There are those who say that this level cannot be experienced. I have heard people who have followed the Path for years and who have experienced many things say that liberation is an illusion - it can't be reached. Some have said that enlightenment is something beyond one's experience.
It is true that one must go far to begin reaching these levels, but they can be experienced. When they are reached, one will know that all the climbing, all the effort, all the training, has led one to just the beginning - the beginning of the Way. This is where union truly starts. This is where conscious life really begins; and it expands from there.
But sometimes you may hear one say that reaching "enlightenment" is all there is, that that's "IT". If you hear this, then you also know that that person is dead. For that one has also reached the trap of complacency on another level - one more octave of the same harmony. The liberation expands, the freedom expands, the bliss, the joy, the harmony expands as one becomes one more and more in ones own heart, soul, mind, and breath. Even Jesus, who reached great levels of attainment, spoke of himself "still growing".
| "What can I say about the stations of those who have attained union except that they are infinite, while the stations of the travelers have a limit? The limit of the
travelers is union. But what could be the limit of those in union? - that is, that union which cannot be marred by separation. No ripe grape ever again becomes green, and no mature fruit ever again becomes raw." - Rumi .......... |
Now catch your breath. Follow it. Breathe in all the Joy you can. Breathe out all the peace you can.
| "The superior experience and knowledge will be made available to a man or woman in exact accordance with his worth, capacity, and earning of it. Hence, if a donkey sees a melon he will eat its rind; ants will eat whatever they can get hold of; man will consume without knowing that he has consumed.
Our objective is to achieve, by the understanding of the Origin, the Knowledge which comes through experience. This is done, as with a Journey, only with those who already know the Way. The justice of this state is the greatest justice of all: because, while this knowledge cannot be withheld from him who deserves it, it cannot be given to him who does not deserve it.
It is the only substance with a discriminating faculty of its own, inherent justice." - Yueuf Ramadani
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| "In Zen one is never separated from one's personal practice, which one carries out with body and mind."
- Kateuki Sekida
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"For those who love Him, He alone is their joy and sorrow. He alone is their recompense and their reward. If anything other than the Beloved is seen, then that is not Love, it is mere passion. Love is that flame which when it blazes up, consumes all but the Beloved Himself." - Rumi .......... |
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There are as many paths as there are hearts" - Sufi Saying .......... |