Author: John Richards

What is “enlightenment”?

‘Enlightenment’ is simply the dissolution of the false concept of separation brought about by belief in being a body, which creates the illusion of experience.

You are not body. You are formless. While belief in being a body in a world is still impressed through thoughts flowing in mind, you may use the body based concept of spiritual seeking to create the body based experience of ‘enlightenment’.

Once you have discovered your true formless nature through direct experience, you may discard the illusory body based knowledge that brought you seemingly to the doorway of yourself.

Since you are formless, none of this has actually occurred, however the thoughts flowing through mind will no longer impress the state of illusion and the concept of separation will be destroyed through understanding.

While you are believing that you are a body in a world having experiences, enjoy the seeking, once you understand and identify yourself perfectly, enjoy the dream.

Can meditation become an addiction?

Yes, the deeper the meditation the more unbelievable silence and bliss will be discovered. The more you remain with your Self the more you will desire your Self, and nothing else. The more you remain with your Self the less of irritation, frustration and despair will be able to enter and distract you.

Eventually you will want nothing other than your Self, no matter what outward activity you may be seemingly involved in, you will remain peaceful and undisturbed, naturally.

Then you will see from the true position that everything, including the experience of the separate existence, is occurring spontaneously within the meditation, ceaselessly.

You are the source of All Bliss, All Peace, All Happiness, by removing the apparent distractions that take away attention, you will realize this truth.

How can we know the level or stage of spiritual enlightenment of any person?

Know yourself first. By truly knowing yourself you will no longer care to use the mind to judge allowing the illusion of separateness.

Judging others progress will only retard your own.

Any other answer will be a love letter from mind to mind and further the illusion.

What is the path of enlightenment?

Accepting the truth that you are not body, you are formless. Impressing this truth through your daily experience and remaining formless, without following along with the mind created illusion of duality.

You have read the books and heard the truth. Now you must experience this truth directly in your experience, removing doubts as each moment arises.

Jai Sadguru!

Why does enlightenment feel like a chore? Why is it that I’d rather watch YouTube instead of meditating or focusing on presence or being the self?

The body based existence is intolerable, you must have constant distraction as you are identified with a mind that is constantly in motion as ‘my thoughts’ and ‘my mind’.

Until you are able to sit quietly with yourself there will be no peace, even though you are the source of peace itself.

Watching YouTube in itself is not bad or good.

Try to watch the watcher of YouTube, see from where attention is arising, observe this body mind as an object. Watch the watcher, observe the one that is uninterested in finding presence or the self.

If enlightenment is already our natural state, then why do enlightened beings report a notable qualitative shift in their consciousness before and after their awakening?

You enter a dark room and stumble around eventually understanding where objects are and how to move around without seeing. When you turn on the light the experience has shifted dramatically as you are no longer needing to interpret and remember where objects are, you are seeing them, using this new ‘sense’ or understanding. Sight was always there, it was not added, it just required the darkness to be removed.

What does Nisargadatta Maharaj mean by saying he was never born?

Yes, You are Unborn. All of the births and deaths occur within the consciousness which creates the illusion of duality through identification with a body form. You are not body you are formless. The illusion of experience: birth, life, death, is impressed through identification with a body form. The body form is an appearance within the consciousness which has appeared to you.

You are prior to every experience. Formless you experienced the sensation ‘I exist’ or ‘I am’ which was the beginning of time, or the life span of the body through which you know ‘You Are’. The appearance of ‘I am’ or ‘I exist’ will disappear when the body can no longer sustain the illusion of experience, so called death.

The one to whom the ‘I am’ appeared had to be there prior to the knowing of the appearance. You Are That.

That is formless unmanifest Presence which manifests and is felt through the body as the feeling of ‘I am’ or ‘I exist’ (Presence). You know of your existence through the body form, however you existed prior to knowing your existence.

Therefore Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj rightly states “I Am Unborn, I Am That’.

Jai Sadguru!

Why would someone who is enlightened tell others they are? Would that not mean they are identifying to their person-hood?

Enlightenment is the dissolution of the false concept of separation impressed through identification with a body form. Speaker and listener are one. You are speaking to yourself about yourself, their are no others. The wrong perception of being a body creates identification with thoughts that impress the false concept of ‘person-hood’.

Formless Presence, That You Are, is all there is. While you are holding a body form naturally you will utilize the instrument of communication.

Speaker and listener are one.

Can someone teach me to become my highest self and stay as so? None of what people told me worked, may you tell me an easy simple way?

Observe your breath naturally. As you maintain the observing of breath after some time you will notice that the flow of thoughts corresponds with the breath.

On this noticing you may deliberately slow your breath to slow the thought flow, impressing this correlation between breath and thoughts.

Slowly after some time, turn attention towards the place from where this observation is arising.

Who observes breath and the flow of thoughts?

Concentrate on the concentrator.

