How to be wise

No they don't. Ramana Maharshi spent the rest of his 54 years on that mountain. By the way, what is vasanas? Her own words were: "to get away from people." Actually, a lot of people in the moment of their enlightenment leave society and never come back in their entire lives. Think of acestics.

I know he's the most famous. By the way, he's not alive. Unless you think he was revived.

Just curious. Who do you think is the most enlightened person you're aware of alive today or 100 years ago. I want to be inspired.

How about the insight that absolutely nothing is true. Have that one first. Then I'll see you in the Tibetan caves.

Become enlightened first. You will probably run off to the Himalayas.

'Missing out' is another illusion. In reality, you can't miss out on anything. You won't be happy until you realise that. 'No self' isn't important for you. You would much rather worry about the illusion of 'missing out' than the 'true self'.

In this audio, an enlightened master works with some people who are craving enlightenment and shows them why they shouldn't be desperately going after it. Amazing video.

This is Byron Katie's newest book. I feel that this book will really help most of you out with emotional mastery and enlightenment. Make sure to check out:

The realisation of the self is a good thing to pursue, but clearly you will benefit more from the realisation of the truth of your 'wants'. All of your 'wants' are false. That is your enlightenment. If you're going to pursue anything, pursue that. Free yourself from the illusion of 'wants'. Then you will be happy.

No you don't! Hard to believe I know. But just realising that is enlightenment.

It's best to question your wants before starting. Just to detach yourself from the result. Then pursue whatever you 'want'.

'I want to be happy' is not true, as you'll see with some investigation. Nothing wrong with motivating yourself with that, but just keep at the back of your mind that it isn't true.

@Ether yes. Desire with no reason 'why' you want it.

The practical step here is to use Byron Katie's work to detach yourself from the goals you're pursuing before deciding what to do next. See, no mental masturbation.

@Source_Mystic You're assuming that just because someone doesn't crave enlightenment, they can't achieve it. And that is false. It's completely possible to work towards enlightenment without being attached to the result. If you achieve it you're happy, and if you don't you're still happy. But just because someone doesn't 'need' something, doesn't mean they can't get it. This is the next step of pursuing goals. It's okay to use craving, aka delusion, to motivate yourself, but it'll feel much better to use this 'detached' form of motivation. Don't get me wrong, if you detach yourself from the object, you can still be motivated to pursue it. It's difficult to understand why that motivation still remains unless you try it yourself. Use Byron Katie's work to detach yourself from the goal, and then see what remains. You'll realise that your motivation still remains, but a lot different from your old motivation.

I know that there have been some people in the past who have managed to stop all their thoughts and they lived their whole lives from that state. It's a pretty extraordinary thing to achieve, and I was wondering if anyone knew how to achieve that. Are there any practical ways to do it?

As I said, working towards enlightenment is not bad. I'm just stating that wanting enlightenment is a product of false beliefs. If you were clear minded, you wouldn't 'want' enlightenment. But that wouldn't stop someone from not working towards it. In fact, that person is far more likely to become enlightened, because they won't get frustrated or quit due to a lack of results, because they don't care about the results. If you question all the reasons why you want enlightenment, you'll realise that they are all not true. None of them. If you listen to the audio, Byron Katie will show you why.

Not really. If you want it so much and you don't have it, you will feel very depressed. Wanting enlightenment shows that you're confused. If I ask you to list all the reasons why you want enlightenment, they will all be groundless and false. It's not that you shouldn't work towards enlightenment, it's that you should be detached from the result. If you're attached to the result, you're confused, and that's what Katie is trying to show those people.

I really enjoyed this video because it showed the real problems of the Arab/Jewish conflict.

I'm not talking about just the habit being a flow, I'm talking about living your whole day in a flow. Everything in the day, even if something you don't like happens.

Leo once mentioned that it is possible to make your life flow, and be effortless. How does one achieve that? Is it just enlightenment?

Any other tips or referrals will be appreciated.

In today's contemplation session, I carried on asking myself 'why do I think that my body sensations are occurring on my body?' Then I realised that it was because I thought that the feeling on my arm, for example, has the same shape as my arm. I then asked the question 'why do I think that my feeling has a certain shape?' I then got the answer, 'because my feelings are flowing through my arm', the same way water flows through a tube. I then asked the question 'what makes me think that my feelings are flowing through my body?' I then realised some thing big, which was: the thing that made me feel like my feelings are flowing through my arms and legs was itself a feeling. I also realised that my thoughts was also connecting my feelings to my body. My body is just made of colours and shapes, with the rest being bodily sensations. These sensations have nothing to do with the visual aspects of the body. My mind was linking the two together, through my thoughts. And specifically, the linkage was between the mental images of my arms and the bodily feelings. I became aware of yet another illusion which my mind was creating. I haven't yet broken the illusion fully, but I believe I'm on my way there.

Most of the resistance you feel in your life doesn't happen consciously, but subconsciously, which is why you are not aware of them. I'm not underestimating your achievements. If you say that your life feels like a flow, that's a great thing you got there. But not what I'm looking for. I know for a fact that enlightenment is required for this. Since you are not enlightened, we are not talking about the same thing.

This week I was trying to overcome my addictions by just sitting down and doing nothing for the whole day. But each day, after 4 or so hours, I got to the point where I was too restless and I gave up doing nothing. I tried it for two more days, but I failed in both. I realised that Leo's technique, which was to sit down and do nothing until your addiction goes is not a very practical one, and most of us won't be able to do it. Does anyone have any other ideas about how to get rid of addictions?