Ivan Frimmel presents

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What is Enlightenment?

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The Goal of the Spiritual / Mystic Path
To achieve a nondual way of experiencing this World,
Reality, Universe, God – a transpersonal experience
of Nonduality, Oneness, Liberation, Enlightenment…

How to Achieve This Goal?

The best way to achieve this Goal is by asking
and finding the answer to the question
Who am I?
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Various Names for Enlightenment
 Vedanta, Hinduism, Yoga
 Samadhi = Self-Absorption), or Moksha = Liberation
 Self-Realization, God-Realization, Bodhi (in Sanskrit)

 Buddhism
 Kensho (‘no-self’ realization), Moksha (Liberation), The Way,
Enlightenment, Bodhi, Awakening, (many small ones – and one Supreme)
 Nirvana (state of extinguished passions), Satori (in Zen)

 Taoism
 Wu Wei (non-dual action); The Ultimate Tao

 Mysticism
 Cosmic Consciousness (Richard Bucke)
 Objective Consciousness (Gurdijeff)
 Fana (Sufism)
 Ascension to Light, Illumination, Liberation
 Oneness, At-one-ment, Union with God

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Buddhist Definitions of Enlightenment
 The spiritual condition of a Buddha or a
Bodhisattva, caused by Prajna (Wisdom) and
Karuna (Compassion).

 Enlightenment or Boddhi is the highest state of

Samadhi (Self-absorption) in which the mind is
awakened and illuminated.

 The achievement of Buddhahood.

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Various Symbols for Enlightenment

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Various Quotes about Enlightenment
 Know Thyself ! – by knowing your Self all will be
known to you. – Delphic oracle to Socrates.
 If one has realised one’s Self here, truth is fulfilled;
if one does not realise one’s Self here, it is a
supremely great loss. Reflecting upon the Self in
every experience the wise transcend this world and
attain immortality. – Upanishads.
 Ask yourself “Who am I?” - and pursue this enquiry
to its source. Knowing the pure Self is moksha,
liberation from ignorance and suffering.
– Sri
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Ramana Maharshi.
Various Quotes about Non-duality
As long as you tarry in dualism how can you realise Oneness? –Seng-Ts’an

 Non-dual Perception
 The eye that I see God with is the same eye God sees with.
– Meister Eckhart.
 Non-dual Thinking
 I never think – my thoughts think for me. – Lamartine.

 Non-dual Action
 The Tao is constant and no-action (wu-wei) – and yet
nothing remains undone. – Tao Te Ching.
 He, who in action sees inaction, and action in inaction –
he is wise among men, he is a yogin, and he has
accomplished his work. – Bhagavad Gita. 8
Quotes from Shankaracharya
There is some Absolute Entity, the eternal
substratum of the consciousness by which this
universe is pervaded, but which nothing
pervades, which shining, all this universe
shines by Its reflection...

This is the innermost Self, the primeval

Purusha, whose essence is the constant
realisation of infinite Bliss...

— Shankaracharya. 9
 Advaita Vedanta Soteriology
Self-Realization (Vidya, Jnana, Knowledge):
• Nondual Universal Consciousness is All There Is
• Brahman = Nondual Universal Consciousness
• Atman (Individual Self) = Brahman
• Atman = Nondual Universal Consciousness = Brahman = All There Is
Avidya (ignorance): Atman’s identification

Atman
with name & form, intellect, mind, body

INTELLECT MIND BODY

CONTEMPLATOR THINKER FEELER ACTOR PERCEIVER

SUBTLE THOUGHTS GROSS THOUGHTS FEELINGS ACTIONS PERCEPTS

(ego)…

SPIRITUAL INTELLECTUAL EMOTIONAL PHYSICAL

PERSONALITY PERSONALITY PERSONALITY PERSONALITY
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 Buddhist Soteriology
Buddha’s Way of “Salvation”, Liberation and Transcendence of Dualities
(NOUMENON) LIBERATION (MOKSHA) The ‘Witness’ or ‘Nirguna
ABSOLUTE

NON-DUALITY (ADVAITA) Brahman’ of Vedanta,

ENLIGHTENMENT (SATORI) ‘Father’ of Christianity,
EMPTINESS, VOIDNESS (SUNYATA) ‘Buddha-mind’ of Ch’an,
REALISATION OF NO-SELF (ANATTA) ‘One’ of Mysticism,
Going beyond the mind, witnessing the mind ‘Absolute’ or ‘Noumenon’
of Philosophy, etc.
PURE CONSCIOUSNESS, I, TRUE SELF, SILENCE

QUENCHING OF DEFILEMENTS QUENCHING OF DEFILEMENTS

BY CONSTANT MINDFULNESS BY CONSTANT MINDFULNESS
Bringing Unconsciousness Bringing Unconsciousness
to Consciousness to Consciousness

DEFILEMENTS (KILESAS)
DUE TO UNCONSCIOUS IDENTIFICATION OF SELF WITH THE MIND - BODY
(PHENOMENA)
RELATIVE

MANIFESTING AS SELFISHNESS, ILLUSION (MAYA), DUALITY (DVAITA)

RESULTING IN SUFFERING (DUKHA)

