The greatest obstacle to Enlightenment

[Shin]

 

 

A lack of empirical investigation, or what I would personally call True science,
Is one, if not the number one trap if you want to awaken or even to self-actualize.

We can call this by other labels like spiritual bypassing, spiritual knowledge, or simply being knowledgeable in general.
It doesn't matter how you call this, like everything else in life, words are just label to describe an actual experience,

That we never experienced for ourselves,
99% of the time.

 

If you really want to kick ass in life, and if you want to realize what you really are,
You can't have the luxury to believe or trust anybody about anything.

I'm not saying that you should think everybody is lying, or that every scriptures or science studies are false,
I'm saying that unless you personally experienced what those things are talking about,

You don't know anything about it,
You only have the illusion of it.

If you think you know something, why bother having the actual experience to confirms it ?
You see, if you already think you know, then there is actually no point to discover what it really is,
You already "know" right ?

Don't underestimate what I'm saying here, this is actually at the core of all problems in your life,
This is what the ego is all about, a need for certainty based on a illusive sense of knowing.

So if you want to know what enlightenment is, for real,
Not as an idea, not as a mental projection, not as what "x" teachers/person say what and how it is,
You need to drop all assumptions and mental imagery about it,
All of them.

Don't think this is only applying to spiritual awakening, certainty about your beliefs is what keep you stuck in your "worldly life", too.
It concerns every aspect of your life really,

Everything you want to embody as a habits, you will first judge, believe or disprove it beforehand.
If that wasn't enough, even if you believe it, even if you think this is true,
Since you think you know about it, most of the time you won't try it.
 

Again don't underestimate what is being talked about here, 
Everything you do, or not do in life, comes from the fact that you think you do know, when you don't.

Judging someone or something, shopping, studying, relationships, your health,
There is nothing in your life that is not impacted by a lack of empirical investigation.

Basically, if you aren't empirically investigated what is important for you in life
You will never know what it is, in reality, experientially, in actuality.

 

What is empirical investigation ?

Empirical investigation is having the experience about something, directly,
For yourself, in your own life, with your 5 senses, or beyond when it comes to spirituality.

The mind is tricky, it is a sense but it can distort and make you believe things that aren't true.
So you can't count on your thoughts to do empirical investigation,
It will fantasize about everything and anything.

How do you experience anything without thinking about it ?

That's actually the only way to experience anything.
Like I said, the mind will distort everything to suit his agenda, how it think about life and the world should be.
You can't do true science by believing something that is by definition highly subjective …

To experience something in its essence, you must have the experience directly.
Without the filter of the mind and its fancy theories about it.

 

If you adopt this kind of mindset, that you actually know nothing,
You will try lots of new habits and experiences, your relationships will be way more enjoyable, too.
You will start to truly investigate life, you will be really curious about everything.

Not only you will do all those things, but the most amazing thing is that you will stop assuming anything.
Why does having no assumptions could be amazing ?
Do the empirical investigation, and you will know  

 

 

Edited January 25, 2019 by Shin

[Charlotte]

Million percent agree. Relates back to Leo's video on direct experience. 

I picked this diagram up at a recent philosophy class which I thought is a great clear tool...

Nice post shinmister. 

[Toby]

"The greatest obstacle to Enlightenment" is - imo - an awakening that the mind turns into enlightenment and thinks "that's it".

[allislove]

Thank you.

How do I make empirical investigation of electron existence for example?

[Shin]

12 minutes ago, dimitri said:

Thank you.

How do I make empirical investigation of electron existence for example?

Do the same experiment than the scientist who discovered them.

[tedens]

Conciousness can't be obstacle for itself.

 

[Shin]

33 minutes ago, tedens said:

Conciousness can't be obstacle for itself.

 

Of course it can ?

That's how 99,99% of humanity stays inconscious ?

Edited January 25, 2019 by Shin

[tedens]

Can conciousness be discovered?

 

[SriBhagwanYogi]

@Shin Nice post thats why The book of not knowing by Prter Ralston is must read 

[Aaron p]

@Shin do you think it would be fair to say that to have any kind of knowledge whatsoever would be ignorance? I have gained insight and understanding about how it should not be seen as a task to eliminate new conceptual ideas that arise from the mind and that in fact it should not be seen as a task to remove any concepts at all

 

And yet I can't help agree with you

Edited January 25, 2019 by Aaron p

[SoonHei]

greatest obstacle to enlightenment is the search for it. while the search is on-going, it's always a step away. when the search ends because it is exhausted, it stands revealed... but not so fast, you cannot just "choose" to end the search... it will cease on it's own... but for that to happen, you must run out of the fuel... fuel is your desire for it... as long as you've got the desire for it, search on... or if you can find a way to burst the fuel tank and end the search quicker, then do so... find out what each of this is for you and you will find the Truth.

