I recently read 'The Disappearance of the Universe' and found its message refreshingly similar to what the Hindus have been saying for 1000's of years: we are just dreaming everything and all we have to do is snap out of it. New is the Christian aspect that you should heal yourself, heal your environment, and heal your relationships in the process as a way to throw the subconscious guilt that holds you down over board. Everything is just maya; what do you think?

I was actually just going to address this issue in one of Vince's recent threads (I should send him an invite.) While I could see where that is possible, I personally do believe in an actual external world , I don't see however where it makes much difference either way. Whether the whole world is a dream or just the way it is viewed is a dream makes little difference, the fact remains, I am not seeing actual reality, and the concept "I am" exists previous to everything else.

I haven't read Gary's work specifically but I am familiar with a course in miracles. It talks about how there is a gap between us and God that is so wide it's almost impossible to go all the way over. So instead of aiming at enlightenment directly, you aim at forgiving the entire world. Turning it into what it calls "the happy dream". Then when we have attained the "true perception" of a totally forgiven world, the gap is so small that God Himself will close the gap and take us home into Oneness.

The "happy dream" is the high 500's in Hawkins model and Oneness is 600. He talks about how to close the gap between them in this vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCGDXu9ZiFw

We can't just snap out of it because we are also part of the illusion. Our individuality and intrinsic self are not separate from the rest of the illusion. I don't believe for even a second that we are here to deny everything around us and classify it is nothing or fake. Because everything else is of the same nature as myself I am able to love it as I love myself. If however I say that I am some illuminating being and everything else is fake I have created even more illusion. There's nothing to snap out of. I believe to "snap out of it" one must simply drop all forms judgment and analysis of experience and allow yourself to see life without any lens or any filter whatsoever.

In regards to higher levels of consciousness, I think there are only higher states of illusion and distortion. I think we can deceive ourselves to think we are climbing a theoretical ladder but in the end it is just an elaborate set of lenses that further distort reality. One will reach what they think is enlightenment only to find that they are sitting at the exact opposite of enlightenment. They have distorted their experience to the point of shaping everything around their concept of enlightenment.

I have reached a point where I can clearly see now that it is necessary to just drop it. Drop all of it. The numbers, the theories, the analysis.. everything. Let it all go and just experience life unfiltered. Anything else is mere distortion of what is.

That's basically what Huang Po's book is about. Huang Po says that all of the Buddhist doctrine is merely there to generate interest in enlightenment, but that none of it is actually true. There is only the void. So stop saying this guy is enlightened or this guy isn't or that there are different levels. All of that thinking is delusion and not in harmony with Reality.

I see it sort of like an ascending staircase of metaphors. You start by learning the levels, then you see all as equally holy and then you leave behind all metaphors/thoughts completely and merge with Oneness.

From Huang Po's book:
"Even Enlightenment, the Absolute, Reality, Sudden Attainment, the Dharmakaya and all the others down to the Ten Stages of Progress, the Four Rewards of virtuous and wise living and the State of Holiness and Wisdom are--every one of them-- mere concepts for helping us through samsara; they have nothing to do with real Buddha-Mind. ... Only avoid conceptual thoughts, which lead to becoming and cessation, to the afflictiosn of the sentient world and all the rest; then you will have no need of methods of Enlightenment and suchlike. Therefore it is written:

'All the Buddha's teachings just had this single object--
To carry us beyond the stage of thought.
Now, if I accomplish cessation of my thinking,
What use to me the Dharmas Buddha taught?'"

Chris, I find your position refreshingly honest and agree with your approach. Still, when I suddenly realized that in a 'matrix' type world no true advancement of spiritual consciousness is really possible, because it's all a house of cards anyhow, I guess I minded that idea a little. So much about our being a Co-Creator of God...

Thanks Zeitgeist. I think there is true advancement but it is not advancement in the sense we normally think of. It's not discovering anything new. It's remember who you really are. Remembering back to when you were a child experiencing one thing to the next with exhilaration, joy and without a lens. Being completely in the moment and full of life. If you want to take a lesson from an enlightened master, find a child who has yet to be corrupted by the paths adults set us down.

Thanks Chris, I have the pleasure of being surrounded by two angels. As you say, the younger they were, the stronger the spiritual signals they were sending. Now it will be unto me to remind them who they truly are. Our own private 'Sunday school' will start this summer.

I would say even if we live in a dream like world, it is still fun to find the little tricks to make it Heaven on earth. All the best,

Zeitgeist