What it is like to be Awakened or Enlightened

This is a narration of conversation between a seeker and Rupert Spira on a youtube video. My notes and my paraphrasing as needed

Seeker: I am into this  (mind/enlightening) stuff for last 40 years.  I am not awakened yet.  Some where here and there - I get glimpse of it - I not asking a grand event but something that I am waiting to happen. Why I am not enlightened yet? It is frustrating - not being awaken. "Ahaa" moment has not happened. Feeling like hitting my head to wall and say "wake up"  its sick feeling. I am exhausted, tired, aged. Desire for liberation is important.

Rupert: You are STILL expecting some event to happen. That is problem. You are waiting for a marvelous or less grand event of enlightenment. Its not event. Even the phrase "shift" is an event.  Its a concession for inadequacy of the language to call it as a shift.

Let us say you watching TV and in the movie you see a beautiful landscape. you are lost into that. At that time someone enters the room and says to you "Look at the screen". What do you do?

When TV is off - you can see the screen. When you switch on the TV - the screen does not disappear but takes the form of movie that is be shown the screen. But the screen is still there. you get lost in the movie. You forget that you are seeing screen. Your friend draws your attention asks look at the screen.

Think carefully now - were you not looking at the screen all the time (first before as blank screen and then screen showing landscape). At no point of time you stopped looking at the screen. Now tell me - while you are lost in the landscape on TV screen - watching or shifting your focus to the screen  - is that a new and marvelous event?

Does screen show off in the movie?

Seeker : No

Rupert: What you are looking for is - an event in the movie (your subjective experience) - called "enlightenment". In this metaphor - it is looking at the screen while your lost in landscape displayed on the screen. 

As long as you looking for the screen in the movie its not going to come up.

when you are looking the landscape- what you have to do to see the screen?

Seeker: In metaphorical sense - nothing.

Rupert : In that sense - enlightenment is not new thing to be experienced. Its not something that was lost and needs to be found. Best and closest we could say is "screen was overlooked" as focus was more on the landscape on the screen. 

Due to our fascination on drama of movie, the landscape - in other words  - our fascination on drama of mind and body - we seem to have lost sense or track of the reality - the screen - the consciousness that takes the shape of movie (or mind body) on the screen.

Then as logical beings - we go in search of this lost thing (the reality)- looking out side.  It is like looking for the TV screen in the movie that is displayed on the very thing that you are searching.

Its like character in the movie searching for the screen.

Enlightenment is recognizing that screen is there and at every moment - you also will know that you were indeed looking at the screen ALL time.  You never ceased to see the screen. But due to drama of landscape you felt that you missed the screen and you go out side to look for the screen.

You never ceased to be ever present unlimited "awareness"

Seeker: Sometimes this "limited self" melts away and I feel "wow" what a nice feeling. Wow she disappeared

Rupert: Why you want her (limited self - ego) to disappear?

Seeker: Because she is miserable.

Rupert: Ok... coming to metaphor of you screen/movie/landscape. There are several characters. There is one woman in the movie you don't like.

Seeker: yes. I dont want her in the movie.

Rupert: So what you are saying is "until that character is out the movie - I cannot see the screen"

Seeker: Yes. All the investment is on her.

Rupert: Whose problem is She? To the screen is that character a "problem" ? She may be problem to another character. But for the screen - it does not matter.

Awareness does not have problem, does not understand what is problem as it does not resist ANY experience - there has to be "I don't like this". Its like an empty space.

Here  - "my horrible separate self needs to be got rid off as I am fed up with her. The "I" that is fed up with her is another form of her self.

In other words separate self is perpetuating itself by trying to rid of itself

See the situation clearly. 

YOU CANNOT GET RID OF AN ILLUSION. Try getting rid of a ghost or mirage in desert. or Try to waking up someone who is acting to be sleeping.

What you have to do the get rid of the landscape (illusion of landscape on screen)? Either switch of the TV or just create thought that "its an illusion". 

Just see that its an illusion. Don't spend your time trying to GET RID of an illusion. Its waste of time

Awareness does not be enlightened. Its always been the light thru which we know all experiences.

Enlightenment is most FANCY name given to most ordinary, simple and easily attainable experience that is accessible to each one of us.

