Why am I not enlightened?

[pie'n'eal]

Why am I not enlightened?
Simple answer: “I” can never be enlightened! “I” is an identification with a concept in the mind.


Why am I not enlightened?
Longer answer!

Well, I am...and I am not. It's a question of “to be, or not to be”.
“To be” is just being. We are Enlightened.
“Not to be” is not just being, but rather being something, unenlightened.

Of course, we'd all like to be this thing called enlightened, but there is something in the way.
Guess what is in the way?
“You” wanting to be “enlightened”.
Wanting to be enlightened when you are already enlightened seems to be self defeating, doesn't it?

We so want life to be a certain way, that we ignore the way it actually is. So how is it?
We are confused about the way things appear to be to us at this moment, because we would like things to be better than they are.

We don't trust ourselves seeing the way things are, because what is being created is an effect from our own causes. We don't accept what comes our way, even though we have created this ourselves. And so we tend to blame others. We lack the confidence of insight to see that it is all our creation.
..family, job, car, house, attitude...we created it all!

Being created, this means that everything created is a temporary event and has no permanence.
If we could merely let things come and go, this constant creation would wear itself out...but we keep adding to it. Instead of just being, we are being busy.

The point is: wherever we are now, at this moment, was created by us. This created “I” fixated its own world, so this pure being ignored just being, because it wanted something better, something more interesting.

Does “merely being” sound boring? If it does, then we are still attached to “not being:” we are wanting to be something. This is not a big problem...it just needs some time to wear out (for most of us, a very very very long time!)

Some of us are fed up with having to be this or that, and it is a relief just to be...boring!

Funnily enough, this boringness can bring out interesting qualities and meditational experience. This comes with it's own special problems! These interesting qualities and experiences have to be dropped like a hot brick as soon as their use has passed: any claiming of these will create obstacles. And unless they are dropped, continuous inspiration cannot arise...that's inspiration for you!

Just saying, “Oh! I can do this or that,” might sound fantastic to the natives, but to anyone that 'knows' these are mere sticky toys!

Recognising being is one half of the equation.
Dropping (like a hot brick) is the other half of the equation (this dropping is not claiming, or reacting, to any event that occurs in the mind – and therefore no karma is produced).
Recognising is the way.
Dropping is the actual journey (the point of dropping is to exhaust all karma – and that is the purpose of the purification).

When there is nothing more to be dropped, enlightenment occurs all by itself.
Recognising is a piece of cake.
Dropping “I” isn't.
That is very challenging.

Anyone claiming to be aware is in deep, deep doo-doo! This is merely consciousness claiming clarity, and is an ego activity. However, this is not bad news: this consciousness-clarity can be upgraded into essence-clarity. This entails merely relative clear consciousness looking in to itself and then, through insight - or the pointing out instruction - realising empty essence and cognisant nature. Pure stillness with no “I” involved. This is achieved by either long periods of meditation or receiving the pointing out instruction from a qualified teacher (it cannot be gained by merely reading words): we all have natural glimpses of this, but it is not stable yet.

Depending on the organised path one had chosen to follow, or one's inclinations, this might be described differently...and so there is no need to argue about it. It is whatever makes sense to you, and whatever works, to allow you to realise your own true nature - which is already enlightened.

Until then, we have to watch out for false enlightenment, where pride and the other negative emotions are still present. If “I” was enlightened, it would be a nice polished shiny ego!

Yours still walking the walk,
Tony

[Pete]

That's easy for you to say!

with love pete

[pie'n'eal]

Posted by Pete (here)
That's easy for you to say!

with love pete

Morning Pete,
Is there something we can discuss?

With love,
Tony

[Fred Steeves]

G'day Tony. You know it's funny, all the years of listening to Alan Watts and such, my burning desire was to reach the state of satori/enlightenment. And now? I no longer give a rat's ass about that, I'm just enjoying where this grand river of Consciousness is taking us.

It's almost like reading a 1,000 page book, where the whole time, through all the twists and turns, we can't wait to find out how it all ties together, and winds up in the end. Only when we find ourselves down to the last few pages, we tend to slow down, and savor our final moments with the story, don't we? Atleast I do.

