jjer94

I prefer to use the word Infinity. Does Infinity have boundaries? Can you point to it and say "Ah! There it is!" You can't, because to try to label it would make it finite and therefore not Infinity. There is no such thing as 'beyond' Infinity because 'beyond' implies that Infinity has boundaries, which it does not. Infinity is so vast that vastness is not even possible. As you can probably tell by how paradoxical this sounds, the mind cannot comprehend Infinity. That is why in order to become conscious of Infinity, you need to go beyond mind, beyond rationality. Knowledge/belief creates illusory boundaries. Remove those boundaries and Infinity remains....except it's always been there "Truth hath no confines." --Captain Ahab, Moby Dick

It's been all there is your whole life. But your beliefs of others and your experience somehow being 'limited' are in the way of you realizing this.

You assume there are "other persons." You may want to re-examine that assumption in your direct experience. No, you won't be able to experience. Experience is unique to your particular mind and body. The Truth (nothingness, as you and Leo call it) is not unique. It's the substratum behind experience that's always been there for eternity. It's just not any particular quality. I have an analogy that may help. You experience the world through a space suit that comes with various attributes: height, weight, looks, intelligence, personality... Sorry to say, but one day, that space suit will cease to function, and it will break down. What remains? Just plain old space. You currently identify with your space suit instead of the space, what you've been for eternity. While it may seem like you lose something when the space suit breaks down, you never lost anything. You were always the space pervading the space suit. Enlightenment work is the process of dis-identifying with the space suit and remembering that you're space. Again, re-examine your assumption of there being "others". What if your experience was all the experience there ever was?

You sound like an analytical person just by the way you write, and by the fact that you're reading Ralston. Spiritual Autolysis would probably work really well for you. If you decide to take it up and need help with the general direction, here's a post that'll help you get started:

I don't know if you've gotten to the part in Ralston's book where he talks about bottom-line contemplations? This is exactly what he suggests. Jed also suggests this by using Spiritual Autolysis. I've found both techniques to be helpful.

What I found is that there is both. There may be some events where you contemplate and have a huge awakening and it completely revolutionizes your perspective... but then your good ol' self-agenda comes back, usually in full force. Sure, you may be able to "flip" between self-mode and observer-mode, but it doesn't mean much if it isn't abiding. That's why seeing through your own illusions (or 'destroying the self' as Jed says in his books, a bit dramatic) is really the only way to make efficient 'progress' (really a regression) on this journey. Another phrase Jed uses for enlightenment is untruth-unrealization, and I've recently found that to be very fitting. This also explains why all those meditators stagnate. They may have had some non-abiding enlightenment experiences, but their whole self structure is still intact. It's like trying to chop the regenerating heads off of a hydra when instead you should be plunging your sword into its heart: your heart.

Just as a heads-up to others: This is not to be confused with excitement. What often happens is that ego looks for happiness in excitement and then equates excitement with happiness. However excitement is just a fleeting emotional state. It won't last forever. The happiness Leo is talking about is more a kind of contentment/gratitude/sense of completeness regardless of external circumstances. You can still have highs and lows, excitements and depressions, but this sort of happiness is always there no matter what. By the way: you don't need to be enlightened to experience this sort of authentic happiness, although enlightenment will make it abiding. "You can be happy in your anxiety. Isn’t that crazy? You can be happy in your depression. But you can’t have the wrong notion of happiness. Did you think happiness was excitement or thrills? That’s what causes the depression. Didn’t anyone tell you that? You’re thrilled, all right, but you’re just preparing the way for your next depression. You’re thrilled but you pick up the anxiety behind that: How can I make it last? That’s not happiness, that’s addiction." --Tony de Mello

