Buddha’s step by step instructions to obtain Enlightenment
Practices at very deep end of the Ultimate Path to Liberation.
There IS a Way…
And this is it.
For those that have already been inspired to integrate
a daily meditation practice into their life
and has developed the volition to take it deeper.
For those that have philosophically contemplated
“The meaning of Life”,
Along with how their life fits into “The timeless Wonder of it All”.
What is the True Nature of my Being?
What could be the general concepts of what we call ‘God’, beyond
the limiting confines of the mythic literal religions?
If you are ready to learn the answers to these questions,
then this series of articles will help inspire a Path
that will lead you to those ineffable answers.
But first,
Lets sort out what type of person is one that is
earnestly curious of such mystical contemplations,
and how psychologically balanced and spiritually evolved
does one need to be to effectively begin this profound journey.
Most people inherit a religion that continues a tradition.
They feel it’s a great place to socialize and mingle with likeminded folks.
Most of those people settle for their inherited religion based on three factors.
Combining:
the ignorance
of not knowing about the higher states of consciousness
or that there is a Path to Enlightenment.
Denial
of the atrocities inflicted by the ‘church’,
And,
Laziness –
Most people don’t even regularly attend their own church
or spend any quality time in deep spiritual contemplation each day
to experientially deepen their connection to ‘Spirit’,
even in their own religion’s foundational essence.
Most feel that all they have to do to save their soul is to say
“Yea”,
To whatever question the man at the make-believe “Pearly Gates”
will ask upon arrival.
But more often than not,
Religions, by their nature,
do not address an unbiased search for the Ultimate Truths.
They do not transcend to higher aspects and grow…
They just stick with whatever doctrines and dogmas they started with.
Often made up by archaic misogynistic men that:
Considered women to have no rights.
Slavery was perfectly normal and fine with them.
Thought the Earth was flat.
Didn’t know where the sun went at night.
~~~
If these limiting perspectives from outdated traditions no longer fulfill
your heart and soul’s desire to learn the higher Ultimate Truths…
One will be inspired to dive deeply enough into
the classic philosophical questions of life…
It soon becomes a limitless personal spiritual Path.
WARRNING!
ONCE YOU START…
YOU CAN’T TURN BACK TO MYTHIC LITERAL SKY GOD TRADITIONS.
Kind of like learning the truth about Santa Clause…
You can never again buy into the myth.
~~~
Along of one’s Spiritual Path…
There are metrics that convey the depth one is at on this Path.
Curiosity transforms into a desire to know more about
the ‘Absolute Truths’ of Life
and whatever follows and precedes it.
This starts innocently enough without religion,
but with an almost scientific philosophy mindset.
The type of spiritual Path or religion one is attracted to,
aside from those that blindly inherit one,
Is largely a factor of one’s stage of psychological evolvement.
One with a child like mind,
ether a child or an adult that is ‘arrested in development’
will likely be attracted to one of the ‘Cave Man Gods’.
For those that are a wee bit more evolved…
The Greek God’s fulfill their religious fantasies.
For the majority of our population, they will fall for the
myth, magic, miracles, doctrines, and dogmas of religions…
For those even more evolved on a psychological growth scale…
They will see past the smoke & mirrors that makes most religions at best,
a brick wall dead end to seeking the
unbiased Ultimate non-reducible absolute truths and one’s personal place
in this ‘timeless wonder of it all’.
This is called Spirituality…
It’s about as opposite to religion as one can get…
And that’s a good start.
In fact,
When one’s practice deepens enough,
The insights will reveal their True Nature and
a clearer understanding of what it is that they once considered…
“God”.
It is not the archaic ‘cave man’ version…
Nor is it
The ego based Greek Gods that were created by archaic men that simply projected
what they would do if they were a ‘god’…
Like having their way with the most beautiful earth women…
And it is not the child like ‘sky god’ perspective of most religions.
These archaic perspectives will not recognize an Enlightened Master
and ignorantly call them an Atheist.
