Are we masks of God?

[Bently Blaize]

I explore the I Am and self realization. I see that we are all apart of the same one thing viewing different parts of that same one thing. We are the it, experiencing itself.

I see that nothing really happens to me and this world is a play we are the actors. I have came to the realization that I was acting unknown but now I am aware.

This same one thing that is all of us. The I ... Are we masks of God or what is the thing we all are. Is it intelligent awareness? What is God, what is it that I Am ?

 

[Terese]

Your looking for advaitin members of this forum for this question. They will come and help you on your spiritual journey

 

[Aupmanyav]

Are we masks of God or what is the thing we all are. Is it intelligent awareness? What is God, what is it that I Am ?

What God? Why interpolate a God (or Goddess)?* We are what constitutes the universe, Brahman.

* One view in the Hindu non-dual philosophy ('advaita') among many Most accept existence of a super-soul.

 

[LuisDantas]

I explore the I Am and self realization. I see that we are all apart of the same one thing viewing different parts of that same one thing. We are the it, experiencing itself.

I see that nothing really happens to me and this world is a play we are the actors. I have came to the realization that I was acting unknown but now I am aware.

This same one thing that is all of us. The I ... Are we masks of God or what is the thing we all are. Is it intelligent awareness? What is God, what is it that I Am ?

For some people, yes. Others do not feel much of an affinity for the concept of God. And, of course, there are dozens of other situations as well.

It is dangerous to assume understanding of one's metaphysical stance from such a short exposition, but it seems to me that you may have something close to a theistic advaita perspective of religious matters. At least at the moment you wrote the last few sentences of the opening post.

 

[Aupmanyav]

At least at the moment you wrote the last few sentences of the opening post.

IMHO, it is a remnant of a monotheistic background, hard to dislodge.

 

[Bhairava]

MUST READ IF YOU WANT TO GLIMPSE THE ENLIGHTENMENT PROCESS!

Bently Blaize you seem to know what god is. Yes we are the masks of god. I see it like we are one of gods dreams. We are the character, the dream and god. In Trika Saivism my religion the highest enlightenment WE can experience is the 7th stage of Turya (4th state) aka Turyatita (beyond the 4th state). Ive experienced the 6th stage of Turya which is said to be the same except the 7th stage is permanent. It is to experience a fuller version of existence, a transcendent state where we exist while experiencing bliss constantly even while dreaming and in sleep and after we die. There is one higher version my tradition speaks of but can only be experienced after death. In my experience enlightenment is caused by what they claim in the Bhagavad Gita where it said "Pratyahara (sense withdrawal) is the secret to enlightenment." Its rarely mentioned; I guess cause it cannot be taught and is literally the secret to enlightenment. Many techniques but ultimately pratyahara is what really does it which is taking the consciousness off the senses. Thats what causes the various stages of Turya IMO. Various stages of taking your mind off the manifest and looking more and more at the source. IME its taking your mind from being locked on the senses to looking at the source to greater and greater degrees and I guess the 7th state is like focusing permanently on both aspects of existence; god and its manifestations.

Got one hell of an analogy for the 7 states of Turya; prison. Ego is like your prison cell and you decorate the walls with a picture of a home, a car, a spouse or whatever you decorate the walls with and it is your prison cell. We all assume the cell is ourself and is locked, cause why wouldn't the prison cell be locked!?

Just read Sri Ramana Maharshi said its not really a 4th state but substratum of the 3 states of waking, dream, sleep and I agree; its what you experience when you merge the 3 states into 1.

1st stage of Turya (4th state) Born Again Christian mode, Laughing Buddha mode

Turns out it was never locked; you can just push the door open. The first stage of Turya is like you have transcended the ego a little cause you can now look outside of it. Its like standing on the prison yard looking outside were you can see freedom. This is why people think god is love cause thats what it looks like from inside the prison (ego); god is actually infinite bliss ! Is a prisoner that can see freedom free? Interesting thing about being able to open your cell is you can now walk by others prison cells (ego) and look into them. One thing they don't tell you about transcending the ego is you don't just transcend yours! But don't get fooled into thinking you have truly transcended the ego, that is a trap! Ego isn't just sense of self; its sense of reality! Hell even the 7th stage of Turya aka Turyatita might be considered a trap from gods perspective. Some consider this 1st stage enlightenment and yes that is true but its not the fullest enlightenment. From a Western psychologists perspective they might call the first two stages the experience of mania (energetic state).

