Moksha

One of the cleanest insights I've seen from my man Leo. ⚡

You're right. The spiritually immature look for signs and shortcuts. They seek an easy pivotal insight that miraculously transforms their existence into bliss, without exercise and integration. They haven't yet realized the absolute cost of enlightenment, nor are they willing to pay it. As Jesus said, the only sign they receive is the sign of Jonah. It's a parable pointing to the price of salvation from the ego self. Before you can be unborn, you have to survive your stint in the smelly bowels of the whale. When you're humble enough to realize your utter insignificance, only then will the whale spit you out to the other shore.

You, as the human form, are the experience of the absolute, as is every other apparent form. The unveiled absolute is beyond the birth and death of existence.

The purest truth is parsimonious. Regardless of apparent complexity, illusions inevitably dissolve into the seamless reality of the absolute. The deeper you sink into truth, the clearer you see the sameness in and beyond all things.

Who is choosing resistance? When you realize the answer to that question, you are on the awakening path.

Do you understand that since location isn't real, and you never go anywhere, your absolute nature is beyond the appearance of dream locations, dream people, and dream change? If you believe that embracing the ego is direct experience, you don't know what direct experience is.

@Carl-Richard Baptism by sprinkling is wimpy spirituality. Wim Hof total immersion ftw

When you go to sleep at night and dream about walking around a car, how real does the car seem to the character in the dream?

The dream is the imagination of Self, but the absolute Self is beyond the dream. The Self isn't here to judge the dream, only to realize its absolute nature while still within the dream. It loves everything that it sees, because it realizes that everything is the Self, regardless of how it appears. That is true freedom within creation.

Given the choice between 1) the highest, most incredible mystical experience which you could possibly have but only once, and never again, and 2) the profoundly life changing realization, which perpetually keeps you anchored in the absolute, which would you choose? I feel that enlightenment is 1% realization and 99% integration. The integration is what keeps you on the other side of the river, rather than perpetually rowing back and forth.

Dude, you're confusing yourself. Take a step back and look at what you just wrote. Seriously. Direct experience is realizing the absolute, beyond the dream. It dissolves the ego because it dissolves misidentification. How does realizing the ego to be misidentification create more ego? The opposite is true. Realizing your true nature, which is love, directly dissolves identification with the dream. It dissolves the illusion of separation. It dissolves conditionality, and it dissolves resistance. It is autonomous, because it is the only reality. The illusion of the ego depends on feeling higher or lower than an apparent other. It cannot exist in equanimity, which is realizing the sameness in all things. Awakening and the ego cannot coexist (see the kite analogy for clarification).

You're falling into the slippery slope fallacy here. Enlightenment isn't black vs white. It is a gradually deepening process of separating from external identification, while sinking into internal realization. It's like flying a kite. In this analogy, the kite is the human psyche. Complete misidentification with the mind is clinging the kite to your chest. Awakening is beginning to release the kite into the sky. The more deeply you awaken, the more distance there is from the kite. You still see it soaring through the sky, and can control its movement, but you no longer misidentify with it. There is far greater freedom than when you were stumbling around clinging the kite to your chest. You see the human psyche, but from a distance. Life increasingly becomes an experience of the cosmos from the center of absolute awareness.

There are no rules to break, just reality to realize. Calling it morality (as @Razard86 does) is gaslighting. It is simply sanity. If you're referring to psychedelics as a means of waking up without dying, sure it's possible. You can glimpse the absolute through psychedelics, but the same is true for other spiritual methods. As we've discussed, the secret is learning to remain within the absolute, without returning to misidentification with the dream. This misidentification is precisely what the ego is. When you remain lucid, even within the dream, the illusion of the ego disappears. There is only absolute awareness, experiencing its creation without getting lost within it.

You haven't realized yet that it's possible to live within the dream, without identifying as the dream. When you cling to the dream, it suffocates you. Freedom only becomes possible when you let go of strings to the dream, and center awareness on the absolute within. Any misidentification with the apparent self (i.e., ego) is delusion, because the entire dream is delusion. It isn't about self-acceptance, but about Self-realization, even within the dream. Do you see the difference? The more awake you are, the less self-delusion there is.

I'm not referring to morality, but to reality. Ego is the delusion that you are the cosmos. It is misidentification of the absolute with the relative. It seeks meaning in the external, rather than within. It enslaves awareness, rather than setting you free. When the absolute realizes itself, it dissolves the attachments of the dream. Aware of itself, there is nothing to be afraid of, nor is there anything that it needs. You can awaken and still lucidly enjoy the dream. Just don't make the mistake of losing yourself within it. If you are anchored in the absolute, you see the sameness of your essence in everything. There is no superiority or inferiority, differences are only an appearance. Living with lightness, which is what some people are pointing to here, becomes easier. Life is more vivid, but it is also more free because you are not enamored or entrapped by it. You have good intent, you just need to get out of your own way and let the light of your essence shine through. It will transform your experience, and if you truly want to help others, it is the most direct path for doing so. I hope you will sincerely ask yourself whether there is an ego at work. I constantly evaluate myself, and despite my best attempts the ego still occasionally rises before I am agile enough to get out of its path. I'm learning the art of judo, but it is a deepening process that will take a lifetime to master. A few insights on ego from fellow mystics: The immature go after false prestige - precedence of fellow monks, power in the monasteries, and praise from all. "Listen, monks and householders, I can do this; I can do that. I am right and you are wrong." Thus their pride and passion increase. Q: How can any inquiry initiated by the ego reveal its own unreality? A: The ego's phenomenal existence is transcended when you dive into the source from where the "I"-thought rises. In the secret cave of the heart, two are Seated by life's fountain. The separate ego Drinks of the sweet and bitter stuff, Liking the sweet, disliking the bitter, While the supreme Self drinks sweet and bitter Neither liking this nor disliking that. The ego gropes in darkness, while the Self Lives in light.

