How to realize your true nature – From the 13 Pillars of Enlightenment
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the The Yogi Press.
Enlightenment is not a matter of accrual, but rather removal of all knowledge and thought. It is the fundamental underlayment of all that exists and that which itself is prior to existence.
In the 1960s and early 70s, the Western world woke up to Eastern thought. Thousands travelled to India to sit at the foot of a guru and learn about the idea of enlightenment for the first time. The Beatles wrote songs inspired by ancient Indian teachings, and a Harvard psychology professor –named Richard Alpert – became the world-famous Ram Dass. Thousands gathered to listen to the great master Jiddu Krishnamurti from Ojai to Switzerland and all the way to India. The publishing industry devoured books on spirituality, and the New Age soon took root in the West. One of the most enigmatic but sought-after ideas that blossomed from this explosion was that of enlightenment. It was a concept that embodied the very secret of life, and there were many gurus — some genuine and others not so much — who became household names.
Today there is a new wave of spiritual masters, many with Western names. It is now more challenging than ever to discern which are authentic. Confusion and misconceptions abound.
The mystery of enlightenment
What is the truth about enlightenment? Is it possible? Or is it just another concept similar to so many well-worn religious beliefs, yet with a new cover?
To many, enlightenment is an awakening that has to do with bodily changes, new attitudes, a better sense of self, a calmer demeanour, and great wisdom. Some even teach and think that it has to do with psychic powers and supernatural abilities. But is this really true? or is it just what people imagine to be true, based on their self-limiting minds? To find the answer we have to find the baseline that has been described for millennia by teachers — from Buddha to Krishnamurti, and from Siddharameshwar to Nisargadatta — who have all expounded the same message: Our sense of self — that which you call “me” or “I” — is no more than a mirage, and the so-called enlightened state is a misunderstood and misinterpreted idea. Since there is no self that exists, then this self cannot become enlightened.
To truly understand this, one must first throw all knowledge out the window, because the core of what we are has nothing to do with knowledge, ideas, the mind, the body, memory, teachings, learning, facts, science, religion, or spirituality. It is beyond, or prior to, all such things.
Self-enquiry meditation – finding what we are not
Finding the essence beneath the egoic self, takes a deep and persistent probe into the nature of “I”. To find out both – what we are, and what we are not. It is this act of self-enquiry that exposes the falsehood of the egoic self as well as the unlimited expansiveness and indescribable nature of what exists even prior to consciousness. Adept masters will speak about this concept, which forms the foundation of one the four main paths of Yoga – and the most difficult of all – Jnana Yoga, the yoga of knowledge.
The first step is to discard everything we think we know, want, need or sense. For these are all artifacts of the mind and body.
Jiddu Krishnamurti explained that people, by and large, are teeming with information gleaned from secondhand sources. All of this information — acquired knowledge — has nothing to do with knowing ourselves at the innermost level – transcendental knowledge. In fact, acquired knowledge becomes an obstacle, because when we think we know, we stop paying attention. If we really want to know something at a transcendental level, we must know it experientially. Out of our own realization and experience.
All knowledge – and therefore the egoic self – is of the past
All knowledge is from the past, because knowledge comes out of thought. Thought cannot exist in the eternal “now,” and therefore anything called enlightenment has to do with the absence of the egoic self, which is created out of thought.
Knowledge is something collected, created, and stored by the mind, but, like the mind and body, it is temporary. At most, it stays with us for a lifetime. It may serve us in the things we do as we navigate life in all of its complexities. However, what we are at the core is permanent, never changing, never evolving, never growing, never dying, never being born, and never having any limitations.
How the egoic self is created
The sense of self — the egoic mind — is created out of knowledge, which is an accretion of thoughts. This mind is the effect of psychological conditioning from parents, relatives, religion, culture, teachers, and all manner of authority figures. It is the notion that we are objectives, memories, relationships, ideals, accomplishments, failures, and a body. But all of these come and go, so to know who we truly are we must go beyond knowledge. This is accomplished through a process of negation, which in Sanskrit is called neti, neti — “not this, not this.” Via elimination of all things that are impermanent – born out of observation devoid of judgment – we discover what we are not; and in doing so, we ultimately discover the nameless, shapeless, boundless, indescribable essence of what we truly are.
What do I want?
We must decide what we truly want out of meditation, yoga or any other form of meditative practice.
If we want to be happier, calmer, more serene, less stressed, or to become a better person, its wonderful. However, if the objective is to reach the core of what we truly are, then we may have to take a different approach — the road less travelled. If we haven’t travelled down this road, everything we think about enlightenment may merely be a reflection from our sense of self — acquired knowledge. Judgment arising out of a self-limiting paradigm known as the mind.
Enlightenment is not a matter of accrual, but rather removal of all knowledge and thought. It is the fundamental underlayment of all that exists and that which itself is prior to existence.
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