winterknight

Absolutely. It does open a view onto the mysterious and transcendental. Socrates believed it was divine madness, and that romantic love would lead to love finally of Truth.

It won't be "you" that's returning to life. Best not to try to understand what happens afterward, except that it's the answer to your questions and the source of deepest fulfillment. All the rest is misleading imagination.

This is the whole problem. You're trying to spot it. It's not an object. It's you. You know yourself in a way that is unlike the way you know objects: you are you, and that "are-ness" is Self-knowing. To understand this extremely simple point unfortunately requires clearing away all the complications. That's what self-inquiry does... it clears the space for you to say "Oh! Is that what it was?" And laugh because it was so damn simple all this time. More or less... you put in the effort to get near the black hole, and it sucks you in -- but you can't control when or how. When you're "there," that question no longer makes sense. Don't expect enlightenment to make you productive. It may or may not. Be

Sort of -- follow the steps for self-inquiry I lay out here.

Yes, that is effective. Hold to the ego and it will disappear.

It's all about what you truly desire. That's what's going to happen anyway; the question is only whether you can acknowledge it and live it fully consciously, integrate all the different voices within you into one harmonious chorus. So the question is not Truth for Truth's sake or Truth to reduce suffering but -- what is your inner truth, the truth of your feelings and desires? That determines the rest. Well, that depends on your perspective. The real truth is that it all 'disappears' in the sense that something disappears when you don't pay attention to it. Never pay attention to the personality and it can no longer be said to be there. So the thought "there is a personality" technically is ignorance. But to the enlightened one that very thought cannot be said to exist. But if one insists that there is such a thing as a personality... then unwinding is what is said to happen

Yup. All the vasanas unwind over time.

Well, it's not quite that simple. What prevents people from "just doing it" is a whole bunch of psychological obstacles that they usually need to troubleshoot. Sure, if you can just do it, absolutely, just do it. Indeed, if you can simply surrender all desire and relax thinking, that works too. People don't want to be enlightened per se; what they want is fulfillment/happiness and answers to questions like "what's the point of life?" It's just that enlightenment is the way to these things.

No, that's not the test of enlightenment. I have no comments about ox herding. If you have any other questions about your path, feel free to ask them.

I have some book recs here and also my book. Yes, exactly. And as you try it again and again ask yourself -- who is aware of this trying? I don't think in ox herding terms. There is only liberation.

Different methods work for different people, and all rivers eventually empty into the ocean. Sincerely do what you're able to do and that you feel helps you. Move in the direction of the spirit as best you can. That's what matters most. That said, "who am I not?" will go on forever, because there are infinite number of things which you seem not to be. But you want to discover what you are. That's why you might ask yourself "Who is asking the question 'Who am I not?'" Of course it's confusing, because it's like trying to see what's obvious. It is confusing until it becomes utterly simple. If you were enlightened, you would not think of yourself as someone who worked at McDonald's. That's not the "I" with which you would identify.

yup!

No, it isn't. If the "answer" is heard/seen, it obviously isn't the answer -- It's just a thought. The one who "ultimately" hears is not "an answer" which itself is heard/seen -- you already know this. So why are you telling yourself that the thoughts that are coming into your mind when you inquire are "answers"? They are not. They are just thoughts. So keep your focus on the "I" feeling which notices these thoughts... and whatever thoughts which are "heard/seen" come up, notice that the "I" notices them... and again focus on that "I" feeling...

Wonderful. You're quite welcome. I don't know much about SDS. But generally speaking you're going to have to go beyond a concentration practice to actively examining what the "I" is -- the problem is ignorance. It needs to be dispelled through looking inward, not just sitting -- that's why I recommend inquiry. You can start with SDS if you like that to build up your mental strength, and then move on to inquiry when you're ready. Whatever it is that quiets your mind and organizes your efforts. Everyone needs some level of ideas about what the Search is -- some intellectual framework. Could be very simple, but some people want and require a lot more. So get that if you need it. It's very individualized. Each person is a little puzzle that they have to solve themselves. What is distracting or bothering you? Deal with it one way or another. Could be diet or exercise, could be certain other people, could be any number of things. It's about being honest about what you want and feel and taking steps towards what you really want. I also highly recommend what I call metaphorization -- which is the setting forth of your feelings in a way that describes what it is like to experience them. It could be done in words, or in drawing, or music, or any artistic medium. It's a way of discovering what you really feel and what you really want, and also of transforming pain into beauty. Yup

It can be a useful concept in some contexts, but ultimately no.

Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche talked of "nostalgia for samsara" being a possible mental obstacle.

Well, to an enlightened human being, there are no enlightened human beings, really... it's just a figure of speech. Indeed, one cannot even say that there are really human beings, bodies, or perspectives at all. So from the enlightened perspective, all of these cannot be said to exist. But if you believe in bodies and perspectives, then karma is also true, and each person will reincarnate in a way that reflects the effects of their actions in this life and all previous ones.

Don't worry, it's not a stupid question. The answer is that enlightenment is not a 'belief' or a 'truth' that can be disputed... it is beyond words, and when it is recognized, it will be understood exactly why it cannot be doubted. It is not a truth that is dependent on this body or this life. No, just being is purpose enough for the enlightened one. He or she may appear to do things in the world, but those are not necessarily reflective of an internal sense of purpose. And you're very welcome. Blessings.

True. That the bliss of the Self is in fact supreme bliss is seen only if and when you fall out of it, so to say. If and when a mental disturbance arises, even a 'pleasant' one, it will seem clunky and clumsy compared to that utterly smooth, perfectly subtle non-experience, that perfect frictionlessness.

No. It is not describable as pleasant or unpleasant -- the test is if whether you feel the slightest trace of dissatisfaction or desire for something different. If you do, that's totally fine. It just means more inquiry is required. It should never be unpleasant. That shows some element of confusion. When there is no trace of dissatisfaction left, that is It.

Right. The bliss of the Self is not ordinary bliss. If you feel frictionless un-disturbance while going about your daily life, that's it. The state of samadhi needs to be recognized as constant, and not a 'state.'

Well, self-inquiry can sometimes work for that -- people will get little tastes immediately. Or sometimes people will relate to examples of times when they felt connected to something deeper inside -- experiences of being "in the zone," or experiences of profound peace in nature, or simply thinking of that time just after waking but before memory re-descends. Or sometimes being in the presence of a spiritually advanced person can do this. Sometimes. Or sometimes it can be about resolving various intellectual doubts they have -- they may be interested, but dealing with those doubts will help them. It really depends on the person and a degree of intuition. But then again, the person has to be receptive and ripe -- looking. There's a reason it's said in the Gita not to wake the sleepers. This teaching will only connect with people who already are longing for something more, and feel in their hearts a belief that it is there to be found. And no worries with the constant questioning. I might be bored, but I'll still answer This can mean many things. The suffering involved in painful experiences of romantic love can lead to the spiritual. Loving-kindness meditation can be a practice that quiets the mind and thus ultimately aids in self-inquiry. Loving others generally and broadly does the same -- seeing them as part of one interconnected whole (even though this is not the final truth). But the real love is of course simply your true nature, which is that total completeness... yes, the bliss of the Self.

Well you'd have to think about your memories and see if you could get very specific details that you could then take to a historian or archaeologist or something and see if that matches up with the truth. Maybe listen to this podcast? Not exactly. The causal body is a theoretical term for the set of unmanifested karmas that govern our current and future thoughts, feelings, and actions. It manifests in feelings and thoughts -- that manifestation is called the subtle body. When it manifests in material ways -- through sense organs and actions, that's the physical body. The sense of doership is an effect of ignorance, which has, strictly speaking nothing to do with the causal body. Ignorance is "uncaused."

No, not specifically ... but who knows -- maybe that's where dreams and so on come from, in part? Could be there are many things seemingly connected to previous lives but that we don't know about. No particularly new capabilities, no... as far as your prior life as priest, well, there are ways of seeing whether they are accurate, if you're really interested. I think those are the best "scientific" proofs of past lives -- people who have had details that were not in the historical record, but were investigated and later found to be true, to have corroboration.