Enlightenment and methods of achieving it. How to start the path to spiritual enlightenment What is spiritual enlightenment

The practical article will show whether enlightenment exists as an objective reality, how spiritual enlightenment is related to the practices of meditation and mindfulness of breathing, and whether there is another way to achieve enlightenment other than spiritual practices.

Enlightenment of consciousness: what does it mean

What does "enlightenment of consciousness" mean? This is not an easy question. Many minds have struggled to express in words what cannot be expressed, since no words have been invented for this yet. The only word that people are used to associating with the state of being in the highest reality in the spiritual sense is enlightenment.

Enlightenment as a state of samadhi or, even higher, as Buddha's Enlightenment, where we are finally freed from all suffering and passions; the process of absolute purification and reincarnation, where the ego no longer has power, and life situations do not provoke emotional reactions, then this can be called real enlightenment.

Many yearn for it, look for it even more, but only a few go a long way and finally begin to live in a state of enlightenment of consciousness.

Does enlightenment exist objectively?

The Diamond Sutra says: “There was never a Buddha who entered this world. And there will never be him who enters this world. " He says: "I studied for forty years and never said anything." Such a saying implies a general denial of the existence of the phenomenon of enlightenment. There is no Buddha, the whole world is an illusion, there is no you and your ego. Who or what will be enlightened? From the point of view of some philosophical teachings, this concept is completely justified, since there is nothing in the world except emptiness, and therefore our existence with you cannot be taken seriously.

We will leave philosophical questions for philosophy and consider the practical aspect of the phenomenon of enlightenment.

Yoga and Enlightenment: Human Spiritual Enlightenment

Yoga and enlightenment are directly related to each other. By doing yoga, you open the way to states of illumination and enlightenment. Performing breathing and meditation practices, you are primarily engaged with your energy, increasing your spiritual state and level of development.

In the teachings of yoga, enlightenment has a special role - this is the final stage of Ashtanga Yoga, an 8-stage system. The attainment of enlightenment - samadhi - is the cornerstone of yoga. All steps of yoga lead to one thing - to samadhi. Whether you are practicing asanas or pranayama, whether you are practicing directed attention or meditation, you are always doing essentially one thing - approaching enlightenment, and enlightenment, its brief moment, can happen even at the very approaches. You may not be as experienced as other practitioners; here the whole subtlety of the process lies in the implementation of techniques, in disconnecting the mind from being absorbed in everyday issues.

When we talk about samadhi as about enlightenment, getting rid of passions, it would be wrong to say that this is the final stage on the path to enlightenment. Rather, it is a technical form of attaining enlightenment; the real highest enlightenment is going into the state of Annutara Samyak Sambodhi, the enlightenment of the Buddha. This is the state of a bodhisattva, a saint who helps people. He cognized the truths, is completely free from the power of passions, he is no longer bound by logic, everything is comprehended and everything is cognized not through the intellect, but directly as receiving revelation.

The only thing a bodhisattva does not do is not go into nirvana. His decision is to help people on this earth, so he continues to be here in the state of the highest Samyak Sambodhi, free from selfishness, passions and desires.

If we look at the process of enlightenment from a more practical point of view, then we will understand that everyday worries take up a lot of psychic energy, and to achieve enlightenment we need free energy, therefore it is so important to stop thinking and making plans at least for a while. It is necessary to abandon worldly concerns, to reflect on the timeless, on what will remain forever - it is eternal. This is the same as dedicating your thoughts to what Brahman is, how it expresses itself in the world, and that we are all Brahman.

How to achieve enlightenment

We do not attain enlightenment simply through practicing concentration or self-awareness. Enlightenment is a daily process when you learn new things, change your view of things and the world order. After analyzing the situation, having come to a new conclusion, you begin to perceive reality in a different way.

You are not just achieving enlightenment (can you “achieve”?), We are not in the sport of achievement; you come to enlightenment, find yourself in it. This is the way the question is posed: to find yourself, to know your essence, your real essence, your spiritual essence. Why are you here, who are you, do you have a mission, do you need it? You are a spiritual being, so why should you take on the task of carrying out missions. If your consciousness wants this, then why not. This means that this is the essence of your life, your enlightenment, you will come to it through your mission.

For another, it will simply be through self-improvement. A person is so arranged to learn, but it is not necessary to master new arts or skills, you can devote yourself to knowing yourself and your spirit. This will truly be your enlightenment.

How to achieve enlightenment

You can seek and achieve enlightenment in other ways, more indirectly. Changing your lifestyle, giving up your old views, tastes and habits, you come closer and closer to the state of enlightenment. You are like a sculptor who cuts off the unnecessary, mercilessly parting with pieces of stone to create an image that has already appeared before his inner gaze.

Take away what has become a ballast for you, find new interests in life, start creating your new reality. If you have changed something in one of the areas of your life and this has led to radical changes - here it is, gradual enlightenment. You discover life in a new way, its hidden aspects, esoteric knowledge. It is not necessary to understand by esotericism strange voodoo magic or something like that. Esotericism is knowledge that is hidden from the inexperienced eye, but it contains the essence of things.

Once you lift the curtain, you will understand that life has not only a physical aspect, but also a spiritual and energetic one. You will begin to solve riddle after riddle; much that was previously incomprehensible to you or was interpreted from the position of a purely dense reality, will acquire a new color. You began to see in a new way.

Enlightenment: synonyms of the word

Under the concept of "enlightenment" we also mean insight, insight, a new perception of life, the emergence of consciousness to a new level. You have grown spiritually, become wiser, rethought your positions - this is what the concept of enlightenment and illumination is connected with. You begin to see through the veil, the so-called maya. Finally, glimpses of another reality, other worlds, become visible to spiritual vision.

Symbol of enlightenment

Enlightenment has not only a spiritual aspect, but also its symbolic representation in the physical world. The lotus flower has become a symbol of enlightenment in the East since ancient times. Its roots are in the ground under water, and a straight stem and a luxurious flower rise above the surface of the water surface. If you saw how rice grows in the fields, then a lotus grows from the same environment - this is a tropical beauty.

Its flower petals are numerous; no wonder they say that its inflorescence consists of 1000 petals, and our upper "crown" chakra is associated with a lotus inflorescence. He is pure, gentle, exalted in the literal sense of the word. The buds of this flower can be seen in all Buddhist temples and are given as an offering to Buddhist monks. The flower is a symbol of insight, purity of thoughts and lofty ideas. He is the embodiment of spirituality.

The traps of enlightenment

The traps of enlightenment: both beginners and experienced Buddhist meditation or yogic practitioners can fall into them. Even if you do not practice any of the ancient practices, still even an ordinary person engaged in self-improvement, internal search or knowledge of the secrets of our planet and everything that exists on it, there is a risk of falling into the trap of consciousness, better known as the trap of enlightenment.

