Enlightenment: What are the Obstructions to Realization?

In this group discussion we address enlightenment from the standpoint of the fixations and obstructions that hinder our clear seeing of this natural state.
Enlightenment isn't a quality a person achieves, it is not a state of mind or an experience. It is a word used to point to reality in its pure unfiltered endlessly dynamic state. So spiritual realization is far less about gaining insights than it is about dispelling obstructions, false views, and resistance patterns.

[@indef93]

Angelo, all your videos are absolutely amazing. After going deeper, I find some of these older online meetings are the cream of the crop! ❤❤❤

[@piddlepond]

I’ve spent 27 years after Satori trying to “re-identify” with the body-mind. Only recently did therapy reignite a desire for realization. During those decades, without a teacher and a community to grow into “being”, I repressed my “seeker”, tried to live like a “normal person”, eventually got married, had a kid. The whiplash of control came out and “self-sabotaged” my marriage and now I’m addicted to GuruTube. No fucking joke. I’ve had multiple “dark nights of the soul”/“Come to Jesus” moments. Now it’s just a gurgling purgatory of delusion, emotions and insight. I do meditation, self inquiry and therapy. My self image is like a landfill of dead bodies all with various degrees of a smile on their mostly verisimilous faces.

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

I feel you, this is largely why I wrote the book. Equanimity can be realized which will essentially dissolve the tendency to contract and the dysphoria/ habituated struggle. Gotta go back through the yuckiness and discomfort in a specific way tho. The equanimity playlist has many approaches. Also the non-dual playlist has many approaches to clarify subject object illusion and formless nature

[@magic7videos595]

One of the most valuable advice for awakening!!! I love it!!!

[@jinidickinson7450]

Absolutely beautiful and crystal clear. With deep gratitude 🙏

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

☺️

[@ben_y.]

Super valuable, practical advice. Thank you!

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

Glad it was helpful!

[@cavapo3]

❤❤❤🙏🙏

[@jondavid6148]

extremely valuable really called out some clear errors in falling back into identification

[@wisefool8915]

Great talk, appreciated.

[@gb98115]

Nice! Thanks for continuing to post these.

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

Welcome :)

[@ziya5952]

1:16:27, not fully understand, will listen to this again (about making choices)

[@kennyburch]

Excellent talk! Thank you

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

kennyburch welcome!

[@66marshmellow]

Which Bernadette Roberts book were you referring to? Thank you so much for your directness with your sharing! :)

[@omarmiz]

Thank you 🙏

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

You’re welcome:)

[@omarmiz]

@@SimplyAlwaysAwake I have a question that is very alive right now, Angelo. I heard a couple of people (one of whom realized 'kensho') say that you'll only experience kensho when there's nothing really drawing you in to the world anymore. If you believe you're quite detached from things, but deep in your heart you're very attached to your business growing, or a relationship etc... then you won't really awaken until you get to the point where those things no longer interest you. When "Nothing is pulling you into the world anymore".

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

@@omarmiz I know what they are saying, and it has truth to it, but this isn’t one size fits all. People experience this so differently. For instance people can wake up while caring for a child, and it’s not like a prerequisite would be not caring what happens to the child to wake up. So I might say a better way of saying it is that you see that no matter how you (as you take yourself) try to arrange things, you don’t get what you really want. That something has to go beyond you and this becomes sufficiently obvious. So you could say that when your attachment to your beliefs has taken a critical hit rather than to life itself.

[@omarmiz]

@@SimplyAlwaysAwake Respect and gratitude to you 🙏

[@ziya5952]

Mostly appreciated, as always ❤️

[@mrraamsridhar]

Angelo, how do we join one of these group discussions with you?

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

Hi! There is a place to put your email address in on this link, all announcements will go to that list :) books.simplyalwaysawake.com

[@mrraamsridhar]

@@SimplyAlwaysAwake Thank you very much Angelo :)

[@rubyslippers9140]

I'm finding the phrase "This is it" helpful.

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

This is it

[@chadkline4268]

"Realization, the natural state, just is. It's not obtainable because it's never been apart from you, from itself. There can never be more or less of it. It can't be closer or farther. It's not contingent upon conditions. It's not contingent upon perception. It's not contingent upon anything. It's the source of contingencies. But even to call it a source is putting an unnecessary limitation on it. What we're pointing to has no limitation. It has no boundary. There's no space where it does not exist. It's not even contingent upon existence. So now we take up the business of what obscures it." This is our normal sense of being, which is our presence, our self. You could've just said that. I don't see that it is mysterious or obscured. Maybe I'm just an idiot? 1st barrier: doubt, disbelief in awakening refusal to acknowledge suffering, hiding behind, covering with, a persona. 3rd barrier: realization is scary, learning is fun. This sounds more like pop psychology to me, where awakening has become a state of relative mental health.

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

It doesn't land the same way for everyone. I would urge you to post a vid about your experience or pointing for others, it's likely you can say it in a way that is more accessible to certain minds :)