The End of Your World: Uncensored Straight Talk on the Nature of Enlightenment

Everything I tried failed. It doesn’t mean that the trying didn’t play an important role. The trying did play a role. The effort did play a role. The struggle did play a role. But it played a role because it got me to an end of that role. I danced that dance until it was extinguished. But I failed. I failed at meditating well; I failed at figuring

Investigating the question, “What do I know for certain?” is also an invaluable tool once awakening has happened. Asking yourself this question aids in the dissolution of limitations and ideas, as well as the tendency to fixate—all of which continue after awakening. No matter where you are on the path, then, it’s this willingness to stand up within

Why do we experience division? Because we are in an argument with reality. This much is assured: if we argue with reality, for any reason, we will go into division. That is just the way it works. Reality is simply what is. As soon as we have anything in us that judges it, that condemns it, that says it shouldn’t be, we will feel division.

There is no real usefulness in becoming overly focused on being truthful with everybody else. Although that’s necessary, the place to start is with yourself—can you be totally sincere with yourself? Can you go to that place that is beyond blame, beyond judgment, beyond should and shouldn’t?

As we awaken on the level of mind, we begin to perceive from beyond the mind. We realize that the mind itself is empty of reality, and this is a profound realization. It’s easy to say that the mind is empty of reality. It may even be an easy thing for some people to understand. But to see that the mind is empty of reality is radical in the extreme.

Awakening can be the ground from which we meet every person and situation. It can be the ground from which we relate to all the circumstances of life. But this takes a lot of courage and a lot of fearlessness. It also takes something I continue to emphasize: a very simple sincerity. This kind of sincerity arises from that which loves the truth and

We have a long history in many societies of getting rid of or killing truly enlightened beings, because true enlightenment does not conform to the dream state. In fact, many times the dream state feels offended and threatened by true enlightenment, because a truly enlightened being cannot be controlled.

In the end, we must come to see that truth itself is the highest good, that truth itself is the greatest expression and manifestation of love. Ultimately, love and truth are identical; they are like two sides of a coin. You can’t have truth without love, and you can’t have love without truth.

Awakening calls forth a transformation in both our interior and exterior lives. Again, please don’t think this transformation is about having the perfect life or the perfect job or the perfect mate or the perfect marriage or the perfect friendship. This is not about perfection; it is about wholeness. It is not about having things exactly as we want