Moksha

Thank you, @lark and welcome to the forum ? Awakening is the temporary end of suffering, since in that moment you step out of the matrix, and see the suffering for what it is. The challenge for most of us is that our awakenings are brief, and are punctuated by long periods of sleep. Awakening is only the first step of the enlightenment journey. Thankfully, there are tools like meditation that build the necessary stamina to remain awake, regardless of the turbulence around us. The ego doesn't give up easily, and spiritual work requires profound sincerity and motivation. Gradually, you stay awake longer, and the cycle is reversed. Your life becomes mostly present, punctuated by brief periods of sleep. Rumor has it that there are even a few that have learned to live in a perpetual state of presence

The monkey mind grasps for certainty, which numbers offer, but ultimately fail to deliver. How can peace be found in numbers? Let me count the ways. And keep on counting until my dying day. What if letting go of the need for numbers is the secret to serenity?

@Javfly33 You are sincere, and that is a powerful weapon. But what will you do with it? Are you also brave? What if sincerity leads to the dissolution of your dreams? What if it takes you to the edge of uncertainty, and plunges you into driftless non-conceptualization? What if it demands ultimate disidentification with your thoughts? Are you willing to pay that price? Alan Watts has a beautiful book called The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety Check it out. It is natural to be frightened of the abyss, but only by embracing it will you realize the truth. And when you do, you will laugh. Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing. - T. H. Huxley

I understand Krishnamurti's point, but maybe this man needed to meditate for 25 years to begin realizing the truth that is already within him. We each take our own path. There is no fast track to enlightenment. It happens when it is ready to happen. When the knocking on the door is loud enough, we finally wake up. Do we take credit for opening our eyes, or do we acknowledge the knocking for achieving its intent?

Why do you want to awaken? What purpose do you hope to achieve? What if awakening demands more of you than dissolution? Do you still want it?

Thank you, @Beginner Mind ??

It is about moving beyond nascent realization, and deliberately dissolving the bonds of the conditioned mind. Awakening is more than simply realizing who you are. It is also about realizing who you are not, and undoing the damage of your conditioning. Seeing that there is no "you" is a first step, but living lucidly requires the conscious surrender of your desires and aversions. If you are anxious, depressed, OCD, angry, or simply bored, you haven't yet eventualized the reality of your awakening. Proof is in the pudding. One who has merely heard of fire has ajnana, ignorance. One who has seen fire has jnana. But one who has actually built a fire and cooked on it has vijnana. - Ramakrishna there is a force within which gives you life seek that in your body lies a priceless gem seek that o wandering soul if you want to find the greatest treasure don't look outside look inside, and seek that. - Rumi 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. - The Dhammapada 6:85-88

It is the battle between the conditioned mind and your ultimate nature. People want to believe that awakening is the cure for all of their suffering, but it is only the beginning. Seeing clearly is beautiful, but ultimately it is about being clearly. Consciousness strikes the spark of my undoing, Catching in the kindling of thought, Consuming it to soot, intensifying, Crumbling the timbers that it wrought, Purifying fire ever rising, Burning through the ropes of my desire, Devouring the karma of my making, Soul wind stirring these flames higher, Scattering the ashes of my suffering, No delusion left, only the fire.

Tolle talks about the transcendent dimension, and the relative dimension. Being vs. doing. From the perspective of a human life, there is value in both. Transcendence will free you from suffering. Doing will meet your physical needs. Neither is exclusive of the other. Each is of value, and worthy of pursuit.

What do I think? Although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is – for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know. The gift of my Ph.D. was realizing how little I actually know. Life has drilled that lesson into my soul. Conceptual knowledge is bound to relative reality. Ultimate knowledge is directly realized. Value each according to its worth.

Freedom and Will are contradictory concepts. Already, we are into relative reality with words. Consciousness is ultimately free. It has no attributes, and thus is unconstrained. Any attribute, by definition, becomes a limitation. Sanskrit: Brahman (Tat; the supreme reality; neither masculine nor feminine; in fact, it has no attributes at all; impossible to describe in words, it is simply pointed to). Will is the opposite of Freedom. It requires directionality. Insists upon it. The greater the Will, the lesser the Freedom. Will is an illusion that Freedom creates to entertain itself.

I have noticed a correlation between my state of Consciousness and the severity of the ego backlash. It is like a roller coaster, where the higher you climb, the farther you fall on the other side. The ego becomes increasingly desperate, as it realizes its impending demise. Not as dire as it sounds. With each descent, you dive deeper into your ultimate nature, and the ropes of your conditioning begin to fray. Eventually, the ropes are reduced to threads. The ride from that point on is smaller hills, until you return to where you started in the first place. ?

