What is Enlightenment ? (John Yarr)

This was an article written by an Enlightened Master John Yarr in the 1990s which identifies the highest goals of man and also challenges religious doctrines as well as concepts such as karma, fate and reincarnations. The article has had some additional formatting with the inclusion of headings and paragraph spacing, but is otherwise identical to the original.

 

• Introduction

The most important questions any human being can ask are:

• Why am I here?
• What is the ultimate purpose for my existence?
• What is my goal as a human being?

The answer to these questions is the discovery of the ultimate truth – the cause of creation – Enlightenment.

We have to be perfectly clear in our understanding that the cause of creation cannot be comprehended in any way by anything other than itself. In other words the ultimate cause cannot be known or understood by the mind, for the simple reason, that the ultimate truth is infinite, absolute, undivided and a total unity. The mind can only understand limits, it can only work with beginnings and endings.

The ultimate truth has no beginning and no ending. The ultimate truth cannot be, and is not, an experience. An experience requires duality. The ultimate truth is a unity. It is important to try and grasp these statements because the purpose of your life is only complete when you have achieved this ultimate realization. The concept put forward concerning the ultimate truth by religions is confusing and is fundamentally untrue. The idea that the cause of everything should be feared, or that the ultimate cause is in any way intimidating or judgmental, is absolute rubbish. The idea that the ultimate state chooses people, talks to people, or gives instructions to people, is quite simply nonsense – it is not true. These concepts are projections of the mind and have nothing to do with truth at all. They are egotistic and are based on self-preservation, a quality of the ego.

The ultimate truth has no self-preservation in it, as it cannot be challenged by any form. It cannot be attacked and does not need defending. Religious systems or religious wars that advocate the defence of the ultimate truth show complete ignorance of true spiritual awareness. When someone achieves Enlightenment, their first realization is that the ultimate truth is absolute love. It is also completely unassailable: it is impregnable and since it is the cause of everything, can never be challenged by any limit or any form. It makes no judgements, it does not converse and it does not talk to people. These again are ideas in people’s minds – they have nothing to do with the ultimate truth, which does not involve itself in creation in any way as it is forever free and detached from all activity comprehensible by the mind.

When someone has achieved the realization of the ultimate truth through the guidance of a fully Enlightened Teacher, he or she has the following awareness.

• They have never been born;
• They have never died;
• They have always been, and they always will be.
• There is no beginning to them, There is no end to them.
•  The self that they had previous to Enlightenment was only an illusion.
•  They realize that there is no such thing as reincarnation.
• That sex gender is completely irrelevant – men and women are capable of Enlightenment.
• That the mind is intrinsically unconscious, That only the ultimate truth is real because it has no cause other than itself, that it is self created, it has always been and will always be.

This is the greatest realization that it is possible to have and the ultimate purpose of all human existence. A True Spiritual Path concerns itself with the revelation of the actual light of truth. This is not an imagined light, a philosophical light or a light of knowledge, but is a transcendental revelation allowing access to higher levels of consciousness. It is important you understand this because religions do not reveal this light. In fact some people would like to teach that this light was only available thousands of years ago. Again this is nonsense. It is available through a truly Enlightened Teacher today.

It is not possible to attain Enlightenment after we are dead. Enlightenment means the complete transcendence of all levels of consciousness from the physical to the purely spiritual at the highest level. We must therefore be alive to have a vision of all creation at once. We cannot die unenlightened and continue to Enlightenment. We must attain Enlightenment while we are alive.

 

In true scripture, creation is referred to as an illusion because creation is not self-created and is therefore intrinsically unconscious and fatalistic. All knowledge is only about limits. It is only about beginnings and endings. The True Spiritual Path realizes this and teaches the fatalism of all systems of learning: that they are only about boxes and boundaries. There is no great book and there are no words that will Enlighten you – only Grace from a fully Enlightened Teacher.

Because the ultimate truth, the cause of itself, has no edges, it cannot be found by examining creation. It is important to understand this because people can fantasize that science or enquiry by the mind will discover the ultimate truth. Science or education are ultimately fatalistic, they are only about beginnings and endings, never the truth. Because the ultimate truth cannot hide anything within itself, creation is in essence a container. By that we mean all of creation is revealed at the same time. No more will be added, no more taken away. It is completely fatalistic. There is no ultimate freedom within creation. Activity belongs to creation and is always fatalism. Power is the ability to still everything.