Signs of Enlightenment: Pseudo Enlightenment

These are states when it seems to you that you have already broken away from this perishable reality, you really no longer care about the interests that the majority live with, the TV has been thrown into a landfill for many years, the Internet is the only connection with the world, and even then you use it not for the purpose of watching the news, since they no longer interest you, but rather as a means to communicate with like-minded people or find new information adequate to your spiritual development.

A small list of signs of a seeker close to enlightenment:

• understanding the reality and essence of things;
• exit from the crowd;
• view from the outside;
• craving for deeper self-knowledge and the process of self-knowledge;
• study of spiritual, religious and mystical literature;
• awareness of actions and thoughts.

Although it is difficult at times to admit it, when we have become smarter and even more enlightened in many aspects of life, our emotions are still strong. This is perhaps the most difficult bulwark to overcome - the emotions associated with our relationship to ourselves.

How not to notice that we have really risen above the crowd, that we are smarter and kinder, that we understand others better, that we have developed empathy and a high level of emotional intelligence. We may not even look arrogant and are well aware that vanity and pride are the most difficult emotional states in terms of getting rid of them.

We drove them underground and realize how humble and simple we are in relation to others, but this very awareness is a good indicator that the corrosive emotions of the egoistic plan are still with us, living in us. They just changed their roles and now act in the role of meek, as if telling us: "Look how humble and simple you have become, there are few of them on earth."

Emotions are the mystery of enlightenment

So, the very realization that we are new, improved, with an improved range of interests and much more is just the other side of the coin. You know that every emotion has a second side; maybe it looks nicer, but turn it around - and the same unpleasant picture will open: for humility - insolence, for modesty - pride, for detachment - involvement in the vanity of affairs.

These are not just comparisons, this is the rule of duality. We just turned the coin over, and the coin is still the same. What can you do to truly get rid of even hidden disguised emotions? First of all, you need to understand that while there is control, albeit minimal, then this ego is doing its job. Take the ego away and there will be no emotion left to control. Without the explicit presence of the ego, even the very concept of emotion disappears. What comes out to be replaced is a feeling of goodness, unshakable calmness, because we cannot say that the enlightened have no emotions, although in reality they do not exist the way we understand them.

The difference between the emotions of an enlightened person and an ordinary person

This kind of calmness is the basis of the "emotionality" of an enlightened person. Nothing can disturb him, unbalance him, because the ego is finished. Only the ego reacts to external stimuli, which is why we get emotion as an output. Those emotions that we like, we consider positive and do not want to get rid of them, and negative - of course, we want to quickly come to our senses, replace them, throw them away.

Once again, we've forgotten that both positive and negative emotions are part of one whole: the response to stimuli. There will be no reaction of "I" to the external - all emotions, including positive ones, will disappear! Yes, and we need to admit it.

We must stop hunting for a positive emotional state, this is such a natural drug: ate something tasty is a positive emotion, ate a bitter one, and the opposite is a negative emotion. The mechanism works here - period. In order to become free from emotions, if you really want this, you need to leave all emotional attachments - then the ego will weaken, it will dissolve, and what remains will be a state of peace and bliss.

State of enlightenment

It is difficult to express in words what will happen, because in our vocabulary there are no suitable words for this: after all, most of them, describing the psychological state of a person, are associated with emotion. In the case when we have left emotion, only words such as "peace" and "detachment" can at least approximately describe such a state in which there is no "I". It is difficult to grasp it, but when you first experience this state, you cannot say “feel”, you only need to experience it, then you will understand what it is about.

Moreover, it is interesting to note that this pure, unemotional state is available even without performing special meditation or breathing exercises. Techniques and methods can help you achieve peace, speed up the process, but this is not the only way. It is quite possible, without being constantly engaged in some specific practices, to find inner peace - spiritual.

However, it should be remembered that factors such as proper nutrition - plant foods, - certain physical activity, a view of the world from a new angle, less focus on your "I" and its needs are excellent components in order to achieve an illumined state of mind, not even leaving society.

Means to Enlightenment

Being alone, reading wise books written at least a century ago, and better even earlier, works well in this direction. Back then, the authors were much less concerned with remuneration, or even not at all concerned. They created because they wanted to convey something to the reader, to truly convey knowledge. They created works from an overabundance of experience, a desire to open up something new to the world, this was their self-expression, and therefore, when you read such books, you involuntarily become involved in the process, become a part of it, and this definitely affects the psychological state.

Books, music, the right films, even fictional ones, can serve as an excellent means of changing your psychological state, switching your spiritual mode to a higher level.

It may be difficult to imagine at first, but works of art and sources of wisdom, such as books, travels to different parts of the world, access to the world of art, can serve as a lever to change your spiritual state.

It is important to remember one thing here: do not make it an end in itself. An end in itself is the work of the ego. It will make purpose and competition out of everything. The process is important to us, so live as if you are not worried about questions of self-knowledge and enlightenment, and then it will come by itself.

What does enlightenment give?

Again a question from the “I” position. After all of the above, you yourself understood that raising such a question is not just incorrect - it comes from egoistic ideas: “And what will I have from this? Where will I come? When I am enlightened, what next? "

Our "I" is always not enough. Here it is longing for enlightenment, and if it seems to him that we have become enlightened enough, then we need to run again towards a new goal and achievements. Faster, higher, brighter - this is the credo of the almighty ego at the hourly Olympiads of the mind.

After enlightenment, is there life?

So how do we know if you are enlightened or not and what awaits us after enlightenment? When you attain enlightenment, these questions will not interest you. They just won't. You will live in a state of inner peace. You will stop weighing on the internal scales whether you are satisfied with such a life that you are leading, what it is in comparison with the past. A new life will come for you, where there are no comparisons either with the past or with the anticipated future.

At this moment, which many mystics and teachers talk about, you will find everything for yourself. This does not mean that you do not need to make plans for a vacation or a trip to travel. It is necessary, since these are real gradual movements that must be made in physical reality. But as you take action, you will be in agreement with yourself: the conflict of the parts is over. What you do in the moment, to which you devote your time in life, will be for you the only and best activity that you could only imagine for yourself.

You will find harmony in yourself, and it will be reflected in the world around you. You will stop wondering if I live for others or for myself. You will live for yourself and for others, because even the concept of “others” will merge with yourself for you. You will still understand that there are Masha, Vasya and Kolya, but you will not think of them as separate and independent beings. Much will acquire new meaning for you, you will understand that your action has an energetic response in the world, there is no one without the other; you will understand that spiritual and energetic connections rule the world.

What is an enlightened person, enlightenment?
Maybe I'm wrong, but until now I have not come across a clear definition of this word. They say it's impossible to describe. It is possible only to learn by experience, because "the truth spoken is a lie" - so Lao Tzu said.

