no doubt

Session 5: The Boundaries of Knowledge

Updated: October 8, 2025

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Opening

“Enlightenment” gets dressed up: permanent bliss, no thoughts, perfect equanimity. The chase creates tension and compares the living moment to an image. This session points back to presence now—simple, ordinary, workable.

Common illusions

State-fixation: “When this state returns, I’ll be free.” States change; presence remains.
No-preference myth: preferences continue, but cling less.
No-thought myth: thought appears in presence; it needn’t vanish to be free.
End-of-pain myth: pain may visit; suffering fades when the image is dropped.

Spiritual bypassing & identity

Using “truth” to avoid feeling or repair (“it’s all One, so no need to apologize”) is a trap. So is “I am awakened” as identity. Presence makes repair simpler: feel, own, act.

Living from presence

Presence is not a peak but the ground. Let it flavor ordinary choices: one breath, one utterance, one email. Freedom shows as less story about “me” and gentler action.

Closing

Drop the image, keep the immediacy. The rest—the ethics, the warmth, the clarity—organizes itself.