Transcendence
You may be wondering whether it is possible for you to achieve enlightenment, and you may think that it is such a long way back to your home that you can never reach it. You may think deep inside that it is all too complicated and difficult, or that you are unworthy. But I tell you in Truth that you are wrong on every count, because you never left the light, it was only through your thoughts that you felt that you were in another place, or that you were something other than what you really are.
One Moment in Time
The act of transcendence into the perception of enlightenment is instant. It is as if, without realizing it, you unintentionally turned on that magic switch that you had been searching for. In Truth there is no magic switch, but rather transcendence occurs automatically when the Self reaches a certain state of realization and makes the right choices.
No-one knows when their moment of transcendence into the light will occur, for who can predict when a moment of realization will happen? Before that moment there is only knowledge that requires faith in its validity, but faith does not require proof. It is not faith that we search for, it is a complete understanding, and that can only be experienced in a moment of realization of the Truth. Enlightenment will happen when you least expect it. It will snatch you from the darkness and the illusion of what you are not. All things are made new, and all of your powers are restored. Your moment is coming, and when it does, you will know that I have spoken the Truth.
The keys to enlightenment are and have always been in your hands alone. I can tell you what you need to realize, but what you choose to do with that information is entirely up to you. I will Love and respect you regardless of what you choose.
The Impossible
It is said that ‘all things come to pass’, in other words, nothing can retain its form forever. But that is not quite true, and it is a claim made in ignorance, because there are some things whose form cannot be dissolved or perish, or be diminished in any way, because they are Self-generating continuously. The things whose existence and form are eternal, are Self-begotten and Self-sustaining.
The You that you refer to as ‘I’ is a Self-generating immortal spiritual being, and there is no escape from the reality of your existence. Your mind, which is outside of the Self, is also generated by the Self, and so it is also eternal, but the things that are in the mind are not, they are created by the self and only sustained by the Self for a single life journey, unless they are of unconditional Love and Truth.
Eventually the Self has to let go of (stop clinging to) all that is not of unconditional Love and Truth, because all else will be lost and come to pass, that is to say; cease to exist.
This is why I have said, ‘when you stand alone with nothing that the world can take from you and only unconditional Love in your heart, then the gates of Heaven will open for you.
Illusions
You can spend a whole life journey believing that you are something that you are not, and believing that you are somewhere that you are not. There are no greater illusions than these two. The Self that is you becomes like someone searching for their lost keys, not realizing that they are in your pocket.
When you first awaken to a new life journey, you have no illusions as to what you are or where you are, and at that point your focus of attention is entirely on your Self.
It is a truth that the Self only perceives what it focuses its attention on.
It is a truth that clarity of perception is dependent on the strength of focus of attention.
Let me put it another way:
Desire creates interest,
Interest creates focus of attention,
Focus of attention creates clarity of perception,
Clarity of perception creates depth of understanding.
Sleeping
Before the beginning that is to say, before the Self awakened, you were in a state of perfect peace; everything was still and nothing was known. You were in a state of dreamless sleep, you were lifeless. It was when you realized that you existed that you took your first breath of life. Without that first breath you would have remained in a state of rest, and life would not have been experienced.
Desire is ‘the breath of life’.
Death is the absence of desire.
Without desire the Self that is you would possess no knowledge other than that of your own existence, because you would not have gone in search of it. But you are here now and you have discovered a great amount of knowledge, both of good and evil, both of which are necessary to gain wisdom.
Your focus of attention is here now, you are engaged in interaction with the material realm and other sentient beings. You feel trapped in a world that seems alien to you, and you want to be free. So you find yourself searching for the Truth that will set you free, but it seems so elusive.
You just want to be happy and feel love, but it seems that around every corner and in the shadows, there is someone or something just waiting to cause you hurt, to take advantage of you, and deprive you of anything good that you feel. Fear is ever present and so you pray for peace. It was this way for me, until I said; ‘no more’.
Choices
I had realized that of all the powers that we possess, the greatest is the power to choose what we do. It is a power that can never be taken from us. The ability to choose is a power that is only possessed by sentient, (living, conscious, aware) beings. There is nothing that is of the material universe that possesses the power to choose its actions, or reactions and it is because we do that we know we are not of this world.
We have a choice of how we react to what affects us, and we have a choice of what effect we will or will not cause. Therefore we are not bound by the laws of the material universe.
There is no chaos in the material universe, it works like a perfect machine, where every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Only sentient beings can interfere with the natural chain of events, changing what would have been.
It is in the spiritual realm that the law of action-reaction breaks, down and chaos is created. This is because sentient (spiritual) beings have a choice in how to react, and in what effect they will cause. For instance, you can do to others what they do to you, or you can choose not to react in the same way.
