Defining Enlightenment

Many people take “enlightenment” to be one thing, while for me it is not. It is a living process. So, enlightenment is basically to awaken to what we truly are – our true potential – and that we have an unsaid potential, to be directly in touch with this potential, and for us to be free to recognize and experience this potential as it is called forth by our life circumstances.

What are the signs of Enlightenment? Not always easy to say: one cannot know for sure another’s state of consciousness, it is a highly subjective matter, not open to another. Nevertheless, you will have some good feeling when you meet an enlightened being. Because they are tranquil in all circumstances, wise and impartial, they will exude something attractive, something pleasant that makes you enjoy being in their company and want to stay near them as much as possible. Something about them feels nourishing. This magnetism will usually be interpreted as an effect of their personality, but it is not to do with that superficial level; it is a natural effect of the fact that they are living and radiating the Self, which is as much your real nature as it is theirs. The Self is the most attractive thing there is, and it draws everyone, eventually.

Is there one thing above all others that characterizes the growth of consciousness? It is the effortless discrimination between the Self and the not-Self, between the Real and the unreal, the permanent and the transient. To whatever extent this discrimination is spontaneously and continuously maintained through the states of waking, dreaming, and sleeping, to that extent enlightenment can be considered established. How does this feel? It is the realization that one is ever beyond birth, death, old age and all sorrow. It is the experience “I am immortal” even while in the midst of this unstable life and all its insufficiencies.

In truth, the identification with a limited self … is actually mere imagination. The thought: “I am the doer” and “I am the enjoyer” runs very deep and is very powerful, after all such an opinion has lasted for many births, is the cause of our continued rebirth and is continuously supported by our education and social structures. But in fact it is a type of hallucination that has no ultimate existence. It will seem to be real for however long it continues, just as a dream is real for as long as one is dreaming. But we know that a dream vanishes as soon as one wakes up and in the same way, when this habitual and automatic “I” thought is sufficiently weakened by a prolonged and spontaneous dwelling in the Self, he who has erroneously identified with a limited, mortal self finally wakes up. He realizes he is in fact one with the level of life that witnesses everything, while being itself beyond action and its effects, beyond the succession of events we label time and beyond the “I” sense of limited individuality.

Standing unshaken as the Self, it is as if the clouds have been removed from covering the sun. With the transcendence of the individual mind, all its concepts are also left behind: there is no bondage, no rebirth, no enlightenment even, because the limited and isolated self who was identified with the body and underwent all these changing conditions no longer exists. There is the only the Real, the Absolute, and the realization: That I am, and always have been and always will be. … What I have just described is the highest teaching, the confession of the enlightened.

Whatever appears to happen to the perfected one does not really touch him at all, for he has realized himself to be the universal Self and no longer identifies with the individual mind or body. He is established beyond all their ups and downs, comings and goings. His body roams through the world of sensations as free as a wild animal in the forest, while he himself dwells always in peace and silence, looking on, liberated from both doubt and desire.

How would you describe the enlightened being? Above all he is happy. But his happiness is not the usual human happiness, dependent on a transient object or circumstance – such happiness always lives in the shadow of its opposite, for the object or circumstance can always change. The sage’s happiness is a continuous loving bliss that has no specific cause and therefore no opposite. It derives from the Self, which is one without a second, and as loving bliss is the nature of this non-dual Self, so he who knows the Self is by nature loving and blissful. This bliss depends on nothing external, it is just the joy of Being, the ecstasy of fully-enlivened Consciousness, which is naturally and spontaneously happy under all circumstances. … It is as if the enlightened being enjoys all pleasures. And he enjoys them not one by one or sequentially, as a normal man might, but all together instantaneously, in one cognition that is as swift as the light of the sun. Now, how can such a state exist? It is possible because such a one is always enjoying the goal of all desires, which is the Absolute. Because he has realized his identity with the Absolute, in that capacity it is as if he enjoys all pleasures at once, and as his very own Self. His sport and delight are in the Self alone; for him, all is just loving bliss, always and in every way, occasioned solely by the Self and independent of all limiting external objects such as a body, or senses, or a life of karmas or any mere physical enjoyment depending on another. He has been crowned an independent spiritual monarch in his own lifetime and he rules without effort over a kingdom that is infinite and undivided, far transcending any kingdom in the mundane world. He has become the supreme Spirit, utterly serene, forever established in its own nature as the Self of all. … As such then, he roams free, playing his way through the world and singing the ecstatic song of non-difference wherever he goes. He is always enunciating the unicity and sole reality of the Self for the benefit of all beings and he is also continuously astonished and delighted by the freshness of his own realization that he himself is everything he comes across. He is the food and the eater and the eating that unites them! He is the entire world because he is the Self of the entire world, and he simultaneously engulfs the entire world with his true nature, which is the Self, the unsurpassed Lord of all. The light of his infinite awareness is as eternal as the sun and in him alone rests the immortality of all beings. Truly, my dear friends, this state is utterly glorious and as such it lies far beyond normal comprehension.

In the case of the enlightened sage, everything that needs to be done gets done, yet such a one is always established beyond action. How is this? Because he is awake to his own identity with the unborn Absolute, which is always inactive, unmoving. The Absolute is his own Self and as his Self is intrinsically devoid of movement, so he has spontaneously renounced all activity. Ever-fulfilled in himself, he experiences the inaction of his Self in the midst of the world’s activity. In fact, in the light of this transcendental awareness he sees that even what the world calls “inaction” is, in fact, still action. … And as he is that Self, he realizes himself to be essentially quite free of the boundaries of intention and action, whatever may be happening on the surface of life. And being free of action, he is also free from all its consequences.

The wise one rests perfectly content, unconcerned with obtaining objects or satisfying individual wants – either in this world or in any other. But while being in this state internally, he might very well be highly active in the outside world. Nevertheless, however active he may be, his apparent action is in reality always inaction, because whether he acts for the good of others or to set an example to the world, having on the level of consciousness become the Self that is beyond all action, he in fact does nothing at all!

The Self is forever and always unattached to the material world. This is why the scriptures tell us that, once he has become the Self, the liberated man is as unattached to his body and the world as is a snake to the cast-off skin it leaves lying on an anthill. He shines forth as the Self, the bodiless Absolute, even as light itself. There are many such passages that refer to the sage as having transcended all attachment to the body, and once he is free of the mortal frame and all its endless wants – children, money, power and all the rest – he becomes immortal, liberated from all the self-interest and the limiting sense of agency inherent in bodily attachment.

Enlightenment is the harmonization of body and mind. This also means the harmonization of spirit and matter. When spirit and matter are in harmony, it’s as if a third entity is born – that’s really the Buddhist “Middle Way.” The Middle Way has nothing to do with the notion of being halfway between two opposites. The Middle Way is when spirit and matter are in harmony – when the inherent oneness is realized. Spirit and matter are not two different things, they are two aspects of the One. This is the realization of our true nature.

Enlightenment means waking up to what you truly are and then being that. Realization alone is not enough. The completion of Self realization is to be, which means to act, do, and express what you realize.

It is very hard to say what enlightenment is. Enlightenment is not really different from awakening, but it is what awakening matures into.

In order to be free, in order to be enlightened, there is absolutely nothing to know, and there is no enlightenment as long as you think you know something. As soon as you absolutely know that you don’t know anything and there is absolutely nothing to know, that state is called enlightenment because all there is is being.

Enlightenment is nothing more than the complete absence of resistance to what is.

Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being more or less happy. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the façade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true – from ourselves to the world.

Enlightenment is dying into the ordinary, or into an extraordinary ordinariness. We start to realize the ordinary is extraordinary.

The great definition of enlightenment is simply the natural state of being.

Our true essence is perfectly sublime and divine. It is the highest thing in this universe. It is the most sacred entity. The true nature that we all share is more sacred than anything else. So if we are able to simply identify with our true nature, our pure consciousness, then all of our suffering is gone. That’s liberation. That’s it. There is nothing more than that. That’s it. Once we identify with our pure consciousness, that’s enlightenment. That’s liberation. That’s moksha. There’s nothing more than that. Then fulfillment is always there without needing anything from outside.

Through embracing and living the truth, we realize inner freedom, which is the only nirvana to be found. Liberation is the cessation of all mistaken beliefs. Mistaken beliefs become obsessions. Obsessions are ego’s shameless effort and struggle to once again sustain its flimsy existence. Nirvana is not some kind of beautiful, celestial garden filled with peaches and mangos, a place where everybody is walking around with beautiful halos. It is not a place where everyone is in a constant state of bliss. It’s not a place where, the moment we arrive, there are a thousand people welcoming us, waving banners and playing trumpets. That’s not really the definition of nirvana or enlightenment. It’s not a place, a destination we are going to travel to. It’s not even a transcendent state of mind that we are going to achieve. It is not a beautiful, ecstatic, trancelike state of mind that we can cherish. That’s not really nirvana. Rather, nirvana is a great cessation of the separation between us and the truth. It is the mere acknowledgment of what has been the case all along. It is like waking up from a nightmare. It’s a great relief to discover that nothing has to be done.

Enlightenment, you see, is just another name for boundless love.

In whichever direction you may turn your gaze you will find One Eternal Indivisible Being manifested. Yet it is not at all easy to detect this Presence, because He interpenetrates everything. As a King is known by his majesty, as fire is known by its heat, so the Unmanifest reveals Himself through the world of manifestation. The analysis of the substance of all created things, if carried sufficiently far, will lead to the discovery that what remains is identical and equally present in all creatures: it is He, it is That, which is styled as Pure Consciousness.

As the confining prison walls of the ego are broken down, you will become more and more persistent and wholehearted in your pursuit of Reality. Then all the manifold pictures you perceive will merge into one single picture and all your divergent moods and sentiments will be engulfed in the one great ocean of Bliss.

Enlightenment is absolute cooperation with the inevitable.

If you ever get to this state, you will at last know what it means to see with a vision that is clear and unclouded by fear or desire. Every word there is measured. To see at last with a vision that is clear and unclouded by fear or desire. You will know what it means to love. But to come to the land of love, you must pass through the pains of death, for to love persons means to die to the need for persons, and to be utterly alone.

Liberation is when the mind does not long for anything, grieve about anything, reject anything, or hold on to anything, and is not pleased about anything or displeased about anything.

The essential nature of bondage is nothing other than desire, and its elimination is known as liberation. It is simply by not being attached to changing things that the everlasting joy of attainment is reached.

The liberated man is self-possessed in all circumstances and free from the idea of “done” and “still to do.” He is the same wherever he is and without greed. He does not dwell on what he has done or not done. He is not pleased when praised nor upset when blamed. He is not afraid of death nor attached to life. A man at peace does not run off to popular places or to the forest. Whatever and wherever, he remains the same.

If you wish to be free, shun the poison of the senses. Seek the nectar of truth, of love and forgiveness, simplicity and happiness. Earth, fire, and water, the wind and the sky – you are none of these. If you wish to be free, know you are the Self, the witness of all these, the heart of awareness.

Both Christ and Buddha saw the passage as one of suffering, and basically found identical ways out. What they discovered and revealed to us was that each of us has within himself or herself a “stillpoint” – comparable, perhaps to the eye of a cyclone, a spot or center of calm, imperturbability, and non-movement. Buddha articulated this central eye in negative terms as “emptiness” or “void,” a refuge from the swirling cyclone of endless suffering. Christ articulated the eye in more positive terms as the “Kingdom of God” or the “Spirit within,” a place of refuge and salvation from a suffering self. For both of them, the easy out was first to find that stillpoint and then, by attaching ourselves to it, by becoming one with it, to find a stabilizing, balanced anchor in our lives. After that, the cyclone is gradually drawn into the eye, and the suffering self comes to an end. And when there is no longer a cyclone, there is also no longer an eye.

