You are welcome to link to this article, but please
do NOT place copies of it on other websites.
Until early October 2007 this site's title was Self Realization & Spirituality. Nothing wrong about 'Spirituality', you might well think. Evidently I'd been thinking so too - otherwise I wouldn't have used that title in the first place!
However, Have you ever paused to get asking the core of your own consciousness - your own deepest essence - questions about the nature of what everyone is calling 'spirituality', and why, if 'spirituality' is so widespread, it's still the case that vanishingly few people actually become enlightened, let alone fully self realized? -- And also, why it is that in EVERY spiritual tradition, if you look with real clarity you see that power hierarchies and control agendas are involved, even if very subtle?
Even if you have got questioning yourself so, unless you were very exceptionally advanced in your self realization process - and well beyond just crossing the enlightenment threshold - it would not be your own deepest essence whose answers you'd hear, for any answers from that source would not be 'heard' directly but would be relayed to you in adulterated form by astral entities (so-called 'dark' entities). These have a seriously harmful agenda for all humans, and they are unrelentingly seeking to lure and divert people away from simple, direct self realization and to prevent them from 'going home' ('recombining with Source') when they die, for a very troublesome reason which I explain on various of my pages of original writings but particularly Astral Entities - Interference and Attacks from 'The Dark Side'.
The major point here is that I myself have been asking myself these questions - and at a time when circumstances have directed me to be clearing out all my old interferences and influences from astral sources (the so-called 'dark side') in a way and to an extent that few people indeed are doing. This has resulted in all manner of new insights coming to me, at last clear of the almost universal confusions which the astral sources have brought to people through the astral- (yes, 'dark'-!) sourced concept of 'spirituality'.
Indeed, when I'd gained what I am calling fundamental clarity (i.e. I'd "crossed the threshold of enlightenment" in more normal but also less appropriate terminology) at the beginning of 1997 and subsequently started getting into healing activities, at once I found myself continually being slightly bugged by an apparent schism or discrepancy between the following viewpoints which I had been holding onto:
- My innate, natural perception of reality through that fundamental clarity ('enlightened state') of mine, which perceived all experience as arising from naked awareness or fundamental consciousness (with no levels of supposed higher reality interposed between my physical experiences and the fundamental consciousness), and no 'story' concerning any supposed past lives of mine. I was simply 'the Ultimate' or at least an aspect of it.
- The supposed higher realities which were almost universally being postulated by healers and people in mystical traditions, even though they appeared to overlap with my view in an intellectual way in thinking that 'we are all Spirit [or God]'. Clearly none of these people were actually enlightened and therefore they could not have been perceiving things in the way that I was.
Now, because I'm getting my attention so much more grounded, I can see clearly what that schism represented, and have cut right through my fairly long-standing confusion over that, to arrive at unequivocal clear-mindedness, having jettisoned so-called 'spirituality' altogether without in any way having become more materialistic. Now I see, more clearly than ever before, why it was that I gained my fundamental clarity ('became enlightened') so easily and naturally. It was not "in spite of" my not having been on a spiritual path, as I'd been half-believing, but because I'd not been on one!
Now I shall explain...
Why 'self realization'?
Much is made of spirituality in a plethora of varieties and 'paths' in cultures and traditions throughout the world - but one thing all those versions and paths of so-called spirituality are universally not directly focused upon is simple and direct self realization. Indeed, most spiritual traditions actively take your focus away from it and, if they acknowledge such a need at all, they hold it away from you and put a lengthy and usually convoluted 'path' in front of you to supposedly 'get there' (but somehow hardly anyone does 'get there'). It's treated as some sort of 'Holy Grail' which, if you follow your 'path' with sufficient diligence (and, I'd be inclined to add, long-sufferingness), you might sometime in the future actually attain.
Self realization is simply the uncovering and unobscuring of your true, deepest nature, which is a 'part' (or, more correctly, a micro-aspect) of the all-pervading consciousness of which we are all manifestations (what I will call fundamental consciousness, so as to be as unambiguous as possible), so that you then function in a full and undistorted way as a manifestation of that all-pervading fundamental consciousness ('the Ultimate'), and live a life of vibrant awareness, happiness, love, positivity, free choice and a resulting great flexibility.
Like that you are in a state of total clear-mindedness, and there is no concept of 'spirituality', for you perceive that things are simply as they are and you yourself are simply as you are. When you are functioning in that sort of way, when you die your earthly experience ceases, but you persist as a unique micro-aspect of the all-pervading fundamental consciousness, and are in a state of harmony and awareness, with further, non-sequential, non-karmic, incarnations (via respective different souls) being possible.
Self realization incorporates (but is more than) what is widely known as enlightenment - the recognition, through direct perception, of your deepest, non-dual, levels of consciousness as being your true nature and identity. Self realization is a simple process which requires no ritual and no beliefs (and indeed would be obstructed or completely stopped by them), but does require consistent clearance of the issues that prevent you from functioning as a full and undistorted manifestation of your true, deepest nature, which as I have indicated, is effectively 'the Ultimate'.
On this site I am in the process of showing just how direct and simple that process is - especially when you keep your focus on clear-mindedness and don't get lured and sidetracked by the 'spirituality' phenomenon.
The trouble with 'spirituality'
The very notion of 'spirituality' or 'spirit' implies movement - spatial movement. Implicit in spatial movement is separateness. The astral forces of delusion, power / control agendas, fear and negativity (commonly referred to as the dark forces), brought in the concepts of 'spirituality' and 'spirit' as a potent device to ensnare and sidetrack everyone who has aspirations for self realization, so as to bring the people progressively more under their control and domination.
