“Zenfully Quool Quotes”
By Jackson Peterson
Jackson Peterson –
Trained my Masters in numerous traditions in person all around the world.
Jackson accumulates a lifetime of ‘Non-dual’ practice into
a well-informed perspective of:
“Sudden Enlightenment”.
A very in-depth complex read that
renders the perspectives of “Enlightenment”,
into a very simple and straight forward concept…
Then,
Takes you to the proverbial question…
“Then What?”
Time for a new perspective:
Das Energie: A final Theory of Everything That Cannot Be Falsified?
Have you ever wondered why no one seems to become stably “enlightened” or “awakened”?
Even the most famous and respected teachers often turn out to be predatory alcoholics, abusive to students and incorrigible narcissists and charlatans.
No one has ever reported or confessed to me in my over 60 years of being a Buddhist practitioner as well as being a teacher in other traditions as well, that they have managed to become stably enlightened or even free from normal human suffering.
Perhaps it is because of the fact that fictional “magical thinking” became foundational.
Even though materialism was rejected, their downfall was because of not understanding the true nature of the “material”, while assuming awareness or consciousness was the sacred foundation.
They thought they could tame the material aspects of bodily energy by mind or consciousness alone.
But mind doesn’t control energy,
because mind and mental states are modulations of the physical energies themselves,
but not as emergent by-products, rather, they are identical in nature; like water and ice. See?
It’s been a hopeless approach and has proven so… as
a “mind versus the physical” mistaken narrative. Awareness and the physical aren’t two.
Awareness is the subtle knowing aspect of physical energy itself.
Again,
energy appears AS mind and awareness under certain conditions and
appears as physicality under other conditions; but
energy is the common substrate.
Interdependent energy always directs the show, free of separate, imaginary active participants and agents of causation. Nothing else exists as a controller, creator or manager of energy’s displays.
In such an energy domain of total relational interdependence,
leaves no room for free-will nor independent personal selves.
These failed teachers and students labor under the mistaken belief that an “independent self” not only exists but can break free from its karmic, mental and physical identifications by realizing itself to be an untouched and unconditioned entity of pure awareness; now no longer identified with the physical body, subtle body or mental self-images.
But upon closer inspection, that “seeking self” can’t be found to exist even energetically!
Upon this becoming clear,
the whole house of cards collapses.
When the illusory subject ceases being generated by the brain, the conceived objects vanish
as no one remains to experience them.
What remains is non-dual through and through.
Non-Duality was always the intrinsic nature of this infinite field of energy.
Not knowing this experientially as a sudden cessation of the self illusion,
these teachers string themselves and their students along in the hopeless effort
to liberate and enlighten a non-existent self! See?
Sometimes the deepest discoveries aren’t hidden.
They’re not at the end of some complicated philosophical argument or
buried beneath a mountain of math.
They’re right in front of us. Or maybe they are us.
They’re the very eyes we’re using to search for something else.
~
This isn’t about religion or science or spirituality or physics.
It’s more direct than that.
It doesn’t depend on whether you believe in God or the Big Bang or consciousness
or the 17 quantum fields or the 4D block universe or string theory or the Buddha or the Tao.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re a materialist, a mystic, a realist, or a poet.
Because this isn’t about ideas anymore.
It’s about something so close, so direct, so unavoidable that it can’t be escaped—
only overlooked in concept.
Energy as the most essential foundation can appear under certain circumstances as
consciousness, mental and cognitive, and in other circumstances as
inanimate, physical and material. It is the neutral Ground.
And here’s the claim:
Consciousness is not fundamental, energy is.
Everything you’ve ever experienced, seen, touched, thought, felt, imagined, remembered, forgotten, desired, or feared is energy.
Not something made of energy. Is energy. There’s no deeper stuff hiding beneath it.
Thought is energy.
Feeling is energy.
Perception is energy.
Time, memory, identity—just energy modulating.
Atoms, stars, death, love, birth, thoughts, language, breath—only energy.
The body? Only energy.
The self you think you are? A fluctuation of mental energy.
Now, let’s be clear. This isn’t some poetic metaphor.
It’s not just an inspiring way to think about the world. It’s the actual structure of existence, whether you look at it through a microscope or sit still and watch your own mind.
Even Einstein said it plainly:
E = mc².
