Illusions/false realities. = "maya"; gets in the way of us achieving our true goals - obstacle, that we have to overcome. Pleasure & success exist, but they aren't really what you want...
Analogy: dreams: they're real in the sense that you have them, but they aren't true reality.
When you can become detached from yourself, nothing more than an observer of yourself, then you can achieve moksha.
Joy ≠ pleasure.
Way to God through knowledge: Jnana Yoga
- Learn, think, detach «« 3 steps
- You become able to shed your own layers, discard "I, we, us, you", and insignificant history.
- Very difficult -- it requires our minds to be able to think in a world without pleasure/success/renunciation/I/us/we/you «« everything we are used to.
- If you can't, perhaps you're not ready OR you need to use an alternate route! You're in luck, because they're 3 more of them...
- Smith pg. 31: "If the yogi is able and diligent, such reflections will eventually induce a lively sense of the infinite Self that underlies one's transient, finite self. The two will become increasingly distinct in one's mind, separating like water and oil where formerly they mixed like water and milk. One is then ready for the third step on the path of knowledge, which consists in shifting her self-identification to her abiding part. The direct way for her to do this is to think of herself as Spirit, not only during periods of meditation that are reserved for this purpose, but also as much as possible while performing her own daily tasks. ... Instead of thinking "I am walking down he street", she thinks, "There goes Sybil walking down Fifth Avenue." "
- "She watches her unsubstantial history with as much detachment as she lets her hair blow in the wind."
- No one can tell you this -- you'll realize it in your own time.
- you will come to conclusions about life and moving through the path of desire and past it yourself... perhaps this life, or a future one.
- you can't force someone, or be forced, to be 'ready'.