Independence Day
The Path to Liberation
When one is seeking enlightenment one clearly is not certain of what one is searching for. There are the obvious concepts, ideas, and many assumptions. Many expect a vow of silence, wearing of robes, perhaps to be cloistered in some Ashram or retreat for some time. Or perhaps to be of service to society, abstaining from drinking, smoking, talking, to walk with a certain posture Maybe like an egg waiting for a timer to ring to tell you your done. That is the general expectation one feels there is an incubation period. And if you meditate on these things for a moment the one thing which is glaringly obvious is that it appears that you are accumulating things to attain your goal. This is not a criticism entirely all these experiences have one thing in common. The teacher is trying to make you stop and reflect, maybe enter a state perhaps. To show you that there are other states of experience. In the end this is not liberation this is just another state and ultimately you are back in your most familiar of states. The egoic state. If you really want to understand states, anger is a state, joy is a state, jealousy,
rage, contempt, are all states. If you really want to reflect, here is your best barometer. Follow your breath, for as long as it remains steady and harmonious to your current activities your fine. If it is not in step with your body your in stress state. But
states of happiness, joy, harmonious, all these are states and are the consequences to enlightenment. You will perhaps have the urge for Yoga which is the union of body and mind. That in itself speaks volumes, why wouldn’t you want your body and mind functioning harmoniously? You may want to go on a retreat to appreciate your connection with source. You may want to give up smoking, drinking and so on because these are by products of awakening.
Who gets enlightened?
Thoughts, ideas, emotions, arise. And you are none of these. You'll soon enough discover this when you watch them arise independently of the 'I' .
How do you know you are none of these?
Because you can watch them arise independently, you can allow them to continue or just dissolve the thoughts, feelings away; therefore you are more than this. You exist prior to these thoughts and so on. You existed as a child with less awareness which developed as you aged. You existed in the womb with primal feelings, you were not aware of your existence perhaps at this time in the classic sense but you did exist. There was an ‘I ‘not followed by a thought which existed. Prior to conception you existed as part of the illusion of two independent cells which united to create the thinking “I” which you now take as being you. You have always been here creating worlds, planets, galaxies, frogs, and other thoughts. This is just another series of thoughts being collected by under an umbrella called ego which thinks it is ‘I’.
What happens when I die?
So when did you begin to exist in the first place? If you can just get a tiny grip on this, you can look at it from another point of view. Consider an Absolute, nothing can exist outside an Absolute and because nothing can exist outside of it, you are part and whole of this Absolute. It cannot be any other way even contemporary science confirms this. Take two individuals who have met in passing, One is a sailor and the other shopkeeper. The sailor has a number of thoughts, ideas, and concepts of life which makes her unique and so has the shopkeeper. They have both distinct components that make them unique and absolute in their own special way. If the sailor gets on her boat and sails towards the horizon never to be seen again by the shopkeeper and continues live her life in some other part of the world. Does that mean she is dead? Of course not! Her thoughts, ideas, her sailor ness is just out of the attention of the thoughts of shopkeeper. But still existing within the framework of the Absolute but separated by the illusion we know as time. That’s why you don’t have to go anywhere to be enlightened. You stay where you are.
