THE END OF THE GAME
This is a radical investigation, and I’m collecting and sharing impressions of studying THE END OF THE GAME / amazon.com/dp/B07HGHGL68 / by S. Wolinsky where portals to the Absolute are precisely deconstructed.
An understanding of portals / youtu.be/87DmQkTvj0Y / is necessary prior to the deconstruction of portals. The portals (light, sound, vibration, emptiness, void, silence, witnessing, nonduality, energy, consciousness, awareness, …) are in most spiritual traditions considered as the end point.
The Absolute prior to the word ‘absolute’ does not have and knows nothing about the portals (or states) of light, sound, emptiness, energy, consciousness, or awareness. The Absolute is “prior to consciousness.”
This inquiry is not spirituality, but the deconstruction of all spirituality. It is the end of the game.
The key excerpts are summarized below, and also available in PDF format.
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I AM THAT ON WHICH ALL THAT APPEARS TO APPEAR APPEARS
Everything is made of consciousness, however, consciousness and awareness are subtle forms of the illusion, or better said are what the illusion is made of.
The search for enlightenment or realization or who you are as well as awakening is an appearance that appears to appear within the dream.
Any Portal can mistakenly be confused as being the Absolute.
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DELUSIONS OF APPEARANCES
– The delusion that the appearance that appears actually is and has an independent existence.
– The delusion that the appearance has the elements of energy, space, mass, time, distance, and location.
– The delusion that the appearance that appears has a point of origin.
– The delusion that there is a reason or a purpose or a plan for the appearance to appear.
– The delusion of an unquestioned hierarchy of experiences (for example spiritual is higher than mundane, joy is higher than fear, it’s more significant to feel love than to feel neutral, it’s more significant to feel/experience non-duality than duality, etc.)
– The delusion that the appearance has some reason or logic for its appearance (for example: believing that if you figure that out or experience it in some way it will disappear and you will be in the desired stillness, peace, beingness, etc.)
Yet appearances are uncreated and uncaused, without a reason or purpose, and unborn.
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THE NO-SELF SELF I-DENTITY
The subtle identities (the perceiver, awarer, knower, observer, witness, no-self self, no-point point of view, non-being being, etc.) often remain unnoticed because they appear in such a pleasant form (e.g. silence, a peaceful space, the space between two thoughts, …)
The truth of appearances is that there is nothing behind words, there is nothing behind appearances, and there is no logic or source behind appearances. Appearances have no place or point of origin, they have no significance, and they have neither a purpose nor an existence (nor nonexistence).
Realizing this leads to the appreciation that you can deconstruct appearances ad nauseum and still end up continuing to deconstruct appearances.
Which means that there is no way out of the loop without the evaporation of the perceiver.
“True Spiritual Path” must deconstruct itself.
If not, we are in the game, playing the game.
Finally, feeling like a separate self or feeling a “non-dual” self are both states. There is a dual identity and a non-dual identity, both are states, and are perceiver dependent, and are as such appearances which have nothing to do with anything.
“How do you know if you are in an Identity?”
“If you feel special or different from another you are in an Identity.”
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THE APPEARANCE OF PORTALS AS TRAPS
All knowledge or knowing or knowing about are temporary appearances.
The witness witnesses, the awarer is aware of, the knower knows, the observer observes, etc. And that’s all. All these are appearances and can not be separated from its function of witnessing, being aware, knowing, and observing.
It is imperative to realize that the witnesser, knower, awarer, perceiver appear to appear (gives the illusion) of being separate with a distance from thought, memory, awareness, energy, and are therefore only an appearance and part of the illusion-dream-mirage.
Note there is a misunderstanding that awareness or consciousness is higher or superior or more spiritual to other portals, states, and functions.
Is(ness), beingness, and I am(ness) are appearances on which appearances are to appear on.
A portal, although being an appearance is along with the knower/awarer/perceiver/witnesser the deepest and last layer which appears to appear. Once a portal evaporates along with its knower there is only the Absolute prior to or without the Identity which knows or knows about or experiences the Absolute.
The appearance of portals like emptiness, consciousness, energy, awareness, light or vibration, etc. are often not recognized as appearances even though they come and go, and can ultimately persist and become a trap because we actually never experience emptiness (or consciousness, awareness, light, vibration, energy) but rather we experience a perception (through the perceiver) which is an appearance of emptiness (or consciousness, awareness, etc.).
Appearances counter-intuitively have no meaning, significance, or reason for their appearance, have no purpose, cause, source, or point of origin, and have nothing to do with anything.
This is the deepest level of awakening when both the appearance and the knower/perceiver/witnesser evaporate.
In other words, As the Absolute, there is no Absolute.
The end of the game.
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THE ABSOLUTE I-DENTITY: THAT WHICH KNOWS OR IS AWARE OF THE ABSOLUTE
The Absolute Identity is rooted in the belief that there is an experience or something beyond, without or prior to which is called the Absolute.
