UnseekingSeeker,Sunyata and Tristan, I want to acknowledge the deep sharing and openess of everyone in this important discussion. Much to consider and digest. Thank you.
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Over the last 40 years during which I have been involved in spiritual practices I have had the privilege of being able to observe the paths that many others have chosen to take. Thousands of people. One thing that I have noticed is that not all spiritual paths lead to liberation. Some turn out to be simply dead ends. And, to make it more complex, some spiritual paths do lead to liberation for some people, but for others, the same path turns out to be a dead end. And when people end up at dead-ends, they can get stuck there for years, or even for decades, before realising that they took a wrong-turn, or took a turn before they were ready to take it.
So we need to be very careful, for the sake of others, in how we present things. “All rivers lead to the sea” would be too misleading and confusing. Even a non-doing path that requires doing something such as constant mindfulness, may turn out to be a dead-end for those that do not have the witness quality sufficiently developed yet. Even a doing practice such as choosing to shift, to go within, in surrender, could be a dead end path for many who are not yet ready.
When people are ready, when they have become ripe through engaging in spiritual practices, then they could choose to go within, in mindfulness, into silence (which will be real by that point, not imagined), as a continuation and expansion of their “doing” path. “Non-doing” is something that comes at a much later stage.
That is a beautiful description of bliss, as a physically felt pulsation. In the AYP writings this is called “ecstasy”. And your description of peace is what is termed as “bliss” in the AYP writings. You may find this lesson interesting on this use of the terminology:
Lesson 113 - Bliss, Ecstasy, and Divine Love
And that is a beautiful description of love. What I have found is that as people deepen into this true form of love, a natural spontaneous desire arises in them to be of service to others, knowing those others to be their very own Self, and simply manifestations of God in form. At the same time a curiosity arises in them to know how best they can be of service to others, being able to meet others where they actually are, rather than where one may wish them to be. Along with this, as the love deepens, and the direct experience of unity deepens, comes the actual ability to see the world through the eyes of another, and to know their heart. We then do not need to guess what will be of service to others, as we can know directly.
As for realm-hopping, service can call us to serve in other realms at times, if we are needed there. This is not a problem. We can know ourselves to be nothing but the Self, eternal and unchanging, even whilst serving as needed in whatever realm we are needed in. But we would be taken there according to the Divine flow, as a non-doing, completely surrendered, so we don’t need to be concerned about that at this stage. The work of fully purifying the subtle nervous system, including dissolving the spiritual ego, if it has manifested, has to be completed on this Earth first. And even if we are called to serve in other realms, we don’t really go anywhere at all, because we know ourselves to be eternally situated beyond time and space. As Yogani puts it:
The universe is our playground when we are reborn in the divine flow resulting from the marriage of abiding inner silence and our ecstatic awakening. We are here, everywhere, and nowhere. Free! [Yogani]
That is from lesson 399:
Lesson 399 - Mind Faster than the Speed of Light
There is more on this in lesson 416.3
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Yes, duly noted, Tristan. 
My intention is not to change anybody’s spiritual practice but only to share what worked for me and learn from insights of others. Surely there is no harm in that, more so since all I’m saying is purify the heart and rest in thought rested silence. Perhaps it is difficult because it is so easy! Ego likes difficult.
About the path of service, it sounds laudable but there is a strong possibility of ego becoming manifest in the process. Unless we simply act as a vehicle available in this density for God to do His work through this apparatus, unless that be the flicker-free orientation, we may subconsciously start feeling that we are the doer.
I do agree that as we become love enabled, compassion grows and then we spontaneously act, as impulsed by universal consciousness to do a service, which only appears to be done by us but in truth is being done by God Himself. We should act and then forget it, that is, it should not even be a part of our memory if possible.
Before we embrace on the path of service, in my view we should evaluate the way we look at other forms. Are we looking at outer appearance or actually recognising that God dwells in all hearts?
About enlightenment, what is it? I do not know. Given that ego is unreal, a state of ignorance and delusion, all that happens is that we realise that all along we were in our own way, we were the blockage. Our true being, popularly called Self (we can call it whatever we like), living light in singularity outside space time, is recognised. Not gained, just recognised, being what we always were, are and will be. When we see the same Self in all, without any doubt, then we have clear sight.
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Hi UnseekingSeeker,
You would be surprised just how much harm has been done in the world by people simply sharing what they believe may have worked for them on the spiritual path, without realising that it may be harmful for others. Quite often the people who listen to them, who then attempt to copy what they have done, end up being confused and find themselves simply going around in circles of the mind’s creating. They then often end up here, in this forum, or find their way to my inbox, and we end up trying to pick up the pieces. It is often a long and arduous process. That’s why advanced practices are always coupled with warnings here. It is done in order to protect people. And to be honest, the most harm has often been done by people sharing what they believe are the most simple spiritual practices. Or, so simple that they are not even practices at all. It is not that the ego likes difficult, after all, there is no one who does not have an ego, a sense of self. It is more that the very simple practices tend to be only suitable for people who have abiding inner silence present in the mind, but often people do not know that, and are drawn to them anyway. They are often presented as “the direct path”, which makes it sound like a shortcut, rather than the distraction that it can be for many.
This forum has been running for over twenty years and we have learned many lessons. Not to let advanced teachings be shared without due cautions and warnings in place, is one of them.
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