SOUL

Don't worry about nice guys and assholes stuff, be genuine and fulfilled with who you are. This will attract a person that embodies the same spirit.

Anger? Haha... why are you projecting emotions onto me? All I did was provide an alternative way when you said there was an "only way", I didn't mean to offend you by it. Although the way you responded to it and characterized my alternative didn't show much respect towards someone being that way. Is that how "authentic leaders and caretakers of this world" react when confronted with a differing view?

Living consciously is a momentary exercise so there can be a fluctuating experience of it expressed at any given moment.

@Salaam Oh, so it's just your own way of viewing it that is "healthy and effective"? How convenient that is to justify your own belief system and all you think is required! Then you go about contriving hypothetical scenarios illustrating the misconceptions you have about another's path and that defends the ideas you believe in. Does it comfort your sense of self to think this way? You think you not only have control over your self, you can control and be a caretaker to the world? The universe? It's amazing to me that you think you have freedom through control, especially over things out of one's control, over others, the world and the universe. This is where the path of personal development differs from spiritual enlightenment, personal development seeks to control, spiritual enlightenment seeks to let go. All paths have influence and effect on the practitioner in different ways and to different degrees but all of them are exercised in the same way, though our intention in the present moment. That's all we have, the present moment, not the past and not the future, just the present moment. Whether someone claims responsibility for it all, part of it or none of it has no effect at all on the present moment other than on the mind. What we are presently being right now is the only influence that is exerted, the rest is just imagination in the mind. So why should I take the responsibility of carrying the past with me and have an expectation of controlling the future? Is that really freedom? Free from the burdens of the past and expectations of control for the future is the most responsible thing I can presently be. You can choose to view it any way you do.

I am not going to say you are wrong or attempt to disprove your perspective in any way but just will present an alternative view to it and I am doing so because I saw you say "the only way" to be free ...... Another way could be to take no responsibility, I didn't pick my life circumstances prior to being born into them and being subjected to all sorts of conditioning before I even had a single moment to consider I existed as a conscious being with the ability to choose whether to take responsibility or not. So all the resulting thoughts, feelings, ideas, concepts, beliefs and attachments are not of my own doing or choosing so I can now choose to not identify with any of it and take no responsibility in dealing with them. It is a warehouse of lost baggage given to me and what obligation do I have to unpack and pick through it all? None at all, I can discard it. So in addition to all the choice you suggest would be gained through taking responsibility there is another choice that can be made, dis-identify with and dis-own it all. There is always more than one way to the mountain top. Just something to consider.....

"Enlightened" tell stories about the stories to distract others from believing the stories that distract from being aware of being.an aware being.

Consciousness is the initial cause of all being.... it's the because.

Assumptions are not reality. The observer and the observed are not the environment that the observation takes place in. Dualism delusion....

Some things exist as a duality in nature but not everything does yet a dualism mindset views everything as a dualism even if they aren't it so is a logically flawed mindset to use as a basis of perspective. I think you would appreciate recognizing this. If something is a duality, see it for what it is if something isn't a duality see it for what it is. Why default the mindset to dualism then, wouldn't that be one of those delusional perspectives you were hoping to enlighten from? My intellectual experience has many expressions, logic included sure, but not logic dominated.

Thinking that there are correct or incorrect thoughts is just dualism mindset which I have no use for. With spirituality it is so subjective that it is impossible to determine with that type of thinking. In my experience I could see blue and someone else sees red, I could see up and another sees down with both of us awakening and enlightening our consciousness. Since it is not dependent on ideas and concepts we are thinking about or our emotional associations with them that awakens and enlightens our consciousness this is possible. I have a fulfilled and intellectual emotions experience but that is a result of awakening and enlightening my consciousness, it doesn't contribute to it being that way. Can an amoeba be endarkened?

Yup. Awareness is all that is needed, I don't need anything else to awaken or enlighten consciousness. Your idea that enlightenment cannot be had or sustained without your logic and wisdom is why you cannot have or sustain enlightenment. Have you considered it is thoughts and perspectives about logic you are believing that prevents you from simply exercising your awareness to be present in realizing enlightenment? Your own words explain it clearly how your ideas and concepts are the stumbling blocks.