The reality is that no matter how hard I try to lay out the essence of my vision in front of you, I will not be able to convey all this accurately and without distortion,
all the more so not every one of you will perceive it, and even believe it. But the point is not in your perception and, moreover, in your faith. There is what you will hear now (I am not being clever, but those who hear, let them hear).

How do we perceive ourselves? Can you tell who you really are? Why are we here? And let me try to answer for you: "I am a person created by Mother Nature, and in the worst case - by evolution, endowed with all the qualities in order to be successful and happy." I agree, partly, but with the perception of yourself, you can be wrong, and why we are here, I think, you do not know either. I will not dissemble, but I also do not know why we or I are here. But a person should perceive himself in the following way, at least I perceive, or rather I try to perceive.

Man is body, soul and consciousness. Someone was not surprised, but scared someone. Existing materialists will immediately rears, although if we judge - consciousness or intelligence, as it is also called, or its lowest form - mind - after all, it is also not material. AND? And thoughts, after all, they do exist, after all, although their nature is not clear. Yes, God is with them, with thoughts (I'll tell you a secret - He is always with them, if He wants, with all the thoughts of the Universe, and if He wants, He will react to them). Yes, to be honest, I will not prove anything. Whoever wants to, let him listen.

The body is the temple of the soul, and the soul has a place in this temple, but that is another song. The soul has consciousness or intelligence when the mind is able to be aware, i.e. the mind can be intelligent. Body, soul and consciousness - this is your true "I". Yes, all together and each separately - all this is "I". What can you do (for some), but the trinity can be traced here too. And yet, the spirit - he is the main, experienced, maybe even very ancient - the commander-in-chief. Consciousness - has a spiritual origin, however, for certain reasons, it can be clouded, blackened, etc. When the consciousness is bright, it is able to render a great service to the commander-in-chief, who, for certain reasons, is out of sight - in the headquarters, and when it is darkened, it takes on too much, which is why problems then arise for everyone (body, spirit and consciousness) ... I do not think that achieving material wealth is a sin, however, when you cycle on the material, then take yourself, your consciousness aside. In this case, it becomes darker, tunes to lower vibrations, which is what the Dark One needs. Although all this happens by nature. Nevertheless, consciousness is able to realize, even itself, of course, all this with the support of the spirit. There comes a moment when "it" realizes that without a commander-in-chief it is very difficult and even impossible to exist, but unfortunately negative exceptions also exist. These exceptions are: "I sold my soul ...". But conscious, rational consciousness directs its attention to the connection with the spirit. It learns to connect with the spirit world through its spirit.
The improving consciousness finds new alternative connections with the soul, simpler, natural and effective. The hour comes and the connection of consciousness with the spirit is so close and clear, without distortion and loss, that it becomes possible to see, hear and feel the presence of the commander-in-chief. The ground for close cooperation and mutual benefit is being created. The growth of the spirit leads to the growth of consciousness, the growth of consciousness leads to the growth of the spirit. Consciousness has states - levels. At a certain point, consciousness reaches a level where it fully reflects the light of the soul, without distortion. It becomes "complete", carrying the light of the soul - enlightened, pure.
In the east there is such a personification - the Sun is the soul, the Moon is consciousness. When the Moon is full, it fully reflects the light of the Luminary in all its beauty, and then, in total darkness, without light, a person can wander without fear of getting lost or going astray.

The state of enlightenment is intended to enrich life - it is a state of revealing the truth in which a person is able to live with the infinite content of life.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Enlightenment cannot be achieved simply by talking about love. It is impossible to understand the principles of the Laws of Nature, to know oneself and realize as the creator of everything that happens, without spiritual practices. Only with the help of spiritual practices is the growth of pure consciousness possible, which means the growth of our ability to rejoice, love and create.

To enjoy the ocean of love (for those with strong armor), we must expand the boundaries of our hearts and find the depth of the ocean, bottomless and full. Then it is possible to use all the power of the ocean.

A person with limited consciousness will never be able to grasp the situation as a whole due to a narrow outlook. His heart, shallow as a pond, seeks to rise
high in waves of love, however, it only creates disorder and brings to the surface the dirt that was so gracefully hidden below.

The evolution of consciousness is the driving force of life. It is possible when we connect with the reality of Heaven within us. It is enough to feel once, once, the blissful nature of the Soul, and outwardly a person is completely transformed. The mind, experiencing Great Bliss, feels satisfaction, and this satisfaction of the mind leads to correct understanding and virtuous actions, kindness, love and compassion for all.

When a person thinks that he is kind, sympathetic and loving, without engaging in practices that raise the level of consciousness, he is like a poor person who thinks about wealth all the time without taking any action to get out of his poverty.

By developing our consciousness, we can achieve enlightenment, and then a person's life will become a bridge over which the abundance of Divine Reason will\u003e fall into the world of Creation.

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Passions, their essence and ways of overcoming:,.
Diseases and their origin. Overcoming ways:,.
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Repentance, its essence. The main sins of our time:,.
Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov. "About delights":,.
Asceticism, prayer (essence and varieties). Jesus Prayer:,.
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Lecture text.

« The first people knew God personally<…> and constantly communicated with Him. The Lord commanded people to cultivate paradise, give names to animals and all creatures, and also dominate the entire material world. Everything was permissible for man, except one. It was impossible to eat the fruits of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was in the middle of paradise. "If you break this commandment," the Lord warned, "you will become mortal." People believed God, knowing that only good, only love, always comes from Him, and did not break this commandment» .
Someone may ask: “Why did God create this tree with forbidden fruits in paradise? Isn't God himself the cause of the temptation? " This can be answered as follows. God is love and He does not tempt anyone. As it is said: “... God is not tempted by evil and He Himself does not tempt anyone, but everyone is tempted, being carried away and deceived by his own lust"James 1: 13-14. The whole point was that Adam, having much, did not have one thing: the experiential knowledge of what he is without God. The fact that God was always near was familiar and natural for Adam. The absence of the Lord or disobedience to His will, Adam did not know. He didn't know what it was. And therefore, having free will, he could stumble. God's prohibition should be a lesson for Adam to obey God. This trust and obedience made it possible for Adam to exist in paradise without sin. According to the interpretation of a number of the Church Fathers, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil can be considered a kind of prototype of God himself, who knows everything. Tasting of the tree without the permission of the Lord meant trying to take the place of God ... The act is unacceptable and God-fighting, which Satan once decided on. He, out of envy of the high destiny of man prepared by God, deceives Eve with a seductive lie: "taste and be like gods."

