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Emotions are a primitive way the self survival instinct motivates behavior, chemical reactions are the primordial way, and thoughts are the most recent evolutionary step in motivating behavior for self survival. Emotions aren't wrong or right, they just are, but as a self aware being we don't have to unconsciously be influenced by them, we are aware of them and have the ability to transcend them. So when the thread starter says they didn't follow the emotional impetus to behave in a way that reflected the 'bad' feeling and instead use their thoughts to transcend that feeling and transform it to a positive one they are simply using the thought-mind to alter their emotional state and thus their behavior. Emotions can influence thoughts and thoughts can influence emotions and both can influence behavior. Although behavior can influence both thoughts and emotions as well such as meditating or exercising can alter our thoughts and emotions. These are all connected within our experience of self conscious and we additionally have the awareness of self conscious that allows us to 'freely' intend an experience of this self conscious that isn't influenced by the impulses, urges and thoughts that conditionally arise. Awakening to the agency of this 'free will' of attention and intention of our self conscious is the opening up to what is commonly called 'enlightenment'. Staying present in that awakened agency so that it transcends the self conscious impulses, urges and thoughts is the source of liberation from suffering. It doesn't necessarily end all of the self conscious activity, it just ceases the influence of it to cause self suffering. When staying present in this awakened agency it allows us to orient our thoughts, emotions and behavior in a way that serves self survival from peace and fulfillment instead of suffering and yearning. Some may experience an immediate cessation of much of their self conscious conditioning but most will see it slowly be transformed as they 'be present' more consistently so alter the conditioning to reflect this liberation.

If your sole purpose is to get awakened, one way to go about it is to build up total fucking faith and dedication to something. Being too skeptical and jumping from one flower to the next does not help in this method.

