abrakamowse

@Aamir King Don't worry about what others do or not, just do whatever you feel is right. If you feel you are doing bad by laughing about someone else, don't do it. If you change your mind and you want to laugh later, laugh. You don't have to overthink, that's ego's work. If there's something you need to transcend about laughter, you have to laugh your ass off before transcending. :-)

Mooji?

Awakening This first enlightenment experience, known as stream-entry (sotapatti), is the first of four progressive stages of Awakening, each of which entails the irreversible shedding or weakening of several fetters (samyojana), the manifestations of ignorance that bind a person to the cycle of birth and death. Stream-entry marks an unprecedented and radical turning point both in the practitioner's current life and in the entirety of his or her long journey in samsara. For it is at this point that any lingering doubts about the truth of the Buddha's teachings disappear; it is at this point that any belief in the purifying efficacy of rites and rituals evaporates; and it is at this point that the long-cherished notion of an abiding personal "self" falls away. The stream-enterer is said to be assured of no more than seven future rebirths (all of them favorable) before eventually attaining full Awakening. http://www.accesstoinsight.org/theravada.html

Can I ask what kind of business? I am trying to do an online business too, graphic design and illustrations.

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.