« The devil, once a mighty but later fallen angel, terribly envied the closeness of people to God. He wanted people to obey and obey him, and not the Creator of the world. And so he came up with a way to seduce the first people. Taking the form of a serpent, the wicked one appeared to Eve and began to tempt her with cunning and tricky questions. “Is it true that the Lord did not allow you to eat from the trees of paradise? he asked, knowing full well what the lie was saying. “No,” Eve said, “from all the trees we can eat except one. From him, as the Lord said, if we eat, we will die. " "You will not die," the devil cunningly said, "but you yourself will become like God, for you will know what is good and what is evil."
The fallen spirit deceived people. He knew that they would become mortal, that through disobedience to God they would fall away from Him and become creatures subject to the devil. This is what he wanted. But he tempted people with knowledge! Learn new things! Become Gods Without God! How often do we hear such a call today.
And Eve was deceived ... A doubt in the righteousness of God crept into her soul: “God is hiding something from me. Doesn't want to give me any knowledge. Then I'll take them myself. " She picked the fruit and ate it. Then she gave it to Adam, and he ate. But instead of becoming like God, they became mortal, fell under the power of the devil, saw their nakedness, and they felt ashamed. And they hid from God between the trees of paradise. God gave man the opportunity to repent in order to return to his former dignity, but man was persistent in sin. Adam began to blame the violation of the commandment not only on Eve, but also on God Himself: The wife you gave me, she gave me the fruit of the tree, and I ate. Eve blamed the snake for everything: The snake deceived me, and I ate» .
Look here - what is characteristic of a modern person is self-justification. Everyone is to blame except me. Alarm clock, bosses, transportation, but not myself. Self-justification, lack of repentance. Expose your sin, see it, admit it, repent of it and don't do it again. No! Self-justification. This is a property that is inherent in a person from his great-great-parents.
« Having tasted the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve learned from their own experience what is good and what is evil. It turned out that good is life with God, happiness, peace, joy, the absence of disease, sorrow and immortality. Evil is life without God, suffering, illness and death. But the bitterness of evil and the tragedy of its consequences was recognized gradually, therefore, at the time of the Fall, the first people did not want to repent of their sin, but were engaged in self-justification". They did not yet understand the consequences of the Fall.

What happened as a result of original sin? - As a result of original sin, the whole person, his entire personality, underwent the most serious changes. In the words of Saint Theophan the Recluse: “ God is everywhere and contains everything, but he enters into free creatures when they betray themselves to Him. When they are contained within themselves, then He does not violate their autocracy, but, keeping them and containing them, does not enter inside. Likewise, our forefathers are left alone. If they had repented as soon as possible, perhaps God would have returned to them, but they persisted, and with obvious reproofs neither Adam nor Eve confessed that they were guilty. Judgment and punishment followed by expulsion from paradise. Then they came to their senses, but it was already too late. It was necessary to bear the punishment imposed, and after them and our entire family» .
The Fall had a heavy and terrible effect on the entire nature of man. And the devastating effect of this fall is so global that it changed our entire world, incl. flora and fauna. All living things that did not know death began to experience the influence of the fallen man and his willfulness. Why did this happen? Man was the crown of all material creations of God. Man was endowed with dominion over all material creations and man had to spiritualize matter and bring it to God. And as a result of his fall, all matter fell. Man stood, as it were, at the top of all matter, was a spiritual-material being, as a result of changes in him, everything material, the whole world underwent the greatest changes. Chaos destroyed harmony. Beauty began to destroy ugliness. Disease and death replaced health and immortality. Already the son of Adam and Eve - Cain became a murderer - shed the blood of his brother. And then people got used to killing thousands of their own kind, learned to kill them in torment and torture, they began to kill with an evil word, and denunciation, and slander.
« At first, man was created in such a way that his spirit, having communion with God, was enlightened and in turn enlightened the soul assimilated by Divine grace. The enlightened soul permeated the whole body with grace, subjecting it to the laws of the spirit. The spirit was to the soul what the soul was to the body. The human body, sanctified by Divine grace and led by the spirit, did not know disease and was immortal.
As a result of the Fall, the wondrous harmony of spirit, soul and body was destroyed. The human spirit has lost the ability to communicate with God and lost its inner strength. The soul stopped living at the expense of the spirit and turned to the carnal interests of the body. The body, having lost spiritual enlightenment, became mortal and susceptible to disease.
After the Fall, the supremacy of the spiritual mind in man was lost. Feelings and desires, not restrained by the mind, began to give actions the character of malice, pettiness and selfishness» .
To better understand what happened to the human soul as a result of the Fall, let us carefully consider the following diagram.

Changes in the powers of the human soul after the fall.

Thought power (mind, reason) Left to himself and not receiving beneficial influences from the spiritual mind. A tendency to fantasies (the imagination of what is not in reality) has appeared, and therefore a person has a distorted picture of the world. The human mind is busy with the consideration of particulars and is not able to comprehensively embrace life.

Strength desirable (desires, will) Desires are directed to sensual worldly objects and intensify, turning into lusts. The will has lost the power to suppress harmful obscene desires, “A person will not remain in honor; he will be like animals that perish. "

Irritating force (feelings, emotions) A single feeling of the soul (striving for heavenly beauties) disintegrated into two: pleasure and pain. The first became the basis of all human passions, the second gave rise to anger, sadness, longing, despair and fear.

