Welcome to the Esoteric Charles Goodwin
Hello Sir,
Your site is enlightening.I thankyou.
I have started with falungong/dafa and a lot of what you discuss are in the books, so it is nice to get comfirmation from another source.
I have felt the need for enlightenment and as such it comes from various sources, some rather strange and unorthadox.
It makes you reflect that maybe life is like The Matrix after all?
Or is that a too simplistic a view to take. "The Truth is out there" is also a popular conception or misconception dependent on ones line of sight.
I`ll get back to you.
Take care
Paul.
Hello Mr. Goodwin,
Out of curiosity, how can one assert absolut absence OR presence. Absence itself is empty of it's absenceness, there is no object, in and of itself, that can contain the quality of absence, and the same applies for presence. Thus the ultimate reality of emptiness. Or is emptiness what you refer to?
Jason.
Greetings Jason,
I appreciate the depth of your question. In the posting "Consciousness is always Self-Consciousness" I describe my experience of the dilemma that faced me at that time. That is "That if all was one in consciousness - and my absolute self merged with the infinite and became self realized, how would I know? I mean if there was any sense of "I"ness left, duality would still be present. If there was no "I" remaining, who or what is left to know. I was in a catch22 intellectual bind."
Your very valid question is of a similar nature. If as you say, "one" asserts absolute absence - the existence of the observer, the "one", negates the potential and actuality of absence. Yes - the terms absence and emptiness can be considered here to be of the same meaning - however the question can still remain - absence (or emptiness) of what? Even the shadow or concept of what might have negated the absolute absence or emptiness by definition, means that such state is not absolute.
One of the problems of course is that we are attempting to define a state of abstract experience (phenomenally speaking) that in reality cannot be defined. Language can only ever be symbolic of such states. That is, for example the word God is obviously not God and certainly can never define or represent God - at the most it will only attempt to define ones own intellectual and personalised concept of God.
Thus the paradox. Only by direct experience one can assert (however inadequately ) that enlightenment is the state of Absolute Presence (masculine - yang) - and such state of enlightenment can only be experienced upon the infinite screen of Absolute Absence (feminine - yin). Hence the esoteric teachings of the masters alluding to "dropping all", "detachment from all", "become nothing to gain everything", "The least shall become the highest" etc. These are all pointing to the fact that even for a split second, if one becomes totally absent, enlightenment can happen. If one truly forgets self even for a second - enlightenment can happen.
Love always
Charles Goodwin
Greetings Ku,
Your questions reminded me of an experience I observed in India when I was young.
The devotee (a younger women) was at the ashram meditating. As the old master walked past she proclaims with devotional tears in her eyes "Oh swami I am having a most beautiful vision of Krishna!"
The master is unmoved and replied dryly " Don't worry, just keep on doing the breathing technique I gave you, the vision will soon go away."
And Ku, the old swami was right. To a Master, society itself is but an expanded hallucination of the mind. Of course drugs and breathing techniques induce altered (different) states of hallucinations but they are still "hallucinations" of the mind.
The path to enlightenment - to totality - is beyond the monkey mind, and it's hallucinations and illusions. For example, there has been recorded cases, that babies have been taken (adopted) by monkeys and wolves. These children grew up convinced they were monkeys or wolves. Similarly, you have been "adopted" by society and are convinced by your conditioning that you are a "civilised" member of that society with its inherent belief systems, culture, mass fears and conditioning.
Yet deep inside, at the heart centre, the soul call is to come home to enlightenment. Not to merely "cop out" from society but a fundamental and revolutionary shift in consciousness. Drugs, alcohol, and all of societies other temporary answers to our unquenchable desires, frustrations and fears merely delay the inevitable - The path to enlightenment is everyone's irredeemable gift.
Love always
Charles Goodwin
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