Scott Kiloby (click to check out his beautiful new site!) just published a pair of videos on the topic of reification, a fancy word pointing to how the mind separates things.
In these videos he shares a wonderful discussion on such topics as why enlightenment isn’t something to get, how it’s not something the mind can ever get, the importance of resting as nonconceptual awareness, and how thought is not your enemy.
So part of this spiritual path involves moving from fear towards love, becoming more and more loving.
The past few days I’ve allowed myself to be in my ego. To be angry. To feel my deep sadness. To experience this energy that for so long I’ve been trying to run away from, transcend, transform, heal, or in any way shape or form change. This egoic presence something I haven’t experienced in quite a long time, much less embraced.
I’ve decided to stop running from anything that is within me. Whether this fear is me or not me is not of primary importance right now. It is here, and I’m not going to run from it.
Diving into my own anger, I’m noticing one fear arising in particular: If I allow myself to experience my darkness, I’ll somehow slide back into my ego and become totally unconscious again, like some sort of crazed psycho killer or something. (Gotta love how the mind works…) A high degree of unconsciousness basically the complete failure for what one would call a spiritual person.
Looking at this more closely, we see that this fear is actually afraid of itself. It’s fear afraid of fear. The ego afraid of itself. It is a self-sustaining and self-reinforcing mechanism.
If you’re afraid of experiencing you’re own fear, noticing your existing fear will bring up more fear, which will create more, which will create more, and so on.
Freedom. Liberation. Is it really something to achieve?
When you say, “I want to be free,” WHO wants to be free? If it’s suddenly realized that there’s no one to be free and there’s nothing other than what you are to be free of, what then?
There’s this sense of deep peace that arises, where it feels like nothing’s happening. Everything is still, completely and totally still.
This isn’t to say that the earth stops spinning, that time stops, and that life as we know it ceases to occur, but something deeper than that, somehow beyond it all.
It’s a sort of looking through the action and seeing the non-action, peering beyond the content of the moment and recognizing the emptiness of the moment itself.
Nothing is being created.
Nothing is happening.
Nothing is occuring.
This probably doesn’t make much sense to the mind, so let’s see if we can help it along here a bit.
For some reason there is the belief in the human mind that physical reality is what’s real, but it is nothing more than just a belief. It’s the illusion.
When awareness gets amped up and it’s realized there is nothing but awareness, the content that awareness focuses on feels so… empty and light.
Everything is nothing.
What’s the difference between physical reality, imagination, the dream world we visit at night, wherever we go after we die, locations experienced when astrally projecting, experiences that arise in deep states of meditation, and everything else?
The rules are different. Certain laws, like the laws of physics, may apply in one place and not another. Certain colors and forms and shapes appear in one and not another, but that’s about it. They’re all just different illusions appearing within awareness. They’re all like different movies that awareness can watch.
Awareness is.
and awareness is SO much more real than any observable reality.
This awakening of mass consciousness that we’re seeing in humanity today, let’s put it into a larger context so that we can see where this fits. Enlightenment is not the final stage in our journey as spiritual beings, not by a long shot.
Alright, let’s get straight to the point. How do you actually do this? How do you get enlightened?
There’s so many gurus we can follow, all of whom give similar instructions, but they’re all variations on a theme. What’s the best path? The fastest path? The path that’s most appropriate for me? Is there even a best/fastest/right path at all?
How do you get enlightened? Let’s strip away the fluff and look at the core instructions on exactly HOW to do it as instructed from a variety of teachers:
Gangaji, an awakened woman whose teachings are very similar to those of Ramana Maharshi, has an excellent video about her core message of Silent Awareness.
In this video, she discusses:
The Silent Awareness that is always alive in you
Non-dualistic silence
Dropping all beliefs
Realizing who you are rather than Believing who you are
How we’ve heard Truth, but haven’t Discovered it directly yet
What’s your impression of her teachings and her message?
You Are Truly Loved features content designed to guide people towards spiritual enlightenment, unconditional love, and inner peace through Self-realization. We Are All One.
So part of this spiritual path involves moving from fear towards love, becoming more and more loving.