Jed's books will do that to ya. They scared the bajeezus out of me after I read the entire trilogy. Keep in mind that this is one perspective of the path to enlightenment. It's not the only way. Sure, you'll deal with some pain and suffering on the journey, but it doesn't have to be so dramatic where you become a raving lunatic holed up in a cabin with a golden retriever to prevent you from killing yourself... Although that may well be a possibility. In his books, Jed is pretty narrow-minded, but you may not see that because of how convincing and eloquent his writing is. He shuns meditation and consciousness work and basically says the only way to enlightenment is to become like Captain Ahab....And yet, countless others claimed to have become enlightened through meditation and consciousness work. Enlightenment is a pathless path. You don't have to do anything in particular. There are certain techniques that may help accelerate the process such as contemplation and Spiritual Autolysis, but those aren't the only ways. In fact, Jed McKenna today has mellowed out, saying that trying to destroy illusion as suggested in his books is futile, and instead you ought to learn to see through your illusions. Yes, enlightenment work is essentially 'killing' who you think you are bit by bit. But you don't have to nuke your whole life in one whole sweep to get to the end. Who you think you are is illusion. Your beliefs about what reality is are illusion. How do you destroy something that appears to exist but doesn't actually? By seeing through it; by seeing that it doesn't exist. You don't necessarily have to slit your wrists and cut ties with everyone to do that; seems a bit unnecessary, don't you think?

Now that I think about it, yes I am.

Yep. When I had my awakening to the I AM, I couldn't stop laughing. I laughed to the point of crying, and then I just flat out cried of joy. It's so silly. There was no 'me' this whole time! What a joke! It depends on what you mean by awareness. I'm guessing you're equating awareness with Truth, that which is eternal. The I AM is ephemeral, which you can prove to yourself by simply going to sleep. The Truth of you is always there no matter what. The I AM is a stepping stone, a gateway, to Truth. "When the state of [I AM] is totally swallowed, whatever remains is that eternal 'I'." --Nisargadatta Maharaj

Others, as in, other people, other bodies. What are they really? Listen to any sounds. Where are they coming from? Where are they going? In order to really get what I'm saying, you may need to re-examine your ideas of an external world. Currently, you believe that your consciousness is a subset of the universe, a little ant among vast space and matter. What if it were the other way around? What if the universe was a subset of your consciousness? Contemplate that. Use this as a resource. Make that small little adjustment, and seeing through ego to find the "I AM" will be automatic.

There is no "Mom" for you to kill. Surely there's an animated body that is labelled as "Mom," but "Mom" herself doesn't exist. Just as I can say that there are fingers typing these words right now, but nobody's typing them. All there is in "my" experience are sense perceptions and sentience. Any "I" entity comes from thought, but that's just a sense perception, so in reality there is no "I" entity. There's only a puppet without a puppeteer. I won't even bother saying that you can confirm that in your direct experience...

What/where are you among these sense perceptions? What is the backdrop of all of these sense perceptions? What permeates them? Is there also an external world full of space and matter, or are there only sense perceptions? What are "others"?

@TruthSeeker I'm not sure you understand the definition of illusion. An illusion is something that appears to exist, but actually doesn't. There is no "reality of an illusion." Self and free will are illusions, meaning they don't actually exist in reality. Like Santa Clause. They don't exist, no matter how much they appear to exist. You can confirm this in your direct experience.

If there is only will, then every action done by will would be totally random, since there's no entity that can choose one thing over another. Doesn't sound like the free will you're talking about...

1. There exists no ego to create the illusion of free will. An illusion is something that appears to be there but doesn't actually exist. The ego and free will are both illusions. 2. I'm not sure what you mean here. Belief can be powerful sometimes. You can consider the illusion of free will to be one world-wide placebo effect!

@TruthSeeker What were you before you were born? Did you make yourself? Just curious...

I think what you may have found is the "I AM," which is one layer beyond ego. It's that sentient, empty aliveness, right? It's an intrinsic part of sense perceptions, which is everything, really. Pretty amazing when you first see it. ...But that's not enlightenment. Jed McKenna calls that stage Human Adulthood, or waking up in the dream. "Even the sense ‘I am’ is not continuous, though it is a useful pointer; it shows where to seek, but not what to seek. Just have a good look at it. Once you are convinced that you cannot say truthfully about your self anything except ‘I am’, and that nothing that can be pointed at, can be your self, the need for the ‘I am’ is over — you are no longer intent on verbalizing what you are." --Nisargadatta Maharaj

@jip He sure as heck makes it seem like it. But in truth, there is no such thing as value. In my opinion, I agree with Leo that enlightenment is the one thing most worth pursuing in this life. "But that's just, like, your opinion, man." You want an example of someone that will give you a different perspective on values and enlightenment? This guy. Not as much uncomfortable as it is eerie. Imagine going to a Halloween costume party where everyone believes they are their costume. But just like anything else, you get used to it. It probably even becomes fun after a while.

