Cathy92506

Awakening isn’t about bliss, it’s about no longer being enslaved by thoughts/emotions. Fear is normal. It comes and goes. Sometimes there’s peace, sometimes there’s emptiness, sometimes it’s just life being life. And in the end, it feels ordinary.

I agree with you. I'm curious what your mindful practice looks like? I practice Zazen (seated meditation) and Kinhin (walking meditation) for about one hour every day. I embrace the silence and stillness. I can hear and feel it.

Is awakening even real. I believe being "Awakened" is a spiritual fantasy. Rather, we are awakening. Because we are all human beings, we make mistakes, make bad decisions, blunder, etc. We all slip up. I believe you have to first define what awakening is for you. Mine is reaching a level where you no longer idenitfy with your thoughts and feelings. You don't carry around that emotional baggage with you. You do this effortlessly throughout the days. But I make no claims that I've completely dissovled my ego. So before you ask, "Is Awakening Even Real?" What does Awakening look like to you? I'm curious.

Thank you.

I understand. Thank you. So you can actually tell a "happy" person from other people because they are always looking happy and have a "happy go luck" attitude.

What is infinite flow state? Are you talking about when you meditate? When you embrace stillness and silence, is this infinite flow state?

What does "true happiness" look like? I have a friend who is an addict and he tells me he is a happy person. I'm just curious what it looks like.

a person who is just really good at processing their emotions? For example, they go throughout the day, and if they identify with thoughts and/or emotions, they write them down, process them, and figure out why they are attached to them. And that helps to let it go. They do this with all those identifying and attaching thoughts and emotions. Soon, this person becomes a natural at it. They go throughout their whole day not identifying with any of them, and if they do, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

What does "self-love and acceptance" look like? Someone who does healthy habits, such as eating healthy and exercising? Practicing daily gratitude? And what does "total self-embracent" look like? Are you talking about someone who looks self-confident?

Such as?

I hear that term a lot, and it seems like everyone is searching for it, and some claim they have achieved it. From my training, "Before Enlightenment: Chop Wood, Carry Water. After Enlightenment: Chop Wood, Carry Water." The difference is that we don't carry around all that emotional suffering with us. Imagine a child who gets lost in a daydream. The child identifies with the fantasy: the excitement, the adventure. Then the lunch bell rings and he snaps out of it and goes to eat lunch. All those emotions are left behind and forgotten. If you believe Cosmic Enlightenment is real, what does it look like?

Is it possible that your questions have has legitimate concerns, but they're based on a misunderstanding of what healthy meditation practice looks like. Real meditation develops clarity and presence, not detachment from life.

Mine has been a long path from egoticism, developing the habit, and counting my breath for 40 minutes. I now focus on my breath and soon I embrace stillness and silence. I can feel it. This is what I focus on. I've noticed it's a lot easier to notice silence and stillness during the day when I meditate in the morning.

"I don't think what You describe above is common, the process of "letting go" which in other words means not letting the past/memories rule You, is not the case for most ppl, at least not from what I am observing and experiencing," Eckhart Tolle says that most people live their lives lost in thought, identifying with them. I'm always wondering what "most" mean though. Because 51% is "most." "Enlightenment itself is much more than letting go or living now," Before Enlightenment: Chop Wood, Carry Water. After Enlightenment: Chop Wood, Carry Water." What is your picture of a person that is "Enlightened?" Is it someone who has a 'love-glow' about themselves that other people will easily notice?

I live somewhat of a hermit lifestyle. I practice Zazen every morning for 40 minutes, followed by 40 minutes of Kinhin. During these sessions, I embrace silence and stillness. But this has nothing to do with "awakening" or "enlightenment." Awakening is just the process of letting go of that emotional baggage that occurs daily. We go through life without being stuck in identifying with those thoughts. We have the thoughts and emotions, but we don't identify with them. It's that simple. Maybe more of us are enlightened than we realize?

