What is enlightenment?
Enlightenment is a label to refer to something that can't be explained. It can only be pointed to and talked around. It's the living realization that there is only one thing, one event, one life, one everything, one nothing, one all. It's waking-up from the dream of separation, division, and realizing true nature. Realization, true nature, enlightenment, it's all the same. Even separation and division is part of this, is waking-up to that too.
Then it can be explained. I can understand that its all one.
Understanding intellectually is perhaps a door-way to it (yet no understanding at all can lead to realization, there are no rules to how it unfolds), but it's not a complete understanding. When you see that you understand but you're not sure it can ever be understood because it is a living realization, then no understanding is necessary. When self-realized, it can't be understood because there is nothing to understand and you see in your living seemly unfolding experience, that there is no you there to understand it. You realize that you are everything, but you are not doing anything because there is no you there to choose anything.
So I don't exist? It sure feels like I do.
You exist, but you are that which is unexisting and existing simultaneously. Real and unreal. Moving and unmoved. You just don't exist as you understand yourself to be. You feel you exist as separate.
But I realize I am not separate.
It's not realized unless you can see in your own experience that you can not be defined or known, since you are everything and nothing simultaneously. When you can realize that you have no-choice EVER because there is nobody here to choose anything. You can understand that somehow you are not separate, but that understanding is based on a belief. What I am stating here, is not a belief. Belief, faith, and anything of the sort, will fall away upon seeing this.
Are you saying there is no free-will? I make choices everyday.
You believe you are not separate, but if nothing is separate, then that means you are everything. If you are everything, then that means you are nothing because there is nothing here to compare yourself to anything else. If you are everything, then you would have the power to control all aspects of yourself as everything. You can't control anything, because you are nothing. Nobody is there to make a choice to choose something.
I am everything, but I am limited to this aspect in this life and in this aspect of this body, I do have choice to choose what will happen. I am everything because I come from a Source that connects us all. Therefore, I have choice in this body, right?
To imply that everything is connected, there would have to be two (or more in this case: everybody else). The belief that you are everything, gets you nowhere expect to seeing an illusion that you still have choice. If you as everything/everybody is connected to a Source, then the Source would seemly be the only one thing choosing, but if you are connected to that Source, then you are that Source itself. You are implying that the Source lets you choose for It, but if you are It, then that implies that It is choosing through you. So who has the power here? Who is actually choosing: you or the Source?
I guess it would be both, since we are connected.
Yes, but if you're connected as one thing, then there is not two there. Only One, therefore neither is making choices because there is no distinction. Being everything, there is nothing simultaneously. Nothing is appearing as something else. Nothing can't decide anything, because nothing is the only thing. Everything in this world, is seemly to appear as an unfolding from nothing, nobody, no-one and that is why this can not be explained since it's happening, it's not happening. Nobody is doing it, but it is unfolding. That is why I say you are everything but you're not doing anything. Everything you observe is you because there is only one here, yet it derives out of Nothing since there is nothing else to compare everything to. Everything=One, One can't be compared to anything else, therefore it's nothing. Nothing=One. Everything/Nothing is It.
Okay, so I am everything and nothing. What is the point?
You are everything and nothing, but you are not here to claim that as your identity. You are nothing so there is nobody here to claim the everything. Oneness appearing as everything and doing nothing. There is only one here, doing nothing, so where is there to go? What is there to do? What is there to be gained? What is there to be learned? Who is there to grow ones self? There is no point. Quite pointless. It is 'all' irrelevantly seemly 'here and there'.
Isn't there something to be learned about the everything/nothing I am?
There is nobody there to learn it or anything else, yet the seemly appearance of learning may arise, but you are not there to make the choice to learn or not. Learning may arise, but the learning is pointless. Where are you going to take that learning and who is there to benefit from it? There is nothing of value happening. Everything/nothing means eternally everything and nothing, therefore, if something appears to be something new, that is you too. You were it before it seemly appeared for the first time in the so-called world. You may not have been aware of it as you before it seemly appeared, so there seems to be an evolving, learning, unfolding taking place, but what does that matter? It doesn't add to who you are, you are eternally everything/nothing.
How depressing. If there is no purpose to any of this, then why am I aware of any of it?
That is the mystery that can't be solved, but once this is fully-embodiment as a living realization and not just a belief, it's not depressing at all. It's quite liberating. In fact, in many cases, searching and seeking for purpose has lead to such an extreme-case of depression, that one awakes to this and the depression is seen as this one event that doesn't matter. When you see that everything is this, even depression, the depression no longer holds any emotional value (no attachment to the depression that is arising) for you (since it's seen that you are not there to be depressed, nobody is there to be the depression).
How do I fully embody this realization?
You are not there to choose to do something to realize this. Choosing arises but not by you, so there is nothing you can do. Either this is realized or its not. Nobody can tell you how because there is no how. In fact, trying to do something to realize this will perpetuate this since realization and non-realization are not two different things. Not realizing this, is this too.
There seems to be techniques and methods that arise, that can act as 'door-ways' to glimpses of this, but there are no guarantees. The eternal/infinite is unpredictable and undefined, some techniques work for 'some' and not 'others'. Some have even been seeking this for decades and find nothing because they are looking for something else other than what is arising now.
What would you suggest?
Everything I suggest will become just a task to do something. It will imply that there is something to get and somebody to get it. The fact is that this is it, whatever is arising is it. Realization doesn't happen for a 'somebody' in a 'future time', it's who you are now.
