Today, unexpectedly, came across a a message from Monica in her blog and think its an important message that I'm grateful for and essentially agree with.
Too many of us are stuck on seeking something else other than what is here. For a lot of spiritual seekers it is often enlightenment or awakening and thus the inevitable search for a teacher or guru, Yes, I have also been there. Still, some awakened teachers, I do believe help, such as chip, no1, that I have come across can help.
There are countless others, such as Richard Rose, The Dalia Lama, 16th Karmapa, and many others many have shared it as a mysterious acausal accident. It reminds me of the "many are called, few are chosen" mantra that Richard Rose went on about. A deathly strike that shatters the illusory conceptions of reality. A death to who we thought we were, a death to the limited boundaries of the personal self. A bolt of lightening that traumatises the concrete ceilings of our personal conceptions, shattering the commonly held idea of a personal self. There is none, only the idea of such.
Yet despite all this, awakening, enlightenment and despite undying awareness, which survives death of the body, all that is is inseparable from what is experienced. So there's still a body or vehicle that functions and we don't escape the physical, pain, experiencing, thoughts, feelings and yet it has no concrete absolute undying reality to it and dies. Even the awakening experience is dead.
blessings
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3 comments:
What if what we are seeking is here?
What if enlightenment or awakening is not just a myth? Would you know? In one instance you say seekers seek something else other than what is here, like awakening. So if awakening is not here, then why do you think Chip or No1 are awakened? It seems to me, by this contradiction, that you really do believe awakening is here. But, where is her.e?
Millions have searched for the Holy Grail. Maybe one person's sense of enlightenment is different from another's. Is the experience of enlightenment objective or subjective? If subjective, if someone feels they have found what they're looking for then at least they have found something even if it differs from what someone else has experienced. No matter how we try to define enlightenment, no one truly knows what it is until they experience it. It's like trying to describe snow to someone living in the desert. They won't know what snow is no matter how much we use words to describe it until they see the snow for themselves.
I do not know what enlightenment or awakening is, as I have experienced neither. But, I do not believe enlightenment means one ceases to think thoughts, or ceases to feel pain, or feels eternal bliss or joy. I think enlightenment might be experiencing connection with God, or realizing through actual experience the Oneness that everything is (supposedly).
One of my favorite sayings is, "Before enlightenment chop wood carry water; after enlightenment chop wood carry water." There may be other interpretations to this statement but for me I believe it means that what we experience through living before enlightenment will still be there after enlightenment.
These are just my thoughts. I hope I don't come-off as sounding like a know-it-all. Truth is, I don't know much but I hope to learn and experience more as well as find answers.
P.S. I thank you for providing the link to the Katinka Hesselink web page. It is like a gold mine of spiritual wisdom. I've been skimming through a lot of the pages there the past couple hours.
Sophia, thanks for the insightful comments and glad you enjoyed the link. Katrina has some interesting and thoughtful blogs. Hey don't worry, you don't seem a know-all. I gather from your photo you are cheeky but don't seek to harm.
Exactly, you hit the nail on the head, what we are seeking is here.
Actually, I didn't mean awakening or enlightenment was a myth, an illusion, more that seeking, wanting it, can be a trap, if we're looking to be an enlightened 'Me', as its no-one getting enlightened.
Yes, id agree, like that clever Zen chopping word quipp, awakening has nothing to do with killing thoughts, or experiences, or escapism of any form.
Its seeing clearly, awakening from the illusion of personal identity, the death of everything you think you are and what everything else Is, the concreteness of our Personal Stories and Identities where the actor behind the acts is no longer pretending to be in control. So it would also be seeing through the notion of the subjective (me) versus objective (other), inside versus outside bounded to time and space.
99.99% are concerned with My stuff, their personal story, not that this is bad or wrong, yet a small minority like Chip, no1wakesup, and others iv mentioned see through Me-ness, but of course we can say that's a "personal" opinion and thats OK. They also, HAVE directly experienced awakening. An experience consistently described by almost all the 'awakened' as a death-like experience that they had no control or say over. It just happened without warning. Acausally. That is the two-fold reason i made those statements about chip, no1.
When we seek or want enlightenment it can become, all too easily, another role for the Actor to sink his teeth into. Into the role of the Seeker, chasing his tail, the slippery rainbow "Holy Grail", like you implied.
all the best : )
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