This is the strangest day of my life. Today I've realized that low consciousness is the cause of all suffering. Lack of awareness is the cause of all perceived shortcomings in life. High consciousness is the key to mastering life. Realizing what I actually am was the biggest mindfuck of all time. What am I? What is reality? What is the fundamental nature of existence? The answer to these questions is so grandiose and unbelievable that my mind is going crazy trying to comprehend the implications this discovery. The universe has suddenly reached a breakthrough in it's evolution today. Now we must continue to go further. I may be in a hysterical state of mind as I'm writing this, but I just need to talk about this. This forum is an excellent place to talk about the Truth. This is the most important endeavor we could possibly pursue. You can't live life to your fullest potential unless you are in touch with your true nature. There are two powerful forces fighting for control in this universe. The force of illusion is dulling our minds, it's distracting us from Truth, it causes us to antagonize each other, and works to entangle us with a false narrative. The force of consciousness is working to reveal the true nature of reality, as well as encouraging acceptance and love for each other and ourselves. Most of all, the force of consciousness is behind the evolution of reality towards greater complexity. Eventually you will all realize what you are, because you can't avoid it. Ignorance cannot be sustained. I'm still in so much disbelief over what just happened. Earlier today, on the date this thread is posted, I experienced an awakening. I can't look at life the same way anymore. When I awakened, my initial reaction was pure astonishment. The Truth is unbelievable, but also undeniable once you see it. First, I couldn't believe I was so stupid to not see something that is so incredibly obvious. The Truth has always been accessible, all I had to do was look at it. That is the funny thing about Awakening, once you realize what you actually are it becomes so obvious, so blatant, that only the most profound ignorance could prevent you from seeing it. I am actually shocked at how unconscious people are, considering the availability of quality literature on the topic, as well as countless clues hinting at non-duality. I'm actually surprised so few people actually figure this out, there's so many resources to help you awaken if you simply apply hard effort. There are actually numerous signs all over the place hinting at the Truth (including this entire website), but we never decipher them. It's a shame, because Awakening is the most important thing you should worry about. It's impossible to have any control over your life if you're not even aware of what's actually going on. If you haven't awakened yet, I urge you to do so as soon as possible. Earlier today I was struck with an "enlightenment" experience and I wish to write about it while I am still awake. After discovering for myself exactly what "Enlightenment" refers to, I found there are many ways to describe the process of becoming conscious. I like to call it "Going Lucid", because it's very much like becoming lucid within a dream, except you are doing so in this reality. "Awakening" is a good term to use as well. Unfortunately any term will be slightly misleading and won't help you understand what it actually means to awaken. Below I'll do my best to convey what Enlightenment was like and try to accurately describe what it actually means. But first I want to point out that Enlightenment is not that hard to attain. For those of you who are still seeking "Enlightenment", it's just a matter of discovering what you already are. All you really need to do is just carefully observe reality, and you'll realize your true nature. All it takes is honest effort. I'm going to describe what happened as best I can. The awakening was not aroused by psychedelics or even meditation. It was desperation that aroused it. For the past couple months, I've been spending the majority of my waking hours contemplating my own existence, desperate to figure out what I am and what this reality actually is. Leo's recent videos were some of the deepest talks I've ever heard from Actualized.org. "Life is a Dream", as well as "Life is a Maze" were the two videos that hit me the hardest. Leo's words stirred something in me. It made me angry. I couldn't take it anymore. I was sick and tired of being in the dark, so I decided that I'm going to keep investigating this reality non-stop until I finally solve the mystery. I let go of everything I cared about except finding the truth. In the following weeks, I examined all the concepts Leo was discussing, and cross-referencing his ideas with other Enlightened masters, most of which I found in the Turquoise thread. I couldn't understand many of the concepts, such as an organic, intelligent, universe, or what non-duality actually meant. Whenever Leo talked about "becoming infinite" it just sounded like gibberish to me. I couldn't even understand the significance of a Samadhi experience. Suddenly all that changed in a single moment, after a certain line of thought. I was thinking to myself, "I am just a concept, and concepts are just thoughts, and thoughts are just sensations, and all of reality is sensation. That means that reality is nothing but this, the present moment. It's just this. Nothing exists but the present. But what am I? If the person I think I am is just an idea on par with any other unverified belief, then what is this? Wait a minute, could it be that I am everything? This entire reality could actually be just a creation of the mind, just as thoughts are? What if this is actually a dream, and everything and everyone is just an aspect of my mind? Wait a minute, if I actually observe reality as objectively possible, I will discover that it's the only explanation!" While considering these thoughts, it finally hit me, but it something beyond thoughts, something far more intimate. All of the sudden everything came crashing down. I looked around the room and everything felt like it was part of me. Everything, including inanimate objects, felt alive, as one living entity. ALL IS ONE! All of us, WE'RE ALL THE SAME MIND, THE SAME PERSON! Leo's words are exactly right, the universe is one super-intelligent organism. I just couldn't believe it. It's just so damn obvious. I created Leo, I created this website, I created the entire universe. And I don't mean this person typing this created the universe, I mean that the universe is all ONE PERSON. It's ONE INTELLIGENCE, which has created this complex reality for it's own amusement. THIS IS GOD! DON'T YOU SEE? Metaphysically, this all is a dream. Don't you know what that means?! It's all created by a super intelligent mind, which is what I am, it's what you are, it's what all this is. When I realized this, I burst out into laughter. It was the most hilarious punchline of all time. My entire life was a joke up to this point, and this was the fucking punchline. I thought about how much effort and seriousness I put into finding trying to be "enlightened" when after all, the Truth is so fucking obvious that you have to willfully distract yourself from it. It's just silly. I couldn't stop laughing at myself, at how stupid I was for not even noticing this. I just can't fucking believe how easy it was the whole time. This reality is fucking amazing, I LOVE this shit. I fucking love all of it. This reality is fucking genius! I'm really only writing to myself. This whole website is just the universe trying to make itself more conscious. That's the trajectory of our evolution. This is only the beginning. There is still so much to do. There is still infinite knowledge and infinite wisdom to be had. I've been spending years trying to figure out what Spiritual Enlightenment actually means, and today, it came to me at a random moment. I am trying as hard as I can to hold onto this state of consciousness, for there is still a risk of falling back asleep. Even after I gazed at the truth, despite how incredible is, I still must learn to embody it. I still have all my old habits and the same mind, the only difference is that I'm more aware of what is actually happening. Spiritual Enlightenment doesn't mean you automatically transform into a Holy Guru who has perfect control over himself. Enlightenment is the overcoming of delusion. Enlightenment is the prerequisite for genuine personal development, not the end goal. How can you properly improve yourself if you don't even know what you are?

