Life after enlightenment is completely different to, yet exactly the same as, life before enlightenment. The still, silent backgroud awareness becomes the foreground, and the objects of experience fade into the background.
Most people are suffering from mistaken identity. The self-we-think-we-are was created by our mind, so it cannot awaken because it’s not ontologically real. We have to awaken from that false-self in order to awaken and realise our true-Self.
This article covers meditation posture, difficulties and distractions, the two main types of meditation, and it finishes by guiding you through a simple meditation practice. It’s not difficult – in fact it’s the simplest thing to sit in pure awareness.
Meditation is often used for stress relief and relaxation – to relieve the symptoms of an ego-driven life, but it was originally intended to be a way of dis-identifying with the ego-self and developing a deeper connection with our true-Self.
Effective healing and reintegration requires the soul’s presence to intimately connect with the exile, hole or ego structure. Put simply, it requires taking the “healer” (the soul) to the “patient” (the exile, hole or ego structure).
The ego is a mind-created “problem”, so it cannot be “solved” by the mind. We have to use a higher level of consciousness – the pure awareness of our soul. Presence is embodied pure awareness – a palpable feeling of fullness within the body.
how much free-will do we have if we live most of our life on autopilot? Will is not free if it is bound by the effects of our conditioned behaviours. Will is only free if we have sufficient conscious awareness to use it in a considered manner.
A human being isn’t a single entity, but a composite of several distinct yet integrated components. Each is an independent consciousness that operates on its own plane of consciousness, yet they all work together as a unified whole.
Before we can permanently rediscover our true-Self, we need to neutralise the “inauthentic” charge of our false-self. This involves Becoming Self (he psychological aspect) and Being Self (the spiritual aspect of the path).
There are two main types of ego structure, each of which requires a different approach to healing and reintegration: (1) Protective Structures are created to protect us from the distressed exiled parts of our being. (2) Coping Structures help us to function in the world without our authentic personal qualities.
The degree of authentic personality that we are able to express is proportional to the number of ego structures we have, and the degree to which we are identified with them. Our true-nature shines out from the core of our being through our personality. If the personality is full of ego structures the light of our true-nature is blocked, so our expression is more likely to be inauthentic.
The Self is both a field of consciousness and a point of consciousness, which is the core of our being. The Self (or monad) is the centre of our field of awareness (or soul), and our field of awareness (or soul) is an extension of our Self. The Self has two primary functions: Directing our life (intelligent will) and Experiencing our life (intelligent awareness).