The most important event that changed my life was the event of my self-realization. On that day I realized that I, as a psychological entity, do not exist anywhere but in my own mind, and other people as psychological entities do not exist anywhere but in my mind either. And that all my emotions and the complex inner world I used to inhabit were of my own making. That I made it all up, that all of that was me, and only me.

You can’t really enjoy people until it happens to you. Until it happens to you, you always see everyone through a psychological lens of your own. You evaluate, judge, measure. Some people are pleasant, some are unpleasant. This one is nice, this one is nasty. Some you’re drawn to, some you’re repelled by. If you got lucky and your psychological “you” ended up having characteristics that are considered desirable by others (and so you feel reasonably happy because you are accepted), on some level you may think you enjoy people, yes, but on a much deeper, unconscious level you still hate them all, you just don’t know it. Because if someone can bring you pleasure, they can also bring you pain, and we all secretly hate what can hurt us. And if you can’t enjoy people, you can’t enjoy yourself and you can’t enjoy life. These things are equivalent, because all people are but a reflection of you. Before it happens to you, you are incapable of love.

Now I don’t need people to be happy, which means I can enjoy them tremendously because my happiness does not depend on them at all. In fact, it doesn’t depend on anything, really, except the most basic bodily comfort. Although physical pain still exists for me, psychological pain does not. I see people for what they are - wonderful animals, perfect in their bodies, just more confused or less confused, depending on their situation in life, but all equally lovable. Their confusion doesn’t bother me, and I don’t feel compelled to help them become less confused. I just love them for the life that they are, for the life that I am. If I did feel compelled to help them, I wouldn’t be able to love them, I would still want to change them.

I did not realize all of this on the same day it happened. It’s impossible to realize all of this instantly - it would be too much to take, your heart would explode out of love. It was a long, painful, fearful, tearful and otherwise very emotional journey, during which I cried all my tears, experienced all my fear and all my anger and hatred, for many years, until ultimately it reached its culmination. The beginning of this process (self-realization) was very dramatic, the culmination of this process (enlightenment) was quite uneventful. It was very hard on the body, too, and I experienced the most intense bodily bliss imaginable, to the extent that it was almost painful and I was barely able to move.

Now when I see the clouds that’s all I see. When I hear a bird flapping its wings that’s all I hear. And similarly, when I see someone’s face, that’s all I see. I don’t see neither my psychology nor their psychology behind that face. All I see is the body, and all I am is the body and its senses. I am not a person anymore, I am nobody, no one, just a raw biological animal, indistinguishable from a cat, a squirrel or from any of you. Two legs, two arms, one mouth - no difference. For as long as I am fed and warm, I am always happy, harmless, peaceful and content, and nothing bothers me.

This was by far the most important event of my life. I sincerely and wholeheartedly wish everybody the same.