Yes, form is just an appearance of boundaries where there are none. The physical form, the mental form, the spiritual form, all of them are respectively more refined boundaries which aren't actually real. There is only the absolute, which is the seamless essence of everything, despite appearing as separate forms within its dream.

The bubble of your visual field is bound by form perspective. Burst the bubble, and the seamlessness of the absolute in everything is revealed.

Maybe physical addictions are easier to recognize, but the more insidious and intractable addictions tend to be mental. Mental disorders are the result of addictions or fixations, which are just another form of addiction. The deeper you sink into the absolute within, the less pull addictions have on you, until eventually you are entirely free. True spirituality is less about stunning realization, and all about seamless integration.

I agree, assuming that by "there is only you", you mean "there is only the absolute". What I'm pointing to is the hunting horn of the ego. Catching glimpses of the absolute is like spotting the great white stag in the forest. Spiritual seekers chase it, hoping to claim it as a prized trophy and hang it above the throne in their egoic fortress. The wise kneel humbly, and wait with eyes downcast for the stag to approach of its own volition. If they are free enough of ego, the stag will lie down next to them and become their dear companion. The absolute is not a possession to be acquired, or an experience to be enjoyed. It is the true essence of us all, creating the conditions to realize the unparalleled glory of itself. The most phenomenal wonders in the cosmos can't compare to a pure heart. I'm sharing this with everyone on the forum, and have only the below feedback to share with you personally: If you look at the record of my posts, I rarely call someone out on their ego. It's intentional. When pointed out, the ego puffs itself up defiantly and becomes even more bloated than it was before. For that reason, there's little to be gained by naming it. It's like standing next to someone that just farted, and politely ignoring the miasma because you don't want them to feel embarrassed. Given that context, I'll say this once. I feel that you have an enormous ego, to which you are largely blind. You maniacally post more threads than anyone on this forum, most of which are long and rife with judgment. You seem to take enjoyment in calling out the egos of others. This behavior only enhances your sense of spiritual superiority. When sentences are being perpetually passed on others, in the conviction that you are right and everyone else is wrong (including even your mentor, Leo), be sure that ego is at the helm. You can use this as a spur for deeper growth, or dismiss it as the drivel of someone beneath you. I share it in sincerity, as someone that has struggled for a long time with an ego of my own.

@Water by the River I should have anticipated the analogy when the gladiator asked, "Are you not entertained?". Still, my favorite movie ever ⚔️ There's a lot of talk here about "serious spirituality". I understand the intent, but am glad people are realizing the value of moderation, even in the spiritual journey. As Tolle said, "Don’t trust a guru that never laughs." @Razard86 I was pondering this morning that the greatest obstacle to deepening realization is not jousting at conceptual windmills (e.g., crusading for the idea of absolute solipsism), Don-Quixote style. That can be distracting, but it tends to eventually exhaust itself. All good. The true enemy, which stands behind your shoulder whispering where to strike, is the ego itself, appearing as an angel of light. When it tells you that you can't possibly thrive without its guidance, see it for the lie that it is. True wisdom is directly realized within. Everything else is empty illusion. It's possible to gradually dissolve attachments to external desires and fears. Love does the work for you, you just have to allow it. It is a deepening process of absolute liberation. Severing the strings to maya doesn't require heroic effort on your part. All that is truly needed is sincere submission of the absolute to itself. When you get old like me (I'm 57), if you're lucky life wears you down to the point where you are ready to see your suffering for what it is. You realize that the desperate need for safety and happiness, which has driven you to construct a conceptual fortress around yourself, only isolates you from the light of your absolute nature. Until the fortress is dissolved, ego brick by ego brick, you remain enslaved within a prison of your own making. The deconstruction doesn't happen over night, but it does happen, and the light of your absolute nature floods more steadily through. You develop a keen scent for the ego. Not only do you detect it in others, but you are attuned to its parasitic attempts on your own awareness. Gradually, you learn to remain focused on the absolute within, no matter how alluringly the ego flashes its wares on the other side of the gate.

Transience bulldozes relative reality. Everything that begins must also end. Humans will end, this planet will end, and the entire cosmos will eventually end. No worries, the screen doesn't care whether the movie is starting, in credits, or in motionless intermission.

No question that this forum has a cultish undercurrent, then again the same is probably true of most spiritual forums. People are drawn to the appearance of authority like flies to a fetid corpse. If you truly want to awaken, instead of casting your awareness to the feet of another specter, claim the authority of the absolute within.

@Water by the River It's doing battle with the hydra in the colosseum. Every time you lop off a head, two grow back. When facing the ego, all you can do is duck and weave, until it exhausts itself. Gladiator is my favorite movie of all time, by the way. ??

There is a state of deep immersion, which Ramana Maharshi calls internal samadhi, which is beyond physical sensation. External samadhi enhances the senses, without losing awareness within them. External samadhi is holding on to the reality while witnessing the world, without reacting to it from within. There is the stillness of a waveless ocean. The internal samadhi involves loss of body-consciousness.

I'll let him clarify what he meant I was just pointing to the absolute reality beyond the appearance of form and formless. You're right that the unmanifested is beyond imagination. The same is true for the void, or non-existence, or whatever name you choose for the negative polarity that counterbalances the cosmos within the dream. This multitude of beings is created and destroyed again and again in the succeeding days and nights of Brahma. But beyond this formless state there is another, unmanifested reality, which is eternal and is not dissolved when the cosmos is destroyed.