Reality Options

[maximus242]

Hi everyone, after being away for quite some time I have some new insights to share. Thoughts & opinions on this are always welcome.

Can we design reality?

What a strange question, but one worth considering. Is it possible for us to design reality? To create an entirely different reality with its own set of rules unlike the ones of this universe?

Thinking about this requires that one looks at current scientific theory about the formation of the universe. Aka, the big bang.

Now consider this question. Why does reality behave in the way it does?

Why do things react in the way they do rather than in some other way? Some people think that how atoms interact with each other has to do with the big bang. So perhaps this universe and the laws governing it, are something of random variation.

Meaning, if the big bang were to occur again, it could perhaps lead to an entirely different reality and cause it to work in a completely different way. Hard to imagine, but of course its hard to imagine the universe as anything different than what it is now. Its the only thing we've ever known.

So with this in mind, the universe is not something consisting of set, unmovable laws. Rather it may be no different than a chemical reaction, except this reaction causes atoms to interact with each other in different ways.

The idea is that under super immense force, such as the sum of the entire universe acting on itself. That the fundamental interaction between atoms can change.

Naturally, this is of course theory. However if this is true, then perhaps it is possible to engineer a reaction between atoms in a undefinable space, so that they interact with each other in a way that is different from how the atoms in our universe interact.

Just imagine the possibilities...

[maximus242]

Right, so what I am asking is, if you are enlightened then how can you see one mans trash as a another mans treasure, which is a thing of the Ego, if enlightenment requires the cessation of the Ego.

Also, is not the statement that enlightenment requires the cessation of the Ego also a statement which requires the Ego and therefore negates itself? You have not stated that in your last post but you have said on other occasions that to become enlightened a person must lose their ego.

I do believe that correctness can be more or less an illusion but one must pose the question how can a person be enlightened under the assumption that it requires the cessation of the Ego when that belief in itself requires an Ego to create that belief?

[Joesus]

Right, so what I am asking is, if you are enlightened then how can you see one mans trash as a another mans treasure, which is a thing of the Ego, if enlightenment requires the cessation of the Ego.

Also, is not the statement that enlightenment requires the cessation of the Ego also a statement which requires the Ego and therefore negates itself? You have not stated that in your last post but you have said on other occasions that to become enlightened a person must lose their ego.

I do believe that correctness can be more or less an illusion but one must pose the question how can a person be enlightened under the assumption that it requires the cessation of the Ego when that belief in itself requires an Ego to create that belief?

UNITY CONSCIOUSNESS

The final step of growth of human consciousness comes when the refined value of celestial perception melts into continual awareness of the Absolute on the outside. This is the highest level of enlightenment and is known as Unified Perpetual Consciousness or Unity.

Unity Consciousness sounds impossible from the perspective of the waking state: How can the Infinite be seen, heard, touched, tasted, smelled? It makes sense only from the standpoint of one who has risen to awareness of Infinite Consciousness on the inside. There is no resolution to my heart's longing until every individual, every object is experienced as being the same Infinite Self that I am on the inside. (The essence of "The Bodhisattva Vow")

How does this final stage of growth occur? Through an act of intellectual discrimination, the enlightened individual realizes that the infinite light being experienced on the outside is the same infinite light that is being experienced on the inside. The glorious celestial reality melts into Infinity. Said another way, the individual discovers that his Cosmic Beloved is his own Self. Funnily enough, all love ends up directed back at the Self. It is not directed back at the limited self of the waking state, that self cannot love anything or anyone consistently. The love is directed back at the Universal Cosmic Self of the Enlightened Mind. And that gives us the full awareness that each and everyone of us is a spark of the Divine Flame; each and every one of us is the same beneath all our surface differences.

What sparks this ultimate realization? Certain treatises on the subject of Unity were written by individuals in Unity: the Brahma Sutras of Badarayana, the Upanishads, the Maharamayana (Yoga Vasishtha) of Valmiki, A Course in Miracles. The entire Vedanta (literally, End of the Veda) philosophy of ancient India was designed for those in Exalted Consciousness to rise to Unity.
Another catalyst of this transformation can be the direct words of the fully enlightened to the aspirant standing at the last doorway to Unity: "Thou art That," "All this is That," "There is nothing other than That." "That" of course refers to the Absolute. At the appropriate instant of time, these great words (Mahavakyas) irrevocably crush the last taint of limitation in the mind of the evolving soul. Or this transformation can occur in a countless number of ways; Nature Herself can create the necessary conditions so that it must happen.

Individual life continues to function in Unity because of leshavidya, the "last remains of ignorance."

Karma (action) is divided into two types: that which is returning, regardless of our present actions, and that which lies as if dormant -- dormant because it has no chance to reach us in this lifetime. The results of our past karma are comparable to seeds. A tiny fraction of these seeds have already sprouted and are going to have effects in our life. It is as if a small amount of our storehouse of karma has gone into building a bridge to this lifetime. Beyond this bridge lies the vast majority of our karma, comparable to mountain ranges of grain, awaiting the appropriate conditions to grow. The effective pathway (such as meditation) which reveals the absolute to awareness is a divine fire which roasts these seeds so they have no potential to sprout. The bridge burned, there is no longer a connection with the past; the karma no longer has the potential to return. The seeds have been roasted in the fires of wisdom.

