Emerald

I would say that this isn't an enlightenment experience but that it drew your attention toward certain aspects of your reality in a different way than you're used to experiencing them. So, you probably were receptive to more sensory stimuli that your mind would normally edit out for ease of understanding, because of the different way of processing. So, it probably got past the conceptual mind in greater degree than normal, but probably wasn't an enlightenment experience.

As in, there is only now? I guess we'll never know.

This is good. My experiences have definitely prejudiced me in many ways and speaking to people on the forum has really started me thinking in that direction. In those moments, I "BELIEVE" I was experiencing truth. It was certainly a novel, spiritual experience, but more than that was an extreme degree of clarity and ability to see what had always been there. I had no fear and no self to be threatened, so I was able to be aware of a lot more because no truth could harm me. But now there is only a memory.. which only exists in the realm of belief and imagination. So, there is suffering, struggling, and grasping to get back to a remembered feeling. Trying to escape from fear and a rejection of the present moment for want of an enlightened future moment. Thank you.

I have had two enlightenment experiences, and they were nothing shy of Heaven on Earth. They just weren't permanent and were catalyzed by an artificial means. But they closely match the descriptions given from others who have had an experience of ego-transcendence. So, I'm no expert, but I do have experience to back up my assertions. But don't believe me... seek it for yourself if it's important to you. Or "stay in the park", if that is what you want. Either way, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Do what is right for you.

I've wondered the same thing. Assumptions will come up, like I'm supposed to be listening for a little voice to tell me something. Then thoughts will come up trying to rationalize. Then frustration and resistance. Then panic at nothing coming up... am I wasting my time... maybe I should try something else... maybe I'm doing it wrong. My advice is to just keep asking it without trying to control the experience and maybe some wordless insight will break through or maybe that isn't how it happens at all. Try to clear away your assumptions and expectations and just commit to the meditation. Trust the experience, is my advice. Do as I say, not as I do.

So much this.

Well said.

I realized that I was sacrificing a lot of personal happiness for the sake of perpetuating and aggrandizing an illusory self-image. When this impetus fell away, true inspiration and satisfaction remained. I had desires to affect the world, but none of them were grounded in ego; they were a result of pure joy, love, and inspiration. But self-interest didn't go away. It's just that my perception of myself expanded to include all of existence. So, compassion and self-interest were one and the same.

Because of the paradoxical nature of truth and wisdom, it means that wisdom isn't a fixed state. A wise action one minute can be a foolish action the next. So, wisdom is a constantly changing state of being and not any particular insight. For example, when I was on the Ayahuasca, I had an insight that everything was one and that there was no barrier between myself and anything else in existence. I felt deep unconditional love for everyone and everything. So, after the experience was over, I sought to have no boundaries between myself and others and to attempt to practice unconditional love. This was foolish and sometimes unsafe. So, I choked out the more practical truth that a person needs healthy boundaries for the loftier truth that all boundaries are illusory. Also, I had an insight that so much of my striving for achievements were neurotic attempts to feel significant. I was in college, so I was then pulling myself in two opposite directions: trying to maintain my achievements and trying to stop being in the achievement mindset. My grades dropped a bit, and I always felt conflicted and guilty about achievement from that point forward. I'm still trying to reconcile that one a bit. So, my misunderstanding of paradoxical insights really threw me for a loop for years following my experiences.

Sorry. I didn't check out the link. I've studied a bit into archetypes of the unconscious, and these are the feminine counterparts to the masculine archetypes. I haven't read the book though.

When I meditate, I focus on the sensations on my body and try to experience them for what they are without putting though- labels over them. However, because I'm used to experiencing the sensations in my body relative to my concept of how my body looks, my mind automatically creates thought-images of my body when I focus on the sensations. One way I tried to bypass this was by imagining that the sensations in my body were objects floating in space. So, sort of imagining that my bodily sensations exist in a universe of their own, separate from the other sense perceptions that I think of as mine. So, now the mind gives me images of black space with little vibration-looking-things floating in it. So, it seems that I can't escape the concept of vision placed over my sense perceptions. Any advice, thoughts, or observations on this phenomenon?

I haven't. But I'm interested in trying it out.

The only thing I know for certain is that I don't know. I was just curious as to how a person could tell if someone was enlightened or not. From where I am, I cannot.

