The Nature Of Enlightenment - A Preview From My Book

[TJ Reeves]

Well, considering how @Leo Gura has mentioned that he's writing a book (which I'll be first in line for as soon as it comes out), I might as well get more of my own stuff out there so no one thinks I'm copying. Also, I can't emphasize how much writing helps. In particular, writing basically eliminates the monkey mind 'problem' by giving your mind a rubik's cube to solve -- how to describe whatever it is you want to describe. Anyway, here's another section:

How to use this book - The Nature of Enlightenment 

“The most profound insights arise from questioning the overlooked obvious” – Peter Ralston

260 BC -  Hiero’s new crown pleased him. To celebrate his long climb to the top of royalty, he’d appointed a goldsmith to make him the most beautiful wreath ever as a message to everyone else. After weeks of work, the goldsmith produced a masterpiece - a wreath truly worthy of the gods.

Indeed, it seemed no mortal man could have produced such a wreath. The commoners began rumors that the king’s wreath was not made out of gold, but silver, which is much easier to work with.

Heiro could not stand such scandal. He might as well have been a king without a crown. So, he held a public trial for the Goldsmith and the crown. If the crown was made out of gold, the Goldsmith would be awarded with even greater money than before and Heiro would look like a just, benevolent ruler. If not, the Goldsmith would be tortured in front of the city as a warning to anyone who tried to mess with royalty.

The goldsmith’s talent ran in the family, as exemplified by his cousin Archimedes. Not only did Archimedes use calculus to prove the area of the circle 2,000 years before the actual invention of calculus, but he also invented hydrostatics and the compound pulley. For this reason, Archimedes was the first person the goldsmith went to for help.

“I have two days before they kill me!” the goldsmith cried to Archimedes, “I don’t know how to prove to the king that the crown is made out of gold other than destroying it and showing him the insides. But I can’t destroy my life’s work – we all know the gods would punish me for doing so! Then again, I don’t want to die for my masterpiece, either!” 

Archimedes got to work immediately. Prior experience told him that gold and silver had different weights at the same overall size. If he could figure out the size of the crown, then he could compare it to the a known amount of pure gold of the same size to tell if it was real.

But there was a problem: up to that point in history, no one could figure out how to measure the volume of an object with an irregular shape. I mean  just look at the thing - do you sacrifice accuracy by using a big ruler, or do you waste time by using a tiny ruler, one which will still contain inaccuracies? Archimedes spent all day and night trying to come up with solution to this issue.

Alas, nothing worked.

Dejected, Archimedes went to take what he knew was to be his final bath before the king killed his cousin and then killed him for helping a traitor like his cousin.

As he stepped into the bath, Archimedes noticed that the water level rose. As he got his whole body in, it approached the top of the bath itself. And when he placed his arm in the water, some of it splashed out the sides. At that moment, insight struck him: the volume of water displaced must be equal to the volume of the part of his body he had submerged.

"Eureka! Eureka! (I found it! I found it!)" Proclaimed Archimedes. Eager to share his discovery, Archimedes leapt out of his bathtub and ran through the streets of Syracuse naked telling everyone of his discovery.

----

Most people think of this Eureka moment as happening in an instant. This is only partially true. See, Insights transcend the term “slow” and “fast,” existing in an nigh-unknowable plane of hidden mystical awareness.  

Insights are partially “slow” because they usually need time to incubate. Like Archimedes, you need:

·      Previous experiences that give you lessons

·      Time spent concentrating and contemplating  over a topic

·      And a little bit of mental relaxation for ideas to float in.

But once you build the correct scaffolding, insights seem to come out of nowhere and they do so almost instantly. The key is to recognize that this is different from thinking. Thinking usually involves a step by step series of problem solving. That takes too long. Direct Insight - involves an actual recognition of something. 

When you open your mind to the new possibilities, there’s a sudden shift in perspective where that which didn’t seem to exist suddenly exists. Again, the truth is that nothing changes: you simply realize that which was always there in the first place. Archimedes didn’t invent the fact that you can measure density using water, he discovered a fact that was always there.

The same is true for enlightenment. Except you probably don’t realize that yet. In particular, you think you can’t become enlightened or haven’t already had Enlightments.

This is because of shit marketing tactics and the natural human tendency to not investigate things on ones own with open-mindedness. See, like Archimedes, you too will be partially tempted to run around naked telling everyone of the Absolute Truth. Its just too obvious and too amazing not to.