Once we come to the state of oneness, we can go no further with the inward journey. The divine center is the innermost “point,” beyond which we cannot go at this time. Having reached this point, the movement of our journey turns around and begins to move outward – the center is expanding outward. To see how this works, imagine self, or consciousness, as a circular piece of paper. The initial center is the ego, the particular energy we call “will” or volitional faculty, which can either be turned outward, toward itself, or inward, toward the divine ground, which underlies the center of the paper. When, from our side of consciousness, we can do no more to reach this ground, the divine takes the initiative and breaks through the center, shattering the ego like an arrow shot through the center of being. The result is a dark hole in ourselves and the feeling of terrible void and emptiness. This breakthrough demands a restructuring or change of consciousness, and this change is the true nature of the transforming process. Although this transformation culminates in true human maturity, it is not man’s final state. The whole purpose of oneness is to move us on to a more final state. To understand what happens next, we have to keep cutting larger holes in the paper, expanding the center until only the barest rim or circumference remains. One more expansion of the divine center, and the boundaries of consciousness or self fall away. From this illustration we can see how the ultimate fulfillment of consciousness, or self, is no-consciousness, or no-self. The path from oneness to no-oneness is an egoless one and is therefore devoid of ego-satisfaction. Despite the unchanging center of peace and joy, the events of life may not be peaceful or joyful at all. With no ego-gratification at the center and no divine joy on the surface, this part of the journey is not easy. Heroic acts of selflessness are required to come to the end of self, acts comparable to cutting ever-larger holes in the paper – acts, that is, that bring no return to the self whatsoever.

By the time the journey is over, the only possible way of living is in the now-moment, wherein the mind moves neither backward nor forward but remains fixed and fully concentrated in the present. Because of this, the mind is so open and clear that no preconceived notions can get a foothold; no idea can be carried over from one moment to another; much less, could any notion demand conformity from others. There are no more head-trips – no clinging to a frame of reference, even if it is only the reference of tomorrow’s expectations. In a word, what is to be done or thought is always underfoot, with no need to step aside in order to find out what is to be thought, believed, or enacted.

There is nothing within to go out, nor is there anything without to reach for. There is no longer even a union of love because when there is no self, there is nothing left to be united. Here it is discovered that God is a unity whose acts cannot be divided or separated from his existence. Thus from here on, to act without a doer is to do so unconsciously, because it is your very nature to act and you cannot do otherwise. Where self had been the will or energy formerly experienced – the doer, in other words – here there is no self to get into the act. But without self or a doer, act or doing goes right on because it is identical with existence. Another way of understanding doing is that it takes the place of the will. Since the will is self, and the seat of all experiential energies, and since it is now gone, how is it possible to live without a will? The answer is that “doing” takes its place; thus “doing” goes on even without a will.

Spiritual awakening … is the waking up of consciousness to the remembrance of its original nature. It is a movement of the psyche where the individual sense of self-identification has fallen away, and awareness stands with nothing to identify itself, and yet it knows itself as being aware. Perception is shifted. Division is dissolved. It is like moving from being a noun to a verb. Instead of being some one, we know we are aware-ing, sensing, thinking, feeling or being whatever movement is happening in this one moment.

Spiritual awakening, from a non-dual perspective, is clearly remembering who you are: one with all existence. Therefore, the universal consciousness within you awakens itself. Some spiritual teachers say it is the remembrance or realization of our true nature, by our true nature. Awareness and consciousness are suddenly clear and expansive, undisturbed, and undivided by thought. When awakening becomes stabilized, we may experience liberation – enlightenment. All of us have this potential because our true nature already exists within each of us. We become liberated from our old identifications, compulsions, demands, and suffering.

Enlightenment is the ability to live, day in and day out, in a state of union, free from conditioned separateness and division. It requires continual alignment with the truth we have seen while awakening. It is more enduring – and therefore more challenging – than having initial moments of awakening. Enlightenment requires plunging into the unknown mystery of transformation. Not many who have an initial awakening realization will continue the journey beyond to liberation, as most of us are content with the initial gift or become distracted with the demands and desires of life.

Realization frees us from constraining belief systems and emotional patterns, but true liberation is demonstrated in how we live the realization, something commonly referred to as embodiment. … Here, embodiment is the lived expression of our true nature. When we are awakened, the entire world is one divine dance, arising from nothing, ever fresh and new, and it seems as if our old life was a dream. It can be like arriving suddenly on another planet and, knowing nothing of the territory, we need a lengthy period of orientation. … We slowly unfold into a liberated life. … As realization becomes embodied, we participate in the world as part of a natural flow of things with a sense of calling. A few may stay in caves or monasteries, but the modern pull is to return and be of service. This is not an injunction or a mental attitude, it is an urge of the heart. … Both activity and passivity, giving and receiving, participating and meditating, are part of how we move as a whole. So these are the two final steps to liberation: orientation and return.

Until the mind is released from bondage, its tendency is to be self-serving, even capable of ignoring the suffering of others. This makes separation, competition, and anxiety flourish. Awakening washes away these divisions and liberation opens our heart in ways that move us to act so that we are contributing to the whole. This brings compassion, service, and creativity as positive forces for change in the world.

“Enlightenment” describes a natural consciousness and presence that is fully awakened to its own true nature. This liberation … feels like freedom, peace, and at times an irrepressible love without conditions. We deeply relax into life, and a way of being unfolds that does not feel at all personal. Rather than abandoning individual humanity, enlightenment is a lightening of it and includes compassion for the ways we become stuck in separateness.

It is like being a breeze. I love this metaphor because it reflects the freedom of moving through life without a fixed position, with fluidity, and with full acceptance of everything we touch. It is like love, caressing all existence without stopping to analyze it. It is not separation, nor is it identification. It is the movement of presence with what is.

Enlightenment is returning home to where we have always lived, but never recognized until we moved into, and through, the journey of awakening. The spirit that leapt forward offered itself from the depths to be discovered, known, and lived.

Many spiritual teachers describe liberation as being like turning off the film projector of life’s movie. When we release all the varied projections of our mind, consciousness remembers itself.

Enlightenment is what remains when the conceptual mind lets go and the natural Self remembers its true source.

Liberation is a time of returning to the world with awareness of who we truly are, without resistance to life, form, or engagement.

Enlightenment is knowing connectedness with the whole of life from a deep interior place, and living from that knowing.

Enlightenment is just a spiritual concept, just one more thing to seek in a future that never comes. Even the highest trust is just one more concept. … Who cares about enlightenment when you’re happy right now? Just enlighten yourself to this moment. Can you just do that? And then eventually, it all collapses. The mind merges with the heart and comes to see that it’s not separate. It finds a home, and it rests in itself, as itself.

All so-called truths eventually fall away. Every truth is a distortion of what is. If we investigate, we lose even the last truth. And that state, beyond all truths, is true intimacy. That is God-realization. And welcome to the reentry. It’s always a beginning.

Eventually, realization is experienced automatically, as a way of life. Peace and joy naturally, inevitably, and irreversibly make their way into every corner of your mind, every relationship and experience. The process is so subtle that you may not even have any conscious awareness of it. You may only know that you used to hurt and now you don’t.

I realized that reality is always good, whatever form it appears in. Every experience is supplied by a friendly universe. Every experience is a gift. … People with questioned minds see the apparently bad as good, because they no longer live in the world of opposites, the world in which there is any thought powerful enough to override the true nature of things. They have realized this goodness so deeply that they can live it every moment of their lives.

To know reality as goodness without limit is to know the true nature of yourself as well.

When you wake up to reality, life becomes effortless, because there’s no fear left in you. Your mind can’t project a future. You don’t have to know what to do; you just do it. You realize that you’re not the doer, that the creative mind, the wisdom of the universe, is what’s running the show.

I use the term “individuation” to denote the process by which a person becomes a psychological “individual,” that is, a separate, indivisible unity or “whole.”

Individuation means becoming a single, homogeneous being, and, in so far as “individuality” embraces our innermost, last, and incomparable uniqueness, it also implies becoming one’s own self. We could therefore translate individuation as “coming to selfhood” or “self-realization.”

Again and again I note that the individuation process is confused with the coming of the ego into consciousness and that the ego is in consequence identified with the self, which naturally produces a hopeless conceptual muddle. Individuation is then nothing but ego-centeredness and autoeroticism. But the self comprises infinitely more than a mere ego. … It is as much one’s self, and all other selves, as the ego. Individuation does not shut one out from the world, but gathers the world to oneself.

Individuation is the transformational process of integrating the conscious with the personal and collective unconscious.

Individuation is to divest the self of false wrappings.

Individuation does not isolate, it connects.

Individuation is only possible with people, through people. You must realize that you are a link in a chain, that you are not an electron suspended somewhere in space or aimlessly drifting through the cosmos.

We have to realize the inborn divine will, which is the process of individuation.

The goal of the individuation process is the synthesis of the self.

People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.

Enlightenment, or Nirvana, is nothing other than the state beyond all obstacles, in the same way that from the peak of a very high mountain one always sees the sun. Nirvana is not a paradise or some special place of happiness, but is in fact the condition beyond all dualistic concepts, including those of happiness and suffering. When all our obstacles have been overcome, and we find ourselves in a state of total presence, the wisdom of enlightenment manifests spontaneously without limits, just like the infinite rays of the sun. The clouds have dissolved, and the sun is finally free to shine once again.

The attainment of enlightenment from the ego’s point of view is extreme death, the death of self, the death of me and mine, the death of the watcher. It is the ego’s ultimate and final disappointment.

The wise man … instead of trying to prove this or that point by logical disputation, sees all things in the light of direct intuition. He is not imprisoned by the limitations of the “I,” for the viewpoint of direct intuition is that of both “I” and “Not-I.” Hence he sees that on both sides of every argument there is both right and wrong. He also sees that in the end they are reducible to the same thing, once they are related to the pivot of Tao. When the wise man grasps this pivot, he is in the center of the circle, and there he stands while “Yes” and “No” pursue each other around the circumference. The pivot of the Tao passes through the center where all affirmations and denials converge. He who grasps the pivot is at the still-point from which all moments and oppositions can be seen in their right relationship. Hence he sees the limitless possibilities of both “Yes” and “No.” Abandoning all thought of imposing a limit or taking sides, he rests in direct intuition. Therefore I said: “Better to abandon disputation and seek the true light!”

That which acts on all and meddles in none – is heaven. The Kingly Man realizes this, hides it in his heart, grows boundless, wide-minded, draws all to himself. And so he lets the gold lie hidden in the mountain, leaves the pearl lying in the deep. Goods and possessions are no gain in his eyes, he stays far from wealth and honor. Long life is no ground for joy, nor early death for sorrow. Success is not for him to be proud of, failure is no shame. Had he all the world’s power he would not hold it as his own, if he conquered everything he would not take it to himself. His glory is in knowing that all things come together in One and life and death are equal.

The man in whom Tao acts without impediment harms no other being by his actions, yet he does not know himself to be “kind,” to be “gentle.” The man in whom Tao acts without impediment does not bother with his own interests and does not despise others who do. He does not struggle to make money and does not make a virtue of poverty. He goes his way without relying on others and does not pride himself on walking alone. While he does not follow the crowd, he won’t complain of those who do. Rank and reward make no appeal to him; disgrace and shame do not deter him. He is not always looking for right and wrong, always deciding “Yes” or “No.” The ancients said, therefore: “The man of Tao remains unknown. Perfect virtue produces nothing. ‘No-Self is ‘True-Self.’ And the greatest man is Nobody.”

