EnlightenMyth

There are so many myths and misconceptions surrounding enlightenment. I had plenty, most of which I wasn't even aware of. All the books I had read, hindering as much as they helped. For example even Jed McKenna, probably one of the most important authors out there on the subject, manages to greatly demystify enlightenment but somehow manages to create a whole new quasi-unattainable myth in the way he describes it. This just serves as more evidence of the harm in just taking someone else's word for this. As Jed McKenna himself says, "Having the answer isn't enough. You have to do the math."

Whenever anyone talks about enlightenment, it becomes a mere concept. "The finger pointing at the moon." The finger may indicate that there might be a moon in the first place, and the general direction to look in, but beyond that becomes another obstacle. Stop analysing and looking at the finger, look at the fucking moon!!!

Following maps or charts might also have the potential to be helpful to a degree, but only as rough guidelines rather than a strict lineage to align with. Ticking off each nana or jhana as they happen and sitting in eager expectation for the next one seems like an entirely unnecessary and largely distracting endeavour.

In truth, enlightenment is the simplest thing there can be. When it happens, it is almost anti-climactic. I had some mystical experiences leading up to, and post enlightenment, but they are in no way a prerequisite, and if they do happen they will be different for each of us. The actual moment of realisation is not mystical. It is too easy to work the discovery of the simple truth up into a huge, unachievable fairytale.

You do no need to meditate for years and years. You do not have to give up all your worldly possessions. You do not need to devote yourself to a guru or a god. You do not have to stop eating meat. You do not have to read tonnes of books or study philosophy. You do not have to take heaps of acid. If any of these are things you like to do, then do them. You can even keep doing them after enlightenment if you wish. All you need to find enlightenment is to LOOK, with an honest dedication to finding truth. You can find it right now, in this moment.

Another huge myth is that finding enlightenment means end game, go home, you win. This is NOT the case. Truth-realisation is like discovering a muscle you never knew was there. Finding it once and forgetting about it isn't enough. It needs to be flexed, developed, built upon. The new skills need to be expanded, the implications need to be explored. And the implications are endless. Enlightenment might be the last step in one journey, but it is the first step in a whole new one.

If you become enlightened you do not need to give up anything. You will not lose anything. You will not even lose your self, as you will discover it was never there in the first place to lose. You will still form bonds with people. You will still take delight in hobbies. You can still have a job and a marriage and kids, if that's what you want. Life will still be immensely enjoyable. In fact it will be moreso, because there will be more of a direct contact with it. Reality will no longer be so clouded and murky being filtered through a self.

One of the best pieces of advice I've ever heard was given to me many years ago by my dad. "Expect nothing, and everything is a bonus." This is without a doubt my life's motto, and can be applied to pretty much any situation. In seeking enlightenment, the less you expect the better, and the easier it will be to see truth. Do not expect a huge cataclysmic event. Do not expect fireworks, not even a tiny little one. Liberation is going to be different every time. Preconceptions can be major obstacles. The part of you that is sitting there waiting for something specific to happen means that your capacity to look is being depleted. You just have to trust that when truth-realisation happens, you'll know it to be true. Otherwise you'll just be lying to yourself, and truth can't lie.

You are NOT destroying the self, you are realising it was never there in the first place. This is a very important distinction. It means very little immediate change. However, this distinction also implies that any thoughts or feelings, including thoughts of a self, that were there before enlightenment will still be there afterward. This is why it's important to develop this new muscle.

What takes the place of the self is the void. The space in which thoughts and feelings and experience arise and fall. The space which previously had a self falsely superimposed over it. Once liberated of self, this is what needs familiarising with. This is the way the long sought-after peace can be found, by minimising the negative feelings that arise within it. You see, when there is a problem, and hate or anger or sadness comes up, it reflects off a self image, creating a potentially exponential feedback loop, which can make it spiral out of control. If you take away this self image, and depersonalise the negative emotions, all that is left is the void, and thoughts and emotions cannot cling to or reflect off a void.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUXodFgbDfQ

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