Astral ('dark') entities interfere with us ALL, usually covertly, using all manner of deceits, ploys and lures, to get us perceiving our life experience in terms of separation - specifically, separation from fundamental consciousness which is actually our own deepest essence and true nature. And so they have covertly controlled people into setting up countless religions and 'spiritual' paths in which people's true core essence is misinterpreted as something separate from oneself. In many cases it is deified in a gross and really quite materialistic way, as in many religions, while in others various much more subtle and 'sneaky' deceptions are used. In the more mystical traditions it is normal to regard us all as being 'Spirit' (or some equivalent name). The all-pervading fundamental consciousness has been (mis)interpreted as Spirit, which implies something which can move about and indeed think and speak to you. In fact, whatever that 'Spirit' is (if indeed it exists), it is something less than 'the Ultimate' which that fundamental consciousness is, because the latter is all-pervading and so there is no sense of movement and the implied separation.
Once you've lost or distorted the perception of yourself as being actually fundamental consciousness itself, and have at least an implicit sense of separateness from it, you have lost your direction for true self realization, and then you find yourself following one of the myriad variations of 'spiritual path' which the astral entities have put into people's minds to follow. Along with a sense of separation comes power and control agendas. In religions these agendas are usually very obvious, but in the more mystical or apparently purer spiritual paths the control agendas tend to manifest more subtly, such as in the use of rituals, initiations / attunements, mantra chanting, use of esoteric symbols, treating particular objects, people or locations as sacred, prescribing particular ways of going about your life or indeed of following your 'spiritual path'. Indeed, The very concept of a 'spiritual path' or 'spiritual journey' incorporates a sense of separation and obfuscates the simple fact that self realization is right here, in the 'now'.
On other pages on this site I expand on this scenario, but the important point I'm making here is that the astral forces have been covertly manipulating everyone who has at least underlying self realization aspirations into 'spirituality' in its countless forms, for the purpose of taking them away from their true self realization - away from true clear-mindedness, and away from what we really need to happen when we die. So, in a nutshell, The whole concept of spirituality is actually given to us by the astral ('dark') forces to divert us from the self realization and clear-mindedness which is our true natural and thus 'right' way to be living.
In Astral Entities - Interference and Attacks from 'The Dark Side' I describe how the astral forces are interfering with us and how we can get clear of their interference and influence, and in The Guide to Complete Self Realization and the related pages linked to therein I point readers towards a direct and indeed clear-minded course of self realization. As will become clear (sic) if you read the relevant pages, my insights relating to these matters are not a matter of belief, but stem from hard personal experience. It is not just from the hardships which the astral entities imposed upon me, but more particularly from my experiences of progressively clearing out their influence that I have been able to gain such deep and challenging insights.
According to the logic of those strict Muslims, we might as well all have the person who called that teddy bear Muhammad sent to some delectable form of death because the very concept of the teddy bear has been insulted by calling one of them by the name of a messenger of the astral forces (forces of darkness), which Muhammad was, just like ALL other so-called prophets - as evidenced by the brazen rantings of power / control agenda which fill the primary scripture of the religion which followed on from him (yes, I have read it - a stomach-churning, horrifying experience).
Clear-mindedness - the (simple) way forward
The whole concept of clear-mindedness ties up in all manner of ways with straightforward manifestation of yourself as fundamental consciousness incarnate. You don't have to wait till you are fully realized in order to start using and experiencing at least a basic level of clear-mindedness - you can start right now. If you go to The Complete Guide to Self Realization, and follow that through also to Healing and Self Realization - The Safest and Quickest Way and other relevant pages which they link to, you have a succinct and potent set of pointers for speedy and direct self realization, all based on clear-mindedness.
When you cutivate and open up your awareness in a well grounded manner, without beliefs, preconceptions and astral preoccupations or influences, then you are operating at least in some degree in clear minded mode. Paradoxically, through cultivating and increasing your grounding (i.e. your connectedness with the physical level of reality or consciousness) you progressively increase your manifestation of your true nature - 'the Ultimate', whereas if you seek to cultivate 'higher' awareness you open yourself more to the astral level and all its problems, while actually obstructing any opening to your deepest aspects and core essence. So, if you try to point 'high', you get 'low' (which usually pretends to be 'high' or even 'Divine'), and if you get connecting really well with the physical level with an open and clear mind, you get 'the Ultimate'.
In clear minded mode you live without 'story' about yourself outside this lifetime, for you can never truly know any of that, and any such 'information' you do pick up is almost certain to be astral-sourced and distorted if not wholly fiction in order to try to divert you from self realization. Similarly you live your life without 'story' about supposed.higher realities. I'm not saying there aren't any higher realities - simply that we can never know about any because anything of the sort which actually appears to us is simulations presented to us by the astral forces.
You are NOT 'Light'! You are consciousness or awareness! Thus self realization and clear-mindedness are not about light or Light but about vivid clarity of awareness and perception. It is the astral forces which have led us into the fiction that we or indeed our so-called source (which term itself implies separateness) are Light and we will 'go to the Light' when we die. By equating consciousness or awareness with light, the astral forces have lured countless people away from true self realization - the manifestation of their clear-minded natural state.
Similarly, you are NOT, and indeed there's no such thing as, a being of Light. You are a being of clarity, of vibrant awareness - not of Light. 'Light' is solely of the astral sub-reality of illusion and delusion.
In a nutshell, then...
This site is about how you can be truly you - fully you - natural you - as a being of vibrant awareness and clarity, living a free and flexibly and creatively happy life, with the great personal stature and power which manifests naturally once all the astral influences (including attachment to ego-power) have been cleared out or dissipated.
2007
by Philip
Goddard. All rights reserved.