In most religions,
one can hope and pray to a projected of what they think is ‘God’,
that they will go to “heaven”. Yet another man made up place.
In fact,
In the spiritual traditions – “Nirvana” is not at all a “place” one goes to…
It is just a way to perceive reality right now in this life,
in a way that is not veiled by the misinterpretations most people have created to support their false identity…
their ego mind body self.
But,
if all you want to do is petition an imaginary sky “god”
to bring you to a man made up place called “heaven”…
Then there will be no reason to read these words of Wisdom.
However,
If that does not satisfy your ‘soul’… or the curiosities of your Higher Conscious…
Then,
These are the essential steps towards the Ultimate freedom of Liberation.
Once Awakened,
the veils that obscure reality dissolve and the relief of knowing, experientially
the Ultimate Truths of our True nature
will feel like the Bliss that the projections of ‘heaven’ would feel like.
For those that are so inspired…
There is a Way.
~~~
Most people don’t mindfully research and seek out a religion.
Most often one inherits a religion, from their family or community,
with no say or thought in the matter in it at all.
While most folks will do heaps of research before
investing into a new car or new high-tech toy…
But
for the most profound subject a human being can contemplate…
Most people mindlessly accept their parents’ religion in a blasé way,
so strongly though,
that there is never any interest in at least doing a wee bit of research
into how they cast their perspectives and live their lives with respect to
the ultimate timeless reality of our True Nature.
But
for those few that heard that call of these Ultimate Wisdoms,
the whispers of wordless Wisdoms…
that feel there is much more to life, our life,
and our place in this timeless wonder of it all…
For those seekers of Truth…
it doesn’t take far into this Path to come to
‘the point of no return’ and seek the fulfillment of this Path.
The goal of this Path is Liberation.
One prerequisite is “Self” realization,
which contemplates the classic philosophic question of
“Who am I”.
With the Sanskrit tool of “Neti-Neti”… not this… not that…
One can use negative deduction
to eliminate all the aspects of our assumed “self” perception
that is NOT our True Being…
like:
we are not our bodies, not our brains, nor our thoughts or even memories…
While most people firmly believe they are all of those
and especially their egos,
knowing with an unshakable certainty with “neti-neti”…
We are not this, not that… and none of the above aspects…
One will go a long way on their Spiritual Journey, Path or Sadhana, Upasana…
One should ask themselves:
“Who is it then, that is… aware of being… Aware?”
The answer to that question points directly to the source of
our True Nature.
In the Advaita Vedanta tradition:
Our “I am-ness” will be the main theme that one
maintains a mindfulness of each moment along the journey towards…
Liberation.
In Buddhism – contemplating the “Three Characteristics” of :
impermanence, dissatisfactoriness, and no-self.
This helps understand the True Nature of things.
Another prerequisite is to be able to achieve and maintain a
focused concentration…
A ‘one pointedness’.
This in part is achieved by a daily mediation practice.
“Mediation” at its highest perspective means a lot more than
just counting your breath for 10 minutes in the morning.
When meditation includes breath control, it also controls the prana,
the life force similar like the energetic flow that acupuncture has established.
When mediation begins to deepen one’s ability to
focus on an object of meditation to exclusion of all other distractions…
This combination will offer profound “Insights”.
This series outlines the advanced stages of a meditation practice that once mastered will lead one through:
The progress of Spiritual “Insights”
that all earnest seekers from all spiritual traditions have gone through
along their Path to Liberation.
In the next section:
I’ll cover the Three Trainings that are essential to one’s Path to Liberation.
Morality
Training in morality has as its domain all the physical, verbal, and mental behaviors
belonging to every single aspect of life that is not explicitly meditative.
Concentration
To be able to Tune in to anything smooth, flowing, and nice
about what you are concentrating on and experiencing.
Insight Wisdom
To understand some specific aspects of the sensations
that make up our present experience.
By training in insight,
we can improve how we fundamentally perceive reality at a bare sensate level,
such that our actual sensate experience becomes progressively clearer.
