Self

Really there's nothing to do, nothing to become, in order for you to find total happiness. It's not finding something new to add on to yourself. It's letting go of everything you've been holding onto, becoming virtually empty, total emptiness, becoming a no one, a nobody, a nothing. Allowing all of your preconceived ideas, your conceptual thinking, to dissolve. Letting go of everything that you've been holding onto, your desires, your emotions. Becoming a simple person. Not worrying about the future. Being your Self, absolute reality, the Self which is God, allowing that to take place. Forgetting about time and space. Not trying to change the world or anyone else, not even trying to change yourself, but rather going deep within yourself, diving deep within yourself, deeper than you've ever gone before. The deeper you dive, the more the ego disappears. Remember, the ego, the body, the mind are one. They never existed really.

~ Robert Adams

Jivan mukta

Facets of Self-enquiry
Part Three: From Self-Abidance to Fulfilment by N.A Mohan Rao. 
January 2012 Mountain Path..

- Concepts of Jnani: Jivan-mukta and Videha-mukta 

Vasanas are of two kinds, bandha-hetuh (causative of bondage) and bhoga-hetuh (causative of enjoyment). To attain jnana, it is enough that the binding kind of vasanas are eliminated. One who attains to jnana thus is called a jivan-mukta (liberated while yet in the body). The bhoga-vasanas that may have been left in him are to be spent by enjoying the respective pleasures without getting attached to them. 

The jnani is said to have a remnant of a mind, and ego, to enable such enjoyment. Since he is without attachment, this ego cannot bind him, just as a burnt rope, though looking like a rope, cannot be of service to bind. The jnani is also credited with an intellect of an extremely subtle kind by which he experiences the ‘Self-bliss’ and knows that he is ever the Self. When the enjoyment of the bhoga-vasanas is completed, the body of the jivan-mukta falls, and he becomes a videha-mukta
(liberated having left the body). His subtle mind gets resolved, and the experience of Self-bliss too ceases: he becomes one with the Self bliss ‘without any differentiated existence.’ 

Jivan-muktas may be of four kinds, namely, brahma-vid, brahmavidvara, brahma-vidvarya and brahma-vidvarishta. They correspond to the last four jnana-bhoomikas respectively. They all mean ‘knower of Brahman’ on an increasing scale of greatness. The differences in greatness arise apparently due to the kinds of bhoga-vasanas left in them. The brahma-vidvarishta is thus the greatest of the four jivanmuktas and is alone said to experience Bliss. Bhagavan’s teaching that a jivan-mukta ripens from moment to moment, may therefore perhaps be taken to apply to the three lower levels. If a movie theatre is flooded with light to a certain level, one may not readily notice the picture on the screen. But if he bestows careful attention,he might see it faintly. In the same way, the jnani does not ordinarily see the world due to the illumination of jnana, but can see it faintly if he makes an effort. Even so, he sees it as not apart from his Self. Bhagavan has said that his awareness of his cancer was similar in nature.