The first thing you should know about what you're about to read is that it's not Truth. And this is good, because it relieves you of having to try to parse the message, or follow any advice. If you'd like to take something away from this post, and I advise you not to, just jump to the last line now. It's the only sentence possibly worth taking a good long look at. A pointer to freedom is there if you're willing to do the work.
If you're still determined to read through to the end, however, let's get started. We'll take it from the top:
The Teachings
What concepts do the most prevalent teachings about enlightenment share?
1. There's No You.
2. There's nothing but nothing. It's sometimes called The Void.
3. It's all one thing.
Not too long ago those seeking the secrets to enlightenment, or maybe just an end to suffering, could join Ruthless Truth, a forum where we'd verbally beat the tar out of the You until with a single look, the reality of your existence was seen for what it is. You Are No Thing. Nothing. And you're not even that, because there is an utter absence where you thought yourself to be. Seeing that one thing brought a lot of people, including me, an amazing new paradigm from which to exist. The success of our group was staggering, and there have been spin-offs with even more exposure and success.
Thanks to Ciaran Healy's direction, People Got Free.
But what happens to the individual after that initial shattering realization has often been a source of hot debate in the online spiritual community. It's caused the splintering of groups, made a few self-described "lost souls", and caused a bit of general mayhem. Reading through the various enlightenment Facebook groups which pop in and out of existence would leave you with the conclusion that this No Self shit is not worth the trouble. From the outside looking in, it seemed to do more harm than good.
It wasn't all bad, though. Some... Many of us moved on to continue to deepen realizations or are actively working on developing a framework from which life is lived to its fullest. A lot of us were able to find refuge in The Void, the big, black nothing of peace. Oneness became a byproduct of seeing that there was no separation, ever.
It still wasn't quite enough to end suffering. There's no living in the Void, and for many, the peace couldn't be sustained. As a matter of fact, our original Ruthless Truth group absolutely imploded after the very public suffering of its founder.
Why?
Ciaran was brilliant in his methods for bringing enlightenment to the masses, and all for free. Through a network of volunteers, he'd delivered the goods with a very simple and elegant formula:
"There is NO YOU. Just FUCKING LOOK!"
Powerful stuff if you had the honesty to push very hard and test that single statement. He'd distilled the teachings to a laser point so sharp it pierced right through any dishonesty, laziness, or doubt. It was a method which bypassed thought and showed people that thought could not be trusted to accurately represent reality. The directive to "JUST LOOK" meant exactly that. No thinking allowed. Enlightenment gold had been struck hard.
The Step We Forgot
Carried away by our initial breakthroughs, we shied away from what we called "aftercare". It was a murky place where the newly liberated drifted at their own speed, along their own trail. We wanted nothing to do with it and left the just-hatched to their own devices. But to be fair, we did this because there was an entire planet of people who had yet to see this one freeing thing. There was a hell of a lot of work to do without getting bogged down in debates about consciousness or awareness. In truth, some like myself, hadn't worked it out for ourselves and could offer little help to anyone else.
The Next Phase
Had we the time, we'd probably have jointly come to the conclusion I'm about to put out here, the Not Truth I told you to disregard.
The fact is, when working with each individual, we stopped too soon. Even while still holding the key to the next phase of freedom, instead of unlocking the next Gate, we all turned around to find new people to help. It's still an extremely worthy effort, but there's room for picking up exactly where we left off, for developing pointers to a deeper kind of freedom that builds on the initial amazing work.
The Key
In telling people to LOOK, as I've said, we were pointing past the thinking mind and into direct experience itself. It wasn't easy. Getting people to abandon the very tool they'd always used to understand the world was like putting a toddler on a Harley and ripping the training wheels off . Some wouldn't do it even as they ranted, screamed, cried and cursed, demanding that we help them SEE.
Breaking the barrier of thought can seem impossible.
Over 250 people, however, made it through within the first year. One by one, they "popped" through the murk of the mind and saw that what they'd been experiencing their entire lives was a clear and pristine view unimpeded by any Self or Little Man in the Head running the show. The Self was seen to be a belief with no substance or counterpart in reality. It was seen for what it was, a fantasy along the lines of Santa or Unicorns. The content of Selfing types of thoughts was proven to be wholly false, and the individual was declared "done". Suffering was unimaginably relieved, but for many, complete freedom was still elusive.
The Next Chapter: A Proposal
Taking that same tool or key, a new Ruthlessly Truthful undertaking should be fleshed out. Volunteers would use the methods which broke through the biggest lie of self, to teach people to find the truth on their own. There would be no end to the life of the tool, and nowhere it couldn't be applied.
The method? Point to the CONCEPT that the truth about ALL thought should also be investigated.
The rule? Thought is real. The content of thought IS NOT.
It's a natural follow up to the initial group's work, a simple but powerful pointer to endless deepening of freedom which leaves no guru, no teacher in its wake. It kills the messenger.
What that means is that this entire post, generated by thought, and read with more thought, is bullshit. Is a sort of lie. The pointers I'm giving are not to the content herein, but to the fact that any idea found here or in that brain and body on the other side of the internet needs to TEST every thought that comes up against the tangible world. Check to see whether the content is truly represented in direct reality.
This isn't a one-time pointer. Unlike No Self which is a single concept, testing thought applies to ideas, concepts, beliefs, teachings... anything which exists solely as RUNNING COMMENTARY. Eventually, resulting realizations which come each time that lie of commentary is peeled back, are life-changing.
All concepts will be identified, by the user. Layer by layer, including all those doubts, worries, cares, and anxieties that have caused so much suffering. Each time they come up, the running commentary should be TESTED against what is ACTUALLY happening in physical reality, right NOW in the immediate present. Does it hold up to that truth? Can the thought be PROVEN to be true? Where is its reality?
As for that last sentence, the only one you really needed to read and test until it clicks, until you understand that it applies to ALL thought which comprises the running commentary in your head.
Thoughts are not reality. Not ever. TEST THIS. ALWAYS.
*Next Post: "Are any thoughts useful?" and "Diving deeper into parsing thought from reality".
photo credit: *MadGardens
Nice, yeah. I've definitely been slipping in and out of this, got lazy, or... just forgot - it's a surprisingly easy thing to forget to do.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder Thass, this is a bomb answer to give for people asking "What comes next?"
I think that it's an entire new phase of this. And I also think StepVhen's work is moving into the phase after this one. That makes an entire framework, no?
ReplyDeleteHave I mentioned that this is an excellent excellent post
ReplyDeleteThanks.
Deletewhat a bombshell!!! Reality vs thought
ReplyDeleteThis is really great stuff. Thanks.
ReplyDelete