Paths to enlightenment isn't enlightenment itself, it seems that is the point lost on people seeking paths to enlightenment. Our paths don't equate to spiritual enlightenment, our spiritual path is as individual as there are individuals to be on a spiritual path. What is often called 'presence', us being aware of being in the present moment, is what happens when we leave behind our paths.

Undoubtedly there are infinite options since there is infinite potential, I just offered the one I exercise.

There is another option, speak our peace and let it be what it will be.

@Russell Parr I didn't say there are no incorrect thoughts, I just said I don't think it. Our thoughts....or emotions aren't responsible for enlightenment. Logic is just the way the mind frames it's ideas and concepts in a paradigm that it views as coherent. A person will psychologically trust their mind's paradigm and believe it to be "true". This isn't spiritual enlightenment any more or less than emotional outpourings are responsible for it. Thoughts and emotions may lead us to an idea of enlightenment or away from it but regardless it still cannot be it. Awareness is responsible for spiritual enlightenment, exercising our awareness to be present is what spiritual enlightenment is.

Those that think there is incorrect thought are the ones who think thoughts can be vilified. I think no such things.

The subconscious is simply the conditioning of the past bubbling up into the present. Everything from the unconscious physiological processes that keep our organism alive are of the past to the mental and emotional processes that preserve the self according to the past. So all sorts of discomfort can come from the subconscious, although, the self perpetuated misery and suffering happens consciously when we agree with and entertain these impulses as being relevant to the present moment. When we don't attach our present moment awareness to those impulses from the conditioning of the past the discomfort is only temporary. If we consistently keep our awareness free from the conditioned impulses of the past eventually our subconscious retains this pattern of being as it's conditioning and then provides it as the impulse in the future present moment. In this way we can condition our subconscious to be an aware being freely attuned to the present moment.

People still thinking that thinking can achieve enlightenment? Thinking is as responsible for enlightenment as emotion is.

Well, in biblical understanding it means to call oneself as weak, that is, weak to do for oneself and that there is strength in relying on God as it's God's strength that man can do anything.

Something to ponder.......

Being the fulfilled dewdrop aware we are one with the ocean. A salty tear in the eye(the I) of awareness falling in the salty ocean of consciousness. I dig it.

To eliminate the duality of it erase the "yes" in it which is just the opposite of no. Finding the neutral position in mindfulness is an absence of identifying so is neither resisting nor endorsing. This ceases the struggle of opposition so awakens to enlightenment in consciousness.

Whenever my ego is choking on an attachment my awareness does the Heimlich maneuver so I can breath again.

If you are judging yourself about your judgments on judging it's the last gasp of judgment you will let go of before you transcend judgment then go supernova and collapse into a black hole.... spiritually that is. Shine on you crazy diamond!

Do you know where you are posting? Spiritual enlightenment is about using awareness to enlighten consciousness. This isn't philosophical enlightenment, which uses logic to enlighten understanding or scientific enlightenment which uses information to enlightenment knowledge Sure, the spiritual enlightening of consciousness can bring understanding and knowledge of ourselves but that is not it's primary impact, it brings fulfillment. Spiritually enlightening consciousness influences every facet of life through bringing fulfillment and is one of the most practical exercises a person can have. Awakening and enlightening provides a well being fulfilling our experience in life that transcends knowledge and understanding, even of ourselves. Spirituality may involve finding ideals and purpose for someone but without awakening and enlightening of consciousness it's just an ideology in the mind that doesn't fulfill. There is no spiritual enlightenment other than being present in the moment, being aware of being aware, and no amount of logic can replace that. That's what spiritual enlightenment is and merging it with every day life, not just in meditation, is the task of one who seeks this for their own experience and what constitutes living an awakened life. Logic doesn't provide that and has actually proven to be a hindrance to it as people chase ideas and concepts around their mind so are distracted from just being present in the moment. If you ever awaken the impacts of enlightenment will be revealed in your consciousness.