I am opening our inquiry so that we don’t get stuck in any one understanding. The moment that we try to pin down the emptiness, to reify it as one thing or another, to attain it, to reside in it, we limit the delights of reality continually discovering itself. As we go on, other ways that reality and emptiness manifest will be revealed. When we realize that practice is realization, then realization is free to realize further realization. In the past, I’ve used the expression, “Being realizing its realization, or its nature, or its possibilities.” But that can make us think of Being as a being, as something that exists. It is less constraining and more precise to say that the view of totality reveals “realization realizing realization” or “realization realizing further realization.” These expressions more closely embody the dynamic, unfolding, moving, and changing truth that can reveal itself endlessly. When we realize this degree of emptiness, our realization is no longer fixed in any particular state of Being or nonbeing. True freedom from the self becomes the freedom of the dynamism of Being to manifest realization beyond realization. When we discover this kind of freedom that is endlessly self-revealing, our realization has become runaway realization.

So when we are established in the understanding and the certainty that we are not in control of our process, that Being or true nature is actually in charge, then our unfoldment becomes a runaway unfoldment, which means that everything happens on its own. When we recognize that everything happens on its own, reality begins to unfold consciously on its own, which further intensifies the process. Our process flows from one quality to another, one dimension to another, one insight to another, intensifying and deepening all the time. This is an important juncture in the Diamond Approach. We call it runaway unfoldment, meaning that unfoldment is unstoppable. Our unfoldment is no longer dependent on our practice—rather, it makes our practice happen.

The ignorance that is implicit, innate ignorance, is not a constructed ignorance. It is not anything that we have experienced, learned, and then adopted as true. Innate ignorance refers to what we have never known. It is the ignorance of not knowing living reality in its completeness. And we can never know everything about living reality because living reality is alive and creative. But we don’t simply stop inquiring because it is impossible to know everything about reality. Rather, realization continues to practice and continues to inquire, revealing further possibilities, revealing a runaway realization. Living realization is a continuing illumination, not only continuing to be aware of the ground of Being, but also continuing to reveal further ignorance and delusion. This continuing illumination transforms, deepens, and expands realization in various ways. We begin to discern the true implications of various realizations, which have been occluded by our innate ignorance. Seeing the full truth of any realization gives rise to further realizations.

Another way we can experience the unfolding degrees of freedom is as runaway realization. In the inner journey, at some point our experience can shift to realization, which means that we can be the unfolding of presence and true nature. In this experience, there is no duality between how we recognize ourselves and how Total Being is manifesting as who and what we are. Freedom here becomes a runaway realization, in the sense that realization lives by moving from one kind of realization to another kind of realization. The arising of duality, ego identification, and even reactivity become Total Being realizing itself in those forms. Life becomes realization realizing further realization, full of discovery, expansion, subtlety, refinement, and beauty.

People often say to me, “Well, you should take credit for the teaching.” It is not a question of credit. There is nobody here to take credit for it. It is, of course, important to recognize that it is coming from this mouth because that is an accurate perception. This teaching didn’t come from some other mouth, but we need to see who is speaking through that mouth. I am mentioning this as an example. I am not saying this is something unique to this individual self; I am saying this for all of you. When you are truly practicing, it is the Living Being practicing; when there is insight, it is the Living Being presenting its clarity; when there is realization, it is the Living Being presenting its nature. When we don’t see that, there is a self-centeredness that appears as an appropriation of the source, the activity, and the realization of the practice. And if we don’t catch that self-centeredness, it becomes a support for the individual self to endure, which keeps us within the limited and frozen point of view that tends to generate conflict and strife. From the perspective of a centered self, Living Being is not free to manifest all of its possibilities. It is only manifesting one kind of possibility—looking always from the perspective of the individual self. From the view of totality, our understanding of enlightenment is not only that it is a runaway realization, moving ceaselessly from one realization to another, but also that there is the capacity to view reality from the perspective of the Living Being, from beyond the perspective of the individual self.

We are seeing that realization doesn’t mean the end of delusion and, actually, that realization is not interested in believing that there is an end to delusions. True enlightenment recognizes that obscuration, ignorance, and delusion are always a part and a potential of reality. Being enlightened doesn’t mean that we know everything; it doesn’t mean that there is no further enlightenment. The dynamism of reality reveals further realizations by revealing ever-subtler delusions. Runaway realization is the magic of reality beholding its own mysteries as possibilities of further realization. The view of totality engages everything and excludes nothing, not even delusion and ignorance.

So from the view of reality, what we consider a stage or aspect or dimension is how reality is manifesting itself at that time, and it is as real as any other stage or aspect or dimension. In other words, each manifestation has its own inherent value. That is what is presenting itself. It doesn’t need to be compared to something else. All we need to do is experience it fully and appreciate it for what it is. From the perspective of reality, we think of enlightenment differently than we think of it from the perspective of the journey of ascent and descent. Enlightenment here is runaway realization—with the capacity to experience things from the perspective of true nature, not only from the perspective of the individual self. Runaway realization means that each condition of realization leads to another condition of realization and then another, and each realization is free to realize itself in ever deeper ways, changing and transforming itself to other conditions of realization. Realization begets further realization. Furthermore, the conditions of realization are not always going from one dimension to another, which is the way it is in the journey of ascent and descent. After a while, that model of progressive realization breaks down. The view of totality includes a way of experiencing that is not in terms of the progressive realization of dimensions.