From that point of view, there is no issue. Reality is 100% perfect no matter if human beings continue to exist or cease to exist. I have had a couple of awakenings in the past. So, beyond ego, it is a literal heaven even if the apocalypse is upon us. And death is not a problem. And everyone only dies once. So, in the grand scheme of things, there is no issue with planetary destruction. But while I had my awakenings and the detachment inherent to them, it paradoxically awakened intensely humane and empathetic responses in me and I had the capacity for unconditional love. So, I felt sorrow for individual struggles and collective struggles. My emotions were fully intact, and could play out at full stretch. And I still had preferences for things on the relative level. And it felt right to honor them, if they didn't cause any issues. So, I genuinely loved and wanted sentient beings to suffer as little as possible, even in my realization that everything is already perfect. So, I think it is a matter of being able to recognize the illusion of duality as an extension of non-duality, and to be able to validate our relative imperfect human experience within the context of the perfect non-dual beingness. So, I recognize that planetary destruction would cause a lot of unnecessary pain and suffering. So, it makes sense to me to put effort toward raising awareness and helping toward that cause in whichever ways that I can. Now, I have only had two experiences of ego transcendence that lasted only a few hours each. So, take what I have to say with a grain of salt. I am not awake now. But I clearly recall both paradoxical awareness of the relative imperfection and absolute perfection inherent in existence. So, it only makes sense to me now to honor both of those truths.

Yeah I think he was personally taught by some masters https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tummo dont think hes awakened though

Or is it a case by case thing? Like I heard shinzen young after enlightenment still had procrastination issues. In my case I deal with a crazy case of OCD or pure O where I have crazy thoughts that freak me out, since my kundalini has awakened they don't freak me out as bad, after all who's the "I" thats having the thoughts, I'm the observer of them (thanks Leo) but it's taken a year & 1/2 to get to this point, I'm hoping Enlightenment one day will eliminate this issue for me...I guess I'll find out one day..

Unfortunately, the "Just arrive without a path" strategy is not very effective for newcomers. I've never met anyone that "just arrived" without some form of a path. Generally, a self needs to search, learn, discover, integrate, let go, surrender and practice toward abiding One Consciousness. Newcomers can be told over and over again that they have already arrived, that there is nothing to seek and they are already whole and that they are the entire Universe. It just doesn't work. IMO, suggesting to a newcomer that spiritual practices / work along a path is unnecessary and leads to dead things is unhelpful and inaccurate. Every awakened being I've ever met or heard of had a spiritual path. They had to deconstruct and unlearn social conditioning of a self to realize and transcend the self. Even Buddha had a spiritual path. . . As well, one of the biggest traps at intermediate and advanced stages is the belief that "I have arrived and don't need a path of practice and work".

@Nahm i mediate / self inquiry/ sds sit from/re search 1-3 hours a day. My kundalini is awakened, I've only been in this path a year & a 1/2. But I've put in probably 6 years worth of mediation in lol in that year & a 1/2, trying to get liberated over here!

I definitely don't want to come out and attack you, but if you could help me with any of my delusions I post, or anyone can, I will love you forever. So my first thing if you could address is that in Leo's most recent videos he talks a lot about true masters being humble. Out of anyone I've seen on these forums, you certainly come off as believing yourself to be enlightened or masterful, animals bow before you etc. I guess what I'm trying to say is that brining up the fact that "An awakened human being is many many many magnitudes superior in any area of life. Even in physical strength. " on a thread that isn't even discussing that comes off as quite the opposite of humble. I mean the one area you specifically mention is physical strength. Why not mention how much easier it is to help and love people? Instead you chose to say that awakened people are physically stronger? What's the intention with that statement. Earlier in this post, you said it seemed like a blue elaboration. I was confused by this because even though it didn't seem like an accurate description of what happened, it didn't specifically convey to me and specific blue traits of absolute right and wrong etc. So if you could be very specific in why you diagnosed him as blue, or this description as blue, and not say red or orange. I know you were asked already and kind of skirted the question jokingly, but I would really really appreciate clearing up my delusion. What I interpret as a lack of humbleness follows many of your posts, for example. This is just a comment "Leo is on his own path, he will get there sooner or later" I guess this is kind of the attitude I interpret often, like you reached the finish line and came here to be a hot shot while you watch other people try and grow. But that can totally be a projection of what I do when I finish a project early. Finally, you accused the dude with a featured 77 pages of comments as a potential fraud. Do you think Leo would keep that thread open if he was fucking with people, and not an enlightened mastered trying to "Help Sincere Seekers"? "@winterknight Put a photo of yours, or you are just a copy from a copy regurgitating copies. I don't see uniqueness and originality." It also comes off like you already made the judgement " I don't see uniqueness and originality" Again, I'm really not here to fight anyone, I just wanted to address how you come off to me, and why I might be super super deluded

@Leo Gura Many of us we are bound to language, you know that when you drop the language things go infinite. No AI can do that. The AI is bound to logical patterns. If you talking about Magnus Carlsen , he is a spineless machine. And the circle goes round and round until an awakened human being will just shit on any AI

An awakened human being is many many many magnitudes superior in any area of life. Even in physical strength.

