An "Idiot's Guide to Self-Realization", (or), How To Overcome Intellectualism.

[Ming the Merciful]

I think a lot about the spiritual path is about releasing the need for control.

Totally agree, all while still requiring proper navigation (discernment). I'm always reminded of the river metaphor, where you don't want to fight the currents but flow with them, but there is still the need to steer down the more 'ideal' path, lest you hit the rocks, the shore, or fly down the waterfall you are not ready to traverse.

It's really not useful to stop at a single realization.

Thoughts are finite, while what we truly realize is the infinite. So oftentimes you realize something, yet later on come to need to realize its opposite. Then, you have to learn balance the two together. So much fun we can have with duality.

To my understanding or misunderstanding (depending on how distorted I am), thoughts create realities on all planes of existence and can even go on to create certain types of thought-forms which can be energized and have their own type of awareness though it be little.
I believe (and this is where I may be misguided), that we pereive thoughts within 3rd density as being finite and the balance to that is the realization that our thoughts create our reality ( but to infinity just as the Creator has made the entire universe(s) ) but on all planes of existence. Just as the words echoed many years ago still echo to this day. The spoken word was once a thought.

The beauty of a diamond can only been seen, when it is shining in the light, (a Zen saying).

Discernment is more than just a Realization. There is a point where we have to look beyond the Intellectual Understanding. When we begin to discover our "Real Self", (the Inner Reality), we realize that is much deeper and transcendental. It is not a "Mindful State". Self-Realization is "Mindless". Transparent and translucent. The "Diamond Metaphor" is a good example. What we are seeking is the "Inner Light". That can only be experienced when we are not in Intellectual Mind. The moment of Discernment happens is when we are not actually thinking about it. Most times Realization happens in Meditation, (not always in Samadhi), or simply when the Mind is still. In effect, what is happening in the Mindless State, is that you are allowing the Universe, (or Universal Consciousness), to speak to you. This is how people discover new Scientific discoveries or deep profound Spiritual Knowledge. The perfect example. When the Theosophical Society was founded, two of the Founding Members had been to the East and learned how to develop Intuitive Thinking. They went into Intuitive Mind, (I am not sure of their names). The discoveries they made, were parallel to the modern-day theory of Quantum Physics, and the current day Scientists have been amazed how accurate they were. What is happening, is the Scientists of today are just realizing that the Knowledge of Quantum Physics is a "Universal Knowledge". It has been there all the time, (infinitely). We are tapping-into "Universal Knowledge", when we have the "Spark" of Discernment. As I am trying to teach people, allow your Intuitive Mind to come to the surface and recognise it. Once it has been discovered, you will have wished that you had discovered earlier. It has been there all time, and you didn't know it. It changes everything, and how you understand Spirituality.