On the other hand, the answer is so simple, you’re not going to want to say anything. After meditating for 42 days and realizing enlightenment, Siddartha said “I truly attained nothing from complete, unexcelled Enlightenment,” Immediately afterwards, Siddartha, now the Buddha, went off to the mountains to live alone. He figured there was just no way anyone would get it if he talked about what it is he ‘got’ because there was just nothing to say.

After a while, however, people started begging him for help. They’d heard of his enlightenment and wanted a piece of it for themselves. He refused to budge. One day, someone pointed out that if he were to help, then eventually, someone would ‘get it.’

With the hope that just someone somewhere might get it, he began teaching. His first teaching consisted of sitting silently while he stared at the crowd. This continued for a few years, much to everyone’s frustration.

His second teaching consisted of telling everyone that he was not a teacher, no one should quote him, and that nothing he was about to say was actually true. This continued for a few years, much to everyone’s frustration.

His third teaching consisted of telling everyone to stop relying on teachers and to see the truth for themselves. This continued for a few years, much to everyone’s frustration.

After a while, he gave up on that and started alluding to regular sensory experiences to try to point out what’s up with reality.  Now everyone was happy.

Unlike the density of an object, the Absolute Truth cannot be spoken. At best, the Absolute Truth can be pointed to with analogies and stories.

When egos run upon these stories its up to them to see what’s being pointed to on their own. And the problem with that is that egos exist in almost direct opposition to the truth: you are immortal, infinite, and omnipotent; the ego convinces you that you are mortal, finite, and of limited potential. Moreover, the only way for you to ‘get that you’re immortal is that the ego has to go away long enough for you to see that yes, you really are immortal. To the ego, going away equates to death.

That is, in all seriousness, to become immortal you have to die.

You can see how this could create problems. Mainly, one faces the question of how to convince people to go on an inward journey even though they think they have a bunch of stuff going on outside themselves. The next question is how you are going to get them to kill what-they-think-of-as-themselves without having them literally take a knife and slit their wrists.

Intro to Marketing 101: You tell them it’s more worth their time than anything else. You tell them enlightenment is this grandiose thing filled with extra universes and heavenly figures and eternal bliss. You tell them that its some near impossible journey only taken by heroes, legends, and gods and that they are brave for starting such a journey. You tell them that it costs no money and that by even beginning to ask about enlightenment, it’s their destiny to attain it.

Oops, my bad. I got ahead of myself. That’s not marketing 101. That’s Intro to Marketing 100: fucking lie to them. Tell them something that’s true, but not really. Tell them just enough that they feel happy enough to spread the word, but just enough that everyone else can accept easily. Don’t tell them the whole truth because the whole fucking truth cannot actually be told.

Turn the Truth into a meme. Make it something that follows the SUCCES model of making lessons stick: Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Storied. Don’t make people think too hard – their own biology prevents them from doing so.

Tell them that Jesus died on the cross for you to tell you that you are a child of God. The Buddha sat under a tree to figure out that when he became enlightened, everyone became enlightened because he is the same as everyone anyway. Krishna has your back as long as you focus on doing you and becoming the best person you can. Yes, it's true, but no, it's not at all what you think it actually is because the truth is far more nuanced yet simple at the same time. 

Think about it: for basically everything in life, we need previous experiences and understandings before we can accept new experiences and understandings, but for the Absolute Truth, we must find something that rests on absolutely no prior experience or understanding for it is that which is prior to all experiences and understandings.

Most people can barely get past the first layer of questioning themselves when you ask them why they do the things they do. Forget the second layer. And Fuck the third layer, that one’s impossible.

Enlightenment, on the other hand, literally requires coming up with the answer to an infinite regression of questions. Do you really think people are going to do sit down and do this for no reason?

And yet what’s Absolutely Hilarious – the Kosmic Joke - is that everyone can do it. I mean it. I really mean it. I really really mean it. That’s what drives some enlightened people insane. They can’t help but do something to let everyone know what’s up.

Put it this way: a few months ago, I went to watch my 5-year-old cousin play T-ball. In case you didn’t know (or otherwise didn’t have a childhood growing up cough), T-ball is a form of baseball where, instead of having people throw the ball at the batter, the ball would sit on a mount, absolutely motionless and easily available to knock out of the park. It’s supposed to be so easy, even a 5-year-old kid could do it.

