Moksha

Having read the bible several times (including the painfully endless and meaningless dynastic histories, like Chronicles, OMG), the purest and most inspirational, for me, are Job and Psalms from the Old Testament, and the gospels (Matthew/Mark/Luke/John) from the New Testament. The key to wisdom through Christianity is the same as through any other religion. Take the direct path of the mystic. St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and Meister Eckhart are great examples of mystic Christians. You can discover the same essential truth through eastern books of wisdom, like the Bhagavad Gita and the Tao Te Ching. Bottom line: the Truth is already within you. These books only point the way to who You already are.

That suffering is only necessary, until it isn't, and the end of suffering is the realization of unconditional Love.

@insideoutlove It's all about the journey ?

No free will for the "individual" since the "individual" only exists in relative reality. Ultimately, it is all about Consciousness, expressing itself freely and infinitely.

It sounds like you have already realized It is a journey, milestone to milestone. Few of us reach the point of being permanently awake. We will get there. The secret, as I see it, is not to worry about enlightenment, but to enjoy each step along the path. Each timeless moment, when we are present, is infinitely precious, and worthy of celebration.

I agree. My first thread on this forum was about free will. The question itself is a trap. It implies individuality. When considered from the ultimate perspective, there is only free will, expressing itself infinitely.

"Self-worth" is so short-lived. A wave on the ocean, your self will, far more quickly than you may hope, resolves into the ocean from which it arose. You are so much more than your self. You are the very ocean.

Hey @Findus, I can relate. I have a background in psychology, and for most of my life have been keenly invested in spiritual insights and growth. My 2 kids are your age (20 and 22), so caveat emptor It doesn't really matter, at the end of the day, you will find your own path. I read something this morning that resonates with what you are asking. Simple, but powerful: Light the lamp within. - Dhammapada 18:238 Realize that the lamp is inside of you. Light it, and follow where it leads. None of us can tell you what to do, but the answer is already there, within you. Instead of asking what is "The Way", consider that the answer may be different, not only from one person to the next, but from one stage of each person's life to the next stage. The Way, for you, is to light the lamp within yourself. Connect with the Consciousness that you are. When you are present, the path will be clear, and it will be customized to your needs. There is no reason you can't move forward on the path of doing, while deepening your awareness of being. Consciousness has its own cadence, and sometimes it emphasizes one over the other, but most of the time people are both being and doing. The being will empower the doing. The doing will honor the being. They go hand in hand. My advice is to deepen your spirituality first. Not saying to drop out of Uni or anything, but that is the most important step. Once you are connected with You, everything else will fall into place.

Welcome to the forum For most of us, awakenings are followed by sleep, and then more awakenings. As I see it, enlightenment is the final awakening, where there is no more sleep. The deepest, most true, realization is that there is only Consciousness. You/me, awakening/sleeping, living/dying are all dualities that dissolve into the ultimate reality that is Consciousness. Consciousness creates these states, within itself, to experience the sensations of relative reality, only to return to its essential, unchanging Self. It is the infinite, inevitable expression of creation and destruction, within that which cannot be created or destroyed.

Reality, as most people understand it, frays at both extremes. As this article illustrates, there is no such thing as objective reality in the cosmos. This is true at the quantum level as the article discusses, and it is true at the macro level, when considering the relativity of spacetime. As humans, our ordinary experience is deceptively narrow, which is why Newtonian physics dominated for so long. This doesn't mean the cosmos is an "illusion", in the sense that it doesn't actually exist. Relative reality is still real, just not objectively so. Only ultimate reality is objectively real. It is changeless, infinite, formless, and beyond space and time.

Awakening is direct realization of Your true nature as Consciousness. Just because it hasn't happened for you yet doesn't mean it won't

@illbeyourmirror ? and welcome to the forum

Awareness of Self as Consciousness destroys the sense of personal doership. It is the realization that ultimately, there is no doer, just Consciousness working through forms to experience relative reality.

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The human doesn't choose to awaken; the Being within the human makes the choice.

You are God, so of course You have free will. Whatever happens in Your life is what You choose to happen, including awakening to Yourself.

Words cannot accurately define the indefinable, but my definitions: Awakening: Consciousness, within a form in relative reality, becoming aware of itself as ultimate reality. Enlightenment: Consciousness, within a form in relative reality, perpetually remaining aware of itself as ultimate reality.

Even for little me, learning not to suffer is a game changer. It does temporarily ruin the game for the ego, though. Unfortunately, the ego likes to hide money under the monopoly board. Even after Self-realization, the ego will sneak a fake $500 bill and flash it in front of you.

Best is a subjective judgment, but for me, probably the most transformational "self help author" is Vyasa.

I hear you. What happens when you notice your unlimited Being?

Maybe it's a feature, rather than a bug. You realize what you need to know, in the moment you can do something about it. If you can't do anything about it, why let it frustrate you?

When the Buddha implores people to choose right thoughts, right words, and right actions, do you think he cares about rhetorical free will?

@Mason Riggle Consciousness is everything, including both the Storyteller and the characters it creates. So yes, from a meta perspective, there is no "free will". There is only Consciousness, in different states of awareness. One could define "free will" parochially, by allowing it within relative reality, but in the end does it matter? Maybe ask yourself why "Little you" cares? Are you going to live your "Little you" life any differently based on the answer?

See my original post about going meta. "Little you" is a character, told by, and being played by "You". "Little you" can only become more free, within the parameters of the story. Outside of the story, there are no characters; there is only "You". Awakening, free will, and spiritual development, are real...but only within the bounds of the cosmos, or relative reality. They are motifs of the story "You" are telling. They are still part of "You". So, "Little you" can go meta, and apathetically throw away this cartoon character life as an illusion, but "Little you" is still bound to the story, whether it wants to be or not. The only way to escape the story is to realize who "You" actually are, dissolving the conditions binding "Little you" to the story, in the first place. And why is "Little you" so anxious to escape? "You" created "Little you" for a reason. Respect and enjoy the story, lucidly.

Define "I". Unconditionality is freedom. Complete freedom is only possible in ultimate reality, because it is the only realm of utter unconditionality. The more "you" disidentify with your conditioned mind, and realize yourself as Consciousness, the more free "you" will be. It is possible to learn to discipline the mind, and the more you choose this path, the more free you will become. That is what I mean by dreaming lucidly. You can realize yourself as Consciousness, and the more you do so, the more choice you will have, until eventually you return to complete freedom, which is unconditional Love. This is the ultimate destiny, and the demise, of the self. Yes, it is a story, but it is also a mystery. Paradoxically, Consciousness has the capacity to "wake up" to itself, even while incarnated in its characters, within the story. The more awake your character is, the more free it will be.