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On the surface, everything you do is ordered by your mind. Your thoughts about yourself feed into your actions and provide for a sense of agency. This remains true even when enlightened. The self is still present, thoughts still happen, and they still feed into agency. For most, this is as far as one gets. I’ve seen many people that feel like they are constrained by their imperfect minds. And so this is true, so long as you’re identifying simply as a mind. The process of awakening involves a lot of study and learning. The study and learning happen in the mind. But it slowly alerts you to a different way of conceiving self. The next step outside of mind is pure awareness. Meditation is needed to access this. The study and learning teach you how. When one meditates, one starts to escape the hell of mind-identification.

@wayneleekw thanks brother . Glad you found it helpful

Where did I tell you that you are not awake or that you don't get "it" ?There is nothing to get .my message in this post is clear. I clearly said that "by your very nature you are already awake ". Why didn't you focus on that sentence rather than the body &mind thing ? You think that by cherrypicking one little sentence that will make for a valid critique of the entire post which you overlooked? And which is the cause of your misunderstanding No I clearly understand that what I write is correct. I asked you to tell me what are you composed of from your own direct experience and you didn't answer me . Clearly you are a body. You can see it. Touch it. Etc. And clearly you have a mind which thinks thoughts and comes up with clever objections to what I'm saying. So I don't understand what's so "misleading " about the body-mind model . My intention from this thread is to help guide people to simple recognition of their true nature as awareness and free them from their thoughts which clouds their perception of reality. What's wrong with some 'feel good' replies if the topic was helpful in clearing up confusion and point to the direction of enlightenment? Then again that's not my intention from posts like these .you are only projecting this idea into me .

If you read the entire thing you will see clearly what I pointed out that your true nature is awareness which is like the sky and the mind =thoughts which cover up our true Nature. So there is no contradicting. You are pure awareness. But that awareness manifests itself as a special specific body-mind . If that's not clear to you then certainly the message is not for you .

How so ? What are you composed of in your direct experience without appealing to spiritual narratives or preconceived ideas? But anyways . I did define your nature as pure consciousness. So that reference to the body and mind was just to illustrate the barriers that stop us from diving deep within ourselves.

What do you mean exactly by "absolute Consciousness "? Is it just simply my field of perceptions that I'm locked in the whole time ? But then that means everyone is Conscious of absolute truth all the time because its ever-present. Why portary it like its something supernatural or some other realm filled with pink unicorns and Butterflies?

"No mind" is not literally never thinking. It's merging your mind in the present moment. That means that instead of thinking random crap all the time, the thoughts that you actually need according to the moment will come up, without the sense of a "thinker". This doesn't mean that if you want to think about something that's not in your direct experience (like politics for example) you can't do it. You can, but it will feel more like a concious process instead of being unconciously pulled by random thoughts. Thinking actually gets much more effective and refined as conciousness rises. Imagination also gets amazingly boosted. I've been practicing mindfulness troughout the day as much as possible and found no downsides whatsover. Been able to study, reason properly, do artistic practices like painting and singing, etc. Spiritual people value mindfulness meditation like it's the ultimate truth or reality. And many of them have this idea that thoughts are bad and need to be annihilated. I can see why there's a problem with this view. Being present in the moment is ok but if you think that meditation alone will make you enlightened and you will know what reality is, that is just a limited view that won't get you anywhere. Just like a dog seeing everything for what is. No one says that the dog isn't more content and stress free but you have to ask yourself, is that a higher-consciousness perspective? What are you trying to achieve with this mindfulness meditation? I know that Comparing a dog's conciousness with a meditative human's conciousness is silly. Even in enlightened people the "mind" still functions, they wouldn't even be able to speak if it wasn't so. But it isn't percieved as an individual mind anymore, it is one with the field of conciousness. That's what "no-mind" means. Mindfulness or being present is not necesarily not thinking. I could be studying and at the same time be mindful of the thoughts appearing . Stilling your mind in meditation is done in order to gain control over it. It doesn't mean you are going to permanently erradicate thought and become mentally impaired. That's a misconception. Meditation is not adding something new to your current experience. It's not doing. You are meditating all the time. It's just shifting focus from identifying with thoughts to the pure awareness behind it. Which is already the case as the misidentification never really occurred. It's just recognizing what's already the case

Eternity =infinity

life is happening as it is , do you have a separate will from life? Do you have resistance to the way life turns out? Do you think it’s wrong, and that it should be otherwise? Do you think this is not the natural or divine course of things and that you should replace God and run the world? The funny thing is that people read that last question and in their heads say, “Of course not! That would be ridiculous!” But I tell you the world is filled with 8 billion dictators, who want to dictate to life how it should go. They have their separate will or desire, AND they are attached to it. That is, they live life attached to outcomes. They believe their happiness depends on the desired outcome occurring. This kind of happiness is relative, of course. It depends on how things flow in life. When they flow as you wanted, you call that happiness; when they don’t, you feel sad, miserable, angry, annoyed, etc. But the sage knows of a happiness that is not dependent on what happens, but is simply there by default when there is no argument with life. At some point, if it is God’s will, an understanding may take place that there is no control and no one to be in control. When this happens, there is still desire, but no attachment to the desire or the outcome. Of course desire is natural and one need not get rid of it ,but believing that the desired object or outcome holds your happiness is where you trip yourself. When awakening occurs, one lives as though in two dimensions or level. The first is the relative, where the character continues on as before. What does that mean? It means there is always desire for pleasure and comfort and to make life as pleasurable and comfortable as can be. All animals have this, naturally, and humans are animals, no matter what they think. But in a deeper dimension within, there is this total ease and peace with what is. It’s as though it doesn’t really matter how things turn out. And this relaxation actually comes with the realization of “no control.” You’d think that when it is understood that there is no control, you’d be frightened and panic. But that’s only when you resist it. When you completely accept it, there is something indescribable, which is called Moksha.or liberation. What you really want is God. Call it consciousness, call it Self, call it armpit. But your mistake is seeking God in the flow of time, events, outcomes. God is inside of you.

