a) Abiding and non-abiding awakening (i.e., knowledge of the Self/Truth vs. abiding as the Self/Truth)

Realization of one’s eternal Essence is permanent and unforgettable. It is not merely a glimpse of something transcendental. The degree to which the personal self is conscious of eternal impersonal Awareness is throttled by the focus of attention on the stream of experience. An awakened person never loses the capacity to withdraw that focus of attention at any moment in any circumstance on external experience and abide in Awareness, that was never absent—even in deep sleep, when the personal consciousness seemingly disappears due to an absence of experience. The notion of having had a “glimpse” of the Absolute is misconstrued. You might get a glimpse of being more than your body, more than your mind, of being something transcendent and spiritual, but such a glimpse is still egocentric. Permanent awakening requires a death experience of ego. Paradoxically this does not mean that self-consciousness or identity ceases, for as long as the body lives, the stream of experience continues, along with the experience-er.

b) Are “Who (or what are you), whence (where did you come from), and whither (where are you going)?” fundamental questions for a seeker?

Yes, of course. But as literal objects of one’s attention they are not so useful. One can best answer these questions obliquely. By that I mean by self-observation, seeing oneself in action, noticing one’s reactions, especially to experiences that diminish one’s sense of self.

c) Bliss

The conventional or popular definition as “joy” or “happiness” is not what I found. No such coloration or property exists in Absolute Awareness. For me, the better word is equanimity. Self-realization is not an experience in the normal meaning of that word, but the individual who realizes has a reaction to that realization, and that reaction is the experience, and that is different across people, according to their personal histories. Hence the variation in descriptions and language used by awakened people to explain what happened to them and what advice they give to others.

d) Doing vs. not doing

Irrelevant double-talk dreamers distract themselves with instead of turning their attention inward to see who is doing or not doing. You won’t see if you don’t look. You better do all you can to see clearly. When awakening happens it will not be your doing. Rather it will be a momentum of inward looking that makes looking away from what you are impossible and makes possible the acceptance of what you are not.

e) Enlightenment (Buddhahood, Christ-consciousness)

Individual consciousness of awareness. Transcendence of identity. Self-realization. It cannot be explained or adequately named or described. All such attempts become paradoxical at best, or nonsensical sounding at worst. It must be experienced – yet it is more than a mere experience. It is more of a realization, a deep and clear seeing without eyes, a direct knowing of something unknowable, an awakening that evokes an experience. Awakening impacts you the dreamer powerfully, and powerful dream experiences are your reaction to it.

f) Hypnosis (influencing another person mind-to-mind)

Until you awaken to your true eternal nature you are in a continuous state of hypnosis, sleep-walking your way through life. The ceaseless stream of experience subjects you to an endless barrage of suggestion and you react endlessly.

g) Identity

The intersection of awareness with the individual body-mind stream of experience. Defining and building identity is your programmed life’s work—and the biggest distraction from seeing what is eternal about you. You strive to magnify and affirm your identity and you avoid and look away from all that subtracts from and diminishes your identity. This is your natural programming, and it unfolds across the distinct stages of your life from birth to death. You can witness the process and transcend identity before physical death, and in so doing discover that which is eternal about you—your identity before you were born!

h) Individual consciousness of awareness

Enlightenment.

i) Meditation

An inward focus of the attention that leads to dispassionate witnessing of experience as opposed to being lost in and distracted by experience. Meditation is essential yet insufficient for awakening. It must be paired with actions that manifest one’s desire and commitment to awakening to one’s true Self. Such actions will generate tension and energy that will result in an inward momentum of attention sufficient to overcome the innate urge to look away when faced with loss of self. Actions impact the attention and action in service to your spiritual path counters your default action mode of dreaming only of that which magnifies and affirms your body-mind, mortal self. Experience is binding. Witnessing experience is liberating. Your most immediate experience is your sense of self, your sense of being alive as “I.”

j) No-self

Not useful to discuss.

k) No-thought

Not useful to discuss, other than to mention that thought is mostly reactive or imposed upon us. It can be useful to watch the thought process, which can lead to the realization that you are not your thoughts, you do not control your thoughts though you have some small capacity for control of the focus of attention, and that your thoughts can provide a window into discovering the lies you tell yourself, hence watching them is a part of the pathway to self-honesty.

l) Rapport (contacting another person mind-to-mind)

An experience of rapport opens you to the glimpse that your being is possibly more than individual body-mind-based identity. The conditions for such an experience require a loosening of self-centeredness, compassion for others, self-acceptance, mental stillness, and openness. It can occur in a formal planned group sitting, or spontaneously between strangers. It is always spontaneous.

m) Reality

The ground of being. The empty container of all space. The eternity in which time unwinds. The blank screen upon which dreams appear.

n) Self-Realization (peeling away fabricated layers of one’s own personality to understand the true self and hence the true nature of reality)

See previous entries for items a through i.

o) Silence

Another word for the source of your true and eternal being. Spending time in wakeful silence is essential on your spiritual path. Abiding in a state of wakeful silence can be the result of active meditation, i.e. self-observation, self-inquiry, and an inward focus of attention. Passive meditation, i.e. focus on one’s body or breathing, or an inward projection of imagination is more likely to resolve into sleep, or pleasant daydreaming.

p) Tension

A prerequisite for going within. It must be paired with a conscious commitment to your spiritual search and a daily practice of what in Catholicism is called an examination of conscience. Tension involves some degree of threat to ego, evokes the question Who and what am I? and provides the energy to see the answer before the conditioning of self-preservation leads one to look away from what lies within at your core.

q) Transmission

The evocation of Self-realization in another individual through rapport with an individual who is self-realized. Such rapport might be preceded by intense anger, or other intense emotional state, but whatever the trigger, the mind of the non-realized individual is moved to dead center from which vantage point it is possible to drop all attachments and see clearly beyond individual body-mind self. Inexplicably, this can occur across space and time because nothing is transferred between the two individuals. Rather, the two individuals share a common Being, and abide in the same Presence.

r) Truth

With a capital ‘T’ another word for Enlightenment, Reality, Self-Realization, etc. It cannot be postulated. It is what remains when everything that is false is subtracted.

s) What can we know for sure: What we are? What we aren’t? Other?

