Burn After Reading

The first thing you should know about what you're about to read is that it's not
Truth. And this is good, because it relieves you of having to try to parse the
message, or follow any advice. If you'd like to take something away from this
post, and I advise you not to, just jump to the last line now. It's the only sentence
possibly worth taking a good long look at. A pointer to freedom is there if you're
willing to do the work.
If you're still determined to read through to the end, however, let's get started.
We'll take it from the top:
The Teachings
What concepts do the most prevalent teachings about enlightenment share?
1. There's No You.
2. There's nothing but nothing. It's sometimes called The Void.
3. It's all one thing.
Not too long ago those seeking the secrets to enlightenment, or maybe just an end
to suffering, could join Ruthless Truth, a forum where we'd verbally beat the tar out
of the You until with a single look, the reality of your existence was seen for what it
is. You Are No Thing. Nothing. And you're not even that, because there is an utter
absence where you thought yourself to be. Seeing that one thing brought a lot of
people, including me, an amazing new paradigm from which to exist. The success
of our group was staggering, and there have been spin-offs with even more
exposure and success.
Thanks to Ciaran Healy's direction, People Got Free.
But what happens to the individual after that initial shattering realization has often
been a source of hot debate in the online spiritual community. It's caused the
splintering of groups, made a few self-described "lost souls", and caused a bit of
general mayhem. Reading through the various enlightenment Facebook groups
which pop in and out of existence would leave you with the conclusion that this No
Self shit is not worth the trouble. From the outside looking in, it seemed to do
more harm than good.
It wasn't all bad, though. Some... Many of us moved on to continue to deepen
realizations or are actively working on developing a framework from which life is
lived to its fullest. A lot of us were able to find refuge in The Void, the big, black
nothing of peace. Oneness became a byproduct of seeing that there was no
separation, ever.
It still wasn't quite enough to end suffering. There's no living in the Void, and for
many, the peace couldn't be sustained. As a matter of fact, our original Ruthless
Truth group absolutely imploded after the very public suffering of its founder.
Why?

Ciaran was brilliant in his methods for bringing enlightenment to the masses, and

all for free. Through a network of volunteers, he'd delivered the goods with a very
simple and elegant formula:
"There is NO YOU. Just FUCKING LOOK!"
Powerful stuff if you had the honesty to push very hard and test that single
statement. He'd distilled the teachings to a laser point so sharp it pierced right
through any dishonesty, laziness, or doubt. It was a method which bypassed
thought and showed people that thought could not be trusted to accurately
represent reality. The directive to "JUST LOOK" meant exactly that. No thinking
allowed. Enlightenment gold had been struck hard.
The Step We Forgot
Carried away by our initial breakthroughs, we shied away from what we called
"aftercare". It was a murky place where the newly liberated drifted at their own
speed, along their own trail. We wanted nothing to do with it and left the justhatched to their own devices. But to be fair, we did this because there was an
entire planet of people who had yet to see this one freeing thing. There was a hell
of a lot of work to do without getting bogged down in debates about consciousness
or awareness. In truth, some like myself, hadn't worked it out for ourselves and
could offer little help to anyone else.

The Next Phase

Had we the time, we'd probably have jointly come to the conclusion I'm about to
put out here, the Not Truth I told you to disregard.
The fact is, when working with each individual, we stopped too soon. Even while
still holding the key to the next phase of freedom, instead of unlocking the next
Gate, we all turned around to find new people to help. It's still an extremely
worthy effort, but there's room for picking up exactly where we left off, for
developing pointers to a deeper kind of freedom that builds on the initial amazing
work.

The Key
In telling people to LOOK, as I've said, we were pointing past the thinking mind and
into direct experience itself. It wasn't easy. Getting people to abandon the very
tool they'd always used to understand the world was like putting a toddler on a
Harley and ripping the training wheels off . Some wouldn't do it even as they
ranted, screamed, cried and cursed, demanding that we help them SEE.
Breaking the barrier of thought can seem impossible.
Over 250 people, however, made it through within the first year. One by one, they
"popped" through the murk of the mind and saw that what they'd been
experiencing their entire lives was a clear and pristine view unimpeded by any Self
or Little Man in the Head running the show. The Self was seen to be a belief with
no substance or counterpart in reality. It was seen for what it was, a fantasy along
the lines of Santa or Unicorns. The content of Selfing types of thoughts was proven
to be wholly false, and the individual was declared "done". Suffering was
unimaginably relieved, but for many, complete freedom was still elusive.

The Next Chapter: A Proposal

Taking that same tool or key, a new Ruthlessly Truthful undertaking should be
fleshed out. Volunteers would use the methods which broke through the biggest lie
of self, to teach people to find the truth on their own. There would be no end to the
life of the tool, and nowhere it couldn't be applied.
The method? Point to the CONCEPT that the truth about ALL thought should also
be investigated.
The rule? Thought is real. The content of thought IS NOT.
It's a natural follow up to the initial group's work, a simple but powerful pointer to
endless deepening of freedom which leaves no guru, no teacher in its wake. It kills
the messenger.
What that means is that this entire post, generated by thought, and read with more
thought, is bullshit. Is a sort of lie. The pointers I'm giving are not to the content
herein, but to the fact that any idea found here or in that brain and body on the
other side of the internet needs to TEST every thought that comes up against the
tangible world. Check to see whether the content is truly represented in direct
reality.
This isn't a one-time pointer. Unlike No Self which is a single concept, testing
thought applies to ideas, concepts, beliefs, teachings... anything which exists solely
as RUNNING COMMENTARY. Eventually, resulting realizations which come each
time that lie of commentary is peeled back, are life-changing.
All concepts will be identified, by the user. Layer by layer, including all those
doubts, worries, cares, and anxieties that have caused so much suffering. Each
time they come up, the running commentary should be TESTED against what is
ACTUALLY happening in physical reality, right NOW in the immediate present. Does
it hold up to that truth? Can the thought be PROVEN to be true? Where is its
reality?
As for that last sentence, the only one you really needed to read and test until it
clicks, until you understand that it applies to ALL thought which comprises the
running commentary in your head.
Thoughts are not reality. Not ever. TEST THIS. ALWAYS.
*Next Post: "Are any thoughts useful?" and "Diving deeper into parsing thought
from reality".