winterknight

This is why it is said that seekers need to quiet the mind and emotions... for that purpose, I recommend going into psychoanalysis.

That is true from the spiritual point of view... the spiritual perspective is very radical.

All these questions arise from the same set of wrong assumptions. I mean, I can tell you: it's God's will. Would you be ok with that answer? You'll only find the truth when you follow my guide to self-inquiry.

Well, I didn't say I was just playing a role as a human... what I'm saying is that the truth is ultimately inconceivable in your current frame of reference. Perhaps there is no human experience right now, let alone "after the physical body goes." "What next" assumes a "before," but perhaps both are wrong.

Are there other humans? Am I here helping others awaken? If you look into yourself, all these questions will find a new perspective.

If you assume that you were born and that you will die, then yes, there is reincarnation. If you engage in self-inquiry, you might not find that you were ever born in the first place.

It’s important inasmuch as it helps keep a quiet mind. Harder to do that if your habits are wildly out of control. But no need for obsession or anything. The key is to examine yourself and see what helps you keep a calm mind.

Do you mean the orange thing in the corner? It's not a carpet, it's a tube of wrapping paper. Sure, I'll remove it. Thanks.

Dream analysis if done with a qualified psychoanalyst can be indirectly helpful by quieting the mind. Lucid dreaming has no relationship.

Right. If you can do that, do that. No voluntary thought. If it comes up involuntarily that’s fine, but you relax and don’t put any effort into thought. It can happen. Rare but possible.

Helpful. And if you can then stay in that silence even when you get up and move around and interact — even better.

If you ask this question, then the next question you should be asking is: who is the one wondering this? Are you the one who has to know how to act? Engage in self-inquiry; it's the only way to get an answer.

I suggest trying to relentlessly turn the mind away from thoughts to the "I" who is aware of them. The very thought "How do I confirm it?" is a thought based on ignorance. The thought "What do you suggest?" is a thought based on ignorance. The question "should I just trust myself?" is a thought based on ignorance. "Am I there yet?" "What is my position?" etc. etc. etc. -- the same. Stop looking for answers. Stop trying to understand. Ignore all thoughts. Take a break from this forum for 30 days -- can you do that? (you've said it many times before but have never been successful) -- and in that time relentlessly focus on the I, ignoring all thoughts, all words, all questions. No matter what comes to mind, ignore it and turn back to the I.

Your position is that you're addicted to words, ideas, and images. True self-inquiry is about ignoring all of these. If you simply dropped all the words and ideas, all the thoughts, all the cool descriptions...

You're right. No ontological claims can be truly made. Nor need they be. Only the attachment to currently-held, unconscious, and unexamined ontological claims (namely, that "I am a person") needs to be broken.

You're very welcome Psychoanalysis is a specific form of talk therapy, and no, other forms generally aren't as useful. Follow these instructions to find an institute (and/or let me know your location and I'll help you find one), contact them, and ask them for a referral. They'll find you someone who will work with your financial situation.

Well, actually, it need not be expensive at all. But chronic forgetting is certainly a red flag for unresolved emotional issues. Good luck.

It's much closer to what it's about. Enlightenment is really realizing that there is nothing but that, there's never been anything but that. But practicing that leads to that realization. Sounds like unconscious emotional conflicts that you need to work through. Go get psychoanalysis (a particular form of therapy).

There’s nothing in the abstract to be said about it that’s very useful. The word is used in so many ways. It has cultural meanings, literary meanings, psychological meanings, social meanings, philosophical meanings, spiritual meanings. I could give you a kind of Hallmark quote, something like the ultimate love is just the Self, or something like that, but I’m not sure it’s particularly useful just in the abstract... I guess I could say that from the spiritual point of view, love is still relational, and the truth goes beyond relation. The truth goes beyond love, hate, and indifference. At the same time, love is kind of reflection of the truth of non-duality. But still, not very useful.

If you can maintain this freedom which feels good while you are doing other things and living life, not just sitting down, yes, you can simply be there. And if a doubt/desire/dissatisfaction comes up, inquire and return to that peace.

So relentlessly inquire into who the "I" is that wants these things using the link above. Every time a thought comes up, curiously, relentlessly investigate who the "I" is that wants it. Some people can simply surrender. If you're not satisfied with that, then look into the I. It is not enough that you can rest in the I since you're not satisfied with that. So inquire. That means a concentrated hunt for the source of the I feeling. And/or pursue the other parts of the path that I mention in the link I gave above (read the whole thing very carefully) on there: get an intellectual framework (read my book, read the scriptures) & delve into your emotional baggage (go get psychoanalysis, a particular kind of therapy). Be curious about that. Yes, even if the miracles are fuflilled you wouldn’t be satisfied. Enlightenment is not this. And yes, you would have to disappear, but that's not really the point. Find the answers to your questions by following the path as I have given it above. Get your intellectual framework, deal with your emotional baggage, engage in relentless self-inquiry.

Well it's just yet another way of saying the same unsayable thing, namely, that when the veil of ignorance constructed by body identification is pierced, the mind is then 'seen' consistently in the context of its Background. That background is Peace, "brahma rasa," (the taste of the ultimate/aesthetic bliss), the 'experience of pure being,' etc. It's what Ramana Maharshi calls sahaja samadhi; it's equivalent to what he says when he says he sees only the Self. Or is there some other aspect of this that you're wondering about? Right. So you can view this particular mystery two ways. Either you can say: it's something that simply cannot be understood by the human mind, but that God alone can understand. That's one way of putting it. Another way is, if you pursue self-inquiry to its 'end,' then you will dissolve the ground on which this question stands. The question itself will turn out to be unaskable or in some sense incoherent.

Strictly speaking there are no accurate statements that may be made about enlightenment

What Soonhei said above is true. There really are no enlightened beings. Your mind is running around in circles with concepts... you will never understand this way.

It’s a small glimpse of the truth. It’s a good thing, but enlightenment ultimately goes beyond “she” and “me” though. Well, I don’t say that other teachers can't have different approaches, and anyway in some sense every word spoken about spirituality is a lie... that said, when the enlightened mind thinks the “I” behind the “my,” if it is honest the mind stops. It can talk as if it doesn’t, but that’s just a conventional language borrowed from habit. The only meaning of riding the ox back is to get rid of any notion of any ox or anyone there to ride it.