To my amusement, the kids would take a swing and totally miss. Sometimes, they’d line up to bat looking in the wrong direction, as if they were going to hit the ball into the fence behind them. It was the cutest thing ever. You too would think to yourself how is this possible? But you couldn’t run onto the field and play T-ball for them. They have to figure it out on their own.

This is the feeling I get when it comes to discussions about nature of enlightenment.

Its like Humanity has basically been stuck in a 10,000 year old Abbott and Costello Who’s on first skit that mixes the words you, nothing, truth, infinity, god, allah, the higgs boson field, the universe, simulation theory, consciousness, and "               " (wordless expression). Everyone’s talking about the same thing, but every time someone kind of gets it, they proceed to get mad at everyone else for being 'wrong,' even though they’re basically just as wrong and just as right. Human nature is basically a process of spiraling from one description to the other, flipping off the other descriptions until you realize that they're all capital-I 'It' masking itself through words. 

-----

We’ve all had insights. And so, part of us gets why Archimedes ran around naked.

We also know that when we have insights they kind of just strike us out of nowhere. In particular, we have to try really really hard and then, just let go and take a nice bath to clear your mind. 

Now I want you to imagine that you can have an insight into the biggest questions of life. If you’re not sure what questions those are, let me get you started:

1.      What is consciousness?

2.      Does God exist?

3.     Is our universe real? Are we in a simulation?

4.      Do we have free will?

5.      What is the universe made of?

6.     What is Truth? How do I know what is right or wrong?

7.      Why is there something rather than nothing?

8.      How do we stop ourselves and the universe around us from dying? (Foreshadow: How do you prevent the 2nd law of thermodynamics from taking us over?)

9.      How did life begin?

10.  Are we alone in the universe? Both us as individuals and humans as a species?

11.   What makes us human? Why?

12.   Why do we dream?

13.  Can you really experience anything objectively?

14.   Why is there stuff?

15.   Are there other universes?

16.  Why is math so accurate? What are numbers?

17.   What is at the bottom of a black hole?

18.   Is time travel possible?

19.   What will be the fate of our species? Our universe?

20.  Why is the universe so exquisitely balanced such that life can exist?

21.   Is there life after death?

22.   What is the meaning of life?

23.  What is beauty?

24.   What am I supposed to do with my life?    

This is the type of stuff that enlightenment refers to. I’m not exaggerating. You can answer all of these with the same insight:

The Absolute Truth = Consciousness = You = Pure Awareness = Absolute Infinity = Pure Imagination = The Universe = God = Nothing = Everything = All = Zero/Zero = “                “  (there is no actual word for it)

So without further ado, here’s what enlightenment is:

Enlightenment is insight to the Absolute Truth. It is direct consciousness of what-is as-it-is for-itself as-itself.  It is insight into that which is Absolutely True about the nature of reality, the nature of the self, and the nature of existence.

Here are other clarifications:

·      It is NOT something that happens only once --   You can keep having insights that go deeper and deeper into the same subject: Absolute truth, the same way you can view a diamond form many angles.

·      It is NOT strictly Either-or -- Although yes, the insight itself is either-or, you may have different glimpses of insight at different moments such that you awaken more to the truth just like you get better at using the multiplication table once you understand it and begin to apply it in new ways.

·      It is NOT the same as personal transformation -- The truth specifically does not change and transformation is, by definition, change. What happens is that the truth allows you to have a significantly easier time changing your behavioral patterns.

·      It is NOT impossible -- If anything its pretty easy once you set up the proper mental and physical systems for attaining insight. You can definitely do it! And once you know what to generally look for, insights will start coming by the boat load.

·      It is NOT 'eternal bliss, no matter what' -- Sorry kid, you’re always going to have problems as long as you live the life of a human. Thats just what we do - make up problems for ourselves. In fact, trying to go for eternal bliss will probably just cause more suffering. As Rick Sanchez once said, "you want to *burp* rip that band-aid off now. You'll thank me later"

·      It is NOT Something you perceive, in particular it must involve some out-of-this-world emotional, sensational, or physical experience; nope, the world basically stays the same. --  Put it this way: intuitively grasping the Pythagorean theorem makes math more beautiful, but its not like your paper flew out of the room and turn into an angel. (Sidenote: I admit however, that if you saw your paper fly out of the room and turn into an angel, it would probably make enlightenment easier.)

·      It is NOT unavailable to you now --  Enlightenment is always and only available NOW. Stop waiting for it to happen in the future.