Before enlightenment, only that you are alive as you, that you are conscious as an individual and that the body you seem to inhabit will perish and turn to dust. Everything else is just beliefs, noise, and dreams—including the notion that you can exist as you without a body. After enlightenment, that you are one with an impersonal, universal, and eternal awareness that intersects with that body and gives rise to that individual consciousness. In other words, Awareness is with or without you, but you, a personal individual consciousness, cannot exist outside Awareness. It is possible for you to see this relationship before dying. After dying who would be left to see it?

t) What is your certainty based on?

Personal realization and experience that is impossible to objectively prove.

u) What prevents a seeker from knowing the truth?

Obsession with magnifying and affirming individuality. Nature’s programming through the stages of life from birth to death. Unwillingness to accept any degree of loss of self in a process of going within to find that self-transcendent truth at the core of their being.

v) “You are aware prior to birth and aware after you die, so you begin with awareness, but you are not conscious of awareness.” ~ Richard Rose, The Direct-Mind Experience

But here’s the rub: You must define that “you” of which he speaks. Awareness is aware after you die, but if you never defined your ultimate self, never becoming conscious of your source, then who remains to be conscious of awareness when death pulls the rug out from under that consciousness?

w) Other comments:

First know thyself. To thine own self be true.

    a) Abiding and non-abiding awakening (i.e., knowledge of the Self/Truth vs. abiding as the Self/Truth)

Zen people call the way of life that results from pursuing the pathless path “non-abidance in mind.” Thoughts can still appear, but there’s no attachment to them. Life becomes simple and direct. It’s like losing oneself in the flow of life to such a degree that the mind does not reflect ABOUT what’s happening in the same way as it did prior to realizing “what’s going on.”

    b) Are “Who (or what are you), whence (where did you come from), and whither (where are you going)?” fundamental questions for a seeker?

Anyone who sees deeply into the nature of THIS loses all fear of death because what everyone and everything IS was never born and will never die and that can be known without any doubt. What we are simply changes forms, and human existence allows Reality/THIS to have a unique perspective of ITSELF. THIS is all there is, and THIS is incomprehensible to the intellect.

    c) Bliss

Bliss is a state that is far beyond happiness. It occurs in nirvikalpa samadhi, and during cosmic-consciousness events, and it can continue for significant periods of time after a cosmic consciousness event, but whether it can continue indefinitely I do not know.

    d) Doing vs. not doing

A statement in the Tao te Ching goes something like, “A sage does nothing, but everything gets done.” I agree. Until one discovers THIS, and penetrates the illusion of separateness, however, it feels as if one is a separate volitional entity who is the doer of whatever the body is doing. Afterwards, this feeling is gone. Efforting falls into this same category. It seems as if one makes various efforts to do various things, but after discovering THIS, it is seen that there was never anyone making an effort of any kind.

    e) Enlightenment (Buddhahood, Christ-consciousness)

Zen people distinguish between enlightenment/awakening and “Holy Buddhahood.” Bunan, an ancient Zen Master, once wrote, “Die while still alive and be completely dead. Then, do whatever you will. It will all be good.” I suspect that he was referring to Holy Buddhahood or a state of Christ-Consciousness when he wrote that, and I think that it applies to something that is possible but extremely rare. After a CC in 1984, this character was in such a deep state of unicity that it felt like being in heaven on earth, but it was totally impersonal. It lasted for three days. It was triggered by something that felt electrical and it ended with something that felt electrical. Whether a human could fall into that state and live in that state indefinitely, I have no idea, but because anything is possible, it can’t be ruled out.

    f) Hypnosis (influencing another person mind-to-mind)

I have no experience with this, but I have talked to people who have experienced telepathic events in which one person’s thoughts were transmitted to another person and affected their behavior. Most reports of this type thing are associated with people who engage in long silent retreats.

    g) Identity

Identifying with anything necessarily involves someone identifying with something, and what non-duality is pointing to is beyond identity.

    h) Individual consciousness of awareness

Conventionally speaking, there can be awareness of awareness or consciousness of awareness, but not by a “someone.” THIS is all there is, and THIS is aware,  and awareness is primordial. It’s possible for a human to realize that if the entire manifested universe disappeared, awareness would remain.

    i) Meditation

Meditation was incredibly beneficial to this character. Twenty years of intellectual reflection yielded no answers at all to any existential questions, but within ten or fifteen days of beginning a meditative activity, insights and realizations began to occur, and within five months numerous big realizations occurred. During the next fifteen years countless other realizations occurred, and each realization destroyed some cognitive illusion to which there had been some degree of attachment.

    j) No-self

Different people seem to have a different sense of selfhood. Some people have what I call “a hard-core sense of selfhood,” as if the “me” were a little guy or gal inside the head looking out at an external world. Other people have a much more diffuse sense of selfhood that they describe in different ways. For people who have a hard-core sense of selfhood, the sense that one is inside looking outside can suddenly disappear along with any boundary between inside and outside. When that happens, one realizes that one’s past identity was a “head-trip” about a fictional entity and that there was never a self in the way that was previously imagined.

    k) No-thought

There are some rare people who do not have an internal monologue/dialogue. For most people, however, there is a strong sense of what Zen people call “monkey mind”—a mind that verbally chatters all the time about everything (like a monkey jumping from limb to limb). The good news is that anyone can learn to stop thinking simply by shifting attention away from thoughts again and again. It is much like learning to speed read, and is not special. For people who persistently pursue some meditative activity that shifts attention away from the verbal monologue, the mind/intellect becomes increasingly silent. Eventually, people who meditate a lot can stop thinking at will, and simply remain aware of reality in total mental silence. Many people like to call that silent state of mind “non-conceptual awareness.”

    l) Rapport (contacting another person mind-to-mind)

Sitting with other people in silence can definitely have an effect, but what can happen and how it can happen is quite mysterious.

    m) Reality

Reality with a capital “R” is a synonym for THIS, Source, “what is,” “The Unborn,” and other words pointing to the Infinite.

    n) Self-Realization (peeling away fabricated layers of one’s own personality to understand the true self and hence the true nature of reality)

I don’t know about the idea of “peeling away” anything. For this character there were discontinuous sudden insights that revealed the illusory nature of various ideas and beliefs until it was finally seen that THIS is the only actor on the stage.

    o) Silence

I recommend silence strongly. Most insights seem to result from some degree of internal silence.

    p) Tension

This word doesn’t resonate with anything here.

    q) Transmission

There may be sages that transmit something to a seeker, but I have no experience with that. Sages generally say and do things that they hope will trigger an insight in others by questioning something a seeker has said or by reminding a seeker that some thought process is leading them in the wrong direction.

    r) Truth

“What is”/THIS.

    s) What can we know for sure: What we are? What we aren’t? Other?