You can choose the pleasure of revenge, or the peace of forgiveness. Revenge creates chaos, forgiveness ends it.
The Journey
Every life journey has a beginning and an end, and at this moment you are somewhere between those two points.
We know how long we have been on our present journey, but we cannot know when the end of our journey will come, or what if anything, will come after it, and does it really matter anyway?
For me in my pre-enlightened state it didn’t matter, but I would have preferred an end to my existence and awareness. There really are only two possible outcomes, either life goes on, in which case I am immortal, or awareness ends completely and I would not even know of my non-existence.
But what then? Had my life been meaningless, some cruel joke of fate? Was there any reason at all to continue living?
For me there was, and it was not for my benefit but for the benefit of others. The Love and Truth that I had in me had shown me a better world, one that I could contribute to. I didn’t know how long I had left but I would Love unconditionally, knowing that it was good and right. My desire for Self pleasure had ended, and I had put myself last. Then came the light, as the past, present, and future collided in one glorious revelation. I AM and will always be, the way, the truth, and the life. We are Gods that had fallen asleep and become lost in another reality. It is Love and Truth that finds and awakens us, to bring us home once more. The end is the same as the beginning, and the path we must all walk is that of righteous desire.
The Dark Night of the Soul
I would not care about you, if I didn’t feel your pain
I would have no need for company, but I can’t bear loneliness again
I would not need to find myself, if the world had been enough
And I would have known life’s meaning, but no-one fulfilled my love
I will not live for the moment and take all that I can
For my treasure would be stolen, by those who scheme and plan
In my sacrifice and suffering, was a better life for some
And I have left a better world for the children that will come
As I gaze out from this lonely place to the journey from my birth
I see the Love I left behind was the only thing of worth
Desire was never silenced by gaining material things
And I never found the happiness that Love’s fulfillment brings
I was never a part of the world we see, I am just a passer by
Yet being who I AM my friend, I will come when I hear you cry
I don’t know who I am anymore or why I even exist
Is there any purpose to my life? Is there something I have missed?
All that I’ve learned seems worthless, what’s left for me to find?
I see no promised pearl of Truth, just a cold dark empty mind
Will life continue after death? Is there more pain to bear?
Or will I close my eyes one day and awareness be not there
If God exists I see no proof for God was never in sight
And now my heart is broken as my soul walks through the night
I have nothing left to cling to and desire has gone to sleep
The reality of Self is all I have; It’s all that I can keep
Now as the darkness deepens and nothing I become
I put down all I’ve carried and stand alone as one
Love is all that I have left the only part not broken
I will give it all without condition, denying nothing it has spoken
Standing alone in this empty place and in my darkest night
I find the proof that God exists, as I step into the Light
The dark night of the soul©2008 HWHodgetts
Next: Journeys End
last yesterday i was in meditition of the word from the gospel of mary Magdalene and it seemed as if when i was reading my past was leading to my present and at the end of it i came to realize i handt fully understand yet i only wanted to give love to everyone else despite what they said or did. After the day i closed my eyes to fall asleep and in so my body seemed to dissolve (this was at 7pm) i witness light all around me, a bright light brighter than words could explain and when i tried to look at myself observing the light i woke up and came back to my senses…when i checked he time it was 10pm.
God Bless You William and Shawn we are blessed as all others that are finding their true selves are be at peace we are being guided and we wont be left behind thankyou Thomas and thankyou Lord Yeshua he is at our doorstep
Is there more insight on this part?
“I can tell you what you need to realize, but what you choose to do with that information is entirely up to you. ”
What are the realizations you had moments before Transcendence? Or days before?
Also in this section:
“transcendence occurs automatically when the Self reaches a certain state of realization and makes the right choices.”
What state of realization were you in at the time before Transcendence and what choices did you make that lead to Transcendence?
Thank you for this great article William.
Hi Shawn, Thank you my brother for asking the most important questions of all. I will now write an article revealing the greatest secret of the ages; ‘Journeys End’. It has always been there for the taking, for everyone. Love and blessings, William
Hi William,
I have found a lot of knowledge concerning the material world as well. I have also found a lot of knowledge concerning the spiritual inner world.
To the point where all my questions of life have been answered. My curiosity does not even extend to what it will be like when this life is over. All though I know it will be interesting.
One of my challenges in ending desire, is I do not want to play this game of life anymore, but for the sake of others and love, j have too.
It would be easier to end desire if I could stop playing the game and rest. But I must do my obligations to the effects I have caused and see them through.
The challenge is to rest, when you can’t physically rest. Not impossible, but challenging. Like carrying the game on your back as you climb to the peak of self control, so you can jump off of the cliff of emotional dependency.
I am working on accepting my current reality as it is. So I can end the want to escape it.
