When One Allows the Totality of Conditions to Present Itself

Someone sent me a question which I conveyed to John Tan: 

"I now realize that these obstructions and dharma attachments cannot be eliminated in a day, a month, or even a year. In fact, it seems fundamentally impossible for me to completely uproot all dharma attachments in this lifetime, making it highly unlikely that I will reach what you call 'Phase 7.' Acknowledging the immense difficulty of thoroughly eliminating these attachments, however, allows me to learn with greater humility.

I would also like to share an interesting perspective I recently contemplated: 'Dependent arising does not mean that phenomena arise due to causes and conditions; rather, phenomena are dependent arising, and dependent arising is phenomena.' While this might sound like mere wordplay, I find that 'phenomena arising due to causes and conditions' is closer to inference (anumāna), whereas 'phenomena are dependent arising' aligns more with direct perception (pratyakṣa). Dependent arising is immediate presence. Ultimately, it feels as though I have merely replaced 'relationality' with 'dependent origination. Dependent arising is by no means an abstract concept. It is the living reality; it is the living truth.

Finally, I have a question for John Tan: What is the primary distinction between Phase 5 and Phase 8? In Phase 5, the vivid presence or foreground becomes so real that one is compelled to automatically grasp at the object. After reading one of your articles, it strikes me that Phase 8 represents the most thorough realization of no-self (anatta), as knowledge, concepts, thoughts, viewpoints, and designations do not exist independently; rather, they are all already embodied within the immediate presence. Seen from this angle, immediate presence is itself a self-luminous and self-knowing mandala."

John Tan replied:

"Actually when one allows totality of conditions to present itself, self  presenting and self liberating, he or she is no more attached to luminosity also.

In fact some will lose sight of it.

Which is no good also...lol

But that phase is very crucial"

Soh sent his response back to the person and added:

I remember John Tan wrote something related in 2007 https://www.awakeningtoreality.com/2007/05/different-degrees-of-non-duality.html