Enlightenment is available at any point, and at any time the way insight is always available to Archimedes. Open your mind up to possibilities and allow for impossibilities.

It will be almost like an "aha!" moment, but it won't actually require thinking other than focused contemplation mixed with some looseness from psychedelics or simple relaxation. What we're looking for requires recognition, which seems like thinking, but it's an entirely different mode of perception. Its like when you cross your eyes to look at one of those 3D puzzles and boom it just pops out: reality is neither matter nor hallucination - it just kind of is and it is all and you are its source and you are all and you are everyone and everyone is all which means that it is no one person except that it is all one person.

Trust me, that last sentence will make sense as soon as you 'get it.' Maybe this section of this book will make you ‘get it’. Maybe another section will. Maybe it will take a re-reading. Maybe, you’ll get it while taking a bath 60 years down the line. 

Be ready. Be aware. Be open.

Enlightenment will mean the end of your journey. You’ll be done. You’ll just know. Pure and simple. You’ll understand why it is that some of the things that have been marketed to you the way that they’ve been marketed to you. That is, you’ll begin to see that them as partially true, and in some cases, totally possible accounts of reality. You’ll to see them as partially wrong, and in some cases, totally impossible accounts of reality. Heaven Exists, but it’s not what you think of. The Gates of Heaven Exist too, but the Gate is a Gateless Gate. The implications of the existence of absolute truth as nothing but pure indistinct imagination are so crazy, yet elegant, so chaotic, yet simple it will blow your fucking mind.

Enlightenment will also mean the beginning of your journey. You’ll find yourself on your knees, trying to pick up pieces of your mind back up off the floor from having been blown to bits. This will take the rest of your lifetime. And If you’re at all curious like me, your first enlightenment will just make you want to have more enlightenments. Everyone knows that One answer begets five more questions. This is just as true for The One Answer.

Enlightenment will also mean that that there is no beginning – there is no end. Life itself becomes this never-ending series of insights to be had about the same thing - you. Everywhere you look at becomes a series of clues, all pointing to final puzzle piece that restarts the whole puzzle - Everything. Except that the puzzle is infinitely big and infinitely small and infinitely long and infinitely wide and so it doesn’t even have a final piece - Nothing. As you might imagine, this makes every day inexplicably exciting and full of wonder of some greater force – God.

-----                                                                           

Archimedes didn’t stop working on mathematics after helping his cousin. He began wondering about the nature of circles, for he intuited that circles held a view of the Absolute Truth. While he worked on this problem over the next few years, the Roman Empire toppled the Greek Empire. Archimedes barely noticed as his house got stripped away and the Romans forced him to live on the streets. It didn’t matter if he was Greek or Roman – that stuff was all relative. It only mattered that he find the Absolute Truth.

One day, a high-ranking Roman soldier came up to Archimedes as he sat on the road drawing circles.  The soldier commanded him to make way for the passing Roman guard. But Archimedes, in the middle of solving a problem involving circles, refused to budge. The soldier grew enraged – for what reason does this poor old Greek commoner disobey his commands? “Nothing,” Archimedes replied, “Don’t disturb my circles.” The soldier promptly ran through Archimedes with his sword.

Archimedes had good reason to not move.  

----

The Main Point: Enlightenment = insight to the nature of nature itself. No more, no less. Focus, relax, boom. 

Edited August 13, 2017 by TJ Reeves

[Afonso]

Great! Keep it going, tell us here when you're done if you may. Thanks! 

[Joseph Maynor]

Nice work.  You have a nice writing style.  Very genuine voice and good tone.  

[Leo Gura]

@TJ Reeves If you're writing a serious book, it's probably best not to publish chunks of it on a public forum. You'll want to maintain copyrights and all that. Just an FYI.

[Lynnel]

8 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

If you're writing a serious book, it's probably best not to publish chunks of it on a public forum. You'll want to maintain copyrights and all that. Just an FYI.

@TJ Reeves  I can second that.

Basicaly if you are publishing your work randomly on forums only means you're not taking it seriously enough.

If you've ever been to a wannabe writters forum you'll know what I'm talking about.

Find some trusted people to proof read you and give you feedback instead of posting anywhere on the internet.

People stealing your ideas happens even faster than the plague.

[Nahm]

@TJ Reeves Great read! I love your writing. I am a writer also, if you are interested in any creation  / collaboration in the future, let me know. Great stuff TJ!