The aftermath of...something


I had this narrative once published on The Hamilton Project a while back. Although it is certainly not the aftermath of full enlightenment (as many of us thought at one point). I do find it adds a great deal of information regarding two events: The entry to the stream, and the aftermath of Phala and Nibbana. I believe the realization of stage attainment have characteristics that are shared by all stage attainments (we are talking here about the main Theravada 4 stages of enlightenment here, and not the pragmatic 4th path model leading up to Stream Entry). 

...All of a sudden everything comes into focus,  full enlightenment is realized. "Done is what needed to be done", "Hearing the lion's  roar", "Realization of supreme wisdom" "Realizing enlightenment", "becoming fully awakened", "Nirvana", "total and complete liberation"
At this stage, there is a sense of completion, one has gone full circle, and all the pieces  have fallen and have been placed together in perfect harmony. The magic of "now" being embraced; not only having realized the truth, but to have fully surrender to it. There is no further state to attain, no longer anything needing closer inspection. The realization of the ultimate truth. True, pure dharmma in its most quintessential essence.
"I feel this weird non-tired laziness that simply keeps me from engaging my old interests and pursuits". Having now realized the true nature of non-dual awareness: clear, unbound, unchanging, unstained, non-localized, free, questions arise: what to do now? where to go? all sense of purpose seems to have magically dropped. There is nowhere to go, nothing to do, except to simply be. To be in direct and utterly intimate relation with the phenomena manifesting in the present moment.
It's amazing to realize that the destination of the journey had been there in front of the newly fully enlightened one the whole time. All the life pursuits seem to vanish, as the fully enlightened now realize that they do not define him/her, that no matter how much one achieves or gains, or becomes (in the superficial sense) one is no longer conditioned in any way, shape or form by the manifest world. This leads one to experience some sort of laziness regarding all conditioned phenomena.
And what a liberating, freeing, refreshing and vibrant is this laziness!
This effect too shall pass, as everything manifested is transient. The enlightened one realizes that the newly found enjoyment of his/her intimacy with the manifest world applies to everything happening now, and thus the new, fully-detached pursuit of new adventures and challenges brings nothing but pure enjoyment. The sense of doing  and making for the benefit of others happens to be the only motivator now. With nothing to lose, nothing to hide, nothing to discover, and all gained, nothing else makes sense other than to pass along the wonderful gift of love to not only the rest  of our brothers and sisters on this wonderful planet, but also to the whole manifest world, in any possible way we can.
Welcome to the freedom you have always deserved.
You may now start living. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sakadagami at last!

 To say that this was long hoped for is a gargantuan understatement. I had been 8 years since I had achieved the entry to the Stream, and the magnitude of the Dark Night that plagued my existence beyond my wildest thoughts.  I have been a Sakadagami for around 3 weeks now, and I gathering as much about this experience as I can - I am excited about being able to share all the developments pre and post path entry with the world. This time, I will do so with the directness required to capture the magnitude of what has happened. I apologize before hand if these descriptions sound too dogmatic or even fantastic in nature and the reader expects a more watered down, more subtle, less bold, discourse. For the sake of Dharma, I will not do so. Those who are to gain from what I have to share will do so even though other folks will call me lunatic or crazy. After all, we can't expect anyone to fully comprehend truths that are beyond the ignorant mind (as mine was) but the truth must be s...
Read more

Turn to your left, what do you see? Dukkha! Turn to your right, what do you see? Dukkha! Look in front of you, look behind you, what do you see? Dukkha! Dukkha! Dukkha! What are you going to do about it?

It is often the wish of the yogi to be in a place where his or her experience is one filled with happiness and joy. Even after experiencing all the stages of insight over and over again, there still seems to be a "hope" that one will be able to live life happily ever after. Furthermore, one often runs into meditation advertisements selling "a happier life" as result of the practice. In my opinion, no matter how you cut it or slice it, there will always be dukkha (and anicca and anatta for that matter) unless of course, the final and total achievement of nibbana is reached. In the mean time, be prepared to encounter dukkha everywhere you look. This becomes particularly difficult for those stream enterers. How is it possible that after such attainment dukkha still manifest as it does (a few stream enterers including myself have found that the dark nights can be a lot worse than they were pre-stream entry). Based on some conversations that I've had with some adva...
Read more