Moksha

Enlightenment is the direct realization that You are Consciousness. You were never created, and You will never die. Only the relative world is impermanent. The realization is simple, but the path to realization is difficult. Don't confuse simplicity with easiness.

Hmm, no offense bro but I'll go with the insights of the Buddha and my own direct experience.

Spiritual masters, and true wisdom, are by nature simple. It's the conditioned mind that wants things to be complex. Here's the Buddha's simple understanding of enlightenment: Grasp the Four Noble Truths: suffering, the cause of suffering, the end of suffering, and the Noble Eightfold Path that takes you beyond suffering. That is your best refuge, your only refuge. When you reach it, all sorrow falls away. - Dhammapada 14:190

Enlightenment is the end of suffering. Anything that causes you to suffer more will not be true enlightenment.

You seem to have a healthy understanding of the relationship between your ultimate nature as Consciousness and your transient nature as a human being. Lucid living, based on such an understanding. is free from suffering. I think we may be discussing semantics more than anything. I like Tolle's definition of the ego, which is misidentification with the conditioned mind, rather than realizing the Consciousness that we are. Fighting the ego only feeds it. I agree with you that it is impossible to kill it. The best we can do is stay vigilant to its tricks, and not allow ourselves to identify with it. The moment you find yourself chasing after love or meaning or peace, rather than realizing it is already who you are, take it as a tornado siren. The ego cannot stand Consciousness, and it will slither back into the shadows when faced with the light of your being. It doesn't understand the language of love. It doesn't mean you can't have a personality, preferences, and enjoyment of life. The secret is not to take any of it too seriously, and realize its essential transience.

I have always advocated honoring human life, including our unique quirks and personalities. Life isn't just an empty illusion; it is relative reality, and should be celebrated. I was referring to the ego, which is the illusion that you are your personality, the blind disavowal of your divine nature, and the lie that enduring happiness can be found outside of yourself. The ego is a sneaky bitch, and it will make you miserable if you listen to its lies.

The ego is the false god. Worship it if you choose, but it will never bless you. The point of Rupert Spira's teaching is that we are already the true god. Longing is losing. Belonging is being.

Infinity = 0 + 1 It is nothing, and everything, infinitely.

Isn't it funny how we can awaken to the reality that we are not our thoughts, and still get so easily caught into their undercurrent? Before you realize it, you are already back asleep, being pulled downriver by your conditioning. The mind has tremendous momentum. The Buddha compared the path of enlightenment to swimming upstream. No realization, however profound, is likely to be enough, unless it is reinforced by regular meditation and spiritual practice.

Hello @Yobenm, and welcome to the forum A few insights I've had during my own journey, that I hope will help: Ego death is an illusion. As long as you are a human being, the ego will always be there. It slithers away and hides, but it does not, and cannot die. At best, it can be temporarily diminished and guarded against. Your strongest defense is vigilance. Learn to recognize the ego immediately, before it can attack. It has a distinctive spiritual stench; instead of relying on your regular senses, develop a keen awareness for the ego's presence. Sure signs of the ego: Anxiety, depression, obsessive thinking, compulsive habits, doubt, pride, and worst of all, the misguided belief that you are already enlightened, and could never possibly fall for the ego's lies again. Engaging the ego in battle requires integrity, courage, and serious commitment. It is nothing less than the sum total of your human conditioning, which started with your biology, and has been perpetuated by the messages society has hammered into you, for your entire life. It is a lifelong battle to defeat it. Realize that the ego relies on your soul energy in order to thrive. The less energy you feed it, the weaker it becomes. It is a lie, after all. It is only as threatening as you allow it to be. Trust in the holiness of your own presence. You are already sufficient. You are abundant. You are love. You need nothing beyond the essence of who you already are. The greatest lie of the ego is that everything is separate. It requires judgment, and a sense of superiority, in order to exist. Counter this lie with the directly realized truth of who you are, which is the same, undivided, Consciousness, that all of us is. ?

Nothing about knowledge is sure. Your mind is your enemy, trust it at your peril. Like a wild horse, it is beautiful, but only when tamed.

The Kingdom of Heaven is within You. Everything else, all the chasing for permanence in impermanence, is the Kingdom of Hell. Beyond and even including Heaven and Hell, there is Tat.

