Moksha

In your analogy, others have already discovered the shortcut, and can give you directions to the shortcut, but you still have to find the shortcut yourself. Nobody can drive you there, but you. We can go meta and talk about how there is no "you" looking for a shortcut, there are no "others" pointing to the shortcut, there is in fact no shortcut, and no journey, and you have no free will, as a cartoon character within the story. But how is that helpful? You created you, for a reason. You can either suffer during the story, or you can awaken within the dream, live lucidly, and realize and express the Love that you ultimately are. What you can't do is escape the story, until the Storyteller is ready for you to escape. Even if you try, You will continue the narrative, until You decide that it is time for you to come home. So, choose your own adventure.

God, or ultimate reality, has no beginning and no ending. It is beyond time and space. God doesn't define itself through humans, so much as it expresses itself through all forms (including humans). This expression is only possible within the relative realm of spacetime, which God creates in order to experience expression.

Sympathy is feeling compassion for someone else who is having a hard time. Empathy is beyond sympathy; it is is actually feeling what the other person is feeling. Fear, anxiety, depression, whatever....those same feelings arise within you, because you see the world through the other person's eyes. Often, it is easier to feel empathy when you have experienced a similar challenge in your own life. Both sympathy and empathy can motivate kindness toward others. Given the choice, I would rather feel empathy, because by experiencing that specific emotion, and by not identifying with it, I am able to model presence. Helping others realize that they are not the emotion, and that they are the Awareness within which the emotion arises, is a greater gift than simply feeling sorry for them. Beyond whatever others may be feeling, you can realize this same space, and Self-awareness, when emotions arise within yourself, such as a "tinge of self hate" when feeling sorry for someone The self hate is just another ego cloud passing across the sky of You.

Speaking bluntly is welcome, and occurs daily here. As I said, your opinions are welcome. You were not given formal warning points, just a reminder to keep your comments constructive and avoid inflammatory labels like "bullshit" and "disgrace".

@K Ghoul You're entitled to your opinions, but tone down the rhetoric and keep it constructive.

What I meant was that awakening for most of us is not a permanent state, but more like a series of Self-realizations. In Self-realization, there is no gravitational pull by the conditioned mind, just steady, Conscious awareness. The point of meditation is not so much to awaken, but to develop the spiritual discipline to stay awake for longer periods of time, and in more turbulent conditions. When meditation is mastered, the mind is unwavering like the flame of a lamp in a windless place. In the still mind, in the depths of meditation, the Self reveals itself. Beholding the Self by means of the Self, an aspirant knows the joy and peace of complete fulfillment. Having attained that abiding joy beyond the senses, revealed in the stilled mind, he never swerves from the eternal truth. He desires nothing else, and cannot be shaken by the heaviest burden of sorrow. - Bhagavad Gita 6:19

Creator implies personality, which the conditioned mind is all about. Consciousness, without beginning or ending, is ultimate reality. How do you "know"? "You" know nothing. God is beyond the senses, and is only directly realized.

It was effortless, and wonderful. Tolle got to enjoy it for 3 years; I feel ripped off, but also blessed. It's like there is a parade of dark nights of the soul, punctuated by periods of soul-searing light. The journey goes on. My instinct is to ask You to take care of yourself. We are all the same, but our incarnations are here for a reason. Celebrate you. Love you. Make the most of you. Don't denigrate you. Don't dismiss you as an illusion. You are Love. Enjoy the world, and the self, that You created.

Time only exists in relative reality Even we neanderthals have realized that time is not absolute.

My original motivation was to find an oasis, after waking up, and trying to assimilate. I did wake up, and found the holy grail, with 7 months of not suffering. Then my ego came back, with a fucking vengeance, and stabbed me hard. My conditioned mind is still there, but I am working, day by day, on deconditioning it. I am happy to say that there is progress. Wish I could tell you that awakening is the solution to everything, but it is not. It is only the beginning to becoming who you already are. What kind of story would it be, without stridence?

Beliefs are conceptual. Direct realization is non-conceptual. There is no evidence, beyond Self-realization.

Just be. Your inherent nature, not as a human, but as Consciousness, is joyful. The human mind is the source, and the perpetuation, of suffering.

The Creator has no beginning, and has no end. Welcome to the Mystery

Let go of the words, and feel the space between the words. Stop your thoughts, for a single moment, and just realize. Insights that deny the ego are cringy to the ego. Contemplate wisdom, like the Bhagavad Gita. It will help you understand how clinging to anything only eventuates in suffering. Love isn't an emotion, it is the actuality of who we are. Conditioning is suffering. Deconditioning is freedom. It isn't some conceptual realization. It is being, beyond conditioning. I get it. It is weird, which is why it is a journey. I have been there, and am still traveling.

In a sense, you are right. Tolle made Indian spirituality mainstream. Great timing. But charisma? To me, he has very little charisma, which Leo has in spades. He does have presence, which resonates with me more than anything else. I care more about the space around his words, than about the words themselves.

You are playing the game because You chose to play the game. What are You going to make of it? You created you for what reason? Hint: Maybe, after enough years of suffering, you will see that it is all about realizing and expressing unconditional Love, which is who You actually are.

Simplicity is the solvent of the ego. Pure water

You created you for a reason. You are the great loving presence and intelligence that created you. Maybe ask why You created you in the first place?

Nahm is the ?.

Wisdom only speaks to the ready ear. When I first came across The Power of Now, I read a few pages and tossed it aside as new age drivel. After a few years of suffering, I picked it up again, and it resonated. Another few years of suffering, and it rocked my world. The book never changed during this time; I did. I have been tortured and taunted by my mind most of my life. Finally, I realized there is a way out. Sometimes the deepest truths are the most simple. The mind doesn't like simplicity. It gets bored easily. Even in the "spiritual" path, it seeks cataclysmic, but always conceptual experiences. Surely Self-realization must be mind-blowing? As it turns out, awakening is exactly that. It is the end of being ruled by the mind, and it is entirely non-conceptual. Tolle's message is the same message that was realized by the ancients. The mind is hell. Awakening from the mind is the beginning of the end of suffering. It is only by realizing that you are not thoughts, but are the Awareness in the space between the thoughts, that you will be free. I have read all of Tolle's books, and watched many of his videos. His message is simple, but so was the message of the Buddha. If you find them boring, maybe ask yourself what you are truly seeking.

Gandhi. Nelson Mandela. The Buddha. All were enlightened rulers. Would I go for it? Nope. I have no desire for power over others, even for the sake of good. I have my own journey, let's see where Consciousness takes me.

All languages are lies. Consciousness creates languages as a game, but in ultimate reality, there is only pure, wordless, conceptless, awareness.

Congrats on recognizing the ego trap of identification with enlightenment. Enlightenment is a journey, not a destination. It is about abiding in presence, with each step along the path. Unfortunately, the ego doesn't want to be a nobody. Gear up, it's the ultimate battle. Each moment of presence is a small victory.

Immortality. Damn. ?

All it takes is a lucid glimpse. In that seeing, there are no stages.