Hi,
What is Self-Realisation?
Self-realisation is the recognition and direct experience of the underlying conscious awareness that underpins the human experience, from which our human experience arises from and returns to. It is the discovery of 'this', this intelligent awareness that is always looking, always present.
It is the recognition that we are this vastness, this omniprescent awareness and our personhood is something that arises in it, not the other way round.
What brought me to this experience?
While my life was good in many, many ways, it was the result of being in an ongoing state of considerable mental sufferring around, and an inability to really get to the bottom of, my fear. I found that while I was committed to addressing my fears as they arose, I found that as soon as I had dealt with it, it would then just re- surface again in another way, with different packaging, with a different flavour, until I realised that it was just a never-ending cycle that would repeat over and over again. (It took 30 years of dedicated personal growth to see this - I'm a slow learner).
I clearly had to find and root out the fundamental source of it.
It was also the result of a single-minded determination to once and for all, find out if there was any truth in this 'self-realisation' stuff, or whether it was just another big fat spiritual lie, designed to passify us all. Or whether it truly was our salvation.
I wanted to know! And I wanted to know for sure!!
And if there was to be no truth in it, then I would abandon it with a clear mind and put my attentions to more fruitful pursuits.
What was the answer?
A resounding yes..............................................if we are prepared to follow it and transcend the habits of the mind.
So this is where the second part of the discussion around self-realisation comes in for me and where we ask the questions: How is it lived? What does it look like in our daily lives?
This is a huge topic with multiple facets, needing many discussions and is really the juice of the discussions here.
But I start with this: For my own experience, I find that I oscillate between:
- being seated in my true-self, free of all limitations
and - operating more outwardly from my person-hood, which I would describe as the aspect of me that operates from the old habits of the mind, good and bad, complete with fears, insecurities and emotional investments.
I'm feeling a bit lost for words here, my intention is to come up with some clear concrete examples to demonstrate what this looks like, but I'm struggling to find anything at the moment.
Please bear with me as I clarify what I am trying to convey here, it might be a little fudgy in the beginning, but I hope the process gets clearer as we proceed in further posts.
I would love to hear your responses to the posts and your contributions to the space.
Thankyou!