abrakamowse

I agree with that... Adyashanti and Rupert Spira I think can help a lot ... or Eckhart Tolle

The only way to increase your self confidence is not to listen to negative thoughts. And that can be done with mindful meditation. Being aware of thoughts makes you "notice" that thoughts appear and they are not yours. You just perceive them. Thoughts will begin to fade and you will began to rise, your real self that is much more powerful than thoughts and has all the confidence you think you don't have because you are thinking that those negatives thoughts are actually you. They aren't!!!! and You aren't those thoughts. Positive thinking sometimes doesn't work, because fighting against those thoughts makes them more powerful. You just have to be aware and let them go... let them pass with you not being affected by them. After that the mind will become a tool for you, now thoughts are telling you what you are, which is a lie. It's not your real "you". They say that The mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. Make the mind your servant and not the other way around. Hope this helps.

Yes

I didn't know about him, but I like him... Bernie is a bit old in my opinion. Let's see what happens.

So true...

That's why words are so hard to explain it. When I said "you can't" I was referring to the ego, the small I.

This ?

@Key Elements I think Alan Watts has great "metaphors" for becoming what you are. He says that is like biting your own teeth, smelling your own nose, seeing your own eye, taste your tongue... hehehe... You can't see what you are. Right?

Your girlfriend is very smart, that kind of thinking is the one who can take her (or both) to find the real truth. I am not enlightened, but all the masters say that enlightenment is a non-event, a non-experience... you don't experience enlightenment. You become what you are...

It's hard to know, but maybe he is... @ajasatya Thanks for reminding us!!!

Thanks to @Gryner for creating this post, we all need to know what are we up to when we are looking for enlightenment, and most of the times we are not looking but it happens. In my case, I know I wasn't consciously looking. But now I know I was, the only thing is that my ego didn't know it. And thanks too to the other members of the forum for sharing their stories. They helps all of us in the healing process and to know we are not crazy by looking enlightenment and by having some "negative" experiences. In reality they are negative for the ego, who doesn't want to surrender to what IS. Thanks and blessings!!!

He's so funny, once I begin to read Dilbert's comic strips I can't stop... he's addictive.

You need to understand that you are not the thinker of thoughts. Thoughts just appear in you. But you are not them. Identification with the thoughts is the root of all our problems and suffering. The mind is just a tool, you can focus on other things but you have to let your thoughts go, don't fight against them. Just be aware of them and they will disappear. Try mindful meditation, is very useful for that. So thoughts that are not good or positive you can just observe them and let them go...

I agree with what @Joseph Maynor is saying. You can escape from society, if you go to live in the country and try to have a live self-sustainable. Like milking your cows, planting your vegetables, etc... you can do that. And there's a lot of communities or people who are trying to live in a more natural way. But being enlightened (or escape from the Matrix) is different. You don't need to go on a far away place on a cave to get enlightened. You can be enlightened in society, but to leave society and leave the matrix are too different things. IMO.

Same story here, after an epiphany I had I began to have weird states, like I was euphoric. Then I began to say whatever it came to my mind, I was thinking that heaven was on earth, things like that... that we were in the second earth and we were living in the Matrix, but in reality. I asked some random people on the hospital if he was the devil. I asked him in spanish, because it's my native language. So he told, me... sorry, I don't speak spanish. So I came back thinking "Oh my god, the devil speaks english" LOL Now I laugh about it, but at the moment I didn't have idea if I was going to recover or not. Then I found Leo, and in my case, he helped me to put an anchor on reality, I understood better what spirituality is about, but I know we have to be careful because our ego is very fragile and he (the ego) can't accept reality, is overwhelming for him. So, you are not alone!!! Thanks for sharing @Gryner !!!

Look at this one @Shin

I think it was Nisargadatta who said it took him 3 years to be awake...

It made me laugh. Lol... The face of the guy is priceless. ?

You can do that. But it comes with a price. :-)

Everything what happen to us is to become awakened, there's no "mental problems" or whatever, those are labels we put on people that we don't understand what they are living and why. That's all BS. What IS, is always the way it has to be...

Cool... it's a little trick :-) I talk sometimes with a coworker about quantum physics and he is like that hahahaha.... I tell him that matter doesn't exist according to quantum mechanics, but he is like not convinced hahahaha... so funny

Hahahaha... That's me every morning! Lol

Not one, not two... Non Dual