Matter IS energy. Energy and matter are not different things. And
energy can’t be destroyed,
only transformed.
They are different appearances of the same underlying energy field.
And that field is never still—
it’s always moving, shaping, shifting, appearing as form, dissolving again.
So we can call it whatever we like—God, Brahman, Self, Awareness, the holographic principle, Buddha Nature, consciousness, the Tao, quantum fluctuation, or the zero-point field.
But all of those are just names. None of them touch the thing itself.
The energy is prior to the name. The energy is what the name is trying to name.
In this case, both the map and the territory are equally energy.
This is true Non-Duality,
clearly known when all designated names and labels fall away.
And here’s what energy doesn’t need:
It doesn’t need a controller.
It doesn’t need a creator.
It doesn’t need a meaning.
It doesn’t need a reason to be.
It just is. It’s what everything already is. And it moves of its own accord, not as chaos
but with a kind of self-guiding, intrinsic intelligence—
not a conscious thinker, not a will outside of itself,
but a patterning power within itself like DNA and the laws of physics.
That’s how it forms into atoms, into molecules, into living cells,
into brains that look up and ask what it all means.
~
So what is consciousness?
It’s a subtle energy appearing as mental cognition.
It’s the mind-wave of energy.
It’s not something separate from the physical—
just a subtler modulation of the same energetic field.
Prana, Chi, Kundalini, chakras and subtle bodies are all equally modulations of energy.
What are emotions?
Joy, grief, anger, peace—
they’re all just waveforms of energy, rising and passing.
Energy isn’t moral or immoral, ethical or unethical, not beautiful or ugly, holy or evil,
neither love nor hate, blissful nor painful, better or worse, not right or wrong.
It is simply what everything always IS.
What is meditation?
It’s what happens when the energetic pattern of mental naming and labeling quiets down,
and the energy returns to its more subtle state—
still, conscious, clear, open and yet energetically vibrant.
And what is the self?
Nothing but a temporary pattern of neural networks.
A loop of subconscious energetics.
A name written on a wave of impersonal brain activity.
~
Now here’s the paradox: you don’t have to believe any of this.
Because it’s already your experience.
Look around. Every single thing you see is energy.
Every thought that’s running in your head as you read this is energy.
The fact that you’re even aware is just energy folding in on itself in the mode of
energetic knowingness.
So let’s get down to it. What’s this new theory of everything?
It’s not a theory in the scientific sense—though it includes all science.
It’s not a spiritual revelation—though it includes all mysticism.
It’s not a philosophy—though it collapses all prior categories.
It’s this:
Everything that exists is energy.
There is only energy.
Energy is what is.
Awareness IS energy.
Everything else is a name we place on a ripple.
~
And here’s the best part: it cannot be falsified.
Not because it’s protected from critique, but because every possible attempt to falsify it
is itself made of energy.
Quantum Fields are energy, the 4D Block Universe is energy, the Multiverse is energy,
black holes are energy … the entire universe is energy.
Every argument, every objection, every measuring device, every philosopher,
every counter-theory—all are composed of the very thing the theory is about:
energy.
This is not circular reasoning. It’s self-inclusive truth.
The kind of truth that isn’t an idea—it’s the substance of everything,
including the one who thinks about it.
~
So what now?
Sit with it. Look around.
Notice all experiences, mental and perceptual are all equally modulations of energy,
including the observer.
Thoughts energetically arising as various names and labels
create a subtle mental world that reifies those same very names and labels
as though their narratives represent objectively and independently existing subjects and objects. But since all phenomena have no duration, their mentally reified existence must be imaginary.
This only applies to everything and everyone’s imagined existence
seeming to be continuing through time.
All apparent structures of energy are impermanent and ungraspable;
including the observer.
Energy is the one thing that can’t be successfully denied,
because any counter-argument is itself just another form of energy itself…
see?
You are only energy;
whoever and whatever you observe is yourself,
because there is only one field of universal energy.
~
Establishing the View
Practice like this:
In general, whatever you are currently experiencing; consider
“this is all energy”.
If a thought is noticed, mentally note:
“this thought is just impersonal energy”.
All energy is impersonal, because me and mine are both conceptual fictions.
If an emotion like fear, anxiety, sadness, anger, love, hate or joy is experienced, mentally note
“this emotion is just impersonal energy belonging to no one”.
