The Real and Final Enlightenment

What it's all about

You heard something once. You heard there is a place in your mind where there is infinite bliss. No. That it has something even better than bliss. That it cannot be described. That you are not actually separate from the rest of the universe. That it is possible to really experience that. It all sounds so exotic and… beautiful. You want to know more.

You start meditating. You read the manuals. You read the sacred texts, the mutterings of mankind stirring awake. You try psychedelics. You try yoga.

You become a psychonaut, even if you are not conscious of that. A diver in the great ocean of mind. You think your quest is modern. That it has a scientific basis. You don’t know that it is mythic. That it has had many names. That no one knows where it was invented.

That you are Prometheus.

And you are trying to steal the Fire of the Gods.

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I meditated. I read philosophy. I did the drugs. I received the cursed blessing of psychosis. I went on a vision quest. I boarded an airplane and tried to enter the cockpit. The Gods smiled, even as my family suffered. Science brought me back to the consensus. I left the medication, thinking that perhaps the event was a one off. It wasn’t. It happened again. And I looked at the world. It seemed thin. What I had read became real, and I knew in my gut that reality is fake. So I asked the unmanifest what to do. It told me to die. So I did. I walked backwards through the Gate of the Moon. I received a boon. Again I raved. Again my family suffered. And again science solidified reality. I flew too high. So high the Sun melted my mind. I, the crashed psychonaut.

I gave up on the Eastern religions. I went back to the Catholicism of my birth. I went to catechism class. It mostly washed over me. I judged the people there. I thought they were morons. But still. I kept going. And one thing stuck. They said the circle of our sin keeps us cut off from others. I couldn’t understand it. I knew I was cut off from others. Always had been. But what is my sin? I had social anxiety. And then it hit me. Fear is a sin, and I must repent from it. And so, I tell my story.

I have caused suffering. I am a sinner. But I have forgiven myself. I do not believe I deserve to suffer for my sins. I believe no one deserves to suffer for their sins.

And if Hell awaits me, that won’t last. And if Oblivion awaits me, that won’t last. And if Love awaits me, that won’t last.

But I do know what does last.

Do you want to hear it?

The one hand clapping?

The real and final enlightenment?

The full blast of the Infinite?

It is this: the only true spirituality consists of understanding and helping others.

And if the path you are on doesn’t take you to do that? If it doesn’t enhance your capability to do that?

Then, brother, you are just worshiping the farts in your brain!

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The Parable of the Rock

This isn’t so hard. It isn’t a big ask. Lots of people do it already. Once, I was driving home. And the lane I usually took had a rock in it, one big enough that I couldn’t drive over. I had to back up, and switch lanes. And I thought “Huh, I shouldn’t leave the rock there”. So I parked blocking an entrance and moved the rock to the sidewalk. Then I went home.

It immediately struck me as meaningful, as if a lesson had taken place. It had, even if it didn’t sink in just then. There was a rock in my mind, and I was clenching it so tight. The thirst for knowledge, for esoteric mindstates, for Gnosis. All meaningless if it doesn’t cash out into anything real. That was the rock in my path, and I have moved it. Hopefully, it is now no longer in your way as well.

And don’t get me wrong, there is an esoteric Gnosis to be had, and it is spectacular!

But while you quest for it?

How about you help others?