Self Realization & God Realization

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What many people don't get, particularly here in the West, is that there is
a difference between recognition of the Self and Recognition of God.

Ultimately, God and the Self are one, but it is a oneness like the wave and
the ocean, the sunlight and the sun.

Recognition of the Self is relatively easy. It can be done in an instant.
After all, it is who you are. When you simply stop and be, letting go of
the stuff that is in awareness, what is left is always the Self, the light
of consciousness. However, at this point, the so-called litte self, or ego,
remains. However, the experience is so profound, compared to the normal
moment to moment infatuation with the mind, that many feel this is the
end. This is only the beginning. It is, as I have said, like landing in
India and thinking you have seen the entirety of the country. You have only
walked through the door. This is where the real work begins.

Now begins the work of staying there, of remaining situated in that Self,
in that "I Am", letting go of every false notion, every belief, every
habitual pattern of egoity, surrendering the sense of indviduality more and
more into that Infinite Presence, returning to Source, to God, until there
is no 'you', only THAT! This is where the death comes in; that willingness
to give EVERYTHING, to Die to self. But most would rather have a glimpse
AND an ego than to surrender the ego to the Absolute.

This is not a judgment, only an observation. Better, awake to the Self,
even partially, than totally asleep, like the mass of humanity. Just don't
confuse having gotten on the elevator with having arrived at the Penthouse.

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