abrakamowse

Don't worry and just laugh

I am a disaster for making plans

@DimmedBulb We are unconscious now , but we "think" we are not. I had a glimpse of what it is to be enlightened, an epiphany some time ago. And the difference is exactly like Buddha says, we are dead now (dead - like). Life is in mindfulness, in no desire, in pure love, but... you have to stop desiring to achieve it. If you desire enlightenment, that is a trap. You won't achieve it and if you stop desiring so you get enlightened is a trap too. Because there's still desire. I know is confuse but that's how it is and that's why is so difficult to attain. There's really nothing to attain. It's a big paradox, the only thing you can do is to calm your mind and it the shift to enlightenment will happen by itself, without a "you".

It loses power... you feel like the desire is not "you"... or yours... so, you can decide better how to act. You can do nothing if you don't want to. When you are identified with it, you will go after it unconsciously.

When you have a feeling or desire, let's say you have the desire of becoming a millionaire or you want to be the best poker player of the world. If you identify with the desire, you will say "I am the best poker player of the world" or "I am a millionaire". By identifying with the desire you will act accordingly to what you have in mind it represent "the best poker player in the world". But, if you just recognize that becoming the great poker player is a desire, and just that. You will act more freely. Not constrained to what you think you have to do to be "the best poker player". You just observe the desire, recognize it and take it or leave it. If you feel identified with the desire, the desire will become "you". I don't know if I am explaining myself clearly. In practice you will notice the difference, when you begin to observe your behavior and patterns in your personality. Recognizing is like "observing" your desires.

"The six orthodox schools of Hinduism believe that there is Ātman (Soul, Self) in every being, a major point of difference with Buddhism, which does not believe that there is either soul or self." (Wikipedia)

Anatta

No government at all is the best system.

@Ariel Here you have some definitions or explanation of "awareness" and "mindfulness" and their differences. Paying attention “on purpose” First of all, mindfulness involves paying attention “on purpose”. Mindfulness involves a conscious direction of our awareness. We sometimes (me included) talk about “mindfulness” and “awareness” as if they were interchangeable terms, but that’s not a good habit to get into. I may be aware I’m irritable, but that wouldn’t mean I was being mindful of my irritability. In order to be mindful I have to be purposefully aware of myself, not just vaguely and habitually aware. Knowing that you are eating is not the same as eating mindfully. More here: http://www.wildmind.org/applied/daily-life/what-is-mindfulness

@DimmedBulb I think in that link I posted at the bottom of this, it's explained better than anything I can post here, take a look... http://www.buddhanet.net/4noble12.htm

From the website access to insight: The Buddha discovered that gaining release from samsara requires assigning to each of the Noble Truths a specific task: the first Noble Truth is to be comprehended; the second, abandoned; the third, realized; the fourth, developed. The full realization of the third Noble Truth paves the way for Awakening: the end of ignorance, craving, suffering, and kamma itself; the direct penetration to the transcendent freedom and supreme happiness that stands as the final goal of all the Buddha's teachings; the Unconditioned, the Deathless, Unbinding — Nibbana (Skt. Nirvana).

But... for the sake of trying to guess what is it, I think awaken is when you intellectually see there's no self, when you begin to understand and look for enlightenment, etc... when you know in your head but not in your experience all the things we talk here in the forum. In my opinion, everyone here in the forum (not 100% but all those who are seeking) are awakened, but that's the first step to enlightenment. Enlightenment is when you drop completely all believes systems.

I have no idea @Orange , but I am getting more and more comfortable with not knowing.

It is only when you realize life is taking you nowhere that it begins to have meaning. ~ Peter Ouspensky

It is only when you realize life is taking you nowhere that it begins to have meaning. ~ Peter Ouspensky

Mind cannot experience presence.

Can you observe your thoughts? As if they were just thoughts, without paying attention to the content of the thoughts? That's meditation and the only thing can help you to get out of this hole. IMO.

One who is not a companion of myriad things has departed the toils of materialism. The mind does not recognize the mind, the eye does not see the eye; since there is no opposition, when you see forms there are no forms there to be seen, and when you hear sounds there are no sounds there to be heard. Is this not departing the toils of materialism? There is no particular pathway into it, no gap through which to see it: Buddhism has no East or West, South or North; one does not say, “You are the disciple, I am the teacher” If your own self is clear and everything is It, when you visit a teacher you do not see that there is a teacher; when you inquire of yourself, you do not see that you have a self. When you read scripture, you do not see that there is scripture there. When you eat, you do not see that there is a meal there. When you sit and meditate, you do not see that there is any sitting. You do not slip up in your everyday tasks, yet you cannot lay hold of anything at all. When you see in this way, are you not independent and free? Extracts from: Instant Zen by Foyen

It's not eliminating or reducing the ego, is understanding what it is and reacting in the correct way, not being controlled by the ego. When you are unconscious you think you have control over your ego, but that's not real. The ego is controlling you by making you "think" that you are the body, the mind, whatever... What we have to do is explained well in Zen teachings, here I copy something from the book "Instant Zen" " One of the peculiarities of Zen Buddhism is the idea that awakening can take place instantaneously. Zen training, from this point o f view, does not mean learning doctrines, rituals, and postures, but preparing the (ego) mind to accept this awakening and integrate it constructively with daily life in the world." So, the idea is to get awakened so the mind accepts that and the ego-mind integrate it to the new consciousness. The ego doesn't disappear, it is understood from a wider and wiser perspective.

That's good, I really used to believe in a lot of stuff I don't believe now. Not because I think is false. Mostly because It's not possible to experience it so I prefer to leave that aside. Zen is good on that.

Maybe this can be of help with what you talked about things that we don't know. It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle

Meditate only 30 mins per day and then socialize 23 hours and a half... but you need to sleep 8 hours, so you have 15 hours to socialize. And you will realize that when you began to practice meditation, you naturally become much more social. There's no problem to reconcile meditation with socialization because they never were antagonistic, one reinforce the other.

I AM

Welcome @JRF2k !!!!