After the fall of the first people, not only the body, but also the soul became subject to sin. As St. Gregory Palamas wrote back in the XIV century: “ The soul is trifling and is contemplated in three forces: mental, irritable and desirable. She is sick with all of them... ". Collapsed chastity human. Chastity, in the broad sense of the word, is the harmony of the subordination of all the forces of the soul. The mind accepts, reflects and chooses. Will works. Feelings in accordance with the will and mind help, bring joy from this. Now everything is scattered in a person. You can think one thing and desire something completely different, but the will can be paralyzed and not act at all. The Apostle Paul says about this: “ Poor man I am! who will deliver me from this body of death?"Rom. 7:24; " For I do not understand what I am doing: because I do not do what I want, but what I hate, I do. If I do what I do not want, then I agree with the law that it is good, and therefore it is no longer I who do that, but the sin living in me "Rom. 7:17. This is the worst thing - the loss of chastity.
One of the most common problems in the modern world, especially in developed countries, is the psychological the problem of people losing the meaning of life ... Having a sufficiently high level of well-being, people do not know why they live. This is accompanied by acute emotional experiences that push people towards drunkenness, drug addiction, or even suicide. Let me give you an example. In the society for counteracting drug addiction and alcoholism in which I work, one hundred percent of the drug addicts surveyed have no meaning in life. In the language of psychology, they have no distant prospects. Those. do not know why they live, what they live for, where they live. It's the same with alcoholics. Complete lack of meaning in life. The same goes for fornicators - a complete lack of meaning in life. I live for pleasure, the meaning of life is in getting pleasure, i.e. hedonistic attitudes. How to have fun? - Here, alcohol, women, men ... etc. etc.
Often people become isolated in themselves, and the mind begins to work in vain, taking wishful thinking, living in its own fictional world, divorced from reality. Moreover, in the mind of such a person, several such worlds can form, which often contradict each other and conflict with themselves. A person lives in a kind of fictional virtual reality. In an extreme form, this is expressed in schizophrenia (from Old Greek σχίζω - I split and φρήν - mind, reason, i.e. division, splitting of the mind). I must say that modern medicine has not yet learned how to treat this disease and, by and large, does not even understand its deep spiritual roots. Medicine is only interested in the fact that the patient is not aggressive towards other people and does not commit criminally punishable crimes.
From a Christian point of view, the mind was the most dominant power of the soul, and in the present state, the main thing. What the mind can do is turn to God with a prayer for its cleansing and enlightenment.
After the Fall, the main diseases of the will were its wrong direction and, in general, its insufficient development in God. The most important psychological problem of our time is lack of will - the so-called abulia ... When a person does not strive for anything himself, but, as they say, goes with the flow. Such people do not have an active rejection of evil, because of indifference, callousness there is a lot of evil in the world. In the extreme degree of its development, abulia reaches the point that a person seems to turn into a plant. He himself does not move, does not eat until he is fed ... and so on. etc. Very often we began to see this in modern children: when you don't want anything, you don't need anything, you want to have fun, watch cartoons, or hang out in the computer ... This is how abulia manifests itself in full - the lack of will and the ability to make efforts to something. Laziness to study, laziness to work, and this evil shadow of laziness is with me forever every day, as one poet wrote.
The feelings of a modern person are no less upset than all the other forces of the soul. Modern specialists: psychologists and even psychiatrists are sounding the alarm about the increasing number of people with unmotivated fears, anxiety, depression. The latter is even called the scourge of the twenty-first century, since it is a very common disease in the West. At the same time, medicinal forms of exposure - antidepressants do not lead to a solution to the problem, but only temporarily alleviate the situation. And this is understandable, because depression is a kind of signal of the soul about trouble, about its disastrous spiritual state. And, of course, treatment should begin with healing the soul, with healing the spirit. And when the syndromes, the main causes of these mental illnesses are not eliminated, and only symptoms are treated, then, naturally, the disease does not go away, it can change forms, it can be driven inside, it will always be with the person. And the further, the more these diseases will be stronger in a godless, atheistic society. Because, first of all, these are diseases of the spirit.
As a psychologist, I can testify: a lot of people turn to me with problems of correcting their mental order, but their roots lie in the spiritual realm. That is why, when they go to psychiatrists of the atheistic direction or to psychologists of various schools who are alien to the Orthodox understanding of man, they cannot help them. With the help of various trainings, psychotechnics, they can switch, transfer the course of the disease in a different direction, give external relief, and then it returns in one form or another. Doesn't work. Because its root lies in the spiritual part of a person. Until this problem is solved, no mental problems will be solved. And then, most interestingly, mental illness leads to body illness. There is a whole area of \u200b\u200bmedicine that I have also been working on for many years, which is called psychosomatics. Those. as diseases of the body, diseases of organs arise from diseases of the psyche. And mental changes, in turn, are caused by changes in the field of the spirit. Thus, diseases in the sphere of the spirit lead not only to mental illnesses, but also to very many illnesses of the physical level.
An important task in the life of an Orthodox Christian is the acquisition of chastity .
« Chastity should be understood as the integrity of man as the image of God, a state in which the spirit, soul and body are in primeval harmony: the soul, enlightened by the spirit, controls the body. A chaste person does what the mind enlightened by God prompts him to do; he is not constantly dependent on carnal needs and is not a slave to his bad habits and desires.
But chastity in this broad sense of the word is not given to a person from birth, since a person, being an extension of his parents, carries in himself a disposition to those passions and vices that were characteristic of his ancestors. Chastity can be cultivated in a person in the process of life, if he makes an effort to this. The beginnings of chastity, namely the disposition to goodness, are an integral part of the image of God in a person, but their development largely depends on the person himself, on the nature of his upbringing, the impact of the environment in which he lives, and on many other things.
So, chastity is brought up in a person in the process of his spiritual life and, naturally, has different levels. Inborn, natural for a normal person, is physical chastity. It manifests itself in a sense of shame in one's physical nakedness, in modesty and restraint in dealing with the opposite sex, in bashfulness and modesty in words, gestures and body movements. This feeling must be kept in oneself in every possible way and in others, supported and developed. Natural chastity can grow into a higher, spiritual and serve the development of the likeness of God in a person» .
Today, we see, a terrible blow is inflicted even on the physical chastity of a person. Films, advertising, where the sexual instinct protrudes. Sex education in school, which tries to corrupt the child, deprive him of chastity, etc. All this leads to the fact that people, if they do not take care of themselves and do not educate and strengthen natural, bodily chastity in their children, then they lose it, and having lost it, they get obstacles for acquiring chastity in the full sense of the word ...
« If a person, infected with someone else's bad example and wrong upbringing, destroys his natural chastity and behaves "like everyone else", then gradually purposefulness will leave his soul and the spiritual perfection of such a person will be impossible". A simple example. Alcohol and drug addicted people come to us for treatment for 15 years. In adult drug addicts (over 18 years of age), the fall occurred as follows: at first they lost physical chastity, fell into prodigal sin, and then, as a rule, they became involved in drug addiction.
« The beginning of spiritual chastity is also the unity of thoughts, words and deeds. A person should always say what he thinks and act accordingly with his way of thinking. You cannot think one thing, say another, and act in a third way. This is hypocrisy - a sin that destroys a person's soul. A person who does this will never become chaste.
"Chastity is the all-embracing name for all virtues" Rev. John Climacus» .

Enlightenment is the main goal in most spiritual-esoteric teachings.

Enlightenment is the highest insight, the awareness of the essence of life as such. Enlightenment removes ignorance, illusions of the mind, expands consciousness, and frees one from psychological suffering. A more detailed description is further considered with examples of direct and indirect methods of achieving enlightenment.

Direct methods of achieving enlightenment

These are the best, simple, instant methods. Direct methods eliminate the buffer of mental understanding, reflection, and theorizing. Direct methods of enlightenment are not related to teaching in schools, sects, seminars, gurus, teachers and mentors. These are all mind games. Direct methods are for those who are one hundred percent honest with themselves. Next, in order, a description of direct methods of enlightenment.

Realization of the present implies a direct perception of life here and now. The layman, when introduced to this method of enlightenment, begins to imagine what he is doing, or has just done. This is a deviation from the method.

Awareness of the present is a continuous, natural perception of what is right now. This is not a search for anything, but if there is one, it is an awareness of the search as one of the lines of the drawing of the present moment. Ideally, the object of perception really becomes the present moment itself between the past and the future.

We can conditionally say that to be in the present moment, to be present is a property of our Higher Self. If you are aware of the present, the focus of identification shifts to.

If the awareness of the present moment occurs continuously, life "collapses" in itself, and you see that now there is an endless presence in weightless eternity, where something is happening beyond the future and the past. Now there is being itself, the boundless space of consciousness. This is the primary basis of everything. This being is awareness itself and life as such. All perceived objects and forms occur in it as something deeply secondary and equivalent.

