Ilie Cioara's description of his enlightenment.
I was 55 years old. One morning, waking up from my sleep, I noticed
that, psychologically, I was functioning differently from the night
before. The mind had lost its usual turmoil. In a state of serenity I
had never felt before, I was functioning in perfect communion with my
whole somatic structure.
My surprise was so great that it prevented me from understanding the
mysterious phenomenon as I didn’t manage to put it into words. I had
read, of course, lots of descriptions of Enlightenment, Liberation, but
there is a great difference between mere intellectual knowledge and
directly experiencing the phenomenon.
Only after a couple of hours I realized what had happened to me,
without pursuing this “something” as an ideal to accomplish. I was, to
use a simile, in the situation of a man blind from birth, who had just
gained his sight after undergoing surgery. Everything around me was as
new. I had an overall perspective on things. A silent mind allows the
senses to perceive things as they are.
The mind in its totality had become, through silence, an immense
mirror in which the outside world was reflected. And the world I was
perceiving directly through my senses revealed its own reality to me. My
fellow beings, close friends or complete strangers, were being regarded
indiscriminately, with a feeling of love I had never felt before.
If any reaction of the mind surfaced, it disappeared immediately in
contact with the sparkle of impersonal Attention. A state of quiet and
all-encompassing joy characterized me in all circumstances, whether
pleasant or painful. My behaviour was that of a simple witness,
perfectly aware of what was happening around me, without affecting my
all-encompassing state of peace.
The State of Sublime is, of course, difficult to describe, but not
impossible to experience by someone who authentically practices
awareness. In order to communicate it, a simple and direct language is
used, which is not filtered through reason, because the “ego” with its
subjective perception is no longer there. To put it this way: the
psychological emptiness is the one who lives in the present moment,
expresses this encounter into words and still remains present and
available to the next moment.
As a result of this direct encounter with the moment, always new
and renewing itself, I felt the need, fueled by intuitive impulses, to
express “Self-knowing” using verse. It was a natural thing to do. In few
words I could encompass and communicate the essence of the experience.
In the first year I wrote 300 poems. Later on, their number
reached 1000, of which 600 are accompanied by prose explanations, such
as the ones in this book.
I would also like to describe a few effects which, as a result
of becoming aware of the reactions of my own thinking process, have
completely disappeared, without any other intervention from my mind.
After experiencing this phenomenon, I felt as a broken vessel,
from which the following started to disappear: my interest in astral
journeying, my religious beliefs, my egoism, desires, fear, envy, pride
etc. My awareness remained open all the time, offering me the
possibility to pass from the finite dimension into Infinity.
When encountering this extraordinary phenomenon, with the help of a
global perspective, I understood the whole human tragedy, caused by the
misinterpretation of life in its constant mobility and newness from one
moment to the next.
Life cannot be encountered and understood objectively unless we
are in a state of complete freedom and serenity of the mind. Life is
always new, from one moment to another, and it demands, even forces us
to encounter it with a new mind, with a new brain and with new brain
cells, which have not been used previously. It is a well known fact,
scientists claim that man, during the whole span of his life uses no
more than 10-15% of his brain cells and memory potential. As you can
see, our psychological possibilities are unlimited.
After these explanations, it will be easier to understand the
process of our own conditioning, as well as the phenomenon of breaking
the shell of the “ego”.
As I had shown previously, life demands that we encounter it directly, without any memory baggage.
How do we lose the memory baggage? Easy, very easy. Here is how:
We encounter the movement of the mind with the flame of total
Attention - requested by the aliveness of life in its continuous flow.
Without the light and serenity provided by Attention, nothing can be
understood in a real way.
In the light of Attention, any reaction of the mind (thought, image,
fear, desire), which functions chaotically, obsessively and dominates
us, is instantly dissolved. In the psychological void that follows, a
new mind appears which expands into Infinity, as a state of Pure
Consciousness, pure understanding as well as transformative action.
This simple state of “being” is in itself an action, where the entity
who performs the action doesn’t exist anymore. The old man, conditioned
by his behavioural patterns, loses its authority as the chaotic,
uncontrollable reactions dissolve - they are the energies which sustain
and fuel the “ego”. Only in this way, by a simple encounter with the
reactions of the mind and its subsequent demise, the barrier of the
“ego” is broken. Through a momentary opening, our real being is revealed
- which alone can transform and heal us.
The total Attention without any purpose is the Sacred itself in action.
There is, in fact, another type of attention directed by will, which
behaves subjectively by limiting itself to one object. By its own
nature, this type of attention defines itself as lack of attention.
In the peace of the soul, in the passiveness of the mind, in the
psychological emptiness or stillness - who exists nevertheless? When the
usual mind is silent, can you notice that, as silence takes over, a new
mind appears, which expands into Infinity and defines itself as Pure
Consciousness?
Thus we discover that we are a simple ”being”, “here and now”,
boundless - one with Infinity. In this simplicity, there are no
expectations or purpose, because the “ego” has completely disappeared.
This is the Absolute Truth, existent within us and everywhere around us,
revealing itself to us when we open the gate, through the humble
silence of the mind.
Such realizations, on moments of existence, operate radical
transformations which will eventually shatter the fortress of the “ego”,
whose prisoner you are as long as the mind dominates you and as long as
you give psychological importance to the mind.
When this fiction disappears, melting into the Sublime, we experience
creative Intelligence, Love, Beauty and Happiness, which direct our
behaviour through intuitive impulses.