My greatest desire is rest, but I must go on “doing”, absent of my own desire. This pushes me to seek a moment of rest, or change from all the life obligations.
How do I find a middle? Where I can remain at rest in desire, while still doing what I don’t desire?
It is written,”do not lie to yourself, and do not do what you hate”.
I have no sincerety in playing this game of life. And trying to make peace with that is like lying to myself. How would you come to terms with being fully in the desires of others, because of family, kids, work, obligations, while no longer desiring the illusion? But rather desire an end to the conflict of being both in a physical life and a spiritual life, straddling the two realms and doing the splits in your heart?
It reminds me of what you said, “some times you have to give in to win”
There are no obligations, there are only choices. The problem is fully understanding those choices and choosing wisely. If you feel that you have no choice your free will has been compromised, and you are lying to yourself, and you are bound by a desire that cannot be silenced.
It is when we don’t realize the value of what we have or do, that we begin to hate those things. What was once felt as pleasurable and worthwhile then feels like a burden.
Consider what you have, and what it would feel like to lose those things. Consider also what you do, and how you would feel if you were no longer able to do them.
Imagine losing your job and there were no more jobs available. Would you then realize the worth of what you had?
Imagine losing your family, they are gone forever, and there is no way to get them back. You find yourself at home alone, with on-one and nothing to care about. Would you look back and feel free and at peace? Would your desire be silenced or be a blazing inferno?
Desire does not begin with the realization of something that you have, but with the realization of something that you don’t have. Peace and desire are like two wolves fighting within. It is the one that you feed that wins. Unconditional love is of peace. It is the illusion of lack of choice that you must overcome.
This part, touches my heart the most right now. William
“The image that I had constructed of myself through the influence of my corrupted heart had dissolved, and I had become nothing. I was alone, knowing nothing and wanting nothing, waiting without fear for the end. ”
I have spent the last few years understanding what I am not, dissolving the ego, and expanding self realization, through getting to know that alone feeling separate from everything and everyone else. Until last year I found and recognized the truth of my existence. I felt only my own existence as separate and alone from everything in the five senses and my feelings, thoughts and emotions. I could not make out a feeling, or create an image or idea of myself. And I realized I am just that truth of what I am separate from all that I am not, including the human body, because I felt and recognized the contrast of my “Self”. My Awareness, the feeling of observation, that solitary alone feeling, separate from everything else. I finally accepted that recognition as truth. That I just simply AM, I know I exist, and that observation is all that I truly am. In that affect, I felt as if I was nothing but this recognition, simply, I am this recognition of being alive and nothing more. I am invisible, intangible, formless.
And at the same time, I had gathered the attributes of relation, that are the truth of love and peace. And focused on coming to know them and trust them as my spiritual instincts. Because as I expressed myself through those attributes of love, those around me left me in peace and even shared genuine admiration. This gave me the Faith to let go of all the rest of my opinions, beliefs and knowledge, especially all negative knowledge. With my spiritual instincts focussed only on love, eventually, I had no knowledge but love to respond and live through, so that was all I had to offer in my heart, regardless of the people and situations.
At that point, all I knew, was I had no choice but to animate through love to express my self. And I was separate and alone in the Truth I had found of myself. No one around me was awake to this fact, that everything is an illusion, meaning separate and temporary from the recognition of the one feeling of my alone self.
Being so separate from all that I felt, I desired a way out of this place that feels like solitary confinement and a place of constant judgments and conflict. I could see all the negative knowledge everywhere. And I discovered, that if I ended my desire to leave the material world, and stopped focusing on deeming an opinion on everything from what I heard, felt, observed, or my environment as pleasurable or non-pleasurable. And let everything and everyone just “be” what “is”. That suddenly, all things, became a Neutral feeling. Because what we feel, is recognized as a knowing. I see that what you said is true. At this point, I am knowing nothing, but my own alone self that I feel, because all things in the five senses are neutral, plain, the same.
I also realized that, all I want or seek, requires a level of consciousness and a degree of awareness to experience and maintain, which takes a level of inner peace, a bit of clarity away, inhibits perspective, compromises part of my reasoning, and hides true understanding. And this one bit, compounds the more we want and desire.
This revealed to me, that all things outside of us are an expression of consciousness. And because I am the Truth, and consciousness is the light if Truth, and all things wanted and desired are expressions of consciousness. I AM everything. I can either experience bits and pieces of my Being, and loose peace and clarity, or I can let want and desire go and become everything at once.
I now stand at this realization, which is my drive to end want. To desire peace, above all else. The desire to end desire, as you have said. I see this takes time, like a feather falling deep into a valley. More like the Valley of death. As desire takes it’s last breath and I am reborn as ALL of the light, rather than seeking temporary pleasures in some of my own light. As I realized, all I can ever do is experience myself and my likeness, which is relation is love.