Acceptance of the present - essentially the same as the awareness of the present, but with the help of a fine line of "letting in" into your consciousness what is right now. The psyche closes the mind from most of the sensations, which ultimately form the subconscious.

Acceptance of the present is full disclosure to everything that is here and now. At the same time, one's own consciousness is felt as a pure vessel and conductor of all phenomena. Ideally, you realize everything as a single indivisible phenomenon. And if resistance remains somewhere, it dissolves. Everything just happens.

Enlightenment is total acceptance. Even if something is felt as an obstacle, it is just a form of the next step on the way.

Relaxation in natural presence - essentially the same as awareness and acceptance of the present. On the other hand, this is another fine line of comprehending life. Rejection of the present closes one from realizing the present. This rejection arises due to tension at all levels of the psyche. Relaxation relieves tension. And this is not a dream, but the end of resistance to the present.

At the same time, all bodily sensations are perceived as densifications in the emptiness of the space of consciousness. Important . Acceptance and relaxation are two facets of the same enlightenment process.

Defocused consciousness- another facet of enlightenment. Everyday attention is focused by the mind in tense illusions of the past and future. The most subtle focusing of the mind creates the habitual self-identification - ours. It is experienced in the back of the head, throat and at a deep level in the chest. Defocusing leads to the dissolution of these tense clots of psychic energy. And then the painful tensions and the "pernicious agility of the mind" pass away.

At first, you feel how in the presence of the habitual “I” a sense of space appears, against the background of which tensions flounder. Then, as it defocuses, the habitual “I”, which seemed to be something impenetrably dense and solid, begins to give a gap through which the refined energy of consciousness seeps through. Total defocusing is synonymous with complete relaxation, acceptance, disidentification and enlightenment.

The viewer's awareness of life- the subtlest "movement" with which you transfer the focus of attention from the world of forms and sensations to the viewer himself who perceives life. Being, awareness, observation, presence - all this is a description of its essence, its only property, which is expressed in limited words in many aspects.

Smell, touch, taste, sight and hearing are instruments of perception. Who is using these tools? Where do these five threads of life perception meet? The one who looks at life right now is the eternal spectator of life. He is always there. Forms are changing. Enlightenment is the awareness of one's essence as a continuous free presence.

Exposing choice - another facet of enlightenment. Personality is a set of choices passing through consciousness in the present. Choice is born of rejection of the present. The personality is tense in the present, therefore, avoids it, choosing an illusory future.

Dedication - another one facet of enlightenment. You give everything you have. Not in the material sense, but in the essential. Self-surrender occurs inactively, without effort and effort, in relaxation. We can say that this method of enlightenment is the edge of relaxation in which you release your grip on what is happening here and now.

Contemplation of the present... As a rule, it starts with focusing on any object. The method differs from “the viewer's awareness of life” by the emphasis on contemplation as such. The essence of this method of enlightenment is to make the process of contemplation basic and continuous. Then the focus of self-awareness is transferred to the Higher "I". Perception as such is a property of the Higher Self. When you contemplate what is, the higher “I” is, as it were, “activated”. Enlightenment is a manifestation of the contemplative principle of life. This is true. Ideally, the contemplation of the object occurs without, as something extremely natural.

Realization of who you are - Ramana Maharshi's enlightenment method. The method is based on the question: "who am I?" You ask a question once, with a clear awareness of the meaning of this question. Then you transfer your attention to the feeling “I am”. If there is “I”, then it can be felt somehow. What is "I"? Who am I"? A verbal answer means nothing. It is necessary to experience who you really are. Comprehension of "I" is comprehension of reality.

All of these methods are different facets of the same process. Due to unique experiences, different people open up different pathways to enlightenment.

Indirect methods of achieving enlightenment

These methods are usually associated with changes in energy, cleansing the mind, preparing the body and psyche for clear consciousness. The division into direct and indirect methods is conditional. Sometimes direct methods become indirect, and indirect direct, depending on the readiness of consciousness.

Energy riseIs the experience of awakening stagnant energy. It can be triggered by energy exercises, and in particularly successful cases, removes mental blocks, clears the mind and enlightens the mind. This includes the practice of Kriya Yoga, Kundalini Yoga, work with energy and other esoteric practices.

Shaktipat, or diksha - spiritual dedication. Typically given by a mentor, guru, or master. In particularly successful cases, it gives an instant expansion of consciousness and enlightenment. More often gives an experience of insight, which sows the "seed" of enlightenment. If the initiate conserves energy, the seed germinates and over time the lotus of consciousness opens and blooms.

Middle way... Buddha was preaching. In my understanding, this path to enlightenment is an intuitive, relaxed finding of balance in every new moment of life. Castaneda's Don Juan spoke figuratively how a man of knowledge goes through life “touching everything a little”. This path helps life. You don’t tense, you don’t sleep, you let reality happen. At the same time, paradoxically, you gain the ability to make efforts that a vain and tense mind is simply not capable of.

Not doing- method of enlightenment by Carlos Castaneda. Perception of the world is a subtle effort in consciousness. You make the world in your mind habitual. Is the termination of the "effort" by. Then the habitual phenomena reveal their essence. You begin to feel what is happening as a play of energy. And on a more subtle level - as pure consciousness.

Super-efforts- the method of enlightenment by George Gurdjieff. This is one of the most difficult methods on the verge of life and death. Gurdjieff said that in the human body there is something like household batteries. When their energy is used up, the person falls off his feet. But if at this time you make a leap, super-effort, then your consciousness switches to a deep, almost inexhaustible source of energy, and you continue to move.

When deadly fatigue rolls up, you make another leap and from a deep source of energy, you switch to a causal source. At the same time, the superfine consciousness is activated. The method is extremely dangerous for independent practice.

Suffering... They temper and develop the soul. Everyone knows that. Suffering is one of the main stimuli for true detachment. Detachment from transient phenomena leads to truth and enlightenment. Many saints went to conscious suffering in order to cultivate spiritual qualities.

In no case do I urge you to suffer. You can limit yourself to such an understanding that what has already been experienced was not useless.

Humiliation... One of the powerful incentives for the surrender of the ego and. Humiliation and pride go hand in hand. Neurotic self-identification is based on this pendulum. Again, I do not urge to humiliate ourselves - it is enough to treat your own person more simply: and not to get ahead of ourselves, embellishing reality.

Confession, recapitulation, journaling, psychotherapy are effective methods of clearing the mind. Secular memoirs don't count. To work for enlightenment, it is necessary to utter sincerely all your own fears, to highlight everything that has been suppressed, etc.

Reflection on the beyond:about God, about eternity and infinity, about love, about the true "I" - is also considered one of the methods of clarifying consciousness and enlightenment. If the meditator tries to feel the theme of his reflections, his attention is detached from theories and touches these deep layers of life in practice.

