turned down a chance to awaken..again

[UnbornTao]

On 8/5/2023 at 1:19 PM, Carl-Richard said:

The territory of the spiritual process looks something like this:

Discovering spirituality -> doing some practices -> seeing smaller changes -> more practice -> glimpses of the truth but returning to egoic identification ("awakening experiences") -> even more practice -> bigger glimpses of truth and shattering of preconceived notions of enlightenment -> alternative 1. letting go into the truth, alt. 2. run into a wall of resistance or fear, alt. 3. getting attached to the practices and creating an identification around that -> become enlightened, or get stuck in a "dark night of the soul" for a while, or get stuck in a spiritual ego -> more practice or shattering of preconceived notions, etc.

I think OP took the alternative 2. route like me and is stuck in the dark night of the soul territory.

All of that is conceptual. In your experience, you are either absolutely conscious or not.

I'm not implying that there isn't work involved or that people don't go through stuff while doing "spirituality" (meditating, praying, etc.) However, once again, process, stages, states, and goals are relative. I'm talking strictly about direct consciousness.

Take Ramana's case. Although rare, it goes to show the nature of such consciousness. He was a teenage boy without the slightest interest in spirituality and awakening. In a relative's house, he became terrified at the possibility of death, so he contemplated what it would be like for him to die as he laid on the floor. He went through a process of emulating his own death. In a matter of minutes, a wide-open state preceded a sudden massive awakening. It's sudden because it's always now.

It is YOU. What intermediary would there be at the moment of realization?

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There is the person doing things that is associated with spirituality (meditation and such) which has a certain progression to it, and that is what I refer to as a process. However, the realization of direct consciousness itself is not something that you can easily map as a process, as it's too individual and complex.

Very well then. However, that applies only to the relative. As an analogy, there is what's done within a dream -- what precedes the act of waking up -- and the direct act of waking up itself. There's no correlation. Either you wake up or not.

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However, the realization of direct consciousness itself is not something that you can easily map as a process, as it's too individual and complex.

Given that such consciousness is absolute, what you're saying does not apply. How could it? If it can be mapped, it is relative. It is not a process!

As a matter of fact, direct consciousness itself is profoundly simple and universal as it is direct and true. Not saying it is common or necessarily easy to "get."

Edited August 8, 2023 by UnbornTao