eputkonen

@Kykeon Yes, nouns are a convention of speech...but not reality...not something that exists. As Alan Watts said, the world is wiggly and we try to grasp the wiggly world by cutting it up and boxing it with our concepts. One such concept is the "noun"...that is "things".

Yes, for me and others. It is not about a new insight that makes you happy or feels more everlasting to you. It is about shattering the illusion of "me"...gain and loss...separation and otherness. After this shattering, there may be new insights as some deeper understanding may arise within the body-mind, but it does not make you happy...as you were happy before it arose and happy after the insight arose (i.e. happiness unchanged). Also, you are happy if another insight never arose again. Not needing further insights. Fulfilled and deeply content in being...nothing lacking.

"When you deeply accept suffering, it turns into love and beauty." Often, suffering arises because something else was not accepted first. Delve into the root causes and accept that which has been resisted and denied...and suffering ceases to arise.

@kieranperez One retreat. I did a three-day, three-night solitary and silent retreat by myself in a cabin deep in the woods next to a river. No TV, radio, internet, books, games, phone, etc, etc. No distractions of any kind. Basically, I meditated, ate, looked at the scenery, or slept the entire time. I did not talk, nor ponder things. The idea was just to be present and not think for three days.

@kray if you feel the yearn (so to speak) and need to pursue enlightenment...you will whether you are in school, starting to work, mid-career, unemployed, changing careers, retired, or any other happening of life. For pursuing enlightenment can happen while doing all these other things. If you need to be convinced that it is worth pursuing, then you don't feel the yearn and can forget about enlightenment until later in life (as you said).

@roopepa Thoughts arise...and the stream of thought we call the mind, but the mind does not really exist. When there is no thought...there is no mind.

@Thought Art Death is an illusion. For that which you really are was never born...and so how can what was not born then die? Death for the jnani is a very different thing. Forms change...everything/form is constantly changing, and yet nothing is added and nothing is subtracted. I suggest that you start delving into, questioning, investigating, and inquiring...who am I? The "you" that you think is getting older and will die is not who you are.

You are That and That is all there is.

"You become the centre you become it all." You are that which has no center nor circumference.

Cogito, ergo sum (I think therefore I am) is a philosophical statement that was made in Latin by René Descartes. This is one of the greatest myths and misunderstandings put into the world. We are because we think is just another iteration that is just as flawed. When there is no thought...there still is being and existence. In fact, the "I" and "we" are just thoughts themselves. When there is no thought...there is no I-thought.

Ceasing to do. Just being...not doing.

This is an issue and trap as long as a "me" is believed...as long as the illusion of duality is believed. When there is no "me"...no gain or loss...nor superior or inferior...no "others"...there is no ego motivating anything.

Why do you assume every possibility exists? All that is conjecture and theory...there is no direct experience of "other possibilities". Reality..what exists...is simply what is here and now. Focus on what is...not what might be (and is never known or experienced).

For the same reason kind of like in a dream, the one consciousness (which is you) creates the entirety of the dream and needs body/minds (i.e. the dream characters) in order to experience it (from various points of view). While the "conscious awareness" might be from a single dream character (i.e. body/mind) and so the experience and memories and understanding is from the point of view of that dream character...it can not be denied that the whole dream is you. There is no other in the dream. Conversation is just Consciousness/Self/Brahman/etc. talking to itSelf.

That is missing the point. Everything changes...everything that is born also ends (i.e. dies). The impermanence of all things...and impermanence is not a thing. The impermanence of all things can be verified quite easily by just looking around...do you see anything that will never end. Even the sun will burn out one day. Nothing lasts forever (a common saying). Buddhism does not throw out "axioms" to be blindly believed (or at least the Buddha did not). The implication being it can be verified directly in your own experience. Void is not a thing. Nothing is not a thing. Both would be the absence of things. Besides, you are confusing a what-is-not with what-is. Nothing is only a concept. Look around...is there anywhere where there is nothing at all? You imagine a nothing...and call that fiction something that is permanent.

Death is an illusion. The game or dream continues on...178,000 new player characters began today on Earth and 75,000 ended (game over). But the game continues on. There is no "one" to return to something. Being an individual is an illusion. What you really are is the whole show/game. The "death" of individual body/minds does not change or impact this.

@blankisomeone Fear arises as long as an "other" is perceived. Fear doesn't create separate beings...it is the belief in separate beings that causes fear to arise. The illusion of "separate being" arises when there is ignorance. Separate beings don't really exist.

No. After enlightenment, it is clearly seen there is nothing to fear...nothing to lose...etc. What could possibly cause anxiety?

Yes, "others" is a thought. The being you sense is really the same being everywhere. The division and otherness is an illusion. Give up the idea of other and just know there is only the Self (i.e. being).

@RedLine - There is no "over any other" as there are no others. Why must you try to rank? It is not greater, lesser, or the same/equal. Love is love. Why do you imply this belief that you must love your wife over any other human being? @Tim R - exactly.

I did not find it scary at all. Awakening was quite natural. Posts talking about awakening? I do have a video at https://youtu.be/b-_GoAQnDbs

There is only the Self and no other. Loving my wife is loving mySelf. I met my wife after awakening...and there has been no issues in having a loving relationship. Enlightenment does not impede love. In fact, in the absence of ignorance, there is only love. Enlightenment is dispelling ignorance and the arising of understanding. If you ask my wife, she feels loved and has told me she has never had such an effortless and easy relationship. There is unconditional love. If she came to me today and said that she found someone else and she was leaving, I would wish her well. This love does not bind or restrict...she is free to do as she wishes.

Yes. Awakening happened in 2005, and I found Leo 3 years ago. Funny enough...awakening happened before I even studied and read about nonduality and still did not really understand what awakening was (and so I was not seeking it).

There is no doubt, no uneasiness, nor fear of being wrong that the "me" is an illusion and there is no other/separation. Tat tvam asi...aham brahmasmi. Only if the illusion of a "me" is truly seen through is there no doubt, uneasiness, or fear.

Oneness. (Sufi dervishes know of this.)