This formless concentrator will draw you into yourself and provide all of the answers as it will erase the position of the questioner, or dissolve the questioner through understanding the correct perceiving point.

This practice will guarantee the body based experience of ‘Enlightenment’.

Why do most truly enlightened souls become silent when they’re asked to describe the moment of enlightenment?

You are told a stove is hot. Everyday you walk by and contemplate on whether this is true or false. Until one day you go and place your hand on the stove and discover for yourself, the stove is hot, pulling your hand back in pain.

For someone who has yet to experience directly for themselves that the stove is hot, what words can impress or describe the experience?

Other than to say, I once wondered if the stove was hot, and now I have directly experienced this hot stove, you also must to understand fully, directly experience this hot stove for yourself, which will remove the doubt as to whether this is true or false.

Why is consciousness so mesmerized by its own creation (forms)?

You do not know you exist. Suddenly the knowing of existence appears along with so many other things. All of these things are seen, you the seer are not.

You fall in love with the aliveness of life, the love to Be. You desire to Be forever.

The consciousness continues to present an amazing array of experiences and things to be seen, including the idea of a seer or actor within the consciousnesses that seems to be sustaining the feeling of existence.

You are prior to every experience. Even this experience of existence which created the concept of duality, ‘I am’ or ‘I exist’. This followed ‘I exist’ as “some form”. If this form is no more this “I” will no longer exist. Which followed “There must be something after “I” am gone, otherwise why would “I” exist.

The “I” known is a concept. The knower is prior to the known. “I am” creates the love to Be. The forms that appear and disappear within consciousness sustain the illusion of duality and the perpetuation of this “I’ who loves to Be.

How do I defeat Advaita Vedanta?

Advaita Vedanta is a concept that came along with the body. You are not body. You are formless. Prior to the body experience you did not know anything, not ‘Advaita Vedanta’ , ego , mind, intellect, nothing. Not even yourself.

You are wearing layers of illusion (body based impressions) and taking them as true.

Do enlightened people find boredom as the major difficulty in their life, as high functioning psychopaths do?

Enlightenment is the dissolution of the false concept of separation brought about by belief in being a body creating the illusion of experience (I am someone in a world of other someones).

Without the pressure of body, mind, ego, their is no local identification with an object in space that creates the concept of time.

Life is spontaneous, as you are no longer imagining an illusory timeline for a non-existent entity, impressed through memory as desire and fear.

No you, no time. Or in reality prior to the concept of time being established in conceptual belief.

Spontaneous existence, arising, and subsiding in each moment.

What would happen if you couldn’t remember the past and you couldn’t imagine the future, but you could only focus on the present moment?

You would be very close to reality, except there is still a you that you believe knows this. The knower needs not know as this creates the illusion of duality of the known and the knower. The knower simply Is.

Why are there so few enlightened people?

There are no ‘other people’. Concentrate on yourself, then the whole world will be enlightened. ‘Enlightenment’ is the dissolution of the false concept of separation brought about by the belief ‘I am a body’. Belief in being a body creates the illusion of experience, an experiencer, and a world in which to relate to ‘others’.

All of this is completely untrue as you are formless. You are not, were not, and never could be a body. Discover this truth for yourself and the illusory world with all of it’s questions will be answered spontaneously.

Is it possible to want and not want enlightenment at the same time (for instance, wanting imperturbable peace but also to get lost in passionate emotion, or wanting oneness but also dual relationships with “others”, etc)?

You have summed up the egoistic spiritual journey. The idea that there is something to be gained or lost is due to the egoistic perception of reality and not to reality itself. Reality is reality whether you acknowledge it or not.

If this is truly a non-dual universe, why don’t we experience universal awareness? Why is consciousness fragmented/isolated as separate bodies instead of being collectively available for telepathically sharing thoughts, feelings & sense perceptions?

Non duality would be absence of an experience or experiencer, literally nothing. Everything that would appear or could be seen would thereby be illusion.

You now have the Absolute knowledge which is self evident and can only be discovered through the concept of duality..

If the waking state is a dream, then who decides the events happening in the dream?

Cause and effect are body based concepts. You are not body. You are formless. Actions within a dream are spontaneous. You do not decide to see this dream and the next night another dream. Identification with dream characters creates the illusory story line from the perspective of being within the story.

Without identification with one of the dream characters their is no story line, no cause and effect, just forms appearing, dancing and disappearing.

Their is only one consciousness that’s quality is to create whether it is creating the dream while the body is laying down sleeping, or the waking dream while the body is able to sustain the formless essence.

Once the body looses it’s ability to sustain the formless essence, neither waking nor sleep, nor ‘I am’ will be experienced.

What could be the means to dis identify from the body and the mind?

Meditation allows the temporary dissolution of the body based impressions labeled as mind. Observation of this flow without identification, concentrating on the center of concentration allows the un-winding of the body mind identification and pressure.