The problem that a lot of people get into with self-enquiry is that they become mechanical with asking "What am I?" As if by asking it enough the mind will give them an answer and there will be a flash of light and boom, they're enlightened. Or, they actually expect an answer to the question. Reminds me of a kid begging for candy over and over to their parents until the parents give in. Sorry, it doesn't really work that way. Insights don't come as an explosive event. They're very ordinary. All of the insights for enlightenment are available in your experience right now. It's just a matter of removing all of the hidden beliefs in your head that tell you you're something. In my opinion, the main purpose of "What am I?" is to expose and remove all of these beliefs so that what remains is pure not-knowing. And in the realm of pure not-knowing, you will know you are Truth by simply being it. The answer to "What am I" does not come from mind, nor is it in the form of words. If your mind goes silent, I figure that's a good thing. It's run out of things to tell you what you are. Stay in that realm of silence and you'll see what's been staring you in the face this whole time...

@jip Yes, it's a bit of a stretch, but let's flip it around: Why not? I mean, sure, you see through your ego. But you're at a costume party where everyone else is dressed up. You've gotta dress up as something. Why not have a little fun with it? Why do you ride a carnival ride? For the ride, not for the teddy bear you get at the end. Why buy a ferrari? So you can ride around in it. The enlightened don't have any particular agenda with it besides having fun with it. They don't need it to be happy. Maybe it just intuitively felt right to buy one. This is a trap you may want to watch out for. There's no need to remove any emotion. To try to remove an emotion would be to resist your present situation. The only thing you can do is become conscious of your emotions and what they're trying to accomplish. That's what Ralston talks about in his books. No need to remove excitement; just understand why you chase it. If it's for neurotic reasons, you'll know right away.

Great questions! There are no 'neurons' or 'other cells' in my experience, so I have no knowledge of that. This is an excellent question with a somewhat confusing answer if you're new to the enlightenment scene. How do I know the knowledge is not fake? It's not knowledge. Awakenings come about through not-knowing. Think about it. When we talk about enlightenment, we're talking about a Truth that transcends time, space, your birth and your death. It's infinite. How can an infinite Truth arise from finite knowledge? It can't. That's why the Truth can't be communicated through words either. What consciousness work is at its core is deconstruction. It's not trying to look for what's true, it's trying to remove what's false so that Truth remains. Thus, the Truth is not an elaborate construct of the mind; it's what remains when the mind is deconstructed. It is beyond all knowledge, all belief, all stories, all hearsay. Paradoxically, Truth is always there, meaning technically you're enlightened right now. What makes you un-enlightened is all of the constructs in your mind that tell you you're not, that tell you you're a body or an ego, a brother or a son, that you believe this belief or that belief. Consciousness work is the deliberate process of seeing through all of your mind's "knowledge." "To live in the known is bondage. To live in the unknown is liberation." - Nisargadatta "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick

You may want to try consciousness work before you make claims against it What is objective? Think about that for a sec. What do we deem as objective? Ultimately, objectivity is just a concept. It's an abstraction of an abstraction (of an abstraction, and so on) of something from subjective experience. Objectivity doesn't actually exist outside of mind. (Nor does subjectivity either, but that's a different story...) Thankfully, you don't have to believe me on this one. I urge you not to believe me. You can do your own contemplation. Trace any objective concept back to it's core, and you come back to subjective experience. Here's an example: Variable "x" -> a number such as 1 -> pick an object from subjective experience and give it the label "1". I mean, what's so objective about seeing, hearing, thoughts, touching, tasting, and smelling?

Self inquiry is not stopping thought. It's examining yourself and your experience by asking deep questions such as, "What is the purpose of this emotion," or "What am I?" or "What is aware of all of this?" or "What is Truth?" and many, many more. There is no best method; it really depends on your personality type. Although any method ought to involve some first person experience, because that's where the awakenings happen. I'm an analytical/philosophical type of person, so writing down all of my questions and dissecting them one by one was my main method. For more info on that, check out this post: Cheers!

A solid book for getting introduced into the topic of enlightenment. However, his techniques often imply that you have to stop thinking. Like, literally try to stop your thinking. That's what I did for a while after reading his book, trying to be present all the time. Just as a warning, that's going to get you nowhere if you're a serious seeker. It actually requires a lot of unnecessary effort too.