This is one of the greatest truths, even the awakened ones will get bored if they knew everything. By letting go, everything comes back. ?

Humans don't know 1% even of the complexity of the body/mind. How would you think AI will surpass humans? I'll tell you, the biological is far superior, infinite times superior, AI will never reach even Egoic Enlightened humans. Why? Because the biological minds put together in a mathematical formula the AI. Consciousness and the Awakened are beyond mathematics.

I wouldnt underestimate a spiritual significance of environment, such as a shrine. Think of it this way: what’s more conducive for meditation/contemplation, a warzone or a garden? My point with that example showing that while in the absolute sense no location, or shrine, would be necessary, environment most certainly can play a role if we are not yet awakened. On the otherhand, you dont want to form a subconscious attachment to anyone location or routine, which consistently meditating at 1 location such as a shrine may lead to.

@Hellspeed can you breakdown you're past for us all & how you awakened ?

I did not seek for this. I did not know what breath was and meditation when I first awakened, from then I had thousands more. Only after, I read about what other spiritual teachers have to say about it. I come from a background of a theology degree and small window time of being atheist, then it hit me when I dropped the belief in the supernatural.

A true awakened master is beyond turquoise and gold. Has the ability to heal him/herself and others with energy. Otherwise is just a belief. The Egoic have contributed tremendously on the concept side of the matter, I'll give you that. But in a true awakening state one has no need to read anymore per example, all come to him/her with intention, knows how Akasha works and everything. Let's go into the unknown, he/she does not know!, and then all comes back.

Stop listening to east gurus and preachers, there are only a few awakened, and the business of non-duality is huge, as in Christianity the dogma. Stop taking YouTube seriously, is a mindfuck mill.

An awakened human being is just superior, mentally, memory, well-being, everything, etc.

@Pharion I already have. I have introspected with the questions @Emerald gave me. What am I hoping to accomplish being a soldier? A sense of valor? Defending my country? Why are America's enemies their enemies? What are we fighting for? It all leads back to the sense of self/ego. Like Leo said in his Mechanics of Evil video, minuscule amount of people think about the suffering of Iraqis. I'm not even Iraqi, I'm Pakistani. But their suffering hits close to home for me since I was a kid. After being enlightened about how evil is created, I can't in good conscious join the military and I am awakened to how deeply unconscious the military is and those who glorify them.

There are people that are suffering within their relative reality. People that hold racist views and people perceiving racism. From my experience, these relative realities exist. Views like “we create our own reality” or “thoughts are delusion” may provide liberation and comfort to the one who has awakened to it. Yet what does it do for the person that has been conditioned with racist views that are now repressed? The person who now experiences a sense of separation, fear and hatred? Does saying “Well, that person is just experiencing the delusion of conditioned thought” help them in any way to realize that? And the person who perceives a racist attack against them. Does your personal revelation help them in their relative world of suffering? I’ved lived in communities with intense racism and poverty. With people that are oppressed. Starving. Direct experience. Go get some experience with the wrath of racism and oppression. I have in 3rd world countries. It will blow away your concepts and expand your sense of being. Or at least acknowledge that other people’s relative perspectives are based on extensive direct experience combined with conceptual knowledge. That their relative perspective may be broader and deeper than your own. It seems like you are in a bubble, yet under the assumption that you’ve got some type of broad understanding.

I think that is great. How can we disseminate that awareness at a societal level? As we sit here pontificating about consciousness, people that have not awakened to what you wrote are suffering and harming others due to that conditioning. Let’s say I’ve stepped out of that conditioned delusion. Great for me!!! How does that help other people still suffering from that conditioned delusion?