Whatever we want to know can be discovered, and it can be known for sure.

    t) What is your certainty based on?

Realizations that are beyond the mind.

    u) What prevents a seeker from knowing the truth?

Attachment to the consensus paradigm that reality is composed of separate things being observed by a separate entity. IOW, erroneous thoughts and beliefs about the nature of reality that have been culturally conditioned since childhood.

    v) “You are aware prior to birth and aware after you die, so you begin with awareness, but you are not conscious of awareness.” ~ Richard Rose, The Direct-Mind Experience

I am not familiar with what Rose is talking about here.

    w) Other comments:

    a) Abiding and non-abiding awakening (i.e., knowledge of the Self/Truth vs. abiding as the Self/Truth)

While there are reports of exceptions, for most, glimpses and hints and parts of the solution and realization will arise before there is some more established abiding in that, which may also be phrased as the process of falsely imputing separateness, stability, and knowledge to the sense of a center, doer, controller, subject, etc. may be seen through in pieces and parts until finally the process of limited identification and futile attempts at stabilization, generally layer by layer, stops.

    b) Are “Who (or what are you), whence (where did you come from), and whither (where are you going)?” fundamental questions for a seeker?

They certainly may be very useful for some, often if this curiosity is coupled with cultivated enhancements to attention, acceptance, and perception, and some support to the views that might increase the likelihood of such inquiry being salutary.

    c) Bliss

Bliss is of many varieties, some positive, meaning due to the presence of something, such as bliss, or related feelings and qualities such as gratitude, peace, tranquility, stability, acceptance, openness, focus, wisdom, health, etc. Bliss may also be negative, meaning due to the absence of something, such as the absence of identification, contraction, adversity, disturbance, craving, ignorance, sickness, pain, etc.

Bliss of the positive variety is always conditional, meaning transient, and relating skillfully to this transience is important. Bliss may also be an object of investigation, as with any other object.

Bliss also may, in the very special case of the type related to the stopping of the processes of identification that are comprised in the term “ignorance”, apply to all things, in that very specific way, and not precluding any particular arising of specifics. Regarding myself, I am a bit of an aversive type, so bliss doesn’t hold my attention as well as it holds the attention of some. This is a mixed blessing, but it did make bliss easier to investigate and break into component parts and gain insights from.

    d) Doing vs. not doing

Doing and not doing are impressions that arise naturally, owing to the conditioning of the universe, often called karma or causality or dependent arising. They are meanings based on specific sensate qualities. Sometimes, the feeling of control, doing, action, agency is arising. Sometimes the feeling of non-control, inevitability, non-negotiability, passivity, and agencylessness is arising. Sometimes there may be a paradoxical mix of these. In a few, there is the deep, abiding understanding, “Doing and not doing are simply two categories of related qualities that arise naturally sometimes and imply no separate, stable, localized doer anywhere.” Investigating the naturally arising stream of intentions that precede actions may reveal this sort of wisdom, as may other types of practices.

    e) Enlightenment (Buddhahood, Christ-consciousness)

It is described above in various ways, and, while there is controversy around these sorts of definitions and criteria, as well as the language around this, I tend to prefer the definition include somehow notions of natural arising, things perceiving themselves where they are, all thoughts of present and past and now being clearly perceived naturally as transiently occurring now, no sense of a true and stable “center, doer, controller, be-er, perceiver, knower, agent,” to be found in any transient experience as one’s baseline without exception, the process of creating such a set of impressions or root existential interpretations having stopped entirely. If often is reported and experienced to progress in stages, layers, and quantum shifts, but not always. It is easy to mistake many transient highs, openings, formless experiences, unitive experiences, void experiences, unknowing experiences, equanimous experiences, blissful experiences, and magical experiences as being an abiding awakening. I tend towards a rough perennialism regarding awakening, with some elements that are nearly universal, and some that do seem to have individual variation in the particulars.

    f) Hypnosis (influencing another person mind-to-mind)

Hypnosis is a potentially powerful modality that one can use both related to others and also on oneself. Clearly, some are more susceptible or amenable than others, and this trait of it working on one appears to be something one can cultivate. Ethics are extremely powerful here, and its misuse is common in spiritual circles (as well as in politics, advertising, etc.). Variants of hypnotic inductions and techniques are often used in spiritual talks, and some teachers, such as Dan Brown, were explicitly doing this to help point people towards realization. Strong debates exist about the degree to which hypnotic pointings towards wisdom or deep states are equivalent to “real pointings”, and how to even sort out this question is not easy. If done skillfully, hypnosis can produce deep shifts, healing, revelations, journeys, insights, and psychological benefits, as well as physical ones. If done poorly, a vast range of damage may be done. For some, it seems to do little, and they appear nearly congenitally immune to its effects. In subtle forms, it pervades spiritual messages and likely has memetic and mythic impact broadly across the globe in ways often underappreciated. I personally have appreciated a range of techniques that involve hypnotic elements, and, in fact, view all meditation as involving elements essentially indistinguishable from elements you find within the hypnotic practice traditions. For magic, using hypnotic priming is extremely powerful, and care and ethics must be used in this regard to attempt to optimize good outcomes.

    g) Identity

Identity is a complex question with many layers and aspects, including, but not limited to: existential, psychological (often containing multitudes, as in Internal Family Systems), social (roles, jobs, family, community, etc.), physical, emotional, perceptual, ontological, epistemic, and “spiritual”. Spiritual practices may add, subtract, and modify our senses of identity — as seekers, True Self, no-self, teachers, successes, failures, members of a tribe or sect, knowers, as having existed across many lives or not exist at all, as being divine or void, as being transient or eternal, as being energy, 5D, incarnated aliens, love, Cosmic Consciousness, etc. Projections, Transference, and Countertransference arising from interactions with community members, other sects, teachers, students, the internet, the public, and the like may produce very complex identity effects. Fundamental perceptual shifts of a wide variety may be created by various practices and modalities, including powerful dissociations, powerful identifications, powerful disentanglings, powerful tanglings, many others. The mixed benefits and harms of these shifts may vary widely across various practitioners and time-scales and settings. It is rare to engage deeply in spiritual practices and modalities without having numerous “life lessons” related to the many forms of identity. Disorientation for some periods of time is common both in ourselves and those around us as identities of various types shift and morph on the path.