Karma yoga Is work without waiting for the result. The mind is calculating, and if you do something for others without personal gain, the grip of the ego looses. Ideally, karma yoga is performed with complete immersion of consciousness in the present moment, without goals for the future. Contemplation of the present is one of the direct methods of enlightenment. Contemplation in motion is aerobatics in the practice of enlightenment. True karma yoga is, as Swami Vivekananda said, bringing the goal and the means together.

Unconditional loveis considered the best method of spiritual transformation and enlightenment. This method opens,. Unconditional love knows no insincerity or deception. This is the love of life itself. Ideally, on this path, you plunge into bliss, and leaving all divisions, you surrender to this experience without a trace.

Doubt

It is believed that enlightenment is impossible to achieve. Someone says that enlightenment has to be earned, or "received" from a master. But then it comes down to what methods exist for this "obtaining". As a rule, it all comes down to transferring their resources and time to schools, where the suffering find themselves depending on, after serving for many years, they seem to have a chance to enlighten.

Another option is to pay a lot of money for initiation, and then, if the mind does not go beyond the mind, again, there is a chance to enlighten "for free."

Someone says that enlightenment simply "happens" outside of methods and practices. Of course it is. But before that, a person goes some way. And more often than all this is the path that is called spiritual. It doesn't matter how, it doesn't matter in the past or present life. The path includes everything that happens.

Someone says that everyone is already enlightened: there is nothing to strive for, nothing to achieve. But what are these words worth? Why not? A righteous life, or a life of practice, is no worse than an ordinary life, filled with contradictions and vanity.

Others say that enlightenment is available only to Buddhas, who come once a millennium, or even less often, and mere mortals cannot see the truth. This is how the voice of self-doubt and self-doubt sounds, the voice of the mind, which is in the fetters of concepts.

People tend to believe that the more seriously they take life, the closer this perception is to reality. However, this seriousness also consists of emotions that project the subjective pictures of the mind onto a reality that has nothing to do with these projections.

In this article, expressing a subjective opinion, I argue that enlightenment is achieved, and there are suitable methods for this. Let everything be relative and the achievement illusory. But there is nothing else to talk about.

I understand that to cover the stated topic, you still need to be a member of the worldwide association of enlightened masters, which I am not. Therefore, here, as elsewhere, I am acting cunningly, and in no case do I insist on the ultimate truth of words and the effectiveness of "methods."

Let each one believe his own experience and make sure that the truth is. Let everyone personally make sure that he / she IS. Someone will need schools and teachers, someone will need personal diligent practice, someone will need a simple acquaintance with the topic, and a direct look at what is here and now.

In 2014, I suddenly realized clearly: "The truth is inside!" With this thought I woke up and fell asleep. It appeared in my head all the time, as if someone had broadcast it on purpose to wake me up. And one day, during a session with a client, we went inside. It was the first, incredible in strength and power, moment of light from within. I worked a lot with people, and there were different states, but nothing that I had previously experienced could even be closely compared with this state.

From that moment began the path that led us and leads many other people to that state, which is called spiritual enlightenment or human enlightenment. For 1.5 years we have awakened many images inside ourselves, conducted many sessions, live and online TOT trainings.

Enlightenment: Five Stages of the Path to Your Present Self

• Stage I. Ego crashes

You fought for a long time and searched a lot, went through many courses and trainings, listened to hundreds of meditations, attended two dozen festivals, visited many temples, perhaps you were in India and Tibet. You have completely run out of money, a man (woman) has left, children do not understand, acquaintances keep saving you. You honestly and searched a lot: answers in books, from masters - you found, rejoiced, rejoiced. Here! This is what you need. And now life will definitely change.

You have eradicated thousands of limiting beliefs, but the more you found them, the more they turned out. Your joy was short-lived, the state of Love to which you are striving so much (after all, now you are familiar with this state, you have felt it more than once) turned out to be short-lived - only a few days or weeks, and then again the endless search for causes and effects and it seems there is no end to this.

Each time a new layer rose, new pain was discovered. You have already despaired and decided that nothing works and sometimes thought that death is the only release. And now you are ready to give up. You have failed in your search for answers outside.

Humility - the first step to spiritual enlightenment

To give up means to lose ?! Your mind associates resignation with a crisis. "If you accept, then you lose," you think, "if you step back and leave control, everything will collapse ..." But the opposite happens! As soon as you humble yourself, truly, totally, a miracle happens! You start to act, being drawn by the spirit from within. Your life begins to change.

At this stage, other information begins to come to you. Something pushes you to awakening-enlightenment. You come across other articles, other people. Perhaps when you hear about a person's enlightenment, it seems incredible to you. You think that only spiritual teachers can do this.

You have many misconceptions, on the topic of spirituality, the material world, there are still many rules inside, but it is humility, as the first step on the path to realizing your truth, that will help you look at your life in a different way.

This stage is the most difficult. Here we meet most of all misconceptions and clarity here is zero. How did you go through this stage? Or maybe now you are going through the five stages of the path to your present self?

Literary series? A series of articles with tips for a better understanding of yourself.

• Stage II. You will realize: everything is easier than it seems, the truth is on the surface

You, somewhere deep inside yourself, realize: everything is simpler than it seems, the truth must be somewhere on the surface.
Everything should be simpler and easier. At this stage, you still have many illusions about the correctness and incorrectness of everything that is. You still believe that there is something spiritual and something non-spiritual. You still have a division between good and bad inside you.

There are many evaluations of everything and you are still comparing yourself to others and yourself to yourself at different times in your life. You know that you need to accept yourself as air. You are tired of fighting with yourself and looking for total total acceptance. Your body, wounded by self-condemnation, needs acceptance. Now, for the first time, you begin to really think about how to accept yourself.

At this stage, you begin to accept your feelings and emotions.

You are thrown from joy and calmness to insane irritation and outbursts of anger - this is the part that has been crushed over many years in its natural desire to build boundaries and declare itself. You start to really think about yourself. You have known for a long time that you are creating reality, you are learning to manage it. You begin to realize yourself as the Creator of your world.

For so many years you have been working on yourself - it's time to just remember who you are and who all the others are! You are ready! And you hear clues around, but you still can't always decipher them. Every now and then a phrase catches your eye or you hear it in your head: "Things are not what they seem."

I began to hear such prompts five years ago, and it was then that the phrase: "And you will know your truth and your truth will free you" led to birth. Now it has become possible to shorten the path to what you were born for at this amazing time.

• Stage III. You start to remember

You dive inside yourself and start looking for answers within - the first victories of the spirit and a feeling of uplift. The first feeling appears that you can do everything. You remember what it means to love yourself. You learn to make choices out of Self-Love. Perhaps these choices do not correspond to the generally accepted definition of love, but you are getting more and more out of the patterns and rules accepted in society.