I feel rather this way about "life" now. It's been a compelling page turner for a very very very long time like you said, and we've spent most of that "time" just wishing for the "story" to wind up. Well, I think we're coming down to those last few pages now, and at some point we're going to gently close that old dusty book, get up, and leave the reading room. All the while thinking: "Now THAT was good".

Last one out flip the light off please.

Cheers,
Fred

[Pete]

Pie I love the way you raise these questions and the how you explain yourself. I just regret the fact that I'm too dumb to actually understand what it is that you are saying, It's not you, it's me, but i am very glad there are people like you trying to prod us in the right direction.

Fred, I agree, I am past trying to understand apart from the fact I am happy to be swept away in what seems to be a swelling river of conciousness. I am not going to bother to understand intellectually, I trust in my intuition to lead the way.

Love and peace to you all and thanks especially to you Pie for trying to help me understand.

[Anchor]

Oh bugger it, you know what this means don't you.... I am not enlightened

[another bob]

You Are the Whole Thing - by Scott Morrison



We don't have awareness, we are awareness. And awareness is love. When it is wide open, when it is not fixated on some narrow and contrived identity, some narrow craving, argument, irritation, or fear, the nature of awareness is unconditionally affectionate, tender, sensitive, and compassionate.

Advaita Vedanta, Christian meditation, the Buddhadharma, Kabbalah, Vipassana, Tibetan Dzogchen, Zen practice, Sufi practice, and all true forms of mysticism, at their very best, are simply doors to this discovery.

The radical, unconditional mercy of Jesus, the uncorrupted compassion and understanding of the Buddha - these are just metaphors for your own pure heart, the core of your own being. Yours, mine, everyone's.

Your life is Love's life. If you try to take it away, if you try to limit it in an attempt to satisfy some mental or emotional obsession with security or pleasure, you will, in short order, find yourself habitually wandering through any number of hell realms of envy, fear, worry, possessiveness, jealousy, sorrow, stress, frustration, rage, craving, addiction, greediness, competitiveness, pettiness, loneliness, depression, or whatever. If you doubt that in even the slightest way, watch self-centered thinking very closely, and see where it all leads, over and over and over again.

How to bring hell to its end? Stop taking mental images and stories about yourself and other people seriously; stop indulging in them as if they are important, as if they might be reliable or useful, as if they actually mean something. Self-centered thinking, all self-centered thinking, is a kind of insanity. It is neither honest nor accurate, and is a constant, hurtful distraction from all that is.

Even though there may be secure and familiar sensations of endocrine and nervous system habit, it is a pathological luxury you cannot afford. (If you want to be awake and free, that is.) The irony is that when you let go, when you give it up completely, the peace and security you sought in so many limited and transient forms, is everywhere.

The word "enlightened" simply refers to life without a past or a future, life without self-centered fantasy (all of which is made up of nothing but memory). Sex fantasies, romantic fantasies, money fantasies, power fantasies, political fantasies, prestige fantasies, security fantasies, control fantasies - there is no reality, no love, and no freedom in any of them. Stop indulging in that kind of escapist daydreaming, and you will suddenly realize that you are the world, all of it unfolding, moment-by-moment. You are the whole thing, and every sight, every sound, every smell, taste, feeling, thought, experience and circumstance, everything that takes birth, lives out its life, and dies, is you. The idea of separate identity, whether neurotic or grandiose, with all of its competitive and conflicting desires, using people, judging or blaming yourself or other people, none of it makes sense anymore. In fact, the memory of all such activity breaks your heart.

What is it like? It's not like anything you could ever imagine or think about. The world is absolutely complete and serene, and you are struck dumb with infinite love and wonder. Words like good, bad, right, wrong, me, mine, you, yours, us, them, beauty, ugliness, loneliness, division, or isolation no longer mean anything at all anymore.

[pie'n'eal]

Posted by Pete (here)
Pie I love the way you raise these questions and the how you explain yourself. I just regret the fact that I'm too dumb to actually understand what it is that you are saying, It's not you, it's me, but i am very glad there are people like you trying to prod us in the right direction.

