Moksha

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 But as soon as the cause is withdrawn the mind revives, that is, the thoughts begin to flow as before.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.

The essence of all 8 billion puppets is the absolute, and it is inevitably at the mercy of itself. How many puppets jump out of the box on the first crank? It takes tremendous pressure before the coil has collected enough suffering to spring. As you say, the majority will remain trapped within their conceptual box their entire lives. Some suffer less, some more, but a few leverage their suffering to break free from their false identity and become lucid within the dream. Reincarnation is an idea that the psyche continues its journey through the cosmos until it's ready to surrender. Certainly possible within relative reality, but it's only a belief. People tend to think of enlightenment as binary, but there are gradual degrees of freedom within the dream. It's more like a slow-motion movie, where light seeps through the barest crack in the box, as the crank continues turning, and the puppet slowly emerges until it is entirely free. The deeper the realization and integration, the less you suffocate and the more free you become. Eventually in the perpetual state, the puppet wakes up, leaves the box, and is reunited with its creator, which is itself. Blue Fairy: Prove yourself brave, truthful, and unselfish, and someday you will be a real boy. *whispered* Awake, Pinocchio. Awake. *Pinocchio wakes up as a real boy*

If you're relentlessly reductionistic, your mind can realize that it knows nothing. Otherwise, you can only directly realize what your mind will never know.

Before: Suffer while anticipating chopping wood and carrying water, suffer while chopping wood and carrying water, suffer even while distracting myself from chopping wood and carrying water After: Meditate, contemplate, create, celebrate, and integrate, regardless of chopping wood and carrying water

As I see it, by deepening order of realization: Physical yoga (hatha) Mantras Koans Contemplation Silent meditation Direct inquiry

God's will is absolute and free. Agency is only an appearance within the dream. God cranks the cosmic jack-in-the-box, enjoying its music in anticipation of the puppet awakening. With each crank, the spring winds tighter and the pressure on the puppet hidden within increases, until finally the latch is released and puppet springs free. How nihilistic to believe that the puppet is at the mercy of the absolute, until it is realized that with every turn, the absolute within the puppet is preparing for freedom. Every spiritual teaching, every meditation practice, and every realization is another turn of the crank. If you want release from the suffocating entrapment of the box, pray to god for the cranking to continue.

Dualistic dreams within the dream. ⚡Oblivion is the gate to Infinity.