I've said it before, but: Infinity = 0 + 1 Or semantically, Reality underlies and encompasses both the ultimate and relative, and includes all nothings and all everythings. If you want to get it directly, Consciously read the Bhagavad Gita.

@Flyboy I hear you, and in a sense Frank Yang is right. Any duality, even Being vs. Non-Being, or God vs. No-God, or Reality vs. Illusion is inherently relative, and thus cannot reflect ultimate reality. Talking in such terms can be interesting, but only for the mind. Direct realization is beyond the mind. Your instinct about direct experience is right on. It is beyond the senses. When you directly realize who You are, it is undeniable, and it is beyond deconstruction. Dualities dissolve, and you realize, and resonate as, the connectedness and essence of everything. It is sufficient to itself. There is no need for any other "realization", and indeed there is no possibility of any other "realization", at least not that can be relied upon. I hope that helps, bro. You are asking good questions. Just don't depend on your mind for answers

@Flyboy How can direct experience be deconstructed? As the Watcher, where is the question mark? Direct experience is nonconceptual, and as such, it is undeniable. Enlightenment means nothing more than to be filled with light. The final path is not just the realization of who you are, but the actualization of that truth. When you are entirely free from attachments, you will be fully enlightened, and only then, there will be no more "you" to be bound to the relative world.

Hi @Vlad_, your question about the purpose of life is common when people first realize ultimate reality. I hope my answer here helps:

Ultimate reality is not knowable. It can only be directly experienced. Any beliefs, concepts, or models attached to it are products of the mind. Maybe what you are describing are the stages of direct experience. It may happen briefly, but then the person falls back asleep. It may happen sustainably, but realization ebbs and flows still, within that state. Even when a person's eyes are permanently opened, attachments must still be dissolved. It is only when awareness and expression are perfectly unified that ultimate enlightenment is attained. All of that said, remember my first paragraph

Exactly. None of the great spiritual masters teaches suicide of the form, only suicide of the ego. Rather than disparaging life as meaningless, they emphasize the hero's journey. If life has no purpose, why bother teaching love, and the end of suffering? Is it helpful to say that ultimately, there is no soul, there is no journey, and there is no purpose? Or is there wisdom in recognizing that God creates this cosmos for a reason? The realization of ultimate reality is correct, yet it has no power to liberate us from this transient form. It only provides perspective. There is not only ultimate reality, there is also relative reality. God is all of it. This understanding allows lucidity, enhancing the quality of our experience, however transient it may be.

All part of the reality game show, bro

@Nahm The uncertainty principle is a great example of the role of the perceiver in relative reality. Along with quantum and astrophysics, it proves the narrowness of Newtonian physics. Perception is part of the pinball game. And who is doing the perceiving? ?

Well said. Relative reality is a cosmic pinball machine of cause and effect. Take a snapshot of the pinball at any moment, and its location, velocity, and direction will have been determined by the events of the past. This is why, in relative reality, there is no free will at the pinball level. Everything, including the evolution of the soul with its accumulated karma, and its ultimate destiny, is determined by cause and effect. And yet, in the ultimate sense there is free will, in the choices made by the pinball player, which is who we are. The player determines the trajectory of the pinball. When does the player spring the pinball into the game, when does the player flip the pinball with a paddle, with purposeful force and direction, and when does the player allow the pinball to return to the void? It is misleading to say only the player exists, and that the pinball is an illusion. There is an interaction between the two. The pinball machine, with its pinballs, bumpers, ball locks, and kickbacks, is part of reality too. Don't take it too seriously, but don't dismiss it as meaningless either. Lucidly enjoy the game; we are playing it for a reason. ?

@At awe ? 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

The human brain is a transmitter for Consciousness. Do you see the evolution? What will the brain of the next species be capable of? We have arrived at hypercognition. What will be next? How hubric to think that we are it.

Time, including past and future, is only relatively true. Ultimate reality is timeless. Try to comprehend the entanglement of these two realities, and you will fail. It is incomprehensible, and it is Mystery. Instead of conceptualizing it, be it.

That is your gauntlet, brother. Learn to observe, without thinking. Start simple, in nature. Learn vigilance, and center yourself in this. Then you will be ready for noisiness, and will not be swayed ?