Moksha

@ilja What do you "think" Tolle is trying to teach?

It's a continuum. More thought = more suffering, as long as you identify with your thoughts. When you rise above them, they are no longer a problem.

The purpose of life is to experience the dream, and ultimately learn to live lucidly within the dream, by realizing and manifesting yourself as Love, as Consciousness, as God.

I agree there is a continuum. Evolution has created humans to have the greatest capacity for Self-awareness, but we evolved from lower forms that weren't entirely devoid of it. My point is that animals, in general, are in a more pure state of being than most humans, and that humans are the source of our own suffering. Animals and plants are at a level below human thought, and human thought is the source of our suffering. I am defining suffering specifically as imprisonment within the conditioned mind, driven by resistance to what is, and am differentiating it from pain. A few quotes from Tolle that refer to this: The animals are at a level prior to thinking. They haven't lost themselves in thought. We rise above thinking and then we meet them again, where we're both in no-thought. There's a deep connection. For a long time humans probably were in touch on a deeper level with the depths of their being, unconsciously so, the same way an animal or a tree is. Gradually, though, more and more of their identity went into the movement of thought. They identified more and more with the movement of thinking. I sometimes say animals are closer to God than humans. They are closer to the source. The humans are more lost in the mind forms. Being is more obscured to the human because of the overlay of ego and mental formation. We are destined not to go back to the level of animals that we've come from but to return to being by going beyond thinking.

Thank you for sharing such a personal a profound experience, and welcome to the forum! I love what you describe here, and was trying to speak to it in this thread. When your spiritual eyes open, you recognize the coherence of Consciousness, and see the sameness in everything. We are all the same God, manifested through different forms and in different states, but ultimately there is only God.

There is only Consciousness, but it exists in different states of Self-realization.

Animals don't suffer, because they live in the present moment. Don't confuse suffering and pain. Everything can experience pain, but suffering is different. It is self-inflicted. Humans complain about current reality, as if complaining or refusing to acknowledge what is makes any positive difference. It doesn't, it only needs to unnecessary suffering. The good news is that we can learn not to suffer. Animals are fortunate that they don't need that lesson, but the downside is they cannot attain Self-realization. They are uncomplaining characters in the dream, but they cannot see themselves as characters.

Seeking for a sign is still striving, beyond being. The only sign that matters is the ? sign of the ego.

Eckhart Tolle describes a scene he once observed in a park. Two geese got into a fight, and it was pretty fierce. Then they moved in different directions, and flapped their wings ferociously to get rid of the excess energy. Guess what? They were back to swimming side by side, no blaming, no complaining, no grudges, just being.

Animals have integrity; they don't do battle with a complex, conditioned mind. They live in the present moment, and aren't plagued by anxiety, depression, and all the other sufferings that come with the illusion and clinging to past and future. Humans are more evolved, which is a blessing and a curse. We are capable of creating more karma, positive or negative, due to our capacity for Self-awareness vs. Self-denial.

You aren't going crazy. Just the opposite, in fact Nothing in excess, including enlightenment. It is an upward spiral of awakenings, accompanied by ego battles, because the ego knows that truth will destroy it. Continue your spiritual practice, staying present as much as you can, and realize that the battle has just begun. The bliss will be followed by dark nights of the soul, like a train moving through a sequence of tunnels, punctuated by soul-searing light.

Happiness, based on attachments, is always temporary. The question is not, "Am I happy?" but "Can I sustain this happiness?". Humans chase happiness, and sometimes find it for a time, but inevitably they lose it, because they don't realize that the chasing is the curse. Relative reality is unavoidably transient. The only enduring happiness is found through unconditional Love, which is God, which is You.

You do it by being Consciously present, not identifying with your thoughts, and allowing insights to arise naturally. By livewire I mean a direct, living connection with Source. Consciousness has a cadence, and will guide "you" if you let it.

It is all the same Consciousness, manifested through a multitude of forms in different states of awareness, but seamlessly One. When you look through spiritual eyes, you see the same Consciousness in everything, including trees. Our sense of the holiness, and wholeness, with trees goes back to the earliest primal gatherings in sacred groves.

When you are livewired to Source, channel it. When your brain begins to melt, take a break. The wisdom, as always, is the Middle Way.

@GreenWoods When the Buddha taught that "all effort must be made by you", he wasn't referring to the conceptual awakening that people sometimes experience on psychedelics, or in other ways. He was talking about the deeper awakening, which is the opening of your spiritual eyes, and the lifelong journey of letting go of attachments, and manifesting the unconditional Love that is the essence of who we are. I'm reading "Being Ram Dass" at the moment. He conceptually awakened through extensive experience with psychedelics, but it wasn't until many years later that he woke spiritually when meeting his guru, Maharaj-ji, and even then he spent the rest of his life integrating the implications of that awakening. The Buddha had it right. Buddhas, drugs, or any other external processes can only show you the way. Ultimately the path of enlightenment must be walked by you.

Is light a particle or a wave? How much space does an electron occupy? How is awakening possible if there is no you to awaken? The mind loves to categorize, and is incapable of understanding paradox. It is easy to oversimplify reality by saying there is only God, and everything else is an illusion, but even that oversimplification becomes a duality, and fails to capture the incomprehensible paradox. It is called a Mystery for a reason. Reality is infinitely more, and infinitesimally less, than people are capable of understanding. Instead of constantly grasping with the conceptual mind, Be.

Reality is layerless, yet it includes all layers. It is formless, yet it includes all forms. It is nondual, yet it includes all dualities. It is nothing, yet it is everything. It is God, yet it includes all of God's creations. It is beyond the capacity of the mind to comprehend, and can only be directly realized. Lord of the gods, you are the abode of the universe. Changeless, you are what is and what is not, and beyond the duality of existence and nonexistence. You are the first among the gods, the timeless spirit, the resting place of all beings. You are the knower and the thing which is known. You are the final home; with your infinite form you pervade the cosmos. - Bhagavad Gita 11:37-38

Awakening only happens from within, when the aspirant is ready. No teacher, however great, can force someone else to awaken. At best, they point the way. All the effort must be made by you; Buddhas only show the way. Follow this path and practice meditation; go beyond the power of Mara. - Buddha

Thank you, and right back at you ?

Different gurus for different aspirants. There is no universal answer. Find the guru that speaks to your soul.

@acidgoofy The translation, and commentary, by Eknarth Easwaran are sublime.

Your dad is as real as you are, brother. We are not only the ocean; we are the waves on the ocean. The waves usually don't last as long as we might like. My "dad" died in December. We are born, and we die. But underlying it all, is God, who is You, and who created the waves that "we" are. Don't listen to the solipsists. It isn't just the ocean. It is also the waves. ?

Do you want to understand Consciousness, or would your rather realize Consciousness? If the latter, it doesn't get any better than the Bhagavad Gita.

Everything happens for a reason, but rarely for the reason you think. Your ways are higher than your ways.