2nd stage

IME you can go extremely deep into the 1st stage and not be in the 2nd which is just a sustained focus of the 1st. They both are the same and you can go really deep into either to were you're like a laughing buddha that finds everything amusing; its all your delight! I don't think Born Again Christians dare go past this stage cause they worship it as god. It is but you can go further and literally become it instead of just looking at it. Same as first except it lasts longer, IME it lasts until you go to sleep. It is said it is more sacred to be able to go into the 2nd stage at will than being able to experience the 5th stage. Its like only going back to your cell to go to sleep cause you have a bed and pillow there. You will see how these stages kind of merge from one to the next and just cause a stage is higher doesn't necessarily mean better. These stages are from my perspective and inline with the traditions I follow Trika Saivism and Advaita Vedanta. Also follow some others but Im only aware of these two mentioning the seven stages of Turya in Trika Saivism and 7 stages of Turiya in Advaita Vedanta; in Vedanta they call it The Seven Stages of Jnana (Knowledge).

http://sivanandaonline.org/public_html/?cmd=displaysection&section_id=514

3rd stage

Is realizing existence is a dream. This is why I think some say enlightenment and unenlightenment are the same which isn't true. This is when you merge your conditioned consciousness with dreaming and reality goes from appearing outside yourself to existing within your consciousness. These next 3 really flow together IME. This is like imagine the prison wall being 7ft high concrete and you grab the top and pull yourself up looking into freedom. This stage looks beautiful IMO. Western psychologist might consider this depersonalization/derealization or maybe schizophrenia.

4th stage

Is like trying to climb the prison wall while others try to pull you down thinking your crazy, that theres nothing out there; that the prison is everything. At this stage it is scary cause ego sees you ACTUALLY starting to transcend it and gets pissed! It (ego aka Maya) tries to work its magic and keep you in prison. 4th stage I hate cause its like you are trying to comprehend your conditioned consciousness merged with dreaming and **** gets weird. You seen the Matrix? It feels like you're dealing with Agent Smith, like all the sudden ego (Maya) just takes over people. Feels like ego (Maya) is in your face trying every tactic to bring you back down. Its like Turya can supercharge others and if they have a strong ego (Maya) it enhances it BIG TIME! They seem like a mass of delusion constantly trying to perpetuate that delusion. Keep in mind this isn't everyone. Also all these states affect others. Not everyone is affected but some are if they vibe with your state; some respond very positively and some extremely negatively. Had an insane woman screaming at me "You think your the Devil!" lol Ive had strangers threaten to kill me lol . Ive had one stranger tell me "Im going to cut you in half with a knife!" I offered them my knife. She was also saying crazy **** like "I want to be a puppeteer; I want to be the puppet master!" Wasn't even thinking about it that day but I was in the 5th stage of Turya and I just figured the 3rd stage; they kind of flow together. Had a coworker say "Im going to slit your throat!" in front of another coworker who is a 5 time felon and he was like WTF!!! Ive had people scream at me who are not happy about their life "He loves it!!!" Or say mockingly "Love love love love love!". My own parents once saw me in a state possessed by love so they tried to intimidate me and threatened to take something away from me which later they did lulz and claimed they didn't. Then mom says sarcastically and with hate "HE MUST BE THE CHOSEN ONE!!!" Even had girlfriend of 6 years slap one of the sutras out of my hands! Leading up to us breaking up she slapped my spine where my heart chakra is several different times as if she could tell what I was doing and didn't like it. A few weeks ago had gangbangers threaten to shoot me up for looking at their car. I was in Bhairava Mudra; I laughed at them! This is what scares people away from enlightenment. If you don't have a spiritual tradition that tells you you can transcend this stage of dreaming while awake which is the essence of schizophrenia really, who would think that they can go so deep into seeming insanity that they come out the other end? Yeah exactly everyone is scared of scary insane ****. Ego tries to make you think you are crazy and really in the 4th stage of Turya you might seriously be. What is ego if not conceptual rationality? So when you merge so far into dreaming consciousness ego is like look this isn't right this is crazy and tries to scare you back into the comfy ILLUSION of understanding. Western psychologist might consider this severe schizophrenia.

Heres the enlightenment scene from the movie Little Buddha were they show symbolism of what Im talking about.

continued...