To be free spiritually, means the ability to be: the ability to exist without the need for limits, something which a mind can never comprehend. In fact the absolute cause is not trapped in anything. Therefore, to try to comprehend this truth through thinking, analyzing, philosophizing, or any other form of mental activity, is a complete waste of your time. The ultimate truth is attainable only through Grace.

This brings us to the purpose of an Enlightened Teacher. The term Prophet, Spiritual Master, Messiah, are all ways of saying Enlightened Person or Enlightened Perfect Teacher in a spiritual sense. The term should not be seen in any form of academic meaning. The Spiritual Teacher who can lead us to Enlightenment is essentially, and always will be, unique. They are not a teacher in an educational sense but in the sense of a supreme Spiritual Guide and someone who has completed the spiritual journey and knows how to take others to the ultimate truth. Such a person has nothing to do with religions in any shape or form.

They are also indifferent to race or creed – teaching that there is no religion higher than truth. As said previously, sexual gender is irrelevant to attaining Enlightenment. This means that men and women are equal. There is no restriction on women attaining Enlightenment. Such a concept is ridiculous and insulting, and one should be able to find many enlightened women on the Path of a True Spiritual Teacher. While people wish to worship the ultimate cause, when someone attains Enlightenment their first realization, after the discovery of ultimate love, is that the ultimate cause is completely detached and plays no part in creation in any way comprehensible by a mind.

For the person seeking Enlightenment through a Teacher, it is absolutely critical they go to someone who has Enlightened other people. They should be able to meet the Teacher and they should be able to meet others who have attained Enlightenment. Anyone not offering these situations should not be followed because the Spiritual Journey to Enlightenment is absolutely critical to your life.

• Reincarnation: The Illusion

Reincarnation is not taught by fully Enlightened beings for the simple reason that there is no such a thing as an individual soul. Our apparent individuality which we are aware of is created by intelligence; that which organizes the beginning, the middle and the ending of every person, place and thing. When we are not Enlightened the sense of individuality that we have is created by the fact that there can never be two things exactly the same within creation. The belief that a soul, a part of God, is trapped in creation, is shown at Enlightenment to be complete nonsense. It is shown and proved that the ultimate truth having no edges cannot be trapped by anything because it has no surfaces, it has no boundaries. It is important for you to understand this, as the offering of most religious systems is to purify this fictional soul through a variety of purgatories, self-denials and so on. It is common sense to realize that the ultimate cause having no edges or surfaces cannot be trapped in any person, place or thing. Therefore there is no such thing as a soul. Your sense of individuality, your concentration, your awareness, is obviously not infinite otherwise it would be forever free and would be all knowing, all powerful, and everywhere.

Instead the individual self is actually a collection of environments that change in subtle ways continuously. It is not possible to return to somewhere that is infinite. How did you get away from something that is infinite in the first place? Religious or spiritual systems which teach of an individual soul have no knowledge of the ultimate truth.

The concept of austerities and denials is also offered by religious institutions as a means to discover TRUTH. Unfortunately the concept is logical but wrong. We overcome the limits of creation by becoming them and not by practising denial. For example, fire cannot burn itself, nor air breath itself, and poison cannot poison itself – since any limit, to itself, is not a limit. We can see that it is complete attachment not detachment which will overcome the limits and boundaries of creation.

To achieve this aim we must have access to greater and greater sources of the limits of creation. This itself is achieved through access to higher levels of consciousness. It is by becoming these levels of greater sources of energy that we transcend them.

 

A True Spiritual Path teaches that we must transcend all limits because limits that are not challenged by necessity become authorities to us. However, it is important to realize all transcendence is based on acceptance – so boundaries and limits cannot inhibit themselves or us, as we become them. So to transcend creation we have to become it. On a True Spiritual Path we go deeper and deeper into creation until the very basis of creation, has been transcended.

On the Spiritual Path because reincarnation is proven to be untrue, the individual is encouraged to pursue Enlightenment in this lifetime. This may take anywhere from a few years, to ten, fifteen, depending on the individuals circumstances and their ability to commit to what they are doing. Because you cannot bribe creation by austerities or denials in any form, nor can you manipulate it, attaining Enlightenment in this lifetime has to be possible, and is possible, under a truly Enlightened Teacher.

