Random Thoughts on Experiencing Enlightenment
Random thoughts on experiencing Enlightenment
Awareness
Awareness of who and what you are. Awareness that you are one with all.
Awareness that you are not a human having a spiritual experience but a spirit
having a human experience. Awareness that you are Awareness.
Awareness of the Self is a wonderful gift. It is oft times confused
with Enlightenment because it is such an uplifting and freeing experience. But
Awareness of your true identity is only a step. Many people choose to stay on
that step. It can be very comfortable even though it ebbs and flows. The ego
also feels fairly safe here because it can still be a ‘me’ co-existing with Awareness.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with staying here. It is just wonderful and
perfect for many.
But if your heart leads you to experience Enlightenment then you will
certainly need to take the next step.
http://www.jonshore.net/inspirationaltapes.html
Meditation 2 and Letting Go
Surrender
Surrender into what you are. Surrender into Awareness. Dissolve into
Awareness until you feel one with Awareness.
Imagine that you are a drop of water. You have thought of yourself as a
drop all your existence. You were born a drop and you grew up a drop. You went
to Drop University, you worked at Drop Corporation, you married a fabulous
drop and had 3 great drop children. You went on holidays to Drop World every
year and lived a good life as a drop. Then one day you went to a workshop and
learned that you were not just a drop. You learned that you were actually part
of something greater, something wonderful. You read drop spiritual books about
this and studied with many great drop spiritual masters. You became aware that
you were Ocean and not just a drop. Wow! Your life changed.
“I am one with the Ocean! I am not just a drop!”
Then one day your drop master took you to a beach. You both slid up to
the edge of the sea.
“Look at the sea now, “ he said,
“You are actually one with that sea. The sea is actually a vast Ocean of drops.
Would you like to feel one with that?”
You expressed your desire to do so. So he told you to slide into the
sea so that you can feel your oneness with the Ocean. You do so very slowly, a
little at a time. Finally you are completely immersed in the sea and you now
feel one with the Ocean. It is fantastic, it is blissful, it is peaceful. Then
you slide back out and stand with your drop master.
Day after day you go to the sea and you feel your oneness with the
Ocean of drops. You gain more and more insights, a greater sense of Self and
deeper feeling of peace. You are now able to share this with other drops that
you meet.
Surrender into the Ocean of Awareness is all these things and much
more. It is a wonderful place from which to experience life. But it is still
not Enlightenment. It may be though that you wish to stay at this place and
that is just fine. Surrender into Awareness and feeling oneness with Awareness
will change your human life experience and the experiences of those around you.
http://www.jonshore.net/inspirationaltapes.html
Surrender
Death
Death of the ego, the ‘me’.
We must be willing to die to experience the Truth. Not understand about
Truth or intellectually study about the Truth, but die. Give up control
absolutely and completely knowing that you could die in the process. But you do
it because nothing is more important than Being, not even life itself. So
without purpose, without desire, without understanding, without knowing what
will happen when we give up all control, we die.
Maybe you will stop breathing; maybe you will no longer be aware. Anything
is possible. You will not know until you die. You cannot know until you do it
yourself. No amount of study or reading will help you when you reach this
point. There will be a million distractions attempting to stop you from doing
this. There will be very convincing internal dialogs that tell you that you
will really die, that you will be nothing, that you will lose everyone and
everything you love. No matter how much you feel you have prepared for this you can still experience fear, sadness and other emotions associated with death
that will attempt to stop you or to distract you.
When and if you truly wish to experience Enlightenment then you will
need to die. In Enlightenment there is no ‘me’ feeling one with Awareness.
There is only Awareness experiencing ItSelf. In Enlightenment there is no ‘me’
understanding Oneness, Peace, Bliss, Awareness and Enlightenment; there is only Oneness, Peace, Bliss, Awareness and Enlightenment experiencing ItSelf.
What happens after you do this? If I told you then it would put the
experience into the realm of your intellect. It would just make it more
difficult to experience it for yourself.
If you wish to experience the Truth, your Self, then just do it.
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Is the ego-death you describe is a thing that happen eventually to the devoted seeker, which after that there is only the enlightenment/oneness?
Or to put it simply is there is really such an event of transformation that vanishes your mind, sense of self, me, altogether? For good?
Is it a one time thing? Or many such happening in lower degrees before a final death/enlightenment?
A good question Gavriel,
Devotion is a wonderful thing and absolutely necessary to experience enlightenment. But devotion alone is not enough. The willingness to dissolve into Nothingness/Emptiness without knowing what will happen and without any agenda is required. Devotion sets the stage, absolute surrender is the action required on that stage.
The first time we experience ego death it truly feels as if we are going to die. We must be willing to cross that boundary no matter what the seeming consequences. It is frightening for everyone. But devotion gives us the courage to take that step. When we dissolve into the Emptiness without knowing what will happen we experience Oneness. Then, at some point, we begin to experience that sense of human personality, ego, me, body, etc. again. But the experience of Oneness is still there from that moment on. We recognize that Oneness/Consciousness is what we truly are, the True Self. We realize that the True Self never goes anywhere or hides. It is always everywhere and everything. Over time we learn to surrender or dissolve into the Emptiness in a second, anytime and anywhere. So we live life fully as a human being but remember, recognize and live as the Self at the same time.
It is a paradox we experience without fighting with it. The experience of Being the True Self where nothing in physical reality touches us or matters and the experience of being the personality where everything touches us and matters. It is a paradox without resolution. Ultimately we are the Infinite Sea of Consciousness, the Creator’s Consciousness of ItSelf. But, for a very short time we exist in time/space as a personality. Spirit having a human experience so to speak.
I realize that putting this into physical words is incredibly difficult and can sometimes be confusing because understanding only follows enlightenment it cannot precede it. We can only understand after we surrender and dissolve, not before. But I do my best to put these things into words. The True Self that you are is reading these words and understands completely. Trust in the Self, surrender to the Self, dissolve into the Self. It is who and what you really are. Understanding with follow like spring follows winter.
Take care
Jon