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The word "Being" and the word "God" !!
The Buddha is silent on that, and his silence implies that you'll have to find out for yourself. He uses a negative definition so that the mind cannot make it into something to believe in or into a superhuman accomplishment, a group, a goal that is impossible for you to attain. Despite this precaution, the majority of people still believe that enlightenment is for the Buddha, not for them, atleast not in this lifetime.
The word "being"
Being is the eternal, ever present one life beyond the myriads forms of life that are subject to birth and death. However, being is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. this means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest self, your true nature. But don't seek to grasp it with your mind. Don't try to understand it. You can know it only when the mind is still. When you are present, when your attention is fully and intensely in the now, being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally. To regain awareness of being to abide in that state of "feeling-realization" is enlightenment.
When you say being, are you talking about God?π€
The word God has become empty of meaning through thousands of years of misuse. I use it sometimes, but I do so sparingly. By misuse, I mean that people who have never even glimpsed the realm of the sacred, the infinite vastness behind that word, use it with great conviction, as if they knew what they are talking about. Or they argue against it, as if they knew what they are talking about. Or they argue against it, as if they knew what is that they are denying. This misuse gives rise to absurd beliefs, assertion and egoic delusion, such as "my or our God is the only true God, and your God is false."
The God has become a closed concept. The moment the word is uttered, a mental image is created, no longer perhaps, of an old man with a white beard, but still a mental representation of Someone or something outside you, and ,yes, almost inevitably a male someone or something.
Neither God nor Being not any other word can define or explain the ineffable reality behind the word, so the only important question is whether the word is a help or a hindrance in enabling you to experience that toward which it points. Does it point beyond itself to that transcendental reality, or does it lend itself too easily to becoming no more than idea in your head that you believe in, a mental idol?
The word being explains nothing but nor does God. Being, however, has the advantage that it is an open concept. It does not reduce the infinite invisible to finite entity. It is impossible to form a mental image of it. Nobody can claim exclusive possession of being. It is your very essence, and it is immediately accessible to you as the feeling of your own presence, the realisation I am that is prior to I am this or I am that. So it is only a small step from the word being to the experience of being.
The greatest obstacle to experiencing this realityπ«
Identification with your mind, which causes thought to become compulsive. Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we Don't realise this because almost everybody is suffering from it, so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from being. It also creates a false Mind-made self that casts a shadow of fear and suffering.
We will look at all that in more detail later.......! {Part~ll}
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