Moksha

The only bondage is misidentification, and freedom is the absence of misidentification. Imagination isn't free, it only misconstrues itself to be.

It's true that the mind has a deeply programmed survival instinct. Despite that, it is a supercomputer with capacity beyond what most people realize. Chat GPT 4.0, even the paid version, doesn't come close. Every decision the mind makes is the result of a satisficing formula that it runs, with each variable weighted based on its current evaluation of reality. This weighting is the result of biological and social conditioning, which continuously evolves. For many, the formula is built entirely on external variables. What will pursuing x, y, and z do to contribute to my survival and well-being? Awakening becomes possible when the mind realizes that every formula it has used to this point has actually been detrimental, rather than fulfilling. It becomes necessary to modify the formula, in order to free itself from the suffering state. The absolute can't use the mind to directly realize itself, but it can leverage the remarkable subtractive capacity of the mind to realize what it is not. This begins the process of elimination. I am not the body. I am not thoughts. I am not feelings. I am not perceptions, sensations, or experiences. I am not memories or anticipations. I am not desires or fears. The neti neti journey applies the remarkable power of the mind to guide the absolute to the inner gate of itself. It is as far as the mind can go, but still, what a triumph. Here, in the shadow of the gateless gate, spiritual practice helps to sink awareness into the ocean of its essence. Meditation, contemplation, and inner inquiry gradually distance awareness from the external, and draw awareness deeper into itself. Identification with the external is surrendered as identification with the internal is increased. Often this is a long and painful process, of relinquishing cherished beliefs and fears. Awareness spirals itself deeper, into the dark night of the soul, which is terrifying to the remnant of the self, but is necessary to create the cataclysmic will to finally let go. It only becomes possible when it is realized that letting go will actually set you free. Even then, surrender alone is insufficient to propel awareness through the inner gate. There is still too much conditioning, a lifetime of attachments which block the spiritual passage, and cannot be dissolved by will alone. It is only by the light of absolute grace, on the other side of the gate, that these attachments gradually dissolve, until the sliver expression of the absolute is finally refined enough to fit through the gate to itself. This reunion is entirely lifechanging. The dream continues, but awareness is no longer at the mercy of experience. It clearly sees that everything arising and dissolving is its own essence, in this penultimate adventure within its imagination. It's not over yet, not until love and light have poured through the portal of this perspective, cascading through its cosmos, helping the absolute continue awakening to itself.

I prefer love as a perspective-free pointer. Solipsism, despite its claims to the contrary, is so narcissistic.

@CARDOZZO It's amazing how you can read the same book for years, and not understand what it truly means until much later, when you see through new eyes. At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. - John 14:20

The absolute is beyond dualities. People try to understand it conceptually, but they can't grok paradox. Philosophers beat their heads bloody against the nameless door and it never yields. It is mystery to the mind, and can only be directly realized. The absolute is attributeless, but it is beyond time, space, finity, matter, and change. To see deeper than dualities, you have to withdraw the senses and directly realize what you actually are. It's nonsense, and it's true.

@CARDOZZO I haven't read all of it yet either, but enough to know that she was a mystic.

Only to the extent it doesn't lead you to surrender.

If miracles are aberrations of apparent reality, what is more miraculous than direction realization?

The paradox of suffering being its own solvent.

A Course in Miracles, by Helen-Schucman. My favorite ACIM quote is from the introduction: Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.

Spiritual practice is more diverse than you imply. Ramana Maharshi, and most other masters, recognize that the ideal spiritual path varies from person to person. The superior path is whatever takes you inward, and varies according to the psyche and circumstances of the individual. All the yogas - karma, jnana, bhakti and raja - are just different paths to suite different natures with different modes of evolution. They are all aimed at getting people out of the long-cherished notion that they are different from the Self. Yoga enjoins repression of thoughts whereas I prescribe quest of oneself. This latter method is more practicable. The mind is repressed in swoon, or as the effect of fasting. But as soon as the cause is withdrawn the mind revives, that is, the thoughts begin to flow as before. There are just two ways of controlling the mind. Either seek its source, or surrender it to be struck down by the supreme power. Surrender is the recognition of the existence of a higher overruling power. If the mind refuses to help in seeking the source, let it go and wait for its return; then turn it inwards. No one succeeds without patient perseverance. - Ramana Maharshi M: If you have no problem of suffering and release from suffering, you will not find the energy and persistence needed for self-inquiry. You cannot manufacture a crisis. It must be genuine. Q: How does a genuine crisis happen? M: It happens every moment, but you are not alert enough. A shadow on your neighbor's face, the immense and all-pervading sorrow of existence is a constant factor in your life, but you refuse to take notice. You suffer and see others suffer, but you don't respond. - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

You're conflating the absolute with the relative. It's common for neo-advaitans to plant themselves at the start line, and refuse to run because they have conceptually realized the race is only a relative experience. Congratulations? You still suffer, life lacks meaning, relationships are empty, and you might as well not have designed the race in the first place. You can plant your ass on the sand, sweating in the sun while claiming the race isn't real, or you can strike out on the scenic marathon with clear eyes. Either way, you are still stuck in the race, only in a state of stagnation or freedom.