Fred, I agree, I am past trying to understand apart from the fact I am happy to be swept away in what seems to be a swelling river of conciousness. I am not going to bother to understand intellectually, I trust in my intuition to lead the way.

Love and peace to you all and thanks especially to you Pie for trying to help me understand.

Dear Pete,
To understand our spiritual side, one doesn't need to be educated, intelligent, lots of learning, or being able to hold one's breath under water...you just need a cushion, and that's optional!

What is needed is recognising that you are dissatisfied with suffering, you've had enough!

This suffering can take many forms, life in general, one's emotions, people, or just being fed up.
This the first step. The next step is to look for the cause of that suffering, then look for a method or antidotes for the causes of suffering, then actually do something about it.

The main point is seeing the cause of suffering.

There are many ways to view this, and many places to start from, I am going to suggest one.
What we are, is pure perception-pure-essence-pure-light-pure knowing.
We are just there, was never born, and will never die, is not a product of anything.

This pure essence, one of infinite essences, at some point (I haven't a clue when, but it happens all the time.) got attracted to something, found itself attracted to 'being'!

Maybe it is 'like' being a baby, at a certain age having sheer joy of being, then suddenly it finds it can grab hold of things...and that's it “gimme!” “Mine!”

At that moment an “I” was born, with my things, my life, my happiness.
A concepts of “I” developed in the mind!
Then we learn to put words to those concepts, and it gets ingrained into the mind -our consciousness. This gets so strong, that all we now see are things and just our concepts about those things...?!

...we have forgotten pure perception, we have forgotten our pure essences.
It is still there but goes unnoticed.
So the cause of our suffering is this conceptual “I”!





Tony

Ps. Incidentally that holding on is called ego-clinging...it's not needed! When Essence is present, ego-clining naturally drops away.

[Rocky_Shorz]

did we start in endarkenment?

just like the old cartoons, one day we had a thought and a light bulb appeared over our heads?

[Rocky_Shorz]

when we read fear porn do we become endarkened?

when we get beyond the fear, enlightened?

¤=[Post Update]=¤

when you have a 10,000 watt bulb in the room and light a candle, does it make a difference?

[SKAWF]

i agree with the OP (sort of)
but for different reasons.

my view is, the 'mind' that they programmed us with,
is low grade in comparison with the being that we 'are'.

the mind doesnt have the capability to deal with higher aspects of being.
it short, it gets beyond a certain point, and stops functioning.
i have witnessed many many people go from being 'functional'
to completely inactive.
i know whats happening to them.
they dont see it, but they ARE their mind.
then they take something (psychedelic)
within an hour their mind is rendered useless and they cant do a thing.
the being though.... remains intact and can function perfectly well.

we should note where the mind comes from....
it is programmed into us from an external source. school.
its not ours.
it isnt the mind that wouldve formed naturally based on the experiences we have.
it was systematically drummed into us.

its a low grade, external system of thought.
which is given to Everyone regardless of compatibility
like a uniform for the brain.

so if you are going to try and use THAT, to become enlightened......
its not going to happen.

not truly.

it doesnt have the capability to get you there.

'you must unlearn what you have learned'

only by the destruction of a false identity,
will you be free enough to pursue Actual enlightenment

but no one wants to destroy themselves do they?

unfortunately, there isnt a lot of choice in the matter.

'their gave us their mind'

and its no good to us.

i have taken it to its limits, and beyond.

the only solution to the whole problem,
which i have found,
is paradoxical in its nature.

one has to come up with a process....

that will get us out of the process.

sick really,

the more one tries,
the more trapped one becomes.

steve

[Flash]

Posted by Pete (here)
Pie I love the way you raise these questions and the how you explain yourself. I just regret the fact that I'm too dumb to actually understand what it is that you are saying, It's not you, it's me, but i am very glad there are people like you trying to prod us in the right direction.

Fred, I agree, I am past trying to understand apart from the fact I am happy to be swept away in what seems to be a swelling river of conciousness. I am not going to bother to understand intellectually, I trust in my intuition to lead the way.

