Why I think Enlightenment CAN be a good escape route

[Dinkle64]

Hey there,

I wasn't sure whether to put this in the Self-Actualization file or the Meditation, Enlightenment file due to the nature of the form itself.  But I thought that it would be best to put it here because really what I'm talking about is highly spiritual pursuit.  I do think that it can be a good escape route, as a matter of fact I'd say it's the best.  Besides this, aren't we all escaping something at some point anyway?  Think about it, if you leave your old crappy job for some new snazzy high paying job aren't you escaping?  Plus, I feel like more and more people are doing this everyday, we are escaping from our old way of life to embrace this new one, not just in our personal engagements but in our day to day activities.  I guess it does depend on how you think about it but at some point I believe that the only way to move forward is to move away from the thing that's pulling you back and that's the escape.  So in essence I feel like that desire to escape is a desire to pursue something higher than yourself and that's what enlightenment is all about.  Just wanted to leave this here, let me know your thoughts down below.  

[Persipnei]

I wouldn't call a change in life based on knowing it is the best for you, "escaping", if it's a concious choice. If you do it because you can't cope with the situation however... then it's escaping.

[VincentArogya]

It's not escaping. Unconscious people are not escaping all the time. They think that a certain situation, thing or person will bring them happiness and satisfaction but it doesn't and they quit or leave the situation. And the cycle repeats.

Enlightenment is realizing that there is no one to escape from the game of life. 

[Persipnei]

1 hour ago, VincentArogya said:

It's not escaping. Unconscious people are not escaping all the time. They think that a certain situation, thing or person will bring them happiness and satisfaction but it doesn't and they quit or leave the situation. And the cycle repeats.

Enlightenment is realizing that there is no one to escape from the game of life. 

Oh yeah, I'm not saying the escape works. The invented prison takes a different shape.

[VeganAwake]

4 hours ago, Dinkle64 said:

I believe that the only way to move forward is to move away from the thing that's pulling you back and that's the escape.  So in essence I feel like that desire to escape is a desire to pursue something higher than yourself 

There's no real moving forward, and there is no way something is supposed to be... so in that sense spiritual bypassing doesn't exist... you can jump from rock to rock or drudge through the mud or a little of both... it doesn't matter.

There's not something higher than the self, there just never was a self.

Liberation is the untangling from the Mind Matrix of Social Conditioning and simultaneously recognizing the individual that seemed to be tangled up or conditioned was actually never real to begin with...it was an illusion or misidentification.

 

[kag101]

I think you're fooling yourself. 

[Javfly33]

It's the opposite of escaping ?

[Member]

17 hours ago, VeganAwake said:

There's not something higher than the self, there just never was a self.

This is not a good mindset.

[VeganAwake]

Well don't take my word for it LOOK for yourself!

The 'ME' illusion is a collaboration of conditioned labels, thoughts, ideas, beliefs, concepts, memories, and constricted energy stored in the body creating an experience of a separate individual.

Good looking out ❤

[DreamScape]

In a way it is. But you're not escaping anything. You're surrendering/integrating to reality exactly the way it is. which is different from escaping, because escaping is going away from a problem. 

No not everyone escapes 

[loub]

I think I get what you are trying to get at. You got some things confused though. While enlightenment, that is direct consciousness, can enable a change in perspective, that change in itself is not enlightenment. Enlightenment is about directly experiencing what's true, and the truth is true regardless. So there is no change coming about as enlightenment. Perhaps this is impossible to truly understand short of having an enlightenment yourself.

Now you seem to hold some spiritual ideal of accepting everything as it, and wanting change to be egoic or bad and now want to rightfully counter that saying 'enlightenment can be a good escape'. To become absolutely free it is wise to change and transform your experience, but that is not done through escaping but through investigating your experience, and fully being with it.

"If you want to change something, change it. It's got nothing to do with the truth." -Peter Ralston

[Hello from Russia]

I think it can be an escape if you half-ass it