The Experiences of TRUE ENLIGHTENMENT
In the Chan/Zen direct consciousness path of Silent Illumination
The Initial Chan Buddhist Path in China
In the fifth century the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma traveled from India to China and subsequently introduced the Chan Buddhist path to Chinese monks. Prior to his visit, dozens of previous Buddhist monks had traveled to China with thousands of pages of Buddhist doctrine - which was extremely difficult for the Chinese scholars to fully comprehend. But Bodhidharma only came with a simple teaching that was much easier to understand.
Bodhidharma introduced the Chinese religious scholars to the Buddhist path of direct awakening of enlightened consciousness. This was similar to the ancient Tathagata path that Gautama Buddha taught to his most advanced disciples about 1,000 years before Bodhidharma.
It caught on very quickly in China because it was also like the Tao Consciousness path that evolved in ancient China around 5000 BCE. You can read about this ancient Taoist path in my new book Tao Consciousness - before the Tao Te Ching and after Ramana which should be available in early March 2023 from Amazon.
The Chinese Path of Silent Illumination
About 600 years after Bodhidharma created the Chan Buddhism path, a new Chan master, Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157), introduced an enhanced version of Chan Buddhism which he called the path of Silent Illumination. Master Hongzhi’s grasp of the higher levels of enlightened consciousness was very impressive. As were his beautiful Chinese-style poems and his new meditation techniques. Chan Buddhism became immensely popular for hundreds of years.
Around 1980 a widely respected Taiwanese Chan master, Sheng Yen, started teaching an English version of the Chinese Path of Silent Illumination. In 2008 this highly regarded Buddhist master wrote a book entitled The Method of No-Method, the Chan Practice of Silent Illumination.
My Lecture on Silent Illumination
A few weeks ago, I gave an in-depth podcast which discussed Master Hongzhi’s teaching and a detailed exploration of the real experiences that advanced meditators encounter in the deepest stages of silent illumination (aka enlightened consciousness).
The following podcast examines these key topics:
Floating through Life in enlightened Samadhi
Allowing your consciousness to act instinctively
How consciousness expands the field of awareness
Allowing your consciousness to float into the center
How consciousness eliminates the energy buildup
How consciousness creates energy, light and sound
The inevitability of melting into silent illumination
How and why to ignore the Celestial Sounds
The current Thinning of the Veils
The coming Golden Age of Spirituality
The Podcast on Silent Illumination
Final Notes
Tao Consciousness is the oldest direct awakening path on Earth. It’s been taught by many different masters in many different countries by many different names.
It was called Tathagata by Buddha, Chan Buddhism by Bodhidharma, Silent Illumination by Master Hongzhi, Zen Buddhism in Japan, The Lord of the Soul by Soami Ji, Sat-Chit-Ananda by Ramana, and Tao Consciousness by me.
Most of these Tao Consciousness paths explore multiple levels of consciousness and the requisite meditation practices for the higher levels of consciousness which are much different than the simple direct awareness techniques often taught today.
The multilevel consciousness paths are much different than most contemporary entry level direct awareness/awakening paths.
Most introductory paths usually start and end with mindfulness. Some also discuss the initial direct awareness experiences that occur just before, or barely within, eye center enlightenment. Many of these consciousness and direct awakening teachers simply don’t know how to explain any of the in-depth experiences in the eye center. Worse yet, most of these introductory courses also end at the eye center experience, and don’t seem to even know about any of the higher levels of consciousness.
If you have an interest in following a legitimate direct consciousness path, there are many terrific books on the teachings of Maharishi Ramana and Nisargadatta Maharaj. Likewise, this Spiritual Secrets newsletter and my new book on Tao Consciousness will also be helpful.
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