Self-Knowledge and Self-Realization

Consciousness, its nature, whether it is Universal in any way, or just limited to bodies, and the interplay with Shakti and the Unmanifest is the subject matter of Rishis, avatars, gurus, and teachers since the beginning of recorded time. There are so many answers, so many systems from Advaita Vedanta, to Tibetan and Zen Buddhism, each with many schools, Sufism, Kashmir Shaivism, each having a complete set of answers, some of which can be mapped onto other systems, and some not.

When you find simple answers, sweeping answers, you have the central teachings of one school or another, and to each school is added the life experiences of generations of saints, each amplifying and expanding on the insights, stories, and methods of their exalted predisessors. Thus we have 28 generations of Buddhist Patriarchs, a thousand years of Shaivite and Tibetan masters, etc. We have the Nath tradition of Nisargadatta, the school of Kashmir Shaivism founded by Nityananda, the lineage of Babaji to Muktananda, and tens of millions of students arguing which we self-realized, or enlightened, and who were not, based on their subjective criteria.

But all is well. Just turn your attention around, look and feel inside, and find riches beyond belief within your inner world.

But you will find so many here on FB that wrap their minds around one teacher, one method, one school, which they understand with their minds, not their hearts, and they become the haters of other schools, other experiences outside of their experiential universe.

All teachings are only concepts. All distinctions are only concepts. That is why we have to dig deep into the nature of our own experience, and only then check it against gurus, present and past.