    h) Individual consciousness of awareness

Clearly, from some very ordinary functional points of view, the notion of there being an “individual consciousness of awareness” is an ontological, perceptual, clinical, and ordinary lens that has many uses, being most of the default way that the situation with people is described and operationalized in both discourse and the ordinary business of our lives. That some may have also added perceptual shifts that “see through” this process in varying degrees of depth and apparent permanence doesn’t negate the first key point. Still, this should not in any way negate the counterpoint, that being that seeing through some sense that consciousness is individual, seeing deeply that everything seems to be aware of itself where it is, isn’t also very important, and some version of this is very understandably included in many to most descriptions and reports of awakening, realization, or however it is phrased. Simply perceiving experience right now clearly enough can begin to show the paradoxes related to the sense of individuality as well as something in the apparent pervasiveness of “awareness”, as well as the curious thing that “consciousness” seems to be and seems not to be and how this may relate to the typically initially perceived separate something that “awareness” might be, and exploring these is rightly often reported to be a key to understanding and wisdom.

    i) Meditation

Meditation has a vast range of meanings and definitions, as well as functional techniques and real-world operationalizations. It is practiced with so many differing focuses, styles, doses, and settings and with so many varied conceptual underpinnings and stated and implied goals as to be a topic as wide as saying something like “Religion” or “Culture”. Narrowing it down, and related to my own path, I have found meditation very helpful, generally, though producing a wide variety of effects, many of which were not pleasant in the short to medium term, but, ultimately, was profoundly empowering, revelatory, and transformative, though not always in the exact ways described by orthodoxy, though sometimes very much so. I have followed a variety of styles and traditions, from those designed to produce deep states of bliss, peace, and even formless experiences, as well as loving-kindness, caring, compassion, empathy, equanimity, and a wide range of elemental, colorful, archetypal, healing, and magical experiences. However, my primary path was one of insight practices, often heavily influenced by various strains of vipassana, often heavily influenced by the Theravada Commentaries and the Pali Canon, particularly the Abhidhamma, and often with a modern Burmese twist.

    j) No-self

That there is no stable, separate, abiding, knowing, doing, controlling, be-ing self at the center of experience, and realizing this in a way that totally stops the process of the brain desperately trying to create a thing from transient, natural sensations that arise and vanish on their own — this was, for me, the key point, and the most important benefit of the path. I recognize that there are various risks, benefits, and alternatives to the language of no-self, and some, at times, might benefit from other sorts of language, such as True Self, Soul, Divine Self, etc. I consider all such linguistic maneuvers potentially valuable in various contexts, depending on desired outcomes, functional considerations, and cultural resonances.

    k) No-thought

I have a long discourse on no-thought found here https://www.mctb.org/mctb2/table-of-contents/part-v-awakening/37-models-of-the-stages-of-awakening/the-no-thought-models/

            Summarizing, and losing much in the summary: first one must be very careful about what one means by “thought”: Inner voice? Intentions to perform actions? Mental impressions? Ability to dream? Ability to anticipate? Ability to remember? Ability to reason? Ability to visualize? Ability to conceptualize? Mental noise? Primarily being consciousness through one’s mental impressions and concepts vs by direct experience? Self-referential narrative?

            While it is often reported, and I have found myself, that the proportion of experience taken up by thought may, on average, diminish sometimes (dreams being an obvious exception), and that thoughts may be perceived not only for their meanings but also as subtle experiences of sounds, sights, physical stuff, etc., and that thus the proportion of experience that is made up by thought may radically diminish as the Default Mode Network is reconfigured to prefer being “in the room” rather than “lost in thought”, and that the basic experience may become vastly more quiet, and that the vast majority of experience may be perceived vastly more directly vastly more of the time, still… I find ideas of “no-thought” as an ideal often produce massive shadow sides as people cultivate layers of delusion to fit the model and thus massive shadow sides rather than “waking up”. Having had the good fortune to talk and correspond with some people who claim to have “no thoughts”, I can confidently state that they do, in fact, “think”, even if they think they don’t. 😉

    l) Rapport (contacting another person mind-to-mind)

Yeah, this is something that can happen sometimes, and some are more skilled at contacting others, and some are more skilled at being contacted, and some are more skilled at both. Like all of the powers, the signal and reliability are generally glitchy and should be taken with appropriate grains of salt. Ethics, as always, is a key consideration. Given that mind-to-mind connections probably happen at least at some subtle level with each and every interaction, ethics thus should always be maintained as a key goal and practice, even if we don’t believe some more dramatic mind-to-mind something is happening.

            The range of effects that can happen during what you call “rapport” is vast, and basically everything you have ever heard described and probably more. Clearly, there is some positive correlation between more meditation dose and rapport, as well as intending to have it happen and it happening, as well as the dose of other things, such as psychedelics, powerful rituals, and the like. Priming is also clearly positively correlated as well, as are other hypnotic techniques.

    m) Reality

I personally am an ontologically agnostic Empirical empirical pragmatist, meaning that I hold ontological frame of “what is reality” loosely, checking in my personal experience (Empirical, in the David Hume sense) that reproducibly (empirical in the scientific sense of experiment) an adopted ontological frame will pragmatically be of some utility. We all do this to some degree, shifting from various frames, mathematical, psychological, social, experiential, etc., depending on our situation and goals, but I go out of my way to do this a bit more formally sometimes. For insight meditation, I have found an immediate sensate frame useful. For magical practices, I find magical frames often useful, though not always. For stopping magical effects, I find Materialist frames useful, as I do for some clinical situations, but not all. For clinical situations, a mix of social, biological, and experiential frames often worked well. For business, I like a good spreadsheet taken with a high dose of skepticism of the numbers that go into it. For human relationships, a vast range of frames are useful, from various psychological, energetic, ethical, and archetypal to many others. So, as to the question of “reality”, well, that depends.

    n) Self-Realization (peeling away fabricated layers of one’s own personality to understand the true self and hence the true nature of reality)

