Well really, no plan or anything of the sort is necessary. All that is needed is to give up the false self, right here, right now, wake up, and be free. There — that bit’s done.
Ah.
Still here? No it never worked here, either.
OK, while we are waiting, to have something to do, and learn a bit about what is real in us, we can go the long way (though don’t forget: there is no way or path to enlightenment).
The plan is to follow the clues. We will look at a clue, and then try to determine where it leads us to look further. That is, unless this plan changes in the face of real questions, which it may well do!
So what we will have to do is:
- identify the elements, delineate what the self is, identify what in the individual reading this is not the self, and bit by bit cut away the attachment to the false self, undermine and progressively sever the belief that ‘I/You am/are the false self’, all via you encountering your very own concrete evidence of this, and all the while leaving that old ‘self’ all fully functional until such time as there may be the realisation that ‘whatever I am, this “self” thing may just be something that’s in the way’, and that it might be OK if it went — and eventually perhaps, once it’s loose enough, the next thing might happen — or not.
- And happen in a shorter sentence, too! Should be easy, no? Or not?
Here’s a metaphor, in part it’ll be something like this:
‘(Snail) Kite flies to perch, holds snail with one foot while extracting snail from shell with long, curved upper mandible of bill.’ Ouch
This is accurate in various ways. First, we have to capture – or recognise – the container. Then we have to extract the contents, the juicy bits. This will hurt the contents, it does not want to be extracted at all. Once extracted, the false self is food for the process and is consumed.
Recognise this simple fact — that the self does not want to be recognised, extracted and consumed, and so it will fight every inch of the way1 — and you are (some unknown percentage) of the way there already!
There will be exercises to do, and observation, and other stuff. None of this will make you enlightened. You might learn more about your self, which might be useful. Or not.
Yes I am avoiding raising any expectations. They are counter-productive.
Still here?
We will start at the beginning.
Oh – and just one more thing before we start.
You should know that anything presented here has been done, is lived, here. It’s not theoretical, or third-party reports of what someone else has said.