The karma that has already sprouted creates leshavidya. This keeps the body and mind functioning in Unity. It is like a thin film of grease on the hand after one picks up a cube of butter and then drops it down again. The life continues on by force of habit; the individual essence (ego) is experienced as a thin, almost invisible membrane between two fullnesses: the inner Self is experienced as Infinite, the outer world is experienced as Infinite; what is left of the individuality is the faint, translucent boundary between these two fullnesses. This is what is meant in the Upanishads by, purnam ida, purnam idam: "This is full, that is full." This Infinite, unchanging internal experience of Eternity is not different from the Infinite, unchanging external experience of Eternity. These two full-nesses are experienced as one. This is what my Teacher meant when he said, "200% of life is the birthright of every human being."

[maximus242]

Right, so what I am asking is, if you are enlightened then how can you see one mans trash as a another mans treasure, which is a thing of the Ego, if enlightenment requires the cessation of the Ego.

Also, is not the statement that enlightenment requires the cessation of the Ego also a statement which requires the Ego and therefore negates itself? You have not stated that in your last post but you have said on other occasions that to become enlightened a person must lose their ego.

I do believe that correctness can be more or less an illusion but one must pose the question how can a person be enlightened under the assumption that it requires the cessation of the Ego when that belief in itself requires an Ego to create that belief?

UNITY CONSCIOUSNESS

The final step of growth of human consciousness comes when the refined value of celestial perception melts into continual awareness of the Absolute on the outside. This is the highest level of enlightenment and is known as Unified Perpetual Consciousness or Unity.

Unity Consciousness sounds impossible from the perspective of the waking state: How can the Infinite be seen, heard, touched, tasted, smelled? It makes sense only from the standpoint of one who has risen to awareness of Infinite Consciousness on the inside. There is no resolution to my heart's longing until every individual, every object is experienced as being the same Infinite Self that I am on the inside. (The essence of "The Bodhisattva Vow")

How does this final stage of growth occur? Through an act of intellectual discrimination, the enlightened individual realizes that the infinite light being experienced on the outside is the same infinite light that is being experienced on the inside. The glorious celestial reality melts into Infinity. Said another way, the individual discovers that his Cosmic Beloved is his own Self. Funnily enough, all love ends up directed back at the Self. It is not directed back at the limited self of the waking state, that self cannot love anything or anyone consistently. The love is directed back at the Universal Cosmic Self of the Enlightened Mind. And that gives us the full awareness that each and everyone of us is a spark of the Divine Flame; each and every one of us is the same beneath all our surface differences.

What sparks this ultimate realization? Certain treatises on the subject of Unity were written by individuals in Unity: the Brahma Sutras of Badarayana, the Upanishads, the Maharamayana (Yoga Vasishtha) of Valmiki, A Course in Miracles. The entire Vedanta (literally, End of the Veda) philosophy of ancient India was designed for those in Exalted Consciousness to rise to Unity.
Another catalyst of this transformation can be the direct words of the fully enlightened to the aspirant standing at the last doorway to Unity: "Thou art That," "All this is That," "There is nothing other than That." "That" of course refers to the Absolute. At the appropriate instant of time, these great words (Mahavakyas) irrevocably crush the last taint of limitation in the mind of the evolving soul. Or this transformation can occur in a countless number of ways; Nature Herself can create the necessary conditions so that it must happen.

Individual life continues to function in Unity because of leshavidya, the "last remains of ignorance."

Karma (action) is divided into two types: that which is returning, regardless of our present actions, and that which lies as if dormant -- dormant because it has no chance to reach us in this lifetime. The results of our past karma are comparable to seeds. A tiny fraction of these seeds have already sprouted and are going to have effects in our life. It is as if a small amount of our storehouse of karma has gone into building a bridge to this lifetime. Beyond this bridge lies the vast majority of our karma, comparable to mountain ranges of grain, awaiting the appropriate conditions to grow. The effective pathway (such as meditation) which reveals the absolute to awareness is a divine fire which roasts these seeds so they have no potential to sprout. The bridge burned, there is no longer a connection with the past; the karma no longer has the potential to return. The seeds have been roasted in the fires of wisdom.

The karma that has already sprouted creates leshavidya. This keeps the body and mind functioning in Unity. It is like a thin film of grease on the hand after one picks up a cube of butter and then drops it down again. The life continues on by force of habit; the individual essence (ego) is experienced as a thin, almost invisible membrane between two fullnesses: the inner Self is experienced as Infinite, the outer world is experienced as Infinite; what is left of the individuality is the faint, translucent boundary between these two fullnesses. This is what is meant in the Upanishads by, purnam ida, purnam idam: "This is full, that is full." This Infinite, unchanging internal experience of Eternity is not different from the Infinite, unchanging external experience of Eternity. These two full-nesses are experienced as one. This is what my Teacher meant when he said, "200% of life is the birthright of every human being."

Hmm this is very insightful, I shall have to think on this some more. Do you think an infinite intelligence could in part be seen as a subconscious mind? Or is it ethereal, existing everywhere and nowhere?

[Joesus]

Hmm this is very insightful, I shall have to think on this some more. Do you think an infinite intelligence could in part be seen as a subconscious mind? Or is it ethereal, existing everywhere and nowhere?

One could say the etheric mind existing everywhere is tucked underneath (ignored by) the conscious awareness which is very small in the isolated experiences of personality that are egoic.

Consciousness is not isolated in itself, nor is it limited in any way other than through the beliefs and opinions that are imagined by the intellect that is immersed in belief and opinion.
In other words, it is easy enough to turn the attention towards something specific ignoring everything else but that isolation of thought cannot be maintained forever. Life and death separates such foolishness into the experiences of personality and individuality, or the foolishness of the birth of a separate personality and individuality is only capable of ending in the experience of death.

Consciousness or omniscient omnipresent omnipotent intelligence itself, never dies.