@VeganAwake The whole notion that the ego is “a thing which can self-destroy” isn’t well grounded. The “ego” is an abstract way to talk about what the mind is doing when it constructs a conditional model of self and identifies with it. There’s no “ego as a thing”, let alone an ego which can commit suicide. To make a noun out of ‘ego’ doesn’t mean that there’s really some entity inside you which must die, these are just metaphors. Similarly, “enlightenment” is not some state that one achieves when the ego dies. More weirdo mythology there… that kind of talk just confuses the issue.

@Breakingthewall animal is what it is. An animal doesn't have to see through mental concepts, an animal doesn't have to push through a mind to see to the other side. And animal is what it is. An animal doesn't have to practice silencing thoughts to be able to simply experience what is, right now. An animal doesn't know there is anything other than right now. An animal doesn't have to practice being in the “present moment”. An animal is never anywhere, or anytime, else. An animal has no need for enlightement.

Not yet .but I'm very close .there is this chick in uni that I have crush on..

If you just act masculine it doesn’t mean that you are more masculine. If your goal is to be a masculine man impersonator just imitate what other dudes do. Now if you want to be more masculine: look inside and deal with you insecurities (you may discover that your need to act more masculine is not as important anymore) hang out with manly men, their way to talk and act will turn into second nature to you if you become one of them do manly shit, masculine men do manly shit, again, find a set of peers, do stuff together and you will become real masculine not just act masculine

In fact what I feel is today we are, religiously speaking, increasingly becoming fundamentalists, and religious fundamentalism is loosening everywhere. We know most religious are counterattacking one another and are posing threats. Most religious fundamentalists are kind of indoctrinating small children. Small children are not fortified against their programmings or indoctrinations. Of course there are words of virtues in religious texts and we have failed to make abundant use of them and of course there are toxic ideas too, and we seem to be focused on the intoxicants of religious texts. Now I feel that we need a new religion and that will select only virtues from all religious texts. And this will help us to forge peace and order in our world

Trees, birds, animals and the whole universe is already enlightened. They don't have any other way of being. Only humans are not enlightened because they have free will. Humans can become animals and divine also. Assassins and rapists are examples of becoming animals. Whereas Krishna, Jesus, Buddha are the example of humans becoming divine. Every human being on earth is potentially enlightened and enlightenment is a journey from false to truth, from darkness to light. Enlightenment of animals and birds is unconscious and it is like enlightenment of kids. They are awake but they are unconscious, whereas enlightenment of humans is conscious. Like the madness of mad is unconscious, whereas madness of enlightened beings is conscious. An enlightened being is consciously mad.

@SeaMonster If you awaken you may see. If you see you may seek to understand. If you seek to understand you may try to know. If you try to know you may find everything is unknown. The known is “I am”. Everything else cannot be known or understood. This is reality. It’s neither important nor unimportant; It just is.

They are synonymous.

I've had few awakenings here and there .

How can you have peace when you don't know what the heck reality is ? Do you realize that you have no idea whatsoever what reality is ? We live in it. Not understanding that which you live in will make you nervous, distraught, worried, even paranoid. You know all those people that lash out and claim conspiracies left and right? Not all of them have a diagnosis that give them paranoid delusions, some simply cannot understand the reality they live in, it is just too complicated and hard to get one’s head around. The need to understand the reality that we live in is bred into us and cannot be taken away, so when we lack an understanding, sometimes we will rather make up stuff about reality ,no matter how nonsensical , as long as we understand it.

Enlightenment has nothing to do with the ego, enlightenment has everything to do with awareness. The extent of a human awareness is not in any way predicated by the presence or absence of an ego. The awareness of babies is very limited.

People often choose this representation of what a mindful mind is. It's either a dog or a child. And there have been users on this forum saying that babies are enlightened which is silly. Being mindful is not some higher truth or perspective and does not equal to enlightenment.

1.began to notice that despite having a good life ,family, education, profession, material things.I had this inner yearning for more. I began reading and exploring and after decades found the wisdom of advaita vedanta is a fascinating and sublime path that has revealed to me who I am, why I am here and what I am to do while in this life. 2.For me, being challenged and going out of my way to push to the next level is inspiring. Sometimes life needs changes because things have become stale or too predictable. Challenges break that mould, and the ideas and excitement that come with it create inspiration

Through academia,mostly

Thanks . If you have more questions, feel free to ask away

Yes ..one challenging question to answer is on what basis do we cherrypick the right religious texts . on what basis could we ever edit the sacred texts of all or the main religions and come up with a unified text shorn of all the “toxic” exhortations and commands? That is tantamount to expecting that we can unify the world’s diverse cultures and moral standards , a task far beyond our desires and capabilities so far. We argue every day about what “evil” is and what “good” is. I am good, so you must be bad, etc., etc., ad nauseam! Furthermore ,and this is admittedly the biased remark of an anti-religionist , I don’t think religions are born out of unselfish love and desire for peace and order in our world.