Moksha

?

There is a third way of "thinking", beyond disidentification from involuntary and wandering thoughts. It is purposeful creation that is born of your ultimate nature, and is directed toward a specific goal. You don't know in advance what the answer will be, but you focus awareness on the question without imposing thought. In the silent sanctum of pure mind, a solution arises. This is how Einstein, who was a poor student but also a brilliant mystic, realized relativity. Words and language, whether written or spoken, do not seem to play any part in my thought processes. The psychological entities that serve as building blocks for my thought are certain signs or images, more or less clear, that I can reproduce and recombine at will.

God can be a triggering term, especially for people raised in a fundamentalist religion that ensnared them within a crystallized belief system. I avoided using it for a long time, but find myself returning to it as a pointer to the miraculous and mysterious nature of life. Enlightenment is letting go of all identifications, including identification with the concept of God. It's the Neti, Neti approach to inner realization, where each layer that is not you is peeled away like the skin of an onion, until only the unnamed essence remains. You can enjoy the benefits of this wisdom, as it seems you have, without needing to conceptualize it. Whether it is called God-Realization or simply Realization doesn't matter. The litmus test of your insights is the extent to which they motivate you to release phenomenal addictions, and not only allow but celebrate the universe flowing through you.

Meditation is not anti-thinking. To the contrary, it develops the discipline for proactive thinking. Most of us are entangled by our thoughts, as if they define our ultimate nature. When you are centered in awareness, you no longer identify with your thoughts, but are able to direct them with intelligence and creativity far beyond what was possible before. That is what I meant earlier about killing the elephant vs. learning to ride it where you want to go. The brain is an amazing beast when it is tamed. All true creatives, including Einstein, understand how to operate from this inner space of mystery which is who you actually are. The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion that stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed. - Einstein

I didn't start meditating until after awakening, but better late than never

Creation is the appearance of dualities. Within relative reality, all attributes have extremes, including joy and suffering. Each extreme necessitates its opposite. For God to experience pleasure, it must also experience pain. In its ultimate state, God is beyond attributes. It doesn't appreciate or not appreciate. Nor is it any kind of -ism, which are ideologies built from beliefs. God is Love. Not the phenomenal emotion, but the unconditional seamlessness beyond the dream.

Guilt is one of the ego's favorite weapons. It is guaranteed to keep you trapped within your mind. Not only is it unnecessary, it sabotages your ability to be in harmony with your ultimate nature. It is amazing to spend so many years flailing yourself for faults, only to realize that tossing the scourge into the fire is the truest path to freedom.

Recognizing thought patterns is the first step toward disidentifying from them. Rather than thinking about what you are thinking about, observe the thoughts without judgment. Eventually, they subside and become a murmur compared to the cacophony they used to be.

Meditation isn’t about killing the elephant, but about learning to ride it where you want to go.

Morality is not about judgment, which is the relentless hell of the conditioned mind. That doesn't mean actions have no consequences. Whatever stone you cast creates ripples, which return to you in kind. If you want happiness, live in harmony with the conditions that create it.

Here, I believe we are talking about the same thing. Your description of seeing a tree without labeling it is a good example. When you let go of the mind's insatiable craving to identify, differentiate, and judge it is easier to see the sameness of your ultimate nature in all beings, even in a tree. You are asking whether this seeing is pragmatic. It is, to the extent that it informs your approach in life. If you try to shape the universe to your will, you will continue binding yourself to misery. If you release obsessive attachments to desires and fears, and allow the energy of the universe to flow through you as the gift that it is, you are on the path to freedom.

You’re talking about God-conceptualization, not God-realization. I agree philosophical pontification is a waste of time. A lot of that happens on these forums. Awakening to your ultimate nature is not ideological or conceptual. It is direct realization, the resonance of light with itself, entirely free from thought. In that moment, there is no you, only pure being. In this light, attachments dissolve and suffering recedes. Peace, creativity, and joy are abundant. How could it be a waste of time when it flows beyond time. It doesn’t make sense to the mind, nor can it because it is not born of the mind. It is the direct unspoken language of God.

There is nothing more valuable in education than teaching people to avoid the perils of the human mind. Unfortunately as you say, the vast majority of teachers are as trapped by conceptualized reality as their students. Who is going to teach the teachers? Spirituality is ultimately an individual journey to non-individuality. If the student isn't ready, not even an awakened teacher will make a difference. Still, you can plant seeds that may sprout later in the person's life. As a parent, I wish I realized and taught my young children what I see now. Maybe it would have helped them, but then again you can really only teach by being who you are. Words are distractions except in rare cases where people are ready to see beyond them, to the reality they point toward but can never adequately describe.

