there must be differences, otherwise why create it in the first place?

@Regan ? You got it. Ultimate Consciousness is the uncaused cause, which has always been and always will be. It is beyond time and space, and is the creator of all things. One of the reasons it is called a Mystery is that any attempt to understand it with the human mind is bound to fail. Words always lead to paradox, and the mind doesn't like paradox. For example, how can the the dimensions of time and space spring from something which is beyond time and space? Creation implies ordinality, since logically there must have been a "time" before the cosmos was created. Sometimes the relative cosmos is compared to a dream, but what about before Consciousness decided to dream? It is infinite, but maybe part of its infinite nature is always dreaming, so there is no ordinality. As I see it, Consciousness is all there is, but it has the capacity to exist in different states of Self-awareness. Instead of trying to grasp reality conceptually, seek the direct wisdom of awakening. Something I read this morning that resonates: The truth of the Self cannot come through one Who has not realized that he is the Self. The intellect cannot reveal the Self, Beyond its duality of subject And object. Those who see themselves in all And all in them help others through spiritual Osmosis to realize the Self themselves. - Katha 1.2:8

Ultimate reality is formless, timeless, changeless, seamless, and spaceless. It is infinitely abundant in intelligence and potential. It cannot be perceived, only directly realized. It is profound joy and peace. It is the depthless well from which the cosmos is dipped and returned. Recently came across a nice commentary which may help with your question. All the matter in the universe must have been present in that "primeval atom," supercondensed to an unbelievable degree. In such a state, matter would no longer be possible as matter. It would be stripped down to pure energy, and energy itself would be raw and undifferentiated; variations like gravity and light would not have emerged. Time would not yet be real, for there can be no time before zero; neither would space make sense in the context of a question like, "What was there before the Big Bang?" Physicists reply, with Gertrude Stein, "There's no 'there' there. There's no 'then' then." Space and time, matter and energy, sprung into existence at the moment of creation; "before" that moment the concepts do not apply. The sages would find all this a perfect metaphor for the unitive state. In samadhi, reality is condensed into pure potential, without dimensions, without time, without any differentiation. Physicists do not say there was nothing before the Big Bang; they say everything came from that, and nothing more can be said. Similarly, samadhi is not emptiness but purnata; plenitude, complete fulness. The whole of reality is there, inner as well as outer: not only matter and energy but all time, space, causality, and states of consciousness. That fullness the Upanishads call sat: absolute reality, in which all of creation is implicit as an organism is implicit in DNA, or a tree in a tiny seed. The joy of this state cannot be described. This is ananda: pure, limitless, unconditioned joy. The individual personality dissolves like salt in a sea of joy. - Eknath Easwaran, Commentary on the Upanishads

Let go of the biases that are most hypnotizing now, and which keep you from Self-realization. Well have you renounced these passing pleasures So dear to the senses, Nachiketa, And turned your back on the way of the world That makes mankind forget the goal of life. Far apart are wisdom and ignorance. The first leads one to Self-realization; The second makes one more and more Estranged from one's real Self. - Katha Upanishad 2:3-4 One person's Self-occluding bias is different from another's. Even within that person's life, the biases needing to be let go of in that moment, will likely change. Discard whatever keeps you from being present, here and now.

Transpersonal psychology. Not that it will wake you up, but it is one of the closer fields that the mind can comprehend. Check out Steve Taylor's research and books, as an example.

...is to solve the Self.

⚡ Meditation can awaken, according to the sages. I can't speak to that, only to the value of meditation in helping you stay awake. Either way, meditate ?

If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend the Bhagavad Gita. It is one of the best Self-help books. Take your time with it, Consciously contemplate it, and savor it as sustenance for the soul. You will not only see, but be guided, toward the path of Self-realization. Good people come to worship me for different reasons. Some come to the spiritual life because of suffering, some in order to understand life; some come through a desire to achieve life’s purpose, and some come who are men and women of wisdom. Unwavering in devotion, always united with me, the man or woman of wisdom surpasses all the others…the wise who are always established in union, for whom there is no higher goal than me, may be regarded as my very Self…seeing me everywhere and in everything. Such great souls are very rare. - Bhagavad Gita 7:16-19 In my case, the foundation was an alloy of contemplation, renunciation, selfless service, devotion, and above all, sincere commitment to truth. It took decades of living, but that was only the foundation. The catalyst for building the house itself was suffering. Without it, I don't believe I would have been willing to let go of the ledge of certainty, and fall into the abyss of the Self. Now, meditation is my mainstay. It is one thing to see, and another to continue seeing, despite the turbulence of life that threatens to drag you back into the undercurrent of the conditioned mind. I didn't meditate before awakening. I meditate now, daily, to maintain the sleepless state of presence. Never thought of myself as a meditator, but what a gift it has been.

@Windappreciator Medication is not the cause of most mental disorders. Biology and trauma are far more likely to be the cause. Medication doesn't just mitigate; it can be transformative for certain conditions. It can also destroy lives, if prescribed by quacks who don't truly care about their patients. I agree that Ritalin is way too overprescribed.

@Windappreciator I suspect that most of the time people are committed to psych wards because they have an underlying mental illness, not due to any medication they have taken to that point. More likely, is is just the opposite. Bipolar disorder is a classic example; people often refuse to take medication like lithium that would actually help. As I said, I'm not a fan of drugs in general, and often they are overprescribed, but they do have a place.

God is you, hiding from yourself. Enjoy the dream. Something I read earlier today that may help: What does it mean to say that nothing is separate and God alone is real? Certainly not that the everyday world is an illusion. The illusion is simply that we appear separate; the underlying reality is that all of life is one. The Upanishads view the world in grades of significance: as waking is a higher reality than dreaming, so there is a level of reality higher than that. All experience is real. Confusion arises only when a dream experience is treated as reality after one awakes - or when life is viewed as nothing but sensation, without wholeness, meaning, or goal. The ideal of the Upanishads is to live in the world in full awareness of life's unity, giving and enjoying. - Eknath Easwaran, commentary on the Upanishads

There are psychological conditions, like bipolar disorder, that benefit from medication. Drugs are not the devil. That said, I have a strong predisposition against drugs, unless they are truly necessary. Psychiatrists dispense them like candy. It is an easy fix, but not a cure. People that need medication find reasons not to take it, while the converse is true for people that don't need it. If someone is committed to a psych ward, chances are there is something with their brain chemistry that would benefit from medication. Still, overmedication is a problem, and psych wards are notorious for this. If life is crazy, medicate and meditate. They are not mutually exclusive.