Enlightenment is not the outcome of an intellectual process in which one idea follows another in sequence finally to terminate in conclusion or judgment. There is neither process nor judgment in Enlightenment, it is … more fundamental, something which makes a judgment possible, and without which no form of judgment can take place. In judgment there are a subject and a predicate; in Enlightenment … they are … merged as one, but not as one of which something can be stated, but as one from which arises judgment … all intellectual operations stop here. This is the wall against which all philosophies have beaten in vain. This is an intellectual terra incognita, in which prevails the principle, “Credo quia absurdum est” [I believe because it is absurd]. This region of darkness, however, gives up its secrets when attacked by the will, by the force of one’s entire personality. Enlightenment is the illuminating of this dark region, when the whole thing is seen at one glance, and all intellectual inquiries find here their rationale. The Buddha must have experienced something that went far deeper into his inmost consciousness than the mere intellectual grasping of empirical truths. … He must have come in touch with that which makes our intellectual operations possible, in fact that which conditions the very existence of our conscious life.

Awareness itself is beyond even consciousness. Therefore, it may be said that the Absolute is unknowable exactly because it is beyond knowing, i.e. beyond the reach of consciousness itself. Those who have attained such a state of awareness report that it cannot be described and can have no meaning for anyone without the experience of that context. Nonetheless, this is the true state of Reality, universally and eternally; we merely fail to recognize it. Such a recognition is the essence of enlightenment and the final resolution of the evolution of consciousness to the point of self-transcendence.

This is the level of the Great Ones of history who originated the spiritual patterns which multitudes have followed through the ages. All are associated with divinity, with which they are often identified. It is the level of powerful inspiration; these beings set in place attractor energy fields which influence all of mankind. At this level there is no longer the experience of an individual personal self separate from others; rather, there is an identification of Self with Consciousness and Divinity. The Unmanifest is experienced as Self beyond mind. This transcendence of the ego also serves by example to teach others how this can eventually be accomplished. This is the peak of the evolution of consciousness in the human realm.

The methods for explaining enlightenment are inexhaustible, so that a teacher’s efforts are never finished, as he may at any time encounter a new disciple in need of a wholly different way of having truth explained.

Reality is one, but as soon as you try to explain a particular thing, any utterance appears at first to be limitlessly misguided. However, from within the midst of such a series of errors and fragmentations, a genuine understanding of the wholeness of true reality can instantaneously emerge, even though an expression of this level of insight still needs to be continually clarified and modified depending on particular pedagogical circumstances.

The experience of enlightenment does not represent a final destination but is a continuing process of interior refinement demonstrated through exterior actions. All elements of practice are thereby fully amalgamated with the essentials of theoretical reflection by virtue of an all-encompassing standpoint that is renewed every moment. Enlightenment is based on realizing the authentic meaning of Buddha nature as neither an innate potentiality rooted in the past nor a set goal to be reached in the future. Rather, Buddha nature represents an all-inclusive form of comprehension that is experienced in terms of the dynamism and immediacy of unified practice-realization actualized each and every moment of being-time.

In the mystery schools around the world, this is called the awakening. It is as if you awake one day, and you no longer have emotional wounds. When you no longer have those wounds in the emotional body, the boundaries disappear, and you start to see everything as it is, not according to your belief system. … When you awake, you become a skeptic because it’s clear in your eyes that the Dream is not true. You open your eyes, you are awake, and everything becomes obvious. When you awake, you cross a line of no return, and you never see the world in the same way. You are still dreaming – because you cannot avoid dreaming, because dreaming is the function of the mind – but the difference is that you know it’s a dream.

The awakening is like being at a party where there are thousands of people and everyone is drunk except you. You are the only sober person in the party. That is the awakening, because the truth is that most humans see the world through their emotional wounds, through their emotional poison. They don’t have the awareness that they are living in a dream of hell. They aren’t aware that they are living in a dream just as fish swimming in water are not aware that they are living in water. When we awake and we are the only sober person in the party where everyone is drunk, we can have compassion because we were drunk too. We don’t need to judge, not even people in hell, because we, too, were in hell. When you awake, your heart is an expression of the Spirit, an expression of Love, an expression of Life. That awakening is when you have the awareness that you are Life. … When you awake from the Dream, you become Brahma again, and reclaim your divinity. Then if Brahma inside you says, “Okay, I am awake; what about the rest of me?” you know the trick of Maya, and you can share the truth with others who are going to wake up too. Two people who are sober in the party can have more fun. Three people who are sober is even better. Begin with you. Then others will start to change, until the whole dream, the whole party, is sober.

You may believe that you are seeking awakening, enlightenment, Self-realization, or God realization. Perhaps you are seeking freedom, peace, love, happiness, truth, or an end to suffering. You may imagine that you know who is searching, who will be the “finder,” who will achieve the end goal, and who will be the primary beneficiary. But do you truly know what you are seeking, what is motivating the search, or who it is who is seeking and wants the search to end? Learning your true identity is what awakening is about. The identity we have with name and form is not our true Self; it is a costume, a mask we are wearing. What is looking out from behind your mask?

The understanding called “enlightenment” is never achieved by an ego, by a mind that takes itself to have a separate identity. Enlightenment, in fact, is only a concept born of ignorance. When the realization dawns that that which one is seeking is that which one is, the question of enlightenment for a “me” disappears. There is simply no “one” to become enlightened!

Being awake means being present for this moment, for this experience, for this feeling, for this interaction, for this birdsong, for this sip of tea. Enlightenment is here/now.

Enlightenment, in its deepest expression, erases separation, holds on to nothing, and moves from unknowing as far as the mind is concerned. An enlightened moment is a moment when concepts have ceased.

The word enlightenment conjures up the idea of some superhuman accomplishment, and the ego likes to keep it that way, but it is simply your natural state of felt oneness with Being. It is a state of connectedness with something immeasurable and indestructible, something that, almost paradoxically, is essentially you and yet is much greater than you. It is finding your true nature beyond name and form. I love the Buddha’s simple definition of enlightenment as “the end of suffering.” There is nothing superhuman in that, is there? Of course, as a definition, it is incomplete. It only tells you what enlightenment is not: no suffering. But what’s left when there is no more suffering? The Buddha is silent on that, and his silence implies that you’ll have to find out for yourself.

To regain awareness of Being and to abide in that state of “feeling-realization” is enlightenment.

Enlightenment is a state of wholeness, of being “at one” and therefore at peace. At one with life in its manifested aspect, the world, as well as with your deepest self and life unmanifested – at one with Being. Enlightenment is not only the end of suffering and of continuous conflict within and without, but also the end of the dreadful enslavement to incessant thinking. What an incredible liberation this is!

To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.

You become a bridge between the Unmanifested and the manifested, between God and the world. This is the state of connectedness with the Source that we call enlightenment.

God-realization is the most natural thing there is.

The term Advaita is a Sanskrit word that literally means “not two.” This refers to the highest teaching of Advaita Vedanta: that there is only one reality. Advaita, often translated as non-duality, is not a philosophy or a religion. It is the experience of our true nature, which reveals itself as absolute happiness, love and beauty.

The symptoms of enlightenment are not necessarily apparent to the mind right away. To begin with, the mind may not be aware of enlightenment because there may not be, as yet, any traces of destruction in it. The mind becomes aware of it at a later stage when the signs of destruction are visible everywhere. At some point, the mind notices that it has become like a child again, happy and free. However, these kinds of signs come later. In the beginning enlightenment is a non-event for the mind. There are instances in which there is a big explosion at some point, a point of no return, but it is not necessarily the case.

There are innumerable ways in which consciousness can reveal itself to itself and we should not be prescriptive about it. Above all, we should not expect a particular type of experience.

There is nobody who becomes self-realized. The notion of someone becoming self-realized is a contradiction of terms.

Enlightenment and self-realization are different. Enlightenment is the actual understanding that consciousness is not personal. It is the experience of the timelessness, impersonality, and limitlessness of consciousness. The seed of enlightenment is the feeling of being attracted by the truth, being interested in the truth. This seed is planted by grace. Self-realization is the establishment of this understanding at all levels of our experience, our thinking, feeling, and perceiving. It implies that at some point we find that we have no problems, we enjoy life to its fullest. It is possible that others will use these words in different ways and that is fine. In fact it is good. It teaches us not to ascribe any absolute value to anything apart from the Absolute. We shouldn’t worry about the meaning of words. It is what they signify that is important.

Listen, oh virtuous one: I will show you the truth of your being. You are, and always have been Vajrasatta, the Infinite Consciousness, Living Presence and creative Power of the Divine, the vast spaciousness of Being, always good, the Way of Liberation for all beings, beyond appearance and disappearance, and beyond the grasp of the intellect.

Love being our essence, attainment is already complete, and there is no need to strive at practicing Great Compassion. Love being the supreme good, there is no need either to extol the many splendid qualities of Compassion. Phenomena are not other than the True Condition. Without input on our part, they appear and disappear. Naturally arising Wisdom need not be actively sought. Self-liberating by nature, it reveals the Way. Earth, Air, Fire and Water are the indwelling Divine. Despite our mistaken notions, Liberation dawns from within our own being and is not dependent on others.

How amazing! The enlightened realm is never found by seeking and can never be perceived by the six senses. Those who seek it in this way are like blind ones grasping for the sky. A graduated spiritual path of purification is at odds with the effortlessness of the true condition. Realization does not come by following such a path. That is like searching for the end of space.  The true condition being what it is, revealed as it is, cannot be seen as a path to travel. The state of effortless enlightenment is the source of all. Its manifestations are all marvelous wonders. Past and present abide within the true condition. The eternal now of consciousness is the path for all. This is suchness, the light of Wisdom, the realization of enlightened beings both past and yet to come.

Blessed are the yogis who abide continuously in the True Condition, not discriminating between self and other. They enjoy the magical illusion, while abiding in the Great Perfection.

There exists a place without substance. It exists beyond the Great Beyond. I call it the end of suffering.

I have traveled through many incarnations looking for the builder of this house. Now he has been found, so this house will not be built again. Its walls have crumbled, its beams have fallen. No desire for it remains. I have reached the final destination.

When the fires of selfishness have been extinguished, when the mind is free of selfish desire, what remains is the state of wakefulness, of peace, of joy, of perfect health, called nirvana.

The hero who has freed himself of all that has bound him has achieved peace. This one is enlightened.

When one has freed himself from craving and attachments, he rejoices in his freedom. This one becomes a pure shining light that becomes the light of the world.

The way to life is to be awakened. Fools who sleep are already dead, but the master who remains awake lives forever.

When I attained Absolute Perfect Enlightenment, I attained nothing.

The supreme state is altogether a void, all people say; in the supreme state there is no rejoicing or mourning; in the supreme state there are felt no hopes or desires; in the supreme state are seen no castes or caste-marks; in the supreme state are no sermons or singing of hymns; in the supreme state abideth heavenly meditation; in the supreme state are those who know themselves. Nanak, my mind is satisfied with the supreme state.

Enlightenment is not something that happens in time, or at a particular time. It is the understanding that time is not real. It is an understanding that transcends time completely. Enlightenment and bondage are both concepts that exist only as long as time exists. When time goes, these concepts also go.

If an experience comes and goes, it is not an experience of the Self because the Self never comes and goes. If an experience comes and goes, it must be an experience of the mind.

An enlightened man does not follow any code of conduct. There are no rules and regulations that he has to follow or observe. His behaviour is determined by the circumstances that he finds himself in. He reacts like a mirror to the events and the people that are around him. After enlightenment, there is no person left who decides that he will or will not abide by any set of rules and regulations. His actions are spontaneous responses to whatever is going on around him. He cannot choose to obey or disobey rules, because that person who does the choosing has ceased to exist. The enlightened man acts without thinking. There are no reasons for anything he does. His actions are all a response to things that are happening around him. You can also say that he is like an electric light in a room. The activities in that room all take place in that light, but the light itself plays no role. The enlightened man is a light that simply shines. He does not do anything else. He witnesses all the things that are illumined by the light, but he takes no part in them.