But the Absolute is not experience-able know-able or be-able because it has no consciousness, and there is no identity or experiencer to experience it nor a vehicle of knowingness to know or know about it.
Nisargadatta Maharaj; “In the Absolute state, I do not even know that I am.”
The illusion of being (presence, I am-ness or beingness) is the most subtle state which might remain unseen and unquestioned because there is an assumption (or better said illusion) that I am and that this presence, beingness, a knower, an awarer is always there, present and prior to the appearance and this leads to the delusion: therefore this must be who I am.
But the appearance on which the appearance appears to appear on is an appearance and has nothing to do with anything.
So in short: There is no you that you are.
And there is no beginning point. Rather time is a linguistic metaphor which the brain and nervous system produces to organize perceived chaos. You’re not from anywhere, you are an appearance without a reason, logic, purpose or source … unborn … uncreated.
The concept or experience of source is an appearance. There is neither a source nor a not source.
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HEART SUTRA
“Form is none other than emptiness, emptiness is none other than form”
Emptiness is thinned out form, and form is condensed emptiness contained within the manifesting void.
Being as pure being can only know itself as peaceful, empty, stillness, or I am or beingness if and only if there is knowingness and a knower.
Prior to or without a knower or perceiver or a manifesting void, there is neither emptiness nor form.
There is no such thing as emptiness. There is only your perception of emptiness. The perceived emptiness is the manifesting void.
The perceiver or awarer is part of the illusion. There is no you that can get out of the emptiness because there’s no you prior to the knower of the emptiness.
It is by focusing on the emptiness that keeps the emptiness there because the emptiness and the perceiver of the emptiness are one and the same.
Who you are is beyond or prior to or without both.
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THE BODY AS ENERGY
Counter-intuitively you can never trust your feelings or experiences as they are both temporary appearances.
Any being, being(ness) is a subtle identity that carries with it the illusion of is-ness and presence.
Nisargadatta Maharaj: “Liberation is liberation from consciousness.”
There is no such thing as emptiness.
There is no such thing as form.
There is no such thing as source.
There is no such thing as no source.
There is no such thing as existence.
There is no such thing as non-existence.
There is nothing without, prior to, or beyond the word ‘nothing’.
Nirvana and samsara as well as liberation and bondage are all appearances. Without this lens of self or presence or I-amness, or beingness how can a body-mind get liberated? The body-mind is an appearance.
There is no purpose, to think that consciousness or awareness or the absolute has some kind of agenda to know itself is an anthropomorphic projection.
Even deeper, “after the appearance disappears, what is the appearance that the appearance was appearing on?”
The Absolute prior to the word ‘absolute’ is without characteristics.
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CONSCIOUSNESS AND AWARENESS
Awareness contains all experiences and all experiences require awareness (and consciousness), at the same time awareness (and consciousness) are both subtle states of mind and are therefore experiences to be discarded.
Awareness is a glue that holds the illusion of wholeness together making it appear to have an independent existence.
Awareness and consciousness both have the capacity to self reflect and therefore they give the illusion that they are always conscious i.e. conscious of themselves or that they are always aware and are aware of awareness itself. Both of these are illusions.
Pure awareness and pure consciousness does not reflect it just is.
And as pure consciousness or pure awareness, if you un-fuse the associations between awareness or consciousness or any portal for that matter, the portal falls apart or collapses. Stay in awareness or consciousness without their associations and knowingness or what you know or know about awareness, and awareness and consciousness both naturally evaporate.
Consciousness and awareness are appearances and are part of the phenomenological manifestation. Awareness and consciousness are components that hold the appearance together giving it the illusion of being-ness, and independent existence.
There is no such thing as consciousness or awareness there is only your perception of consciousness and awareness which includes the illusion of knowingness of consciousness or awareness.
Even the subtle state of being aware of being aware is a subtle state of mind to be discarded.
The Absolute prior to the word Absolute is un-originated, free of meaning, beyond all words and expression.
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DISSOLUTION OF PORTALS
All portals, spiritual paths and spiritual experiences are appearances and are labels which appear to appear in the dream-illusion.
Eventually and spontaneously and without you doing anything the appearance of portals and experiences dissolve or evaporate …
Without these portals is the Absolute …
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ENLIGHTENMENT IS AN APPEARANCE
The search for enlightenment is a search for pleasure and is like seeking water in a mirage.
The search for enlightenment is an appearance which appears to appear within the dream.
You are not here now, present, or here at all, you just think you are …
The search for enlightenment or realization is the search for an appearance which appears to appear on “That which isn’t”
There is no “That which isn’t”
The knower, perceiver, awarer that knows, perceives, or is aware of enlightenment or realization is an appearance which appears to appear on “That which isn’t”
There is no “That which isn’t”
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The trajectory ends here as there is no more to say or point to as words and their meaning dissolve and evaporate.
THE END OF THE GAME
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summarized by Primož Potočnik