winterknight

1 and 3 are the same question. The answer depends on the level of understanding of the questioner. At one level we could say: it's God's will. At a higher level we would say: there is really no evil, suffering, or injustice. These are all based on the false identification with the body-mind. Find out who asks these questions and you shall see for yourself. The answer to 2 is the same thing, really: one identifies with the body-mind, and the human mind is built to like revenge. Look into who you are -- that's the only real way these questions get answered. Word answers will not satisfy.

Yeah, that's not psychoanalysis. That's just a random bit of random therapy. You have to realize that really good therapy or analysis -- particularly for deeply rooted depression like it sounds like you have -- is going to take a LOT more time and effort than "once a week for three months, then twice a month for a while, then once a month." Think about it. The therapist is trying to get to know you. How long have you spent with people that you know closely? Thousands of hours? Tens of thousands of hours? Over years or decades? How is a therapist going to get to know you in what sounds like a few dozen sessions? Not gonna happen. If you're really interested in a journey of self-discovery, realize it will take time... and google "psychoanalytic institute <your city>" and call them and ask for a referral. Ask me if you need more help on this point. If you're really serious -- and it sounds like you are -- prepare yourself to spend 1-2x/week, and preferably 3-5x/week, for AT LEAST a year, if not several years. That's how long actual healing takes. Be realistic.

@MatteoIt sounds like your untreated depression is preventing you from making any progress. You say you did psychoanalysis? You mean actual analysis? 3-5x/week?

It's describing accurately what it is like to feel like you feel. The idea is to capture it so that when you look at it you feel like "YES! That is what I feel like! Exactly!" If you do it right it will feel like you've clarified your feelings, that from a confused mass they've become clearer. That tiny little uneasiness you have about something... describe that. There's an idea there. That little strange feeling you get about that person... it also means something. All these little pieces will show that where you thought you had one feeling you actually had several complicated, intertwined feelings and thoughts.

No. This has nothing to do with enlightenment; it would be considered a "siddhi," a supernatural power.

Luckily it does exist, it just isn't what you think it is...quite literally Yes. Although you may find that a little artistry captures your feelings better in the end. That's one of the reasons artistry exists! If you wrote, for example, as if you were trying to get someone else to understand your feelings -- it can help you better express your feelings to yourself. But just start the way you've mentioned above "this happened I felt..." etc. and then if you need more you can do more. Enlightenment isn't simply the concept that you don't exist. It is the radiant shining of the Self -- it is in other words, not simply "I am not" but a very real, positive, and unspeakable experience of "I-am-ness." And because of what it is, it is beyond doubt and uncertainty. Now of course none of that speaks to other worlds beyond our own. If there is this world, there may be many more complex worlds/realities. But enlightenment is not about complexity; it's about simplicity. However many more complex worlds "exist," the truth of enlightenment will still be the case.

Eyes closed or open? If you get to a still state of being with your eyes open, that IS the answer to who you are. The next step is to take that into your other activities. If you can stay in a silent state of being while doing other things, just practice that. And if dissatisfaction arises, just ask yourself to whom it occurs.

So glad to hear all this. And you're very welcome! What you're talking about is the ego's idea of no-movement. There are still bits and movement in the air, even if that movement is not "real." Actually there are no bits or mold or air -- that's the real no-movement.

Loneliness is the feeling of pain you get when you feel your needs for intimacy and connection are not being met (whether or not that is true). Yes, there can be suffering as long as there is identification with the body and mind — or, if you prefer, we could say that as long as such identification continues, there’s no way to access the “true” present moment.

Good idea. When you “feel like you’re being redundant,” ask yourself — who is it that is aware of feeling that way? “I am,” right? How do you know? Who or where is that “I”? And then if you focus on that for a while, maybe you grow frustrated... who or what is aware of that frustration? “I am,” again, right? Where is THAT knowledge/feeling coming from? And repeat... hold to that “I” with a dogged persistence and trace it.