There are no levels of enlightenment. The experience of enlightenment is the same for everyone.

When there is no desire, this is called freedom, liberation, emancipation. This is the end of the cycle of birth and death.

True enlightenment is nothing but the nature of one’s own self being fully realized.

Achieving nirvana means that an individual gets to the stage where his mind is free of all delusion, and that stage is called liberation.

In order to achieve liberation, first of all, one must develop a strong wish to achieve it. … It is necessary to identify and reflect on suffering. The chief suffering we are referring to is the suffering of conditioning.

It is by preventing the rise of conceptual thought that you will realize Bodhi; and, when you do, you will just be realizing the Buddha who has always existed in your own Mind! Aeons of striving will prove to be so much wasted effort; just as, when the warrior found his pearl, he merely discovered what had been hanging on his forehead all the time; and just as his finding of it had nothing to do with his efforts to discover it elsewhere.

Bodhi is no state. The Buddha did not attain to it. Sentient beings do not lack it. It cannot be reached with the body nor sought with the mind. All sentient beings are already of one form with Bodhi.

Bodhi is not something to be attained. If, at this very moment, you could convince yourselves of its unattainability, being certain indeed that nothing at all can ever be attained, you would already be Bodhi-minded. Since Bodhi is not a state, it is nothing for you to attain. … If you know positively that all sentient being are already one with Bodhi, you will cease thinking of Bodhi as something to be attained.

If you would only rid yourselves of the concepts of ordinary and Enlightened, you would find that there is no other Buddha than the Buddha in your own Mind. … You people go on misunderstanding; you hold to concepts such as “ordinary” and “Enlightened,” directing your thoughts outwards where they gallop about like horses! All this amounts to beclouding your own minds!

Beginningless time and the present moment are the same. There is no this and no that. To understand this truth is called complete and unexcelled Enlightenment.

The becoming and destruction of the sentient world are both one with eternity. In another sense, there is no becoming or cessation. To perceive all this is to be truly Enlightened. Thus Nirvana and Enlightenment are one.

Nothing is born, nothing is destroyed. Away with your dualism, your likes and dislikes. Every single thing is just the One Mind. When you have perceived this, you will have mounted the Chariot of the Buddhas.

Your true nature is something never lost to you even in moments of delusion, nor is it gained at the moment of Enlightenment.

“Realization” is the full actualization of human status, and “the realities” are things as they truly are, that is, as they are known by God. To be given realization through the realities means to understand the realities for what they are and to respond to them in the appropriate manner. Realization, in other words, demands both knowledge and works.

At the highest levels of self-realization, knowledge of self yields the recognition that there is nothing in existence but the self, because nothing can be found in the entire universe but God’s self-disclosure. At its most comprehensive and unified, that divine self-disclosure is simply the form in which human beings were created. One who realizes this station recognizes his absolute subservience to the Real and acts as God’s servant in all that he does. Achieving this station can only come through “gnosis,” that is, through self-recognition. … Do not hope to recognize yourself through other than yourself, for there is no other.

Realization is to recognize the reality, truth, rightness, and properness of things, and, on the basis of this recognition, to give them their haqq, that is, what is appropriate for them and rightfully due to them.

At each moment, every sign of God – every creature in its momentary reality – is unique, because it manifests God’s own uniqueness. Nothing is ever the same as anything else, and no moment of anything can ever be repeated. Every creature at every moment has a unique haqq, and the goal of realization is to perceive and act upon all these instantaneous, never-repeating haqqs in every time and in every place, just as God perceives and acts upon these haqqs in the Day of the Essence.

When it comes to the fullness of self-realization, there are different points of view depending on the particular perspective. Trika Saivism thus sees the absorption into the body of the Goddess as that which brings about completion; in other words, that which restores the sense of an original fullness. This inexplicably subtle, all-encompassing process is referred to in the respective tradition as Samavesa. Complex in its variety of meanings, depending on its use, Samavesa could mean, abiding together, co-existence, penetration, losing one’s identity in merging, possession by the divine, and is often interpreted as the immersion into divine consciousness.

Abhinavagupta, in his magnum opus Tantraloka, defines Samavesa as that triple pentetration of the supreme principle into the essence of reality, which follows the triadic categories of Trika Saivism. This triad is made of supreme awareness (Siva), power of self-reflection (Sakti) and individual consciousness (Anava or Nara). These three categories denote the three kinds of penetration of the supreme principle and its power into the adept’s consciousness.

It could be spoken of as an awakening to the essence of our individual self which often, when powerful enough, overthrows all notions of whom we’ve considered ourselves to be, prior to that what could also be referred to as “soul-awakening.”

The immersion into Pure Awareness is the ultimate goal, which cannot be achieved by any particular effort or discipline; it is a sudden and spontaneous flash of direct insight into our essential Self. This is the most direct, immediate realization and the highest understanding.

Even though the somatic side of this process has distinctive stages, when it comes to immersion into the divine Consciousness, it is all down to Grace.

It would serve us to redefine Samavesa by giving the term more of a cutting-edge interpretation as an act of repossession, which in relation to the psychological side of the process could be viewed as being taken over by the power that is foundational to that which we consider ourselves to be in a state of forgetfulness. It is a mysterious process spoken of in Tantras as re-possession by the Deity.

I am you and you are me, and you are you and I am me.

What we call “enlightenment” is simply realizing you are not the person, not the image society has impressed on you. Enlightenment is seeing that there is only unqualified nothingness. In this nothingness, you are free, you feel free, you act freely, you think freely. But as long as you live with an image of yourself, there is only fear.

Enlightenment is truth-realization. Not only is truth simple, it’s that which cannot be simpler; cannot be further reduced.

Suffering just means you’re having a bad dream. Happiness means you’re having a good dream. Enlightenment means getting out of the dream altogether.

When the subject is enlightenment, you’re pretty much confined to saying what it’s not because there’s no saying what it is.

I can’t tell you what it is; no one can. It’s not a thing, it’s not a concept, it’s not a place … I use terms like abiding non-dual awareness and no-self and truth-realization not because they capture it, but because they seem the least misleading.

Whereas enlightenment is exactly the same for anyone, anytime, anyplace, the journey to it is as unique and varied as there are people to make it.

Enlightenment is absolute. It doesn’t come in varieties or degrees. It’s not open to interpretation. But the most important thing is that it’s self-verifiable and completely available to reason. Anyone who wants to understand can understand. It doesn’t require interpreters or intermediaries. It’s just sitting there, right out in the open, for anyone who cares to look.

No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so much the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God.

Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Take no thought, saying “What shall we eat?” or, “What shall we drink?” or “Wherewithal shall we be clothed?” (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. … Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be waiting and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

Verily, I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. … And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. … I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonor me. And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. … Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.

The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, “Lo here!” or, “lo there!” for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

The nondual consciousness that is the vision of the Kingdom of Heaven is the highest stage in the growth of human consciousness from infancy to full spiritual maturity. By the process of inner growth in spiritual awareness, a path of constant inner realization, we gradually come to see our own union with God in Christ so that, at the final stage of nondual awareness, God alone and his Kingdom remain. We see, when we realize the vision of the Kingdom of Heaven, that we, like Jesus, are not mere human beings after all, but are now, and have always been, nothing less than immortal, unlimited, divine Spirit.

At long last we consider the Kingdom of Heaven, the ultimate goal of the Christian spiritual path, and of all the great spiritual paths. … This is the end of the human spiritual path, that is, the end point of the evolution of human consciousness on Earth. Were all humans to realize the nondual consciousness of the Kingdom, this beautiful blue-green globe would indeed be Heaven on Earth.

Enlightenment, it has been said, isn’t waking up to a new truth, it’s stepping out of the box altogether. Zen calls it the “gateless gate,” because once you’re through and on the side of understanding, you see that there was no gate there to begin with. Enlightenment was with you all along – you just weren’t aware of it. Like a fish living in a bowl, we don’t see the water in which we swim. Once Awakened, we see the water, the bowl, and our own fishness as a single expression of perfection.

Enlightenment is realization of your true self-nature. It’s Awakening into pure receptive consciousness, and Awakening from the dream of your ego as a permanent self; the permanent realization of nondual consciousness. Expressing this realizing, this freedom, is beyond description.

Enlightenment does not mean that your ego is suppressed or denied. It does mean it is deconstructed, seen through, exposed, and then reeducated and reconstructed, including the realization and precisely articulated understanding of these deeper truths.

Enlightenment is waking up outside of the sense of a separate self-sense. It’s not an island where we can take refuge from the storm of life, nor is it a better and more spiritual version of our current self. There is nothing to attain and nothing to see. Awakening awakens, and it watches the storm of life arise, and fall away.

In my experience there are three great realizations making up Enlightenment. One is the realization of bud, or pure conscious awareness, awareness deeper than opinion. Two is shunyata, or the emptiness that is the groundless ground below. And three is the nondual integration, where there is nothing except the endless manifestation of form, one great living body. After these three realizations, ordinary mind is extraordinary. Ego arises out of this emptiness, gives it form and function. And in so doing, ego is transformed, radically. But emptiness is just empty. Form is just form. Pure awareness is just pure awareness.

Self-realized sages behold with an equal eye a learned and humble brahmin, a cow, an elephant, a dog, and an outcaste. The relativities of existence (birth and death, pleasure and pain) have been overcome, even here in this world, by those of fixed equal-mindedness. Thereby are they enthroned in Spirit – verily, the taintless, the perfectly balanced Spirit. The knower of Spirit, abiding in the Supreme Being, with unswerving discrimination, free from delusion, is thus neither jubilant at pleasant experiences nor downcast by unpleasant experiences. Unattracted to the sensory world, the yogi experiences the ever new joy inherent in the Self. Engaged in divine union of the soul with Spirit, he attains bliss indestructible.

He who has overcome attachment both to sense objects and to actions, and who is free from all ego-instigated plannings – that man is said to have attained firm union of soul with Spirit. … The tranquil sage, victorious over the self (ego), is ever fully established in the Supreme Self (Spirit), whether he encounter cold or heat, pleasure or pain, praise or blame. That yogi who is gladly absorbed in truth and Self-realization is said to be indissolubly united to Spirit. Unchangeable, conqueror of his senses, he looks with an equal eye on earth, stone, and gold. He is a supreme yogi who regards with equal-mindedness all men – patrons, friends, enemies, strangers, mediators, hateful beings, relatives, the virtuous and the ungodly.

He is a yogi, discriminative among men, who beholds inactivity in action and action in inaction. He has attained the goal of all actions (and is free). The sages call that man wise whose pursuits are all without selfish plan or longings for results, and whose activities are purified (cauterized of karmic outgrowths) by the fire of wisdom. Relinquishing attachment to the fruits of work, always contented, independent (of material rewards), the wise do not perform any (binding) action even in the midst of activities. He incurs no evil performing mere bodily actions who has renounced all sense of possession, who is free from (delusive human) hopes, and whose heart (the power of feeling) is controlled by the soul. That man of action is free from karma who receives with contentment whate’er befalls him, who is poised above the dualities, who is devoid of jealousy or envy or enmity, and who looks equally on gain and loss.

To know the Tao is to be enlightened. To be one with Tao is bliss. Then you may die, but you will not perish.

The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name. The unnamable is the eternally real. Naming is the origin of all particular things. Free from desire, you realize the mystery. Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. Yet mystery and manifestations arise from the same source. This source is called darkness. Darkness within darkness. The gateway to all understanding.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich. If you stay in the center and embrace death with your whole heart, you will endure forever.