Because sense of awareness cannot be found by the mind (as mind self emerges out of the awareness) - in most cases it deemed missing. As a result of that "peace and happiness that are inherent characteristics of awareness also seem to be missing. Hence imaginary self goes out in the world searching for missing happiness and peace.

we know that peace and happiness are not "out" in the world but they are part of most common experience of "being aware" It is innermost experience. Its not new experience, it never left you, its not something you go for searching. In our day today experience - closest we could say "its overlooked".

Metaphorically - the screen has been overlooked due to our over bearing fascination with mind/body phenomenon.

All you need to is soften/relax you attention towards objects of experience and slightly turn that into the awareness with which these objects are known. Putting the camera slightly out of focus. Then attention falls back to its source as this empty awareness.

Instead of noticing yourself as cluster of thoughts and feelings - think that you are the one who is aware of that cluster of thoughts. All these thoughts flow by, they change. But me the witness and one who is aware of these is still and ever present.

Look among all experiences ask the question who is ever present in all those experience - stay with that. That is enlightenment.

Understanding Consciousness

 Defining consciousness and experiencing it  presents a challenge because of following challenges

1. Its not an object in a sense of having properties like thoughts, feelings, perceptions, bodily sensations.

2. Its non local - beyond time and ever present. Its there every where

3. All "so called" reality is a form of this con.

4. Anything you experience - is not consciousness. Its the experiencer or knower.

5. Its within which everything (called reality) appears and it is with which everything is "known".  for example "eyes" don't see (they do action of capturing light and project the image on retina) neither brain does (intercepts the image) - it is consciousness that sees and knows by seeing. That alone is capable of "seeing",

Is meditation difficult ? Yes and No - here is why

It seems difficult when we are not used to sit idle doing nothing physically. Away from phone, TV, book or news paper of any kind of distraction.

Inaction or “non doing” of any sort is meditation.

Here is what typically happens when one begins to meditate.

You sit one place, silent, close your eyes and start feeling your breath. Following will start drawing your attention. Some external sensory input - a noise, some smell, cold or hot breeze. These are perceptionary distractions - external input received through senses and filtered and colored through mind/memory. These may immediately lead to some old memory and your mind drags you there.

Second types of distraction is body sensations. These are not externally generated events but happening on or within your body. Most popular one is feeling of itching on some part of your skin. Urge to move bodily, adjust position, some slight pain in legs, hands or stomach or head.

Connected to these perceptions and sensations - mind brings loads associated memories and generates feelings and you are active in terms of thoughts.

Meditation in simple sense is JUST (I am saying just… to down play) being aware of sensations, perceptions, thoughts and feelings.

How can we do that? being aware or watching these? Eventual state to reach is “being” not doing anything. So you go from doing “watching” or “witnessing” to just being.

when you start watching - what is watching? who is watching? Watching is also a THOUGHT (interestingly). So watching is doing parallel execution of watching thought (let us call it as “watcher thread”) and other thoughts, perceptions, sensations etc (let us call them as “other doing thread”) - switching the attention back and forth between them. Similar to a computer processor running multiple threads of computing.

What can go wrong here? and what does go wrong is - watching/witness thread merges with “normal” or other thread of thoughts, perceptions, feelings and sensations”. So there is only one thread. Act of watching ceases. For many this may appear as failure of meditation. But it is not - sometime sooner, you realize that watching thread has ended and merged with “other doing thread”

This awareness that watching has ended is indeed success of the process of meditation. Goal of meditation is to be aware of “awareness” as much time as possible while the “other doing thread” keeps going.

So when you realize you lost the watching thread - start it again without any feeling of lost or failure etc. With love and smile start watching again. In a session of 1 to 5 mins of initial practice - you might lose watching thread about 50–80 times. Slowly this number starts reducing and your watching ability amidst all chaos that mind and body can bring.

Try … 

A dialogue with Self (Consciousness)

"Anything you say you are aware of... that's not consciousness" - Swami Sarvapriyanand

(if it were then the question arises - who is aware of that? other then consciousness itself)

Seeker: who are you? 

Consciousness: I am the one that knows everything - world of objects, thoughts, feelings, perceptions and bodily sensations. 

S: what are your limits?

C: I am limitless. Nothing exists that is knowable beyond my reach.

S: When did you start your life and when you will end?

C: I have no life and death. I am eternal and always present. Beyond time.

S: What are you made up of ? Constituents?

C: Nothing that you can recognize as such. But without me - nothing is knowable. I am in and through each and everything.

S: What is your location? where are you present? Are you in a living or non living organism? or In air? or in empty space?

