ESBS 1

What is ESBS? Basically another extension of Play as Being. YSBS was "You Seeing Being Seeing" - what I have called "Seeing as Being" in this blog. ESBS is "Enlightened Seeing Being Seeing". As Piet says, "Briefly, the idea is to explore in a kind of fantasy or imagination how it would be if you had a fully enlightened way of looking at the world around you, as ES replacing YS; and then to contrast that to BS. Are they the same or not? If not, what is the difference?"

• So I finally get round to my first try at this. I am at work, so I start with "You Seeing" anyway as I've found that is a good way to focus. Then, to transition to "Enlightened Seeing," I simply say, "I am an enlightened being" and the now familiar power rises in me. My mind becomes completely clear. Somewhere I hear myself say the words from a Buddhist prayer "I have the clarity of the yidam". I had expected to be carrying the "history of me" as a kind of personalisation - as an enlightened being awoken from ignorance - but I find none.

  So I switch to "Being Seeing" and there is hardly any difference. Hardly but there is something. I think later maybe there was no individualisation at all as Being, whereas ... so hard to describe ...

  Minutes I try quickly to go back to ES and find that it is the difference between seeing absolutely clearly and seeing only oneself everywhere. Perhaps that's just a play on words but there's a subtle difference in feeling.

  And now I feel that last hop in and out of ES has left me reeling - my head a little blown apart - and 'normality' hurts. I think that Enlightened Seeing is the place to be, permanently. That's where I'm going. And I can see how far along the road I am already.

• I read Adam's blog for the last few days. She is way ahead of me. Very inspiring! She has done ESBS a few times and I see similarities with my own experience. [I later add two comments to her blog, one for the 3rd and one for the 4th.]

  I slip straight into "Enlightened Seeing" and feel that powerful clarity, and... I feel this is my home, there is really no need for me to see other than this, be other than this. I skip "Being Seeing". I have no need. Now as I am typing this I think I am still solidly in that Enlightened Seeing consciousness.

  A colleague passes by - a conversation about a book - an enquiry - some advice given - we joke ... and all the time I maintain the enlightened consciousness and see a worldly emanation of me interacting in the physical and social world.

  Then I finish typing. An email notification pops up - a twinge of... what was that feeling? - and I am still floating a little above the normal awareness.

• Into Enlightened Seeing as I am sitting late at work, pretty much alone. The clear uncluttered thought of asking and deciding what to do right now. The motives of an Enlightened Being are mine.
• Enlightened Seeing. I see all that Being is. And I can feel the thoughts and minds of those others who are enlightened. We have a role to play in our illusory separation. I choose that way. It is to be done... Later I remember the esoteric astrology quotes for Capricorn and Pisces: "Lost am I in Light Supernal, yet on that light I turn my back," and "I reach my father's house, and turning back, I serve."

So what's the difference? Why is there a difference? Had I expected there to be a difference?

Well yes there is. Drawing on today's experience and the experience of the last couple of weeks, Being Seeing does not appear to be interested in the small individuals as there are no individuals. We are just thoughts of being, as are the stars and galaxies. It's amazing to see dimensions and distance fall away when Seeing as Being.

So it would have been the presumption that the enlightened being sees as Being. And yes indeed they can. And it's a necessary step for them. It's a realisation. It's life changing. But it seems to me only a prelude for what comes next. Because when one can more or less reliably get to the point of Seeing as Being, what comes next is a choice. And it seems a choice reminiscent of one in Buddhism: the way of Hinayana or the way of Mahayana. BS or ES?

Seeing as an enlightened being brings clarity of seeing, clarity of thought, clarity of motivation. You can see as Being and that brings the knowledge that you can at any moment become Being (or be become by Being). You can see the illusion and you can wear that illusion and duality lightly. Yet you also have the clear communication of the commonality of purpose with other enlightened beings. You are acting in concert with them.

It makes sense but it's not what I expected. I actually prefer it this way!