Become totally empty. Quiet the restlessness of the mind. Only then will you witness everything unfolding from emptiness. See all things flourish and dance in endless variation, and once again merge back into perfect emptiness – their true repose, their true nature, emerging, flourishing, dissolving back again. This is the eternal process of return. To know this process brings enlightenment. To miss this process brings disaster.

When the universe becomes your self, when you love the world as yourself, all reality becomes your haven, reinventing you as your own heaven. Only then will you transcend tense to fully be here now. Only then, no harm will the universe proffer nor you to her, for you will be not you but she and both – the universal Great Integrity.

When you realize where you come from, you naturally become tolerant, disinterested, amused, kindhearted as a grandmother, dignified as a king. Immersed in the wonder of the Tao, you can deal with whatever life brings you, and when death comes, you are ready.

The enlightened never hoard anything. They share their possessions. The more they give, the greater their abundance.

The world’s pulse is our pulse. The world’s rhythms are our rhythms. To treat our planet with care, moderation and love is to be in synchrony with ourselves and to live in the Great Integrity.

Sufism is defined as “Truth without form,” and in the words of the Sufi martyr al-Hallaj, “When Truth has taken hold of a heart, she empties it of all but Herself.” This is the process of annihilation, fana that leads to baqa, abiding in God. You can only abide in God after you have been annihilated, after you are no longer there.

In Sufism, servanthood is understood as an expression of our innate relationship with the Divine, a relationship that is also based upon unity. In a state of servanthood, it is the Beloved within us in service to Its own revelation. It is an unfolding of oneness. It is an opening of oneness.

There is nothing more beautiful and powerful on this plane than a human being aligned with the Absolute, in service to the Absolute, who wants nothing for herself. A human being aligned with Truth is the most extraordinary energy transmitter. She becomes like an open doorway from the Absolute down to creation. Such a human being becomes the link of love between the worlds.

While on the plane of the Self everything is revealed according to its true nature, on the plane of nothingness everything is absorbed back into its very essence.

On the plane of the Self all is One. Through the consciousness of the Self, what the Sufis call “the eye of the heart,” a human being experiences the oneness of life: all of life as a single dynamic interconnected web in which all levels of existence and nonexistence interpenetrate each other. This consciousness of the Self, or Mind as it is expressed in Dzgochen Buddhism, is a consciousness of Oneness.

It is of no concern whether or not the view to be realized has been realized.

All experience, arising in luminous mind, is insubstantial, apparent yet without true existence, and as such it partakes of the nature of luminous mind. Nothing need be done to attain resolution, therefore, more than a surrender to recognition. It is misleading to identify this resolution as “sudden enlightenment,” or “a decisive experience,” as if it were an abrupt and incisive, life-changing experience. In the same way that a first experience of satori may indeed impinge as a sudden enlightenment experience that changes our outlook forever, resolution in Dzogchen may be an extraordinary experience, a mystical experience with light and sound effects, with dominant bliss, nonthought or clarity. But it is preeminently a nondual, zero experience. In other words it is essentially an experience without signs. It has no point of reference, so resolution cannot be identified by any sign.

Independent of any new causes and conditions, the fundamental nature of the ground is, from the very first, pure, primordial buddhahood. This is actual enlightenment, the great primordial openness and freedom of the ground.

Enlightenment is a process. … I don’t like to say too much about it. Because either you know it or you don’t know it. If you don’t know it, that’s the best state because you can allow yourself to be who you are, without feeling the need to become something. When you know it, that’s also the case. It’s the in between stage that is dangerous. … So the best thing is to just be. Don’t be ignorant, don’t be enlightened. Allow yourself to be who you are, enjoying what is unfolding in your life in each moment.

Enlightenment is the natural state of life. It is the state of pure knowledge, where the knower, known, and process of knowing are unified.

Man’s ultimate aim is the realization of God, and all his activities, social, political, religious, have to be guided by the ultimate aim of the vision of God. The immediate service of all human beings becomes a necessary part of the endeavor, simply because the only way to find God is to see Him in His creation and be one with it. This can only be done by service of all. I am a part and parcel of the whole, and I cannot find Him apart from the rest of humanity.

The seeker after Truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after Truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him. Only then, and not until then, will he have a glimpse of truth.

Perfection is the exclusive attribute of God and it is undescribable, untranslatable. I do believe that it is possible for every human being to become perfect even as God is perfect. It is necessary for all of us to aspire after perfection, but when that blessed state is attained, it becomes indescribable, indefinable.

The goal of human life is to realize the Self. This is the essence of all religions. The paths are different, but the goal is one.

All the powers of the soul compete for the crown but the essence alone can win it. Dionysius says the race is nothing but a turning away from all creatures and a union with the uncreated. And when the soul has got so far, it loses its name and is drawn into God, so that in itself it becomes nothing, just as the sun draws the dawn into itself and annihilates it. To this state nothing brings a man but pure detachment. To this we may add a saying of St. Augustine, “The soul has a secret entrance to the divine nature, when all things become nothing for it.” On earth, this entrance is nothing but pure detachment, and when the detachment reaches its climax, it becomes ignorant with knowing, loveless with loving, and dark with enlightenment. Thus we may understand the words of a master, that the poor in spirit are they who have abandoned all things to God, just as He possessed them when we did not exist. None can do this but a pure, detached heart.

When the impressioned consciousness of individualized life is totally and finally relieved of all impressions of the Illusion, and when this unburdened or impressionless individualized Self consciously “passes-away-in” the original, divine absolute vacuum to gain the fana-fillah or the “I am God” state, the goal is finally attained.

In the state of final understanding, a person realizes that the Infinite, which is one without a second, is the only Reality. The Infinite pervades and includes all existence, leaving nothing as its rival. A person who has such realization has attained the highest state of consciousness.

In this state the mind itself with all its good and bad sanskaras [impressions] has disappeared. It is a state beyond mind, and therefore it is also beyond the distinction of good and bad. From the point of view of this state there is only one indivisible existence – characterized by infinite love, peace, bliss, and knowledge. The perpetual strife between good and evil has disappeared because there is neither good nor evil, only the one inclusive and undivided life of God.

To arrive at true Self-knowledge is to arrive at God-realization. God-realization is a unique state of consciousness. It is different from all the other states of consciousness because all the other states of consciousness are experienced through the medium of the individual mind. Whereas the state of God-consciousness is in no way dependent upon the individual mind or any other medium. A medium is necessary for knowing something other than one’s own Self. For knowing one’s own Self no medium is necessary.

 In God-realization the soul drops its separate consciousness and transcends duality in the abiding knowledge of its identity with the infinite Reality. The shackles of limited individuality are broken; the world of shadows is at an end; the curtain of Illusion is forever drawn. The feverishness and the agonizing distress of the pursuits of limited consciousness are replaced by the tranquility and bliss of Truth-consciousness. The restlessness and fury of temporal existence are swallowed up in the peace and stillness of Eternity.

God-realization is the end of the incarnations of the ego-mind because it is the end of its very existence. As long as the ego-mind exists in some form, there is an inevitable and irresistible urge for incarnations. When there is cessation of the ego-mind, there is cessation of incarnations in the final fulfillment of Self-realization.

God-realization is the very goal of all creation.

Imagine your house of thoughts standing in the middle of an ocean of light from a trillion stars. Imagine your awareness trapped inside the darkness of that house, struggling daily to live off the artificial light of your limited experiences. Now imagine the walls crumbling down, and the effortless release of consciousness expanding into the brilliance of what is and always was. Now give that experience a name – enlightenment.

When the drop of consciousness that knows itself as an individual drifts back far enough, it becomes like the drop that falls into the ocean. The Atman (Soul) falls into the Paramatman (Supreme Soul). The individual consciousness falls into the Universal Oneness. And that’s it.

Realize the Divine in yourself and serve others with that awareness. This is the essence of all true spirituality.

God is in everything. He is in you. You are in Him. The purpose of life is to realize this Oneness – to realize the Self in everything and everything in the Self.

Enlightenment is understanding that there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, and nobody you have to be except exactly who you’re being right now. You are on a journey to nowhere.

Enlightenment is not like getting your tonsils out – once it’s done, it’s done. Enlightenment is a moment-to-moment experience. That is both its challenge and its delight. The Quest is never over, and it is never boring.

Liberation is of the self from its false and self-imposed ideas; it is not contained in some particular experience, however glorious.

What is liberation after all? To know that you are beyond birth and death. By forgetting who you are and imagining yourself a mortal creature, you created so much trouble for yourself that you have to wake up, like from a bad dream.

To live in the known is bondage, to live in the unknown is liberation.

Sadhana is a search for what to give up. Empty yourself completely.

Liberation is a natural process and in the long run, inevitable. But it is within your power to bring it into the now.

The search for reality is the most dangerous of all undertakings for it will destroy the world in which you live. But if your motive is love of truth and life, you need not be afraid.

Liberation is not an acquisition but a matter of courage, the courage to believe that you are free already and to act on it.

With realization you will come to know that this experience of the world that you are having, is all useless. You will come to know that your world is in your mind. To know it, you must be free of all involvement. Otherwise, you cannot accept reality and you prefer to be in your imagination. With realization your ‘I Am’ vanishes and what remains is your true Self.

As long as you see the least difference, you are a stranger to reality. You are on the level of the mind. When the ‘I am myself’ goes, the ‘I am all’ comes. When the ‘I am all’ goes, ‘I am’ comes. When even ‘I am’ goes, reality alone is and in it every ‘I am’ is preserved and glorified. Diversity without separateness is the Ultimate that the mind can touch. Beyond that all activity ceases, because in it all goals are reached and all purposes fulfilled.

Self-realization is the knowing – in body, mind, and soul – that we are one with the omnipresence of God; that we do not have to pray that it come to us, that we are not merely near it at all times, but that God’s omnipresence is our omnipresence; that we are just as much a part of Him now as we ever will be. All we have to do is improve our knowing.

Through each triumphant contact with Spirit, the soul consciousness becomes strengthened and more firmly in control of the bodily kingdom. At last, karma is overcome, the lower nature of desires and attachments is subdued, and ego is slain – the yogi attains kaivalya, liberation: permanent union with God. The liberated yogi may then discard his three bodily encasements and remain a free soul in the ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new bliss of Omnipresent Spirit. Or if he chooses to descend again from his samadhi into the consciousness and activities of his body, he does so in the sublime state of nirvikalpa samadhi. In this highest state of externalized soul consciousness, he remains in his pure soul nature, untouched and unchanged, with no loss of God-perception, while he outwardly performs whatever exacting duties may be his portion in the fulfillment of the Lord’s cosmic plan. This supernal state of being is the uncontested reign of King Soul over the bodily kingdom.

Union is experienced in that mind which has ceased to identify itself with its vacillating waves of perception. When this happens, then the Seer is revealed, resting in its own essential nature, and one realizes the True Self.

The end of spiritual practice is only attained by placing oneself in the Lord.

When the storehouse of memories and impressions is completely purified, perception is empty of vacillations, and only the object’s true essence shines forth in thought-free perception.

Absolute freedom results when the primal natural forces, having no further purpose to serve, become re-absorbed to the source of all, or when the power of pure consciousness becomes established in its own essential nature.

There are three main stations along the path. The first is annihilation of the ego; the second is rebirth in the Overself; and the third is fully grown union with the Overself. The Sufis assert that this final state can never be reached without the Grace of the Higher Power and that it is complete, lasting, and unchangeable.

One of the foremost features of enlightenment is the clarity it gives to the mind, the lucidity of understanding and luminosity which surrounds all problems.