Many realized 'people' have suggested things like: live in the now, stick with the awareness that is aware of everything being observed, sit quietly like meditation but don't try to stop your thoughts or manipulate anything arising, look within your own experience and see if you can find the answer to the question "who am I?" or "what am I?" and realize it can never be answered with a thought, notice where the I-thought is coming from and trace it back to the source, be aware of the identifications you make as who you are: a mother, a doctor, a spiritual person, an addict, an activist, a christian, a professional, a nobody, a self, etc... Let go, don't resist anything arising, and the list goes-on.
Those suggestions have arose here too and many of them are pointed to in detail through this site: http://consciousflex.blogspot.com/ under the label: enlightenment. However, all this implies that there is a you there to make a choice to do these things. There may be a reading of this and a stimulus-response may arise to what appears like a choice to do these things and that is fine, everything is this, even the seemingly 'separate person' who is appearing to make a choice. All of it, is this, so either way whatever arises, happens spontaneously and naturally on its own accord.
For a variety of different 'realized people' who point to this in different ways, there is a list of recommendations on the very bottom left-hand corner of that site.
You say realization is who I am, but I don't feel realized. Why is that?
There is really no reason or causality or purpose to this or anything else. Eternal means timelessness, always here, no beginning or end, therefore, nothing causes anything else. But many things have been suggested as to why the seemly appearance of a separate self arose:
1. We were born into this world with this realization because it's who we are. At around the age of two, we were all conditioned to believe in a separate self. The terrible-twos is a sign of this identity taking place. "My toy!".
2. The mind is designed to separate things for survival purposes. The mind has to know the difference and similarity between things in order to keep the game of life unfolding. If you didn't see the difference between a car and yourself, unfolding yourself couldn't happen.
3. The never-changing ever-present awareness that is everything innocently confused itself by gradually recognizing opposites and claiming one as more itself and another as a lesser degree of self until it trapped itself.
4. This mystery can not be solved and a fear arose out seeing this everything/nothing of not knowing what this life is or who/what it is being aware of this life that it is, causing an identification to occur, in order to resolve the first arising fear.
However, those are just stories that unfold in this and because it's there, it's part of this too. But the stories never tell truth. Truth can only be pointed to, talked around, or realized.
Whatever is happening, is happening the way it should or it would not be happening.
Then there is some sort of purpose! Why would you say everything is happening the way it should?
All the seemly opposites that exist, are not opposites at all, it's one thing. Therefore, there is no right or wrong with whatever is arising. This life is, but nothing in this life is wrong and nothing is right about it either. It is what it is without purpose, but purpose may seemly appear and arise. Seeing the appearance of purpose is this too, but in realization, what is seen, is that there is no purpose or agenda of where this is going or why it's here.
What happens after life? What happens when you die?
What is realized is that life has no opposite, death is the opposite of birth. Life is eternal. No beginning and no end. This moment right now is timeless. This moment right now is not moving. The appearance of time arises in this and that is this too, but it's the unmoved mover. The only death that occurs is the death to the illusion of the separate self.
I need this body to be aware of this. When this body is not there, then this is not being aware of. So how is this life eternal?
Awareness is the timelessness, it is the everything/nothing. Awareness is not separate from this or anything else. You are aware of the body, therefore, the body is within the awareness and the body is also the awareness itself. What is seen, is that this timeless awareness is aware and unaware simultaneously. This awareness is the nothingness is which gives rise to the seemly everythingness. It is the nothingness and everthingness, one thingness.
Is this timeless awareness intelligent?
It is the intelligence, since it is everything/nothing.
Well, if it is everything/nothing, then that means it's intelligent and unintelligent, right?
The question itself is quite irrelevant because it implies that if there is an intelligence then it has an intelligent agenda or purpose to itself. It is what it is, it doesn't question itself because it doesn't answer itself.
There is nobody or thing there to question and nobody or thing to answer. For a question to arise, there has to be something else there to compare itself to. It would have to see something else other then itself and question the something else that appeared (which is the only thing in this, that is impossible, it is everything/nothing so it can't ever find anything that it is not; yet the seemly appearance of different things may arise) and there would have to be something else for an answer to arise out of it.
So here 'we' have it, a seemly 'you' to question and a seemly 'me' to answer. Yet, when it realizes itself, all questions stop, because it's seen that there is no questioner, nobody to question and nobody to answer.
Questions may arise in this and that is this too, questions can even arise for the realized, but for the realized there is never an answer because there is nobody to answer back. Even the question that arises to the realized, realizes that there is no questioner questioning anything, it's just a question arising. No different then anything else arising since everything that arises is this: one thing.
You say some weird things, but it makes sense! How do I know you are realized? How do I know you are enlightened?
You're aware right? You are aware of these words and you are aware of everything you are observing right?
Well, yeah?
Is that awareness enlightened or unenlightened?
What do you mean?
I mean enlightenment is just a label, refer to the beginning of this conversation.
All these so-called answers are designed to dissolve the so-called questioner, perhaps if you read this conversation again, that may arise.
I just don't want you to be right. I want this life to have purpose and meaning!
If that is the case then you don't want this realization, you want the appearance of something else and that is what you will find, if that is what you want.
There is a part of 'you' that knows all these 'answers'. You are this, therefore you resonate with these words and you know this next answer: every realized being doesn't want something else, because it's seen that there is nothing else and that is the most liberating, most peaceful, most blissful and most contentment realization in the whole of the universe. You lose yourself, but you gain the universe.
Posted by: Nicholas Powiull
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