I think this, for me, has been the most complete way to talk about what the investigation into our true nature is about. Any movie can be used to illustrate this, but I am using The Pursuit of Happyness. We have the actor, Will Smith, playing the character, Chris Gardner. NOW IMAGINE During the filming of the movie, everything is going great. No concerns or anything. Plot is progressing as planned and in the script/direction. Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, Will Smith has a mental breakdown which causes him to forget that he is Will Smith and become his character Chris Gardner. This is no minor mental breakdown. It is full absolute mental transformation that he is Chris Gardner and has no idea who Will Smith is... no idea AT ALL. To keep it simple, let's assume the movie continues to be filmed (assume nobody notices that Will Smith has lost his shit) Now, as the actor Will Smith continues to film and portray the life of Chris Gardner in the movie's plot, he gets 100% emotionally attached to everything which is happening. If something fails in the movie, Will Smith feels as if it is his failure. If he can't find a place to sleep at night, Will Smith suffers from this. He has forgotten his real self (Will Smith) and become the ego (Chris Gardner). Now, let's bring in a question which is commonly seen in spiritual circles. What does Chris Gardner need to do, to realize that he is does not exist? Or when will Chris Gardner wake up to the fact and become enlightened? You see, if you have been following along thus far, you can see it is absolutely wrong to ask these questions. Chris Gardner can do nothing to escape - because he exists within the movie. It is WILL SMITH who needs to awaken. It is WILL SMITH who will become enlightened. It is WILL SMITH who all the pointers are talking to, not Chris Gardner. Just like that, your ego can do nothing to awaken, because it cannot. It is Your self which will awaken Just like Chris Gardner, the character, you the ego cannot grasp the fact that you do not exist because in your ego world with your ego story and life story, you very much do exist! Your life does not need to end or stop. Just live it from a place of deep awareness and knowing as your true higher self (will smith / awareness) With that being said, let's now imagine that Will Smith somehow magically returns and recognizes his mistake of mis-identifying with the body/mind/world of Chris Gardner. Of course, he may laugh a big joyful laughter about how silly he was to have thought he was the character Chris Gardner who is suffering in the plot of the movie. Before Enlightenment chop wood carry water. After enlightenment... Now continuing here, with Will Smith now back and "awakened" to his true nature as the character portraying the role of Chirs Gardner... nothing changes. He continues to film the rest of the movie. In that filming, where-ever there is suffering, Will Smith acts out and portray that, where-ever there is anger, Will Smith portrays that. All the while, knowing he is free from that. That is how enlightenment occurs. It is your true nature / REAL SELF which re-awakens to the fact that it was not the character (body+mind). The renaming plot of your life will play out as it needs to. There will be anger, sadness, guilt, happiness, pain, pleasure, everything... but you will be watching from the place of Will Smith knowing that he is portraying the character and is outside of the character/ego's world. You will have all those emotions but be okay with it, in your deep knowing if your true self - free from the world/reality of the ego. Notice also free will aspect. There is none. Just like in the movie - the script and acting and directing is pre-planned and that's how it will play out. So, once you awaken, what must happen, will happen as it should and will be seen to play out on it's own. Of course, this only talks about one aspect of it. The whole of it is much deeper. It's all one-thing. You are everything, literally. and that's kind of hard to illustrate using words as pointers. That's for another day (animation/graphics will assist to an extent, but again, not entirely)

You have awakened and are now enlightened to the endless conceptual 'truth' beliefs of self anointed 'enlightened masters' who point a finger at other's ideas and chastise them as 'beliefs'. Hehe

