Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization

I love Mixed Martial Arts. The champions there are terrific examples of dedication, hard work, extreme focus on the prize of becoming champion, and persistence in hard training, never ending training, study of their body's reactions, and focus on mental clarity, combined with total faith in themselves.

I was this way regarding finding enlightenment for dozens of years with many, many teachers, centers, ashrams, and a monastery. Never give up. Look and feel inside for everything that is there. Leave nothing not made consciousness. be aware of your core and of the witness. Feel for the I am, love the search.

The search is not what brings enlightenment, but it is "like" a purification process. Hard practice builds unshakable faith in one's own self, love for the Self, that finally allows the Self to reveal itself to you, the Witness as your Manifest Self side.

Very, very few seekers have this kind of drive because the prize is not so clear as a world championship and worldly success, because before Self-Realization, the seeker has not a clue what it is, often mistaking pre-enlightenment experiences with Self-Realization. Often seekers after discovering emptiness or the light of Consciousness believe that is Self, but it is not. Or they identify with the Witness watching all levels of Consciousness. They identify with the Absolute entirely apart from everything within Consciousness.

But if they continue by opening up to their humanity, their emotions, to love, instead of just an objective awareness, an empty observation, and become human again, then the Manifest Self of enlightenment, of God, arises in you, as You. Then the prize has become you.

After this realization, the Self and you are together always, and you and the divine that is you grow together, going deeper and deeper into the mystery of Self, and the unity of Self and Witness.