Intent

"He who calls on me by whatever name, is mine, and dear to me." Same goes for whatever method one chooses. It's the intent that matters, not the method.

Ego Is Secondary

A healthy ego knows it is not the top dog, it's just a tool to navigate the relative world. An ego that acknowledges it's secondary status to the Self, God, the Absolute, is helpful, not harmful.

Relative World and Ignorance

If you are the Absolute and know it, then of course there is nothing to wake up from. But, the whole reason there is even a term "enlightenment" is because we live in ignorance of our true Self.

Any normal human being does have something to wake up from, assuming he realizes his ignorance. Dream or not, there is a relative world, and our human selves live in it. We can play the game in ignorance (nothing to wake up from), or we can get off our butt and try to get to the truth. 

We Need Our Intuition

We are so closed in with materialism that it isn't questioned. It makes us discount our intuition. Then we have to work and learn to the point where we can see what happened to our souls when materialism took over. We end up begging our intellect to give us a little permission to experience what is beyond the intellect. Tough nut to crack!

Intuition and Authority

I have always followed my intuition regarding authority. In spiritual matters, I have always sensed a teacher that resonates in my heart, whether I understood that teacher or not. Over 50 years of study I have found that my intuition was right on. I never put a teacher above my own mind and heart, but did in humility learn from those I found to have deeper understanding than I.

Things Are As They Are

If ultimately we are that One without a second, the idea of free will or not is moot. That One has no other so the concept of free will does not apply. Things are as they are.

All Is Love

Mystical experiences often result in a feeling of overwhelming love and unity. In day to day life we do not feel that all is love. Much of life is suffering and so the questions arises, "Where is the love?" From the Absolute perspective it seems implausible that it would not love all its creation, no matter how the experience is at the human level.

Intellectual Understanding

I have found that intellectual understanding is like a key that gives you permission to enter into the experience that the knowledge points to. As long as the mind does not accept the premise, it easily blocks access to experience.

Unlimited

Our conditioning limits choice which must then limit any free will. As we realize our conditioning and let it go as best we can, there is less limitation. If we make good choices, our freedom seems to increase. With bad choices, our options diminish.

Ultimately, when we realize we are That (Brahman), the question of free will is moot. That which is unlimited has no use for freedom as there are no limits.

Knowing

If God is omniscient and omnipresent there is no way my body or mind can be separate from God in any manner. Religion tries to capture this human intuition of God or spirit in allegory and metaphor. It is also an effort to relate the ineffable to our relative existence. 

All the great religions begin with a mystical, intuitive revelation which concepts cannot grasp, but only point to. All the prescriptions, metaphors and allegories are just pointers. To come to knowing, we ourselves have to follow the pointers to our own knowing. Then we are no longer caught in religion because we are the knowing.

Present Moment

One can come to being in the present moment without effort if one simply surrenders to That One subjective source of all. We are that one, and always will be. With this understanding we don't have to know anything else. We are That, will always be That, and this experience is just That. The mind gets quiet. Thoughts only come when needed to solve a problem, and peace is under all experience. 

Pure Awareness

Awareness is pure potential because anything can appear in it. It is the ontological primitive because nothing can be known without awareness. Whatever appears on the screen of awareness is content. Physical objects can appear in awareness as can objects of thought and feeling. Awareness is the observer, the subject. Thoughts, feelings, sensations, matter, are all objects. The bottom line is that even the body is an object in awareness. We are not the body, not the mind, not anything but pure awareness.

Intelligent Design

I see intelligent design everywhere. When my friends say well that means evolution is wrong. I say  evolution is intelligent design. All the principles of evolution are intelligent design. My intuition thinks up stuff that then becomes physical. That is intelligent design. Thoughts come to me from out of nowhere. For me this is all a holographic picture that is evolving all the time. I am an image in this big picture that is conscious. And Consciousness is the creator of the picture. I don't really need to know more than this.

Resonance

The path for me was following my intuition, and the path was marked by resonance. The big picture was unknown, but paying attention to resonance was a path.

Meaning

What is more in line with truth, a scientific proof or a meaningful experience? A scientific proof may have practical value and make life easier, but without meaningful experiences, all that ease is rather useless. 

Consciousness Is Fundamental

At the basic level we know we exist. We cannot deny it. Is this a form of knowledge? I think so, even though it is not conceptual. How do we know we exist? Because there is sense of Being that is aware. We can forget our name, status, and everything else, but that sense of awareness remains. 

This is certainly a form of knowledge, but it is not conceptual. It does not require thought. It does not require proof. It is our primary knowledge, and it is aware. We might say that this awareness is limited to my body. But all living beings seem to have this sense. So existence for living beings is a form of awareness. Those of us who have experienced bliss, know that it seems related to loosing all sense of a personal self, resulting in a vast sense of pure subjectivity. 

Since those ecstatic experiences are so meaningful, they impart a deep sense of truth. If my personal self is ultimately a limited form of this universal self, I infer that all other living beings are ultimately this universal self. It really does make sat, chit, ananda (existence, consciousness, bliss) real for me. 

This is my argument as to why I believe consciousness is fundamental. It is certainly a bigger step to conclude that the universe as a whole is a projection in consciousness. But I think Advaita has made that pretty clear. Bernardo Kastrup is making the case from the scientific and philosophical areas of knowledge. 

Beautiful Surrender

If you take consciousness to be fundamental, consciousness becomes the God or spirit of everything. In this sense everything is a spiritual manifestation and physicality is an image on the screen of awareness. This makes the physical world a subset with its own parameters. Some of us are saying this subset is not adequate to prove or disprove the subjective, as it is the prime mover. Thinking this deeply and trying to put it into words, pretty much drops me into a feeling of awe. The mystery of this inability feels like the truth of our condition. This pretty much puts me in agreement Jidu Krishnamurti. The only adequate response is surrender to trusting the unknown.

Sometimes I think back to the time when I was reading heavily J. Krishnamurti. He is perhaps the best proponent of dropping all conditioning. He was nonstop for 60 years teaching that until all conditioning was dropped one could not know truth at all. And, he didn't replace it with anything. He took his stance in unknowing. 

There is a glitch perhaps, even in his teaching, for in the end, he did talk about a presence that becomes available. I don't think he ever named it. Certainly, he didn't call it God. 

During my J.K. time I recall looking into a sheep's eyes, or a cow's eyes and acknowledging that the basic awareness they had was no different than mine, just filtered through a different lens. 

If you have to take internal states as ontological proof, you do have a problem, because you would also have to acknowledge that a schizophrenic's reality has the same value as your own. Generally speaking, we could say if your internal state does not allow you to function in the outside world, perhaps a reexamination is in order. Of course, this is where science comes in. And, this is why science is so valuable as a bulwark against living in fantasy land. 

I'm pretty much in line with believing that bringing science and religion into a coherent relationship is necessary for the flowering of both. A relationship between the two would bring honesty back to both. One without the other seems to leave us subject to fantasy on one side and the atomic bomb on the other.

Authority

Most authority is earned, but discernment is required. Just because someone is an authority does not make them right. It is also stupid to discard all those with authority in their field. To be logical and rational is extremely important. It is also important to listen to your inner voice and intuition. In the end we have to become our own authority with humility towards others.

Good and Bad

The sage may say there is no distinction between good and bad. That's certainly the position from the Absolute. I get it. But, while in form in the relative creation, good and bad exist, and one who doesn't observe the distinction, joins the Absolute rather quickly.