Have you asked yourself numerous times this question?
Sometimes life throws us curveballs that challenge or set us back. We question why we were put in a particular situation or why hardships manifest. In a recent event in my life, I was trying to understand my trail of thoughts and I had this question, just like anyone of you may have asked - What is Enlightenment?
Enlightenment has too many meanings and misconceptions. Hence, I would prefer the word Self-realisation. Self-realisation is a moment at which one comes to know who "I AM" really, or our true identity.
It is JUST realising that we are not the body or emotion.
How to achieve Self-realisation one may ask...
Self-realisation through self-enquiry or Jnana Yoga (Path of Knowledge / Path of Realisation)
Before understanding this, one needs to understand 3 concepts:
1) Subconscious / Unconscious (This is a part of the mind)
Thoughts and actions that we learned so well, we does not do them consciously. For example, driving a car - While learning to drive a car, we need to do it consciously. If someone talks to us, we lose the lane. Later we are able to drive effortlessly even while talking. So here we can see driving was from the conscious initially then gradually sunk to the subconscious.
2) Mind / Individual consciousness
Collection of all the thoughts and beliefs from child hood - This is what every human being identify himself/herself with, before self-realisation.
3) Lower/Personality Ego
All survival strategies/defense mechanisms are natural and learned to form the lower/personality Ego. Let's refer to it as 'Personality Ego'. The personality Ego is one's 'operating personality', the part of us that interacts with the world, that plans and then judges itself and life depending on if external and internal expectations were met or not.
The personality Ego is the part of us that feels satisfaction if it gets what it wants. Everyone has an Ego if we are incarnated in a body. But this personality Ego component can be dense and saturated with karmic imprints (as in most people) or transparent and without its own agenda (as it is with ascended people – in them the personality Ego and the Higher Self are indistinguishable).
The personality Ego forms inside each lifetime, we do not bring it with us – we build it. It consists of the upbringing influences (how we were raised), genetic influences (what strength and weaknesses of the personality our DNA carries from the ancestors), and karmic influences (what unresolved issues we dragged in from other lifetimes to work on and hopefully resolve in this one).
Peace comes within the soul when we realise our oneness with the Universe, when we realise it is really everywhere, it is within each one of us.
Every living organism starting from viruses, bacteria, tigers, and lions to orang utans and human beings has just 1 instinct.
SURVIVAL
Every action or thought an organism does consciously and subconsciously is for survival.
In order to survive better, every organism including humans acts with violence. Violence is every conscious and subconscious thought and action, which reduces the chances of survival of other organisms.
It includes arguing to prove we are right, competing, jealousy, fear, judging others and themselves, expectation, conditional love, and so on. Unconscious / Subconscious violence includes gestures, like frowning, making fun of others, keeping hands on the trunk, and any body language or actions to show dominance is violence. These are all expressions of the ego. Violence is the survival strategy of every organism with lower states of consciousness.
For example, a dog chases another dog in its territory. Because it thinks if the other dog comes to its territory it has to share its resources like food, which in turn reduces its chance of survival and procreation. It's natural. Nothing wrong with it. Because a dog cannot think of better alternatives.
Similarly, humans show behaviors like anger, fear, competition, and so on, on others to gain more access to resources thereby increasing the chances of survival, as a means of protection for oneself status or emotions. This is natural because humans also have survival instincts just like animals. Also, many of these behaviors are learned from childhood, i.e social conditioning. All these together form the mind.
Being with the evolved mind, in other words, a higher level of individual consciousness responds differently. Their survival strategies are more evolved by honest self-enquiry. Rather than thinking about competition and how they can survive, they help others to survive. Consciously or subconsciously thoughts like anger, fear, competition, etc are replaced by thoughts of compassion and cooperation.
Hence, whenever a person comes in contact with an enlightened person they feel inner peace. Because an enlightened being never poses any conscious or subconscious threat to any other being.
The process of observing, accepting, and replacing thousands of violent natural responses and preconditioning is called self-purification or mind purification, or evolution of consciousness. This is how a human can evolve from an 'animal-like' (survival instinct) to a divine being.
An evolved being can CREATIVELY / SPONTANEOUSLY find compassionate ways to respond in present without depending on the past, such that it makes good for everyone, not just its own survival. This does not require ego/mind/past learning/past social conditioning. This is called ego-death (ego is still present but one doesn't choose to respond based on it).
At this stage, one doesn't need mind/ego/past conditioning, to respond to the present situation. One response spontaneously or creatively. This is called being in the present or mindfulness. When one does not want to choose to respond with ego/violence, one is left to respond with compassion/unconditional love for everyone and everything or not to respond at all, irrespective of how others treat them.
Now we understand what is mind and how not to use it and RESPOND spontaneously. THEN WHO IS RESPONDING?
It's not the mind, it's not the body then who is left out of ego-death.
ITS CONSCIOUSNESS/ SELF/ SOUL/ GOD/ SUPREME CONSCIOUSNESS...(we can give our own name to it).
I can only mention the word CONSCIOUSNESS. To know what it is reader/seeker has to realise himself/herself. Nobody can guide, no words, books or scriptures can help here.
Assuming enlightenment as a complex/great thing is one of the main hurdles to getting enlightened. Words cannot explain consciousness (universal consciousness)/ self/ soul..because it has no attributes and no references from the past. But it's very simple. We miss it not because it's very complex, but because it's unimaginably simple.
To see things as they are, one needs a pure mind.
Realising this is called SELF-REALISATION/ ENLIGHTENMENT/ AWAKENING/ TRANSCENDENCE/ GOD-REALISATION...
Now the identity 'I' changed from mind to something that has no shape, volume, or any attribute. It exists forever because time is also a creation of the mind. So this new 'I' will not die or change.
When one does not identify with the mind. all its contents and creations like memories, sorrows, pain, joy, happiness, success, failure, death, time, etc...will not affect the newfound identity i.e soul/consciousness. Because there is nothing to affect. After enlightenment, one identifies oneself with nothingness (closest word). Thus enlightenment bring bliss, freedom from suffering, ends the struggle for survival, and so on..
This self-enquiry is one of the ways to self-realisation.
Mountain peaks can be reached through infinite routes.
If this article, resonates with you, deep down you know the answer.
"I allow myself to heal"
Do connect with me, I love to hear from you 💞
*****
SPIRITUALITY is not about religion, beliefs, dogmas, it is about MASTERING The SKILLS to LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST.
Each of us will want to lead more balanced, joyful, and fulfilled lives.
I hope you find this information helpful, or at least enlightening to some degree, and please share with your friends as this knowledge might help them to find their center and manifest towards a healthy lifestyle and be able to enjoy life to the fullest.
*****
Peace, Love & Gratitude 💞
PranaLife Thrive Centre
Contact me @ 011 1670 3368
lizpranalife@gmail.com
www.pranalifethrive.com
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