I think it is a good idea, though as to whether nor not I would frame it as “self-realization” or no-self, or whatever, see above.

    o) Silence

Times of silence are clearly beneficial sometimes from a practice, meditative point of view. As to an experience, silence is a designation of a particular set of sensate qualities. There are a wide variety of silences, as pointed out by authors such as Patrick Rothfuss and many others — the silences of absence, the silences of anticipation, the silences in conversation, the silences of intentionally secluding the mind from sound, the silences of distraction and inattention (such as when we don’t hear someone say something directly to us as we are lost in thought), the deep silences found in deep states of meditation, etc. Silence may be relative or absolute. Silence may be pathological, as in deafness from illness or ear damage, or extremely valuable for getting work done, as in from noise-cancelling headphones. I attribute no particularly ontological statue or hierarchical value to silence necessarily, but have, at times, valued some of the silences mentioned above greatly.

    p) Tension

Tension has a wide range of meanings, including, but not limited to: social, physical, structural, ontological, philosophical, etc. Tension can be useful signal, but often implies something negative, as in “that rope is too tense and it might break”, or “you are gripping this too tightly”, or “your neck muscles are too tense”, or “that meeting sure felt tense”. Tension can be an indication of both pathology (“their abdominal muscles were so tense that I wonder if they have intraabdominal trauma”) or valuable (“the tension on that guitar string is just right, sounds great”). There can be tension in the body during meditation that might be an indication of an opportunity for growth through investigation or just poor posture that might be good to listen to in order to avoid hurting oneself. There can be tension between students and teachers, between various sects, between ideals and reality, and these may be dynamic or somewhat static, as well as lead to mixes of growth and discord, problems and possibilities. We may have tensions within ourselves, often during the process by which decisions occur. Lots to say about tensions beyond this, and exploring where one might go might be interpreted as a Rorschach test of the explorer. From a meditative point of view, I have benefitted from the tension exploration techniques of Robert Harry Hover as articulated in the book Internal Moving Healing, and influenced by Sayagyi U Ba Khin, as well as a variety of bodywork modalities, yoga, vipassana, and many others.

    q) Transmission

Transmission, presuming in this case you mean the spiritual/energetic variety and not those found in automobiles, for example, is definitely a thing, reported across cultures, times, and settings. I have been on both ends of it, sometimes dramatically. Some people are good at transmitting, with some able to do this with curiously high rates of reliability, and others transmit sporadically or rarely, with little sense of dependability or control. Others are good at receiving, being transmitted to, and various settings, frame, preparations, rituals, contexts, mythic resonances, primings, and the like clearly appear to correlate with receiving transmissions being more likely. Transmissions may have a range of predominant and lesser aspects of what is transmitted and what is received, including feelings, energy, information, wisdom, perceptions, healings, and influence. Transmissions may work in both directions, and, I believe, nearly always do to some degree. Transmissions may be energy draining or amplifying for one or both parties. Transmissions may not always be entirely beneficial, and, in fact, some may be profoundly detrimental, either accidentally or intentionally. Transmissions can be profoundly connecting, yet may also cause powerful social instabilities, and these effects may vary depending on time-scale — short, medium, long, etc. Some transmissions strike like lightening, others may be very subtle, and the intensity may also vary in the short, medium, and long-term, with some transmissions not being obvious until months, years, or even decades later. Mass group transmissions can occur as well, with large collective effects, and many human gatherings contain elements of transmission of some sort. Transmissions are often also initiations. Transmission is a very complex topic that I have just scratched the surface of here. Again, the intentional practice and aspiration to ethics around transmission is vital, realizing that transmission often also involves shadow sides being a part of the mix even if we try to pretend otherwise.

    r) Truth

Lots of ways to conceptualize and discourse on “truth” obviously. I will begin simply, with ethics, and the notion that truth in speech is very often a good thing to aspire to and practice, with the question of what and in what context exceptions are the more ethical option being a life-long koan, at least for me. So, as a precept, as part of the 5, 8, 10, or 227/311+ precepts in the tradition I have most often practiced in, Right Speech is a valuable practice to undertake. “Truth” may also be deeper, regarding how we view and interpret the world, and you should see my discussion of ontologically agnostic Empirical empirical pragmatism above. One meaning of “Dharma” or “dhamma” is “truth”: truths of this momentary experience, truths that help us better understand this experience, truths that might help reduce suffering and increase wisdom and wellbeing, depending on the epistemic and temporal frame. Questions of universal Truths and their relationship to individual truths are often a key part of explorations on the spiritual path, at least so I found on my own path. On the other hand, there are moments when skillful or instinctual denial of various truths might have a temporary practical benefit, such as in cases of shock and immediate trauma, or continuing on living happy lives in the face of things like Climate Change, etc. It might be true that focusing too hard on various truths might not always lead to the best outcomes across various timescales and in various settings. Still, obviously, the Quest for Truth drives many a practitioner, and certainly drove and drives me often enough. These days, the truths I find most interesting to chase are mostly large, philanthropic ones, questions such as, “How to effectively scale knowledge of the deep end of human experience to the global clinical, mental health, public health, and public mainstreams to promote better outcomes for those on and around the path?”

    s) What can we know for sure: What we are? What we aren’t? Other?

Again, see above with regard to my strict ontological frame, which does contain one key element relevant here, that of Empiricism, in the David Hume sense, in the strict immediate experience sense, that experiences occur: this does seem a sound basis from which to be begin, at least, and hard to imagine others, once we realize that thoughts and extrapolations are also experiences in that immediate Empirical frame.

    t) What is your certainty based on?

See above.

    u) What prevents a seeker from knowing the truth?