You are guided by a feeling from within and listen to your breathing - it helps you make the right choices. And you begin to understand that all the assessments and judgments on the basis of which your experience was formed are no longer needed. You choose not to rate or compare anymore. This is what helps you move faster in knowing yourself and your world.

Your world opens up for you in completely different colors. Now you already know for sure that everything manifested is wise. You begin to realize that by evaluating or condemning anything, you are evaluating and judging God in yourself. For you, God is no longer a biblical character. Now you know for sure that God is you, and all others are also gods in their world.

Write in the comments how you go through your five stages of the path to yourself? Where are you now?

Stop dividing the world into good and bad

Within you, for the first time in your entire life, an unearthly peace reigns within. It is still unstable and, at times, you start reacting again as before. But now you have a lot more compassion for yourself and you allow everything to be. You become more and more free from the boxes and limitations that your mind has put up.

You begin to touch your strength and your power. At this stage, there are still recessions and periods when fear grabs you in its sticky grip, but they, as a rule, do not last long and after the next awareness, you come to even greater expansion and awareness.

Your Ego, more and more healing and not feeling any more danger, begins to give up its position, allowing more and more SPIRIT to manifest through you. You start to feel the flow. You will realize what it means to live in the flow - to humble yourself and trust the spirit. You have realized the power of humility and you have used it over and over again. And this makes it possible to expand, more and more each time.

You don't know yet that you have many discoveries and victories ahead of you. And the mind wants to keep the state that has opened up to you, to freeze in it. But your soul has a different plan for life and it will actively promote you further, however, like your whole world. And if you have the courage, you will come in this incarnation where you wanted to reach for so many lives. And your biggest fear is not the fear of life, it is the fear of not reaching again, not discovering the SOURCE OF LIFE within yourself.

• Stage IV. Feel the state in which there are no desires

Suddenly you feel a state in which you have no desires, you just feel good to BE! It seems that this is spiritual enlightenment, because you read that this is exactly how you feel when your consciousness is enlightened. You have thoughts about the meaninglessness of everything that happens. To be enlightened (the essence of enlightenment) is not wanting anything?

You continue to move through life, albeit slowly. Forcing yourself to do something, just live. You think, “Has all my efforts led me to the point that I do not want anything? What's next? But what about the relationship, the house, and the money, because of which, in fact, everything began many years ago? "

At this stage, you are honest enough with yourself to see what your world reflects to you. Your world still speaks of the weakness of your loved ones and the presence of powerlessness, it speaks of diseases, it "mirrors" you the weakness of people and unwillingness to act. Your world shows you lack and suffering. You observe everything as if from the outside, often considering yourself enlightened, who no longer cares about worldly concerns.

You do not have a man (woman) or everything is bad with him (her), although, perhaps, this does not really bother you anymore. From within, something pushes you to continue your search. You have to think that this should not be so.

This is the decision-making stage

I would say that it is at this stage that you are at a fork. Before that, you prepared yourself, tested your strength, tempered yourself. As a submariner preparing to dive into the Mariana Trench and its deepest point, the Challenger Abyss. You were preparing yourself to plunge into your own Abyss.

And now you have a CHOICE, however, as always on this planet:

• You can name everything that was previously a useless path and turn back to the outside world.
• Or stop and dive deeper into yourself, into your own ABOUT. To emerge refreshed (s) and finally start LIVING.

This is where the stage begins when you are ready to turn to yourself completely. Choose yourself and life within yourself.
Before that, you were just preparing for this moment. Have you reached this stage or at the previous ones? How do you go through your five stages of the path to yourself?

We live on the outside, and we don't use the inside, but this can be learned.

• Stage V. You smoothly approach the understanding of the structure of the world

You are less resistant to external events and smoothly approach the understanding of the structure of the world. The mind is still looking for answers to questions. You begin to accept more and more everything that is inside you, if you have passed the previous stages. And, finally, they began to accept themselves with all their cockroaches, fears, feel a surge of strength from within. You come to balance. You are not striving for light or running from darkness.

You have opened your abilities. And this is a natural state for you. You no longer consider the ability to clearly know, clairvoyant, clairaudient, something special. Do not elevate this to a cult, as you understand that abilities, first of all, are necessary for you personally. This does not mean at all that you have to become a fortune teller or a clairvoyant with a crystal ball, who broadcasts and enlightens others.

Your loved ones also discover these abilities on their own. They didn't even have to do anything for this, your understanding of the essence of things and acceptance of yourself was enough. You begin to see the truth (the one that is revealed at this stage) as it really is. And while you like it, you are interested in living. Perhaps even more interesting than before.

You rediscover the world

Enlightenment (awakening) has brought understanding, calmness and wisdom into your life. You have rediscovered this world for yourself. And you cognized it anew and continue to cognize it. You accept pain and suffering because you understand the beauty of this choice. Accept cruelty and violence. And you realize this as a choice to cognize love in this way or to help another soul finally come to true love. And you understand that this is a necessary stage. Although within me there was a worm of doubt about suffering.

Simple things delight you, you love what you previously condemned and rejected. You enjoy the little things more and more. You used to meditate for hours and run away from the world. Because you decided that you are carrying out an important mission to save lost humanity. Now you know it's important to help you turn around and go through the five stages of the path to yourself.

Before leaving the next illusion, you resist, since it is very difficult to let go of what the whole structure of your earthly personality was holding on. But, as soon as you decide to dive into the unknown, you rejoice at your courage and realize the importance of your choice. Each time a different, deeper Truth is revealed to you, and with every step you take, an ever greater simplicity and at the same time the wisdom of the arrangement of everything is revealed.

At this stage, I realized for sure that things and people are not at all what they seem. It opened my mind and broadened my horizons. At this stage, any information is revealed as soon as you direct your attention to it. Here you need to be very careful and express your intention clearly.

We give examples with a small bonus at the end of the article, and you will read and offer your options.

Be careful, you can get stuck for a long time

At this stage, you can "stick" for a very long time, because there are so many interesting things for the mind. You open up so much that even five lifetimes will not be enough for others to know everything that comes to you at the speed of sound. I would say that this is the stage at which it is important to separate your thoughts from the thoughts of others. You do simple actions every day that delight and fill you, slow down and no longer rush. You begin to learn to LIVE, enjoying the very process of life!

All levels are conditional and all stages are intertwined with one another. I described how I came to the state of enlightenment myself. And what I have seen in personal sessions and at the TOT School. With this article, I hoped to show my five stages on the way to myself and in which direction I recommend to move on. Or explain what may be happening to you.

There are many people who have been in Stage 4 for many years. They have no desires at all. And they think that this is how it should be, that this is the essence of enlightenment. Maybe that's how it happens in your country. Or you experience the enlightenment of consciousness in a completely different way. How do you go through your five stages of the path to yourself? I would be very glad if you share your experience in the comments.