 

• Karma And Fate

The idea of karma is also taught incorrectly in religious systems: it is simple and only the law of cause and effect. Limits themselves can never be aware of Enlightenment. Enlightenment sits over the individual, never trapped within. All limits are essentially fatalistic; we cannot have fate and karma together. Fate and karma are mutually exclusive. Fate implying mankind has a preordained choiceless destiny which controls him from cradle to gave, and karma implying that liberation is in his own hands. Either system implies that he can achieve some form of meaning about the ultimate cause by these methods. However, either method only brings him into contact with limits and boundaries. Neither system has any liberation of any kind within it. All knowledge is only about limits and experiences and the ultimate cause is not an experience since it happens only to itself: an experience requires duality. Knowledge itself is a reactive process discovering only the effects and not the cause.

The karma and fate systems are offered by religions because they cannot attain to the creation. Both systems, karma and fate, use the seven keys of creation. The use of these keys, which is the only option for consciousness, can only produce an awareness of effects – never any actual knowledge of truth. It is not possible, while using the seven keys to ask an actual question. We can make an enquiry but never a real question since the use of the keys, geometry, numerology, psychology and so on will only allow a discovery of the universe as an effect and never reveal the cause. There are in fact no real questions, which can be asked by the mind, which are not part of the laws of creation and therefore fatalistic. All questions use beginnings and endings and are part of cycles and therefore limited. The ultimate state is surfaceless; it has no beginning or ending. Consequently it can never actually be, in any real sense, a question arising within the mind. The idea, therefore of the individual being able to manipulate creation to reveal its cause is not possible with either karma as a choice system, or fate as a pre-ordained system.

 

In neither of these systems is there freedom, which is the ability to exist without the need for limits. And since limits can never be aware of the ultimate truth, karma is not taught as a retributive system on a True Spiritual Path. It is simply taught as an understanding of unconscious law. All laws are repetitions, all laws are habits. They are again incapable of producing an awareness of ultimate truth.

• The Mind

The mind, on a True Spiritual Path, is seen as strictly limited – it cannot evolve, nor can it question itself. The mind is seen as a very good servant but a very poor master. On a True Spiritual Path the mind will be transcended before Enlightenment but the individual will not disappear but become greater.

At this stage of the Spiritual Path, known as second initiation, the individual is “taken beyond the mind”. This is not his or her personal mind, but the source of mind as a state, allowing consciousness and it’s geometry and psychology to exist. At this stage of the Path the individual’s sense of “I am-ness or me-ness” is beyond the mind, it includes the mind and sees the mind to be quite small and quite insignificant in comparison with the new identity the individual exists from. This is a massive realization and without a Perfect Master the individual may believe they have now completed their spiritual journey, since the center they used within themselves to be who they are has been absorbed into this new super conscious state.

 

Because concentration is not a unity but a collection of environments, after a period of time, which could be many, many years, the individual would realize they still have some way to go. This state, is not Enlightenment, but it is greater than anything religions have offered to man. At this stage the concept of reincarnation is seen to be completely erroneous and without any spiritual foundation.

The sense of individuality we have comes from the fact that there are no two things made exactly the same way – from the smallest particle to the largest mass. When this law is repeated anywhere in creation it creates in a conscious being a sense of self. However, when the individual would try to “find themselves”, they would have to discover there is nothing there, and that they are only a collection of environments. There is no individual soul and no Perfect Master has taught anything other than the fact that real individuality is only found in the ultimate cause. Without a soul, reincarnation is groundless. Learning is only about limits and limits do not get enlightened. At a greater depth learning itself is seen to be an illusion, since nothing can be taken from somewhere in the universe to somewhere else without change taking place. This fact means there cannot be any repetition in an exact way for any limit and therefore there is no learning in the accepted sense. Creation cannot have anything added or subtracted: if it was meant to be that limits got Enlightenment then creation would always have been enlightened. Since this is obviously not so, the idea that learning will enlighten us makes no sense.

