Meditation & The Path to Self Realization

"Awareness itself
is always free.

If you are completely aware
in this moment,
watching what is arising
instead of being caught up
in what is arising,
then the experience is freedom.

Yet if you remain aware
without getting caught up,
at some point it will no longer
feel like freedom.

The urge to again attach
yourself and identify yourself
to what is here
is so strong
that eventually
it will overpower awareness
and again you will identify
with what is here in order
to release this build up
of pressure.

Many will simply
dip in and out
of awareness.

They will have a taste of awareness
and then go back to identification
and in this way,
the bliss of awareness
begins to flow over
into mind identification.

This is certainly one method.

Another method
is to consciously lengthen
that time of awareness
or even break out of that
urge to identify with thinking
all together.

Then there is the willingness
to do whatever it takes;
to commit yourself
to spiritual practice
and disciplines
which are conducive to awareness.

You really either fall in love
with awareness
or you are so desperate
to break out of mind identification
that you give yourself fully to the task.

And although outer things
get addressed like
diet, exercise, relinquishing
addictions, creating an enlightened
energetic environment around you,

there is an inner movement
that takes place:
The willingness to remain
firm in awareness
use whatever techniques
or non techniques
to break through that
urge to identify with the mind.

Or, through observation,
you pick that
mind identification mechanism apart piece by piece
until it breaks,
until you are released
into an unconditional awareness
that does not pull you back.

In this method
you most likely move beyond
the social aspect
of spirituality,
you go beyond the beliefs
and ideas of how it is supposed
to be and investigate for yourself
what really is true in this moment,
what really works for you
to fully awaken to freedom.

And what really works
maybe completely
different than what
you thought it would be.

You come out the other end
completely different
than who you thought you were
in the first place.

And that is magnificent,
that is true freedom.

To realize bliss
all ideas of who you think
you are and what you know
fly out the window.

Blessings,

Kip"