The answers to this question are clearly “many uncountable causes”, and, from a certain point of view, the question is sort of like asking, “Why is there experience?” However, bringing it back down from that vast uncertainty, and speaking in practical but reductive generalities, common categories of reasons may include: 1) a lack of sufficiently clear perception of the numerous sensations that appear to constitute experience, thoughts, intentions, mental impressions, memories, anticipations, emotions, states of mind, the body, sounds, tastes, smells, sights, etc. 2) the notion that truth is found in an imagine future rather than this immediate changing present, 3) that truth involves a stable experience rather than giving up the existential, interpretive, and perceptual habit of creating a sense of separate, knowing, controlling central stability, 4) numerous Maslowvian hindrances that cause understandable preoccupations with things like securing food, shelter, safety, a healthy relationship or relationships, physical health, basic psychological health, healing from trauma, dealing with war, poverty, oppression, lack of access to information and the freedom to practice, etc. 5) poor instructions and models that take the seeker more away from their actual lived experience than towards it, 6) poor interpretations of good instructions and models in that same away direction, 7) poor fits between the seeker and the instructions and models, which may be good, but not good for that person at that time, 8) there are probably genetic and epigenetic factors we don’t understand very well yet related to perception, 9) the perennial drives for control, stability, safety, and bliss in a universe of sensations that unfolds naturally, transiently, and which involves pain, suffering, illness, conflict, disappointment, grief, loss, and death, 10) the countless temptations and distractions of the world that may promise salvation but which may mostly deliver cost, addiction, distraction, ill health, biosphere degradation, or craving for only fleeting reprieve, 11) a lack of sufficient intensity of one of the “roads to power”, such as curiosity, compassion, aspiration, kindness, ethical motivation, or suffering sufficient to create necessity, 12) fellow travelers on the path that have settled for lesser truths and may counsel that others do the same, 13) having been born in a place, time, and circumstance not conducive to practice and wisdom, 14) countless other factors that are hard to fathom.

    v) “You are aware prior to birth and aware after you die, so you begin with awareness, but you are not conscious of awareness.” ~ Richard Rose, The Direct-Mind Experience

Interesting quote and a complex set of ontological and existential ideas that might be of varying degrees of value to various seekers at various places on various paths. Making this personal for just a bit, and using that frame to illustrate more general points: having had nearly “all” of the various ontologically compelling experiences — oneness, voidness, non-duality, rebirth and past lives, all is pure energy, there is nothing that is reborn, there is only this moment, I have existed since the Dawn of Time, thousands of lifetimes ago I was a divine time-perceiving being that could see through countless possible permutations of the Multiverse, traveling out of body, perceiving AWARENESS as a stable and eternal space in which all arise, perceiving that same sense of “eternal AWARENESS” to flicker and vanish utterly, etc. — and having had those with the super-potent sense of noesis, of knowing, of absolute certainty, at some point, I began to notice, “Ah, various absolutely compelling experiences that appear to answer the deepest questions of meaning, identity, Truth, Ultimate Reality, Emptiness, and the like. Had I just one, or just a few that clustered together in a close web of meaning, I, like so many others, would certainly be conditioned to hold views along these lines. However, having had so many ultra-compelling meanings arise that are yet so utterly contradictory, mutually entirely incompatible, irresolvable within a coherent ontological frame, better to not cling to any of those, and make one’s way in the world of meaning based on what seems to promote good outcomes rather than based on transient experiences, however compelling, but with sympathy and understanding for those who do otherwise, as such is their conditioning, just as you have your conditioning.”

    w) Other comments: Interesting exercise. May it be of some use to someone. Best wishes!

It doesn’t matter whether Realized individuals think/feel they are abiding or not. Our fundamental source never abandons us!

b) Are “Who (or what are you), whence (where did you come from), and whither (where are you going)?” fundamental questions for a seeker?

Well, these questions might serve as koans of sorts, but they weren’t top of mind for me as a seeker. Realization answers all of them. The eternality of what we truly are definitively answers all of the questions that matter about life.

c) Bliss

Merriam-Webster dictionary:

bliss (noun)

1. complete happiness

2. paradise, heaven

I haven’t found it, except in marriage. 😉

d) Doing vs. not doing

I have a strong conviction that determination and application of energy are necessary to vastly improve the odds of Realization. I feel that it is rare for someone to drift into it….

e) Enlightenment (Buddhahood, Christ-consciousness)

The moment of Enlightenment can be earth-shattering. A life of Enlightenment can be quite ordinary.

f) Hypnosis (influencing another person mind-to-mind)

Formal hypnosis is worth a try, as it may plant a seed. Requirements for engaging in hypnosis: (1) a willingness to participate i.e., no pressure, promises, or coercion from the hypnotist, (2) a trusted teacher who is versed in hypnosis, and (3) one or more witnesses during the hypnosis who have your best interest at heart.

With regard to mind-to-mind influence, see my responses below on Rapport and Transmission.

g) Identity

After Realization, you know what your truly are and what you’re not. This isn’t to say that what you’re not—your small “s” self—isn’t important or should be discarded. Although Realization tends to shave off the rough edges of your old identity, much of it remains but takes a back seat to your true identity.

h) Individual consciousness of awareness

Individual consciousness of awareness is the key to Realization. It is the vantage point from which a seeker watches the mind. As a seeker, it manifests as a semi-translucent experience of Absolute Awareness. Ultimately, a finder transcends both the mind and individualized awareness to become the Absolute.

i) Meditation

Meditation was an extremely important component of my spiritual path. I recommend that seekers research the various meditative approaches, learn from trusted resources and teachers, and make it into a personalized approach that proves itself along the way. Meditation can be an amazing adventure within and certainly a fantastic way to Know Thyself!

j) No-self

At the moment of Enlightenment, a seeker dissolves into nothingness, and small “s” self disappears. I do not live a life of no-self. In fact, surprisingly over time, a profound aversion to self has evolved into a life of more compassion, more appreciation of what is bestowed, and a lot more humor—all experienced by small “s” self!

k) No-thought

I do not advise going to war with thought in an attempt at thought annihilation. In fact, thought is a means of hammering out solutions to problems, including spiritual dilemmas. Sometimes, intense thought sets the stage for intuitive insights and epiphanies about ourself and the world.

l) Rapport (contacting another person mind-to-mind)

Aha, my favorite topic! From a spiritual standpoint, rapport allows fellow seekers to know each other. It indicates a commonality that connects all of us in the mind dimension. Rapport sittings with others can provide an atmosphere where the energy or Holy Spirit, as the Quakers say, can magnify into a “one-mind state” wherein a wordless conveyance of being can transpire. I speculate that a Realized person can—for lack of better words—magnify the depth and the electricity of the rapport. Holding the head on dead center, allowing nothing to pervade the mind, allowing the false “you” to fade away or disappear—however you wish to describe it—somehow this state affects the atmosphere. There’s a lot to explore here!

