Zetxil

@Jkris I can say I am enlightened or I can't, but there is no proof that I can give you so you believe me in either way. You can only decide who is/what is enlightenment for yourself. I am pretty open to answering questions though! (However this is @winterknight's thread so I won't repeat or take away from what he has already stated!) Words (and subtle usage of emojis ?) seem to be the only way I can communicate on a forum with just typed answers ? Now, to make you experience what I have experienced is a different manner all together, becuase no two experiences are exactly the same. There are similarities within experiences, nothing will be exactly the same from person to person, time to time, place to place. Which again is what we are trying for: to identify similarities and bring them to form!

That seems to be what we are getting at, a commonality within formlessness, and trying to convey that into form. We all will walk paths and when they cross we can have interesting conversations about both paths! (Metaphors are useful but not the aim of what we are going for here!) Are all of your experiences body mind? Mine haven't been! That is almost the deffinition of an "out of body experience" haha Are you also enlightened? It is pretty easy to spot when people speak of what they do not know!

If you can't explain the way of knowing, can you reliably say you are enlightened? You may know what it is, but if you can't explain/teach what you know, do you really know it?

How can I know that I'll know when I find I? There is uncertainty in everything, even if it is minute. How can one know with absolute certainty that what it is is what it is?

@winterknight how can you look at something that isn't tangible?

@winterknight must there always be a point of tension within the vastness of what we are? In order to have an experience, there must me an experiencer. Maybe "tension" is more the center of the experience, so does there have to be a center in order for there to be experience? or can there just be experience? If we define ourselves as the center of our experiences (the sense of "I"), is death the only way someone can just experience without the sense of I? I feel like these questions are all pointing in a similar direction, but can't seem to get past them and get an answer

@Serotoninluv I'm not sure if it is a 1 to 1 correlation, but if you haven't heard of neurofeedback I would look into it! As a fellow neuroscientist, this seems to be the closest thing we have to a combination of Reiki and neuroscience! I enjoy the analogy that neurofeedback is like meditation with a mirror! It is still pretty new and expensive (fMRI), but the implications and future applications seem to be limitless with higher and higher resolution!

@Paul92 I don't understand (I once stood where you stand), but I don't think I will ever be able to understand. I am not you and because of that I can't understand what you are experiencing/have experienced. Going forward you will have to read carefully as I am going to express things that can't be thought about logically okay! Sometimes you have to experience what you are going to experience. Everything the way it happens is perfect. Perfect for me. Perfect for you. Perfect for we. Perfect for us. Perfect for the self. Perfect for the ego. There is no happiness without an ego, but there is also no ego without you. If you are tired of something brush it off and move on! I'm not here to tell you whether to take your life or not. That is your choice and your choice alone and you will have to deal with the consequences whatever they may be. Full is full and empty is empty, but there needs to be a container for something to be empty or full! I wouldn't say that you throwing yourself off a bridge would make no difference. What would make no difference to me, is you sitting in your room loving white walls all day. At least the first one SOMETHING is being done. Maybe not productive, but something. Do you know it will all go dark (no awareness/devoid of senses)? I have been curious about it (death) as well. I find it is pretty interesting that everyone laughs when we joke about death and it is never a, "oh that's awkward, maybe that shouldn't be joked about." It is always a peaceful laugh and acceptance because deep down something is know about death that can't be extrapolated into the form of words. The best way that I have witnessed it goes something like "hidden in every ending is a beginning and with every beginning an end." But hey, maybe it is just black nothingness (whatever that means). It doesn't seem to be about having things both ways (which is where I see a lot of people on this site have it slightly off kilter). You know, it seems to be more about expressing what is being felt, in any form that you wish to express it. Some people express their feelings of the unknown by saying nothing can be know, others do it through art, maybe dance, education etc. I enjoy making music/plunking through cords and rhythms to find anything that could embody the way I felt in the moment. Everyday I wish that I still had my guitar to pluck on whenever I feel an emotion I can't express through english (couldn't fit it in the move ) This website seems to be a place where people of similar ideas of expression came to express those ideas. If you don't agree and can't connect with them, move on, search for something else that you find meaningful and can enjoy. It isn't worth yours or anyone's time to dwindle on something with so little meaning to you! Not everything is about truth-fullness. There are lies everywhere, one just has to look carefully to spot them. You can't take everything that is said by another person as a literal interpretation of the experience. Memory is a fickle mistress (whether that memory comes form an individual or a book) and so is english when taken from a literal perspective. Much love on your journey, whatever path you choose to take. P.S. My 1 reason for you to not end it all: I enjoy when there is more expression for me to connect with!

@TheAvatarState Well that would be a clearly misguided thing to tell someone!

@Manjushri ? loosely but as rigid as you can make it! (Make a schedule where you are studing an amount that you would think would be best for you!) If you can't stick to it everyday, don't beat youself up over it, but there is a reason that you would think it would be the most useful! Do what works for you! If you listen to someone else and plan around their study plans you wont enjoy what you are doing and will burn out quickly! Some were stated previously, creating a "map" around your room/house/living area that you can remember key points by mentally walking or visualizing that area! (Idk if I explained that well, but I use sticky notes on a wall behind my computer in correlated areas of the body to help learn anatomy!) I know there are people who study how people learn best, you could look into them! Jim Kwik (you could look him up) is a name that popped into my head for methods of learning and comprehension. Good luck on your journey!

@pluto It is broken down and it's parts are incorperated into other cells! (Great metaphor)

@Truth Addict It seems to be less about the stopage of thinking as it is the allowing to thoughts to pass freely! Don't stop thinking, just don't over think ?

@Truth Addict Right, and that's fine that you see it that way! But to do the decision of watching the decisions take place is a decision. See where we are going? To make a blanket statement one way or the other is not a in a sense total coverage of the truth! ? one day we all may be aware of our awareness of what it means to be aware and from then on there will be no free will just awareness, but as long as we include the individual (ego/I) in language, the topic will continue to persist! Thanks for the discussion! You have opened my eyes to another light! ?

@winterknight What questions do you have left to ask/find answers to?

Girl I am not, but good I will be. @zambizeWHEN THE FUCK DID YOU GET A VAGINA?