Sunday 8 October 2017

What is Enlightenment and how do I attain it?


So you’re born and at some point after that you come to know that you ‘are’. This sense of self or “I” becomes what you take yourself to be. Namely the mind and body with the subsets of that being your name, personality, memories, self-image etc. you come to see yourself as a human being living a life, aware and self-conscious on planet earth which in turn is part of the Milky Way which in turn is part of a vast universe.  So you live your life with the knowledge that one day you will die and when that day comes its game over. Case closed.

Now Enlightenment is finding out all that is a story being played out on a cinema screen that you have took it to be real. You have become so engrossed in the gripping story-line that you forgot that none of it has really anything to do with you. Of course if you’re of sane and rational mind within the story this will sound like bullshit. In fact I am writing this for those people because I am one of those people just an awake one.

So I will try and explain as simply as possible and try to avoid using new age terms but no promises. Enlightenment or Spirituality is nothing more than finding out what you really are. There are numerous teachers, books, religions, spiritual texts both modern and ancient on the subject. All trying to tell you how it is or what the story is really about. Now if I boiled it all down to its simplest terms I would say the following ‘If it’s moving it’s illusionary. If it’s never moved it’s real’. When someone asked Nisargadatta Maharaj to do the same and distil it all down to the simplest terms he said ‘Nothing is.’ Or you could reverse that and say ‘something is not’.

Enlightenment is the only real Truth, the ultimate reality of existence. Unchanging, unmoving, infinite, unity, big, very big, bigger than big. Also and this is important as there seems to be some confusion on this, it is beyond consciousness. So you will often hear people like Eckhart Tolle say what you really are is pure consciousness. It sounds good and your mind can grasp that but it’s just not true. Consciousness arises out of creation which is movement. Enlightenment or the ultimate reality (God) does not display consciousness, it simply is.

Okay I hope I have lost you already and your wondering what the hell does that have to do with finding out who you really are. To find out who you really are you have to find out what you’re not. Or as they say in Sanskrit “neti neti” which means “neither this, nor that.” So you identify with being a mind and body with five senses in which you can perceive the world, makes choices and think about what you will have for dinner. In order to find out that is not true or illusionary I am going to use a new age sounding term “transcendence” to go beyond.  Meaning if you transcend what you think you are and you still are, then you can’t be what you thought you were. So if you transcend everything and you still there then what’s left must be you, the real you. Voila!

The next question would be how do I do that then? The simple answer is you can’t. The you that you think is you can’t use itself to go beyond itself. That would be like trying to climb up yourself to get to the top of your head. This does not stop people trying of course and trying very hard. There are temples and ashrams full of people trying very hard. Ask them how it’s going and they will probably say it’s going well. Then ask them in 10 or 20 years’ time and they will probably still say it’s going very well I suspect. True Spirituality is not about the story, what guru you follow, books you have read, clothes you wear, rituals or how often you shave your head…. neti neti.

So you are going to need some help to really get started and it’s going to have to be something big, something bigger than the entire physical universe, something brighter than all the stars combined into one, something more powerful than the Xbox One X. Yes in order to get where we want to go you’re going to need plugging into the power source of all creation. It’s not as scary or dramatic as that sounds. This involves unlocking the ten thousand petal lotus as they call it in Buddhism which is like a doorway to finer realms of consciousness. These planes of consciousness are beyond the physical density. In meditation when you look into these realms you will be able to see the power source of creation as a bright light and also hear none physical sound which is a different manifestation of the source energy. Then you’re in, plugged into the main frame with two new senses. The ability to see without physical eyes and hear without physical ears. Then all you have to do is meditate and let go. The source energy you’re now connected to will allow you travel through all the planes of consciousness. It is of course useful to have a guide, someone who has completed the journey and can point out what the things you see mean and check your progress. One of the first realisation you should have is you’re not the body as you can now go somewhere the body cannot. As you go deeper and deeper into the finer realms of consciousness you will have different realisations.

Too be continued…

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