m) Reality

Reality is not what you think it is, but rather, a living realization of what you truly are: an eternal, boundless awareness. Without trying to add to the confusion…a Realized person reaches an apex of dissolving into our source while also realizing that source contains the relative in its entirety. On a practical level, seekers can maintain their vulnerability to Realization by finding creative ways to fuel inspiration and their love of Reality.

n) Self-Realization (peeling away fabricated layers of one’s own personality to understand the true self and hence the true nature of reality)

There are many spiritual paths to Enlightenment. Watching the mind to better understand ourself is a more sure-footed approach. By becoming more adept at watching, we do indeed peel away layers of our small “s” self and eventually back into our source i.e., we retraverse the ray of creation. This process of watching takes on its own gravity, around which our life revolves.

o) Silence

An incredible silence is between all things manifest. A small taste of this is always present between thoughts, and a stronger taste is often present during poignant moments in life. On a practical level, it seems highly beneficial to carve time out of each day to allow for silence. Also, being out in nature tends to set the stage for magical moments of silence.

p) Tension

Spiritual tension can stop the mind, which might afford the seeker a glimpse of his or her source. We shouldn’t artificially go looking for tension by abandoning a job or our relationships, but instead create it by seeking for the sake of seeking. At some point on the spiritual path, we back ourselves into a corner (i.e., Richard Rose’s reverse vector), where awareness struggles to become self-aware with immense frustration.  For some, it’s a battle that ends in the death of the mind and a dissolution into our source.

q) Transmission

Those who are Realized have directly experienced a beingness that has no boundaries. I do not believe it is possible to transfer this state of understanding from the teacher to the student. However, rather than transferring an awareness that is already the True Nature of each person, transmission removes the seeker’s last shred of conviction that he or she is the holder of a personal awareness. A prelude or doorway may be established by conveying the mood of the “larger mind’s” Realization. For those whose resistance to Realization is nearly burned out, direct-mind contact with someone who holds a state of “nothing else but nothing” may remove the final conviction of owning or powering a personal awareness. In short, the seeker’s conviction of a personal awareness surviving death is removed. Perhaps it is akin to pushing someone over with a feather’s touch. Transmission is an area that is ripe for exploration…

r) Truth

In life, there is relative small “t” truth. We should always be truthful with ourself (“This above all: to thine own self be true”). And we should use discernment on when to be truthful with others, which is most of the time.

We should always keep our “bullshit meter” tuned for maximum sensitivity. Everyone—corporations, government, science, religion, the news media—are all trying to sell us something. We would be wise to maintain a healthy skepticism when trying to distinguish relative truth from the bullshit.

And there is also capital “T” Truth (see “Reality” above). And there is also capital “T” Truth (see “Reality” above).

s) What can we know for sure: What we are? What we aren’t? Other?

Almost all of our beliefs are based on a faulty mind. An authentic Realized person knows his or her true identity, but otherwise, we (humanity) know almost nothing for sure. That said, I have known Realized people who feel they are above succumbing to erroneous beliefs but in fact are just as vulnerable as others. A fantastic antidote to our beliefs is maintaining healthy skepticism along with a dose of humility.

t) What is your certainty based on?

u) What prevents a seeker from knowing the truth?

What prevents most seekers from Realization is the deep-seated belief that our small “s” self is all there is. When this is fully seen through, the finder is usually amazed at just how thin the veil truly is!

v) “You are aware prior to birth and aware after you die, so you begin with awareness, but you are not conscious of awareness.” ~ Richard Rose, The Direct-Mind Experience

When seekers step outside the mind for a little while, and watch from the perspective of awareness, they have taken a significant leap within. Adroit and determined seekers may realize they are aware of awareness. And the rare seeker ultimately traces the ray of awareness back to its source and dissolves therein.

w) Other comments:

Never forget to laugh at yourself and laugh with others. Laughter is the sacred elixir of life. 😊

    a) Abiding and non-abiding awakening (i.e., knowledge of the Self/Truth vs. abiding as the Self/Truth)

Such distinctions may be useful koans for the seeker, but I have no use for them as a finder.

    b) Are “Who (or what are you), whence (where did you come from), and whither (where are you going)?” fundamental questions for a seeker?

The most important question for a seeker is the one that is presenting itself to them right now. Over time a fundamental question might come into focus. I’m not willing to say which questions are fundamental and which are not.

    c) Bliss

This isn’t a term that I use.

    d) Doing vs. not doing

Sometimes there is doing and sometimes not. Sometimes there is ownership of doing and sometimes not. This is good to look at if one is questioning free will. I see both doing and not-doing approaches to seeking as valid provided one doesn’t take them too seriously.

    e) Enlightenment (Buddhahood, Christ-consciousness)

I had an experience that was totally satisfying and ended my seeking. I call it enlightenment. I don’t know if other finders are speaking of the same thing.

    f) Hypnosis (influencing another person mind-to-mind)

I influence people by speaking and listening and empathizing. I don’t have any special abilities.

    g) Identity

Identities come and go. By watching their coming and going one can get a peek at what is beyond identity.

    h) Individual consciousness of awareness

This isn’t a phrase that I use. I would challenge the seeker to take one of those words and examine the assumptions they are making.

    i) Meditation

I use the word “meditation” when I am referring to a specific technique of focused looking. I found having a meditation technique helpful in my search.

    j) No-self

The idea of no-self is helpful if you are attached to a self-idea. There is no need to take either idea too seriously. Watching the mind bounce between self and no-self gives one a clue as to what lies beyond the mind and its polarities.

    k) No-thought

If a seeker is interested in no-thought then they should pursue it. My mind never stops so I had to make friends with thought. Suppressing thought did not turn out to be necessary in my journey.

    l) Rapport (contacting another person mind-to-mind)

I do not have any special ability to read minds. I do strongly empathize with seekers and for me that is what rapport is.

    m) Reality

For me “reality” is a utility word. If I find it useful to divide “WHAT IS” into real and unreal parts, then I do it. It’s not something that should be taken too seriously.

    n) Self-Realization (peeling away fabricated layers of one’s own personality to understand the true self and hence the true nature of reality)

Of the various modes of seeking, the ones that involved looking within made the most sense to me. By ‘within’ I mean in the direction of what one identifies as self. I found that the self consisted of layers, the personality being one of the more superficial ones. I eventually uncovered a final layer of self, but it was unsatisfying; it was simply an experience that came and went like any other. My journey ended when I saw that reality could not be cornered into a single experience. Seeking self-realization is like trying to capture sunlight in your hands, and finding is like feeling the sunlight on your face knowing that it is given freely and lacks nothing.