[SoonHei]

Inexplicably it comes. When you least expect it. For a reason you can never know. One moment you are striving, figuring, imagining, and then,in the blink of an eye, it all disappears. The struggle disappears. The striving disappears. The person disappears. The world disappears. Everything disappears, and the person is like a pinpoint of light, just receding until it disappears. And there’s nobody there to witness it. The person is gone. Only, only awareness remains. Nothing else. No one to be aware. Nothing to be aware of. Only that remains itself. Then it’s understood, finally and simply.

Then everything—all the struggle, all the striving, all the thinking, all the figuring, all the surrendering, all the letting go, all the grabbing hold of, all the praying, all the begging, all the cursing, too—was just a distraction. And only then is it seen that the person was, is, and ever will be no more than a thought. With a single thought,the person seems to reemerge. With more thoughts, the world seems to reemerge right out of nothing. But now you know.

The incarnation is nothing more than a thought. A thousand incarnations are but a thousand thoughts. And this amazing miracle of a mirage we call the world reappears as it was before, but now you know. That’s why you usually have a good laugh, because you realize that all your struggles were made up. You conjured them up out of nothing—with a thought that was linked to another thought, that was then believed, that linked to another thought that was then believed. But never could it have been true, not for a second could it have actually existed. Not ever could you have actually suffered for a reason that was true—only through an imagination, good, bad, indifferent. The intricacies of spiritual philosophy and theologies are just a thought within Emptiness.

And so at times we talk, and I pretend to take your struggles seriously,just as I pretended to take my own seriously. You may pretend to take your own struggles seriously from time to time, and although we pretend,we really shouldn’t forget that we are pretending, that we are making up the content of our experience; we are making up the little dramas of our lives. We are making up whether we need to hold on or surrender or figure it out or pray to God or be purified or have karma cleansed—it’s all a thought. We just collude in this ridiculous charade of an illusion pretending that it’s real, only to reveal that it’s not. There is no karma. There is nothing really to purify. There’s no problem. There is only what you create and believe to be so. And if you like it that way, have at it!

But we cannot continue this absolute farce indefinitely. We cannot continue to pretend this game we play, indefinitely. It’s impossible. Everything comes back to nothing.
And then it’s a bit harder to hold a straight face consistently for the rest of your life. 
-Adyashanti

[Shin]

48 minutes ago, Aaron p said:

@Shin do you think it would be fair to say that to have any kind of knowledge whatsoever would be ignorance? I have gained insight and understanding about how it should not be seen as a task to eliminate new conceptual ideas that arise from the mind and that in fact it should not be seen as a task to remove any concepts at all

 

And yet I can't help agree with you

 

Yes there is no point to try to remove concepts from our mind.

That's not what this is about.

 

It's about knowing that our knowledge, our concepts, are only mind imageries.

It's understanding they are only a finger pointing to something we can experience in reality (and sometimes not if they are hoax).

 

Knowledge is only ignorance if we believe it to be true or not,

If we accept it as a possibility, neither true or false, then it becomes empowering.

[Aakash]

word

[moon777light]

thank you for this, Not applicable just to spirituality but EvErYtHiNg!  

[Shin]

6 minutes ago, moon777light said:

thank you for this, Not applicable just to spirituality but EvErYtHiNg!  

Which is the same ?

[TheAvatarState]

Thanks for sharing @Shin!

Another big one is thinking you know anything at all. Thinking you've arrived. Thinking there's nowhere else to go with your spirituality.

[Shin]

41 minutes ago, TheAvatarState said:

Thanks for sharing @Shin!

Another big one is thinking you know anything at all. Thinking you've arrived. Thinking there's nowhere else to go with your spirituality.

That's still thinking you know.

If you truly stop assuming, you couldn't say «this is it», for you wouldn't know what would be next.

 

Yes or no ?

 

[Aakash]

 isn't the point , that there is meant to be no next! 

[Shin]

6 minutes ago, Aakash said:

 isn't the point , that there is meant to be no next! 

So you're assuming infinity has an end to express itself ?

Interesting ?