FROM A SITE VISITOR: You mention “Realization,” “awakening,” “liberation,” “Full Realization,” “Awareness,” “Enlightenment,” all sorts of terms that I thought meant the same. Do they or not? And what about self knowledge, self realization and self actualization? I’ve seen those too. Thank you. Greg
F.: Today, the terms “self knowledge” and “self realization” will be discussed since they are linked to the term discussed in yesterday’s post: liberation.
First, though, understand that all of the terms and all of these explanations will be meaningless if you reach the seventh step of “the seven steps to Realization.” Why? The terms we’re discussing are "vehicles" that facilitate movement along the “path,” but eventually all of the terms will be abandoned.
Compare that to the “thorns to remove thorns” metaphor: words and terms and pointers can be used along the way, but ultimately it will be seen that there is no “traveler.” It will be seen that there is no “user of vehicles or tools or disciplines or thorns.”
Once the teachings remove the obstacles to understanding—that is, once the contaminants that are bastardizing the consciousness have been removed—then the teachings are no longer needed or used. It is understood at that point, in fact, why Advaitins report that there is no “user” at all.
Next, understand that when an Advaitin teacher’s written words are offered to guide a protégé along the “path,” capitalizations can be employed to distinguish one pointer from another. Thus, “self” with a lower case "s" refers to the “false self” (otherwise labeled as personas, false identities, assumed roles, assigned or assumed identities, ego-states, personality, or states-of-being).
The word “Self,” when capitalized, refers to the True Self or Real Self. (When you listed “self realization” among the terms that you e-mailed, you may have meant Self-realization, but both will be covered just in case.) Before the True Self can be understood, the false self/selves must be understood and discarded as identities. When all are discarded, that is the moment of "liberation" from attachment to, and identification with, a "personal self."
To that end, “self realization” happens when you see all of the roles that you are assuming, when you see that those roles can lead you to feel hurt or threatened, and when you see that they are not You. You realize that each of those roles or identities is a false self.
So, take “self realization” to happen when one sees the false self/selves to be a false self/selves. It is the realization that all of those false identities that are being assumed are not who or what You really are.
You could be said to have “self knowledge” when you become aware that all of those identities (all of those false selves which you’ve assumed to define who you are) were really not who/what You Are at all. To be said to have “Self knowledge,” on the other hand, would suggest that (1) you have first identified all of the false selves which you are not and that (2) you have since come to realize That Which You Truly Are.
Farther along the “path,” Self-Realization (or Self-Knowledge or Self-Awareness) can happen, but that will be discussed at a later point because other steps must be completed as you move through the awakening process, and as you move beyond identifying with false selves, but before you can come to know the True Self. Please enter into the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)
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