The feminine counterparts of King, Warrior, Magician, Lover are Queen, Mother, Wise-Woman, Beloved respectively.

Yes and no. They are free from the illusion of ego because they don't have the ability to create complex abstract concepts like we do. But they may not have the ability to be self-aware enough to realize their enlightenment.

Human beings have a dual nature. We have the higher nature of concepts and ideals and an instinctual animalistic nature. Animals only have the animalistic nature, speaking generally.

I just purchased the book.

I read the comments from before, but I still didn't understand your reasoning. I have no dog in the race, one way or the other. I still think Shinzen is a great teacher. But I don't even know how somebody could determine someone else's enlightenment status. I'm just curious as to what you base that interpretation on.

Attachment and love are two totally different things. What you would have, if you transcended your ego, is unconditional love without attachment to all of existence. This means that you would love you parents far more than you were ever capable of loving them before. You also would have no fear of losing them, because you would realize that nothing truly dies and that everything is eternally connected. Also, any other fears you have would melt away. Don't let the abstract idea of enlightenment scare you away from the real deal. The real deal is truly amazing.

@jip Certainly, trying to become enlightened could cause suffering. But so could trying to become wealthy, attractive, worldly, a veterinarian, etc. The primary difference is that reaching enlightenment is alleviation from suffering while all other pursuits are just dressing up suffering. But the attempt at reaching enlightenment usually requires discipline, time investment, and sacrifice of all illusions. All other pursuits will require at least two of these anyway. So, why not invest the time and effort? All you really have to lose are concepts and illusions.

There is no clear way to tell. But it is important to ask yourself why you'd want to know in the first place. It can illuminate to you your beliefs and assumptions about enlightenment and value, which will better enable you to remove these barriers.

It depends on the person but probably more often self-acceptance. Levels of masculinity and femininity are mostly pre-conditioned, so they are real forces of nature within people. Everyone has a unique signature of these energies. So, if a person identifies at transgendered, they likely have an inverse ratio of these energies compared to the average person of their sex.

This is a difficult thing to understand. So, to understand you have to first understand the idea of paradox, where two contradictory things are true at the same time. That is because there are higher truths based more in the ultimate truth of non-duality; and there are lower truths based in the illusion of duality. At the highest level of truth (non-duality) everything is one, everything is infinite, everything is empty of meaning, suffering is illusory, life/death are illusory, beginning/end are illusory, creation/destruction are illusory. From this level of truth, everything is beautiful including tragedy, death, and destruction because they all are part of divine order. Only the enlightened live in tune with this truth, and it is the most peaceful mindset to live because there is no fear of death in this paradigm. It is to truly embrace the temporal nature and inherent meaninglessness in all of existence. But the vast majority of people, including myself, live in tune with the illusion. So, lower truths will resonate more with us, because they seem more practical. And in some senses they really are. Enlightened people tend to respect the lower truths too, and go out of their way to practice compassion toward those who are suffering. So, from the illusion, there is suffering, corruption, greed, pain, and many other forms of hell to deal with. These should be addressed systematically. But if we, as a society, can realize the higher truth, then the hells of the lower truth will naturally dissipate. So, the higher truth is incredibly practical in this way, because it is the only truth that yields unconditional love and compassion.

Purpose, meaning, and reason are simply mechanisms of the human mind. They don't exist separate from human consciousness.

@jordanhandrew @Emily The problem with spiritual drug use is that it is a temporary expansion of consciousness at best. The results aren't permanent. Six years ago, when I was in college, I tried Ayahuasca twice. Both times, I completely transcended my ego, and it was the most beautiful feeling I've ever had. I was whole again. So, I've had a taste of enlightenment. But the only value it now conveys to me is that it enables me to pursue enlightenment work without needing that much faith. I know there is a destination to the long journey, so I'm more likely to take it. That said, I made many unwise decisions after the experience ended because I tried to abstractly apply the insights I received from the higher state of consciousness from a low-consciousness frame of mind, thinking that it would yield good results. For the most part, it did the opposite. Paradoxes will get you every time. My recommendation is to avoid spiritual drug use, because I don't want people making the same mistakes as I did. That said, if it's important to you, be sure to do tons of research and preparation; and remind yourself that an insight just becomes more knowledge, if it isn't directly connected to higher consciousness. Wisdom is like a river; it's alive and ever-changing. So, a wise decision now, is a foolish decision tomorrow.