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Enlightenment is Progress, not Perfection.

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Was walking on the boardwalk this weekend and came across this nugget as I looked down. I snapped this picture because its an important lesson for magic, mysticism, and the Strategic Sorcery approach specifically. It also happened to be the answer to a question a student posed to me this weekend: WHAT IS ENLIGHTENMENT?

What is Enlightenment?

I can tell you what different traditions define their final goal as: liberation from karma, absorption in God, dissolution of the ego, Moksha, Rigpa, etc. To be honest though I don’t really believe or even care any of that anymore.

What is Enlightenment? Here is the truth: fuck if I or anyone else REALLY knows.

I don’t think about a final goal anymore. No more racing toward Buddhahood for me. For me its about progress not perfection.

Here’s what I know:

Meditation helps my mind not fall victim to habitual patterns. The more I do it, these patterns of monkey mind get revealed at deeper and deeper levels. What seemed like genuine gnosis and clarity five years ago now just looks like yet another sheath of patterning that I am able to cut through.

Contemplation helps the mind rest in its innate clarity without the need of a focused meditation. There is no subject or object, just clarity-as-such. It is the ULTIMATE ORDINARY. The more I do it, the longer I am able to maintain it.

States that you touch on the cushion are not the goal. Crossing the Abyss is useless unless it informs your everyday state of mind. The process of making the mind clearer and making that a living reality is the path of progress.

Do You Need a Goal?

Some will say that without Buddhahood or Christ-Consciousness to measure ourselves against we have no way to know if we have gone astray or not. I call Bullshit on this. Its too easy to mistake a state of clarity for the final goal if you aren’t always looking to go further. Did Buddha or Christ, or Al-Hallaj real the ultimate, final, total state? I dunno, but if they thought so, it might discourage going even further.

You cannot step into the uncharted by clinging to a chart.

Look for practices that reveal the mind to itself. Ones that make you different at the end of those practices than you were at the beginning. You may have pitfalls on the path, but like other types of optionality, in general there is an asymetric upside to practice that will push you into a more refined state of being.

If you turn on a lamp in a dim room, you have “enlightened” it. Open a window to warmth of the southern sun and you have “enlightened” it further. You can always enlighten it further still…

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Sunfell

When I find myself spiraling into a state of inertia, I ask myself a simple question:

Why am I doing what I’m doing?

Amazing how that keeps me relatively centered and on course, especially if the leaden cloud of depression is trying to drag me down.

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Eliot

I think Enlightenment is far more difficult to attain than westerners tend to think.

A bit of clarity or a recognition of Rigpa is only the very beginning.

The Three Statements of Garab Dorje (Paraphrased) are:

1:Recognition or introduction to Rigpa

2:To clear away doubts and decide “This is Rigpa and nothing else.”

and most importantly the 3rd statement:

To remain undistracted in the state of Rigpa, confident that arising thoughts are being Automatically-Liberated without your volitional interference.

What is not explained usually is that you will probably need to remain in Rigpa for 26,000-36,000 hours or more for the average person to attain full Enlightenment.
That’s about a decade of full retreat doing Trekchod and Togal.

This would be self-evident since the person in question would dissolve directly into the Rainbow Body of Great Transference without ever experiencing death.

Anything less than that is not Enlightenment, it’s just progress.

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    Courtney Kolb

    Thats interesting.
    What’s the source for the 26,0000-36,000 hours?

    Reply
Diotima Mantineia

Great post. Also, cool shoes.

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Ivy Bromius

For enlightenment, process is more important than product. Sure, you want to have a goal, but the experience of attaining the goal is more important than reaching it. From a project management perspective, enlightenment is more an operational effort. Like a website — it’s never done, but as you proceed your ‘up time’ is extremely important.

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