1. No, the point is not to go and find things to separate yourself from. You HAVE the sense “I am” at all times. What is that sense? That’s all you’re trying to figure out. That’s it. If you think it’s something, THEN you can notice you’re separate from it. But that is not the point. Imagine if you were hunting for treasure. Is the point to figure out all the places it’s not? No. 2. Again, figure out how it is that you know that you are. You do know that you are. Where is that knowledge coming from? 3. Doesn’t matter initially. Later you will need to do it with eyes open, indeed as you are living your life and doing other stuff.

Actually we all realize it right now. The idea that you don't realize is itself part of the illusion. But follow the path and inquire and you'll see it for yourself.

Ramana Maharshi's self-inquiry. That's all you have to do... intensely and intently attempt to locate the "I" that you know you are...

If there are people -- then there is birth -- and re-birth. And yes, that will continue on until "everyone realizes." What do you mean "regardless of not achieving that Awareness"? Realization is that Awareness. But this is all idle speculation: there is no help in the spiritual search thinking about these things. There are no people, really. Ask yourself who is asking this question.

All words are half truths with respect to the Truth. And what counts as a true word in the spiritual context is what helps move people towards the Truth. So how you phrase things should depend on the audience and the capacity of the listener to understand what you're saying. Truth for a child is not the same as truth for an adult. In my one-on-one sessions, I work at the level that the person is at -- and try to present things in a way that the person can understand and connect with. The real and final Truth is beyond the intellect, and that's where they have to go. Well, it's both, actually. If you are really true and accurate to your feelings, because your particular set of feelings is so unique to you and your perspective, your attempt to capture them will inevitably come out creative.

No, it is not a state. It is defined as peace-being-consciousness beyond time and space. It is beyond the duality of physical and non-physical. But it's really extremely simple. Definitions make it sound complex. Intellect can be useful for a while, but it ultimately has to be let go.

Well, the main technique I recommend is not mindfulness as it is commonly practiced, but Ramana Maharshi's self-inquiry -- or else an attempt at total surrender to whatever happens. In self-inquiry, the ego -- that sense that "I am" -- is chased backwards over the layers of identities and stories it's told itself about what it is. When these are examined, they are found not to be the "I am." When enough of this is cleared away... you might finally recognize the Silence That Remains as your true Self. What you are is actually quite blindingly obvious, but you can't recognize it because of habit, because of the desire to "see" the "I" as an object instead of knowing it by being it. Self-inquiry clears away the "superimpositions" of the ego, and destroys that habit.

Whether a jnani experiences suffering and how is always going to be misleading when put into words. If there is said to be a mind, then there is said to be suffering. If there is not said to be a mind, then there is no one there who can be said not to suffer. Thanks for your thoughts.

You're thinking of someone different. I wasn't here 1-2 years ago. There you go. That's a big step. That can have a big effect on the mind. I mean trying to capture your feelings in words. Literally: what are you feeling? Try to create a set of words that, when you look at it and feel yes, this is what I'm feeling. In order to do that, metaphor is extremely helpful: compare your feelings to things that they are like or unlike. If you're feeling angry, for instance, is it anger like a volcano? Anger like an icy lake? Icy like a sharp pain in your heart? Try to feel what's in your body and in your experience and express every nuance of the feeling, and what it's connected to. Now, there may be more. Story can be helpful for expressing complex feelings. Poems might work for some people. Yes, scenarios and journaling too. It just depends on you. The point is to express your feelings in their detail. Experiment. This is all particularly helpful when trying to process a complex set of things that you feel and think about a person, a situation, or yourself. Because often we feel this whole series of things that we cannot see clearly. This helps us see what's going on. Yes. So do self-inquiry intensely until you feel comfortable. Best not to try to describe "my" state, because it will always be misleading, but I have to say: this is not correct either. When one says there is "no difference" between these various activities, that is accurate either. If the activities are said to be there, there must be differences. It is the activities themselves that do not exist. It is not that the activities are equally liked, but that there is something beyond liking and not liking entirely.

I haven't been a good marketer -- probably some psychological hangup on my part. And that also has effects on finances. If there is this birth, then there were past births and future ones. But in truth there is not even this birth.