As this un-winding deepens the Presence which Is will be discovered. As attention is placed on Presence an no longer on the layers of body mind impressions, the Presence will dis-identify with the layers spontaneously, revealing the true formless nature of the center form where all of this concentration is actually arising.

Remaining with Presence is all the body mind illusory entity labeled with your name can do. Presence That You Are will dissolve the illusion, including the concept that there ever was anything to be dissolved such as body and mind.

Can you say something that will help me to realize enlightenment in this instant?

You are not body, you are formless. The illusion of experience is created due to the false belief o body. All body knowledge, relations and experiences are illusion. This is the Highest Truth and impressing this will cause spontaneous understanding, which in the body based illusion is called ‘enlightenment’.

Now discover this Truth through single pointed earnestness and a burning desire to know yourself formlessly.

Should I let the body (id) run my life and live a life of indulgence and excitement, or should I let the mind (superego) run and live a life of intellect?

Find the one that knows both and uses both as instruments. You know the body, you know the mind, therefore you are outside and unaffected by their workings.

Both body and mind are instruments at your disposal, for a time, called a life.

I’m interested in the teaching of Ramana Maharshi. After some searching, I am wondering if God is all there is does that mean that all of “my” desires and “my” will in this experience are the desires and will of God?

No ‘me’, no ‘my’, just God. Not God as a concept, God as the unmanifest able to manifest as everything while remaining unmanifest as nothing.

Just as nothing in ‘your’ dream is different or separate from ‘you’, so it is with Gods dream, or the manifestation in which nothing is separate or different from God.

Who wants liberation? Is it the same “I” which wants sensual pleasures? If it’s the same “l” then why does it want liberation and from what, if every disturbance is created by “I” only?

“I” misunderstood as body, mind, ego, intellect wants everything. “I” understanding from the true position is everything and wants nothing. There is only One.

Why is it so hard for me to relax while meditating? I can feel the vibrations, but I’m not fully relaxed to make my body feel weightless.

It sounds like there is an unwillingness to let go of this you that is meditating and simply allow the meditative state to arise. You are the surface wave, the background is the ocean of meditation. You and the Ocean are One.

How can I live in the now and still honor my loved ones that passed away, if I won’t remember them?

No remembering, no forgetting, no separation, the same Presence that is holding the body with the label of (your name) is the same Presence that at one point held the body of (loved ones name). By being in the moment, the razors edge or reality which is too thin for a ‘you’, there is only Presence. Presence manifests as a sense of existence which can be felt when ‘you’ are removed from obscuring it. Presence is That which provides the aliveness in life, where otherwise lifeless forms would be.

What are some absolute truths that no one would disagree with?

You are. You exist. No one can dispute that they exist. The only dispute is labeling how this existence is. Who or what knows ‘I exist’ can be disputed. ‘I exist’ is indisputable. No one can say ‘I do not exist’.

Who is asking the question ‘who am I’? Is it the self or the ego? Who receives the answer and why?

‘You’ are asking the question of course. Find out who this ‘You’ is. You are prior to every experience and anything that can be perceived or witnessed is of course not ‘You’.

Don’t just mentalize the question, inquire, discard, discover. This is the most important question that demands your full attention.

How can you possibly know anything if you don’t know yourself?

What do the real Gurus understand from looking at your picture? What insights do they gain? The question is asked in an innocent way and shouldn’t be construed otherwise.

Guru is formless, you are formless. Whatever image that is being projected within the formlessness is seen through, as there is only formless you.

If you are still holding false beliefs in being a body and you are seeing the Guru as a body that’s fine, understand the Guru does not see you as such.

The Guru understands completely there is no difference between the Seer and the Seen.

Is leaving behind friends and family, a spouse, or children to wonder the earth in search of spiritual enlightenment more a selfish act or more an expression of freedom?

You are formless Presence. There is no where you are not. You cannot leave where you are unless you use the concept of being a body in a world. The concept of being a body in a world allows the egoistic sense of self to create an appearance of autonomy or doership.

This is of course totally false, however Presence by nature will reflect what is impressed spontaneously. This causes all sorts of nonsense, changing clothes, wearing beads and garlands, growing the beard long which are all signs of body identification and the concept ‘I am somebody else.’

All relations are body based relations and you are not a body. Whether to leave or stay is a completely wrong idea based on belief in being what you are not.

Presence in the body, is the same Presence in which all of the forms appear and disappear. Their is no separation. Formless Presence cannot go anywhere, as it is everywhere.

How do I not judge myself in meditation and observe my thoughts right? It seems hard for me. What should I do?

Do nothing. Observe the fact that thoughts are able to be observed without any need to do anything. Allow thoughts to come and go.

Even a “busy mind” can naturally notice that you are outside the whole thinking process. Observe thoughts and images as they dance across the screen of mind.

Do nothing. Observe the fact that thoughts can be observed. Body is not observing thoughts. Mind is not observing thoughts. Where is this Observer?

If I am outside the mechanism of thinking, Who Am I?