Preetom

Yes I agree. Even in finding life purpose it can be helpful. It's called negative imprint. Things that you feel you're impaired in compared to other's around you. Many gurus, teachers, professionals have used this strategy to turn their greatest weakness into their defining strength. For example, I'm sure you've heard of many pick up gurus confessing that they were so horrible when it came to girls but they vigilantly overcame that and now it's their profession to teach others how to bang half dozen girls every night. There are communication/public speaking teachers who had crippling social anxiety and low self esteem. Most revered spiritual gurus have a past so dark that it compelled them to take the arduous journey to come out of their wounded and emotionally banged up life. Now they help other people to reach the same Enlightenment. When it comes to financial advice, you probably wouldn't listen to a guy who was born millionaire but a guy who has a rags to riches story under his belt. Most health gurus were either anemic or overweight. So you get the idea. The wounded healer, the blind seer etc. are some of ancient examples when it comes to this. The students resonate with these teachers more because they seem to understand student's problem from first hand experience. An weakness can become so debilitating that it can force a person to take a long journey which makes it their greatest strength. Or not. Maybe it can break them apart too

@dvdas @RabbitHole I think there is no point in denigrating @kieranperez's work. It's kind of inevitable if you think about it. The people who are into personal development knee deep for several years; spending over 5-6 hours or even more a day on this stuff; reading books, watching gurus talk, exercising, following diet, sleep routine, developing communication and emotional skills, meditating etc. at some point this becomes their whole life. A regular jock( or people in general) who never picked a single book out of curiosity, who always go in mainstream system of conventional day jobs, family and entertainment for the rest of their lives; they won't be here in this website in the first place. On the other hand, after reading hundreds of books and following teachers for a decade it's almost impossible to revert back to ''normal way'' of life and thinking..whatever normal means. This website attracts mostly unique people, not sheeps who can't think past their daily bread. People who have thought outside the box, asked questions to which there is no answer around. So it's not a surprise that most of them will eventually get into this teaching thing themselves. Think of Leo. Considering the amount of PD stuff he has devoured over the years, it's almost impossible for him to live outside of it now. This has become his whole life. You can see that most prolific artists and musicians inadvertently skew towards teaching their crafts one way or another, either as their main profession or as a side job because this has become a huge part of their lives. Similarly almost all PD junkies will one day open their mouth after maturing and gaining some of the insights for themselves. Even if everyone don't become full time gurus, they can write a book or start a blog or help people here and there in their lives or through videos and private sessions. The students that stick with gurus long enough, themselves become a guru one day. ta da!

@kieranperez Check this out. Enlightened gurus like Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj also reported to be have self-awareness in deep sleep. I think it's a result to taking the witnessing position all the way and dis-identifying Consciousness from the objects of Consciousness fully.

@anaj This is a work of brilliance! Thanks so much for sharing it.

@Marinador Enlightenment is not any kind of experience.

Maybe. But the consciousness with which that 4d kid knows itself and the consciousness with which we know us is one and the same

fucking yes. The point is there is no point. The only way this drama can continue as long as you're not aware of this pointlessness constantly.

The books are necessary for starting and developing. To come out of this complacency and taking everything for granted. But when the pupil is matured, outside sources are no longer necessary. At some of the final levels, it's not about hoarding more stuff but to dig deep into a single thing. Ultimately all knowledge has to burn. The maze itself burns into ashes with it. So it all depends on where you're at. Reminds me of the advice from Ramana Maharshi when asked about the necessity of books. He said that all real, wise books tell us to quiet the mind. If you're convinced and actually working on it then no further books are necessary. If not, then go read 500 books until you see there is no alternative to this work. so the question is, are you gonna learn the easy way or the hard way..

Some real talk. A teacher/author who teaches at disciple's level by coming down to his level. The author must teach from his/her own experience and how they overcame the exact problems. Discussing few topics in and out instead of a info dump on every cosmology the author has gathered throughout his life. Finally, encouraging them to join in the process and promote self-responsibility.

Animals are Enlightened in the sense that they don't possess a separate identity and in most cases are in tune with nature and it's cycles. But they are not Enlightened in the sense that they don't possess intellect which is used to reach the pinnacle of Knowledge and ultimately transcending knowledge resulting it in the end of knowledge aka Enlightenment. Animals don't have any morality or emotional control. But these things are unrelated to Enlightenment so they shouldn't come into discussion. PS: I have no memory or experience of being an animal (a convention animal ). So it's safe to say that these are my speculations.