It seems to me that there is a "spiritual marketplace" where a lot of money can be made, all in the search for "enlightenment." There are countless courses and lectures you can subscribe to. Infinite yoga poses. Infinite meditation retreats. You can pay $10,000 and fly to Brazil to participate in an Ayahuasca retreat. And after one event is done, it's time to do another. It's endless. There is no money in the belief: "Before Enlightenment - Chop Wood, Carry Water. After Enlightenment - Chop Wood, Carry Water." Can you imagine a Yoga teacher, or a Zen Master saying, "Give me your $$$ and I'll teach you how I wasted 20 years of my life doing this in search of Enlightenment." BTW, there is value in those methods. Just as one spends 40 minutes on the treadmill, there will be positive, subtle effects in one's life. It's the same with meditation and yoga. But one doesn't do 40 minutes of treadmill in search of Enlightenment.

Thank you. But I'm somewhat confused with some of the responses I'm getting. I'm new to this forum and I don't understand a lot of phrases that are being used. I can't tell if they are agreeing with me or if I'm getting pushback.

"I mean, your description doesn't really sound like "enlightenment"." I guess it's just the way I was taught. "Before Enlightenment: Chop wood, carry water. After Enlightenment: Chop wood, carry water." The only difference is after we don't identify with all those emotions. We still have them though. We still have thoughts all day long. Just like the 'Before.' We just don't identify with them after we are done experiencing them. BTW, I think that being "Awakened" is a spiritual fantasy. Rather, it's in the process of being awakened. Because we are all human and we all blunder. I don't think a person can tell if someone is Enlightened or not. A child goes into a daydream and snaps out of it when the lunch bell rings. That day dream is long forgot. That's why I'm proposing that maybe it's more common than we think.

"Really humans are a large spectrum of differences. You can have tons of idiocracy but also have more than expected spiritual people.. they're just hiding away in the closet! " I agree with you! But why use the term "spiritual?"

A group of people claim that a certain person is "awakened" or "enlightened." You go visit him/her. What do you see?

Before Enlightenment: Chop Wood, Carry Water After Enlightenment: Chop Wood, Carry Water I realize that not everyone agrees with this view on Enlightenment. I was hoping to have a friendly discussion about different views and question each other about them.

To me, it says that when you are awakened, it is the same life as you were living before. In modern terms: Before Enlightenment: Get up early to go to work. It's a one-hour drive, and traffic is congested. The boss is always grumpy. Only get a 30-minute lunch break. It's a one-hour drive home, and traffic is congested. Greet your wife at home and ask for some loving. She points a finger at you and says, "NO!" After Enlightenment: Get up early to go to work. It's a one-hour drive, and traffic is congested. The boss is always grumpy. Only get a 30-minute lunch break. It's a one-hour drive home, and traffic is congested. Greet your wife at home and ask for some loving. She points a finger at you and says, "NO!" The difference is one's state of consciousness. Before the Enlightenment, the person is carrying around all the emotional baggage from one point to the next. And he is carrying around yesterday's, last week's, last year's crap too. After enlightenment, he isn't carrying anything from one point to the next. James 123 says it above.

I have a question for you. When you go down an emotional rabbit hole, or a daydream, where you experience all sorts of emotions, when you snap out of it do you carry those emotions with you?

My take on this is that the mind is constantly producing thoughts. Our mind continually chatters. Awakening doesn't mean we are mindless zombies. It seems to me that one of the biggest misconceptions about awakening is the idea that people who are awakening somehow have silent minds all the time. We can do practices that help quiet the mind, though, but this isn't a prerequisite to the awakening process.

It seems to me that an asshole is quite identified with his own emotional baggage. And when he treats others poorly, he isn't even aware of how it affects the other person. It just feeds his own ego. But I think that people can understand the process of awakening and what it entails. And frequently fall back into their own patterns. It's like... they know the theory, they've even experienced it sometimes, but they haven't really integrated it deeply enough for it to stick when things get challenging.