gibran2 said:Well, maybe it’s Enlightenment 901 where I learned that.joedirt said:gibran2 said:There is no such thing as the “true nature of reality”. (Don’t people learn that in Enlightenment 101?)
What makes you assert this? Especially when religions like Buddhism go to great lengths to talk about waking up to the true nature of reality? Hardly seems as though enlightenment 101 would teach against reality having a true nature.
Now perhaps, ironically, everyone searches for this true nature when in fact it is nothing more than things as the currently are. This moment is the true nature of reality...and that is true wether you are watching it rain by a lake or seeing infinite kingdoms of gold spiral into your inner view on a DMT trip. Both are still 'reality' and both are still true.
At least in terms of Buddism the true nature of reality is nothing more than dropping the identity of a separate, ever lasting self from the current moment. Experiencing now as nothing more than now.
The true nature of reality is this: Just be.![]()
I’m just exploring ideas, and looking at the problems with words: What does “true” mean? What is “reality”? What is “enlightenment”?
To wake up implies that one is presently asleep. At what point in your journey can you be confident that you aren’t still asleep? How can you know you aren't awakening from one dream into another? A dream in a dream in a dream ...
Why the awake/asleep dichotomy? Why not a never-ending awakening? Why not an eternal movement toward the “truth”? Something that is approached, but never reached?
I think the waking/sleeping analogy is just that an analogy. It's a way to give people some insite into what it might be. For me I think in terms of becoming lucid in the dream of life, but who knows...
As for that point at which I can be confident I am no longer asleep?
Well since I can pretty easily tell that I am indeed still asleep based on the concept of being awake as freedom from the ego.. Thus I would conclude that if I do indeed wake up to being free from the ego I'd also be able to identify it as being awake.
Also I like the eternal movement towards the truth, but I'm not so sure abou the approached but never reached...only because those that have laid down a path have all talked about an actual end state...though I for certain have not reached said state. We could speculate that they only reached a higher level...with many above them that they were as of then unaware. Could very well be.
Of course in the end I am not enlightened and thus don't really have any idea what it's ultimately like. It could in fact be just as you speculate that it's just a path and not a destination. I suspect there is some truth that, but only because it takes a self to walk a path and to reach a destination, but when the destination is the removal of self it kinda seems pointless to talk about a destination.

Peace