ATTRACTION REPULSION
Craving Rejecting
Liking Disliking
Clinging CONFUSION & DELUSION Resisting
Seeking Avoiding
Hoping Despairing
Loving Hating 11
“Steps” to Enlightenment, Satori,
Knowledge of Self, Vidya, Jnana
 Ordinary, unenightened person, ajnani
 I am my name, gender, nationality,
one,
personality, body, emotions, mind,
intellect, soul, ego; feeling and thinking self,
“I” & “mine” (selfishness) v. “others”… ego,
i
Zero
 Deliverance, Enlightenment, Satori,
Point
Self-Realisation, Moksha, Liberation…
 I am no-thing; there is no “i”; no-self I,
I am / is not a thing or object… Self,
One,
 Enlightened person, jnani Paradox
 I am Nothing-Everything, Self, One, (Nothing-in-and
as-Everything)
One Self, One-with-All, Love, Witness, 12
Just Being…
Two Ways to Enlightenment
 Gradual

 Sudden

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Quotes from Vedanta
 Brihad-Aryanyaka Upanishad
 Aham Brahma Asmi – I am Brahman, the Infinite
 Aham Eva Idam – I am indeed This
 Sarvosmi – I am all that is
 Chandogya Upanishad
 Tat Tvam Asi – That Art Thou
 Isa Upanishad
 Yas Tvam Asi Soham Asi – You are indeed “I am”
 Soham – I am He
 Mundaka Upanishad
 Idam Sarvam Asi – You are all This
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Quote from Chandogya Uphanishad

That which is the finest essence – this whole

world has it as its soul. That is reality. That
is Atman. That art thou. Tat Tvam Asi.

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Christian Soteriology
 Holy Trinity: Father = Christ (Son) = Holy Spirit
 God sent Himself in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, to
save us from sin with His blood by sacrificing His
Life for us, and to offer us Salvation: Eternal Life.
 All we need to do is repent, accept Jesus Christ as
our savior and Holy Spirit as our Guide, and strive to
do God’s Will:
 Thy Will Be Done - not mine.

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Quote from Christianity

Jesus said to them: When you make your eye

single, the two as one, the inner as the outer,
and the outer as the inner, and the above as
the below, and when you make the male and
the female into a single one… then you shall
enter the Kingdom.
– Gospel according to Thomas.

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Quotes from Christian Mysticism
 Meister Eckhart
 The eye that I see God with is the same eye

God sees with.

 As long as I am this or that, or have this or
that, I am not all things and have not all
things. Become pure till you neither are nor
have this or that; then you are omnipresent,
and, being neither this nor that, are all things.
 St John of the Cross
 In order to arrive at being everything, desire to

be nothing.
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Quote from Sufi Mysticism

 Clothe thyself in the garment of nothingness

and drink the cup of self-annihilation.

- Attar, 12th Century Persian Sufi Mystic

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 Buddhist Soteriology
Buddha’s Way of “Salvation”, Liberation and Transcendence of Dualities
(NOUMENON) LIBERATION (MOKSHA) The ‘Witness’ or ‘Nirguna
ABSOLUTE

NON-DUALITY (ADVAITA) Brahman’ of Vedanta,

ENLIGHTENMENT (SATORI) ‘Father’ of Christianity,
EMPTINESS, VOIDNESS (SUNYATA) ‘Buddha-mind’ of Ch’an,
REALISATION OF NO-SELF (ANATTA) ‘One’ of Mysticism,
Going beyond the mind, witnessing the mind ‘Absolute’ or ‘Noumenon’
of Philosophy, etc.
PURE CONSCIOUSNESS, I, TRUE SELF, SILENCE

QUENCHING OF DEFILEMENTS QUENCHING OF DEFILEMENTS

BY CONSTANT MINDFULNESS BY CONSTANT MINDFULNESS
Bringing Unconsciousness Bringing Unconsciousness
to Consciousness to Consciousness

DEFILEMENTS (KILESAS)
DUE TO UNCONSCIOUS IDENTIFICATION OF SELF WITH THE MIND - BODY
(PHENOMENA)
RELATIVE

MANIFESTING AS SELFISHNESS, ILLUSION (MAYA), DUALITY (DVAITA)

RESULTING IN SUFFERING (DUKHA)

ATTRACTION REPULSION
Craving Rejecting
Liking Disliking
Clinging CONFUSION & DELUSION Resisting
Seeking Avoiding
Hoping Despairing
Loving Hating 20
Quotes from Buddhist Mysticism
 The One Mind alone is the Buddha, and there is no
distinction between the Buddha and sentient being, only
that sentient beings are attached to form and so seek to
attain Budhahood externally. By the very seeking they lose
it, for that is using the Buddha to seek Buddha, and using
the Mind to grasp Mind.
- Huang Po

 If you run away from the Void, you can never be free from
it; if you search for the Void, you can never reach it.
- Niu-tou Fa-Yung

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Quotes from Ch’an & Taoism
 Chuang Tzu
 It is because there is “is” that there is “is not”;

it is because there is “is not” that there is “is”.

 Yung Chia, Song of Enlightenment
 Have you not seen a man of Tao at his ease, in

his non-active (wu-wei) state who neither

suppresses thoughts nor seeks the real?
 Huang Po
 That which asked the question is the Mind; Only

Mind is; Mind is the Buddha and the cessation of

conceptual thought is The Way.
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Another Quote from Taoism
 Understanding others is wisdom,
understanding yourself is enlightenment.
- Lao Tse

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Why are you so unhappy?
Why are you so unhappy?
Because 99,9 per cent
of everything you think
and everything you do
is for yourself—
and there isn’t one.

From Ask the Awakened by Wei WuWei

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 Thank You

Ivan Frimmel
Cell: 082-454-0311

E-mail: ivan.frimmel@nanhua.co.za

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