Join the Awakening to Reality Facebook Discussion Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/AwakeningToReality/

This is a facebook group based on the blog Awakening to Reality. For newcomers who are new to the blog, please read this article for a basic understanding of what this group is about and the terms we use: Thusness/PasserBy's Seven Stages of Enlightenment

Any member of this group can invite anyone who might benefit from joining this group.

The purpose of this discussion group is to facilitate any discussions about the contents of the blog. Also, if anyone has questions, or requests for any guidance, my hope is that someone else more experienced can serve as a guide to him/her.

I am in part inspired by what Liberation Unleashed has been doing - direct pointing has successfully led many people to have certain breakthroughs in their realization. Due to time constraints I am unable to do personal 1 on 1 pointing and guidance for everyone who contacts me through the blog, but I trust that many in this group have the capacity to help others who need help.

I was heartened to hear from Angelo Gerangelo (who personally went through similar progression i.e. I AM to non dual, anatta and total exertion) today, who told me that someone he knew "...took 20 years to break Mu. That’s 20 years to I Am. I personally think that cannot be blamed on the student but on the clarity of the teaching. If someone wants to wake up and is willing to work at it sincerely I take 200% responsibility to show them exactly how it is possible. That’s on me. Doing the work is on them."

It is thus my wish that this group serve as a place to facilitate any sort of constructive discussions that can be of benefit to one's spiritual growth.

However, unlike Liberation Unleashed, the scope of this group is *not* limited to direct pointing only, as other forms of discussions related to the blog contents are also welcome.

Another point - earlier on Piotr wrote about keeping this group focused on direct pointings to anatta, dependent origination and emptiness - although those are certainly part of the 'scope of discussions' for this group. I'm going to broaden the scope of this group a bit, to include everything the blog talks about, including self enquiry and I AM realization, and other topics like karmic tendencies, so on and so forth.

Rules -

As a general guideline only: Please keep discussions constructive, try to keep idle talks to a minimum, and it is a rule that no personal attacks are welcomed here (please be kind to each other).


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Lately more people have been contacting us. I just wrote to someone who wanted to meet up with Thusness and I:






That should get you started. Any further discussions it will be best if we can take it to https://www.facebook.com/groups/AwakeningToReality/ 😊



Also, I do not buy into the old model of guru. I do not buy into the model that teaches a need for “surrendering to the guru”. Some people find that helpful, that’s fine, but it is not necessary for enlightenment. I prefer the modern (actually not so modern – it is so even in the days of early Buddhism) model of spiritual friendship as explained by Greg Goode: https://greg-goode.com/article/from-the-age-of-the-guru-to-the-age-of-the-friend/



Which is also why the Awakening to Reality group is a good one, as Daniel M. Ingram wrote:

"the collective wisdom of a group of strong practitioners at various stages and from various traditions and backgrounds is often better than following one guru-type".

(Update/Clarification: I'm not discouraging anyone from finding and following a guru. If you can find a good teacher or guru, that can be of great help to your practice and progression as I can attest that my progression is possible due to my ongoing discussion with Thusness/John Tan, however I do not have any wish to be a guru and do not have time to be in close contact with anyone. Collective wisdom from group discussions are often times better than just receiving the wisdom of one guru-type person - but you can certainly benefit and receive wisdom from both a good guru and a group.)

I am not a teacher, and Thusness does not wish to teach. We are people with a busy life and job/work/friends/family. We do not hold teachings, satsangs, meet ups (Thusness has not participated in any spiritual gatherings for many years and only meets me a few times a year), retreats, and so on. We are not monks nor do we work at a spiritual organization to propagate teachings. It is not realistic given our circumstances to be in frequent contact with “followers” and to be giving personal guidance to others. Hence, an online community of like-minded practitioners (some of whom are deeply realized and have gone through similar realizations) is more helpful in this case.


p.s. if anyone is able to translate Thusness's Seven Stages to other languages, that will be great, do let me know. In the past I've translated it to Chinese along with a short verse from Bahiya Sutta and posted that in a forum in China, and that alone resulted in a Chinese forummer coming to the realization of anatta (previously he was in the I AM stage). By translating these to other languages, more people can become awakened.
2 Responses
  1. Anonymous Says:

    Happy New Year my friend !

    :-)


  2. Soh Says:

    新年快乐!