This is the spiritual climax of one’s life, this dramatic moment when consciousness comes to recognize and understand itself.

The ego is not really killed – how without body and intellect, emotion and will, could anyone act in this world? – but the centre of being is moved out of it to the Overself.

It is to live realization while behaving in the perfectly natural human way, and it is in this last sense than an old Oriental text describes the sage as bearing no distinguishing marks upon his person.

When we resist change, it’s called suffering. But when we can completely let go and not struggle against it, when we can embrace the groundlessness of our situation and relax into its dynamic quality, that’s called enlightenment, or awakening to our true nature, to our fundamental goodness. Another word for this is freedom – freedom from struggling against the fundamental ambiguity of being human.

Awakening is not a thing, it’s not an event, and it’s not a state. It’s not something you get, and it’s not something you’ll be in the future. Simply put, awakening is unconditioned transparent knowingness. It is the Realization of your own True Nature – the intrinsic primordial essence as Nothing and Everything. It is Recognizing the Emptiness of All Things, and Being the Fullness of This Moment. It is no more and no less than radically Seeing and Accepting What Is…Just As It Is.

Awakening happens naturally and inevitably when the illusory separate self has been seen through. Then, our real voyage of discovery begins. One’s unveiled eyes see Truth, Beauty, and Love as indivisible, everywhere present. In one of his sermons, Meister Eckhart stated, “The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God’s eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” With our newborn vision, we see the Essential Unity behind and within the multifarious manifestations. However, we don’t see this anymore as a hopeful concept or inherited belief system, but rather as Intimate, Direct, Luminous, Awareness-Experience.

There now is an intimate and visceral awareness-experience of Being One with Everything. It feels as if The Universe is me. Conversely, there is an experiential knowing that I Am No One or, in other words, no-thing in particular. There is no sense of doership, no inner world, and no separate I. This Beingness is self-authenticating or, put another way, my Unity in and as All Things is self-evident. No outside validation is necessary, and there is no “outside!” There is an eternal unknowing that is lived, and through it, knowing is revealed. There is an unshakable conviction that the awakened state deepens eternally; we never stop evolving. Egoic desires and attachments give way to joyful surrender and trust in What Is. Love and compassion become the impetus for one’s actions, which arise naturally out of deep internal Stillness, with no agenda or goal. Awakened consciousness becomes a physical embodiment – with one foot in eternal, unchanging Awareness and one foot in the Present Moment of manifestation, in service of All Things. Reality is experienced as quite ordinary and yet, it is also intensely felt as wondrous, awe-inspiring, and sacred.

Liberation is simply recognizing that you are one with Siva [Awareness].

When one discovers this Joy of Awareness, and stabilizes the realization that Awareness is one with body, etc. – even while they are perceivable – that is called “embodied liberation.”

“Embodied liberation” is defined as the freedom that arises for one who has recognized her own essence-nature when the entire mass of bonds melts away yet she continues to maintain the pranas [life-force energies] of the body. As it is said in the Spanda teachings: “One who has this kind of realization, and thereby becomes permanently connected, seeing the whole world as a divine play, is liberated while embodied, without a doubt.”

The Joy of Awareness is discovered through the expansion of the Center [Awareness]. … From that discovery arises the aforementioned embodied liberation.

People who are constrained every moment by the bonds of identification with body, prana, pleasure, pain, and so on, do not recognize what is right here – their own Divine Awareness, thick with the joy of perfect wholeness. But one who, through this teaching, sees the universe all around him as nothing more than a mass of foam on the surface of the nectarean ocean of Awareness – he alone is said to be Siva made fully manifest.

Inquiring into the nature of one’s self that is in bondage, and realising one’s true nature is liberation.

All that happens is, when enlightenment takes place, the worries and doubts and problems of life disappear because the personal “me” is not there. And the sense of personal doership is not there. That the Totality or God or the Absolute functions through the organism is a fact whether a particular organism believes it or not. … The suffering may be there but the reaction is not “I” am suffering. Rather, the reaction is that there is suffering, there is pain. From the ordinary man’s point of view, when enlightenment takes place the body doesn’t suddenly become perfect. The body is still liable to ailments, or whatever.

Enlightenment does not bring about disintegration of the body. … Let me make it clear. What enlightenment does is to disassociate the entity from dualism. … What is absent in enlightenment is dualism, “me” as a separate entity and you as another separate entity.

When the impersonal event of enlightenment happens, what the result of that event will be or how that body-mind organism will behave or what will happen through that body-mind organism after that event can be very different, of tremendous variety.

Real bliss is the absence of the wanting of bliss. That is the real bliss. Peace, tranquility, are the words which I prefer. In fact, the enlightenment state is not wanting either bliss or anything else. It is total acceptance. That is the state.

Enlightenment means the removal of the identification of Consciousness with the individual body-mind mechanism as a separate individual. Or, the removal of identification as a separate individual means enlightenment.

Riding on the wings of the rise and fall of the breath, one begins to experience a perception of self that transcends the limitations of physical form. One’s energy field expands. One begins to encompass, in actuality, the expanded parameters of that field. And one bonds in Oneness, in that moment, with an expanded aspect of self – an aspect of who one truly is.

Initially, the expanded state is experienced in the moment and surrenders to the moment. Ultimately, one becomes that moment and becomes One with that expanded sense of self. The higher understandings and heightened perceptions of the expanded self become integrated into one’s conscious awareness. And one is able to make the shift that enables one to transcend completely the limitations that bind one to an earthbound existence. Through the vehicle of breath, one is able to embody the higher state of beingness, while retaining physical form.

This is the experience you would refer to as ascension. One does not, as is popularly believed, cease to materialize in physical form, in this process. Rather, one comes to embody each successive level, as each is embraced and encompassed. One retains form, as the heightened sensibilities are integrated. And one is able to resonate at the higher level of the expanded consciousness, and to perceive the world as it truly is, and increasingly comes to be. The understandings expand, exponentially, as each level is attained and integrated.

Ultimately, one comes to embody all aspects of one’s inter-dimensional lineage simultaneously. One comes to perceive as superfluous the physical definitions of identity that would keep one tethered to a reality that, increasingly, lacks relevance. One walks with an awareness of all that was recognizable reality, and is keenly attuned to what is recognizable reality. And one is able to distinguish amongst simultaneous perceptions of what becomes an increasingly multifaceted world.

There are many who have glimpsed this state of being and have explored fleetingly the perceptions it offers. Inherent in the process is the opportunity to retain those levels of beingness, and ultimately, to experience embodiment in the realities they represent, simultaneously. One can anticipate being able, for example, to experience multiple levels of reality, not by relinquishing one for another, but by encompassing, sequentially, each of those levels and “becoming” each expanded state of being – all of which are, in fact, you.

Once integration has taken place … there is no need to direct this process through your intent. For it is you who will be directed and not the other way around. One’s sense of it is of being in a state of absolute receptivity, of surrendering totally, on every possible level, the need – the compulsion – to control the process. One becomes as a leaf on the wind, embodying a willingness to be carried with the momentum of the process, knowing unquestioningly that one’s best interests and one’s well-being are being seen to in every possible way. … One embodies self-definition and form while merging in totality with momentum and direction. The energies become one.

You are well within the process of ascension now. For ascension is not an “event” but rather, a momentum. It is not something that “happens” to an individual at a given moment, and thereafter one’s reality is instantaneously different. Ascension is a gradual shift. It is a shift in awareness, a shift in perspective, a shift in vibration, a shift in attunement, and a shift in conscious alignment with who one truly is, so that there is agreement and full participation in the process.

Ascension is a universal motion, a yearning, a striving, a releasing, a surrendering – a joyous culmination of your journey here in physical form.

One is able to secure a state of beingness that is unencumbered by eons of trial and error and is free to explore the joys of the manifestation of Divine Will in alignment with one’s own. This is the blessed state of being toward which you strive in the present period. Yet, it is possible to manifest this state, effortlessly, merely by relinquishing the need to embody separateness, and embracing wholeheartedly the truth of the multidimensionality with which you have aligned your vision.

Here you thought it would be the ultimate challenge. Enlightenment – a pretty big word. Finding God – an intimidating concept. Only because you believed that it was. In truth, it’s all so simple. And your bondage to the illusion that it was otherwise is what has kept you coming back, lifetime after lifetime, on the chance that this time you’d “get it right.” This time you’d solve the riddle. This time you’d actually encounter God. And you’d know the truth, once and for all. And this time – you do.

Your ascension into the range of realities where you know yourself to be One with all else you encounter, marks the turning point in your evolution as a pinpoint of consciousness with Self-perception. For, from this point forth, the thrust of your efforts will not be focused in erasing the vibrational residue of past action. Rather, you will embody the experiential reinforcement of your knowingness of the interconnectedness of All Life, in the ongoing Now moment.

You will be starting a fresh new page in the ongoing saga of your Self-awareness. And you will be creating a new track record of evidence to support your understanding of your Divine connection. That is the kind of experience you will be co-creating with those others, in physical form, with whom you choose to surround yourself. And the kind of experiential dramas you will enact will affirm for you, over and over and over again, the Oneness of which you are a part.

That is the nature of the journey of ascension that carries you. The birthing process can be relatively effortless. Or it can be agonizingly long and drawn out. You get to choose how it will play out for you – and the possibilities are limitless. That’s the beauty of it. For, no matter how you manifest your emergence into the next level of awareness that awaits you, there will be no question that your journey is perfection. Through the eyes of Oneness, that is the only possibility. And those are the eyes through which you have witnessed all of it. Every priceless moment – captured for all time – within the never-ending moment of Now.

Enlightenment is the recognition of our essential nature of ever-present, unlimited Awareness. It is not a new experience but rather something we have simply overlooked due to our fascination with the drama of thoughts, feelings, sensations and perceptions.

The removal of ignorance and the consequent dawning of true knowledge is referred to in various spiritual traditions as awakening, enlightenment, self-realisation, salvation, illumination, liberation, satori, nirvana, moksha, bodhi or prajna. However, these terms tend to confer a degree of the exotic or the unfamiliar on our direct, intimate knowledge of our self, whereas in fact nothing could be less extraordinary than the knowing of our own being.

Enlightenment or awakening is not a particular experience or state of mind that may be achieved by practising hard enough or meditating long enough. It is the recognition of the very nature of the mind.

Enlightenment or awakening is not a new or extraordinary kind of experience. It is the self-revelation of the very nature of experience itself.

Enlightenment is the recognition that our true nature – the essential experience of “being aware” or Awareness itself – does not share the limits or destiny of the body. This understanding is then gradually integrated into every part of daily life.

The words Moksha and Nirvana are also referring to mukti. Nirvana is a more appropriate word because Nirvana means non-existence. What it means is that you are free from the very burden of existence. When I say you are free from existence, I am not talking about existence as a quantity and you are free from that. You are free from your own existence. Your existence is finished. When there is no existence, you are even free from freedom, because freedom is also a certain bondage. … Everything that exists is ruled by some law. Now, mukti means you have broken all laws and they can be broken only when you cease to exist. That is the ultimate freedom. … Mukti means you want to become free from the process of life and death, not because you are suffering. People who are suffering cannot attain mukti. … With mukti, everything comes to an end. In a way, mukti is the end of death – and birth as well.

We talk about enlightenment experience, but it is not some experience we will have in terms of good or bad, time or space, past or future. It is experience or consciousness beyond those distinctions or feelings. So we should not ask, “What is enlightenment experience?” That kind of question means you don’t know what Zen experience is. Enlightenment cannot be asked for in your ordinary way of thinking. When you are not involved in this way of thinking, you have some chance of understanding what Zen experience is.

Enlightenment experience is to figure out, to understand, to realize this mind which is always with us and which we cannot see. Do you understand?