If physical sensations like pain or pleasure occur, mentally note;
“these are all just impersonal energies”.
So whether colors, forms, sounds, flavors, odors, sensations or feeling are perceived,
mentally note;
“these are just forms of impersonal, universal energy, belonging to no one “.
Apply the same to events and all situations, states of mind, people, creatures, plants and physical objects perceived; mentally noting
“these are all “just impersonal energies”,
without any added value judgements regarding good, bad or neutral.
Energy has no such preferences or bias…
like space.
During meditation:
Just observe all phenomena; thoughts, cognitive experiences and perceptions while noting:
“these are just impersonal energy appearances, belonging to no one”.
Next observe one’s own self referencing as “me” and “I”
as being just the impersonal energetics of brain activity:
“not me, not mine and not myself”.
Energy itself is free to transform continuously only because
it has no fixed identity to limit its freely appearing momentarily
as this or momentarily as that.
In the end,
everything is reducible to being a momentary flash of energy,
self-organizing and thoroughly ungraspable yet being undividable Whole.
Separating awareness or consciousness from energy is a fundamental error.
It is energy which appears AS awareness,
not energy emerging FROM awareness.
Energy is fundamental. Otherwise rocks would be conscious.
———————————-
Zenfully Quool Quotes Quommentary
by rog
The conundrums of…
“Enlightenment”.
I have read in various accounts by:
Daniel Ingram, Culadasa, Av Neryal
And a few more ‘experts’ on the subject
all outline the various ways the various traditions misinterpret…
“Enlightenment”.
During my early years on ‘the Path’,
so many books described “Enlightenment”
in such a nearly impossible achievement…
How long will it take?
A common answer was written:
“You’d have to experience more lifetimes
than all the leaves in a forest of mango trees”
Somehow this did not discourage me from continuing on my Path …
Although,
I dropped all expectations on becoming ….
“Enlightened”.
I did pursue every practice that could lead to
“Insight Meditation”… The ‘Jhana’ states.
A few years ago,
my efforts transformed into an ‘effortless’ aspect…
I naturally just let go… of everything…
The body become so comfortable… I could not move…
nor did I want to move… way to peaceful…
The mind became so… still… I just sat in an undisturbedly bliss…
As it were.
These repeated,
in time I was able to ‘drop in’ faster and deeper…
Yet,
Even though I was perhaps within striking range of some final fruition…
I never seemed to have any desire to reach a point
in which could be described as…
“fully Enlightened”.
Rather,
I was content to just … Be.
The flow was taking me somewhere I felt was where I needed to go.
It took many years of intense focus and intentions and much practice…
Involving most of my waking time and even continuing
often in the dream states.
Heaps of effort…
Then,
Those ‘break throughs’.
Even currently, after a number of months of allow ‘life’ to filter in…
Somehow, in a wordless way…
The pursuit of “Enlightenment” seems sort of like
chasing a carrot on a stick.
Chasing after ‘the rainbows end’…
But, nevertheless.
I again, on account of the devastating dire shift in our economy…
I find more time on my hands…
and a deep desire not to ruminate on it.
So,
The curiosity of what’s beyond the next big sit spurs me on.
Without a goal to become “Enlightened”…
Just to … Be… in a less & less distracted sense.
Instead of the attachment to the moving target of ‘Enlightenment’…
A natural sense of some sort of ‘understanding’
seems to be more of a natural inclination.
I’ve read Jackson Peterson’s accounts of a naturally arising Samadhi with a tree…
I too in the last few years have similar, but different tree Samadhi’s…
A sort of ‘oneness’ with new, old, falling and compost leaves…
A profound inseparableness to my awareness and all of that…
And
All that ‘is’…
Without a trace of a ‘me’ to be experienced during theses events.
This post you just presented seems to explain what I’m experiencing…
Energy.
There is nothing to do or pursue… nor to improve or complicate.
After a lifetime of contemplating complex philosophies
and various spiritual traditions…
It all seems to boil down to a very simple concept.
So simple that it’s easy to dismiss.
I find that in the last few years,
I spend less time ‘thinking’ or contemplating with the mind…
It all feels tedious compared to just…
Being.
But,
When I come across your posts…
It is still intriguing when I read
what my wordless experiences seem to reveal.
