--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "richardwillytexwilliams" <willytex@...> wrote: > whynotnow7: > > Of course, once the soul is free, it can go anyplace, > > do anything, think anything, say anything, so it is > > probably likely that if a liberated soul is on here, > > they will speak freely about anything they wish to > > speak about. Nothing to sell. Not above or below > > anyone else. > > > Also, there is the notion that everyone is already > 'enlightened' from birth, but many are not 'realized'.
This notion is interesting because it basically states that reality is here all the time and we are just mis-perceiving it somehow. We can ask the question 'if reality is not here all the time, where would it be?' This is the problem, thinking that reality is somehow not what we are, somehow not where we are. > If being in the enlightened state is a normal state, > then all you have to do is realize it. But, is this a > physiological transformation or a mental transformation? > > If physiological, then what physical process do we > employ in order to gain the realization of our own > enlightenment? If mental, what thought could cause our > mind to realize it's own full potential? Some would say the mantra is a thought that could cause the mind to rise to its full potential. I have nothing against this idea. It is thought that got us into the mess of illusion. The use of a mantra is a strategy for getting us out; the actual mantra may not be the critical aspect of this. Other systems without mantras also have historically worked out too. These procedures do seem to have an effect on the physiology. The transformation is very mysterious because as reality is always present, when the transformation occurs nothing could actually have happened. This intellectually defies logic, but realisation is not a matter of logic, logic is only required in the attempt to understand all this. As if a wearer of eyeglasses forgets he or she is looking through them, searches for them having forgotten they are already in front of the eyes, and then suddenly realises they were there all the time. > The physiological path of realization would probably > involve some physical type of yoga technique. But, a > purely mental realization would require a simple > 'turning about in the seat of concsciouness', by perhaps > just entertaining a particular thought. > > But, the real question is, are we free or bound? If > bound, by what means can we free ourselves? If free, > there would be no need of a yoga anyway. Maybe this isn't a real question. Freedom and bondage are a pair. The realisation that there are certain aspects of life that bind us are inevitable frees us from the need to try to escape those bindings. We no longer waste energy and time at an impossible task. In a very strange sense, paths of enlightenment are an attempt to escape from what is already always going to be the case, a vain attempt to find reality elsewhere, someplace or state that is better than now. When the search finally exhausts itself is when the result comes. > Either way, you're only going to get as much > enlightenment as you are going to get, so it may be > useless to strive for it, at any rate. Striving gives a certain impetus to the process, like diving off a diving board into a pool. Once the board takes over, striving no longer has any effect on the result, but one had to do something to start the process, but how long it is going to take to completely let go is anyone's guess. > So, just Be - it's that simple. I would agree, but just saying that never quite seems to work for most people. This is why we see so many systems for 'self-development' have arisen. There are many catalogues of spiritual type courses and paraphernalia floating through the world's mail systems. Chakra Massage Gem Stones with Diamond Dust Coating Self-Realisation Tablets with Life Spring Water from the Andes Inward Impaction Meditation iSelf Computer Monitor with Cashmere Dust Cover Mega-Self Expansion Exercises Retreat Devotional Metaphysics Training (with free placenta handbag) Mindfulness Garbage Disposal Awareness Seminar Taking the Woo Woo to just Woo Course taught by Mahaswami Boundary Attenuation Transformational Prayer The list goes on and on.
