Where is Enlightenment?

This perennial question is becoming ever clearer.

So what do we know?

Well a close look at the world of senses will show that actually we've got it all completely wrong.

In Buddhism they say "non-self" but this manifests in misunderstanding almost everything.

The world of vision which the Shurangama Sutra investigates at depth at the start is a world that is completely topsy turvey.

As argued thru this blog how we understand "space" makes no sense.

Essentially things are "in" space so "where is space itself?" Kant ends up with Transcendental Condition for the Possibility of Space.

But immediately we can see, and quite logically too, that space itself is "no where." The whole point of space is to put things in, so it itself is not anywhere!

But whoa that breaks everything. It means that the visual space that we kind of think lies "around us" is actually no where. Welcome to the groundlessness of emptiness.

Now we are pretty sure that we are never-the-less "involved" in seeing somehow. Some thoughts suggest that seeing involves the brain which is in the body. So we think that space is somehow created in the body. But then where is the body? Is the body inside the space that is made in the brain? IS the brain inside the visual space. Is the visual space outside the head, but its contents inside the head. Is everything outside, in which case what is inside to make "me" up? Which ever way you turn it doesn't make sense. No need to follow all the confusions about where the mind, consciousness, brain or self is enough to realise that its all wrong.

No time to write in depth, but investigating this question of "where" smashes up vision completely. It turns out that vision itself occurs nowhere, which means it can't be linked to the body!

Once we are seeing a world that itself occurs no where. Then where is the "self?" Well it turns out on investigation that the self is no where either, which means that too is not linked to the body!

And if self is not linked to the body then it means other bodies do not have a self linked to them either.

Well we do, that is ego. But we are talking True Self, the one wrapped up in the heart of the whole nature of Reality, not the ego which we look at from the outside (and is just somewhere at the centre of our vision and senses).

Exploring True Self deeper, we see that it is no where, and it belongs to no one, and it starts to become the same as the sense that the world exist.

Now in usual thinking we've pushed our self into the corner where the universe exists by itself (created by God perhaps or the Big Bang) and we exist separate from the world and have free will and our own private existence.

But we just smashed up all the possibility of world and self being distinct because at the highest level they are no where, and you need be somewhere to be separate.

So actually as science says there is just one reality, one universe all joined up. Well they play with multi-verse but its still all joined up at some level.

If there is just one reality then there can't be a separate self and world. There is just Reality.

Ouch a new source of groundlessness. You mean I don't exist?

So this is the process of "letting go." All these unfounded beliefs give us handles that we think we need hold onto to stop sinking or floating off. Or better floors on which we think we need to stand. But when the ground gets removed we get a bit panicy thinking we will fall, or--like above--cease to exist. But we quickly find out that nothing happens. We were never being supported by this floor, we never needed it. When we realise we are truly no where and nothing then we realise we need no floors or handles at all. There is no where to go, no way to go extinct or fade or vanish, there is really nothing to do or hold on to or get stressed about or worry about. So on one hand groundlessness is destabilising and fearsome but this is just us getting used to realising we never needed to hold onto anything at all. A bit like a kid having arm bands removed in the swimming pool only to realise they floated anyway. We are light and float anyway, no need to do any holding on or swimming. I mean if we did where are we heading?

This is the host/guest distinction in the Shurangama. The guests of a hotel turn up, stay and then go. But the inn keeper: where to do go?

When we see there is just One reality that generates our experience of the world all by itself without anyone being involved then we see that the world can happen all by itself and no one needs to be present. So its not that we don't exist, its that this handle to a "person" or a "being" was never needed. You can live your whole life, and the time before and after without being fundamentally someone or something! :O

We are always on the outside of things. Buddha says "all things are non-self" with emphasis on the "things." Take anything and we experience it from the outside. Even a stomach ache or headache is "over there." Heideggar calls this "Dasein." The thing we are inside is the whole universe, outside all the things. This is the switch or the letting go. We go from trying to be inside things like the "body" or the "self" which is ridiculous, to realising that we are outside all these possible things. Have a thought, one of the most intimate and private things we think are is and inside us. Where is it? Well actually in a funny way its not near us, its a bit away at a "distance" so that we can watch it. Perhaps its in the same room, but its still not right here. Or actually neither in or out, we are no where, and that no-where is the "where" that gives things their somewhere.

Seems like a complete radical upset when first seen, but actually it is just resetting the way we experience the world to the way it is. It's a seeing through the mistakes we simply got used to not look at.

That is closer to what is enlightenment.

= There is another version of this "where" approach that is the "who" approach. This is what smashed up Eckhart Tolle state of unenlightenment. The point is not that anything changes, we are still the exact same person in the same world as before. The difference is that we no longer think we live in the body, or even in the world, we just don't exist anywhere and we are no one.