Bobby wrote: My buddhist related knowledge is fairly restricted. I have however spent years wading through much of the taoist information that is available in English (although, truth be told, the constant use of metaphor and symbolism in alchemical texts, and the various possible/Schools' interpretations, makes it quite difficult to profess any solid understanding). I'm finally posting as discussions of Actual Freedom, and the Actual Freedom website have stood out, reminding me of much of what i've read in Taoist texts through the years. Now, it could easily be the case that, Taoist texts being as vague/metaphorical as they are, I am reading in Actual Freedom concepts, but I thought it would be worth the discussion nevertheless. To start, this is a link to Chang-Po Tuan's Understanding Reality, translated by Thomas Cleary, with detailed commentary by Liu I Ming. Cleary's summary of the Complete Reality School's view of Yin Yang introduction (starting page 3). Google books: Understanding Reality (specifically 'Yin Yang' pge 3) Whilst this is definitely a brief summary by the translator, Thomas Cleary, it gives an idea of the sort of things that seemed to relate to Actual Freedom. Liu I ming's commentary in the main body of the text, is much more concerned with process. Or am I way off? Some snippets from the translator's summary of Chang Po-tuan's Understanding Reality, University of Hawaii Press ISBN 0-8248-1103-8: hi Bobby~ In terms of the title of this thread, actual freedom is the state of wallowing in complete reality right now. Complete Reality taoist teaching calls this "jumping in and floating around in the center of the compass". "Jumping in" is recognizing, realizing, acknowledging and accepting one's inherent enlightening function, and using it to adapt to conditions without relying on one's personalistic ego-reifying efforts while functioning within the context of situations unbeknownst to anyone. This Center is the immaterial incipient presence of the real body of awareness, which has no location. This "no location" is not somewhere else; it's nowhere else: it's already you before the first thought. The freedom of inherent enlightening function can only be in terms of its relative, which is conditions. Enlightening aware being is free of conditions as is, yet there is no state of separation from conditions. It is not even different than the unattributble nature of conditions (creation), — as the nature of freedom (and conditions) is itself uncreated. Complete Reality tradition exemplifies the thrust of all authentic teachings based on reality. Reality is the substance of conditions, not the trappings of conditions. Those who see reality see through the conditional and use its potential as the means to adapt impersonally to situational energy-cycles whereby they transform along with creation without experiencing Change unawares. Where does freedom come in? It's freedom from karmic momentum. Karmic momentum is psychological. It's also dependent on one's ignorance of it's nature. Freedom is awakened to its nature. It's the same nature. Freedom is the capacity and will to function in the world, the eternity of creation, all time, in partnership with creation, meaning without being subject karmically to changes wrought by circumstantial process. Therefore, the Causeless, or unchanging nature of reality is its absolute nature only for the purpose of discussion. The word(s) cannot be confused with reality itself, as there is no thing. Bobby wrote: The beauty of authentic alchemic devices is that there is nothing to understand. Therefore, it is just a way to facilitate "sneaking past" the barriers that ego has set up to maintain its arbitrary authority by the body's intellectual/emotional apparatus over the being that is going to die. This arbitrary authority's perspective is the "false" that perpetuates the illusion of separate selfhood. It's not necessarily a bad thing, yet as long as its ignorance of its real nature is maintained by an existential fear of other, the "pure" will not be accessible to the being that is going to die for the fulfillment of its enlightening purpose during its lifetime. Spiritual alchemy is using the pure from within the false by not being subject to the false: that's the relativity of freedom, in terms of Complete Reality taoism. Though we are none other than the totality of world-cycles (and beyond), who this is, is neither conditions nor their absolute nature. Who are those who actually know this, and can act on this knowledge? In taoist terms, the world is the sage. Sage is the embodiment of Suchness, the buddhist term to denote reality as is, neither conditional nor absolute. Sages, saints, buddhas, wizards, prior and present illuminates and all enlightening being(s) know the totality of the being that is going to die. This real knowledge is the potential of being, not created. Relative to unity, what is there to be free of? Enlightening beings are comprized of the Virtue of the Receptive. The world comes to them naturally. Such is the nature of the Way, which is the nature of the true self which has no self. Freedom is a relative term denoting knowing better. "Better" is a relative term too. This is not philosophy. It is a description of the functional basis of adepts of Complete Reality. That's not taoism-- taoism is just a name. Reality is inconceivable. Most people go through their entire lives as this inconceivability without ever discovering it within themselves, much less carrying out its innate enlightening function. Complete Reality taoism is a teaching of realization of primordial unity and its manifestation by subtle means through those who can act on nonpsychological awareness. Seeing reality is seeing potential. Seeing potential is the reality of nondifferentiation. Those who know the essence of conditions operate in terms of essence while in the midst of the incremental, that is, temporal existence. Freedom is knowledge and actualization of selflessness (unity) adapted to ordinary situations unbeknownst to anyone which is the the purpose of enlightening being. Taoism calls those who are receptive to Virtue "real people". The Way has its Power, and those who carry it out do so without relying on their own power. This is why "the master carpenter does no cutting." I have only responded to "actual freedom relative to complete reality"~ as for the "snippets" you provided by Thomas Cleary, those are sublimely self-evident of themselves. Even so, arriving at the functional edification of the words you recognized as significant enough to include in your post, is itself the purpose of all authentic teaching. ed note: italicize "Understanding Reality" in 6th; add "The freedom of inherent enlightening function" in 16th; typo 17th; add "Freedom is the capacity and will to function" in 18th paragraph