We talk about enlightenment, but in its true sense perfect enlightenment is beyond our understanding, beyond our experience. Even in our imperfect practice enlightenment is there. We just don’t know it. … Wherever you are, enlightenment is there. If you stand up right where you are, that is enlightenment.

On attaining turiya [the transcendental state that lies beyond waking, dreaming, and deep sleep], the experiencing individual self is subsumed under the Universal Self or Atman. He who has attained or merged in turiya can see the Atman in all three states [waking, dreaming, sleep] when he descends to relative consciousness, for the Atman, never ceases to exist. The three states are mere illusions like the different moving pictures seen on the same screen. That person is the true Sanyasin or renunciant, untouched by anything whatsoever, who is ever established in the bliss of the Brahman irrespective of his activity or inactivity. It is only he who is fully relaxed and at peace, for he is beyond deep sleep and rests in the calmness of that which is the root of all activity. He is the sole witness to the rising and falling of the waves of creation and destruction. For one who is established in turiya, the entire world of experience is like a long dream from which he has woken up. He is face to face with the Ultimate Reality beyond all dreams; in fact he is himself the Reality.

The English term “enlightenment” is so fraught with cultural connotations and historical baggage that I prefer to avoid it. For example, it may convey an erroneous sense of otherworldly detachment or saintly perfection that makes it seem distant and unreachable. In many schools of Buddhism, the term “enlightenment” is reserved for the Buddha and others who abide in awakened awareness constantly, without interruption. By contrast, Zen tends to use the word more freely but still acknowledges a series of awakenings before the final breakthrough that signals the end of all seeking. I like more ordinary and accessible words like “realization” or “awakening” to refer to the recognition of awakened awareness. One of my Zen teachers used to say, there are no enlightened people, only enlightened moments. In any case, you can’t claim enlightenment for yourself, because it involves the realization that there’s no separate self to claim it.

At the deepest level of reality, awareness is the ground of openness in which everything arises. Whether or not you recognize it, it is always already the case. At the experiential level, however, awakened awareness does not dawn in your life until you realize that this ground of awareness is your natural state, in fact, is who you really are. This shift from recognizing awareness as a function, to recognizing awareness as the ground, to realizing it to be your fundamental nature and identity, is the awakening that the great spiritual masters describe. Only this shift can bring ultimate fulfillment, because it breaks down the illusion of being a separate person at odds with a reality out there that’s constantly threatening to attack, withhold, or disappoint. As Buddha taught several millennia ago, the illusion of a separate self, and the greed, anger, and ignorance this illusion instills, is the root of all suffering. Only when you see through the illusion of separateness and realize the essential nondual nature of reality – what Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh calls our “interbeing” – can you finally reach the end of suffering and the sure heart’s release.

Awakened awareness, as the ever-abiding background of every experience, is self-sustaining and perpetually available. Because it’s your natural state, your birthright as a human being, you don’t need to cultivate or maintain it, as you do with mindfulness; you merely need to relax into it and recognize it. In fact, it’s always looking through your eyes and listening through your ears, you simply fail to acknowledge it; like the space you inhabit or the air you breathe.

When you rest in (and as) awakened awareness, your habitual, conditioned way of seeing things falls away, and you experience life vividly and clearly, through fresh, unfiltered eyes and ears. Not only can this new perspective be exciting and exhilarating, it can also be a bit unsettling and disorienting, at least at first. After all, you’ve spent a lifetime experiencing yourself and other people in the same stale, predictable ways. Now the veils have been stripped away and you’re encountering life directly, raw and unfiltered.

In awakened awareness, you realize that you are the boundariless openness, the awake, aware space, in which everything arises. In other words, everything is happening in you, rather than outside you! At the same time, you don’t lose sight of the fact that you’re also a human being with a body encased in skin and that you need to avoid hot objects and pay attention when you’re crossing the street. Both dimensions are true simultaneously.

While the ordinary, everyday sense of individuality keeps you safe at a relative level, awakened awareness reveals that you’re intimately interconnected with everything else in the universe – or even more accurately, you’re the space in which everything is one and inseparable. Believe it or not, it’s possible to function with this limitless perspective. In fact, functioning becomes so much smoother, more harmonious, and ever so much more fulfilling when you’re not constantly struggling with the world “out there.” In place of fear, distrust, anger, and conflict, you now move through the world with a sense of comfort, ease, trust, and belonging. Instead of alienation or estrangement, you now feel a profound intimacy and familiarity with everything and everyone you encounter, not merely as some idea or philosophy, but as your immediate experience.

The final realization that you are the openness, the boundariless space, and at the same time you’re inseparable from what arises in this space, marks the full flowering of awakened awareness.

With the realization of awakened awareness, your experience of life dramatically changes: From imagining yourself to be a collection of thoughts, feelings, memories, and stories located somewhere inside your body, usually the head, you shift to recognizing yourself as the limitless openness in which the body–mind and every other object appears. Like the cognitive shift that occurs with one of those figure–ground puzzles you studied in psych class, once you see who you really are, that is, the field of awareness in which the world of objective reality reveals itself, it’s impossible to look at yourself in the same way ever again. You’ve awakened from a dream, and you can’t pretend to unsee what you’ve already seen.

The realization of awakened awareness reveals a deeper and more mysterious order at the heart of existence that doesn’t center on you as a separate person but instead finds expression in the inherent wholeness and perfection of life as it is.

The mark of resting and abiding in awakened awareness is that you no longer feel any lack or insufficiency, no longer feel the need to change, adjust, add to, or subtract from the present moment. You’re not looking for some better, more fulfilling, more comfortable state – you’re complete and content with everything just as it is. Not that you wouldn’t make changes in your environment or situation as a natural movement toward balance and ease – anything from putting on a sweater or going for a walk to buying a new car or changing jobs – it’s just that you don’t require anything to be different, and you’re at peace whether things change or not. Though circumstances are constantly shifting and unfolding and you may like or not like what’s arising now, there’s a deeper knowing that there’s always and only This, just as it is. The recognition that This is what you are, fundamentally and essentially, marks the realization of awakened awareness.

As your realization ripens, awakened awareness permeates your life, and all traces of a separate someone drop away. Ultimately, you can’t even say, “I am awakened awareness” because there’s no I left to identify or not. Only awakened awareness remains – the nondual, indivisible continuum, the One without a second, expressing itself in a myriad of forms. Just This!

Wakefulness is sometimes depicted as the end of our journey, a destination and culmination. When we attain enlightenment we’re surely safely home, on the other side of the river. We’ve reached a state of complete fulfillment and there’s surely nowhere left to go. Why would we want to go anywhere else? But in reality, awakening isn’t the end of the journey but the beginning of a different one. It’s not the end of the road but rather a switch to a different road. Awakened people continue to develop. They continue to find new resources inside themselves, uncover new potentials and energies, and evolve new aspects and depths of their relationships with themselves, with other human beings, and with the world in general.

In permanent wakefulness a new, higher-functioning self-system takes over, with a more expansive and intense awareness. The shift is so fundamental that the person may feel that they have been reborn, that they are a different person living in the same body. … I would therefore loosely define permanent wakefulness as a higher functioning state in which a person’s vision of and relationship to the world are transformed, along with their subjective experience, their sense of identity, and their conceptual outlook. This shift brings a sense of well-being, clarity, and connection. The person develops a more intense awareness of the phenomenal world, and a broad, global outlook, with an all-embracing sense of empathy with the whole human race and a much-reduced need for group identity.

Awakening can be seen as a shift from our normal self-system into a wakeful self-system that is so subtle and labile that we might not even sense that it’s there at all.

This life is now lived in a constant, ever-present awareness of the infinite vastness that I am. In this state, there is absolutely no reference point, yet an entire range of emotions, thoughts, actions, and responses are simultaneously present. The infinite – which is at once the substance of everything and the ocean within which everything arises and passes away – is aware of itself constantly, whether the mind and body are sleeping, dreaming, or waking. In every moment, this body-mind circuitry is consciously participating in the sense organ through which the infinite perceives itself. There is never a locatable “me.” In fact, the non-locatability of the vastness is the predominant flavor of the experience, and the infinity of this non-locatability is forever revealing itself to be more and more infinite. … The “me” was annihilated, and it has never reappeared in any form. With this annihilation, there occurred a realization that a “me” has never existed who is the doer behind what has appeared to be “my” life. In recent years, it has also become clear that not only is there no “me,” there is also no “other.” The “no other-ness” is now so dominant that nothing else is perceived. Life is being lived out of the infinite substance of which it is made, and this substance – which is what and who we all are – is constantly aware of itself out of itself. What an extraordinary way to live!

An entire range of “self-referential” emotions, such as embarrassment, self-consciousness, shame, envy, self-pity, self-reflection, and introspection, have simply ceased to arise. Since the individual self to which they referred no longer exists, they have nothing around which to form. … The presence of any thoughts, feelings, or actions is never interpreted to mean anything other than that they are present. The vastness perceives purely that thoughts are thoughts, feelings are feelings, actions are actions. There is no longer any wondering about whether a particular thought is right or wrong. In fact, no judgment about good or bad or right or wrong ever arises; everything is simply what it is. … In this state, nothing is ever experienced as a problem. To see anything as a problem, one would have to assume that something needs to change or go away from the problem to be solved. … Nothing that occurs is ever regarded as a problem.

Everything that appears to be form is not separate from the vastness. The human circuitry is made of the same substance. When it consciously participates in the sense organ that the vastness is always using to perceive itself, the human circuitry becomes aware – not through its own sense organs, but through the sense organ of the vastness – that the substance of the infinite is its naturally occurring state. Seeing this, the circuitry joins the undulation of the vastness in a conscious way and begins to experience unceasing awe at everything that is.

As I have said before, when it becomes clear that there is no personal reference point, it also becomes apparent that there never was a personal reference point, and that everything is done and has always been done by an unseen doer. The doer doesn’t start doing only when it is seen to be the doer. It has always been the doer; the personal self has never been the doer. Thus, life as usual continues to unfold; everything gets done, just as it did before the realization of the vastness occurred. Since there has never been a personal doer in any case, the realization of this truth does nothing to change how functioning occurs. All the functionings continue as before – thinking, feeling, acting, relating. The difference is that it is now clear that they have never referred or belonged to a someone.

These eyes see the incredible benevolence of the universe, which is completely trustworthy in all respects. There is nothing to fear. Everything in each moment is so well taken care of – and always has been.

Since I followed no prescribed techniques to realize the absence of the personal self, I cannot now encourage the practice of them.

The purpose of human life has been revealed. The vastness created these human circuitries in order to have an experience of itself out of itself that it couldn’t have without them. Through this humanness, the substance we are all made of has an opportunity to love itself – and the love of the infinite for itself is awesome. … We are all in this together. We are all made of the same infinite substance, and when a number of circuitries are consciously participating in the infinite simultaneously, there is a substantial increase in the volume of the love the infinite experiences for itself.

When asked who I am, the only answer possible is: I am the infinite, the vastness that is the substance of all things. I am no one and everyone, nothing and everything – just as you are.

The summit of man’s fortune, which is divine realization. … There you may see nothing and hear nothing, but at the same time all is seen and heard, for inside you is the spontaneous conviction that you have attained everything. When an aspirant has reached there, he sits in bliss, sleeps in bliss, walks in bliss, comes and goes in bliss. He lives in an ashram in bliss, he eats in bliss; his behavior and actions are blissful. He experiences directly, “Now I have crossed the ocean of worldly existence.” By virtue of this realization, he is never agitated. No matter what he is doing, his heart is as calm as the ocean. All the afflictions of the mind melt away, and it becomes transmuted in Chiti [Consciousness]. From inside comes the voice, “I am That which is dear to all, the Self of all; I am, I am.” … He acquires supreme knowledge free from doubts and knowledge of the identity of all things.