This last part is challenging. Ending all desire and want. I have no fear, and it is an exciting last adventure meeting the end of experiencing life as all becomes completely neutral and separate from me.
So I see what you are saying. I am waiting for the end.
My question is.
Since you were not seeking enlightenment. What end were you seeking, and how did you know there was an end besides physical death?
I was seeking an end to the suffering of inner conflict. That inner conflict was caused by curiosity, which is an expression of desire.
The Self’s life journey begins with curiosity about the Self. When we begin interacting with the physical/material world our curiosity is turned to the things that are of it. We seek to understand them, because the light of understanding brings us pleasure and empowers us. In Truth we have always been seeking enlightenment concerning the physical/material world, but what are we left with in the end? Curiosity concerning the Self and spiritual things seemed too difficult to understand, yet they are far more important.
What does it profit a man that he gains knowledge of the whole world, yet loses knowledge of himself? Whoever has found the world has found that which has no life. Whoever finds himself has found that which is living.
I came to a point when I no longer sought to understand the things of the world. The pleasure that I had struggled so hard for had always slipped away so quickly and easily, and of what good was the power if I was to leave this world? What was there in all the knowledge and understanding that would end my inner conflict? I could see the futility of my curiosity concerning the things of the world, and I felt that curiosity fall silent, bringing a measure of peace.
It was not possible to deny the reality of my existence, or to know how long it would last. I thought to myself. ‘I am here now, I have known and understood Truth and Love, I have understood the difference between right and wrong, the only thing that matters is what I do with the rest of my life journey.’
I chose peace. I gave up being curious and desire was silenced. I chose to Love unconditionally, because that is the way of peace.
For a heart to be filled with only that which is pure, it must first be emptied.
Peace can only be experienced by the living, and life can only be experienced in the light.
What caused you to end the desire of personal pleasure.
And how far did that end extend, such as your favorite food?
Hi Shawn,
I realized that desire is the driving force behind all that we do, and that the purpose of desire is to pursue and experience pleasure. Desire is the way that we control our feelings, but without unconditional Love for each other, (which can only exist through Truth and understanding,) desire becomes our master. It became obvious that the cause of all the suffering in the world is because of people competing with each other for the things that would enable them to experience pleasure, while at the same time being completely insensitive to other people’s feelings, so any Love that they have is conditional. I also realized that when people make attachments it is because they desire to control what they are attached to. If you make an attachment to someone it is an attempt to make them conform to your will.
Conditional Love is the result of unrighteous desire, whereas unconditional Love is the result of righteous desire. The Self can possess both, resulting in a divided heart and constant inner conflict. To fulfil one type of desire requires the suppression of the other, and so desire can’t be silenced. The nature of the Self’s heart is revealed in the Self’s ability to forgive.
Forgiveness disempowers unrighteous desire, resulting in inner peace.
I forgave everything that everyone had ever done to cause me hurt. I left the past in the past. I had understood why people cause hurt to others, and in doing so, I understood why I had caused hurt. I had learned and so I forgave the last one that needed forgiving; myself.
I had found peace, I wanted nothing more and with the last beat of my spiritual heart, my desire had been ended. My emotions had become still as if somehow frozen and I knew what it meant to walk on water. I had stopped searching the memories that I had collected through my life journey, that knowledge didn’t matter anymore. The image that I had constructed of myself through the influence of my corrupted heart had dissolved, and I had become nothing. I was alone, knowing nothing and wanting nothing, waiting without fear for the end. Then something strange and unexpected began to take place.
Heaven and earth were rolled up like a scroll, in other words my whole mind was somehow emptied of images, and in the darkness I felt myself rising, heading towards a previously unseen light, and as I rose the light grew brighter, until there was no more darkness and I was completely immersed within the light.
It was not the edge of death that I had found, it was the edge of glory, the edge of life; it was my true Self.
How do I explain that light? It is perfect and pure. It is the light of the understanding of Truth; it is pure uncorrupted consciousness emanating from the Self, whose existence is the ultimate Truth that can never be changed.
It was shortly after entering the light that my spiritual heart started beating once more. It was now an undivided heart and it was filled with unconditional Love. I felt that Love permeate every part of my being. I felt its warmth and its power, and I knew that it was mine. The Self can experience no greater pleasure and so there can be no other desire worth trading it for. It is an eternal Love, the Love we are driven to pursue and experience.
What caused me to end the desire for personal pleasure? I wanted an end to the suffering of inner conflict, I wanted peace.
As for favourite food, I have none; its pleasure is only temporary and serves only the physical body. I prefer Truth which is food for the spiritual body and its pleasure is permanent.