Amen and Hallelujah It is all about the journey, and being present in every step. Consciousness is already infinitely abundant. Why are we so anxious to return to the ultimate changeless state which created us in the first place? Instead, lucidly enjoy the character that is uniquely you, and make the most of this dream. Consciousness imagines relative reality, to experience the thrill of the roller coaster that is life. In the vastness of the cosmos, you will never be repeated. Celebrate your singularity. Instead of hanging your happiness on some future state of enlightenment, realize the love and joy that is here and now, already within you, if you simply open your eyes and see.

Ultimately, there are no individuals. We are all the same Consciousness, expressing itself through its creations. Ask if any individual decides anything. You are localized Consciousness, but as such do you really control anything? Can you decide what thought will come next? Meditation will help you realize this. Beyond thoughts and feelings, what observes?

I have benefited from sources like Song of the Enchanting Wildwoods. They can resonate with Consciousness, and help you realize your true nature. Still, silent meditation is profound. It develops the capacity for vigilance, in a world of turmoil. It tames the monkey mind. I see it as a spiritual workout. Meditate daily. It strengthens your ability to stay present, regardless of what happens around you. When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place. In the still mind, in the depths of meditation, the Self reveals itself. Beholding the Self by means of the Self, an aspirant knows the joy and peace of complete fulfillment. Having attained that abiding joy beyond the senses, revealed in the stilled mind, he never swerves from the eternal truth. He desires nothing else, and cannot be shaken by the heaviest burden of sorrow. - Bhagavad Gita 6:19

Bingo ⚡

French expression: Reculer pour mieux sauter. Take a step back to jump farther forward. I have found that both personal and cosmic evolution have regressive cycles. Just when you think you are free, the ego sneaks in with a dagger at your back. The secret is to realize the inevitability of this, and ensure that the overall journey is an upward spiral path.

Attributes are irrelevant to awakening. Your eyes open when you are ready for them to open. Tolle awakened, not because he was a supremely benign being, but because he suffered greatly, and was finally ready to let go of the suffering. Not to say that attributes don't matter. Humility, honesty, diligence, and equanimity will greatly improve the quality of your life. But they won't automatically wake you up. It only happens when life has ripened you to the point where you are ready to let go of the tree of suffering, which you desperately clung to, as if it could deliver enduring peace. That release is the realization of your ultimate nature, which is Consciousness itself.

The best book is subjective, and depends on where you are in your unique spiritual journey. For me, before awakening it was The Power of Now (Eckhart Tolle). After awakening, it was the Bhagavad Gita (Eknath Easwaran translation). There are many, many others but these two books are magnificent milestones for me.

Enjoy the journey Consciousness is infinitely Powerful, initially through individuality, but ultimately through universal potentiality. The dreamer dreams, and eventually awakens to itself, beyond the dream. Seeing clearly is the ultimate power.

Yet, Consciousness created the trick of life for a reason. What do you think that reason might be?

Consciousness is both the dreamer and the dream. Ultimate and relative reality resolve into the sameness that Consciousness is.

Yes, and it is perfectly fine. Solipsism is beyond empathy towards others. It is the beginning of seeing relative reality for what it is. You are still bound by the individual perspective, but you see the video game playing out around you. What happens when you realize that "you" are just another avatar in the same video game? What "you" see is just as real as what sees "you". It is all the same Consciousness. When you realize that directly, it will rock your world/universe/cosmos.

If you find yourself alone, that is solipsism. When you see the sameness of yourself in everything else, that is another step toward enlightenment. There's nothing wrong with solipsism. It is a common stepstone on the spiritual path. Celebrate each step, and let go of self-judgment. It is all about the journey, which once realized, turns out to be the same in the "end" as in the "beginning". It's funny, really. When I talk to people that I consider awakened, there is little discussion about ultimate reality. More than anything, we just laugh

You are me, the tree outside your house, and the conch shell at the bottom of the ocean. Ultimately, everything is the same Consciousness, in different states of awareness. It is possible, although rare, to live mostly free from ego. You can survive, and even thrive, without identifying with individuality. That is the secret of genius. They let go of the illusion of separation, and draw from the infinite well of Consciousness that is our true nature. Music, sculpture, dance, physics, basketball, gymnastics, whatever....they see beyond their individuality and draw from the infinite well of ultimate reality. Ego is the antithesis of enlightenment.