You perceive what you expect to perceive

This is an interesting conversation and the crux of it is what has been on my mind a lot recently. Let's call it "meaning." I seem to have come to a place where it is very clear that the search for meaning, for descriptions, the mind's yearning for meaning and structure and an explanation.... is just another artificial limit. Concepts getting in the way of something deeper. We expect to get this or that, to have certain experiences, to attain certain points on a map. It's what we do here. But that focus can sometimes mislead us, and while the maps are good at providing the nature and location of general way stations along the path, they are themselves not the path. The reality really is far more complex, far deeper and vastly more nuanced. Sometimes the nuance is the truth. Sometimes the apparent contradiction is the truth. Sometimes the truth is hidden in the dense fog of reality and we can never see it, like when we try to find a permanent self or hold onto this very moment.

I have had glimpses, those glimpses seem related to practice. There is an expectation based on this experiences. Will these experiences mean anything tommorow? I don't know. All this explaination seems after the fact and I might as well be deluded and if I am it does not matter. Seemling good advice on the surface is no better or worse than bad advice, these things have a way of finding a balance that is more subjective than objective. If one is going to get deluded or hooked on euphoria it will be with or without KFD and if it does happen that is a natural course just like the rest of our lives. When you need a Guru he will be there, likewise when you are ready for advice it will be there.
I find the comment that started this thread something of a strawman being setup to knock down. Practice is there to know reality in everyday life why should we treat practice and all things associated with it any differently. So you get a bit excited over KFD, so what all it prooves is we did not stop being human at KFD. The strawman is; the manner in which we respond to the "spiritual" should be different to everything else and the consequences are more serious. When in fact it is all about Reality and Reality is always before us.

We would so like to "know." If only we could arrive at one final concept, one idea that would trump all others...

There are lots of candidates for such a trump card. Maybe it's "when there is awareness throughout the 24 hour cycle, I can relax," or "if I master the 3 Speed Transmission I'll be complete," or "when I am perfectly ordinary, I'll be happy," or even "Practice!"

There is no trump card. There is no idea that can vanquish all others. There is no pithy wisdom upon which you can hang your hat. There is no fixed position. And the idea "no fixed position" will fly you into a barn if you make it your religion.

There is no pat, linear map that will lead you anywhere but into a ditch. But there is hope! You can use these maps as they were intended; each of the maps has its value and is designed to get you over some developmental or conceptual hump. As soon as you are over that hump, you must loosen your grip on the map. And all along the way, you must keep in mind that there is no final map, nothing you can ride into the eternal sunset of the cosmic bliss-out. You surrender now and you surrender now and now. Most of all, you surrender the map or concept that seems most precious to you NOW.

If you are so enlightened that nothing matters, renounce your enlightenment immediately; it's missing half the picture. If you are so wise that you see the flaws in everyone's ideas but your own, abandon your wisdom. If you are so humble that everyone else's ideas seem to sparkle more brightly than your own, surrender your humility. If you are so committed to your practice that you cannot imagine life without it, surrender your commitment. If you trust that I or anyone else can tell you what you need to know, abandon that trust now.

What have I left out? Surrender that, too.

I'll start. I surrender. And now and now.

Wonderful!

Yes, that was wonderful. Thank you, Kenneth.

Say AMEN!

"If you are so enlightened that nothing matters, renounce your enlightenment immediately; it's missing half the picture. If you are so wise that you see the flaws in everyone's ideas but your own, abandon your wisdom. If you are so humble that everyone else's ideas seem to sparkle more brightly than your own, surrender your humility. If you are so committed to your practice that you cannot imagine life without it, surrender your commitment. If you trust that I or anyone else can tell you what you need to know, abandon that trust now."