1. There are really no 'degrees' of enlightenment. There's just enlightenment (in the end there's not even that!). It benefits society because all evils come from ignorance of our true nature, and anyone realizing their true nature tends to help, by their mere presence, others move towards that too. Plus the enlightened lose a lot of their extraneous desires, so they have less conflict with others. They have more peace inside, so they can give more to the others. The benefits go on and on. But, of course, does society exist? See if you exist and then you will know... 2. There's no journey, actually. There was never a journey, and there was no birth, let alone rebirth. 3. If there is teaching and a teacher, then the teacher also suffered on his path, so he would know suffering. 4. No.

Yes, desire can be very complicated. This is in part why i always recommend psychoanalytic/psychodynamic therapy to seekers. It can be very helpful to have a thoughtful, empathic, and expert professional helping you understand your desire. Technically your job is not really to decide what to do. Whatever you do do is, in a sense, what you wanted to do. Your job is to, without judging anything as bad or evil, bring all the different voices within yourself into your awareness, and to listen to them, and to feel the feelings and desires associated with them, and to try to imagine new courses of action that might satisfy these different interests. Now, how does that happen? Several ways. One is the therapy I mentioned. Second is expressive writing/drawing/etc .-- capturing, as exactly as you can, how you feel. Part of that can include imagining possible options -- "What if I move to Oregon for the new job? What if I don't?" -- and feeling how you feel after imagining what happens in each choice, and then expressing that through writing/drawing/etc. And then, you iterate. Suppose you feel good but a little uncertain about moving to Oregon. Then you dig into that. What exactly makes you feel uneasy? Use your imagination again to explore different possibilities and feel your feelings and then express them. It's a cycle. Also part of this cycle is acting. So act -- try something -- and then, again, reflect on how you felt when you did that. Describe it, again. As you describe these things, you will unearth different aspects and complexities of your desire. You like this aspect but not that aspect. As you see that complexity and nuance, you will be able to make better and better hypotheses about what it is that you want ("Moving to Oregon would be good, but only if it's Portland -- that's the only city I'd be happy with. But I want to live within biking distance of work, and it's got to be a place my girlfriend is ok with too..." etc.) A third aspect of this is that a quiet mind really helps. When the mind is quiet, what you do will be in alignment with what you think you want. But it's all a cycle. As you move towards understanding and feeling what you want, your mind will grow quieter. A quieter mind will also enable you to pursue spirituality more, which will also help quiet the mind, and that will also help align your actions with your desire. So to take the example you give above about the ex-lover, you may both have the desire to re-connect with the ex-lover and a part of you that feels it's a bad idea. It's your job to explore the emotions and thoughts behind both these positions. What you actually want to do may be either to call or not to call -- but it's not the action that counts, but whether that action respects and honors both of the underlying positions you had within you, takes their concerns into account, really listens and feels and understand the context of both of them. Once it has listened deeply, you will come to a place of calm -- and whatever action takes place in that calm is correct.

Yes, I mentor seekers on a professional basis.

Well, you wrote "That i accepted what happened to me" -- what did you mean by it? 1. The truth is that no words can do it justice. It is not a form of dual stereo knowing. There is a single knowing -- of the Self. Everything else is unreal. It appears real to seekers -- they see words, and assume that there is a person who is typing them, and assume things about my state of mind. But all those things are wrong. I am only the Self; that is all that is experienced -- that, that, and nothing else. The very idea that there is something else is a misconception. The idea that there is "the movie" is a misconception. When the mind is still, it will be seen that all these ideas cannot even be said to arise. So from the standpoint of the seeker -- there is a very real mystery here. It is incomprehensible. So they are told: "It is an appearance. It is a movie, etc." Actually there is no appearance and no movie. There is only the Nameless Silence. But they will have to see that for themselves. 2. The nature of the experience is uninterrupted silent inexpressible Pure Being 3. It is not a perspective. It is simply the extinction of an illusion which was itself non-existent... so in the end enlightenment too is an illusion. But the seeker must pursue it as if it were real until they find that out for themselves, in their own experience. Because enlightenment is an illusion that nevertheless points to the Unspeakable Truth.

Prayer is very useful for quieting the mind and orienting it towards the higher. Prayer symbolizes the higher relation in a way that the mind can relate to. Yes, my body/mind still uses prayer -- they find joy in that reverence -- but of course body, mind, and prayer are all illusion.