Love and peace to you all and thanks especially to you Pie for trying to help me understand.

You seem quite enlightened to me. The proof: you do not know abou it, just live it without questions from the I.

[pie'n'eal]

Posted by Rocky_Shorz (here)
when we read fear porn do we become endarkened?

when we get beyond the fear, enlightened?

¤=[Post Update]=¤

when you have a 10,000 watt bulb in the room and light a candle, does it make a difference?

Hello Rocky,
I think you are right!
Fear does take us down, like all negative emotions.
(That is exactly why I keep writing to counter the fear mongering!)

Going beyond fear and hope..is knowing our true nature!
So yes, 'knowing' is the switch that is the light, and the mind that has been in darkness for thousands of years suddenly is illumined!!!
Not knowing cannot be in the presents of Knowing.

Goodness knows when it started..when you are enlightened you can come back and explain the details. Perhaps there was a Golden age where everyone was enlightened, and it went down hill from there. It doesn't matter, as we can do something about it now!


Kind regards,
Tony

[Finefeather]

Posted by Rocky_Shorz (here)


when you have a 10,000 watt bulb in the room and light a candle, does it make a difference?

Yes it now becomes (10,000watts+1 candle power) ...

[Finefeather]

If we start living in the now and stop trying to be what we are not right now, in this now, we fail to see the very essence of our being as is manifest now, at this point in our lives.
By wanting to be enlightened we fail to see the enlightenment which we are already, and are trying to be what we already are.

It is a bit like a frozen lollipop buying a frozen lollipop because it does not know it's a frozen lollipop.

If you observe people who have never ever read a word about being enlightened, their lives are more than often filled with happiness and joy, they love those around them, they help those in trouble and are just lovely people. They are living in the now, no hangups, no expectations, just enjoying the now. When we forget who we, by paying too much attention to something outside ourselves, we start to loose the sight of our own enlightenment. We build and seek that which is external and fail to see the inner light.
I have in my life met 100s if not 1000s of people who have never read a single book on spirituality, or seeking God. or whatever you want to call it, who shine like beacons of light to those around them.
They express the living essence from inside and grow from within, not from without.

[crested-duck]

Pie- I'm glad you keep writing these threads, and thankfull for everyone who contributes to them too. It has been catalist for much deep thinking and self examination. Now that's been a real roller-coaster ride for me and my" I". My ego is still a obstacle and a bone of contention. Disecting my life has been quite a challenge, yet some perspectives still persist with letting ego go away. Seems for myself, ego kicks in as a safety mechanism" to preserve my physical life"and not my spirit/soul. I feel if I lose my ego I lose my "individuality" of my free spirit/soul. I just cannot agree with the saying: "we are all the same and all are one". We are all part of the human species, but the "I/ego/soul" progresses and evolves as" one individual entity/energy type of thing". I guess what I'm trying to say is that this is the dillemma that is caused by being in a human body, but can be easily overcome in the time/moment when my body dies and soul/conscious awareness returns to source/universe....Rob

[another bob]

[bogeyman]

Everybody is on a different level of development, learning or growing. Thats all. Some are more enlightened than others, some or more wise than others. It is the process of why we are here.

[ED209]

It probably sounds crazy, but I truly do not want to be so enlightened that I dissipate into intangible essence or consciousness. I really savor, relish, and like the struggle of just being, even if it is a form of self-entrapment. I honor and strive for deep compassion, empathy, and love for all that exists, but deep inside I know I don't want to go further. I want to be tangible even if it means that I go down with the ship! I look at all of this creation around us, both good and bad, and am just do swept up by the miraculous unlikelyhood of it all.

Walt Whitman's "Clear and sweet is my soul. And clear and sweet is all that is not my soul," really gets at the heart of everything for me. I kinda of like being trapped in this wild trip of blind sentience!

[Spiral]

Something to do with this damn stupid triune brain, if it were a machine it would be a supercomputer sat on a pocket calculator sat on a washing machine solenoid, and the solenoid gets the last say.