C: I am everywhere - I need to be. Because whee I am not there there "knowing" is not possible. So I am omnipresent. Beyond Space

S: Anything impacts you? Changes you anytime?

C: None. Nothing can impact me. I am witness and knower of all things. I am Pure in a sense that nothing can corrupt me.

S:  Anyone else knows you ?

C:  Ref to your question on "what are your limits".  None except myself know me. I am self aware and there is none like me. Think about this way - if there is someone who is like me - exists  then the question will be who knows that person? That would be me ? Who else can it be.  I am the root of all knowing or experience

S: Are you same as mind?or Are you the mind?

C: I am like water to waves as to mind.  I am the stuff that mind is made up of. I am the material of the mind. Mind expresses as thoughts, feelings and perspectives etc. These are time dependent - come and go. Thoughts come and go. But I am always present. I am present in the void or emptiness between two thoughts. I am that void experienced in deep sleep where mind is not present.

Mind gets corrupted by memories, events and people. I am untouched by these.

S: Are you same as body? or Are you the brain?

C: I am the knower of the body. I am not a body or this body or that body as I am everywhere and limitless. Human body is limited in space and time. I am beyond space and time. 

S: Without body - Is knowing or experience possible?

C: Yes . For knowing or any experience - I am needed and I am available all the time.

S: Without mind - is knowing or experience possible?

C: Yes . For knowing or any experience - I am needed and I am available all the time.

S: Give me an example or analogy

C: I am like a LED screen - the image you see on this screen is nothing but screen itself in some modulation or some light units arranging in some specific way. You see - there is no independent image existing other than the screen. Screen is the image. I, the consciousness, arrange myself or project in a way to form physical objects - like human, trees, water other animals and also arrange myself as thoughts, perceptions, bodily feelings etc.  Essentially - I am the stuff everything is made of - I am that stuff.

S: What are your characteristics?

C: I cannot be pointed to  saying "this is consciousness".  because if it were possible to do that then there would be second (the other) - which cannot be out of my domain or which cannot be outside me.

I am not an object - I am subject of all experiences. Mind, for its convenience divides things as objects and subjects. Eventually all objects and subjects merge in me. This is still a duality - an unlighted duality.

When you consider thoughts, perceptions etc not as objects of consciousness but consciousness itself. This duality vanishes. Then the thing or object called mind cease to exist. Only thing that exists then is consciousness. 

Witness + objects is a useful intermediate state to non duality.

World of Magic where traditional reasoning dies

 Science - by and large is based on reasoning and logic. I use the word"by and large" as some part of how science as procedure and institution, works on belief surprisingly). World of "LOA" (law of attraction) is quite different one. One thing that does not work here is "logic" and "reasoning".  

Consider LOA as a temple - you need to enter this temple by taking off your foot-ware - that is logical and reasoning mind. If you are a rebel and insist that you cannot part with your reasoning mind - loss is yours. The GOD of LOA world fulfills the wishes of  those devotees that are faith based and believe in magic.

For many of us fried and soaked in the logic of science and scientific thinking - this is almost impossible. We cannot think of giving up logic. But consider this - science work for "material" things that do not have mind on their own. Things like wish, feelings etc do not have place in scientific world unless they follow a logic. Can our day today life work on logic fully - in all our waking world, we want something or the other. Be it money, good relationship, health, mental peace, great job or business. These wants by and large are IRRATIONAL. 

Healer Basker in this Tamil Video explains beautifully the idea of LOA. Normal person (Logic oriented) if wants to buy a beautiful car or house - starts with accumulating money needed for the purpose. Rightly you cannot have that car or house if you don't have required money - that is logic.

How does a LOA person approaches the same? Quite opposite. He/she first starts the desire of owning such car or house - knowing very well that he does not have any money for that purpose.He is solely and irrationally focus on developing the desire and thought for car/house. Through repetition, visualization and strong mental pull for the object - he feels, acts and behaves as though he has it already. This is like a seed. Once the seed of desire is planted properly in sub conscious mind - magic begins. Universe start working for him/her.  Getting required money is not his/her problem anymore. Some how he will get the money needed to buy that car/house.  

If you want to buy a 2 Cr house - what you normally think? income, loan etc. First of all throw all these way. Create a dream and keep playing that dream inside. As this idea of house goes deeper into you - income will start coming. How? magic.

If you are logic oriented - your possibilities in life are limited by what logic permits. But if you are LOA person - your desires will not have any limits.

