Taking the mystery and difficulty out of waking up to your essence
Vic Shayne
author
13 Pillars of Enlightenment: How to realize your true nature and end suffering
Why does anyone want to be enlightened? Is it just an idea that sounds appealing because it’s mysterious and conjures up images of having super powers of some sort? Is it a desire to be wise beyond all seers and sages? Or does such a seeker want to be special, or perhaps enjoy a life without any suffering, or to be full of bliss, as so often promised? Is there a good or bad reason to want to be enlightened?
enlightenment in a simple little nutshell
To be enlightened or awake, one knows beyond any doubt that the only reality is in the subjective source that is the capacity for everything that seems to exist in an objective world. And, when this is realized, so too is it realized that we are all this stateless state that is the source from which everything emanates and that permeates all of consciousness. This is something that is felt and not just intellectualized.
That’s all there is to it. The attention and identification shift away from the body and belief in an objective world as reality. Life’s problems and gifts go on as before, and some ineffable essence is aware of this.
the creation of a ‘me’ through psychological conditioning
Why are things so complicated for those who desperately want to be enlightened? In one word: psychological conditioning. Okay, that’s two words, but the most important of the two is the word conditioning, because this is what causes all the resistance, stumbling blocks, misinformation, nonsensical teachings, and so on.
The mind is conditioned to believe that the way to achieve or obtain an awakening is through study, learning, working, effort, discussion, rationalization, analysis, and mentation. Such tools may work to learn a language or how to become an engineer, but none of these can be used to find what you are as your true essence, because this essence is beyond the mind and its toolbox. Nevertheless, in your pursuit for the Ultimate, you suffer and think you need more and more information to figure out how to be enlightened. Some people become guru junkies, following one or more guru or teacher and hanging on his or her every word to be taken as truth.
separating yourself from the totality of consciousness
Psychological conditioning has created the idea that you are a separate self that is apart from all else, including the contents of the self’s own makeup. This self is called me, the ego, and other names that suggest it is an autonomous system, independent of all others and all things. But it is actually a mirage, an accretion of thoughts, an image created out of ideas of what you believe you are.
turning the attention from the objective to the subjective
Can you turn your attention around from the objective world of phenomena and experience to the subjective and enquire into your own sense of self? Maybe it will become obvious that this self is nothing but an idea built on a flimsy and ephemeral foundation of thought. And, you may realize, “This thought is not me, because I am that which observes the thought, the body, the world, phenomena, changes, pleasure, joy, and suffering.” This realization is not magical and it’s not mysterious. And it is not an experience; it’s a simple realization with big implications.
But, alas, confusion abounds, especially for those few who really want to get past the self. Too many people go around repeating tropes, secondhand ideas, religious concepts, and teachings common to that fuzzy thing called spirituality. In finding what you are devoid of every idea, concept, memory, teaching, discipline, form, and phenomenon, it becomes apparent when people are speaking from a personal realization versus spewing ideas that have never stood the test of their own earnest enquiry.
you need guidance, not a teacher talking about the objective world
The most popular teachers of today, autographing their books and entertaining the masses are guilty of pretending they are awake. Misleading thousands of hungry followers, they pass themselves off as enlightened, but their messages are tainted and their ignorance becomes apparent every time they speak. Maybe you’d be surprised to know who these people are; maybe you already have a hunch. Their eager followers soak up what they have to say as they sit on a pedestal next to a pretty bouquet of flowers and offer tidbits of wisdom that is not really borne of their own knowingness.
To be sure, when you are awake to the capacity as the source of all that exists, you have no interest in speaking ad nauseam about how to be calmer, have a lovely life, make friends and influence people, increase your vibrations, be a compassionate person, be kind to others, make the world a better place, study your dreams, or learn to have a higher consciousness. While none of these are bad, per se, they have nothing at all to do with enlightenment, because they are teaching their followers to look in the wrong direction. If you are awake you would not only know this, but you would also have no inclination to be involved with it. If you are not awake then you don’t know any better; and neither do your followers who hang on your every word.
People who look for the great void that is their essence begin by spending lifetimes looking the wrong way. They look at the objective world of phenomena and never turn the attention around to find the subjective reality of nothingness and potentiality. The true teachers know that the objective world has nothing to do with the source or the implications of finding it.
the real teachers all say the same thing; they guide you
If you can listen carefully, setting aside everything you think you know but you really don’t, you can notice that a tiny handful of credible teachers who are awake are all saying the same exact thing, even if taking a different approach. Who are they? Jiddu Krishnamurti, Nisargadatta, Ramana, Papaji, Douglas Harding, Joseph Campbell, Ellie Roozdar, Rumi, Suddharmeshwar, and a few others. They all stick to the same message and do not waiver from it: Right here where you are is the essence of the universe and out of this center that is not really a center is the capacity for all things that exist and are yet to come. This is a spaceless space, a stateless state, and an endless, ubiquitous well of nothingness in which all, including consciousness, expressions, forms, and all phenomena appear to exist. And you are this well.
This is all. This is the essence of enlightenment or awakening, and like the Buddha, you will find that life is indeed suffering, but you will also know beyond a shadow of a doubt why this is true and why it has nothing to do with you as the source. And you will be filled with compassion for the suffering, because you will know, beyond any trope, that all is one — it’s not an idea, it’s the reality..
it takes knowing what you really want
Despite that there’s very little to say about the spaceless space, there are so many rivers of words that flow forth about the problem of not seeing this. Krishnamurti spoke for 60 years or so. He was brilliant and to the point, but as with all people of his ilk, though few in number, he was misunderstood, misinterpreted, and maligned. Why? Because people who don’t get it are not ready for the message. They usually want something else, like a calmer mind, a leader to follow, some feeling of security in a chaotic and scary world, or a way to feel superior. But all of these things are of the egoic self and the objective world.
Very, very few people want nothing more than to know what they are and why life is the way it is, and they are willing to risk everything to find out. They are willing to let this ego die. There’s nothing bad or wrong about not wanting this to happen, but most others are too quick to follow and support teachers who have not woken up to the truth — people who cannot see it, yet talk about it. It’s doubtful that anyone reading this very article truly seeks the source of his or her self. Rare is such a person. If this were not true then we would be living in a world with far less suffering. Or, then again, maybe you are the one in a hundred million who can see the truth in these words.
the mind is not the tool for awakening
The only thing that works is for consciousness to place its attention on the self, to observe it for what it is and to find that it is an illusion, a mirage. Just be quiet and look, and when the tainted mind is silent then what has always existed suddenly becomes realized.
You can listen to a speaker talk about the objective world until the cows come home, but nothing about the objective world has anything to do with what you are at your core, which is the all-encompassing, boundless space that is without a locus. Learning about karma, meditation, consciousness, dreams, psychic powers, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, levitation, Buddhism, Rumi, Jesus, or even Krishnamurti have nothing to do with it.
