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Post by Figgles on Nov 15, 2018 18:47:35 GMT
“THE MISCONCEPTION ABOUT ENLIGHTENMENT stems from, or is at least compounded by, the fact that most of the world’s recognized experts on the subject of enlightenment are not enlightened. Some are great mystics, some are great scholars, some are both, and most are neither, but very few are awake.
This core misconception will be a big theme in this book because it’s the primary obstacle in the quest for enlightenment. Nobody’s getting there because nobody knows where there is, and those who are entrusted to point the way are, for a variety of reasons, pointing the wrong way.
At the very heart of this confusion lies the belief that abiding non-dual awareness — enlightenment — and the non-abiding experience of cosmic consciousness — mystic union — are synonymous when, in fact, they're completely unrelated. It’s possible to have either without the other, and there are countless millions of cases of mysticism and cosmic consciousness of varying degree for every one case of enlightenment. Of course, true cases of enlightenment are unlikely to attract attention to themselves, so it is certain that there are more than is apparent (like vampires!).
However, the simple fact remains that enlightenment and mysticism have little or nothing in common.
Anyone, myself included, who has had a taste of mystic union will naturally assume it to be the very summit of human experience, which I believe it is. It would follow from there that anyone who enjoyed more frequent access or greater ease of access to such a rarefied state would be at or near the summit of humanity. All well and good until such a one is labeled spiritually enlightened. He or she may be a divine avatar or love incarnate or the supreme godhead, but enlightenment is something else.
The critical distinction is that one is in the dream and the other is not. One is truth-realized and the other is not.”
Jed mcKenna - Spiritual Enlightenment, The Damndest Thing.
Pretty much right on par with what some of us have been saying.
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Enigma
Super Duper Senior Member
Posts: 13,969 
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Post by Enigma on Nov 16, 2018 2:47:52 GMT
“THE MISCONCEPTION ABOUT ENLIGHTENMENT stems from, or is at least compounded by, the fact that most of the world’s recognized experts on the subject of enlightenment are not enlightened. Some are great mystics, some are great scholars, some are both, and most are neither, but very few are awake. This core misconception will be a big theme in this book because it’s the primary obstacle in the quest for enlightenment. Nobody’s getting there because nobody knows where there is, and those who are entrusted to point the way are, for a variety of reasons, pointing the wrong way.
At the very heart of this confusion lies the belief that abiding non-dual awareness — enlightenment — and the non-abiding experience of cosmic consciousness — mystic union — are synonymous when, in fact, they're completely unrelated. It’s possible to have either without the other, and there are countless millions of cases of mysticism and cosmic consciousness of varying degree for every one case of enlightenment. Of course, true cases of enlightenment are unlikely to attract attention to themselves, so it is certain that there are more than is apparent (like vampires!). However, the simple fact remains that enlightenment and mysticism have little or nothing in common. Anyone, myself included, who has had a taste of mystic union will naturally assume it to be the very summit of human experience, which I believe it is. It would follow from there that anyone who enjoyed more frequent access or greater ease of access to such a rarefied state would be at or near the summit of humanity. All well and good until such a one is labeled spiritually enlightened. He or she may be a divine avatar or love incarnate or the supreme godhead, but enlightenment is something else. The critical distinction is that one is in the dream and the other is not. One is truth-realized and the other is not.” Jed mcKenna - Spiritual Enlightenment, The Damndest Thing. Pretty much right on par with what some of us have been saying. Jed has no mercy, which is why I like him.  |
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Post by Figgles on Jun 11, 2020 1:54:41 GMT
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Post by Figgles on Feb 21, 2021 17:22:08 GMT
________________________________________
"Morals, ethics, I have none. As it happens, I’m a nice guy. If it happens another way, I’ll be another kind of guy. I could make the impassioned assertion that I’d never, under any circumstances, cause anyone harm, but events might change and for some reason I’ll have to push some kids in front of a train this afternoon. I doubt it and I hope not, but maybe. Yes, it’s unimaginable, but that doesn’t make it impossible. Unimaginable stuff happens all the time.
I have a way of operating in the world and it has nothing to do with rules; not mine or anyone else’s. It has to do with trust and patterns and the absence of artificial boundaries. If those poor little children need to be pushed in front of that speeding locomotive, and that fact becomes clear to me in the way that things become clear to me, then we’re gonna need a clean-up crew with strong stomachs and a lot of little bags."
-Jed McKenna's Notebook
In the past it bothered me how Jed always seemed to draw the harshest lines, present the most extreme views, frame things in ways that aim to shock the mind, shake up his readers, but I now see past those original judgements of mine and see how those illuminated my own clinging to certain ideas that I had deemed 'sacred' and unassailable.
What he's getting at above, if boiled down, amounts to; In freedom, there is no longer clinging/attachment to ideas that dictate modes of behavior...rather, absent an SVP, actions, reactions, behaviors are far less predictable as there is a flowing with what the moment presents vs. a reaction based upon adherence to societal values. What is deemed to be 'the right thing to do,' is no longer carved in stone, dependent upon pre-conceived ideas, but now is a moment to moment thing.
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Post by Figgles on Feb 22, 2021 16:58:07 GMT
Another point I have to make before I move on is that nothing I talk about, whether it’s truth-realization or our true relationship with the universe, is anything other than that which is naturally, rightfully, immutably ours. This isn’t stuff we have to go out and learn or earn or fight for, it’s simply what is. The Zen master who wrote as his own epitaph, “All my life I have sold water by the river. Ha! What a joke!” was addressing exactly this point. This is natural. This is what is. Reality is beyond our wildest dreams and it can all be yours because it already is. The only thing in the way is you.
-Jed McKenna's Notebook
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Post by Figgles on May 8, 2021 5:24:58 GMT
So, are there 2 different variants (one being superior) of "realization"? One "Satori-only" which leaves a heavy-intellectual outlook, and one "Satori-plus" that leaves something better...?  Self realization does not come in multiple versions. It's a seeing through of separation. Period. The seeing through that is SR, does have a 'mind informing' counterpart, whose expression should not be conflated with the seeing through/realization itself. If there truly IS a massive spiritual ego, following SR, playing funny games and an intellectual outlook on everything, (as you say you see in the Jed McKenna book character) then I find it odd that you do not doubt JM's 'realization status. The informing of mind that follows SR, does away with massive spiritual ego's playing games and blanketing intellectual outlooks. |
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Perty funny. 