 

[Bhairava]

5th stage

Is like standing on the prison wall looking into freedom. So you are still in contact with the ego but stand on it. The people in prison can no longer touch you but they try to bring you back down. Not all of them cause some like to look into freedom but the ones who don't know whats out there are the ones that make the real impression on me. This is when conditioned consciousness merged with dreaming merges with unconsciousness sometimes referred to the Void. Fully in this stage when trying to go to the 6th stage you lose consciousness and have to transcend the void (unconsciousness). How to really do that i don't know. Think about it you experience it every night and not god. I guess thats why some say you need gods grace to experience it. It is said unconsciousness is when we are one with god but just aren't aware of it. When you experience unconsciousness from the 5th state its like jumping off the wall with your eyes closed. Western psychologist might consider this catatonia.

6th stage

Is the experience of Siva aka bliss. All the way into this state is the experience of seemingly infinite bliss (Parama Siva). This is like being outside the wall looking into the prison. Its like the point of view of god looking at the ego. This state is when you become the source, the source of desire and object of desire. You are possessed by shakti (energy). In this state they say if you look at it from the perspective of ego it is terrifying! When I experience this 15 years ago I knew it was a full kundalini awakening and figured the only thing worthy of contemplation in the state of full consciousness was the OM. Boy did I get what I asked for! I heard it at its fullest, I honestly don't think anyone has heard it louder; not saying others haven't heard it at the same intensity just can't imagine someone hearing it louder than that! It sounded like a souped up old muscle car engine but infinitely loud! Then I experienced both infinite bliss (Parama Siva) and infinite terror (Bhairava) at the same time. I wonder if its cause I dared meditate on anything else since enlightenment is the source of desire and object of desire so nothing could be better than focusing on it so maybe cause I wanted to focus on something else it was teaching me a lesson like oh yeah infinite bliss isn't enough well here!!! Scared to this day of enlightenment! I wonder if we all experience it at death and we are all like oh hell no! Its too much! Infinite bliss isn't oh thats neat it is too much! It was like getting the electric chair but bliss! 9 years later started getting a couple dozen orgasms (pranic awakenings) a day which is like peeking outside the shell of ego. I read it is burning my karma preparing me to be able to handle the infinite bliss. 7 years later I experience bliss often in my day to day life but it is nowhere near permanent. They say to experience the 6th stage you have to be totally renunciated from the world and I tricked it with the sacrament of Saivism ganja which causes pratyahara since its a psychedelic and a dissociative; its like steroids for deep meditation. IMO unless you are living as a renunciate maybe living in a cave you might need it to help your process. I didn't do it for like a decade to evolve spiritually on my own to make sure Im not deluding myself. Ganja simply helps like I once heard a renunciate say he smokes ganja so he can do extremely advanced yoga practices that would be difficult without it and I TOTALLY AGREE!!! Theres a reason it is the sacrament in Saivism and considered the LITERAL embodiment of god (Kali aka shakti aka energy). During the experience I felt bad as in guilty that everyone wasn't experiencing infinite bliss and came back to the conditioned state; looking back I honestly think it was my ego running for its life! 6th stage is Cit (Consciousness) Kundalini. Western psychologist would call this a seizure (abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain). Even read in my tradition they refer to it as a seizure of the Self.

7th stage of Turya aka Turyatita (beyond the 4th)

Same as 6th but permanent. In this state the bliss is always present during waking, dreaming, sleeping and after death. Its like standing outside the prison looking in and never going back inside. I imagine the one state higher Para (Highest) Kundalini which is a Universal Kundalini they talk about that you can only experience after death is what happens when you choose to not look at this prison or any other prison. You remain in the state of transcendent absorption only focused on that. The entire process is turning your consciousness into a singularity; SINGULARITY OF BLISS!!! I imagine Para Kundalini is truly the experience of infinite bliss! Western psychologists might consider this a type of schizophrenia were one think they are god and I guess that could be applied to the other stages too. Originally wanted to be a psychiatrist and so glad I got into Eastern psychology, philosophy, religion instead! It goes much deeper as you can see cause Western psychology stops at the level of conceptuality and worships rationality as god; it doesn't look into the energetic source of consciousness. As you can see rationality doesn't apply here. Ive been describing the different stages you go through when transcending rationality/conceptuality. Being aware energetically is like a parallel way of perceiving/existing.

 

[Aupmanyav]

That is a long route to enlightenment.