Ego As A Pet

In the end it is just being able to identify Awareness as the real Self and not the ego. We don't get rid of the ego, we see it as a friendly pet trying to help us navigate the world. If you experience emptiness, that's OK. It's just the ego feeling less important.

My experience is a shift where the ego drops into the background and one is aware of eternal existence as awareness itself. Thinking quiets down, but is still available for navigating the world.

I always sought the Truth. I was not trying to be good, or saintly, just resolving the itch that something was missing. I do feel that awakening/realization does tend to make one less selfish, kinder, etc. And while thinking is still there, it is less personal and few conflicts.

Own Authority

Why do we end up being our own ultimate authority? Only we know when the search is over, when the pressure stops and we feel at ease. All the sages say the Self is ineffable. That doesn't mean we can't feel known, or knowing, however indescribable the Self may be.

Dregs Of The Ego

We are never done. Never as woke as we might be. However, I do think we come to a point where the search is essentially over. We know who we are, the Self. From then on it is refinement, catching more subtlety, and certainly watching the dregs of the ego still appearing now and then.

Not Separate

We are are a piece of the Divine. Our essence is nothing other than the Divine. Our separation is apparent, but not ultimately real. Therefore our true self is the Divine, one and only. We feel separate. We search and search and finally surrender to the truth that we are not separate, and find our self the Divine, not separate after all.

The Individual and the Spiritual Quest

The place of the individual in the spiritual quest is always unique. The approach will be individual based on the person's belief's and culture as well as their brain's architecture. Some will say that past lives may also influence their spiritual quest.

If then, the spiritual quest is always unique, each individual will have to do self inquiry, contemplation, or any number of spiritual techniques to come to the point of becoming their own authority.

The spiritual quest is only over when the individual determines for himself that the spiritual search is done. No one outside of the self can be the determiner.

The individual may use and consider any outside authority for information and advice in the spiritual quest. However, no outside authority has the final word on what the answer is for any seeker.

Since the spiritual search is by necessity a search for the connection between the individual and the creator, it is the personal connection, the personal revelations, and personal insight that are the final authority.

One's own authority, in the end, is the only authority in the spiritual quest that is free. This freedom may include surrender to the Divine, the ultimate connection. 

One Lord

"He who calls on me by whatever name is mine, and dear to me." The good Lord is one, the names and rituals of any religion are different, but there is only One Lord, by whatever name.

The Real Perceiver

If you look out with your eyes you have a field of vision. If you actually look at what you see as a field, and not as separate objects, you see a nondual scene. It is easily observed that your body is in the field, and part of the field. The only thing that is not in the field is Awareness. 

It is easy to know that the eyes are seeing the field, that the brain is interpreting the field. But is it easy to realize that awareness is the perceiver?  

Two people purveying the scene will have different thoughts or feelings about the scene, but the awareness is the same in both observers. 

Awareness is simple, non judgmental, always available. Awareness is the real perceiver, not the eyes, not the personal you. You are That Awareness. It is the real you. 

End of the Search

Some people get a spiritual seeking urge that they do not seem to be in control of. It is always an intuition that something deeper needs to be known. I had many ecstatic and mystical experiences. They were the most profound experiences I ever had. But, they didn't make me feel enlightened, or awake. They were more like messages that could not be ignored. Experiences are, I think, just half of the equation. The other half is that the intellect has to work through all its beliefs and conditions that the experiences invalidate. 

It was just a late night quiet reading of Robert Wolff's book, "Living Originally" where at a certain point I said to myself, "I know that I know." This is a paradoxical statement in that there are two I's. It seems that Awareness as Source and the individual person recognize the oneness at once. That's the best I can state this. 

Yes, coming to the end of the search is a big relief. The unrelenting pressure to search stops. But, since this is the most profound pursuit a person can have, the rest of one's life will likely be filled with simple curiosity about the trip, how other people experience it, and interpret it. I no longer feel the goad of the search, but am endlessly curious about the process in anyone who is caught in it, or their descriptions of the end of the search and its aftermath. 

The end of the pressure to search is not the end of the road. There are endless refinements that will be seen to need attention, more subtle insights, and efforts to live the insights. Non duality is the ultimate condition, but the individual appearance, or focal point, has its own contribution to the whole.

Awakening a Saint

Awakening may give us a profound insight into the nature of reality. The awakening may affect us deeply and cause changes in our personality in a good way. However, insight into the nature of reality does not necessarily make a person good, or saintly. It's just an insight. It may be more profound than other insights, but it doesn't bestow sainthood.

The sense of completeness happens, when after a long search, one feels finally, I understand. This is often after a number of mystical experiences and profound contemplation. When the pressure of the search relaxes, it feels like the end of the road. But it is not the end, it's just that the major question of Being is answered, or known.

So, although there may be a sense of finality about the search being over, the personality, with all its quirks and issues remains. One can then carry on, but to think that the end of the search creates perfection in the person is naive. The evidence of the fallen gurus proves this point. The rest of one's life can be dedicated to living up to the insight, which is perhaps the path after enlightenment. Seekers also have a responsibility to keep this in mind, and should not put teachers on a pedestal as a perfect being.