Self-Realization and Other Awakenings

Many people do this into their 50s and 60s before
they recognize that the mind is not the way to
freedom. The mind only engages in concepts; and
there are billions, and billions, and billions of concepts
bandied about by philosophers, scientists, engineers,
politicians, school teachers and spiritual teachers since
time immemorial. None of these conceptual structures
yield freedom.
Eventually we run into spiritual teachers or
teachings that say the mind is not the way, that "the
way" lies in dropping the mind, or transcending the
mind, living in emptiness, or living in and from the
heart.
Yet these are really two very different ways. One
implies a search for ultimate truth lying outside of
concepts, which involves an exploration of "beingness"
with its containers of various types of Void and
“states.” The other implies a path of love, loving one
another, a guru, a spouse, lover, and ultimately loving
one's own Self. Each path has its own separate pitfalls
and difficulties, as well as milestones and potential
progressions.
The search for truth, ultimate truth, within the
various types of voids, and states of knowing and
unknowing can become very dry and easily stalled due
to lack of motivation: a drying out of the will to
persevere. The other path, that of love, can and will