This is an overgeneralization. There is no prescriptive path that works for everyone. Learning through a master is a spiritual tradition that spans millennia. I encourage direct self-inquiry, but it is too steep a slope for many people. Only trust a master to the extent that his or her teachings currently contribute to your inward journey, and don't feel constrained to stay with the same master during the entire journey. Q: Is it right to change Gurus? M: Why not change? Gurus are like milestones? It is natural to move on from one to another. Each tells you the direction and the distance, while the sadguru, the eternal Guru, is the road itself. Once you realize that the road is the goal and that you are always on the road, not to reach a goal, but to enjoy its beauty and its wisdom, life ceases to be a task and becomes natural and simple, in itself an ecstasy. - Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Enlightenment isn't perpetual ecstasy, as some people think. Along the spiritual journey, you may have peak states, and believe that once you are enlightened, the rest of your life will be spent shouting paeons of joy at the sky. You can still channel tidal floods of light, but they ebb and flow along with the will of the absolute. Ecstasy isn't sustainable. Enlightenment is unwavering serenity.

It's stunning how little misidentification is necessary to remain within the dream. You can survive on auto-pilot, while anchored in the absolute awareness that you are doing nothing, changing nothing, and experiencing nothing. Phenomena still happen as long as you're even distally attached to the dream, but you see beyond their apparent differentiation and realize they are you. Like you say though, it's rare. For most of us integration is a gradual and lifelong process. As Ramana Maharshi put it: 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.

You have awakened to what you are, now integrate it until there is no within or without. I'm happy for you, man...you've come a long way in the last couple of years⚡

@Someone here ⚡The ego is misalignment with the truth. All people need to do is let go of misidentification, to realize the truth and become free.

Sometimes people think of free will as being able to impose their desires on the cosmos. I see it as absolute surrender. By unconditionally allowing the cosmos to flow through you, the will of the absolute aligns with itself. It's frictionless harmony and freedom.

@gettoefl @Water by the River I've never seen Dan Brown before, thanks for sharing. He mentioned that 100,000 books have been written on meditation, within the Tibetan tradition. Dan Brown clearly has an exquisitely detailed internal model for awakening, informed by ancient libraries, his own academic research, and personal experience. So, so, so many instructions, practices, and milestones delineated here, and by extension in elaborate systems like Mahamudra and Dzogchen. I understand better what Ramana Maharshi meant about self-inquiry being the direct path to the absolute. It's like skipping the sequence of increasingly luxurious properties on the Monopoly board, and moving directly to Go. The catch is that you have to draw the appropriate card, and are at the mercy of the deck. Regardless of the relative tribulation of your token, there's no pride in arriving at Go sooner than someone else. Who can say the careful path of someone like @Water by the River is better or worse than the via dolorosa path of someone like me? It always ends in the enigmatic buddha smile, when you realize that all along it was only a game within the imagination of the absolute, regardless of the face it wore or the path it chose.

Beyond the dream, there is no falling asleep and no awakening. Nothing actually changes, ever. The entire spiritual journey within the dream is designed to dissolve the dream. In the dream state, the absolute awakens within an apparent form and helps itself awaken in other apparent forms. This is the cascading dissolution of the dream. The absolute knows its nature, which is why it rarely identifies as an "enlightened being". There are no teachers and no students, only the absolute in different apparent states of realization.

Enlightenment is a gradual state of lucidity within the dream, wherein the absolute realizes itself, relative to other states where it does not. It allows the absolute to help awaken itself in other dream forms.

I wonder why it is that so few enlightened teachers refer to themselves as being enlightened.

It's innate, and readiness evolves with experience. The spiritual path is unique for each form. The absolute shapes its circumstances, its encounters, and its practices to prepare itself for awakening. Until the confluence happens, there's no point in teaching someone before they are ready to learn. Still, there's value in spiritual practice. People that claim they have no free will, and assume an annihilistic attitude, only reinforce the bars of their prison. They don't realize that spiritual practice is the absolute preparing the way within them to be free.

I would teach anyone, regardless of their age, if they are ready to learn. There's a good reason teaching spirituality has traditionally been reserved for the sincere, and even then it is moderated according to the maturity of the person wanting to learn.

Some cultures have incorporated spiritual growth as endemic to education, but the cultures themselves have been at the mercy of their collective conditioning. For example, India has been fecund with mystical insights for millennia, but is also fettered by archaic and egoic social structures like the caste system. Cultures evolve just as individuals do. I'm optimistic that eventually humanity will prioritize direct realization above other imperatives, but also realistic enough to know the ego is insatiable. It seems to be an amplifying spiral between love and selfishness, and where it lands on this planet and beyond is anyone's guess. Some mystics believe that it is the destiny of the cosmos to gradually awaken to itself, and from the highest perspective I agree, but I don't underestimate the chaos that will ensue in the course of cosmic realization.