@cirkussmile @Sashaj This is Ramana's narrative of his own experience, '' About six weeks before I left Madura for good, a great change in my life took place. It was quite sudden. I was sitting in a room on the first floor of my uncle’s house. I seldom had any sickness, and on that day there was nothing wrong with my health, but a sudden, violent fear of death overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to account for it; and I did not try to account for it or to find out whether there was any reason for the fear. I just felt, “I am going to die,” and began thinking what to do about it. It did not occur to me to consult a doctor or my elders or friends. I felt that I had to solve the problem myself, then and there. The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and I said to myself mentally, without actually framing the words: “Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it that is dying? This body dies.” And I at once dramatized the occurrence of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out stiff, as though rigor mortis had set in, and imitated a corpse so as to give greater reality to the inquiry. I held my breath and kept my lips tightly closed so that no sound could escape, so that neither the word “I,” nor any other word, could be uttered. “Well then,” I said to myself, “this body is dead. It will be carried stiff to the burning ground and there burnt and reduced to ashes. But with the death of this body am I dead? Is the body ‘I’? It is silent and inert, but I feel the full force of my personality and even the voice of the ‘I’ within me, apart from it. So I am Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the Spirit that transcends it cannot be touched by death. This means I am the deathless Spirit.” All this was not dull thought; it flashed through me vividly as living truth which I perceived directly, almost without thought-process. “I” was something very real, the only real thing about my present state, and all the conscious activity connected with my body was centered on that “I.” From that moment onward, the “I,” or Self, focused attention on itself by a powerful fascination. Fear of death had vanished once and for all. Absorption in the Self continued unbroken from that time on. Other thoughts might come and go, like the various notes of music, but the “I” continued like the fundamental sruti note that underlies and blends with all the other notes. Whether the body was engaged in talking, reading, or anything else, I was still centered on “I.” Previous to that crisis, I had no clear perception of my Self and was not consciously attracted to it. I felt no perceptible or direct interest in it, much less any inclination to dwell permanently in it. If a man considers he is born, he cannot avoid the fear of death. Let him find out if he has been born or if the Self has any birth. He will discover that the Self always exists, that the body which is born resolves itself into thought and that the emergence of thought is the root of all mischief. Find where from thoughts emerge. Then you will abide in the ever-present inmost Self and be free from the idea of birth or the fear of death.''

https://actualized.org/start

good ol' days also feeling nostalgic about those Shahrzad stories from Arabian nights hah

Anything that goes against survival and Status quo is viewed as a threat by Society. Enlightenment is 180 degrees apart from survival so the answer is kinda obvious lol

@MarkusSweden Beautiful post! This is what I would like to add. From mind's perspective, Consciousness doesn't seem to exist. It's because the mind can only know and masturbate (!) with objects and Consciousness is not an object. It's like mind narrating while watching a movie on TV, ''What the fuck is a screen? I can't see it!! maybe just some illusionary thing at play, but nothing is really going on. Hey LOOK! I can see the movie and it seems alive and continuous. That's all there is''...all the while looking at nothing but the screen. On the other hand, intuition as I understand it, is a far more refined version of 'mind'. That's why it can intuit things beyond gross objects. All these mental phenomena can be thought of as the parts of the 'big mind'. And you're right. With mind, you can model Consciousness as empty space at best. But that too is a subtle object. That's the limit of the mind, not the limit of Truth.

@Widdle Puppy It's because we ARE hollow. We don't have any solid foundation located in us. A person is either conscious of this or distracted from this existential fact. Don't rule yourself out as an exception or defect.

I AM full of shit I AM full I AM I .

The ultimate nature of Reality has been discovered, argued over, proven empirically by generation after generation and well documented in the form of Upanishads/Advaita Vedanta even before the birth of Gautama Buddha. Moreover, there has been rediscovery and retranslation of this same Truth over and over again in almost all regions of Earth during all of history. So my question is what are we doing really? We, as a species are still dumbfounded by the nature of Reality as much as a common folk from three thousand years ago. The only difference is we believe in some new groundless stories and behave in different ways as our culture and surrounding has changed a lot. We, as a so called 'modern' species are still in the cave when it comes to the Truth. Where are we going with all our plans and projects in the world? What are we honestly waiting for? Are we waiting for some ultimate groundbreaking miraculous discovery to happen which will transform our lives? But it is already done like 3 thousands years ago lol (that too considering only written documents), yet only infinitesimally small population knows about it, far less have realized it. Would like to hear your thoughts and perspective on this issue guys. Also do share how your worldview has changed after coming across this knowledge

@Nahm When did you get into the Jed Zone?

I double down on this one. For the last week, I've been doing contemplation (Spiritual Autolysis) and honestly haven't found a single difference between what I call my personal past, memories as a person and last night's dream. It feels like absolutely Nothing is trying desperately to appear as something; to appear as a person, yet never ceases to be Nothing. This thing keeps getting sick af

@Mikael89 Are you aware?

Science till has no clue what was discovered thousands of years ago. And they consider themselves Cutting edge and infallible lol

@haai14 How do you achieve real growth? By mapping/observing and changing your identity.

1) What is the source of Knowingness/Consciousness? 2) Is there any immutable center to the Universal order? what is it? 3) What is it that differentiates and finds sameness? 4) what is a question? 5) what's the assumption behind the notion that an answer is the solution to a question? 6) Why most things in Universe circular/polar running in circles non stop? 7) Why does pain exist? what's it's function? Why there can't be an alternative to it? 8) Is anything in Reality completely unnecessary/discardable ?