is the clarity of ‘being’ no more than just another idea or delusion?

Vic Shayne
author
13 Pillars of Enlightenment: How to realize your true nature and end suffering

The ineffable, by virtue of the very word, cannot be explained or described, yet from the outside-looking-in it may appear that the clarity that comes with the ending of thought is just an idea or biased concept. If one has never realized such clarity then one may be compelled to label it a delusion, imagination, or a faulty perception. No matter, because what we call it has little to do with what it actually is — as well as what it implies or means to us.

I often use the word “realization” to convey what it is like to know that the self is merely an illusion and that consciousness is a single and indivisible movement of totality. And I use it to describe the knowing that there is an ineffable nothingness, or capacity, beneath all that exists, but the word “realization” may still be inadequate.

realization suggests something beyond thought
My use of the term “realization” is to suggest something that is beyond thought, though to explain it requires thought. And it is clear that people incorporate what they know — what they have read, studied, heard, or believe — to suggest a mystical experience when it is no more than a concept that makes them feel good or important. We see a lot of this in religion and in the New Age movement wherein filling oneself with positive thoughts brings about an elation that is confused with some notion of blissful spiritual enlightenment, superiority, great wisdom, or ascension.

when thought stops
Have you ever had thought completely turn off, as if a switch had been thrown and all thoughts have ceased? When this occurs there are no impressions, insights, memories, or mentation. There is only clarity. In this clarity the self is not, and there is no suffering; and there is no wonder, awe, or imagery. There is clarity alone. Have you had this? Many people have experienced this clarity by accident, as have I. But this state, so to speak, can also be realized, as have I, by persistent enquiry into the self so that it gives way to both everything and nothing at the same time. Is this all in the mind or head? Perhaps, because this is the way we come to know anything, including what is occurring to us, but it just doesn’t matter, because there is no interest to impress anyone or prove one’s point. There is only the realization of what one is devoid of thought.

Now, if you are trying to understand this from a certain point of view, which includes all of your education and personal experience, all of which are valuable to your work and to life in the world, then you will not know the clarity of which I speak. When it comes to this clarity the same information/education/knowledge becomes an obstacle, a hindrance.

I offer no argument that it is possible to be deluded by thoughts or impressions. To explain something takes words, and words are inadequate when it comes to knowing or experiencing this clarity of what one is (and therefore what reality or life is). I would not be the first to say that there is no way into this understanding that includes all the regular tools of thought, wisdom, effort, concentration, or intelligence.

engagement, totality, and fragmentation
With the clarity of which I speak comes an engagement with everything, the totality of consciousness. It is a full realization that there is bad, good, and everything in between. In the clarity is a knowingness (but not the same so-called knowingness that is nothing more than a belief in what has been learned) that nothing exists in isolation and that all is a movement.

It is the self that parses or fragments this total, indivisible movement so that it can deal with it. Due to the processes of the conditioned brain or mind we come to believe that the movement is actually fragmented, and in doing so we believe that we are separated from all else by a body and all the identities, beliefs, and associations that we have formed and internalized. The fragmentation is absolutely necessary to navigate our world, interact, eat, drink, and be merry. No doubt. But the fragmentation also creates a delusion about what we really are. This is really a simple thing.

And so, instead of arguing about perception, knowledge, or the mind’s ability to delude one’s thinking, I am speaking of this clarity and knowing what I am. There is no success that comes from trying to quantify or qualify the process, cause, and effect for the purpose of differentiating the mystical experience from thought and delusional thinking. I can appreciate this, but it really has nothing to do with the clarity of realizing what one is and how this is a representation of how everything is — as well as how everything emanates from the same common capacity, or emptiness; and how everything is, essentially or fundamentally, the emptiness itself.

Only with an absence of the self, which is a construct of thought, can we actually accept how things really are, as opposed to just saying that we do, or understanding that we do while still being filled with fear, anxiety, trepidations, worries, depression, insecurity, and all the rest.