I used to demonize the ego, until realizing that this was just a subtle example of the ego sadistically preying on itself. Bad ego! The secret to escaping the ego is not to fight against it, but to realize your true nature beyond it. We demand the impossible of the conditioned mind. After decades of sewing together a Frankenstein of fantasies and fears, we set it loose upon the world, demanding that reality feeds it what it wants, or else! How ridiculous is that? Expecting the cosmos to comply with your so-called needs is the definition of insanity. Instead, why not learn to comply with the cosmos? When you are in this flow state, life pours through you effortlessly like rain. We spend so much energy clinging to experiences we like, and resisting those we don't. What a waste of an otherwise beautiful dream.

A good man knows who he is and who he is not. He trusts his intentions. He places himself neither above nor below others. Serving them is the same as serving himself. He lives unconditionally and unapologetically. His value is realized within, and is unswayed by people's opinions. His work flows from him like the rain of a ready cloud. His rest returns the rain into the sky. He is not magnified by life, nor is he diminished by death.

Realizing transience in yourself and everything else in the cosmos messes with the deepest constructs of your mind. I have gone through periods where this realization sinks in, and my mind recoils in self-defense. It feels like being consumed by a vertigo vortex. You realize this is just a response of the psyche, which is deeply programmed for survival. Centering your attention within, beyond the clamor of feelings and thoughts, restores equilibrium. Meditation has helped enormously, to the point it is no longer a problem. You can realize this with every other entity. Seeing beyond the illusion of transience to the same ultimate nature in all beings dissolves apparent boundaries. There is only love, which is another word for seamless being. It is profoundly beautiful.

If you are exactly where you should be, why would you want to "pursue something new"? Enlightenment reveals that there are no shoulds or should nots. There is nothing to pursue, or to avoid. The desperate attempt to do so only leads you from yourself. When the light of your ultimate nature is unleashed, it supernovas, banishing apparent boundaries and revealing the same you in every being. You emerge from the cave and see clearly that the cosmos is a phenomenal playground, which can only be fully enjoyed when you are free from the shackles of yourself. These are not poetic platitudes. They are a map, pointing to the territory. They are trying to show you the incomprehensible being that is within, waiting to be realized. When it is, life goes deeply beyond sitting on your ass and blissing out. Every ticking moment of apparent time is too precious to waste in a voracious desire to perpetually "realize more". Here's an exercise that may help. If an oncologist told you that you have terminal pancreatic cancer, and will die in 30 days, what would you do differently than you are doing now? Take that realization and live it. It's not just a hypothetical thought experiment. Make the most of this moment now. Some day it will be your last, and the adventure of the dream will end.

Enlightenment liberates you to lucidly live the dream. Creativity, intelligence, and love pour through you and elevate every experience, whether it is farming tomatoes or researching quantum mechanics. Life is less about choosing the right thing to do, and more about honoring the moment regardless of what you do. You may feel guided in a certain direction, but whatever you do will be meaningful because you are entirely present and grateful for it. You see the miracle that the cosmos is. If you are bored or dismiss life as an empty illusion unworthy of your attention, these are telltale signs you aren’t enlightened.

That it worries you proves you aren’t a narcissist ?

Enlightenment is so rare, and life so short, why would you jump off just as the wave crests? The dissolving of the wave will come soon enough. If you are fortunate enough to realize your ultimate nature, celebrate the peak state of surfing the cosmos as long as you can, before returning to the ocean of yourself.

The surest sign a person isn't enlightened is any "should" behavior. When I started losing my identity, my biggest fear was that in the process I would lose morality. If everything in the cosmos is an illusion, wouldn't that include rules about how a person should behave? Then I realized that the light within which is your ultimate nature is inherently divine. It is unconditional love. By living in alignment with yourself, you are beyond the need for shoulds.

I scored 8, which according to the graph just means I'm old

It's called righteous indignation And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves.

@mac99 ?

The more enlightened you are, the less you judge the experiences of life. You realize that judgment creates dualities of good and evil, and is the source of suffering. Life itself is an incredible gift in a cosmos that is almost entirely devoid of it. The energy of even an insult is as spectacular as a supernova. What else in the universe can claim to have experienced it? You don’t have to be a slave to the judgmental mind. Why not let the energy of the experience pass through you and cherish the phenomenal rush? Soon enough, you will be dead and beyond the lessons life has offered you. Honor each experience without labeling it, and you will be free to love and live unconditionally.