What can be said about self-realization? What is the point of discussing it? On the subject of spirituality, what can not be said is of more value than what is said.
Questions are of more importance than answers. In fact, if the answer does not raise another question, then it's probably the wrong answer.
The moment you believe you've understood spiritual truth is the moment where you do not understand. To be without understanding and without knowledge is one thing, but to know one is without knowledge, this is the height of consciousness.
The two keys to enlighten is first to not know, the second is to know that one does not know.
When we are born, as babies we know nothing, but we are not aware of our not knowing. As we get older, we still know nothing despite our advances in technology and education, but the difference is we come to believe that we know. Only the wise realize that they know not. How freeing it is to know that you do not know.
We're so often on a mad race to obtain something whether it be knowledge, education, success, money, relationships, or some material item. Enlightenment is the letting go, the giving up of these pursuits. Even the noble pursuit of knowledge should be done away with. Hence, the emphasis in many spiritual traditions on faith, believing without certainty, rather than knowledge.
Pain is unavoidable. It's not pain that breed growth or decay, but our response to it. Let neither pleasure, nor pain, shake your inner self.
The journey towards self-realization is one of continual self-awareness in relation to the outside world. Self-awareness sitting alone in a cave is one thing, but quite another when one must interact with one's environment. It is the difference between hitting a bag and fighting a live opponent. In every situation, one must learn to control one's self and maintain composure.
The journey towards self-realization is not one to be taken up as a hobby such as fishing or sports. It is a journey that consumes the entire existence and soul of a human being. It can not be traveled half-heartedly or unconsciously for it demands your entire being.
Self-realization is making real that which is the Real. It is not an opinion, not a belief system, not an intellectual theory, not something one wears as a necklace. It is not a casual thought, a subject among many subjects in the bookstore. Self-realization is the whole of existence, the understanding of which is our primary and highest reason for being.
Art without spirit is just paint on a canvas. Music without spirit is just noise. Spirit breathes life to all things for it is life itself.
Spirituality is such that it can not be analyzed, summarized, or categorized. It is not a subject for debate. It is not an idea, a concept, or theory. It exists within every human being without requiring any thought on our behalf. To describe it is like describing the most luminous sound. Such can not be imitated or reproduced, only heard and felt for one's self.
A plant digs its roots deep, grows tall, and produces fruits and flowers. In the same manner, be alive, move, breathe, explore, learn, give more, and enjoy life. For this is our nature.
Spirituality is not emotional or mental, but an awareness of that which is deepest within one's self. It's a paradoxical feeling of knowing, not knowing what you know, but knowing that you know.
There is no greater happiness than the fruition of your life's purpose. No other aim is worth your efforts. Any other aim will distract from the one effort.
The spirit is the creative. Like an empty canvas, it is the formless from which all form materializes, the artless from which art comes into being.
Perfection, therefore, is not the formless itself nor the form, the artless nor the art. Perfection, as it is now, is the dance between the formless and the form, between the artless and the art.
Thus, form is necessary and no less spiritual than the formless. So, the idea is not to transcend form into the formless, but rather to transcend our idea of a separation between the two.
All things are one, but they are also two, three, four, five, so forth and so on. Oneness exists in the formless. In the world of form, however, multiples upon multiples exist. Therefore, oneness is the oneness of all things including non-oneness.
There is only one effort. All else is not effort. There is only one work. All else is not work.
Through form, we understand the formless. Through understanding the formless, we transcend form.