The concept of a soul collecting limits (learning) and being able to obtain Enlightenment from these limits, or to manipulate the ultimate cause with these limits, is completely wrong. The mind can never ever be Enlightened, it is always intrinsically unconscious and never has any knowledge of the ultimate truth. This is something that is fully realized on Enlightenment

• Enlightenment

Enlightenment is the ultimate cause. It is the source of itself and everything else. The realization of Enlightenment is not an experience. This state brings the realization of ultimate love and the fact that there are no parts of this state trapped in human beings trying to escape – called souls. There is no duality in Enlightenment: it happens only to Itself. Religions have no idea or knowledge of this state. All limits, all knowledge, all experiences are immediately realized to be irrelevant and useless in the search for this state, which can only be realized through the Grace of a Perfect Master. It is the discovery of the Perfect Master state itself. The individual now has the realization that this ultimate cause has nothing to do with creation, it does not touch any part of it, nor is it in any way influenced by the movements of creation. It has no surfaces and therefore cannot touch Creation and visa versa. The idea that this state could in any way be damaged or intimidated or in any way needs help is such a ridiculous concept that it beggars belief that religions have said that people support God or that God needs defending. It really is a sick joke to educate people that an omnipotent state could in any way be deficient or know anything about poverty or pain.

In Enlightenment the individual realizes that they have never been born, they have never died, they have always existed and will always exist, that they are self-created and have no beginning or ending. This self-informing awareness within the state of Enlightenment has nothing to do with the mind or any form of reflection from it. It is the “all knowingness” which is intrinsic to self-creativeness. At this stage of the Path the individual is a fully Enlightened Being and should use his or her life to help their fellow man in their search for truth and ultimate reality. Other information with regard to these states will be gained from the Master over a period of time.

The individual has been used to having a centre which always locates itself somewhere in creation and produces experiences. Now – they have no centre but an absolute state, which is everywhere. They have’ not lost anything, but now they include everything within creation.

They can still bring up a family, have a job, have a career, the state itself, being outside limits, will not disappear while they continue to lead a normal life. It is important to understand this, since people can be taught ridiculous ideas about denial and limitations, the false claim being made that they can bring about a greater sense of truth. One only has to realize such systems would leave the world full of people doing nothing – hoping to manipulate creation by trying to deny its existence. The True Spiritual Path should allow people to have a normal life. The only denial is the constant refusal to let limits control you and enclose you for the sake of ignorance, tradition or absurd religious beliefs.

On a True Spiritual Path there is no restriction on what the student wishes to read. In fact, they are encouraged to read the most profound philosophy available, and enquiry into all religious or philosophical systems is encouraged. The True Spiritual Master has nothing to fear from the student becoming properly involved in great spiritual or philosophical works.

The ultimate truth once realized cannot be lost. It has nowhere to go since it is absolute. We cannot touch on infinity nor can we be Enlightened for a few minutes, nor is there such a thing as gradual Enlightenment. People who teach these things are ignorant of Enlightenment. Any truly Enlightened Master must have completed a Spiritual Journey in 40 days and 40 nights, to the minute. Teachers who claim to be Enlightened but who cannot Enlighten other people are useless to the spiritual seeker. He or she should find an Enlightened Master who can Enlighten them.

• Conclusions

Some of these statements may seem very challenging, but all of them can be proved. People searching for truth, search for it romantically – King Arthur, the Holy Grail, Pilgrimages, Knights in Shining Armour – this is not a good idea for the simple reason that we are searching for the truth, not fantasy or fiction. In most religions it is imagination which is the authority. People have information but no revelation. The Spiritual Path is revelation and information. The world at this time faces a tremendous spiritual crisis. In this country alone tens of thousands of people attempt suicide because they cannot find any purpose for living. Governments and institutions teach people only materialism. The ultimate truth is never discussed in any serious way by government leaders or politicians simply because they have no knowledge of this truth and have been hypnotized by creation. It is for this reason that these statements will be challenging to people in authority and religious leaders.

We hope they will make you ask serious questions and give you comfort that the purpose of your life can be revealed. Any questions you have can be answered by Enlightened people, who come from all walks of life – from mothers with children to pensioners and young people.

It is not necessary to be a monk, or lock yourself away behind walls – what is required is a sincere attitude and determination to co-operate with the Teacher to your final goal.

John

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