    o) Silence

Sometimes it is helpful to isolate oneself from the overstimulation of society. A silent retreat can make it easier to see what your important questions are.

    p) Tension

Tension comes and goes. Is it under your control? Tension is a signal that something wants to be looked at.

    q) Transmission

I found it greatly energizing to be around seekers and finders. Their honesty and determination stimulated the same in me. I cannot say if there is a deeper form of transmission than that.

    r) Truth

Absolute Truth is what I wanted as a seeker. However, I found that Truth cannot be distilled into a concept or a feeling or anything graspable. Truth is ever-present. One cannot be separated from it. It cannot be sought. The mind cannot even be interested in it. What the mind is interested in is substituting the Truth with something finite and relative that can be played with.

    s) What can we know for sure: What we are? What we aren’t? Other?

One can know a feeling in the moment. One can know a thought in the moment. But the contents of such things are impermanent and relative and ever-changing.

    t) What is your certainty based on?

All I can say is that the seeker is no more. I am at peace regarding ultimate questions.

    u) What prevents a seeker from knowing the truth?

The seeker moves in the relative world of heart and mind where nothing satisfies. The way out cannot be pointed to, but when the seeker begins to perceive the fruitlessness of searching for the absolute within the relative, a new possibility opens.

    v) “You are aware prior to birth and aware after you die, so you begin with awareness, but you are not conscious of awareness.” ~ Richard Rose, The Direct-Mind Experience

I’m never sure what people mean by ‘consciousness’ or ‘awareness.’ I’d rather say ‘experience is happening.’ If life is a series of experiences, then all we know is eternal life. Anything else is imponderable.

    w) Other comments:

Imagine watching an exciting magic show that never ends. Eventually one would begin to see through the illusions and be less and less enthralled by the next magic trick. One’s attention would broaden beyond the sleight of hand to include the magician and the stage and then the audience and their faces. Imagine that, instead of being disappointed, the discovery of this much larger world seems far more a miracle than anything that happened on stage.

I don’t know what non-abiding awakening is. I have not experienced it.

    b) Are “Who (or what are you), whence (where did you come from), and whither (where are you going)?” fundamental questions for a seeker?

The questions as presented here might not sit right with someone but if a person can find their own way to articulate what these questions are pointing towards, I think this would be helpful. For me, the question ‘what is a human being, what is this creature with all its creative drive and output, its emotional ambience, its psychological complexity, had been the riddle of my life, so to speak.

There is no other creature like us so what are we?

These are essentially questions about our identity but the word identity might not be one that feels authentic to someone.

    c) Bliss

The word ‘bliss’ is often seen in spiritual literature as meaning joyous, ecstatic, or what I thought of as ‘unnaturally and permanently happy’. This was a turnoff for me, but the secondary interpretation or synonym is peaceful, contentment, made much more sense.

In fact, I have found that the total absence of anxiety has been the main legacy of the spiritual experience.

    d) Doing vs. not doing

It is a very useful exercise to examine this issue of doer-ship, to learn to distinguish between responding to situations and circumstances as opposed to being the ultimate generator of the situation.

Society operates on the assumption that we are doers, that we have control of our situations but careful examination shows that this is not necessarily the case but one needs to verify this for themselves.

    e) Enlightenment (Buddhahood, Christ-consciousness)

Every religion has a word for the fact that we humans can undergo an essential change.

While it might sound like they are referring to different things, I think Aldous Huxley had it right when he referred to this phenomenon as The Perennial Wisdom. All are trying to communicate about this same human phenomenon, using different mythologies to try to communicate it. This universal phenomenon has to be communicated in specific language which is what leads to the confusion.

    f) Hypnosis (influencing another person mind-to-mind)

I don’t know anything about this.

    g) Identity

This is the core issue. To know what one is down to the source of our being deletes all existential questions.

    h) Individual consciousness of awareness

There is no individual consciousness, if you mean personal private consciousness.

    i) Meditation

Good practice but it is important to understand what you are trying to achieve and how the particular practice achieves that. There are two main forms of meditation, relaxation and insight.

Practices that aim to reduce stress and calm the mind are of course beneficial. Practices that aim for insight show you how you function; uncover hidden beliefs, emotional triggers, assumptions and motivations you are unaware of in yourself. We are blind to our own ego functioning. Insight meditation practices aim to expose this blind spot in ourselves.

    j) No-self

The human being is a response machine, with hundreds of programmes, beliefs etc which jump into action in the appropriate situation. There is no one overall executive boss which is managing them. This is what I think is being referred to by the phrase no-self.

    k) No-thought

I do not know what this is about other than the fact that one can stop thoughts, just as one can stop breathing for a few seconds and find that you don’t die. You do not need thoughts to BE. But you do need thoughts to exist in the world.

    l) Rapport (contacting another person mind-to-mind)

I think this is just getting attuned to another person which happens naturally, especially with those who live with us. We can deliberately invite this rapport by sitting quietly with another, or group, without talking. I have never experienced what I think of a mind-to-mind contact with anyone during these sessions.

    m) Reality

Reality? Huh?

    n) Self-Realization (peeling away fabricated layers of one’s own personality to understand the true self and hence the true nature of reality)

There is an experience which can happen to a person, after which one has a different view of what life, creation etc., is. You don’t understand the true self. You embody it. It’s not a mental condition and in fact I find it very difficult to talk about it.

    o) Silence

Good idea to invite situations of silence and solitariness on the path, just to be alone with yourself without distraction. Inner silence is more than absence of worldly noise.

    p) Tension

Well worth while analysing what causes one’s tension.

    q) Transmission

I do not know about it.

    r) Truth

Truth, what is, what is permanent before birth, after death of body.

    s) What can we know for sure: What we are? What we aren’t? Other?

We can know what we are at core.

    t) What is your certainty based on?

Knowing what I am at core.

    u) What prevents a seeker from knowing the truth?

Ego

    v) “You are aware prior to birth and aware after you die, so you begin with awareness, but you are not conscious of awareness.” ~ Richard Rose, The Direct-Mind Experience

I don’t know about this.

    w) Other comments:

I find questions like this difficult to answer because I cannot find a way to nuance my replies.