Why this is happening or this happens to me (always)?

 Just reflect how many times, you might have said this to yourself in the recent past? From simple traffic on the road to argument with your boss in the office to fight with your spouse or a family member to your health - this question "why me" has killed you more than the event itself.

let us dig deeper into why of this question and how out mind plays with us , how we become victim of this feeling and some suggestions to deal with it.

when you feel like this - when such a question appears in your mind few possible thoughts... you would recognize (later) that you have a fixed mindset and a same thought coming always where as other thoughts are possible. Here you go.

First thought - this is happening because of "that" person or persons. They always want me to lose , they want me to be sad. That person wants me to fail. why cant that person do good for me? I am such a good person, always think good about him/her/them and helped him/her/them. God...how much you trouble me?

Second thought - I am done with this life. No hope from anyone and any side. I am asking "death" from God. "Muze uthale bhagwan" (god give me death). Death is not coming only. I have lost interest in all material things.

Third thoughts - Enough is enough. Let me take revenge for this insult. What do they think I am.  Am I a coward to take all this shit without any reaction. I will show them who I am.  I will make them fall at my feet and beg for mercy and their life. who do they think I am. 

Forth though - Things cannot be as bad as they look. I can manage. I am strong enough. They might be under pressure, might be really helpless. They might be forced to do like this. I am staying positive. This is a temporary phase or moment, Soon this will pass. Very next moment can change the situation never imagined. Miracles do happen with me. God gave this as a lesson to correct some aspect of my personality. This situation/people checking my patience and character. I will stay positive and attract similar positive, healing energy/vibration from the universe.

First thought is of helplessness, second is of victim, third one is of retaliation. All these thoughts put you into a perfect dark red negative frequency zone. Guess what will come in your way? more of similar stuff. Like attracts like. Universe will send of more such " why this is happening to me" type situations. More pain, cry, anger, frustration.

When all of these thoughts are going - funny thing just check where on the timeline your mind will be ... it has traveled back to your child hood days to next 10-20 years. It stretches and generalizes current situation to at least next 1-2 years and future.  This means you are creating a future based on this one situation which is completely imaginary and like a movie.  Like movie - nothing is real and mostly like none of what you imagined will come true. 

So relax ....

what is best way to deal with situations. INTERRUPT  Negative emotions that put you into negative frequency Zone.  Bring in 4th thought (that takes a good possibility) from present bad (however) situation. You will feel batter. That will put you into positive frequency zone and you will start attracting positive energy that will heal your situation and people associated.

Let me know what other types or categories of feeling you get . and how you have handled or handling them.

Simple Introduction to Law of attraction

 Everything in this universe is made up of energy. There is only one kind of Energy hence there are no energies. Forms of energies are not diff kinds of energies. Potential energy and thermal energy are NOT two different type of energy.  They are different manifestations of same energy - different forms if you will.

Energy vibrates with few specific scales of frequency.

We call these frequency scales as Happy, gratitude, sad, negative scales and so on.

We humans and our thoughts are also energy. At a given point of time (awake or sleep) we would be vibrating with some scale of energy.

In energy parlance - like attracts like.

So you attract that energy based what you are currently vibrating.

Key to success, happiness and contentment in the world is to vibrate with that scale of frequency and universe will send all likes of energy to you.

Get started.

What are Negative thoughts ?

 Actually there are no positive and negative thoughts. Thoughts are simply continuous stream of self talk - kind of chatter that you hear from "walk-talkie"  from a say ... traffic cop. 

General view is that any thought that makes you happy is a positive thought and the one that makes you sad - is a negative thought.

If you look deeper - thoughts are neither positive or negative. We give the label to the thoughts depending upon how we feel at the time when thought comes to our mind.  

What is the proof ?

1. Given a thought - different people feel differently in terms of tone (happy or sad) and also in terms of intensity. So there is no universal positive or negative thought.

2. Travelling on a time dimension - think of a good or bad thought that came to you . say one year ago. Think - how do you feel about that though now? May be same or different - you cannot be sure. So what mattered then or matters today - some time down the line - might not matter at all. And vice versa.

One way to deal with a recurring thought is ask - will this matter 1 year from now?

Another way is to ask "Can you do something about it" ? If yes - then do or else let thought pass thru.

Our Body

 "The human body is a self regulating organism" -  Meaning it is programmed to heal itself.

Pills only mask symptoms and suppresses. 

Real cure is inside you.