The world in which we live is a play of Chiti Shakti, the self-luminous universal Consciousness. For a man who sees this, the world is nothing but a play of God’s energy. For him there is no bondage and no liberation. There is no means, no goal, and no limitation. … The veil of duality, which made him see differences, has been torn. … The world is not a separate object but a game of the universal Consciousness.

Emancipation (Kaivalya) is obtained when one realizes the oneness of his Self with the Universal Self, the Supreme Reality.

When man understands even by way of inference the true nature of this creation, the true relation existing between this creation and himself; and when he further understands that he is completely blinded by the influence of Darkness, Maya, and that it is the bondage of Darkness alone which makes him forget his real Self and brings about all his sufferings, he naturally wishes to be relieved from all these evils. This relief from evil, or liberation from the bondage of Maya, becomes the prime object of his life.

When all the developments of Ignorance are withdrawn, the heart, being perfectly clear and purified, no longer merely reflects the Spiritual Light but actively manifests the same, and thus being consecrated and anointed, man becomes Sannyasi, free, or Christ the Savior.

When man thus entering into the spiritual world becomes a Son of God, he comprehends the universal Light – the Holy Ghost – as a perfect whole, and his Self as nothing but a mere idea resting on a fragment of the Aum Light. Then he sacrifices himself to the Holy Ghost, the altar of God; that is, abandons the vain idea of his separate existence, and becomes one integral whole. Thus, being one with the universal Holy Spirit of God the Father, he becomes unified with the Real Substance, God. This unification of Self with the Eternal Substance, God, is called Kaivalya.

Liberation is stabilization of Purusha (jiva, soul) in its real Self. Residing in Self is liberation. When man raises himself above the idea creation of this Darkness, and passes completely out of its influence, he becomes liberated from bondage and is placed in his real Self, the Eternal Spirit.

Liberation is salvation. On attaining this liberation, man becomes saved from all his troubles, and all the desires of his heart are fulfilled, so the ultimate aim of his life is accomplished.

All fulfillments of his nature attained, man is not merely a reflector of divine light but becomes actively united with Spirit. This state is Kaivalya, oneness.

In this state man comprehends his Self as a fragment of the Universal Holy Spirit, and, abandoning the vain idea of his separate existence, unifies himself with the Eternal Spirit; that is, becomes one and the same with God the Father. This unification of Self with God is Kaivalya, which is the Ultimate Object of all created beings.

Being one and the same with the universal Holy Spirit of God, man becomes unified with the Eternal Father Himself, and so comes to Satyaloka, in which he comprehends that all this creation is substantially nothing but a mere idea-play of his own nature, and that nothing in the universe exists besides his own Self. This state of unification is called Kaivalya, the Sole Self.

Nature’s task is done, this unselfish task which our sweet nurse Nature had imposed upon herself. As it were, she gently took the self-forgetting soul by the hand, and showed him all the experiences in the universe, all manifestations, bringing him higher and higher through various bodies, till his glory came back, and he remembered his own nature. Then the kind mother went back the way she came, for others who have also lost their way in the trackless desert of life. And thus she is working, without beginning and without end. And thus through pleasure and pain, through good and evil, the infinite river of souls is flowing into the ocean of perfection, of self-realisation.

Enlightenment is when a wave realizes it is the ocean.

Enlightenment is not a goal to be reached in the future. It is a reality to be lived in the present moment.

Gautama [Buddha] felt as though a prison which had confined him for thousands of lifetimes had broken open. Ignorance had been the jailkeeper. Because of ignorance, his mind had been obscured, just like the moon and stars hidden by the storm clouds. Clouded by the endless waves of deluded thoughts, the mind had falsely divided reality in subject and object, self and others, existence and non-existence, birth and death, and from these discriminations arose wrong views – the prisons of feelings, craving, grasping, and becoming. The suffering of birth, old age, sickness, and death only made the prison walls thicker. The only thing to do was to seize the jailkeeper and see his true face. The jailkeeper was ignorance. And the means to overcome ignorance were the Noble Eightfold Path [right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration]. Once the jailkeeper was gone, the jail would disappear and never be rebuilt again.

For each of us there is a point of nowhereness in the middle of movement, a point of nothingness in the midst of being; the incomparable point, not to be discovered by insight. If you seek it you do not find it. If you stop seeking, it is there. But you must not turn to it. Once you become aware of yourself as seeker, you are lost. But if you are content to be lost you will be found without knowing it, precisely because you are lost, for you are, at last, nowhere.

There is nothing to do, nothing to achieve. This is what I have been trying to communicate to those of you who come to see me and who care to listen to me. As long as you want to get or achieve something or want to be enlightened you are not going to be enlightened.

I have discovered, for myself and by myself, that what we have been told about freedom, enlightenment and God is false. No power in the world can touch this. This does not make me superior, nothing of the sort. To feel superior or inferior you must separate yourself from the world. I do not look upon the world as a separate thing, as you do. The knowledge I have about the world, whether within or without, comes into operation only when there is a demand for it. Otherwise, I simply don’t know.

The goals that I had set for myself – self-realization, God-realization, transformation, radical or otherwise, or even enlightenment – were all false and there was nothing there to be realized and nothing to be found there. The very demand to be free from anything, even from the physical needs of the body just disappeared and I was left with nothing. Therefore, whatever comes out of me now depends upon what you draw out of me.

He who realizes that the whole universe is really nothing but consciousness and remains quite calm is protected by the armour of Reality; he is happy.

He, the desireless one, is liberated at the very moment he attains knowledge of Reality.

Like an empty vessel in space, the knower of Truth is empty both within and without, while at the same time he is full within and without like a vessel immersed in the ocean.

He who neither likes nor dislikes the objects seen by him and who acts in the world like one asleep, is said to be a liberated person.

He who is free from the knots of desires and whose doubts have been set at rest is liberated even when he is in the body [jivanmukta]. Although he may seem to be bound, he is free. He remains like a lamp in a picture.

He who has easily cast off all his egoistic tendencies and has abandoned even the object of meditation, is said to be liberated even when he is in the body.

He who casts away from his mind all objects of perception and, attaining perfect quiescence, remains still as space, unaffected by sorrow, is a liberated man; he is the Supreme Lord.

The noble-hearted man whose desires of the heart have come to an end is a liberated man; it does not matter whether he does or does not practice meditation or perform action.

The idea of Self in the non-Self is bondage. Abandonment of it is liberation. There is neither bondage nor liberation for the ever-free Self.

If, by perceiving that the objects of perception do not really exist, the mind is completely freed from them, there ensues the Supreme bliss of liberation.

Abandonment of all latent tendencies is said to be “real liberation” by the wise; that is also the faultless method of attaining liberation.

Liberation is not on the other side of the sky, nor is it in the nether world, nor on the earth; the extinction of the mind resulting from the eradication of all desires is regarded as liberation.

To one who is established in what is infinite, pure consciousness, bliss and unqualified non-duality, where is the question of bondage or liberation, seeing that there is no second entity?

The conviction that “Everything is Reality” leads one to liberation. Therefore, reject entirely the idea of duality which is ignorance. Reject it entirely.

If you separate yourself from the body and abide at ease in consciousness you will become the sole Reality, everything else appearing insignificant, like grass.

After knowing That by which you know this world, turn the mind inward and you will realize the effulgence of the Self.

The idea of a consciousness and an object of consciousness is bondage; freedom from it is liberation.

Unio mystica is the Christian term for this descent into cosmic, transmental, and transpersonal oneness. Other names have been coined for the same experience in other religions and cultures: emptiness, enlightenment, liberation, satori, nirvana, samadhi, and so on. Regardless of the words used, it is always the same experience of pure existence in which everything is as it is, and also perfect as it is. But this pure existence is not some sort of substance. Here you are neither happy nor unhappy, neither satisfied nor dissatisfied, neither joyful nor sad. Saying “I’m happy” would already be tantamount to falling back to the level of the ego. In the cosmic consciousness there is no bliss, there is no happiness in the sense of a feeling. Feelings are always the feelings of a separate “I.” Here it is a case of just happiness, without “I’m happy.” It is ecstasy, but not “I’m ecstatic.” For anyone who has transcended the ego, all other levels of consciousness seem relative, while the cosmic consciousness is self-contained and perfect as it is, completely fulfilled. It is the fulfillment of all our longings. Why shouldn’t it be the goal of all existence? Why shouldn’t we refer to it as “heaven”?

Awakening occurs, not when there is no more to be added, but instead, when there is no more to be taken away.

Many times has Wu Hsin been asked: “What is emancipation?” Emancipation is freedom from attachment; attachment to people, attachment to things, attachment to ideas and beliefs. With all attachments cut, one trusts that one will float rather than fall.

When there are no longer any goals, then the goal is attained.

Complete Understanding is comprised of both Understanding and Living the Understanding.

True freedom is the absence of all agendas.

Once the great awakening occurs whatever ensues afterwards is of no consequence. Outward changes may occur, they may not. Outward signs need not announce Inner transformation.

Those with wakefulness have lost everything. Therefore, they have nothing left to lose. They are fearless in the face of whatever appears.

There is a single source, the Source or another name of your choosing. This world is a mere emanation from the Source, the potential manifesting from the pure Potentiality, an appearance comprising tens of thousands of things. Beings are but one of the tens of thousands of things. Sentient and discriminating through whom the Source functions. This functioning, beings have named Life. Each being, according to its nature performs its allotted tasks during its time. One’s nature is not chosen, controlled nor decided upon. It is as it is intended to be. One goes through one’s life choosing between the dualities; good and bad, happy and sad, loving, hating, interacting with a seeming other. This is Life, alternating between two banks of a flowing river. Believing in their individuality, beings suffer as they strive to protect themselves from a world that is in flux every moment. How can they resist the changes of the ever-changing? It is a journey doomed to fail. Embracing change is embracing What-is in every moment. It is saying “yes” to Life, not Life as one would have it, but life as it is. It is understanding that there is no one doing anything other than the Doer, and that each is an actor on the stage. The script is written, the sets arranged. Watch the play, enjoy it. Laugh, cry, but never make the story your own.

Those who see all creatures in themselves and themselves in all creatures know no fear. Those who see all creatures in themselves and themselves in all creatures know no grief. How can the multiplicity of life delude the one who sees its unity?

In dark night live those for whom the Lord is transcendent only; in night darker still for whom he is immanent only. But for those whom he is transcendent and immanent cross the sea of death with the immanent and enter into Immortality with the transcendent. So have we heard from the wise.

Everything is loved not for its own sake, but because the Self lives in it. This Self has to be realized. Hear about this Self and meditate upon him. … When you hear about the Self, meditate upon the Self, and finally realize the Self, you come to understand everything in life.

The Self, pure awareness, shines as the light within the heart, surrounded by the senses. Only seeming to think, seeming to move, the Self neither sleeps nor wakes nor dreams.

As a man in the arms of his beloved is not aware of what is without and what is within, so a person in union with the Self is not aware of what is without and what is within, for in that unitive state all desires find their perfect fulfillment. … Where there is unity, one without a second, that is the world of Brahman. This is the supreme goal of life, the supreme treasure, the supreme joy. Those who do not seek this supreme goal live on but a fraction of this joy.

Those who realize the Self enter into peace that brings complete self-control and perfect patience. They see themselves in everyone and everyone in themselves. Evil cannot overcome them because they overcome all evil. Sin cannot consume them because they consume all sin. Free from evil, free from sin and doubt, they live in the kingdom of Brahman. Your majesty, this kingdom is yours!